Shaggy dog story

Posted by Smokey Stover June 18, 2005In 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].