nav[aria-label="Primary Navigation"] { padding: 0; & ul { list-style: none; width: 100%; display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: start; align-items: start; gap: 30px; padding: 0; & li { margin: 0; } & ul li { list-style: none; } } }

Miscellaneous Monday: My Favorite Idiom - Jumping the shark

Trudy P Claspill

An idiom, according to dictionary.com, is “an expression whose meaning is not predictable from the usual meanings of its constituent elements”.

My favorite idiom is “jumping the shark”. It is used to describe a story, product, or company that introduces something new that clashes with or is an extreme exaggeration of its original concept.

I love finding out the sources of these phrases!

This idiom was coined by radio personality Jon Hein in response to an episode in the fifth season of the American television sitcom “Happy Days”, in which the character Fonzie performs a water-skiing stunt of jumping over a live shark. The show was set in the 1950’s with the central characters being a Midwestern middle class family who rented an over-garage apartment to a motorcycle-riding, leather-jacket-wearing, very “cool” character named Arthur Fonzarelli, or “Fonzie”. He was certainly a daredevil, but water-skiing was not within his scope of skills. But Fonzie could never back down when somebody challenged is “cool”-ness or his bravery.

While this idiom is most frequently used in references to stories (televisions, movie sequels, books), it has also come to be used in references to companies and products that have “jumped the shark” with the introduction of new products and features that are discordant with their core intent.

Please share in the comments an example of something that you think “jumped the shark” and why. Or share your favorite idiom and its source.

Let’s make this a great Monday!

Source: Wikipedia - Jumping the shark

Comments

Amanda Barber

Okay, not an idiom but we have a Bronze Fonz statue here in Milwaukee. A favorite idiom of mine is from a favorite podcast (Petty Crimes.) One of the hosts always says, "It will never show on a trotting horse." It was a phrase her grandmother used and it has stuck with me. It's basically referring to those things that only you would notice.

John Funk

Thanks for the post, @Trudy P Claspill !

It is probably not that big of a stretch. But when I went from the government contracting waterfall project management world to the commercial agile project management world, it certainly felt like jumping the shark!

Trudy P Claspill

I love it! I had no idea Fonzie had a statue.

Stephen.Lugton

Some years ago I worked for a tech company that was bought out by a defence company.

After a few years they decided that they would close down the site we were at with full redundancies, but offer the staff they wanted to keep a job at another site 40 miles away. So they went through the full legally required (due to the number of staff) redundancy process at the end of which only 1 person took them up on the offer of a job at the other site (he lived halfway between the two sites so there was no change in travel time).

At this point they realised that they were going to lose all the technical knowledge that they'd bought us for in the first place, so they decided to keep the site open and 'score' everyone to see who to not make redundant. I think about 40 people were kept on in the end, but for me it was good timing as I was already planning to be moving somewhere else and looking for a new job anyway, so by delaying leaving by 6 months I got an 18 year redundancy package. The site is still open, and they had to spend a lot of money on updating security, making building changes, etc.

The jumped the shark part of this is that the senior executive responsible for us had taken a six month sabbatical, and the site closure and redundancies was announced the Monday after his sabbatical started after being planned without his knowledge or sign off. When he came back he apparently had a meeting with the people responsible for this, which resulted in all of them leaving the company within the next six months.

Andy Gladstone

@Trudy P Claspill thanks for this Miscellaneous Monday post!

My favorite idiom, one I live by, is: Actions Speak Louder Than Words

There is a Talmudic principle: Words are worth a penny, silence is worth two. That's because in silence action can take place, but while speaking nothing gets done other than hearing your voice.

Without action, words are empty promises. I believe in a bias to action over debate.

I'll try to put this into extra focus in my day ahead!

Shawn Doyle - ReleaseTEAM

I'm pretty sure this is Zombie Fonz.

Shawn Doyle - ReleaseTEAM

Great topic @Trudy P Claspill

I love jumping the shark and do it a lot. To protect the innocent I need time to think of which story is the least incriminating.

Jacqueline Westermayer

LOL... I will be waiting for this story!!!

Jacqueline Westermayer

This post seems so cool to me. Maybe it's because I have always been a fan of idioms; with that in mind, my favorite one is "Salt of the Earth."

I always look for those fascinating and good human beings in everything I do, whether working with clients and coworkers or mingling with others. These individuals genuinely make a difference!!!

Barbara Szczesniak

I have always been a fan of malapropisms—using a different word in place of a similar-sounding one (though I do it on purpose). So, my favorite idiom is: It's just a pigment of your imagination.

I found it particularly amusing when I first started working in The Netherlands with non-native English speakers. You could see their thoughts proceed through:

Is that the right word?
No, I'm pretty sure it is the wrong word.
Wait, does she know it's the wrong word?

They soon learned that I have a strange sense of humor. 😁

Stephen.Lugton

@Barbara Szczesniak that works for me since I imagine things in colour ...

Barbara Szczesniak

@Stephen_Lugton I worked for a small company in Cambridge that was bought, along with 4 other similar companies, and suddenly we were all one big company. 3 were in the UK—2 in Cambridge, so the people from the other one were told they could move from Leeds to Cambridge to keep their jobs. In the US, the people from the company in Wisconsin were told they could move to San Diego, California (a much more expensive place to live!) to keep their jobs.

Then, a couple years later, almost everyone from my original company was made redundant. I had already decided to move back to the US, so my redundancy package worked out well for me too.

Laurie Sciutti

😂 @Barbara Szczesniak that's hilarious!

Thiago P _Atlassian Support_

My favorite idiom is "break a leg" as directly saying "good luck" to a performing artist is believed to bring bad luck.

In Brazilian Portuguese we say "merda", which comes from the french "merde" (basically "shit") but the meaning is a bit different: in the 19th century, successful plays would always have horse shit at a theater's entrance as they attracted large crowds.