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Jumping the shark

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The infamous moment when Fonzie jumps over a shark while on water skis.

Jumping the shark is a metaphor that has been used by US TV critics and fans since the 1990s to denote the moment when a TV series is deemed to have passed its peak. Once a show has "jumped the shark," fans sense a noticeable decline in quality or feel the show has undergone too many changes to retain its original charm. The phrase was popularized by Jon Hein on his Website jumptheshark.com. It alludes to a scene in the TV series Happy Days when the popular character Fonzie, on water skis, literally jumps over a shark.

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, or they may involve the departure or replacement of a main cast member or character or a significant change in setting. They are generally viewed as a desperate and futile attempt to keep a series fresh in the face of a decline in ratings.

The term has also evolved to describe other areas of pop culture, including movie series, music or acting celebrities, or authors for whom a drastic change was seen as the beginning of the end. These changes are often attempts to attract their fans' waning attention with over-the-top statements or increasingly overt appeals to sex or violence (see circling the drain). As this idiom grows in popularity, it is being broadened to simply describe any decline in quality for the TV series in question, without requiring a significant "jump the shark" moment as justification.

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.

Many have noted the shark episode as the moment when they realized the show was no longer worth watching, considering the scene to be unrealistic and of poor quality, making it impossible to maintain suspension of disbelief. 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. Producer Garry Marshall later admitted that he knew the show had lost something as the crew prepared to shoot the scene. However, as he pointed out in the reunion special that aired on February 3, 2005, 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 use 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. In print, the term first appeared in the May 29, 1998 Jerusalem Post newspaper article "It's All Downhill," written by Jeff Abramowitz.

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

On December 22, 1963, the Bonanza episode "Hoss and the Leprechauns" aired, in which Hoss Cartwright (Dan Blocker) meets a leprechaun. Several viewers have logged on to jumptheshark.com and noted that the phenomenon now known as "jumping the shark" was once called "seeing the leprechaun."

Jumping the shark in episodic media

Archetypal jump-the-shark moments

A "jumping-the-shark" moment is usually specific to what makes a series popular, or to a show's original premise. Common scenes or situations listed below only qualify as "shark-jumping" moments when they cross a line that in retrospect can be cited as a sign of the show's decline. Series can recover from most examples listed below, but the chemistry of the show is usually upset in some significant way.

Just because a moment appears on this list does not necessarily mean that the series it appears in has jumped the shark. Each series is different, and a lot depends on the execution. Also relevant are differences in viewer tastes—what may constitute a shark-jumping moment to one viewer will not necessarily be seen that way by another. Sometimes an episode considered to have "jumped the shark" that is followed by a string of adequate or good episodes may be overlooked as a simple writing slump.

Soap operas will often use several of these ploys repeatedly, yet (perhaps by their very nature) manage to maintain their loyal viewers.

Typical moments may include (but are not limited to) the following:

Format

  • Changing the format of the series' episodes, such as moving from standalone episodes to arc storytelling, or vice-versa (e.g., the final season of Batman, when the series shifted from two-episode stories to single episode stories; later episodes of X-files that focused heavily on a multi-season story arc; the third and fourth season of Star Trek: Enterprise, in which the episodes changed from stand-alones to story arcs that lasted from two episodes to an entire season). It has been argued that Star Trek: Enterprise was the Star Trek franchise itself jumping the shark.

Premise

  • When the key premise of the series is altered (e.g., the shift of Happy Days from standard family-show plots to wacky stunts; the shift of The Munsters from satire to wacky stunts; the shift of M*A*S*H from pure comedy to politically oriented drama).
  • When a key premise of the show is altered, but the producers of the series write the situation so the characters are obliged to interact with one another like before (e.g., on Full House, Jesse continues to live with the Tanner family after marrying Rebecca).
  • A supporting character (or group of characters) plays a disproportionately large role in the series (e.g., Urkel on Family Matters).
  • A show's genre is altered, as when a sitcom starts using sci fi-like plot devices (e.g., time travel, cloning, and virtual reality on Family Matters; or alien invasion), or when a sitcom starts using dramatic themes more often than comedic themes (e.g. Boy Meets World).
  • The show's name is changed (e.g., All in the Family becoming Archie Bunker's Place).

