Ok, so I’ve been lurking for a while and have figured out most of the SDMB’s catchphrases, but I don’t get this one.
Where did this come from?
It’s not an SDMB catch phrase at all. It’s been around for quite a while and predates the Dope.
It originally meant the time when a good, long running TV series became bad and unwatchable.
The source is from the show Happy Days. The character Fonzie does a daredevil feat where he jumps over a shark tank on water skis. That was the beginning of the end for people who were fans of the show.
From Happy Days, in an episode where the Fonz jumped over a shark while waterskiing. It alludes to the moment where the fans can tell that something has been kept around well past its shelf life.
The phrase itself has, ironically, ‘jumped the shark’.
Not half as annoying as complaining about over-used catchphrases.
Thanks! I never heard it outside of the SDMB, so I just assumed it was from here.
I dont think its so much overused as used prematurely, because its become a status thing to be the first person to call it for a particular phenomenon, to show how hip and happening you are as a person that you know when something is out of fashion.
Otara
Maybe part of the reason that particular scene in that particular episode became what Waugh would call a “needlehook of experience”, was that the Fonz performed this stunt in his trademark leather jacket, paired with the short swimtrunks of the era. The idea of somebody waterskiing in a leather jacket was just – weird, you know?
If you go to the JumpTheShark website they list hundreds of TV shows and everybody can weigh in on where they think that show jumped the shark. For Happy Days one person wrote, “What is the name of this website”? Forthright and amusing.
Its not even a very accurate catchphrase. Happy days jumped the shark long before the jumping episode
It’s complaints about complaints about over-used catchphrases that bug me the most.
A thread about jumping the shark would not be complete with the honorable mention to Ted McGinley, the Patron Saint of shark jumping.
Considering that the shark was jumped at the beginning of the fourth of the series’ ten seasons, it couldn’t have been that much before.
This thread ‘jumped the shark’ around post #4.
We recently did a thread called: When will “Jump the Shark” Jump the shark?
:mad:
And no one has mentioned the episode of Arrested Development that had Henry Winkler jump over a shark on his way to Burger King?
To the best of my knowledge, this site is the origin of the phrase. And I can’t believe this is post #18 and nobody has mentioned it yet.
Even more specifically, John Hein is the originator of the phrase. Well actually, his college roommate actually coined the phrase. John Hein started the web site, which he later sold to TV Guide for a bunch of money.
Didja read post #9?