Jumping the shark

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The moment when Fonzie jumps over a shark while on water skis in a scene in Happy Days.
The moment when Fonzie jumps over a shark while on water skis in a scene in Happy Days.

Jumping the shark is a colloquialism used by U.S. TV critics and fans to denote the point in a TV series at which the characters or plot veer into a ridiculous, out-of-the-ordinary storyline. Shows that have "jumped the shark" are typically deemed to have passed their peak, since they have undergone too many changes to retain their original appeal, and after this point critical fans often sense a noticeable decline in the show's quality.

The term is an allusion to a scene in a 1977 episode of the TV series Happy Days when the popular character Arthur "Fonzie" Fonzarelli literally jumps over a shark while water skiing. The scene was considered so preposterous that many believed it to be an attempt at reviving the declining ratings of the flagging show. Ironically, not only was Happy Days reflecting the superstardom of real-life shark-jumper Evel Knievel in the episode, but the series was wildly successful in 1977. Happy Days was the second most popular show on television in that year, second only to its spin-off, Laverne & Shirley.

Jump-the-shark moments may be scenes like the one described above that finally convince viewers that the show has fundamentally and permanently strayed from its original premise. In those cases they are viewed as a desperate and futile attempt to keep a series fresh in the face of declining ratings. In other cases the departure or replacement of a main cast member or character or a significant change in setting changes a critical dynamic of the show. These changes are often attempts to attract their fans' waning attention with over-the-top statements or increasingly overt appeals to sex or violence.

The term has also evolved to describe other areas of pop culture including movie series, musicians, actors or authors for whom a drastic change was seen as the beginning of the end or marking the moment the subject is "past its peak." When referring to celebrities, the related term jumping the couch is often used if the moment is a personal act of "going off the deep end".[1][2]

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[edit] Origin

The phrase refers to a scene in a three-part episode of the American TV series, Happy Days, first broadcast on September 20, 1977. In the "Hollywood" episode, Fonzie (Henry Winkler), wearing swim trunks and his trademark leather jacket, jumps over a penned-in shark while water skiing. The shark was the same prop used during the filming of Jaws 2 and Jaws: The Revenge.

Even before "jumping the shark" was employed as a pop culture term, the episode in question was cited many times as an example of what can happen to otherwise high-quality shows when they stay on the air too long in the face of waning interest. The infamous scene was seen by many as betraying the Happy Days' 1950s setting by cashing in on 1970s fads of Evel Knievel[3] and Jaws. Producer Garry Marshall later admitted that he knew the show had lost something as the crew prepared to shoot the scene. As Marshall pointed out in the reunion special that aired on February 3, 2005, however, Happy Days went on to produce approximately 100 more episodes after the "jumping the shark" episode. During the same special, in response to an audience member's question, Marshall introduced the notorious clip and noted how the show had inspired the term.

The first public use[4] of the phrase as a direct metaphor is reported to have been on December 24, 1997, when the jumptheshark.com website was launched by Jon Hein. According to the site, the phrase was first coined by Hein's college roommate, Sean J. Connolly, in 1985. The term first appeared in print in the May 29, 1998, Jerusalem Post newspaper article, "It's All Downhill," written by Jeff Abramowitz.

The phrase has been used more recently outside the realm of popular culture, representing anything that has reached its peak and has turned mediocre. If one thinks a stock or a sports team or a subcultural phenomenon has reached its peak, for example, one can say that it has "jumped the shark."

