# origin of "jumped the shark"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 6, 2007, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-jumped-the-shark/425454 "2007-11-06T19:45:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![fisha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@fisha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fisha)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2007, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-jumped-the-shark/425454/21 "2007-11-08T01:17:22Z")
I think it came from some old TV show. Laverne and Shirley maybe? Joanie loves Chachi? Something like that. Perhaps Lenny and Squiggy did some beach thing. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2007, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-jumped-the-shark/425454/22 "2007-11-08T01:24:52Z")
[QUOTE=CookingWithGas] Didja read post #9? [/QUOTE] Er… no. I just scanned for URLs and didn’t notice that someone had referenced the website without actually linking to it. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2007, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-jumped-the-shark/425454/23 "2007-11-08T01:25:44Z")
I like the phrase. I like how it’s become so widespread, and unofficially official as a way to describe a phenomenon. I think it will be around for a long time yet, maybe for decades. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2007, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-jumped-the-shark/425454/24 "2007-11-08T19:36:14Z")
> [@](#): > > It originally meant the time when a good, long running TV series became bad and unwatchable. Not quite. More precisely, jumping the shark happens some time after the series becomes stale. The shark-jumping is a gimmick that’s used to try to bring back the freshness of the show, by doing something new and different. More often, it’s something like a wedding between two characters who have had a lot of romantic tension over the course of the show. ---
**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2007, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-jumped-the-shark/425454/25 "2007-11-08T19:38:33Z")
[QUOTE=Mangetout] It’s complaints about complaints about over-used catchphrases that bug me the most. [/QUOTE] Yeah, but it’s the third round that really jumps the shark. Tris ---
**Author:** ![muttrox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a8b319/32.png) [@muttrox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muttrox)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2007, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-jumped-the-shark/425454/26 "2007-11-08T21:27:11Z")
[QUOTE=hajario] It’s not an SDMB catch phrase at all. It’s been around for quite a while and predates the Dope. [/QUOTE] No it hasn’t. Happy Days and the “Jump the Shark” episode predates the Dope, the modern phrase “Jumped the Shark” referring to that episode does not. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2007, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-jumped-the-shark/425454/27 "2007-11-08T22:24:02Z")
[QUOTE=muttrox] No it hasn’t. Happy Days and the “Jump the Shark” episode predates the Dope, the modern phrase “Jumped the Shark” referring to that episode does not. [/QUOTE] The phrase began with the website in 1997. This message board started in 1999. ---
**Author:** ![muttrox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a8b319/32.png) [@muttrox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muttrox)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2007, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-jumped-the-shark/425454/28 "2007-11-08T22:58:50Z")
I guess that’s what I get for being nitpicky. You said the Dope, I read it as The Straight Dope, which proclaims in big letters “since 1973”. But you did say SDMB just before that… so never mind! Nitpick retracted. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-jumped-the-shark/425454.md?page=1)