water-cooler moment a moment, especially in a television programme, that provokes widespread and animated discussion.
☞ A water cooler is a dispenser of cooled drinking water, especially in an office or other place of work, and the image is of people gathering round it and talking about a particularly memorable passage in the previous evening's television broadcasts.
2009Tim FootmanThe Noughties Multi-channel TV, coupled with online playback, meant that the televisual water cooler moment ('Did you see Seinfeld/Miami Vice/Casualty last night?') was increasingly restricted to live sports events.