sideshow

Noun

sideshow (plural sideshows)

1. A minor attraction at a larger event such as a circus, fair or music festival.
   • And IT people dismiss IT′s impact because, hey, we like being a sideshow to the real action.1999 November 8, Frank Hayes, The Back Page: The main event, Computerworld, page 86
   • Other recreation services, including amusement parks or arcades, sideshows, circuses and agricultural shows, accounted for another 666 businesses. These businesses employed 10,318 persons and a further 3,518 volunteers.1999, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Year Book, Australia, Number 81, page 349
2. (figuratively) An incidental spectacle that diverts attention from a larger concern.
   • Far from learning from the failures of ‘economic rationalism,’ the Liberals want us to swallow more of the snake oil medicine while diverting our attention to the consumption tax sideshow.1997, Frank Stilwell, “One Nation For Whom?”, in Michael Costa, Mark Hearn, editors, Reforming Australia's Unions: Insights from Southland Magazine, page 244
   • Even the reality shows focused on addiction, like “Intervention,” “Rehab With Dr. Drew” (thankfully canceled) or that show where people have bizarre addictions like eating chalk or scouring powder, have done almost nothing to educate Americans. All they’ve really achieved is keeping addiction an...2013 July 19, Kristen Johnston, “Turning Addiction Into a Sideshow”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 20 Apr 2019
3. (US, slang) An incident in which drivers block traffic to perform stunts like donuts and burnouts for an extended period of time.
   • The spontaneous street party is the center of Oakland's recently developing Hyphy culture, but has a long history in Oakland car culture and hip hop. A sideshow is essentially a spontaneous street party in which one might “ghostride the whip” (get out while driving), “gas brake dip,” or even...2009, Mickey Hess, editor, Hip Hop in America: A Regional Guide, volume 1, ABC-CLIO, →ISBN, page 274
   • On July 3, 2016, at 10:35pm, Sergeant Cleveland and Officer Henderson (“the Officers”) were on patrol near Fullerton, California looking for illegal street racing and “sideshows,” events where streets are blocked off for drivers to perform unlawful maneuvers like burnouts and donuts. […] During...2021 January, Kim McLane Wardlaw writing for the Ninth Circuit, Villanueva v. Cleveland, archived from the original on 21 Jun 2025, page 5