big-lipped alligator moment

English

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Etymology

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Coined in a 2009 Nostalgia Critic review of FernGully: The Last Rainforest, referring to a scene in the 1989 film All Dogs Go to Heaven, in which an alligator breaks into an Esther Williams-style musical number.

Noun

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big-lipped alligator moment (plural big-lipped alligator moments)

  1. (fandom slang) A notably unusual, tangential scene in a movie or similar work of fiction, which occurs without setup and does not affect the story afterward.
    Synonym: BLAM (initialism)
    • 2009, rec.arts.animation[1] (Usenet):
      This may be the first case where the *entire* movie is a Big Lipped Alligator Moment . . .