Setting

  • Change in the principal setting of the show, either permanently or as the theme of a series of episodes (e.g., on The Drew Carey Show, when Drew changes jobs and is inexplicably accompanied by his hated assistant Mimi and boss Mr. Wick; on "Perfect Strangers", whose final seasons moved the star duo from their apartment to a house they bought after they married both their sweethearts, on Laverne & Shirley, when all of the main characters move from Milwaukee to Los Angeles; on All in the Family, when the action shifts primarily to happenings at Archie's bar after the series is renamed Archie Bunker's Place; the cast of Coach moving from Minnesota to Florida when Hayden is hired by an NFL team).
  • Loss of a key prop or location (e.g., the final episodes of M*A*S*H and Degrassi High, Arnold's in Happy Days, or The Den in Moesha).
  • When the show is in an academic setting, the main characters graduate and the setting changes from high school to a university (e.g., on Boy Meets World, Cory and his friends all go on to the same college while trying to maintain the same relationships with family and friends; a similar shift took place on Saved by the Bell and Beverly Hills 90210).

Individual episodes

  • A specific episode that irreparably strains the credibility or premise of the series or one of its main characters (e.g., on Battlestar Galactica, it was revealed that the Cylon Imperious Leader was created with the assistance—and even the voice—of Satan himself, with real-live angels flying around the Galactica while Satan was on board). Another memorable example in this category is the "alien episode" ("Missing Hours") on Miami Vice, in which Lou de Long (played by funk legend James Brown) turns out to be an alien leader and starts to mess with Trudy's (Olivia Brown) mind.
  • A female character or cast member becomes pregnant, and eventually gives birth (e.g., Angel, Friends, Murphy Brown and Mad About You). Again, this does not necessarily constitute a shark jump in and of itself; Lucille Ball's pregnancy was worked into I Love Lucy in a realistic and entertaining way.
    • Related: A newborn character becomes an extremely important part of the series (e.g., Dil from Rugrats).
  • A live episode in a show normally taped ahead of time (e.g., Will and Grace). While not a change in the show's premise or a horribly written episode, it might be attempting to call attention to a show that's experiencing a ratings slump.
  • Non-musical cast members featured singing, dancing, etc. A notable exception might be the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer which had a musical episode called "Once More, With Feeling". Intended as a farce, many fans don't regard it as a shark jump, because the episode was a hit.
  • Uncharacteristic use of bizarre surrealism.
  • Main characters have sex after an extended period of sexual tension between them (e.g., Moonlighting, Northern Exposure, Friends, Who's the Boss?, Cheers, Doogie Howser, MD, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Blossom, Smallville). Again, this is often not a shark jump.
  • Main characters marry after a tempestuous courtship (e.g., The Nanny, Get Smart, I Dream of Jeannie, Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman).
  • An episode or story arc in which viewers are led to believe that a momentous occasion such as a marriage is about to occur, only to have the event prove to be a dream or somehow fake. The most notorious example is the Valentine's Day "frog-eating clone" episode of Lois and Clark, in which the two central characters supposedly married, only to have it revealed that Clark had not married Lois but her clone. Viewers had been lied to for weeks ahead of time to expect a genuine marriage; ABC went to some lengths to produce beautiful wedding invitations with Valentine themes.
  • Main characters divorce after a tempestuous marriage (e.g., Lionel Jefferson and Jenny Willis on The Jeffersons).
    • Related: A sudden divorce. That is, after the couple's marriage had shown absolutely no previous signs of being in trouble, and the couple decides to untie the knot after a series of "minor" conflicts (e.g., on Married ... with Children, Steven Rhoades leaves his wife, Marcy, to become a park ranger). This should not be confused with the marriage that suddenly dissolves after the discovery of an affair or revelation of another marriage-destroying secret.
  • The "very special episode," in which a sitcom or drama addresses a serious social issue in a forced or awkward way (such as drug addiction, child abuse, or racism). The sitcom Blossom used this device from the beginning, but it grew troublesome due to the disconnection between the actual episodes and how the network promoted them.
  • The crossover episode with other series (e.g., ER and Third Watch, The Golden Girls and Empty Nest).
  • Use of a plot device which is regarded as a cliché, such as a story involving the evil twin of a main character (e.g., on Knight Rider, when KITT meets his bad-minded "brother" KARR, and Michael Knight faces his evil doppelgänger Garthe Knight).
  • A cliffhanger season finale with a disappointing resolution (e.g., the "shower scene" on Dallas).
  • Sitcom characters start becoming involved on a daily basis with cloak and dagger situations (e.g., a character being accidentally recruited in a counterintelligence service, spying agency, or organized crime task force, or simply found to be a dead ringer for an influential politician or monarch, usually from a non-existent (often European) country, created for the episode).
  • The "Vacation" episodes—including Family Ties sending the Keatons to London and the Barones' Italian getaway on Everybody Loves Raymond. Many ABC sitcoms took trips to Disney World, including Boy Meets World, Family Matters, Roseanne, Step By Step, The George Lopez Show and Full House. ABC is owned by Disney, so these trips were also seen as product placements. It is also worth noting that the "shark jumping" episode of Happy Days was a vacation episode set in Hollywood.
  • Excessive use of the clip show, which provides a retrospective of funny moments previously on the show—often used in conjunction with a change in dynamic (e.g., clip show with excerpts from a couple's courting period when they are due to be married).

