"jump the shark" meaning in English

See jump the shark in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: en-au-jump the shark.ogg Forms: jumps the shark [present, singular, third-person], jumping the shark [participle, present], jumped the shark [participle, past], jumped the shark [past]
Etymology: From "Hollywood (Part 3)", a 1977 episode during the fifth season of the American television series Happy Days, in which the character Fonzie jumped over a shark on waterskis. The expression argues that it was at this point that the show bore no similarity to its original form. Head templates: {{en-verb|*}} jump the shark (third-person singular simple present jumps the shark, present participle jumping the shark, simple past and past participle jumped the shark)
  1. (idiomatic, of a television program or other narrative) To undergo a storyline development which heralds a fundamental and generally disappointing change in direction. Tags: idiomatic Translations (To undergo a storyline development which heralds a fundamental and generally disappointing change in direction.): sauter le requin (French)
    Sense id: en-jump_the_shark-en-verb-K5Fj1WDG Disambiguation of 'To undergo a storyline development which heralds a fundamental and generally disappointing change in direction.': 86 1 2 2 2 2 4
  2. 2003, Jon Hein, Jump the Shark, book overview (revised edition; Plume; →ISBN, 9780452284104) Derived forms: shark-jumping Related terms: nuke the fridge
    Sense id: en-jump_the_shark-en-verb-abtCVeuf
  3. 2004, Ronn Owens, Voice of Reason: Why the Left and Right Are Wrong, John Wiley & Sons, published 2004, →ISBN, page 212:
    Sense id: en-jump_the_shark-en-verb-loZiI8ej
  4. 2004, Ronn Owens, Voice of Reason: Why the Left and Right Are Wrong, John Wiley & Sons, published 2004, →ISBN, page 212: Categories (topical): Narratology
    Sense id: en-jump_the_shark-en-verb-7i7PZoV2 Disambiguation of Narratology: 3 14 15 30 18 18 1 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English entries with topic categories using raw markup, English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys, Terms with French translations, Terms with German translations Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 5 14 18 25 16 16 6 Disambiguation of English entries with topic categories using raw markup: 8 16 17 22 14 14 8 Disambiguation of English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys: 8 14 17 23 14 14 9 Disambiguation of Terms with French translations: 7 16 19 24 14 14 6 Disambiguation of Terms with German translations: 5 15 19 25 15 15 6
  5. 2010 September 16, Michael Hewitt, “The Watcher: Which new TV shows will take off?”, in Orange County Register:
    Sense id: en-jump_the_shark-en-verb-bWs5eVJ~
  6. 2010 September 16, Michael Hewitt, “The Watcher: Which new TV shows will take off?”, in Orange County Register:
    Sense id: en-jump_the_shark-en-verb-Iilr~PSq
  7. (idiomatic, by extension) To experience a decline in quality, appeal, popularity, etc. Tags: broadly, idiomatic Translations (To experience a decline in quality, appeal, popularity, etc.): auf dem absteigenden Ast sein (German)
    Sense id: en-jump_the_shark-en-verb-jwzR77GX Disambiguation of 'To experience a decline in quality, appeal, popularity, etc.': 3 1 2 2 2 2 86

Inflected forms

Download JSONL data for jump the shark meaning in English (7.4kB)

{
  "etymology_text": "From \"Hollywood (Part 3)\", a 1977 episode during the fifth season of the American television series Happy Days, in which the character Fonzie jumped over a shark on waterskis. The expression argues that it was at this point that the show bore no similarity to its original form.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "jumps the shark",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "jumping the shark",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "jumped the shark",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "jumped the shark",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "jump the shark (third-person singular simple present jumps the shark, present participle jumping the shark, simple past and past participle jumped the shark)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "glosses": [
        "To undergo a storyline development which heralds a fundamental and generally disappointing change in direction."
      ],
      "id": "en-jump_the_shark-en-verb-K5Fj1WDG",
      "links": [
        [
          "television program",
          "television program"
        ],
        [
          "narrative",
          "narrative"
        ],
        [
          "storyline",
          "storyline"
        ],
        [
          "disappointing",
          "disappointing"
        ],
        [
          "direction",
          "direction"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, of a television program or other narrative) To undergo a storyline development which heralds a fundamental and generally disappointing change in direction."
