If you’ve been on the internet for any decent amount of time and all, and are interested in television, then you are probably aware of the phrase “Jump The Shark”.  Simply put, it’s a phrase that people use who have never been involved in the production of a television show before in their life, but think that they can do it better than they professionals.  It’s a phrase that people use to sound smarter than they are, and to impress other people who try to sound smarter than they are.

Whoa, Hold on there!

Okay, so maybe I’m being a little bit cynical.  And perhaps I should explain the term for those of you who are not familiar with it before I let myself get too cynical, right?  Right!

Back in the 70′s, there was a TV show called “Happy Days”, which I’m sure a lot of you have seen.  The show basically was about the United States’ 1950′s culture, involving motorcycles, soda pop, burgers, and rock & roll.  However, as TV shows tend to do, it gradually changed and continued to evolve, until by the time it was canceled, the show had VERY little to do with it’s original inception, and had seemed to forget it’s roots.

This isn’t anything special, as a lot of shows evolve like this and forget it’s roots.  The special case with Happy Days, however, was that it was fairly easy to pinpoint the exact moment when the show produced an epic “WTF” moment, and fans were able to note a specific episode when the show lost focus.  The episode in question was an episode where one of the main characters, Fonzie, is dared to waterski and jump over a pen with a live shark inside of it.  Thus the phrase, “Jump The Shark” was born as a metaphor for when a show completely loses focus and forgets why people watch it!

Giving Fuel for Fanboys

So in the 90′s, the father of smart-ass fanboys, Jon Hein, started a website called jumptheshark.com, which is now owned by TV Guide, and gave rise to the phrase as a phenomenon.  It’s unbelievable how common the phrase has become nowadays, as I hear it from people who barely even get onto the internet!  It’s always fun to discuss with people about when certain tv shows “jump the shark” because as TV consumers, we gives us satisfaction to feel “smarter” than the people who produce the shows.  It’s a form of feedback, and it’s as if we’re letting people know that we could produce the show better than the producers could.

And like most cute phrases go, “jump the shark” has now spiraled out of control, and is overused to the point of annoyance.  A lot of the smart-ass fanboys who were quick to discuss the phrase years ago have abandoned the phrase now because it has become too “mainstream”.  To these people, it just doesn’t really seem to make them feel smarter when “normal” people are using the same tactic to uplift themselves at the expense of a tv shows integrity.  When the phrase is brought into question, the discussion often ends up about when every TV show that someone has watched has “jumped”.

But Not Every Show Has “Jumped”

This seems to be an issue among smart-ass television fans that they just don’t seem to get.  Not every tv show has “jumped the shark”.  Yes, a lot of tv shows lose sight of the formula that makes it successful, and a lot of tv shows become complacent or run their course.  This however, doesn’t mean that the show has actually “jumped the shark” though.  This just simply means that it’s time for the show to be canceled and to live out it’s legacy in the form of reruns.  “Jumping The Shark” implies some serious numskullery on behalf of the TV writers and producers though.

Personally, I don’t consider it to be “Jumping The Shark” when a television show continues beyond a point where it should have quit.  That’s just my opinion though.  I consider that to be more of a case of “Prolonging the Death” of the show instead.  For example, a lot of people point to TV shows such as “Family Matters”, “Roseanne”, or “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air”, and say that the show “jumped” when a cast member departed and the character was recast.  Yes, this is INCREDIBLY stupid, and it insults the intelligence of the viewer, but it doesn’t classify as “Jumping the shark”.  Want proof?  In the Matrix movie trilogy, the actress who played the Oracle died in between episode 2 and episode 3 and was recast.  Now, that doesn’t mean that The Matrix “Jumped The Shark” with episode 3 does it?  Of course not, because we all know that The Matrix “jumped” with episode 2 anyway!

Another example of a show continuing past it’s stopping point is when cast members depart, and the characters are simply written off, such as “That 70′s Show”, “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” and “Stargate”.  Like I mentioned, I don’t consider this to be “jumping” either.  This is just another case where the show should not continue anymore because the winning formula that involves the successful actors isn’t there anymore, and the show COULD have continued longer if the actors had stayed instead.

And The Ridiculous

Some people take it a step further and muddy the waters completely by saying something insane like a particular show “jumped” on the first episode.  Usually, this is an incredibly smart-ass and pretentious way of saying that they don’t like the series.  If you don’t like a show, that’s fine, but don’t take a completely unrelated phrase and twist it’s meaning to suit your needs.  In reality, just because you state that a show has “jumped the shark”, that doesn’t mean that you don’t like the show.  It simply means that you think the show has lost focus.

I also find it weird that some people think that when a TV show jumps to the big screen, that it also “jumps” at the same time.  This is just silly, because the the only thing that a movie is, is a bigger, bolder version of a TV episode.  Sure, there may be events that transpire in the movie that cause the show to “jump”.  (Rugrats, The Movie, anyone).  However, that doesn’t mean that the movie itself was the cause of the jump.

Go Forth and Spread The Knowledge!

You may have already been aware of this phrase, and then again, you may not have.  If not, then I hope that I was able to teach you a new phrase with a proper introduction so that you don’t misuse it like so many other people already do.  Or, if you already knew it, maybe I was able to convince you to not misuse it in that case.  Either way, let’s bring some purity and innocence back to this once witty phrase, and let’s not let it turn into another example of the word “ironic” which has lost it’s entire meaning due to people misusing the word.  Come to think of it, I guess you can say that the word “ironic” has “jumped the shark” too, can’t you?  D’oh!