schlock

Any commodity that is shoddy or inferior; now, usually, writing or audiovisual content that is shoddy or inferior.

Noun

Any commodity that is shoddy or inferior; now, usually, writing or audiovisual content that is shoddy or inferior.
- Before pop art, there was such a thing as bad taste. Now there’s kitsch, schlock, camp and porn. - 1978, Don DeLillo, Running Dog, New York: Knopf, page 148:
- “The Kingdom of the Wicked” is not Mr. Burgess at the top of his bent. It is not schlock. It is too individual, too original for that; […]. - 1985 September 22, John Crowley, “St. Paul Meets Nero”, in The New York...
- And just because leftoids make tripe from their position of strength is no reason for trads to make schlock from their position of weakness. - 2024 June 18, Spencer Klavan, “A Matter of Taste”, in The American Mind:
Related: shlock

From Yiddish שלאַק (shlak), related to German Schlag (“blow, strike, hit”).