MacGuffin 

in film, a plot device that has no specific meaning or purpose other than to advance the story; any situation that motivates the action of a film either artificially or substantively.

Originally coined by Alfred Hitchcock, based on a story where this device was used in a story set on a Scottish train.

(sometimes called a McGuffin)

The suitcase in Pulp Fiction is a modern example of a MacGuffin.

MacGuffin by soma616 May 16, 2006

macguffin 

A plot device that motivates the characters and advance the story, particularly one whose importance is accepted completely by the story's characters, yet from the audience's perspective it might be minimally explained or may test their suspension of disbelief if it is scrutinized. The device, usually an object, is common in films, especially thrillers.
It is important that the audience never actually see the MacGuffin. I dunno why.

The term "MacGuffin" was invented by Alfred Hitchcock; according to the Oxford English Dictionary, he explained the term in a 1939 lecture at Columbia University:

In regard to the tune, we have a name in the studio, and we call it the 'MacGuffin'. It is the mechanical element that usually crops up in any story. In crook stories it is always the necklace and in spy stories it is always the papers.

Interviewed in 1966 by François Truffaut, Hitchcock illustrated the term "MacGuffin" with this story:

It might be a Scottish name, taken from a story about two men in a train. One man says, 'What's that package up there in the baggage rack?' And the other answers, 'Oh that's a McGuffin.' The first one asks 'What's a McGuffin?' 'Well' the other man says, 'It's an apparatus for trapping lions in the Scottish Highlands.' The first man says, 'But there are no lions in the Scottish Highlands,' and the other one answers 'Well, then that's no McGuffin!' So you see, a McGuffin is nothing at all.

macguffin by Laser Potato July 15, 2008

MacGuffin Coochie 

Sex from a certain girl that is extremley valued to a certain group of people to a point where it is talked about as the holy grail in life.

"I finally got to tap MacGuffin Coochie! It is just as I have dreamed and as incredible as you have to described it to be!"

MacGuffin Coochie by Itain'tObeeezy November 2, 2024

Egg mcmuffin 

Best breakfast item on the mcdonalds menu

Contains delicious ham HAMMMMMM and egg with cheese covered by 2 muffin bread slices

Egg mcmuffin is AMAZING

Egg mcmuffin by WatcherInc August 26, 2022

Egg mcmuffin 

Best breakfast item on the mcdonalds menu

Contains delicious and egg with cheese covered in 2 muffin bread slices

Egg McMuffin is AMAZING

Egg mcmuffin by WatcherInc August 25, 2022

McGuffin 

An object or person in a movie that has no use other than to drive the narrative forward. originally coined by alfred hitchcock.

the suitcase in pulp fiction

McGuffin by Jeorge "of the jungel" Boosh April 9, 2005

Maguffin 

An all encompassing part of speech meaning anything you’d like. Purported to be immature and despised by clerics and betrothed alike.

See also, maguffy, maguff, maguffed, maguffel, and maguffly

Here’s another elk maguffin right here.

I feel a little maguffy.

Maguffin by Maguffin123 September 29, 2020