Actors

Main cast

Guest stars

  • A special guest star makes an appearance, which often involves someone playing himself or herself or a guest character, usually in one episode. Often, this is a personality who does not normally do television or act (e.g., Boy George on The A-Team; Tony Hawk on CSI: Miami).
  • Increasing frequency of guest stars, more than one per episode. Often they have little or nothing to do with the main plot; they are merely used as a promotional gimmick to attract viewer interest. At times, the guest can be wildly inappropriate for the target demographic, (e.g., Violent Femmes' guest shot on Sabrina the Teenage Witch). The Simpsons' reliance on guest stars in order to spawn plot lines could be viewed as a long-running habit or many small shark jumps.

Ted McGinley

Ted McGinley has been dubbed the "patron saint" of shark jumping by Jon Hein because of the number of series which jumped the shark after he joined the cast. This is a controversial shark jumping category since several of McGinley's shows continued for many more seasons after he joined the cast, most notably Married ... with Children (although the addition of Seven may also be considered the jumping-the-shark moment), The Love Boat and Happy Days (which had already had the shark-jumping episode by the time he joined). Though McGinley himself is not regarded as responsible for a show jumping the shark, he is notable because he frequently served as a replacement actor (itself a jump-the-shark category) on several successful shows, joining late in their runs and continuing with the series as it went into decline.

Some viewers note that the appearance of Alan Alda on a series indicates the show's decline, although not necessarily shark-jumping per se. This mostly refers to his appearances on The West Wing and ER, as those are his only major television credits since his sitcom M*A*S*H ended in 1983. Coincidentally, Ted McGinley appeared in several episodes of The West Wing early in its run—The West Wing is widely considered the exception that proves the rule to McGinley's status.

Characters

Main characters

Villains

  • When very popular villains become more and more sympathetic and altruistic to the point that they're effectively heroes (e.g., Magneto from X-Men: The Animated Series, Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
  • Shows that feature only one primary villain/group of villains suddenly killing off or otherwise neutralizing them and bringing in new villains (e.g., when Cigarette Smoking Man and Alex Krycek were written out of The X-Files, when Lex Luthor dies in Lois & Clark, when the Taelons are replaced by the more openly hostile Atavus on the Sci-Fi series Earth: Final Conflict at the start of the fifth and final season of the show, or when the Goa'uld and Replicators are defeated on Stargate SG-1 only to be replaced with the Ori (although the Goa'uld still maintain a small role). Every season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer featured a "Big Bad," something that is referenced several times in the final season, notably when a shape-shifter becomes the previous six at the end of the season premiere of the last season.

Guest characters

  • The "identical long-lost cousin" syndrome (usually enacted by one of the main cast members in a dual role), such as the Greek "cousins" of Uncle Jesse and Michelle on Full House.

Story arc

Season finale

The last episode or episodes in a season where the producers are unsure if the show will be picked up again can cause the acceleration or closure of long-running story arcs, making it difficult to revive the spirit or feeling of the show when they are picked up for subsequent seasons. Characters can be written out, relationships can end or permanent ones can begin, emotional ties can be severed and secrets can be revealed that forever change the dynamic of the show. When these solidly closed arcs are reopened, reversed or replaced with new story arcs, the show can become unbelievable, stilted or strained, or the show takes on a totally new feel, causing a change in audience.

An example is the second season finale of seaQuest DSV, which sees the crew of seaQuest being transported to another planet, whereby the majority of the crew is killed and the boat is destroyed again (it had been destroyed in the first season finale as well). When the third season begins, the show now takes place ten years later and is renamed seaQuest 2032. Somehow, the crew and the boat are returned to Earth alive and intact and Roy Scheider's Captain Nathan Bridger is replaced with Michael Ironside's Captain Oliver Hudson. The dynamic of the show is completely altered.