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "of a television program or other narrative"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "86 1 2 2 2 2 4",
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "To undergo a storyline development which heralds a fundamental and generally disappointing change in direction.",
          "word": "sauter le requin"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "derived": [
        {
          "_dis1": "0 36 14 17 16 17 0",
          "word": "shark-jumping"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Happy Days infamously jumped the shark when Fonzie literally jumped a shark on water skis. I Love Lucy jumped the shark when Lucy and Ricky moved to the suburbs. The Brady Bunch jumped the shark when Cousin Oliver moved in."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "2003, Jon Hein, Jump the Shark, book overview (revised edition; Plume; →ISBN, 9780452284104)"
      ],
      "id": "en-jump_the_shark-en-verb-abtCVeuf",
      "related": [
        {
          "_dis1": "0 36 14 17 16 17 0",
          "word": "nuke the fridge"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "glosses": [
        "2004, Ronn Owens, Voice of Reason: Why the Left and Right Are Wrong, John Wiley & Sons, published 2004, →ISBN, page 212:\nFrom that point on, Dallas was never the same. It hit its peak. It lost credibility. It jumped the shark.",
        "2004, Ronn Owens, Voice of Reason: Why the Left and Right Are Wrong, John Wiley & Sons, published 2004, →ISBN, page 212"
      ],
      "id": "en-jump_the_shark-en-verb-loZiI8ej",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "2004, Ronn Owens, Voice of Reason: Why the Left and Right Are Wrong, John Wiley & Sons, published 2004, →ISBN, page 212:\n"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
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          "_dis": "5 14 18 25 16 16 6",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
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          "source": "w+disamb"
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          "_dis": "8 16 17 22 14 14 8",
          "kind": "other",
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          "source": "w+disamb"
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          "_dis": "8 14 17 23 14 14 9",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
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          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "7 16 19 24 14 14 6",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with French translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
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        {
          "_dis": "5 15 19 25 15 15 6",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with German translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "3 14 15 30 18 18 1",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Narratology",
          "orig": "en:Narratology",
          "parents": [
            "Drama",
            "Literature",
            "Theater",
            "Culture",
            "Entertainment",
            "Writing",
            "Art",
            "Society",
            "Human behaviour",
            "Language",
            "All topics",
            "Human",
            "Communication",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "2004, Ronn Owens, Voice of Reason: Why the Left and Right Are Wrong, John Wiley & Sons, published 2004, →ISBN, page 212:\nFrom that point on, Dallas was never the same. It hit its peak. It lost credibility. It jumped the shark.",
        "From that point on, Dallas was never the same. It hit its peak. It lost credibility. It jumped the shark."
      ],
      "id": "en-jump_the_shark-en-verb-7i7PZoV2",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "2004, Ronn Owens, Voice of Reason: Why the Left and Right Are Wrong, John Wiley & Sons, published 2004, →ISBN, page 212:\n"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "glosses": [
        "2010 September 16, Michael Hewitt, “The Watcher: Which new TV shows will take off?”, in Orange County Register:\nReturning show everyone will say has jumped the shark: \"House.\"",
        "2010 September 16, Michael Hewitt, “The Watcher: Which new TV shows will take off?”, in Orange County Register"
      ],
      "id": "en-jump_the_shark-en-verb-bWs5eVJ~",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "2010 September 16, Michael Hewitt, “The Watcher: Which new TV shows will take off?”, in Orange County Register:\n"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "glosses": [
        "2010 September 16, Michael Hewitt, “The Watcher: Which new TV shows will take off?”, in Orange County Register:\nReturning show everyone will say has jumped the shark: \"House.\"",
        "Returning show everyone will say has jumped the shark: \"House.\""
      ],
      "id": "en-jump_the_shark-en-verb-Iilr~PSq",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "2010 September 16, Michael Hewitt, “The Watcher: Which new TV shows will take off?”, in Orange County Register:\n"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2007, Jeph Jacques, “Time To Add A Cute Kid To The Cast”, in Questionable Content, number 951",
          "text": "Pintsize: Wait, don’t you want to know why I’m tied up and hanging from the ceiling?\nFaye: Not really. Nighty night!\nPintsize: Shit! My wacky antics have jumped the shark!",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008, Mark Fogarty, Went to See the Gypsy, Lulu.com, published 2008, page 150",
          "text": "The Bangles were a fine all-woman band, starting with a lovely cover of Prince's \"Manic Monday.\" \"Walk Like an Egyptian\" was cute, and the ladies rocked out an unlikely cover of Simon and Garfunkel's \"Hazy Shade of Winter.\" But they jumped the shark with the treacly \"Eternal Flame,\" and the end of the road was in sight.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008 October 11, Cortney Harding, “Tape echo”, in Billboard",
          "text": "And I knew something was up when I started getting press releases about \"tape labels.\" Maybe vinyl had finally jumped the shark, and magnetic tape was due for a return.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To experience a decline in quality, appeal, popularity, etc."
      ],
      "id": "en-jump_the_shark-en-verb-jwzR77GX",
      "links": [
        [
          "decline",
          "decline"
        ],
        [
          "quality",
          "quality"
        ],
        [
          "appeal",
          "appeal"
        ],
        [
          "popularity",
          "popularity"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, by extension) To experience a decline in quality, appeal, popularity, etc."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "broadly",
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "3 1 2 2 2 2 86",
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "To experience a decline in quality, appeal, popularity, etc.",
          "word": "auf dem absteigenden Ast sein"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-jump the shark.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/1/11/En-au-jump_the_shark.ogg/En-au-jump_the_shark.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/11/En-au-jump_the_shark.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "jump the shark"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English terms with audio links",
    "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
    "English verbs",
    "Terms with French translations",
    "Terms with German translations",
    "en:Narratology"
  ],
  "derived": [
    {
      "word": "shark-jumping"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From \"Hollywood (Part 3)\", a 1977 episode during the fifth season of the American television series Happy Days, in which the character Fonzie jumped over a shark on waterskis. The expression argues that it was at this point that the show bore no similarity to its original form.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "jumps the shark",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "jumping the shark",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "jumped the shark",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "jumped the shark",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "jump the shark (third-person singular simple present jumps the shark, present participle jumping the shark, simple past and past participle jumped the shark)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "nuke the fridge"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English idioms"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To undergo a storyline development which heralds a fundamental and generally disappointing change in direction."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "television program",
          "television program"
        ],
        [
          "narrative",
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        ],
        [
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        ],
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          "direction"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, of a television program or other narrative) To undergo a storyline development which heralds a fundamental and generally disappointing change in direction."
