[gusopol3]

please help me understand what “jump the shark” means I’ve never gotten it? How does it differ from “getting a tiger by the tail?”

[postaldave]

in the show Happy Days, fonzi jumped a shark in the latter shows.

it was stupid and the show died shortly after that.

[I see my hands]

This may help.

[Eric Blair 2084]

postal beat me to it. There is a website called Jumptheshark.com They essentially debate the exact moment that your favorite TV show, celebrity, politician, band, singer "jumped the shark" like Fonzie on Happy Days. At that point, it's all downhill.

[xp38]

It’s a term from tv series rises and falls. It came from a moment on Happy Days when Fonzie was water skiing and he ski jumps over a shark. Because it was so ridiculous it became a signpost that Happy Days was about to enter a tailspin to its inevitable cancellation from network tv. It’s now a generalized term for any onging thing when it is no longer on the rise in popularity but now on a downward death spiral.

[art_rocks]

Its a reference to the TV series “Happy Days”. There was an episode where Fonzie jumped a shark. It now means a show or idea that has reached the end.

[golas1964]

what “jump the shark” means

Algore is such a Potsie!

[xzins]

“Jumping the Shark” as the article points out is from an episode of an aged “Happy Days” when Fonzie on water skis jumps a shark. It was the tipping point for the series and signaled its decline. They were grasping for story lines.

I remember that episode. I remember thinking it was sort of silly.

[potlatch]

The beginning of the end...

[cookcounty]

I want a mock souvenir T-shirt that reads:

Bigfoot Al's
Jive Earth Concert
2008.

[Tigercap]

It means it has run it’s course.
Will only go down, or less, from here.

Saying is Happy Days went downhill since Fonzie jumped the shark in a later episode.