Jumping the shark

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For the album by Alex Cameron, see Jumping the Shark (album).
"Jump the shark" redirects here. For the X-Files episode, see Jump the Shark (The X-Files).

Fonzie (Henry Winkler) on water skis, in a scene from the 1977 Happy Days episode "Hollywood: Part 3", after jumping over a shark

The idiom "jumping the shark" or to "jump the shark" means that a creative work or entity has evolved and reached a point in which it has exhausted its core intent and is introducing new ideas that are discordant with or an extreme exaggeration (caricature) of its original theme or purpose. The phrase was coined in 1985 by radio personality Jon Hein in response to a 1977 episode from the fifth season of the American sitcom Happy Days, in which the character of Fonzie (Henry Winkler) jumps over a live shark while on water-skis.

History

Origin

Future radio personality

season 5, episode 3, "Hollywood: Part 3" of the ABC-TV sitcom Happy Days, which was originally broadcast on September 20, 1977.[1] In the episode, the central characters visit Los Angeles, where a water-skiing Fonzie (Henry Winkler) answers a challenge to his bravery by wearing swim trunks and his trademark leather jacket, and jumping over a confined shark. The stunt was created as a way to showcase Winkler's real-life waterskiing skills.[2][3]

In 1997, Hein created a website, JumpTheShark.com, to publish a list of approximately 200 television shows, and his arguments as to the moments each "jumped the shark". The site became popular, and grew with additional user-contributed examples.[4] Hein sold his company, Jump The Shark, Inc., for "over $1 million" in 2006.[5]

Responses

Ron Howard

In 2006, during his contribution to The Interviews: An Oral History of Television, Ron Howard (Richie Cunningham) talked about the Happy Days episode that inspired the phrase:

"I remember

Donny Most and I sitting there, looking at the script. Donny was really upset. He said, 'Oh man look at what our show has kind of devolved into. It's not even very funny, and you know Fonz is jumping over a shark' ... and I kept saying 'Hey Donny we're a hit show, relax. You know it's hard to have great episodes one after another. Fonzie jumping over a shark, it's gonna be funny and great ...' I remember thinking that creatively this was not our greatest episode, but I thought it was a pretty good stunt, and I understood why they wanted to do it. And what I remember the most is, it was fun actually driving the speedboat which I did a bit of, noticing that Henry was really a pretty good water skier ... But the thing that has to be remembered about the jumping the shark idea, is that the show went on to be such a massive success for years after that. So, it's kind of a fun expression, and I get a kick out of the fact that they identified that episode (because granted maybe it was pushing things a little too far), but I think a lot of good work was still done after that show, and audiences seemed to really respond to it."[6]

Fred Fox Jr.

In a 2010 Los Angeles Times article, former Happy Days writer Fred Fox Jr., who wrote the episode that later spawned the phrase, said "Was the [shark jump] episode of Happy Days deserving of its fate? No, it wasn't. All successful shows eventually start to decline, but this was not Happy Days' time." Fox also points not only to the success of that episode ("a huge hit" with over 30 million viewers), but also to the continued popularity of the series.[4]

Henry Winkler

In a 2019 interview with

Barry Zuckerkorn, in the sitcom Arrested Development, hopped over a shark in episode 13 of the second season, Winkler also noted that there "was a book, there was a board game and it is an expression that is still used today ... [and] I'm very proud that I am the only actor, maybe in the world, that has jumped the shark twice—once on Happy Days, and once on Arrested Development."[3]

Others

Some writers have argued that while Happy Days did eventually (figuratively) "jump the shark", it was not during that episode.[7][8]

Broader usage

The idiom has been used to describe a wide variety of situations, such as the state of advertising in the digital video recorder era,[9] and views on rural education policy,[10] the anomalous pursuit of a company acquisition,[11] and the decline of republics into degraded democracy and empire.[12]

Examples

In September 2011, Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann repeated an anecdote claiming that the HPV vaccine causes "intellectual disability"; this prompted political commentator Rush Limbaugh to say on his radio show, "Michele Bachmann, she might have blown it today. Well, not blown it—she might have jumped the shark today."[13]

In January 2018, political commentator Keith Olbermann criticized the inclusion of esports players on the sports journalism website The Players' Tribune, saying that they "have jumped the shark by publishing pieces by snotty random kids playing children's games" in response to an article by Doublelift, a League of Legends player.[14]

In May 2021, CNBC news anchor Carl Quintanilla proposed that Elon Musk had jumped the shark with his advocacy of cryptocurrencies instead of focusing on Tesla, Inc., as it began to lose market share and its stock price began to plunge.[15]

Nuking the fridge

In 2008, Time identified a term modeled after "jump the shark": "nuke the fridge". Specifically applicable to film, the magazine defined the term: "to exhaust a Hollywood franchise with disappointing sequels."[16]

The phrase derives from a scene in the fourth

atomic bomb detonation by fitting himself into a lead-lined refrigerator to shield himself from the explosion. The blast completely annihilates its surroundings but sends the refrigerator flying a sufficient distance away for the protagonist to escape unharmed.[17] The scene was criticized as being scientifically implausible.[18]

