Silly Season: Difference between revisions

{{tropeUseful Notes}}

In the United Kingdom, the [['''Silly Season]]''' is the period beginning around the middle of summer and running until the start of October, in which Parliament retires for summer and newspapers across the country scramble for something - anything - to fill pages and pull in readers.

The news media in the USA follow a similar path in July and August, with ''Shark Attacks!'' and other filler stories when business in Washington, D.C., and New York wind down for the summer, and the paucity of new scripted programming means television networks and stations need something to draw viewers in to watch. This sort of thing also happens during [[Sweeps]], especially with local news programming. One summer was actually referred to as "The Summer of The Shark" because the rest of the news was so slow, despite the fact that shark attack rates that year were no higher than usual. Really, they just seem to [[EverythingsEverything's Even Worse Withwith Sharks|hate]] [[Jumping the Shark|sharks]]. It was also the summer of the Chandra Levy murder, which brought down a congressman who was wrongly accused of said crime because the media [[Did Not Do the Research]]. But once September came along, the 2001 silly season ended with the [[It Got Worse|biggest thud of all time]] in a [[The War Onon Terror|really, really unexpected way]].... (Somewhat) fortunately (or very unfortunately) for Americans, elections occur every two years in the US--withUS—with presidential ones coming every four--andfour—and August is the buildup to real Campaign Season: Labor Day. This means that politicians tend to start really hitting the campaign trail at that time, giving the newsmedia ''something'' better to cover than the eating habits of unusually large fish.

2008's [['''Silly Season]]''' [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7694989.stm went on a bit] [http://everything2.com/title/Ross-Brand%20affair longer than scheduled,] to the relief of politicians who were spared having to talk about the <s>impending</s> recession.