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Jumping the Shark: Dean's Deep-water Dive
Townhall ^ | 21 Jan, 2004 | Jonah Goldberg

Posted on 01/20/2004 11:03:51 PM PST by bastantebueno55

Jumping the shark: Dean take deep-water dive Jonah Goldberg

January 21, 2004

Howard Dean has jumped the shark!

Now, I could be wrong - indeed, all the pundits have been so far - and Howard Dean certainly has a lot of money and staff left to keep going, but he certainly looks to have jumped the shark.

Oh, sorry, you might not know what that term means. There's a Web site called JumpTheShark.com that is dedicated to "chronicling the moments when TV shows go downhill." The name is a reference to the "Happy Days" where Fonzie - played by Henry Winkler - literally jumped a shark on water skis. The Fonze never even took off his leather jacket. The authors of the site argue - and I agree with them - that this dumb plot device signaled the moment the show had reached the critical mass of lameness.

"Happy Days" stumbled along for a good while longer, but on a descending path of less and less quality. To jump the shark, in other words, is to reach that tipping point at which you start hemorrhaging respect, loyalty, fans. It is the moment that signals you've gone past your high water mark.

So how did Dean jump the shark? Well, I think the moment was when he greeted his supporters in Iowa after it was clear he came in a meager third place behind John Kerry and John Edwards.

He ran out to the crowds, waved a flag around, wore one of his campaign's cute yellow hats, peeled off his jacket and rolled up his sleeves. "You know something?" Dean asked the crowd. "If you had told us one year ago that we were going to come in third in Iowa, we would have given anything for that."

OK, fair enough. You've got to say something uplifting to your supporters when the voters drop you like a 50-pound bag of Iowa dirt. You can't just mope like a big dog whose food bowl's been moved.

But then the ravages of "Mad How" disease started to show. "Not only are we going to New Hampshire," he exhorted, his voice getting deeper and shriller at the same time. "We're going to South Carolina and Arizona and North Dakota and New Mexico, and we're going to California and Texas and New York. And we're going to South Dakota and Oregon and Washington and Michigan. And then we're going to Washington, D.C., to take back the White House."

He then let loose what could only be called a primal scream: "YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAGGGHHHHHH!"

OK, it could be called other things, too. But whatever it was, he sounded like he meant to go to a proctologist but accidentally visited a chimney sweep instead.

He continued: "We will not give up! We will not give up in New Hampshire! We will not give up in South Carolina! We will not give up in Arizona or New Mexico, Oklahoma, North Dakota, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan! We will not quit now or ever! We'll earn our country back for ordinary Americans!"

Dean then went on to list more states "And we're going to win in Massachusetts! And North Carolina! And Missouri! And Arkansas! And Connecticut! And New York! And Ohio!" These last six happened to be the home states of his Democratic rivals, though poor Dick Gephardt was already in the process of dropping out.

Now, compared to some of the other things Dean has said over the last year, his list of states is not a big deal. Even his bloodcurdling scream probably isn't anything new to the people who know him best.

But it was something new to many Americans. Moreover, at the very moment the voters had declared they wanted more moderate and reasonable candidates, Dean gave them undiluted rage. Disc jockeys like Howard Stern are already - unfairly, it should be said - playing Dean's diatribe against the soundtrack of Nuremberg rallies.

Dean has spent the better part of a year running as the candidate of rage. With his bulging neck and slightly mirrored eyes, he looks like the Hulk in that interim stage in between man and monster, you know right before he rips his clothes and turns green.

Dean may have talked about domestic policy, but his popularity was due to a single issue: his neck-bulging opposition to the Iraq war. Yet three-fourths of Iowa caucus voters opposed the war, but they still dropped Dean in favor of two men who voted for it.

In short, at just the moment Dean should have made it clear he's more than just his berserker schtick, he decided to make a parody of himself. In other words, he jumped the shark.


TOPICS: Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2004; dean; iowa; madhowdisease; primalscream; rage; thehulk; tippingpoint
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OK, it could be called other things, too. But whatever it was, he sounded like he meant to go to a proctologist but accidentally visited a chimney sweep instead.

ROFLMAO!

Dean has spent the better part of a year running as the candidate of rage. With his bulging neck and slightly mirrored eyes, he looks like the Hulk in that interim stage in between man and monster, you know right before he rips his clothes and turns green.

PMPTRDC! (peeing my pants tears running down cheeks)

1 posted on 01/20/2004 11:03:52 PM PST by bastantebueno55
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To: bastantebueno55
Please get a Restraining Order out on this man. Keep him away from normal Americans.
2 posted on 01/20/2004 11:14:43 PM PST by pbear8 (no complaining...Thanks be to God)
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To: pbear8
Too bad he's imploding so soon. I wanted him around for The Big Show. I don't think it'll be a 45+ state sweep against Kerry....
3 posted on 01/20/2004 11:19:15 PM PST by freebilly
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To: bastantebueno55
I have seen the phrase "jump the shark" pop up a few times over the last couple of years but I never made the effort to investigate where it came from. Thank you Jonah.
4 posted on 01/20/2004 11:23:25 PM PST by beckett
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To: pbear8
From Peggy Noonan today (paraphrasing here):

There used to be an old joke about George HW Bush...that he reminds women of their first husband. Well, Howard Dean reminds women of the first husband that they had to get a restraining order against!
5 posted on 01/20/2004 11:23:28 PM PST by medscribe
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To: bastantebueno55; All
 
 
 
 
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1061217/posts
Dean SNAPS!! On Foxnews!!!
 
