dog and pony show

plural dog and pony shows · alternative dog-and-pony show

1. historicalA small traveling circus featuring animals as entertainment.
2. idiomaticAny presentation or display that is overly contrived or intricate, while lacking real substance.

   They put on a whole dog and pony show for the investors, but I'm not sure they've convinced anyone.

   2 more examples

   Here, the academics put on a bit of a dog-and-pony show, demonstrating their latest breakthroughs and giving sponsors a chance to meet students who are about to receive their PhDs and start looking for jobs.[…]

   2012 January 8, Elizabeth Popp Berman, Creating the Market University: How Academic Science Became an Economic Engine, Princeton University Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 119

   Look, I know this may all seem somewhat untoward, and we can go through a whole dog-and-pony show here where I pretend that this column exists as a forum for ideas, and that I act as an independent voice who isn't beholden to advertisers, and the power of the First Amendment, and blah blah, etc. etc. But let's get real for a second here, okay?

   2012 November 28, “Please Click On Our Website's Banner Ads”, in The Onion