The Logical Fallacy's definitions

Shenmue Gambit

When a certain media property that, while unsuccessful when it first comes out, can manage to become a successful franchise overtime using nostalgia.

"Fortunately, Double Fine have managed to cling to driftwood long enough to wait for the inevitable twenty-year nostalgia wave to come around and can now surf that driftwood all the way to sex island with Psychonauts 2. Yes, they've pulled what's now technically known as the Shenmue gambit."
-- Psychonauts 2 (Zero Punctuation)

by The Logical Fallacy September 15, 2021

Schrödinger's Douchebag

A guy who says offensive things and decides whether he was joking based on the reaction of people around him.

Any website that lacks effective moderation and allows some level of anonymity will, to varying degrees, approxomate 4chan, and be overrun with Schrödinger's Douchebags. Now this type of person defends, for instance, rape-jokes by saying "all humor is inherently punching down because there must be a butt to every joke." He hasn't thought about it. he assumes it's true because he figures "(he's) a smart guy, and whatever (he) assumes is probably right", but he's unfazed if you prove otherwise. There's no shortage of dodgy reasons he might be right and you wrong. He'll just pick another one. What matters is the game continues.

-- Innuendo Studios example of Schrödinger's Douchebag, "The Alt-Right Playbook: The Card Says Moops"

by The Logical Fallacy February 3, 2019

Hemingway Defense

Where the stress and work of artistic expression is used to excuse substance abuse, chemical dependencies and other toxic coping-mechanisms.

"I also employed the world-famous Hemingway Defense... which goes something like this: as a writer, I am a very sensitive fellow, but I am also a man, and real men don't give in to their sensitivities. Only sissy-men do that. Therefore I drink. How else can I face the existential horror of it all and continue to work? Besides, come on, I can handle it. A real man always can."
-- Stephen King

by The Logical Fallacy February 17, 2023

Playing Hot Potato with a Pineapple

Desperately trying to ditch an object that harms its holder.

In the Ready Player One movie, the High Five were passing along Chucky the Living doll in hopes of not getting stabbed. They were Playing Hot Potato with a Pineapple. ...get it? Li-like a grenade?

by The Logical Fallacy May 29, 2018

Aligherian

An adjective that applies to ironic punishment, often one that fits the crime or foible they are being punished for.

Named after Dante Alighieri, who's epic poem "Inferno" made the punishments of the damned ironic to the sins they were being tortured for.

So the guy who beat dogs in life is being torn apart by hellhounds for eternity? How Aligherian.

by The Logical Fallacy February 19, 2024

feeding the alligators

When one exposes themselves to fiction that stimulates our negative qualities (like horror fiction) so that they can work through them in a healthy and harmless environment as catharsis.

Serial killers and other murderers appeal to the impulse Stephen King calls "feeding the alligators," and Carl Jung called "integration of the shadow self," but it all means the same thing: that entertaining our own dark side can be therapeutic.
-- 8-Bit Philosophy

by The Logical Fallacy May 27, 2017

silky films

Hardcore pornographic films marketed to the art crowd as art films.

"My uncle had a business; films, called 'silky films.' They catered to the art crowd. French babes, soft focus, lots of sheer curtains. Classy stuff."
-- Benny, "Tromeo and Juliet"

by The Logical Fallacy June 14, 2017