1. History

2. Broader usage
    Examples 

3. Related idioms
    Nuke the fridge  Marrying Irving 

4. References

The idiom "jumping the shark" is pejorative, most commonly used in reference to unsuccessful gimmicks for promoting something. It is similar to "past its peak" but more specifically suggests an unwillingness to acknowledge the failing. Originally, the phrase was used to describe an episode of a television comedy with a gimmick or unlikely occurrence desperately attempting to keep viewers' interest. Moments labeled as "jumping the shark" are considered indications that writers have exhausted their focus; that the show has strayed irretrievably from an older and better formula; or that the series as a whole is declining in quality.

Popularized by radio personality Jon Hein in the 1990s and early 2000s, the phrase derives from a scene in a Season 5 episode of the 1970s sitcom Happy Days in which the character Fonzie jumps over a shark while on water-skis.^[2][3][4] This gimmick strayed absurdly outside the original storyline of the sitcom.

The usage of "jump the shark" has subsequently broadened beyond television, indicating the moment when a brand, design, franchise, or creative effort's evolution declines, or when it changes notably in style into something unwelcome.

History

The phrase jump the shark is based on a scene in the fifth season premiere episode of the 1970s American TV series Happy Days titled "Hollywood: Part 3", written by Fred Fox, Jr.,^[5] which aired on September 20, 1977. 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 water ski skills.^[6]

For a show that in its early seasons depicted universally relatable adolescent and family experiences against a backdrop of 1950s nostalgia, this incident marked a tonal change. The lionization of an increasingly superhuman Fonzie, who was initially a supporting character in the series, became the focus of Happy Days. The series continued for seven years after Fonzie's shark-jumping stunt, with a number of changes in cast and situations.^[7]

On Marc Maron's WTF podcast, Ron Howard talked about the first time the phrase was used by Happy Days co-star Donny Most: "Donny's reading it and he kinda looks down, then says 'what do you think of the script?' and I shrugged and replied 'people like the show, it's hard to argue with being number one' and he looked up and said, 'he's jumping a shark now?'. That was the first time I saw that phrase bracketed, before it was even done, you've got to give props to Donny Most."^[8]

The phrase "jumping the shark" was coined in 1985 by Jon Hein's roommate at the University of Michigan, Sean Connolly, when they were talking about favorite television shows that had gone downhill, and the two began identifying other shows where a similar "jump the shark" moment had occurred.^[9][10] Hein described the term as "A defining moment when you know from now on … it's all downhill … it will never be the same."^[5] In 1997, Hein created a website to publish his current list of approximately 200 television shows and his opinions of the moments each "jumped the shark"; the site became popular and grew with additional user-contributed examples.^[5] Hein subsequently wrote two "Jump The Shark" books and later became a regular on The Howard Stern Show around the time he sold his website to Gemstar (owners of TV Guide).

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.^[5]

Fonzie was not the first fictional character to jump a shark on water skis. In the P. G. Wodehouse 1922 novel Right Ho, Jeeves, Bertie Wooster's cousin Angela jumps a shark while water-skiing on the French Riviera.^[11][12]

Since 2017 'The Guardian' newspaper in the UK has published a humorous weekly column in its Saturday listings guide featuring TV programmes that - in the opinion of its journalists - have 'jumped the shark'.

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^[13] and views on rural education policy,^[14] the anomalous pursuit of a company acquisition,^[15] and the decline of republics into degraded democracy and empire.^[16]

Examples

Automotive journalist Dan Neil used the expression to describe the Mini Countryman, a much larger evolution of the previously small cars marketed by Mini. In March 2011, in a review titled "What Part of 'Mini' Did You Not Grasp, BMW?". Neil said the bigger car abandoned the company's design ethos and that "with the Countryman, tiny sharks have been jumped".^[17]

Similar to the example above, automotive blog The Truth About Cars used the expression in a 2010 retrospective piece to describe the Cadillac Cimarron, a rebadged Chevrolet Cavalier the Cadillac luxury car division sold in the 1980s that ended up being a commercial failure which did major damage to the brand's image; "Yes, as if there was ever any doubt, GM truly jumped the shark with the Cimarron, and it led the way for what was GM's most disastrous decade ever, the eighties. Only GM could have such utterly outsized hubris to think it could get away with dressing up a Cavalier and pawning it off as a BMW-fighter, without even touching the engine, among other sins."^[18]

In September 2011, after Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann repeated an anecdote shared with her claiming that the HPV vaccine causes "intellectual disability", radio commentator Rush Limbaugh said, "Michele Bachmann, she might have blown it today. Well, not blown it – she might have jumped the shark today."^[19]

In August 2014, the City Manager of Black Rock City, Nevada described Burning Man, an annual event at nearby Black Rock Desert, as having "jumped the shark", when the 2014 event – which had been previously noted for core values of radical self-expression and self-reliance – featured incongruously posh VIP lounges, cell phone towers, private jets, and "glamping".^[20]

In January 2018, journalist 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.^[21]

Related idioms

Nuke the fridge

In 2008, Time magazine 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."^[22]

The phrase derives from a scene in the fourth Indiana Jones film, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, in which Indiana Jones survives an atomic bomb detonation by fitting himself into a lead-lined refrigerator. The explosion annihilates its surroundings but sends the refrigerator flying sufficiently distant for the protagonist to escape unhurt.^[23] The scene was criticized as being scientifically implausible.^[24]

Within two days of the film's premiere, the phrase "nuke the fridge" had gone viral, describing film scenes that similarly stretched credulity.^[25] Director Steven Spielberg later said the scene was "my silly idea" and was glad to have been part of the pop-culture phrase,^[26] while the film's executive producer George Lucas took similar credit believing that Jones would have had an even chance of surviving the blast.^[23]

Marrying Irving

"Marrying Irving" is an equivalent phrase for comic strips. It derives from the comic strip Cathy, which had focused on an early middle aged bachelorette before author Cathy Guisewite introduced a love interest for the title character. Cathy and Irving married in 2005, changing the dynamic of the strip; it would end its run in 2010.^[27]

References

• Nataliya Naryshkina
• Nataliya Polonska-Vasylenko
• Nataliya Shaposhnikova
• Nataliya Sherstyuk
• Nataliya Sydorenko
• Nataliya Sydorenko Tobias
• Nataliya Tobias
• Nataliya Tsylinskaya
• Nataliya Tymoshkina
• Nataliya Zolotukhina
• Natali Zenonos
• Natalja Mishkutienok
• Natallee Holloway
• Natallia Khoroneko
• Natallia Klimovets
• Natallia Safronava
• Natallia Safronnikava
• Natallia Sazanovich
• Natallia Solohub
• Natallia Tryfanava
• Natallia Tsylinskaya
• Natallie Evans
• Natal Long-Fingered Bat
• Natal long-fingered bat
• Natal Mounted Rifles