Idiom: A flash in the pan
Japanese TV is full of famous faces.
Many of them appear on multiple shows, multiple networks and in different cities.
These people have built a career around being famous.
Then there are the faces that are a flash in the pan.
This phrase can be used to describe a person, event or thing that has a moment of fame but cannot sustain it.
They may have a moment of success and popularity which may be because of a specific event or personal qualities.
But this success does not last for long, and they soon return to being unknown again.
For a perfect example of a flash in the pan, we need to go no further than Pikotaro and his ‘pen, pineapple, apple pen‘ YouTube video.
It was amazingly famous for a brief time, and then it was gone.
To prove it, let me ask you, when was the last time you thought about him or his song?
See, that’s a textbook example of a flash in the pan: a thing or person whose sudden but brief success is not repeated or repeatable.
Some of the thinkers may think that the idiom originates from the French cooking practice of flambé, where alcohol is added to a pan and then lit on fire.
I’m so sorry, close but no cigar.
I have to disappoint you.
The term ‘a flash in the pan’ originates from the 1400s and the firing of a matchlock gun, which produced a sudden bright flash followed by darkness.
This is from the days when bullets had to be individually loaded into a gun.
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