Jumping the Shark
The origin of this memey phrase – along with "Nuking the Fridge" and "Growing the Beard"
The phrase “jump the shark” originated from a specific moment in an episode of the longrunning American TV sitcom Happy Days (season 5, episode 3, originally broadcast on 20 September 1977) wherein the central characters visit Los Angeles, and a water-skiing Fonzie (played by Henry Winkler) answers a challenge to his bravery by wearing swim shorts and his trademark leather jacket, and jumping over a confined shark. [Ed: Are you old enough to know what we are talking about here?]
Vanity played a role. The stunt was created as a way to showcase Winkler’s real-life waterskiing skills, but the scene was widely seen as a desperate act to keep the show fresh, marking the moment when Happy Days began declining in quality.
The term gained traction in the late 1990s after radio personality Jon Hein popularised it on his website JumpTheShark.com, which cataloged TV shows that had peaked and were now in decline.
Comparable to “Jumping the Shark” is the phrase “Nuking the Fridge”, a reference to the film Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), where Indy (played by Harrison Ford) survives a nuclear blast by hiding inside a lead-lined refrigerator. Fans saw this as an absurd, credibility-breaking moment, similar to Fonzie’s jump, and Time magazine defined the term: “to exhaust a Hollywood franchise with disappointing sequels”.
Eventually, the phrase expanded beyond film and television to describe any moment when a person, brand or trend takes a gimmicky, over-the-top turn, signalling its decline. Ultimately, “jumping the shark” is about the moment something stops being fresh and starts feeling desperate.
Away from the world of entertainment, in May 2021, CNBC news anchor Carl Quintanilla proposed that Elon Musk had “jumped the shark” with his advocacy of cryptocurrencies instead of focusing on Tesla, Inc., as it began to lose market share and stockmarket value.
Finally, and interestingly, although not nearly as well known, “Growing the Beard” refers to the opposite of jumping the shark, i.e. when a show dramatically improves in quality. In the series Star Trek: The Next Generation the second season is considered to be better in terms of storytelling than the first season. This shift coincided with character William Riker, who was clean-shaven for the first season, growing a moustache and beard that he retained for the second season and beyond. [Ed: Now, can you see what REMORANDOM is teaching you?]
Can you think of a brand, product or trend that feels as though it may have jumped the shark? The Segway [RR3:72]? WeWork? NFTs? VR Headsets? The COVID-inspired bumping elbows greeting?
REMORANDOM Chapter
