kayfabe
n.— «All participants, including fans, present others with at least a bit of a “kayfabe,” a term which is taken from nineteenth-century carnival, medicine show, and sideshow practice and simply refers to a con or deception. Kayfabe can also, less pejoratively, refer to participants’ self-promotional, rhetorically inflated, and somewhat truth-obfuscating patter that resembles that of the talkers at the traditional sideshow. A kayfabian, then, is a con artist; most wrestlers are proud to be called kayfabians because it means they’re in on the (con) game.» —by Sharon Mazer Professional Wrestling: Sport and Spectacle Feb. 1, 1998. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
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