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alternative title(s): Jump The Shark; Jumped The Shark; Shark Jump; Jumps The Shark
 | Please don't list this on a work's page as a trope.
Examples can go on the work's YMMV tab. | |
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The distinctive pattern formed by the decline in a show's quality often becomes noticeable only in hindsight. "Renegade 3 didn't so much jump the shark as repeatedly jump up and down on the shark, whilst screaming, 'Look at me, I'm Mr. Jumpy-Sharko.'" — Stuart Ashen, Terrible Old Games You've Probably Never Heard Of, "Renegade 3: The Final Chapter"
Jumping The Shark is the moment when an established show changes in a significant manner in an attempt to stay fresh. Ironically, that moment makes the viewers realize that the show has finally run out of ideas. It has reached its peak, it will never be the same again, and from now on it's all downhill.
Some examples of clues which may indicate that a show's made the "jump":
Cast Changes
Character Development
Plot Development
- The show's premise is radically altered, such as having the characters change careers or move to a new location.
- Conversely, the show (which is supposedly based on a coherent story arc rather than a series of episodic events) drags on too long without any sort of progress or resolution. May be the result of too much filler or overreliance on Failure Is the Only Option. If the plot is based on a Myth Arc, dragging it out too long or piling plot thread upon plot thread without resolution may lead to fans getting the impression that the writers are just making it up as they go along and subsequently tuning out.
- The show experiences Mood Whiplash in an unbelievable manner - typically a result of Executive Meddling wanting to make the show Darker and Edgier or Lighter and Softer. A jarring rise in the Sliding Scale of Villain Threat, unless it is written well and\or used for comedic purposes. For example, a Big Bad trying to take over the local 7-11 is usurped by one bent on destroying the galaxy.
- One of the writers puts too much of himself into the show, to its detriment. He may use it as a pulpit to preach his personal beliefs in a heavy-handed manner, or to display personal kinks which Squick the audience out. Common results include Author Filibuster, drastically increased sightings of Strawman Politicals, and Going Cosmic.
- A baby is added to an otherwise-adult show where ill-suited addition of childish themes and endless babytalk from characters who were once-intelligent speaking adults fatally alters the character dynamic.
- The plot is resolved with one too many plot twists which are inconsistent with the overall narrative, poorly executed, or are just plain stupid, turning the audience away.
- A show's Crowning Moment of Awesome—in the sense that the show never lives up to said moment again, despite trying.
Gimmicks
Too many shark-jumping moments in a row can spell Seasonal Rot.
This expression originates from the episode of Happy Days in which Fonzie, dressed in his trademark leather jacket, literally jumps over a shark on water-skis during an episode shot on location.
Gary Marshall tirelessly reminds us that Happy Days went on for a number of years after the original shark-jump, misunderstanding a phrase that judges suckiness, not success. Henry Winkler has elsewhere commented that he's happy with the popularity of the phrase, as its usage in a magazine is often accompanied by a photo of him during a time in his life when he had great legs. The writer of Happy Days episode has also written in the moment's defense . (Interestingly, the majority of the examples/criteria listed above involving some sort of ongoing/permanent change to a series outnumber those related to a single moment, such as Fonzie's shark jump.)
Contrast Growing the Beard, Win The Crowd. For a related phenomenon, see Franchise Original Sin. When it's whole networks instead of just shows, see Network Decay, and Magazine Decay for print magazines.
When the people start claiming something is a shark jumping moment immediately after it happens, see Ruined FOREVER.
JumpTheShark.com used to be run by writer Jon Hein (who now works as part of The Howard Stern Show), who coined the term with his friends in the mid-1980's. Maintained an ongoing list of series killing moments (granted, you could vote for every cause, and shows commonly had "Day One" as an option). The website lists actor Ted McGinley as their "patron saint", for he has the most television roles in which series slowly died off after his first appearance. The longest-lasting show with Ted in a starring role was Married... with Children, where he went for seven seasons after replacing David Garrison (Steve Rhoades). Ironically, the site itself jumped the shark in January 2009, when it was merged into the TV Guide website, had its content removed along with the voting system, and became a blog by writer Erin Fox ( BoneTheFish.com is one website that bills itself as a successor to the "old" JumpTheShark.com).
There is some evidence that jumping the shark has no real effect on a show's success. This depends on one's definition; a strict shark-jump by definition sets the tone that eventually causes viewers to stop watching, the softer definition used in the article walks the line between this trope and Ruined Forever. Take the Trope Namer, Happy Days: the moment happened in season 5, viewers stuck around for one more season, then got sick of the show's new tone (which, in hindsight, started with Fonzie jumping the shark) and left. In the original case, the moment was less "Ruined FOREVER" and more "I hope they don't do more of that" (which they did).
Has nothing to do with the Discovery Channel's Shark Week Air Jaws specials, or tales of people actually riding them.
There are really too many to list here, and it is probably the most subjective article we have, so we are not listing any examples, i.e. making our own shark-jump assertions. It is guaranteed that any show of sufficient length (more than two or three seasons) will vary in quality and thus all it does is start arguments. This page lists overt lampshades of the phrase instead, preferably self-deprecating ones.
References
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Comic Books
- Knights of the Dinner Table #151 is titled "Jump The Shark". It features Gary Jackson coming back from the dead. On their back page jokes section many issues back, normally consisting of fan submitted jokes, they themselves put together a list of examples of what would be jumping the shark for their comic and the above example was included on the list of possibilities. According to the writers though, the plans to bring Gary Jackson back were in the works before this list was published, making this a Take That Me. Now we'll have to see if the UST between Brian and Sara is resolved (if it's even a two way street).
