Meanings
comparative more good-bad · superlative most good-bad
- broadcastingEnjoyably schlocky, poor in quality but nonetheless compelling.
Is Showgirls good-bad or just bad-bad?
2015 July 6, David Fear et al, “25 Best Modern Exploitation Movies”, in Rolling Stone4 more examples
The existence of good bad literature—the fact that one can be amused or excited or even moved by a book that one's intellect simply refuses to take seriously—is a reminder that art is not the same thing as cerebration.
1945 November 2, George Orwell, “Good Bad Books”, in Tribune“Road House” exists right on the edge between the “good-bad movie” and the merely bad. I hesitate to recommend it, because so much depends on the ironic vision of the viewer. This is not a good movie.
1989 May 19, Roger Ebert, “Road House”, in RogerEbert.comTouch of Evil is not a good movie, but it is a good bad movie, which is more fun than the mediocre or even the adequate.
2014, Sarah Nilsen, Projecting America, 1958, McFarlandThe Shoes of the Fisherman is a good-bad film that owes no duty to history or to what were then current affairs.
2019 November 29, Donald Clarke, “The Two Popes: one giant leap of faith”, in The Irish Times
Origin
Attributed to G. K. Chesterton.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
good-bad. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/good-bad
“good-bad.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/good-bad. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “good-bad,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/good-bad.
Source: good-bad on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.