Shaggy dog story

Posted by Smokey Stover on June 18, 2005

In Reply to: Shaggy dog story posted by ESC on June 17, 2005

: From bartleby.com

: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.
:
: shaggy-dog story
:
: SYLLABICATION: shag·gy-dog story
: PRONUNCIATION: shg-dôg, -dg
: NOUN: Informal A long, drawn-out anecdote ending with an absurd or anticlimactic punch line.

OED: shaggy dog story, a lengthy tediously detailed story of an inconsequential series of events, more amusing to the teller than to his audience, or amusing only by its pointlessness...[first citation, Feb. 1945].