[edit] "Jump the shark" references

[edit] Sitcom or dramatic series references

  • Arrested Development has a character played by Henry Winkler, who played the Fonz in Happy Days. In the episode "Motherboy XXX", while conversing with other characters on a dock, he remarks, "I missed breakfast, so I’m on my way to Burger King," and then hops over a shark that's in front of his path.
  • That '70s Show had an episode in which Fez imagines jumping over a shark, thinking how cool it would be to be the Fonz. Hyde comments that not only is it the worst idea ever, but that it also was the worst moment in television history. Fez then says he never really watched the show after that episode. In another episode, Eric asks Pastor Dave how cool Jesus is compared to Fonzie, and asks if he can jump over a shark. The series often utilized 1990s points of view rather than reflect the actual 1970s view where the episode was a huge ratings success.
  • Mad TV reenacted a skit in which the infamous "jump the shark" episode was partially redone in mock Spanish, featuring dialogue such as Laverne saying "Aww, Shirl, Fonzie es jumpo el sharko!"
  • The Canadian black comedy Made in Canada (titled The Industry elsewhere) had an episode entitled "Beaver Creek Jumps the Shark", where it becomes obvious to the characters that the lead show that they produce (Beaver Creek) has jumped the shark, and several of the main characters reminisce about how their own lives did the same. It would be the fifth-to-last episode of the series to air.
  • An episode of Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide featured Loomer and Cookie in a competition where they had to use ramps to jump over a pool full of sharks on a bike. Cookie decided not to do it, and Loomer attempted to do it and failed. Mat Hoffman then successfully jumped the sharks.
  • The production logo at the end of the credits for the TV show Stargate Atlantis features a shark riding a tricycle jumping over a typewriter and getting hit by a falling anvil. (Falling anvils are another television-themed metaphor used to describe excessively heavy-handed writing.[citation needed])
  • In the 200th episode of Stargate SG-1, after receiving an idea to shoot a movie entirely with puppets, Martin Lloyd (the director of the movie) says "That'll work, a whole movie made with puppets… Maybe we can have puppet O'Neill jump over a puppet shark on a 1/3-scale motorcycle." O'Neill was played by Richard Dean Anderson, who played MacGyver, which was produced by Henry Winkler.
  • When Ralf Little was unavailable to star in the seventh series of the British sitcom Two Pints of Lager & a Packet of Crisps, main character Jonny Keogh was killed off in an accident while jumping over a shark in Hawaii. This occurred off-screen during a special live episode entitled "When Jonny Met Sharky". The phrase "jump the shark" is frequently used throughout the episode as a deliberate in-joke.
  • A sketch at the beginning of Reno 911!'s fifth season premiere features Lt. Jim Dangle attempting to jump over a small leopard shark. In the background, a banner can be seen which reads "Jumping the shark for autism" However, Dangle fails to actually jump the shark and instead crashes face-first into the aquarium, insinuating that the show has not yet jumped the shark despite having a (gay) marriage and a child birth as cliffhangers in the previous season's finale. The insinuation was backed up when both were effectively resolved in the fifth season's first episode when the gay marriage was deemed illegal and the baby was sold to a yuppie couple from Lake Tahoe.
  • The CSI: Crime Scene Investigation episode Two And a Half Deaths, contains a scene in which Det. Captain Jim Brass tries to explain to Gil Grissom the meaning of the phrase jump the shark. Gil Grissom appears not to understand who Fonzie is and Brass gives up on the explanation.[5]This episode was written by the creators of Two and a Half Men, Chuck Lorre and Lee Aronsohn in the style of a sitcom rather than a police procedural drama. It featured a number of bizarre plot twists and comic elements. Several people have commented [6] that this show may itself have been jumping the shark. In explicitly mentioning jumping the shark they appear to have "gone meta".
  • "The X-Files" aired an episode in 2002 entitled "Jump the Shark" during its ninth and final season. It resolved the storyline regarding "The Lone Gunmen" (three recurring conspiracy theorists) when all three sacrificed their lives to save the country from a bioterrorist.
  • Super Mario World episode "Ghosts 'R' Us" many fans believe that when the show introduce a character called oogtar the show was more annoying and corny due to his appearances.

