dead cat

Named for its resemblance to an actual dead cat.

dead cat (plural dead cats)

1. (cinematography, sound recording) A furry coverlet placed over a microphone to muffle the sound of wind.
   • 2012, August 16. Neil Oseman, "Inside the Director's Folder".

     "A camera operator needs batteries, lenses, cards, filters. A wardrobe supervisor has racks of costumes. A sound recorder carries a dead cat on a stick. But a director only needs his folder."

   • 2019, July 2. "Film 101: What Is a Boom Operator? Understanding the Job of a Boom Operator", Masterclass.com.

     "The mic blimp is a wind-resistant cover that goes over the boom mic to reduce environmental background noise. It's commonly referred to as a "dead cat", because it's covered in fuzzy gray hair."

Introduced by former UK prime minister Boris Johnson in 2013 (at which point he was mayor of London) in a column for The Daily Telegraph:

• "There is one thing that is absolutely certain about throwing a dead cat on the dining room table – and I don't mean that people will be outraged, alarmed, disgusted. That is true, but irrelevant. The key point, says my Australian friend, is that everyone will shout, 'Jeez, mate, there's a dead cat on the table!' In other words, they will be talking about the dead cat – the thing you want them to talk about – and they will not be talking about the issue that has been causing you so much grief."[1]

The anonymous "Australian friend" who the concept is attributed to is assumed to be political strategist Lynton Crosby.

dead cat (plural dead cats)

1. (politics, neologism) A shocking or sensational announcement made in order to distract one's political base from existing problems and previous failures.
   • 2019 November 19, Charlotte Lydia Riley, “Dear journalists: please stop calling everything a “dead cat””, in Prospect Magazine‎, archived from the original on 2023-01-06:

     The problem is that once the idea of the dead cat had been discovered, suddenly there were deceased felines everywhere. Everything was a dead cat—every policy, every interview, every gaffe. Everything existed only to detract attention from something else.

   • 2021 December 8, George Parker, Jasmine Cameron-Chileshe, Jim Pickard, Sebastian Payne, “Boris Johnson bets on a 'dead cat' strategy to get him out of trouble”, in Financial Times‎, archived from the original on 2021-12-08:

     Boris Johnson looked strained as he entered the House of Commons at midday on Wednesday, hoping that a "dead cat" and an apology over Downing Street parties would dig him out of his latest political hole.

   • 2021 December 12, Stewart Lee, “More sacrifices for Boris, the fool king of pantomime Britain”, in The Guardian‎, archived from the original on 2022-12-03:

     But by Wednesday night, a massive dead cat was required to distract from a day of denied parties and prioritised pets, so Johnson banged plan B on the kitchen table, alienating backbench Covid sceptics.

• dead cat bounce

• Dead cat strategy on Wikipedia.Wikipedia