What does “patatús” mean in Spanish?

A patatús is a sudden fainting fit or dizzy spell — the “funny turn” you get from a shock, heat or strong emotion. It’s a colloquial noun, often said half-jokingly: casi me da un patatús (“I nearly passed out”). In the clip a judge lines it up beside comic near-synonyms — telele, soporcio, tramafat — to ask, deadpan, which kind of turn Patricia just had.

The everyday pattern is dar: le dio un patatús (“he had a fainting fit”). Of the judge’s list, patatús and telele are the real, widely-used ones — the others are playful padding. The RAE simply glosses it as desmayo (a faint); one common story traces it to an old sense of pata meaning “fib, pretence,” fitting its faintly theatrical, exaggerated tone. Best kept for casual talk.