Prime Minister David Cameron had a 'tumbleweed moment' at a barbecue he hosted in honour of President Obama today, according to this Sky News piece. A joke he cracked -- about giving the American president a grilling -- was met with stony silence. And that's what a tumbleweed moment is -- the awkwardness after a gaffe, when no-one says anything.
I didn't know the phrase 'tumbleweed moment' until today. It's not in any of my dictionaries, including Jonathon Green's Dictionary of Slang, nor is it in the massive online OED, despite the fact that the Wiktionary page says it is a British broadcasting expression. Some of the internet sources I went to to find the definition say that the idiom is a reference to cowboy films where there is a silence on-screen and all viewers see are tumbleweed plant balls blowing about in the wind. There is certainly a broadcasting connection there.
It may derive from the Vic Reeves/Bob Mortimer comedy quiz show (whose title escapes my memory). On every show Vic Reeves would make a joke that would be met by complete silence and stony stares from the panellists, while a whistling wind blew tumbleweed across the studio floor.
Posted by: Jemmy Hope | May 26, 2011 at 10:12 AM
Thanks, Jemmy. Do you mean 'Shooting Stars?' That began on TV in the 1990s, which predates all references and quotations to tumbleweed moment I can find online.
Posted by: Virtual Linguist | May 26, 2011 at 06:25 PM
Yes, "Shooting Stars", but it's possible that it was the recycling of an old idea (?)
Posted by: Jemmy Hope | May 26, 2011 at 07:31 PM
Beautiful!!! You truly have an eye for colour.
Posted by: Newzealand Pandora | February 16, 2012 at 01:00 AM