the.com/silly season
When news slows down and journalists cover a cat's opinion on local politics.
means The quiet stretch (often late summer) when real news dries up and newspapers fill space with trivial, bizarre, or fluffy stories instead.
from British journalism slang from the 1800s, pinned to the months when Parliament rose and the courts recessed for summer — the people who usually made 'serious' news were off on holiday, so editors padded pages with oddities, silly-season staples like sea-serpent sightings and unusually large vegetables. The phrase stuck as shorthand for any news lull filled with fluff.
- origin
- Victorian term for parliament's summer recess
- peak timing
- August, when everyone important is on holiday
- typical content
- giant vegetables, UFO sightings, royal gossip
- modern twist
- now also means transfer rumors in football