Term to be used as an adjective, to describe when a situation or conversation is or was so cliche, stereotypical, unbelievable or fake that it could only be found on TV, especially in a soap opera.
Walking in on her twin sister and her long lost child making passionate love in the office of her diabolical stalker psychologist, Evee had quite the Soap Opera Moment.
The ridiculous pause for dramatic affect after some ground breaking event happens during a soap opera. Most of the time it turns out to be nothing special, just a way to cut to the next storyline. This becomes increasingly annoying when people in the real world are using it. Like when they tell a story, especially when they are a bad storyteller.
" Oh boy. Mary has trapped another victim. She's telling that stupid story where the guy runs into her and she drops her milkshake. "
" I know! I've must have heard it 10 times already this week!"
"Yeah, but the worst part is the soap opera pause she always throws in when she reaches the part about the lid falling off right before her slipping. Like we are supposed to gasp in amazement. As if anything else could have happened and we should be surprised it went down that way. ARGH!"
The tendency to see one's life as being in a continual state of crisis, caused by watching half-hour daytime TV shows that are not morality tales as in Aesop's Fables, but rather a never-ending series of unresolved crises.
"Alice's Soap OperaSyndrome caused her to have a tendency to seek conflict rather than resolution to her interpersonal problems."
The tendency to be mesmerized by television. Trance like state brought on by televised commercial advertisements interspersed with fragments of dramatic teleplays. Also, as a component of post-industrial consciousness. e.g. "Television rules the nation."
The term references the advent of drama created to sell soap, soap operas. Broadcast on radio with soap manufacturers such as Procter & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive, and Lever Brothers as sponsors and producers.
Alice: Everyone says I probably have Attention Deficit Disorder. It's possible considering I am easily distracted. Theres got to be some excuse. What do you think? Bob?
Bob: Huh? Sorry Alice I was zoned on this laundry detergent advert. Tide really does get my whites whiter and only 'mildly' pollutes our drinking water.
Advertisements take airtime away from programs. In the 1960s a typical hour-long American show would run for 51 minutes excluding advertisements. Today, a similar program would only be 42 minutes long; a typical 30-minute block of time now includes 22 minutes of programming with 6 minutes of national advertising and 2 minutes of local.