Anyone here a big fan of the original Jump the Shark Web site - the one that described and debated the moments when your favorite shows jumped the shark.
I used to love going to it and seeing all the comments left about, say, the latest appearance of Ted McGinley, or about how Allison and Jake sleeping together ruined such and such show.
I went to it recently, and now it has most definitely jumped the shark. Apparently TV Guide took it over, and now it’s little more than a blog with some TV and celebrity news posted on it. Where’s the serachable database. Where are all the witty comments and forums for debate.
What they hell happened here?
I believe it…
No. I just can’t bring myself to say it.
I almost did, but you shamed into not.
Clearly, Jump the Shark has Nuked the Fridge.
(Guys, the OP already said it…)
-FrL-
The OP has no shame.
Looks like TV Guide bought it and trashed it, for whatever reason. And “Jump the Shark” is a trademark that they now own, so there’s no question of creating another website under that banner.
(I don’t know how trademark works, though. If “Jump the Shark” is trademark, is “Jumped the Shark” also included?)
-FrL-
Indirectly. If a term or phrase closely resembles an established trademark – close enough to cause reasonable confusion or to be unmistakably a ripoff thereof – then its unauthorized use would still constitute infringement. This is admittedly somewhat subjective; however, I am confident that the particular example you gave would be considered infringement.
Man, when the hell did this happen? This blows.
Even though they’ve trademarked the term, isn’t it impossible to trademark a general use term?
Like… trademarking “It’s a hit!” or something?
It’s pretty much the same thing that happened to tvtome: some big company bought it and gutted it for no apparent reason.
Now whenever I mention that site, people go “oh yeah, I haven’t been there in…” and then they remember why, and trail off with a little frown.
The loss of Jump the Shark sucks even worse though. Why would anyone go to that piece of shit website now? Good lord, it just looks like the same entertainment portal bucket-o-links crap I can get from television.aol.com or a dozen other places.
The original site did have some good content but I got tired of reading “first episode” as a suggestion of when a series jumped the shark.
Isn’t it still available on one of those archive sites or something?
What’s going on? I don’t get it… that’s all there is to JtS now? A two sentence description of a category and a bunch of celebrity fluff? Did I miss some part of the site?
I was looking for something else to go on my “most ironic things ever” list, but the loss is pretty profound.
At least tvtome still retains the central concept: episode listings and guides for about every American TV show out there. It doesn’t sound like jumptheshark.com has ANYTHING to do with its previous incarnation at all.
If I had been drinking something it would have been all over my keyboard.
I hereby nominate Nuke the Fridge as the new Jump the Shark phrase of the millennium!
Maybe there’s still time for them to Grow the Beard
Nah, they grew the beard like eight years ago.
Wow, that’s just awful. What a shame…
Joe