hokums

Noun

hokum (usually uncountable, plural hokums)

1. (countable, informal, uncountable, usually) (An instance of) meaningless nonsense with an outward appearance of being impressive and legitimate.
   • Recently that publication [Collier's Weekly] has been filling its readers with the good old hokum about red likker and its steady disappearance, and if what has been offered be but half true, beer, light wine and all of the other beverages which have been tabooed by law, are on their way to that...1923 May 15, “Prohibition in Springfield”, in Jere L. Sullivan, editor, The Mixer and Server: Official Journal of the Hotel and Restaurant Employes’ International Alliance and Bartenders’...

   Synonyms:

   bunkum, absurdity, all my eye, all my eye and Betty Martin, apple grease, applesauce, bafflegab, balderdash, balls, baloney

2. (countable, informal, uncountable, usually) (An instance of) excessively contrived, hackneyed, or sentimental material in a film, television programme, theater production, etc.
   • The majority of the twenty-six stunts described in this volume belong to a species of so-called hokum acts derived from the professional stage and handed down through several generations of actors.1905, Harry L[ee] Newton, “Crazy Stunts by Harlan Tarbell [advertisement]”, in A Bundle of Burnt Cork Comedy: Original Cross-fire Conversations, Gags, Retorts, Minstrel Monologues and Stump Speeches...
3. (countable, informal, usually) A film, television programme, theater production, etc., containing excessively contrived, hackneyed, or sentimental material.
   • [H]e [Stanley Baker] was still churning out the kind of Boy's Own hokums and dreary international espionage thrillers that defined that bygone era.2004, Julian Upton, “Sir Stanley Baker: The Outsider”, in Fallen Stars: Tragic Lives & Lost Careers (Critical Vision Book), Manchester: Headpress, →ISBN, part 3 (Final Acts), page 136
4. (usually) A genre of blues song or music, often characterized by sexual innuendos or satire.
   • [D]uring the 'twenties, jazz developed from an infrequent ‘hokum’ music in a few vaudeville acts to a household commodity.1956, Marshall W[inslow] Stearns, “The Jazz Age Begins”, in The Story of Jazz, paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, published 1970, →ISBN, page 153