Is a 'show stopper' bad... and other things

[EinsteinaGogo]

A thread about a thread (eeek!).

On a current thread, the OP is selling her house, and mentions there are one or two show stoppers about the property that are very clearly described in the details.

Therefore - any viewers who book an appointment, look around the house, then feedback that the show stopper is the reason they don't like it, are unreasonable.

The OPs home showstopper isn't stated, but it's clear that 'show stopper' is a negative .
Something like no parking, leasehold of 1 year, built on a train platform, about to be bulldozed by Christmas, etc.

To the OP - and me, and a handful of other posters - a show stopper is something negative - an obstacle hard to overcome. To the majority, it's a positive - something brilliant to make everyone gasp in awe.

What is a show stopper to you?

AND

Do you have any similar tales of using a phrase (any phrase) in a different way to its general meaning?

Showstopper to me is amazing.

But I have a background in dance and the showstopper was the move performance that was designed to make every sit up and gasp in awe

Haven't RTFT but show stopper is positive as in the finale to a show. You are talking about a deal breaker.

I had only heard it used as a positive in theatrical terms eg a song being so good it stopped the show whilst the audience applaud. A bit of googling reveals that it was first used in 1916 in that very context. It has only more recently been flipped into a negative expression.

Ha, show stopper to me is bad. In project management, it’s the worst type of issue to have as it may prevent the project completing. I can see the positive meaning now I think about it though!

A show stopper is something amazing and extraordinary. It's definitely not a negative

A show stopper is a bad thing. It literally stops a show from continuing - things like: Hamlet has a heart attack in the middle of Act 1; there's a power cut and the theatre lights go out. How could things which prevent progress be viewed as good?

No. This is where it gets confusing.

A SHOWSTOPPER

is not the same as a SHOW STOP

in theatrical terms.

A showstopper, we’ve already mentioned is a positive thing usually used in an artistic reference.

The technical term “Show stop” or “stop the show” is the call that the Stage Manager would use. In show reports or notes we’d get as a company after a performance after a show stop we’d never find “showstopper” written in there. It would always say for eg “Show stop, Act 2, scene 3. Set back to Act 2, scene 2”. Whereas a director might say, “congratulations, the choreography is amazing, you’ve got a showstopper there guys!”

If Hamlet had a heart attack mid scene we’d never say “yeah, we had a showstopper today!”, that would be seen as so insensitive! We’d say “we had to stop the show and Dave went on for Joe and Callum swinged in for Dave” for example. If there was a massive flood or some sort of damage to the theatre and the show couldn’t run we might say “we’re going dark for the rest of the week”. Never showstopper!

I'd never heard the negative definition of showstopper, only the positive.

But I am terribly Jazz Hands. 👐

Show stopper was always a positive? As in something awe like.

It can be either.

However, what the OP of that thread had was a 'deal breaker'. Show stopper is just the wrong term, because it wasn't something unexpected.

And for a “Showstopper” moment, ie extreme laughter, everyone rushing to their feet and applauding, etc the call made by the Stage Manager would be “Hold for laughter”/“Hold for applause”.

Other terms I’ve heard in a Show Stop is “brought the curtain/cloth down/in” or “pause”.

More confusingly... other term for a Showstopper I’ve heard is “brought the house down!”.

We’re odd, us show folk!

If somebody told me it was a showstopper house I would expect it to have some amazing features that you wouldn't normally expect or things that would make it more appealing, not features that would put you off.

Not...

"This next house is a real showstopper."
"Oooh."
"Yes, despite being advertised as a 4 bed family home there is no garden, it has an awful extension that's not at all sympathetic to the original house and you can't park within half a mile of it."

I think showstopper as in The Great British Bake Off...ie something amazing.

I'd call what the house-selling OP has a deal-breaker.

Negative, we use it at work (IT) when service to one or more customers fails completely and needs fixing urgently.

Show stopper ( great British bake-off) = good

Deal breaker (location location location) = bad

Blimey if your theatre wouldn't stop the show because Hamlet had a heart attack I'd think you were pretty unfeeling. What would you do, just wheel on the understudy and hope no-one notices?

@lazylinguist

Corporate jargon may have chosen to use it with a different meaning, but it's easy enough to look up what it really means: a performance/scene that evokes so much applause from the audience that the show briefly pauses. It does not mean something crap that makes a show grind to a halt.

@lazylinguist

It is easy to look up - I just did!!

@MilesJuppIsMyBitch 😂😂😂😂 love that!

@Waspie it’s happened in other shows many times. Curtain brought in. Announcement about technical difficulties. Ambulance called. Hamlet taken to hospital, if he can be moved. If he can’t, refunds etc need to be issued.

Vast majority of cases, new announcement “Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for your patience, due to unforeseen circumstances/current illness the role of Hamlet will now be played by Joseph Smith and we will resume this evening’s performance immediately”. Curtain up, on with the show.

It’s happened in shows I’ve been in. Very hard having to go on and carry on knowing that your best friend might not survive the night but “the show must go on”. (and she did survive!)

Btw Tommy Cooper died on stage on a live tv broadcast and the audience thought it was part of the act. The show carried on!

I've only seen it used positively on Bake Off. Everywhere else it is negative. It isn't necessarily a deal breaker and wouldn't be used in that context.

A deal breaker means the whole thing is off, a show stopper is 'call a halt while we see if there is any way this can be resolved' . It may well end up being a deal breaker but isn't automatically. That was the meaning I thought the op of the other thread was using.

AwkwardMoment2020 that's fantastic. I have actually been at a show where something similar happened (although it was a backstage accident rather than anything life threatening fortunately). It was very dramatic and the announcer asked the audience if there was a doctor in the house and then told the audience that Joseph Smith was taking over as Hamlet for the remainder of the performance.

The original Hamlet was back on stage a few days later. As you say - the show must go on.

In I.T. a show stopper is very definitely a bad thing though.

Clearly another example of corporate/business jargon mangling the language.
A showstopper is definitely a good thing. It’s something so fabulous everyone has to stop to admire it/show their admiration further

A deal breaker is the thing that stops you - er - making a deal because it’s bad. Definitely negative.

It is easy to look up - I just did!!
@EinsteinaGogo yes, but dictionaries reflect usage, even if that usage is blatant nonsense. As, for example, in the way that the dictionary will tell you that literally no longer means the actual, literal situation but is used to mean figuratively but with emphasis. It’s nonsense.

I’m not sure I agree that the IT/business understanding is an example of “business jargon mangling the language”. Surely it’s more evolution of language than mangling (and language evolves all the time).

A show stopper is a bad thing. It literally stops a show from continuing - things like: Hamlet has a heart attack in the middle of Act 1; there's a power cut and the theatre lights go out. How could things which prevent progress be viewed as good?

Sorry, but that's just total bollocks. I have the Oxford dictionary in front of me.

"Showstopper: a performance or item receiving prolonged applause."

i.e. the show is temporarily stopped by the massive amounts of clapping.

It says similar on any online dictionary you care to look at. Although Merriam Webster, the American one, does list (as 3rd meaning) 'something that stops progress'. But that's clearly the corporate-speak version which is pretty much the opposite of the actual original meaning.