hokum
\ HOH-kuhm \ ,
noun;
1.out-and-out nonsense; bunkum.
2.elements of low comedy introduced into a play, novel, etc., for the laughs they may bring.
3.sentimental matter of an elementary or stereotyped kind introduced into a play or the like.
4.false or irrelevant material introduced into a speech, essay, etc., in order to arouse interest, excitement, or amusement.
Quotes:
But American campaign biographies still follow a script written nearly two centuries ago. East of piffle and west of hokum , the Boy from Hope always grows up to be the Man of the People.
-- Jill Lepore, "Bound for Glory," The New Yorker , 2008
Probably nowhere else do the popular playmakers of Broadway reveal their imaginative shortcomings so clearly as in the employment of what is known colloquially as hokum .
-- George Jean Nathan, "Comedians All," 1919
Origin:
Hokum emerged as theater slang in the US in the early 1900s and is thought to be a blend of hocus-pocus and bunkum.
Dictionary.com
