no-brow

comparative more no-brow · superlative most no-brow · alternative nobrow

1. Completely devoid of cultural or educational value.

   From no-brow beginnings, when BSG [Battlestar Galactica] still had to prove it had outwitted the shonky source material, the show gained cult respect and a few more viewers by the second year.

   2008 April 15, Daniel Martin, “How will Battlestar Galactica end?”, in The Guardian

   2 more examples

   During the 2000s, belles-lettres accounted for less than 3 percent of all literature sold in the United States, and popular literature made gains in prestige and legitimacy, spawning a no-brow culture.

   2010, Roger Chapman, editor, Culture Wars […] , page 325

   The tremendous concern and fascination with South Park's “no-brow” humor (Wild 1998: 32) has largely deflected attention away from an equally interesting and significant factor in the show's history and status as a cultural artifact.

   2013, Carol Stabile, Prime Time Animation

2. Located outside the traditional taste hierarchy, blending highbrow, middlebrow, and lowbrow.

   1 more example

   The Simpsons is pure Nobrow, able to slide as effortlessly as Bob himself from slide-whistling slapstick to talk of Susan Sontag, and ultimately oblivious to any prejudicial classifications. It's not such much that lowbrow bludgeoned highbrow to death with a dozen rakes; it's that both of them have been subsumed into the one-stop-shopping megamall of pop.

   2005, Chris Turner, Planet Simpson […] , Ebury Press, →ISBN, page 140