Jumping the shark
Jumping the shark is an idiom created by Jon Hein that is used to describe the moment in the evolution of a television show when it begins a decline in quality that is beyond recovery. The phrase is also used to refer to a particular scene, episode or aspect of a show in which the writers use some type of “gimmick” in a desperate attempt to keep viewers’ interest.
The phrase jump the shark comes from a scene in the fifth season premiere episode of the American TV series Happy Days titled “Hollywood: Part 3,” written by Fred Fox, Jr.[4], and aired on September 20, 1977. In the episode, the central characters visit Los Angeles, where a water-skiing Fonzie (Henry Winkler), wearing swim trunks and his trademark leather jacket, jumps over a confined shark, answering a challenge to demonstrate his bravery. For a show that in its early seasons depicted universally relatable experiences against a backdrop of 1950s nostalgia, this marked an audacious, cartoonish turn towards attention-seeking gimmickry and continued the faddish lionization of an increasingly superhuman Fonzie. The series continued for nearly five years after that, with a number of changes in cast and situations. However, it is commonly believed that the show, out of ideas and even trapped in its own success (largely due to the disproportionate popularity of the “Fonzie” character and the show’s (executives’) intense desire to continue “milking” that), began a downhill slide, becoming a caricature of itself often filled with little more than its popular catch phrases and character mannerisms.
The idiom has been used to describe a wide range of situations, ranging from the state of advertising in the digital video recorder era, views on rural education policy, the anomalous pursuit of a company acquisition and Facebook’s efforts to “modernize its home page … with empty bells and whistles — take, timeline and subscribers, for example” before an anticipated 2012 IPO.
Or perhaps it could be used to describe trying too hard to make something perfect–fretting over some tiny little detail like a couple of stray paint specs in a mural that no one else but you would notice, scratching them off the wall, leaving two giant scratch marks in the wall, trying to fix what you should have left well enough alone, and then having to come up with yet another element in an already full mural to cover up your nit pickiness.
I thought the shark I had painted which still needed to be fixed to my satisfaction would be the element which would cause me to jump the shark–which would have made the title to this post more fitting, but despite my original disdain for the shark I painted,
fixing it wasn’t nearly the headache I thought it would be.
Ironically, the element which was surprisingly one of the quickest and easiest to paint, the turtle, was what gave me fits towards the end of the job. Actually, not so much the turtle, but two tiny specs of yellow paint I had dripped when painting the yellow angel fish above him.
Here’s the turtle with the yellow specs above him, which, for the life of me, I can’t see in this picture.
But just like the pearls on the mermaid that probably would have been okay if I had left them as they were, I could see them up close. Unlike the pearls on the mermaid, my attempt to make things better only made things much, much worse…
Several attempts to glaze over the spots just made a mess of things, which is why I decided that the turtle needed to be blowing some bubbles.
Even though I was able to fix what I should have left alone in the first place, when I look at that wall, my eye is immediately drawn to that place on the wall where the water is just a little bit darker because of my feudal attempts to fix my mistake. A constant reminder that fussing over tiny details instead of looking at the big picture can often lead to jumping the shark.
Many thanks to my neighbor Louie for lending me his wide angle camera lens. I gotta get me one of those!
I jumped over a shark once.
Shark Bait´s last [type] ..Spiritual Fruit
You did notice that I included you in that mural, right?
Hoo Ha Ha!!!
Shark Bait´s last [type] ..Friday Fruit
“Jump the shark”…one of my favorite saying I learned during our time in England. “Over the moon” is another. Awesome painting.
Shawn Smucker´s last [type] ..You Will Want to Give Up. Don’t.
Oh, how I need to learn the lesson over and over again. We perfectionists have a tough time letting imperfect things go. I’ve gotten to the point where I have to intentionally do something unevenly or imperfectly just so the foibles don’t get to me. Nice artwork!
Thank you, Kim. Perfectionism can be such a pain sometimes.
Note to self: The Canon takes much better pictures than the iPhone.
katdish´s last [type] ..Jumping the shark
I read somewhere that ever since the last Indiana Jones movie, they now refer to it as a “nuking the fridge” moment instead of “jumping the shark”
SB, Yeah, that was pretty lame.
I never knew about that saying, and yet as a kid, it was right about the time that episode aired of Happy Days that I quit watching.
That’s the problem with our society in part I think… In an effort to continue to sell our product… we sell ourselves…
That mural is awesome, and from a strictly artistic perspective, sometimes fixing or trying to hide mistakes we find genius. I think it’s important to roll with the flow. (a little pun intended)…
floyd´s last [type] ..HITCH ER’ UP!
I’ve never heard that phrase, but I like it. I jump a lot of sharks, I think- Or maybe I just try to. I’m waiting for one to catch me and drag me under to a watery and somehow fitting demise. Love the mural though!!
jake´s last [type] ..Blinker
The mural is beautiful. And that is what people are going to see. Of course, we are always our own worst critics because, for perfectionists, the finished product never quite looks like the masterpiece we had in our mind.
tandemingtroll´s last [type] ..Who won that baseball game?