When clothes, a room, a film, or a show is campy, it is extra on purpose: very bright, very strange, very theatrical. Think huge wigs, gold everything, a jacket so sparkly it is almost a joke. The word comes from camp, a style of exaggeration and play-acting — not from tents. People use it with a smile (I love how campy this is) or as a light tease (that's a bit campy). It is informal, at home in fashion, film, and queer culture, not in a careful school essay. Though actually, the tidy idea “strange and bright” misses a piece: campy often knows it looks ridiculous, and that is part of the fun. People also stretch it for anything merely loud or odd, even when nobody is in on the joke.