Gilligan cut
n.— «“the Gilligan cut”: When you cut directly from a character declaring there’s no way he’s going to do something, to him doing it, for comedic effect. Also called “the flip joke,” but I’ve heard this usage, and it’s more interesting nomenclature. Thanks to Jacob at Yankee Fog. (previously listed as “the red dress,” This name comes from the way it was always described to me: a burly guy saying”There’s no way I’m going to get into a red dress and pretend to be your wife.” SMASH CUT to…you get the idea.)» —“Writing: Jargon Preservation” by John Rogers Kung Fu Monkey Apr. 15, 2005. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
It was a dark and stormy night. So begins the long and increasingly convoluted prose of Edwards Bulwer-Lytton’s best-known novel. Today the annual Bulwer-Lytton Contest asks contestants for fanciful first sentences that are similarly...
Enthusiastic book recommendations! Martha’s savoring the biography of Alexander von Humboldt, the 19th-century explorer, polymath, and naturalist who revolutionized our understanding of nature and predicted the effects of human activity on...