Skin In The Gane> jump

[FRITZ JUENGLING]

For quite a while I have wanted to ask the list about this phrase "jump
the shark."  Now would be a good time, I guess.  I had never heard it
until about 3 years ago. I asked one of my classes about it and was
shocked to learn that most of them knew it.  Again, it seems that I was
the last person in the Free World to learn a bit of pop culture. I do
remember when Happy Days ran that episode about 30 years ago, but had no
idea of the phrase.  So, my question is "how many of you know this
before we just started talking about it on this list in the last day or
so?"
BTW, the phrase has now been shortened to 'jumped,' as in 'The Stones
jumped after their Tatoo You album' or 'Sledge Hammer jumped after the
first season.'  It is not limited to TV shows, but can be applied to
just about anything.
Fritz J


It's not just sports, though. A few days ago I heard a radio talker
explain what "jump the shark" means and where it came from. It seems,
based on an episode of "Happy Days" where the Fonz jumps over a shark
as a
publicity stunt, to mean "to begin a decline" (referring to the show,
not
the Fonz). Given the meanings of jump and shark, I had no way of
knowing
this before; I assumed it referred to a rash bit of derring-do, like
Evel
Knievel's jumps over motorcyles. Silly pop-uncultured me.

Marc Sacks
msacks at theworld.com

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org