Jumping the shark

Fonzie on water skis, in a scene from the Happy Days episode "Hollywood, Part 3", after jumping over a shark

Jumping the shark is crossing the point at which something that was once popular no longer warrants the attention it previously received, particularly when attempts at publicity only serve to highlight its irrelevance. This is especially applicable to television series or other entertainment outlets.^[1]

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 labelled 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 fifth-season episode of the 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 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]

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]

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".^[21]

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.^[22] The scene was criticized as being scientifically implausible.^[23]

Within two days of the film's premiere, the phrase "nuke the fridge" had gone viral, describing film scenes that similarly stretched credulity.^[24] Director Steven Spielberg later said the scene was "my silly idea" and was glad to have been part of the pop-culture phrase,^[25] while the film's executive producer George Lucas took similar credit believing that Jones would have had an even chance of surviving the blast.^[22]

References

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