magaguffin

A device used to distract large numbers of conservatives while their democracy is stolen.

The tinpot wannabe dictator gave everyone magaguffin hats to make people feel good while his grand vizier quietly stole their democracy.

magaguffin by Bouncybrit February 17, 2025

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

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

maguffin 

The device in a Television Show or Movie which keeps the plot rolling, generally a character or situation.

The MacGuffin of 24's third season was the threat of a nuclear holocaust.

maguffin by SoylentGreg August 5, 2005

maguffin 

An object of high value that everyone wants. Originally the term "MacGuffin" with the same meaning, used in literary plots.

Random person: "I love your car!"
Me: "I know, isn't it just a maguffin?"

maguffin by Leb January 31, 2004

macguffinium 

state of an object whose sole use is to advance the scenario, by its preciousness, its misunderstanding by science, or its emotional link by the main character.

1: why do you keep/follow this object?
2: because it's made on macguffinium!

macguffinium by ovanossar August 7, 2018