[edit] Cartoon references

  • Clerks: The Animated Series featured a clip show episode consisting almost entirely of its four main characters reminiscing about previous incidents from the series. At one point in the episode, the characters reminisce about their favorite Happy Days episodes, the shark-jumping episode among them.
  • Dora the Explorer began its 2003 season with an episode in which the title character literally jumped a shark.
  • In an episode of The Emperor's New School Kronk becomes a TV star as part of one of Izma's plans. The whole town becomes mesmerized by Kronk's various shows. Kuzco becomes jealous and eventually joins Kronk to do a variety show. Unfortunately, no one likes the show and they all throw out their TVs. As two palace guards throw their TV off a cliff, one of them comments, "They really jumped a llama."
  • In the Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends episode "Sweet Stench of Success", Bloo gets a job as "Deo", a spokesperson for deodorant, which leads to a job on a sitcom titled What's The Big Deo?, and at the end of the pilot episode of this show within a show, there is an announcement saying "Tune in next week when Deo jumps a shark."
  • In the beginning of the Kim Possible episode "Ill Suited", Ron Stoppable calls Kim, waking her up to ask her if they were really dating after he had a nightmare involving their first kiss (from the end of the animated TV-movie So The Drama, which was at the time the series finale until the series' popularity brought forth one more (the fourth) season). Later in the end credit scene, Ron calls Kim (and wakes her up) again and mentions several different dreams he had, including one of Kim ski-jumping over sharks.
  • In one episode of Sealab 2021 Sharko jumps over a pool of Fonzies during a montage.
  • In What's New, Scooby-Doo?, Scooby and Shaggy are on a remote-controlled motorcycle and jump over a tank of sharks, following which Velma says, "I never thought Scooby-Doo would jump the shark."
  • The Fairly OddParents had a music video on the DVD movie Channel Chasers called "If I Lived In TV" which featured Timmy Turner waterskiing with Fonzie, in which they eventually jump over a shark.
Homer Simpson jumping over a shark in a satirical tribute to Fonzie.
Homer Simpson jumping over a shark in a satirical tribute to Fonzie.
  • The South Park episode Probably begins with a "Previously on South Park" segment, in which interspliced with actual clips are cartoonized scenes of Fonzie about to jump over a shark. In the South Park version of events, Fonz doesn't make it. The South Park episode City on the Edge of Forever, which also spoofs the ubiquitous clip show by showing clips from earlier episodes but altering them such that each one ends happily with the children receiving ice cream, includes a clip of Fonzie jumping over a bus on his motorcycle, crashing into Kenny, then handing out ice cream.
  • The episode 257–494 which began Season 4 of Teen Titans had Robin jump a shark while on skis. This same episode spoofed countless television shows and movies.
  • In an episode of Bonus Stage, Joel Dawson says, "Phil, come look, we're about to travel over Sharkworld, I'm surprised we haven't done this already." In a later episode, Joel repeats the gag by saying "There are some sharks I refuse to jump."
  • An episode of Drawn Together entitled A Very Special Drawn Together Afterschool Special parodies very special episodes. At one point, silhouetted figures inside a bar can be seen while a shark hovers overhead, implying that shows which do very special episodes jump the shark.
  • The Simpsons clip show Gump Roast (DABF12) ends with many jumping-the-shark allusions, including a shot of Homer water skiing over a shark. It includes a song in which Matt Groening and his staff answer to fans worried over comments he made that he was running out of ideas, saying "Have no fears, we got stories for years." They then give examples of supposedly upcoming episode premises such as Marge becoming a robot, Bart owning a bear, Moe getting a cell phone, and "a crazy wedding where something happens".
  • A Couch Gag on The Simpsons has the Simpsons jumping over a group of sharks on to their couch, while they are succesfull it is only somewhat, as the sharks are shown chewing on body parts which are missing from the Simpson family members.

[edit] Jumping the shark in legal academia

  • The 2007 supplement to Modern Criminal Procedure 11th ed. by Kamisar, LaFave, Israel, and King (a leading law school casebook) refers to "jumping the shark" in the context of the Supreme Court's increasing willingness to permit suspicionless searches. In a 2006 case, the Court held that parolees inherently have fewer expectations of privacy as a condition of their release, so police officers may stop and search parolees without any prior justification. Samson v. California, 126 S. Ct. ). In a note following Samson in the 2007 supplement, the casebook authors quote an Internet blog hypothesizing that state legislatures might attempt to apply Samson to convicted sex offenders as well:

"Given the ongoing sex offender mania and its premise of permanent recidivism as the basis for lifetime registries and prohibitions on residence and occupation and such, one wonders whether some activist legislature will now jump the shark and propose extending Samson to a lifetime forfeiture of Fourth Amendment protection for convicted sex offenders, even after the terms of the parole has ended." 2007 supplement to Modern Criminal Procedure 11th ed. (quoting [7]).

[edit] Term used in other contexts

and King of Queens jumped the shark the first minute.
I can't believe Richard Simmons ain't in it!
  • In a posting[8] on the political blog the Daily Kos, James Carville is claimed to have "jumped the shark" by labeling Bill Richardson a Judas for endorsing Barack Obama after allegedly promising to do otherwise to certain high-end Democratic Party donors whom Carville named publicly. In the same posting, the Hillary Clinton campaign is also said to have done the same.
  • In a posting[9] on the political blog TalkingPointsMemo, Josh Marshall characterizes the Clinton campaign as having "descended into something like an all-night shark hop."
  • In her blog on the Huffington Post, writer Thelma Adams titled a review (of the newly released film with the characters from the old tv series) "Sex in the City Jumps the Shark," and that "Call Sea World: Sex and the City has jumped the shark. Since the HBO series exited with tears and orgasms in 2004, we've all moved on even if Carrie, Miranda, Samantha and Charlotte haven't."[10]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ 'Jump the couch' is top gun of slang in '05.
  2. ^ Language Monitor The Top Ten Phrases of 2005.
  3. ^ Erin Fox's Blog in Jump The Shark
  4. ^ Frequently Asked Questions (Faq) & Help Jump The Shark
  5. ^ [1]
  6. ^ [2]
  7. ^ [3]
  8. ^ "James Carville Has Jumped The Shark"
  9. ^ "Breaking Free"
  10. ^ Thelma Adams, "Sex in the City Jumps the Shark," Huffington Post, May 28, 2008.

[edit] External links