dead donkey

Meaning

Noun

• A rarity;
• A news item of no real significance, usually of whimsical or sentimental nature, placed at the end of a news bulletin or in a newspaper as filler. A dead donkey can often be removed from the programme or publication if a more significant story needs extra time or space.
• Something useless on which time or effort is wasted.

Origin

• From the saying that no one ever sees a dead donkey, hence a rarity. This then became a stock example of a slow-news day story, which was popularized by the title of the British sitcom Drop the Dead Donkey. see Wikipedia entry.