hokum · /HOH-kəm/ · /ˈhəʊkəm/. noun. Nonsense. Rubbish. Originally theater slang for bombastic, melodramatic, sentimental or sensationalized dialogue done for applause. Most likely a combination of hocus-pocus + buncombe (AKA bunkum). See also: claptrap, piffle, poppycock, cobblers, tripe, twaddle, etc.
“Some of the hokum arises from professional jealousy, rivalry, and fear—priest and scientist competing for power and control of human minds.” (Ursula K. Le Guin)
“A sauce not to be confused with those hokum béchamels served over gaily decorated baby hamsters in New York City, home of the most otiose food faddism.” (Jim Harrison)
“…there was never a mite of bum-hokum about Bogart; he was an actor without theories (well, one: that he should be highly paid), without temper but not without temperament…” (Truman Capote)
“…but I have a story to tell, characters to create, a plot to contrive, you may, with incautious confidence, insist. No. That’s what moviemakers do. They make hokum. You do not tell a story; your fiction will do that when your fiction is finished. What you make is music…” (William H. Gass)
“…bring into view three-dimensional hopes and hokum:
dying here sour with flesh and sweat…” (A. R. Ammons)“I can’t believe you fell for this gypsy-shire-horses-painted-wagons-jolly-old-England hokum.” (David Mitchell)