Within two days of the film's premiere, the phrase "nuke the fridge" had gone viral, describing film scenes that similarly stretched credulity.[19] Director Steven Spielberg later said the scene was "my silly idea" and was glad to have been part of the pop-culture phrase,[20] while the film's executive producer George Lucas took similar credit believing that Jones would have had an even chance of surviving the explosion.[17]

Growing the beard

"Growing the beard" refers to the opposite of jumping the shark; i.e. when a show dramatically improves in quality.[

first season, growing a mustache and beard that he retained for the second season and most Star Trek media afterwards.[21][22]

References

  1. ^ Glenn, Alan (February 19, 2016). "He's a maniac". Michigan Today. Retrieved May 3, 2022.
  2. ^ a b c d e Gross, Terry (April 11, 2019). "'I Never Had A Plan B': Henry Winkler On His Career, From The Fonz To 'Barry'". NPR. Archived from the original on September 16, 2021. Retrieved September 16, 2021.
  3. ^ a b c Pond, Steve (August 21, 2018). "'Barry' Star Henry Winkler on Why He's 'Very Proud' He Jumped That Shark – Twice (Video)". TheWrap. Archived from the original on September 30, 2021. Retrieved August 30, 2021.
  4. ^ a b Fox, Fred Jr. (September 3, 2010). "First Person: In defense of 'Happy Days' 'Jump the Shark' episode". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on September 15, 2010. Retrieved September 4, 2010.
  5. ^ "MarksFriggin.com—Stern Show News—Archive". www.marksfriggin.com.
  6. Archive of American Television. The Interviews: An Oral History of Television. Archived
    from the original on September 24, 2021. Retrieved September 24, 2021.
  7. ^ Budnik, Daniel (November 18, 2014). "Jumping the Shark and Surviving: A Reappraisal of the Fifth Season of 'Happy Days'". PopMatters. Archived from the original on August 31, 2021. Retrieved August 30, 2021.
  8. ^ When did Happy Days jump the shark? The answer may surprise you ..., Rich Pelley, The Guardian, 1 June 2020
  9. ISBN 9780786734856. Archived
    from the original on September 29, 2021. Retrieved October 18, 2020.
  10. ^ Arnold, Michael L. (2005). "Jump the Shark: A Rejoinder to Howley, Theobald, and Howley" (PDF). Journal of Research in Rural Education. 20 (20). Center on Rural Education and Communities. Archived (PDF) from the original on April 11, 2018. Retrieved July 26, 2016.
  11. ISBN 9780470883433. Archived
    from the original on September 29, 2021. Retrieved October 18, 2020.
  12. ^ "'Live at Wiseacres: America Has Jumped the Shark' videotaped performance By Doug Stanhope". YouTube. YouTube.com. July 31, 2008 [uploaded]. Archived from the original on July 2, 2016. Retrieved November 29, 2016.
  13. ^ Adams, Richard (September 14, 2011). "Michele Bachmann, the HPV vaccine and the Republican landscape". The Guardian. Archived from the original on March 13, 2016. Retrieved December 17, 2016.
  14. ^ Olbermann, Keith [@KeithOlbermann] (January 9, 2018). "Three years in. That's awfully early to have jumped the shark by publishing pieces by snotty random kids playing children's games, @PlayersTribune" (Tweet). Retrieved January 11, 2018 – via Twitter.
  15. ^ Carl Quintanilla [@carlquintanilla] (May 14, 2021). ""Musk might be in danger of turning himself into an unserious figure, which isn't a great narrative for the CEO of one of the world's largest companies." He is on "the wrong end of a nasty correction, and vulnerable to a new narrative that he has 'jumped the shark.'" @johnauthers" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  16. ^ Cloud, John (November 6, 2013). "Top 10 Buzzwords—The Top 10 Everything of 2008". Time. Archived from the original on November 9, 2013. Retrieved November 6, 2013.
  17. ^ a b Curtis, Bryan (January 22, 2012). "George Lucas Is Ready to Roll the Credits". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 21, 2015. Retrieved November 6, 2013.
  18. ^ Locker, Melissa (November 28, 2012). "Indiana Jones' 'Nuke the Fridge' Plot Is, Shockingly, Scientifically Impossible". Time. Archived from the original on November 9, 2013. Retrieved November 6, 2013.
  19. ^ ""Jump the Shark", Meet "Nuke the Fridge"". Newsweek. June 28, 2008. Archived from the original on September 4, 2012. Retrieved November 6, 2013.
  20. Empire. Archived
    from the original on May 12, 2012. Retrieved November 6, 2013.
  21. ^ "Star Trek: Why Commander Riker Grew a Beard for The Next Generation Season 2". CBR. May 12, 2021. Retrieved November 3, 2021.
  22. ^ Gartenberg, Chaim (September 14, 2017). "How Seth MacFarlane could save his terminally bland Star Trek clone The Orville". The Verge. Retrieved November 3, 2021.

Further reading

Look up jump the shark in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
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