Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US) fake, false, banal.

1927		Variety 29 June 31: The makings of a good hokey act.
1938		W. Winchell On Broadway 7 Nov. [synd. col.] Carole Lombard did a very hokey melodrama – pretty dull stuff.
1951		Green & Laurie Show Biz from Vaude to Video 60: The world’s hokiest play, The Old Homestead, was offered again in dead earnest.
1967		M. Williams Jazz Masters 132: Lewis’s hokey act [. . . ] provided Brunis with material for his own later mimicry and burlesque.
1977		C. McFadden Serial 63: His wife was getting it on with that hokey Latin poodle-groomer.
1985		J. Wambaugh Secrets of Harry Bright (1986) 121: See, I started tuning in these hokey Palm Springs stations to listen for old songs.
1990		R. Malan My Traitor’s Heart (1991) 262: His account was improbably cinematic; an episode from [...] a hokey Western.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 383: Folks who live here think it’s hokey to call it Frisco.
1999		Guardian Guide 30 Oct.- 5 Nov. 20: Dune’s hokey drug overtones.
2004		R.G. Barrett Rosa Marie’s Baby (2013) [ebook] ‘Cigarette Blues’ [...] was a bit hokey for Norton’s taste.
2006		J.H. Reid Films Famous [...] & Fantastic 11: A hokey old stage play has been brought up to date with some rather odd elements.
2020		D. Whish-Wilson Shore Leave 40: The white men looked too weak-chinned and hokey.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 115: They wore hokey presidential-seal robes and sipped coffee.