The Origins of the Phrase “Jumped the Shark”.So after Season 8 Episode 5 of Game of Thrones all but

The Origins of the Phrase “Jumped the Shark”.So after Season 8 Episode 5 of Game of Thrones all but perhaps the most hardcore fans are in agreement that the show has “jumped the shark”. Overall Season 8 has a Rotten Tomatoes audience rating of 43% and episode 5 has an audience rating of 49%, the worst in the show’s history. Many would probably say the show has “jumped the shark” long before then.  The phrase “jumped the shark” has been used to describe a number of other shows, and has actually been in use for a relatively long time in pop culture history. “Jumped the shark” is an idiom typically describing television shows that have lived past their golden age, it’s writers having run out of ideas, and the show resorting to gimmicks and absurdities in a vain attempt to maintain viewership.  Writing quality drops significantly, characters no longer act like themselves and will often do things that seem ridiculous or done only for shock value.The idiom originates back to September 20th, 1977 with the season 5 premier of the popular comedy Happy Days. In the episode the main characters visit Hollywood, where the legendary character Fonzie takes up a stunt challenge in which he is to jump a ramp on water skis over a confined shark.The stunt was actually performed by The Fonz’s actor Henry Winkler, who was an accomplished water skier and pretty much just wanted an opportunity to show off his mad skills. Thus the stunt was performed, and I kid you not he did the stunt wearing his trademark leather jacket and a pair of swimming trunks.For most avid viewers of Happy Days the stunt seemed out of place for the show, which is basically a high school teen coming of age sitcom. For many others it was a ridiculous and absurd gimmick that was down right silly. At the time Happy Days was at it’s peak, being the number one show on TV with the highest ratings. However, by season 5 the show began to lose viewership and it’s ratings began to slip. With season 6 the show went into a full nosedive, dropping from number 2 in the rankings to number 4, by season 7 it had dropped to 17, and by it’s final season (11), it was in a dismal 63rd place ranking.While Fonzie jumping the shark was certainly not the end of Happy Days, it symbolized the beginning of the end of show and it’s popularity. By the 1980′s people began to refer to the episode when describing other TV shows that had passed their peak. In the 1990′s the phrase became a common idiom, popularized by shock jock Howard Stern and other comedians. Today, it is a staple colloquialism of entertainment and pop culture, with few who use remembering the time when The Fonz jumped the shark.The Fonz jumping the shark -- source link

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