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1061631/posts?page=9#9
The Man from Hate. What Dean really stands for. (Chucky Alert! Choppy, Choppy)
NRO ^ | January 20, 2004, 9:15 a.m. | By Timothy P. Carney
 
 
 
 
 

6 posted on 01/20/2004 11:24:08 PM PST by backhoe (The 1990's? The Decade of Fraud(s)... the 00's? The Decade of Lunatics...)
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To: medscribe
Howard probably self-medicates too.
7 posted on 01/20/2004 11:27:18 PM PST by pbear8 (no complaining...Thanks be to God)
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To: bastantebueno55
Disc jockeys like Howard Stern are already - unfairly, it should be said - playing Dean's diatribe against the soundtrack of Nuremberg rallies.

THIS, I'd like to hear. LOL.

8 posted on 01/20/2004 11:31:05 PM PST by ambrose
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To: bastantebueno55
Dean has driven the tank.
9 posted on 01/20/2004 11:44:12 PM PST by shekkian
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To: bastantebueno55
"he looks like the Hulk in that interim stage in between man and monster, you know right before he rips his clothes and turns green."

Now that would be a great graphic. LOL!

10 posted on 01/20/2004 11:45:37 PM PST by sweetliberty (Even the smallest person can change the course of the future. - (LOTR))
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To: bastantebueno55
Dean is a maniac. If I had to choose between him and Clinton - he or she - I'd be hard pressed to tell which was the lesser of two evils.
11 posted on 01/20/2004 11:47:44 PM PST by aodell
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To: bastantebueno55
Jumping the Shark, eh?
For my generation, I'll remember it as Mayberry when Barney Fife left the show.
Or, when Chester left Gunsmoke.



12 posted on 01/20/2004 11:57:11 PM PST by leadpenny
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To: backhoe; bastantebueno55
Here is a great TOON on all the Demoncratic candidates wrapped up in a Mars Rover theme:

ROVERS

13 posted on 01/21/2004 12:18:44 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach (The terrorists and their supporters declared war on the United States - and war is what they got!!!!)
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To: ambrose
Disc jockeys like Howard Stern are already - unfairly, it should be said - playing Dean's diatribe against the soundtrack of Nuremberg rallies.

I don't think thats unfair at all. He sounds and gestures wildly like a two bit dictator, but more like Mussoulini than Hitler.

14 posted on 01/21/2004 12:38:34 AM PST by KC_Conspirator (This space for rent)
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To: shekkian
...Dean has driven the tank....

you said it. tho, actually I think this is worse than Dukakis's ride.

in later years we'll be saying of candidates who implode, "he did a Howard Dean" or "that was a Howard Dean moment"

15 posted on 01/21/2004 1:23:33 AM PST by Flashlight
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To: bastantebueno55
My son had a good line about Howard: "With Dean, you never know if you're getting SmeagelDean or GollumDean."
16 posted on 01/21/2004 4:53:11 AM PST by LS (CNN is the Amtrack of news.)
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To: bastantebueno55
Don't forget to vote on when CNN jumped the shark!
17 posted on 01/21/2004 6:54:52 AM PST by Schnucki
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To: ambrose
My boyfriend listens to Howard Stern every morning on the way to work..he was telling me about this yesterday..he said it was hysterical. Stern is giving Mad Howie a REALLY hard time...
18 posted on 01/21/2004 6:59:51 AM PST by FeliciaCat
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To: bastantebueno55
"OK, it could be called other things, too. But whatever it was, he sounded like he meant to go to a proctologist but accidentally visited a chimney sweep instead. "

The funniest line that I have seen in print in ages.
19 posted on 01/21/2004 7:00:42 AM PST by billhilly (If you're lurking here from DU, I trust this post will make you sick)
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To: beckett
""I have seen the phrase "jump the shark" pop up a few times over the last couple of years but I never made the effort to investigate where it came from. Thank you Jonah."

Jonah only gave a partial explanation. Jumping the shark can also mean that point where a TV show loses sight or abandons its original premise - OR does something so credibility-busting that it drives viewers away in large numbers. For instance, "Dallas" in the 80's jumped the shark when the big cliffhanger resolution over "who shot JR" showed that "it was all just a dream." Viewers don't like to be jerked around like that, and the audience numbers plummeted thereafter.

"The West Wing" jumped the shark after its second season when it got so preachy that only hard-core leftists could stand it. The original premise focused on the staff, with very little of the prez himself. But Sheen insisted on a huge role, and it lead to Shark Jumping.

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire jumped the shark when it started putting on celebrity versions. In fact, many shows have begun their tanking process when doing celeb versions. Even though the celebs donate their winnings to charity, they are nonetheless all ALREADY millionaires, so the charm is lost. Most of them are also fairly un-versed in anything outside their chosen field, so they appear stupid and ignorant, not the way the Amurrican Pipple wish to see their celebrities. SHARK!

We could have thousand-reply threads on TV shows and when they jumped the shark.

Michael

20 posted on 01/21/2004 7:16:15 AM PST by Wright is right! (Never get excited about ANYTHING by the way it looks from behind.)
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