dog and pony show | Idiomator

Meaning: (historical)A small travelingcircusfeaturing animals as entertainment.; (idiomatic)Anypresentationordisplaythat is overlycontrivedorintricate, while lacking real substance.They put on a wholedog and pony showfor the investors, but I'm not sure they've convinced anyone.2012January 8, Elizabeth Popp Berman,Creating the Market University: How Academic Science Became an Economic Engine‎[1], Princeton University Press,→ISBN,→LCCN,→OCLC, page119:Here, the academics put on a bit of adog-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.[…]2012November 28, “Please Click On Our Website's Banner Ads”, inThe Onion‎[2]:Look, I know this may all seem somewhat untoward, and we can go through a wholedog-and-ponyshow 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?

Examples:

EN: Always thinking of a dog and pony show.
ES: Tú no ves más allá de los caballos.
EN: What's this dog and pony show.
ES: A qué viene este circo.
EN: I think that dog and pony show wore him out. What do you think?
ES: Yo creo que el espectáculo ese lo ha agotado. ¿Tú qué crees?
EN: Selling useless mining stock is called a dog and pony show.
ES: Vender material inútil es lo que se llama el espectáculo del poni y del perro.
EN: Oh, and why don't we know, huh? We're waiting for fucking hours for the goddamn Feds and their dog and pony show.
ES: Por qué no lo sabemos, estuvimos esperando por horas a los malditos federales y su espectáculo de perros y ponis.
EN: Yeah, well, we've got a dog and pony show to do this afternoon for the investors out at the development site.
ES: Pues bien, esta tarde tenemos una recepción para todos los inversores del desarrollo.
EN: Otherwise she's gonna look like the star poodle at the dog and pony show.
ES: Si no, lucirá como... el caniche del show de perros y ponis.
EN: That's what this whole dog and pony show is all about, isn't it?
ES: A eso viene este numerito, ¿verdad?
EN: Today is just another dog and pony show.
ES: Hoy es el gran día.
EN: - I'll relax after the dog and pony show.
ES: -Me relajaré después de la presentación,
EN: So here are the headlines. Samantha will do your little dog and pony show out there and all other events with you... from now through the inauguration should you be lucky enough to have one.
ES: Samantha formará parte de su circo, aquí y en todos los demás acontecimientos con usted de ahora a su toma de posesión si tiene tanta suerte como para que eso ocurra...
EN: I can't keep up the dog and pony show any longer.
ES: No podemos seguir con el show del pony y el perro.
EN: Time for the dog and pony show.
ES: ¡Hora del acto de circo!
EN: This is a trial, not a dog and pony show.
ES: Esto es un juicio no un concurso de perros.
EN: A little muscle, a little dog and pony show.
ES: Unos cuantos músculos, algo de espectáculo.

Note: the examples for non latin scripts have a high likelihood of mistakes, we do not own any of this data and it is sourced from Wiktionary, the NLLB database and Opensubtitles. Please help us improve this by contributing correct examples. We will be working to fix this issue over time however it is a bigger issue due to the the difficulties in dealing with non latin scripts and grammatical structures(non-romantic/european languages have lower resources as well ).