Another example is the departure of Aaron Sorkin from his role as executive producer of The West Wing in 2003, at the end of the fourth season. In the fourth season finale, Sorkin had Zoe, the youngest daughter of President Bartlet, abducted by terrorists and held for ransom, which automatically became the dominating plot behind the fifth season. In true heroic fashion, Zoe was rescued and returned unharmed, the whole ordeal never again coming up. Gradually the series drifted towards the election campaign to replace the outgoing president. It was further speculated that Sorkin, who had been in a dispute with the network, intentionally wrote his successors into a corner by reviving a nightmare scenario about which the president once told Zoe in the first season (the resulting fifth season story arc matched the monologue by Martin Sheen almost word for word).

Yet another example is the season seven finale of Stargate SG-1, in which Anubis is killed and Colonel O'Neill is left frozen in the Ancient outpost in Antarctica. In the next season, O'Neill is promoted to Brigadier General, before leaving the SGC to become director of Homeworld Security.

Production

  • A key writer or producer leaves the show, is fired or decreases his or her involvement (e.g., Aaron Sorkin's departure from The West Wing, Larry David's departure from Seinfeld, David Lynch's drifting from Twin Peaks, Jon Kricfalusi being fired from Ren and Stimpy, Reinhold Weege departing from Night Court, series developer Robert Hewitt Wolfe being let go from Andromeda, Tracy Tormé's leaving Sliders, etc).
  • A show switches to color broadcasts if previously shown in black and white. This was most notable for shows broadcast during the 1960s, such as The Beverly Hillbillies and The Andy Griffith Show.
  • In cartoon series, a switch from one method of animation to another. For instance, a switch from traditional methods (hand-drawn, ink-and-paint, edited clips) to computer production, often to cut down on costs or increase production speed (e.g., Dexter's Laboratory, The Powerpuff Girls, Johnny Bravo, and Sealab 2021).
    • Related: An obvious change in animation design (e.g., Batman: The Animated Series after a 3 year hiatus returned with a drastically altered style by the same animators).
  • Change in where the show is produced, usually a move back to Southern California by a show produced somewhere else (e.g., The X-Files relocating from Vancouver to Los Angeles late in the series). This is often seen as a sign that the actors and producers are beginning to tire of a current show and want to be available for other projects.
  • Change in length of episode, usually when a 30-minute show attempts hour-long episodes or vice-versa (e.g., Soap, The Bill and The Twilight Zone).
  • When a show's star begins writing or directing a majority of the episodes, and becomes involved in virtually every aspect of the show. Frequently, the episodes' morals will reflect the beliefs, opinions, etc. of that star (hence, the show becomes "The gospel according to ... "). The most famous occurrence of this was when Alan Alda took control of M*A*S*H.
  • When a high-profile guest writer-director (e.g., Woody Allen, Quentin Tarantino or Hal Prince) is brought onto the show's crew to write or direct one or more episodes. These are usually people from the theater or film industry with a long-standing record of writing or directing critically or commercially acclaimed films and stage productions.
  • When a series is unexpectedly renewed at the last minute after production is concluded, forcing an awkward continuation of the premise (e.g., Babylon 5's creator J. Michael Straczynski feared he would not be able to complete his five-year story arc due to the impending dissolution of its parent, Prime Time Entertainment Network, and the uncertainties of the television syndication market, which led to many storylines being resolved prematurely at the end of season 4; when the series was picked up for a fifth season by cable network TNT, Straczynski relaunched production by withholding the series finale and extending the resolution of the remaining story arcs).