Fan Fics
- In Light And Dark The Adventures Of Dark Yagami, this is referenced and lampshaded during a boat chase. "They did a bunch of jumps over a wall and a cruise boat but missed some sharks and didn't jump them (ITS AN INTERNET THINGY)".
Live-Action TV
- In the Arrested Development episode "Motherboy XXX", Barry Zuckercorn (played by Henry Winkler, Fonzie himself) visits Buster on a dock, where his hand has been eaten by a seal. On his way to make a Product Placement for Burger King, he is forced to physically jump over the shark.
- Stargate SG-1: In the self-referential 200th episode, Marty responds to the suggestion of doing the Wormhole X-Treme! movie with Thunderbirds-style puppets by sarcastically suggesting that they have Puppet O'Neill jump over a puppet shark on a scale motorcycle.
- 30 Rock: in the episode "The One With the Cast of Night Court", Jenna Maroney was blamed by Harry Anderson, Markie Post, and Charles Johnson for making Night Court "jump the shark" for her three part episode as werewolf lawyer Sparky Monroe.
Harry: You made us jump the shark! You're the reason we didn't have a tenth season!
Markie: I had just bought my second home when they brought that idiot werewolf lawyer in!
Jenna: (insulted) Uh, that "idiot werewolf" paid for my hand reduction surgery, okay?
- The fifth-season premiere of Reno911, entitled "Jumping the Shark", featured Lt. Dangle actually attempting to jump over a normal fish tank containing a small shark. Naturally, he doesn't quite make it over, and Hilarity Ensues. Incidentally, it was the first new episode to be aired after the release of The Movie, which can also be a major shark-jumping point for some shows.
- An episode of That '70s Show in which Fez, imagining how cool it would be to be the Fonzie, has a daydream of himself performing the original jump. Hyde comments that this was the worst moment in television history, and Fez confesses that he stopped watching the show after that. It's interesting, because this is more of a modern perspective rather than one commonly held at the time it aired... like pretty much everything on That '70s Show.
- In the last episode of Boston Legal after Alan accepts Denny's proposal of marriage Denny says "It'll be great! Like jumping a shark!"
- Supernatural:
- An episode featured a kid who is believed to be the third Winchester brother. The name of the episode? Jump the Shark. Oh yeah, and the diner where they meet the kid? Cousin Oliver's.
- Referenced again at the end of the episode "The Real Ghostbusters".
- There was also a poster for "Fonzarelli's Water Skiing Event" up on the wall at Cousin Oliver's diner.
- One episode of House had House, bored out of his skull during clinic duty, constructing a racetrack from medical tape, tongue depressors, and cards. At the end of the track is a ramp, and under the ramp? A shark. Cuddy catches the car in midair, before it reaches the shark. But maybe the writers are telling us something....
- The penultimate episode of The X-Files is titled "Jump the Shark". In it, The Lone Gunmen—the quirky trio of conspiracy theorists that had lasted the show's entire run and gotten their own failed spin off—end up thwarting a terrorist's plot to use a neurotoxin made from sharks (somehow). Unfortunately, they died in the process.
- Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide has an episode about making and taking dares that incorporates one character jumping a bicycle over a tank with a shark in it.
- In the Pushing Daisies (somewhat rushed) finale, the Victim of the Week was killed by accidentally leaping into the mouth of a shark. Lampshade Hanging? You decide!
- The Trailer Park Boys episode "Jump the Cheeseburger".
- Web Soup host Chris Hardwick used this phrase when their video in their Things You Can't Un-See segment was legitimately disgusting and nauseating. It was a gaping foot wound, which was crawling with live maggots.
- The upcoming second season premier of Disney's Zeke And Luther, "Zeke Jumps the Shark", promises to be Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
- Community Season Finale: Troy wants to move in with Abed, but genre savvy Abed says their friendship would jump the shark if they did. Troy responds saying when Fonzie literally jumped the shark, it was the best episode ever.
- Attack of the Show! did a parody of Discovery Channel's Shark Week with their own jump the shark week, where each day they would jump the shark in classic fashion. Methods included being attacked by a cougar a la 24, having a Dallas style murder mystery, having a Cousin Oliver show up, and having an evil twin a la Knight Rider.
- Wipeout couldn't resist mentioning the trope, creating a game called "Jump The Shark" in the summer of 2011. Since it's Wipeout, you have to jump the shark to stay in the game...
Music
Tabletop Games
Video Games
- Kingdom of Loathing contains a certain item, equipped in the torso slot, which drops from a shark. As usual, the item description contains several "examples of what plot elements may cause or be symptomatic of jumping the shark."
- In Tony Hawk's American Wasteland, one of the missions involves feeding imbecelic oil rig worker Mega's pet shark, Fonzie. That involves jumping over him on your board for some reason. Keep in mind that Mega's the kind of guy to name a shark Fonzie unironically, completely unaware of it meaning anything deeper than "That guy on that show I watched when I was like five. He was cool. Ayyyyy!"
- In Hallrunner, a game on the Videlectrix website (a gaming website hosted by the creators of Homestar Runner), the object of the game is to make your way through various obstacles while running down a neverending hallway. Upon coming to each obstacle, the player has the option of talking to it, fighting it, or jumping it. If the player chooses "jump" when the obstacle is a shark, he gets the response "You jump the shark. Just like homestarrunner.com."
- In Skate 3, the player attempts to jump over a statue of a shark in the opening cinematic. He fails, which is a setup for you to use plastic surgery to create your character. You can jump it in the actual game.
- Jump Man Zero has a level called "Jump The Shark", which is basically a big underwater room with a shark in it.
Webcomics
Web Original
Western Animation
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