Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Fonzie Jumps the Shark

Coming up a little dry for blog ideas at the moment. Truly, bone dry. Nothing I've found is blogworthy. I've jumped the shark.

OK, that's just a reach for the phrase. "Jumping the Shark" is the moment when a TV show hits a point of no return, and begins to die. Usually very, very slowly. You've probably heard it used out of context, since it has sort of become part of the lexicon. But if you're not in the know, you probably have scratched your head wondering what it means.

The phrase was born from an episode of Happy Days, at the height of Evel Knievel motorcycle jumping stunts (and Jaws). Fonzie had already jumped a few different things as an homage (rip-off) of Knievel's stunts. But in one special "whole cast goes on vacation to the beach" episode, The Fonz actually jumped a shark while on water skis! It was a supremely stupid stunt, ranking right up there with Batman and his "Bat Shark Repellent." And all of this is just a way for me to post the actual video from the episode. So here you go.



The website that made the phrase famous had a fantastic catalog of most major shows' "Jump the Shark" moments that was a lot of fun to read. You could lose a lot of time there like you can now at IMDB.com or at Wikipedia. But alas, the site has jumped the shark too. It was acquired by TV Guide, and is now a shadow of its former self. Still there may be some fun to be had at: JumpTheShark.com

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