Other

  • A theatrical or straight-to-video movie based on the series runs between seasons (e.g., Hey Arnold, Family Guy, The X-Files, SpongeBob SquarePants, and South Park).
  • A central plot line of the show is resolved (e.g., the solving of Laura Palmer's murder on Twin Peaks, the revelation that extraterrestrials definitely do exist on The X-Files).
  • Change in day or time of air, which affects the commercial pressures on a show (e.g., The King of Queens, Bonanza, Arrested Development, and Star Trek).
  • The producers start to dilute the show's brand with too many spinoffs (as with the case of Love, American Style which, directly or indirectly, spawned a large number of spin-offs including Happy Days and its spin-offs).
  • The show gets into merchandising or its stars start doing ads. However, this was a common practice during the early days of TV, when characters of a show pitched a certain product either as part of the gag or during a commercial.
  • A substantial reduction in the show's budget in a way that is noticeable on screen (e.g., the game show Scrabble during its 1993 run, or the third season of Star Trek).
  • Excessive or obvious use of product placement (e.g., American Dreams during its final season). This was also a fairly common practice during the early days of television.
  • Recycling of old plots, scripts, characters and continuity points from previous seasons (e.g., Bewitched); or versions of the show brought back to sustain/regain viewer interest (e.g., Doctor Who, which during its final years of its original series revived old plots and characters to sequelize previous story arcs).
  • Attempting a forced spin-off by creating an episode centered entirely on unknown characters with only a very loose link to the regular cast in the hopes that they will prove popular and justify having their own show (the shark-jumping aspect is in the forced nature of the episode, not in the spin-off-pilot aspect—the Star Trek episode "Assignment: Earth" was such a pilot, but the show did not jump the shark at that point). An example would be the episode "Goin' Hollywood" from That's So Raven.
  • A sudden leap forward in time, usually a period of years, and at a season finale. (e.g., Season three of Alias)

"Jump the shark" references

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.
  • It has been argued that Buffy the Vampire Slayer's sixth season can be viewed as an extended reference to various shark-jumping moments (including a musical episode, a wedding episode, a major character leaving and a character being killed off); it has also been suggested that the writers really were running out of ideas, although this theory may not fully explain the sheer density of such moments in that season. The presence of the "loan shark" character in the episode immediately following the aforementioned musical has been cited as a self-referential jumping of the shark.
  • That '70s Show had an episode in which Fez imagines jumping over a shark, thinking how cool it would be to be the Fonz, then commenting on how he never really watched the show after that episode.
  • The X-Files episode "Jump the Shark" in the last season (season 9) concluded the roles of The Lone Gunmen in the series by killing them off.
  • 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. (Note: this could be considered a jump-the-shark moment, as it is the only scene in the entire show that takes place off of Ned's school's property.)
  • 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.)

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. This was the second of the six produced episodes, and most of the incidents were in fact entirely new. At one point, 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. Subsequent changes to the show made fans wonder if the writers were trying to tell them something.
  • The Ed, Edd n Eddy episode "The Good Old Ed" is a spoof of the ubiquitous clip show. In the episode, the boys collect items for a time capsule, several of which prompt memories of schemes from previous episodes. However, the only "flashbacks" are to incidents not yet seen on the show, and when Ed tries to flashback (to about ten minutes before in the same episode), Eddy cuts Ed off by hitting him on the head and protesting "I hate clip shows!"
  • 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 one episode of Sealab 2021 Sharko jumps over a pool of Fonzies during a montage.
  • In What's New, Scooby-Doo?, Scooby water-skis over a shark, 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.
  • 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 versions of events, Fonz doesn't make it. The South Park episode "City on the Edge of Forever" 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. Toward the end of the episode they even flashback to previous points in the episode, but again replace tragedy with ice cream in their recollections. After each flashback at least one character always says, "Now that's what I call a sticky situation." (this episode also has a clip of Fonzie jumping over a bus on his motorcycle, crashing into Kenny, then handing out ice cream.)
  • An episode 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.

References on The Simpsons

The Simpsons has referenced jumping the shark in its opening credits, as well as in the following scenes:

