The Gerf Effect refers to the phenomenon that causes conversations to abruptly freeze after someone makes a particularly confusing, awkward, or downright ridonculetarded statement. It is named after its "founder," Gerf, who has an uncanny ability to kill an otherwise healthy conversation by interjecting with something dumb. Oftentimes, the person who creates the Gerf Effect will try and "rescue" the conversation, but usually that just makes the train wreck even worse.
