Special Effects

Contemporary art that eschews style, content and technical skill and replaces these with hip effects like randomly applied paint drips and stencils. A reference to action movies that consist entirely of explosions, car chases and CGI.

Guy: I thought it was a good show, with some really aesthetically interesting stencils of spiderwebs...
Guy2: Yeah but you're into special effects.

by foxinshocks September 25, 2008

coughing effect

This occurs in classrooms or other large public settings. Usually one person begins to cough, and other people who needed to cough, but were afraid to do so, join in, causing multiple coughing sounds at the same time.

Person 1: Ugh why does everyone have to cough at once, it's so annoying.

Person 2: It's the coughing effect, duh.

by hoyaplaya September 30, 2009

Kirdoppler Effect

When a simple or unimportant task becomes complicated due to engineering reasons. Generally, the person performing the simple task is overcome by the idea that the task is their life's work or that it must be done with unsurpassed accuracy. Because of this, a task that should take one day to complete takes over a year to finish. This can also apply to projects that should take a fairly long time, but end up taking eons.

Jim: That engine stand project is sure going slowly.
Burt: Yeah, it must be the Kirdoppler Effect.

Joe: Hey Stan, can you recite the shortest poem you know?
Stan: Recites poem that lasts five minutes and is anti-climactic.
Joe: Wow, I think you were hit by the Kirdoppler Effect.

by Jimbo99 November 28, 2009

island effect

Condition where the inhabitants of an island consider the island their universe. Anything outside the island is foreign, alien, indistinguishable.

Vera suffered from an acute case of the island effect. She never left the island and thought they were insulated to plagues and economic depressions.

by islandeffect December 7, 2009

Comcast Effect

1) The act of receiving inadequate cable service which you pay way too much for.
2) The reason why your internet modem must be manually restarted at least 5 times a week.

I can't wait until Fios comes around, I'm sick and tired of the Comcast Effect!

by bchapman December 20, 2009

Glee-Effect

Any moment or situation where breaking into song is a more appropriate response than just words.

Friend 1: I was feeling pretty crap the other day so I started singing. It seemed to solve all my problems.

Friend 2: Sounds like you had a case of the Glee-Effect.

by FromMelbTown May 24, 2010

Olaf Effect

When you are predisposed to hate a character that shows up on screen but you are surprised that he/she was not as annoying as you thought.

When Uncle Grandpa cameoed on Steven Universe, it was sort of like the Olaf Effect. You would think you would hate him, but you didn't (sort of).

by The Logical Fallacy February 1, 2016