The term "duck surprise" has been detected in the media industry in the summer of 2003. Usually, the term refers to a Fawlty Towers episode, where Basil Fawlty read the dinner menu for the guests:

Fawlty: Today we have a wonderful duck, it comes in three varieties.
Guest: What are they?
Fawlty: Duck with wine sauce, duck with spring onions and duck surprise
Guest: What's served with the duck surprise
Fawlty: That's a surprise.
Guest: Yes, but tell me, what is the surprise in duck surprise?
Fawlty: Nothing.
Guest: Nothing?
Fawlty: Yes, the duck is served with nothing. That's the surprise.

This term has been used at our newsdesk and other places as a term for how the different goverments promise to deliver something and at the announcement they end up delivering nothing. Like the Colin Powell UN Security Council speech, or the Ken Day promises.

Usage:

1: Have you heard about the prime minister's new speech?
2: No, how is it?
1: It's a duck surprise.

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