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "of a television program or other narrative"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
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      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Happy Days infamously jumped the shark when Fonzie literally jumped a shark on water skis. I Love Lucy jumped the shark when Lucy and Ricky moved to the suburbs. The Brady Bunch jumped the shark when Cousin Oliver moved in."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "2003, Jon Hein, Jump the Shark, book overview (revised edition; Plume; →ISBN, 9780452284104)"
      ]
    },
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      "glosses": [
        "2004, Ronn Owens, Voice of Reason: Why the Left and Right Are Wrong, John Wiley & Sons, published 2004, →ISBN, page 212:\nFrom that point on, Dallas was never the same. It hit its peak. It lost credibility. It jumped the shark.",
        "2004, Ronn Owens, Voice of Reason: Why the Left and Right Are Wrong, John Wiley & Sons, published 2004, →ISBN, page 212"
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "2004, Ronn Owens, Voice of Reason: Why the Left and Right Are Wrong, John Wiley & Sons, published 2004, →ISBN, page 212:\n"
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      "categories": [
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        "2004, Ronn Owens, Voice of Reason: Why the Left and Right Are Wrong, John Wiley & Sons, published 2004, →ISBN, page 212:\nFrom that point on, Dallas was never the same. It hit its peak. It lost credibility. It jumped the shark.",
        "From that point on, Dallas was never the same. It hit its peak. It lost credibility. It jumped the shark."
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "2004, Ronn Owens, Voice of Reason: Why the Left and Right Are Wrong, John Wiley & Sons, published 2004, →ISBN, page 212:\n"
      ]
    },
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        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "2010 September 16, Michael Hewitt, “The Watcher: Which new TV shows will take off?”, in Orange County Register:\nReturning show everyone will say has jumped the shark: \"House.\"",
        "2010 September 16, Michael Hewitt, “The Watcher: Which new TV shows will take off?”, in Orange County Register"
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "2010 September 16, Michael Hewitt, “The Watcher: Which new TV shows will take off?”, in Orange County Register:\n"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "2010 September 16, Michael Hewitt, “The Watcher: Which new TV shows will take off?”, in Orange County Register:\nReturning show everyone will say has jumped the shark: \"House.\"",
        "Returning show everyone will say has jumped the shark: \"House.\""
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "2010 September 16, Michael Hewitt, “The Watcher: Which new TV shows will take off?”, in Orange County Register:\n"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English idioms",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2007, Jeph Jacques, “Time To Add A Cute Kid To The Cast”, in Questionable Content, number 951",
          "text": "Pintsize: Wait, don’t you want to know why I’m tied up and hanging from the ceiling?\nFaye: Not really. Nighty night!\nPintsize: Shit! My wacky antics have jumped the shark!",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008, Mark Fogarty, Went to See the Gypsy, Lulu.com, published 2008, page 150",
          "text": "The Bangles were a fine all-woman band, starting with a lovely cover of Prince's \"Manic Monday.\" \"Walk Like an Egyptian\" was cute, and the ladies rocked out an unlikely cover of Simon and Garfunkel's \"Hazy Shade of Winter.\" But they jumped the shark with the treacly \"Eternal Flame,\" and the end of the road was in sight.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008 October 11, Cortney Harding, “Tape echo”, in Billboard",
          "text": "And I knew something was up when I started getting press releases about \"tape labels.\" Maybe vinyl had finally jumped the shark, and magnetic tape was due for a return.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To experience a decline in quality, appeal, popularity, etc."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "decline",
          "decline"
        ],
        [
          "quality",
          "quality"
        ],
        [
          "appeal",
          "appeal"
        ],
        [
          "popularity",
          "popularity"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, by extension) To experience a decline in quality, appeal, popularity, etc."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "broadly",
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-jump the shark.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/1/11/En-au-jump_the_shark.ogg/En-au-jump_the_shark.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/11/En-au-jump_the_shark.ogg"
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  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "To undergo a storyline development which heralds a fundamental and generally disappointing change in direction.",
      "word": "sauter le requin"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "To experience a decline in quality, appeal, popularity, etc.",
      "word": "auf dem absteigenden Ast sein"
    }
  ],
  "word": "jump the shark"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-06-27 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-06-20 using wiktextract (0f7b3ac and b863ecc). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.