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Henry Winkler, as Fonzie, preparing to jump over a shark while on water skis, in a scene in the Happy Days installment "Hollywood, Part Three Of Three."
Jumping the shark is a colloquialism used by TVcritics and fans to denote that point in a TV show or movie series' history where the plot veers off into absurd story lines or out-of-the-ordinary characterizations, particularly for a show with falling ratings apparently becoming more desperate to draw viewers in. In the process of undergoing these changes, the TV or movie series loses its original appeal. Shows that have "jumped the shark" are typically deemed to have passed their peak.
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 third of the three parts of the "Hollywood" episode, Fonzie (Henry Winkler), wearing swim trunks and his trademark leather jacket, jumps over a penned-in shark while water skiing.
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 Happy Days' 1950s setting by cashing in on the 1970s fads of Evel Knievel[1] 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[2] of the phrase as a direct metaphor is reported to have been on December 24, 1997, when the jumptheshark.com website was launched by Jonathan M. 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 April 9, 1998, Los Angeles Times Calendar Weekend section.
The phrase has been used more recently outside the realm of popular culture, representing anything that has reached its peak and has declined in quality. 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." The phrase can also be used for whenever a entertainment company, or business makes a grave mistake, therefore rapidly loses ratings, fans, becomes bankrupt, or sold.
Common methods of jumping the shark
The "Jump the Shark" web site lists 18 categories fans may use to tag shows, signifying the moment at which the show jumped. The categories include:
Same Character, Different Actor, generally caused by the departure of an unsatisfied actor.
They did it, in which two main characters have sex, particularly if their sexual tension was deemed part of the show's appeal.
Moving the main characters from their familiar surroundings to a new setting, such as a new home or even a new town. Note: While the television show Northern Exposure suffered from the 'moving' of Dr. Joel Fleischman (played by Rob Morrow) it was in fact the introduction of Dr. Philip Capra (played by Paul Provenza) which stands as the true shark jumping moment for this series. (see below for 'New Kid in Town' method of shark jumping.)
Special guest star
A very special …: the very special episode, describing a situation comedy episode that either deals with a serious or controversial social issue or is unusually dramatic in some way.
New kid in town, or Cousin Oliver syndrome (in reference to the character on The Brady Bunch), when a new character (often, a young child) is added to the cast, in response to former child actors who have entered adolescence or adulthood, and/or to revive falling ratings.
Birth, when a new baby is added to a show's cast (and often unnaturally aged to a preschooler the season following the birth), sometimes to accommodate an actress's real-life pregnancy but usually for the same reasons a New kid in town might otherwise be brought in.
Another category, entitled simply Ted McGinley, usually includes any show that has featured McGinley in the cast. He has joined the casts of several popular shows after their zenith (The Love Boat,Happy Days,Married...With Children,The West Wing,...), leading to the title as the "Patron Saint of Shark Jumping." Other shows, on which McGinley appeared from the start, have (in most instances) been critically panned and/or canceled quickly.
"Jumping the shark" references
Sitcom or dramatic series references
Arrested Development character Barry Zuckercorn, played by Henry Winkler, who played the Fonz in Happy Days, literally jumps a shark in the episode "Motherboy XXX," while conversing with other characters on a dock, remarks, "I missed breakfast, so I’m on my way to Burger King," and then hops over a shark that's in 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.
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.
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 starred in MacGyver, which was produced by Henry Winkler.
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." However, Grissom appears not to understand who Fonzie is and Brass gives up on the explanation.[3]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 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.
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, after 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.
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.
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." Whenever or not The Simpsons has indeed jumped the shark is frequently disputed on the "Jump The Shark" website, despite the show remaining a consistent place-holder in the "never jumped" catergory.
A couch gag on The Simpsons has the Simpsons jumping over a group of sharks on to their couch - with only partial success, as the sharks are shown chewing on body parts which are missing from the Simpson family members.
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 [4]).
Term used in other contexts
The computer game Jumpman Zero has a level titled jump the shark, which requires the player to do just that.
The 2004book, America (the Book): a Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction, by Jon Stewart and the writers of The Daily Show, by featuring a caption regarding the 2000 elections, in which the entire news media, led by Fox News, was said to "jump the shark" by prematurely predicting George W. Bush the winner, playing on the similarity between "jump the shark" and "jump the gun:" not only did the American news media come to a premature conclusion about the election, they "jumped the shark" in that they lost all credibility with the public.
In the game Hallrunner at Videlectrix.com (a video game company set up by the creators of Homestar Runner), the player will come upon various different objects with the choice to either "talk," "fight," or "jump" them. Using the "jump" action when encountering a shark, the response is "You jump the shark. Just like Homestarrunner.com. *0 points*"
Nuking the fridge is a colloquialism/meme with a meaning similar to jumping the shark. It is used to denote the point in a movie or movie series (usually one with a pre-established tone of only semi-seriousness) at which either the characters or the plot veer into an over-the-top level of the ridiculous or the incredible, thus leaving one feeling alienated from the film or series, due to the breaking of suspension of disbelief. A series that "nukes the fridge" is typically deemed to have passed its peak, changing the tone of the series so far that viewers see it as having fundamentally and permanently strayed from its original premise. After this point in the filmmakers' attempt to keep the story fresh, critical fans often sense a noticeable decline in quality.
The term is an allusion to a scene in the film Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull of the Indiana Jones franchise, first released worldwide on May 22, 2008. In this scene, the title character is literally hit by the blast of a nuclear weapon while hiding inside a lead-lined refrigerator in a desperate attempt at survival. The fridge is hurled a great distance through the sky, while the remaining structures surrounding it are obliterated, and tumbles hard to the ground, whereupon a relatively uninjured Indy emerges to witness the mushroom cloud miles away.
Some film critics and fans of the series found the absurdity of this event disappointing and reflective of the decreasing quality of the series. They then created the term "nuking the fridge."