  • "Itchy & Scratchy Land", which depicts the family's visit to an amusement park built around Itchy & Scratchy (a cartoon cat and mouse duo based on Tom and Jerry). In one scene, Bart and Lisa visit a gift shop, where they see stuffed toys of the characters "Uncle Ant", "Disgruntled Goat" and "Ku Klux Klam". Bart explains these characters were hastily created to provide a supporting cast for The Itchy & Scratchy and Friends Hour, and subsequently forgotten by most viewers. A pre-JTS reference, The Itchy & Scratchy and Friends Hour spoofed several cartoon shows of the 1970s (including one built around Tom and Jerry), where extra characters are created (usually with little or no thought put in their character development or stories) and introduced for no apparent reason other than to provide "friends" for the main characters.
  • The show built an entire episode around the ill-fated attempt of The Itchy & Scratchy Show to reinvigorate the show by introducing a new character, Poochie, voiced by Homer but so unpopular with the show's fans (the Comic Book Guy introduced the catchphrase "Worst. Episode. Ever.") that he was killed off in his second appearance. The episode abounded with knowing references to how this affects TV shows. In one scene, Lisa complains that it's a sign of TV shows going stale when they suddenly add new characters, and immediately we see a new college-aged man, Roy (who looks suspiciously like Poochie), sitting at the Simpsons' breakfast table and saying "Morning, Mr. S." (a sideways reference to Fonzie, who referred to Mr. Cunningham as "Mr. C") He does nothing during the episode and disappears at the end of the episode claiming that he's moving into an apartment with "two sexy ladies" (a reference to Three's Company).
  • "The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase" (4F20), the series' eighth season finale, which features three pretend spin-off shows starring minor characters, is also mainly a parody of jumping the shark. The show ends with a preview of the new season, which includes magic powers, multiple weddings, lost cousins (all of whom bear a striking resemblance to Bart) and a tiny green space alien named Ozmodiar that only Homer can see. Ozmodiar is a parody of The Great Gazoo, a character introduced in the last season of The Flintstones. They even show a Simpsons Comedy Hour where Lisa is replaced by an older woman (a parody of The Brady Bunch Variety Hour). Ironically, many critics consider this episode itself a "shark jumping" moment for The Simpsons, due to its perceived poor quality and a general change in the series' tone the following season. The Ozmodiar reference is intentionally ironic, since Matt Groening once said that fans would know the series was out of ideas when he introduced a Great Gazoo like character. Ozmodar returned for a brief cameo in the episode HOMЯ.
  • The parody documentary "Behind the Laughter" (BABF19), the Season 11 finale, also spoofs sneak peeks of future episodes, including one with Homer's bold declaration, "The Simpsons are going to Delaware!" This is a joke on the fact that after the family's many contrived vacation destinations, future possibilities have been nearly exhausted (in the season 12 finale, the Simpsons actually do go to Delaware, with Homer, Marge, Bart and Lisa reciting their lines verbatim). This episode itself is closed with Homer reassuring a crew member about the low quality of these various episode ideas with a smug "This is our last season." Of course, it was not (The Simpsons is currently in its 17th season).
  • The 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 (an indirect parody of Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire") in which (apparently) 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". Some of these suggestions are actually happening. In one episode Ozmodiak appears for three seconds, talking to Bart. In one of Homer's daydreams, he sees Marge as a robot (and pretends to be one in a completely whole other episode). In a later episode Homer seeks out a bear for revenge, but ends up taming and befriending it. Also, the crazy wedding could mean Patty Bouvier's fake lesbian wedding in which she thought she was marrying another woman, but it actually was a transvestite.
  • Certain episodes have also been centered around an act of jumping the shark listed above, such as Maude Flanders's sudden death during a sports event, Barney Gumble's change from an alcoholic to a character we rarely see (he has since relapsed), Principal Skinner turning out to be an imposter after the real Seymour Skinner turns up, or when Marge's sister Patty Bouvier suddenly reveals that she is a lesbian in the episode "There's Something About Marrying" (though there have been previous clues, such as her easily-recognized voice on the "closeted" float during Springfield's Gay Pride Parade).
  • The Simpsons has featured four clip shows to date, each parodying the concept to a certain degree. True to the series' frequently self-depreciating humour, these episodes make few attempts to disguise their nature, with titles such as So It's Come to This: A Simpsons Clip Show and Another Simpsons Clip Show. In I Am Furious Yellow (a story that aired the week after one such episode), Bart observes Homer's clumsy antics so he can adapt them into a comic strip. When Homer shows no signs of doing anything funny, Bart pleads "don't make me do a clip show".

Jumping the shark in music

Though the term generally refers to television programs and other kinds of episodic fiction, “jump the shark” has been applied to musical artists. Common reasons are:

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.
  • The phrase "jumping the couch" has recently been coined to describe a celebrity who starts behaving in apparently bizarre ways, alluding to an appearance by Tom Cruise on The Oprah Winfrey Show, in which he energetically jumped on a couch while raving about his new love Katie Holmes.
  • Some terms, such as "crashed into the fried chicken stand" (also based on a Happy Days moment) and "growing the beard" (Riker on Star Trek: The Next Generation) have been coined as an opposite to jumping the shark, when a TV series shows a noticeable increase in quality or begins to take hold in popular culture and becomes a hit.

See also

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