[META ALERT] "Jumping the shark"

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Never heard the phrase in this context before.. is "jumping the shark" the same as "going past your heyday(s) and into a modicum of mediocrity"? Or something more specific? or more vague?

― donut christ (donut), Thursday, 20 January 2005 01:15 (twenty-one years ago)

It's the point at which something clearly goes to irredeemable shit. From the episode of Happy Days in which the Fonz water-ski jumps over a shark, I believe.

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Thursday, 20 January 2005 01:21 (twenty-one years ago)

[because up to that point Happy Days had otherwise been a well-scripted, impeccably acted, tour de force of nostalgia-based comic hilarity]

― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 20 January 2005 01:23 (twenty-one years ago)

*boggles* Donut. Seriously. You've NEVER heard this before? I mean, just hanging around with Chris B and I alone should have alerted you to it!

The site that started it all:

http://www.jumptheshark.com/

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 20 January 2005 01:26 (twenty-one years ago)

[because up to that point Happy Days had otherwise been a well-scripted, impeccably acted, tour de force of nostalgia-based comic hilarity]

Hey, I don't make the rules...

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Thursday, 20 January 2005 01:27 (twenty-one years ago)

I know, just makin a funny...

― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 20 January 2005 01:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Led Zeppelin to thread!

― Ken L (Ken L), Thursday, 20 January 2005 01:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh, I read it wrong, you said jumping the shark.

― Ken L (Ken L), Thursday, 20 January 2005 01:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Sorry Shakey, I know what you meant, I was just keeping it going.

Has this thread jumped the shark now?

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Thursday, 20 January 2005 01:31 (twenty-one years ago)

I'd say so.

― Ken L (Ken L), Thursday, 20 January 2005 01:32 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.bundastranky.cz/obr/jeff.jpg

― Pangolino again, Thursday, 20 January 2005 01:33 (twenty-one years ago)

I think we could make a case for "humping the shark" being an entirely separate category - one dedicated to heretofore unheard of heights of debauchery (ie, R. Kelly really humped the shark with that golden showers video)

― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 20 January 2005 01:35 (twenty-one years ago)

"That groupie really humped the shark on Led Zep's first US tour."

― Vic Funk, Thursday, 20 January 2005 01:37 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah the Fonz really jumped the shark when he uh, jumped that shark...

― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 20 January 2005 01:38 (twenty-one years ago)

d'oh... Sorry, I'm a little sleepy, I didn't realise you were making a specific reference, I thought you just changed a letter.

― Vic Funk, Thursday, 20 January 2005 01:40 (twenty-one years ago)

let's see, other great moments in shark-humping:

- Puffy jet-skiing in a fur bathrobe
- Willie Nelson smoking dope on the roof of the White House

― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 20 January 2005 01:42 (twenty-one years ago)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v165/noodle_vague/ts_shark.jpg

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Thursday, 20 January 2005 01:45 (twenty-one years ago)

"Michael Jackson humped the shark so many times his dick got fin-rot."

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Thursday, 20 January 2005 01:46 (twenty-one years ago)

http://dc.indymedia.org/usermedia/image/4/thumb/77150.jpg

― The Mad Puffin, Thursday, 20 January 2005 02:50 (twenty-one years ago)

"Jump the shark" is an annoying phrase which, IMO, jumped the shark the moment it was first used.

― mrjosh (mrjosh), Thursday, 20 January 2005 03:37 (twenty-one years ago)

In 1985?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 20 January 2005 03:38 (twenty-one years ago)

time totally jumped the shark in 1985.

I mean, the David Bowie and Mick Jagger "Dancing In The Streets" video.

― donut christ (donut), Thursday, 20 January 2005 03:50 (twenty-one years ago)

IT WAS ON ALL THE GODDAMN TIME didnt they play it on super bowl even?

― chaki in charge (chaki), Thursday, 20 January 2005 03:51 (twenty-one years ago)

Don't forget the female counterpart! Annie Lennox and Aretha Franklin's "Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves"!

Haaaachachachacha!

― donut christ (donut), Thursday, 20 January 2005 03:58 (twenty-one years ago)

I said this once on another thread:

btw, I think the phrase "jump the shark" finally has itself jumped the shark last week, when Carson Daly told Jennifer Love Hewitt that she "jumped the shark" on that big Carson celebration thingie.

-- Al (hoteloper...), July 24th, 2003.

― Al (sitcom), Thursday, 20 January 2005 04:07 (twenty-one years ago)

talking about the phrase "jump the shark" jumping the shark has really jumped the shark.

etc.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Thursday, 20 January 2005 13:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Lock it now, mod boys and girls.

― Ken L (Ken L), Thursday, 20 January 2005 14:01 (twenty-one years ago)

that site sounds like it means that fonzie jumping the shark was happy days' highest point not the point when it was obvious that it was way past it as I thought it was supposed to mean.

― RJG (RJG), Thursday, 20 January 2005 14:04 (twenty-one years ago)

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