Fuzzy Tiger
Meaning: To distract someone with narrative/verbal slight of hand. Typically to distract the reader/audience from seeing a weakness in the plot, or from seeing an upcoming plot twist.
Origin: Paul Reiser's Babyhood, where he points out how easy it is to distract a baby from crying by dangling a toy, such as a fuzzy tiger, in front of them.
Example: "I have no idea why Wesley would be in Miami so we're just going to have to fuzzy tiger our way around that."
Cupcake Fic
Meaning: A story which focuses on ridiculously minute and mundane details for no apparent reason whatsoever. (as opposed to "curtain fic" where the story focuses on mundane details for the purpose of showing the characters being schmoopy and domestic).
Origin: A very boring participent of a Buffy panel who, when making a point about Jonathan, started his comments with "In season 3 when Jonathan got the cupcake..." and proceeded to list every single scene Jonothan had been in up until season 6 for no apparent reason whatsoever.
Example: "Someone just posted a cupcake fic where all that happens is Clark goes out and buys a ham sandwich. What was the point of that?"
The Thing
Meaning: The point of the story and/or the moral. Eg in Wrecked the thing is drug addiction. In Epiphany it's that Angel's had a change of heart.
Origin: Mer
Example: "Why did we have that scene with Kate and Angel at the end of Epiphany telling us what the thing is? We were watching the show, we know already!!"
"That way lies David Fury" or "Rampant David Furyism"
Meaning: Bad writing which violates the "show don't tell" rule by telling your reader/audience what the thing is.
Origin: BtVS and AtS writer David Fury who, though an otherwise very good writer, has a habit of scripting dialogue where the characters tell us what the thing is (see the shooting script for Disharmony for an excellent example of this).
Example: "Did the last scene of my story work okay? I was worried I'd crossed the line into rampant David Furyism."
"I could be wearing a tie."
Meaning: To be flexible, open to any option.
Origin: The first Wes/Spike scene written by Mer and TBQ, where TBQ had no preference as to whether or not Wes was wearing a tie.
Example: "I don't care where the story takes place. I could be wearing a tie."
Meaning: To distract someone with narrative/verbal slight of hand. Typically to distract the reader/audience from seeing a weakness in the plot, or from seeing an upcoming plot twist.
Origin: Paul Reiser's Babyhood, where he points out how easy it is to distract a baby from crying by dangling a toy, such as a fuzzy tiger, in front of them.
Example: "I have no idea why Wesley would be in Miami so we're just going to have to fuzzy tiger our way around that."
Cupcake Fic
Meaning: A story which focuses on ridiculously minute and mundane details for no apparent reason whatsoever. (as opposed to "curtain fic" where the story focuses on mundane details for the purpose of showing the characters being schmoopy and domestic).
Origin: A very boring participent of a Buffy panel who, when making a point about Jonathan, started his comments with "In season 3 when Jonathan got the cupcake..." and proceeded to list every single scene Jonothan had been in up until season 6 for no apparent reason whatsoever.
Example: "Someone just posted a cupcake fic where all that happens is Clark goes out and buys a ham sandwich. What was the point of that?"
The Thing
Meaning: The point of the story and/or the moral. Eg in Wrecked the thing is drug addiction. In Epiphany it's that Angel's had a change of heart.
Origin: Mer
Example: "Why did we have that scene with Kate and Angel at the end of Epiphany telling us what the thing is? We were watching the show, we know already!!"
"That way lies David Fury" or "Rampant David Furyism"
Meaning: Bad writing which violates the "show don't tell" rule by telling your reader/audience what the thing is.
Origin: BtVS and AtS writer David Fury who, though an otherwise very good writer, has a habit of scripting dialogue where the characters tell us what the thing is (see the shooting script for Disharmony for an excellent example of this).
Example: "Did the last scene of my story work okay? I was worried I'd crossed the line into rampant David Furyism."
"I could be wearing a tie."
Meaning: To be flexible, open to any option.
Origin: The first Wes/Spike scene written by Mer and TBQ, where TBQ had no preference as to whether or not Wes was wearing a tie.
Example: "I don't care where the story takes place. I could be wearing a tie."