lollapalooza

What it means

1. informalAn outstanding, extreme, or outrageous example of its kind.

   Here is a novel of low comedy and high raillery. It's a lollapalooza that turns out to be a comic elegy for old-time radio.

   1991 Nov. 3, Studs Terkel, "Keillor's elegy to randy radio" (Book Review of WLT A Radio Romance by Garrison Keillor), Chicago Sun-Times (retrieved 23 July 2011)

   2 more examples

   When the show-down came, the other players informed him he had lost. One man had turned up a 2-4-6-8-9 of varied suits. ¶ "That," they all exclaimed, "is a Lollapalooza. It beats anything—even a Royal Flush."

   1948, George Taubeneck, The Marshal's Baton: The Specialty Sales Manager, Detroit: Conjure House, →OCLC, page 98

   Far from the grand events that were once considered – speaking to Parliament or a more modest version of the lollapalooza that brought millions into Chicago streets – this six-hour hi-how-are-you redefines low key.

   2009 February 17, Jim Travers, “Harper's political payoff is the photo-op”, in Toronto Star

In a sentence

When the show-down came, the other players informed him he had lost. One man had turned up a 2-4-6-8-9 of varied suits. ¶ "That," they all exclaimed, "is a Lollapalooza. It beats anything—even a Royal Flush."

1948, George Taubeneck, The Marshal's Baton: The Specialty Sales Manager, Detroit: Conjure House, →OCLC, page 98

Where it comes from

Unknown. Compare lollypaloozer and lallapalootza, which are attested earlier with similar meaning. Compare also 19th century slang la-la something unusually good.