Jumping-the-shark Fonzvertising at Rapidsea

There is a juicy bit of television history over at gigglesugar.com talking about "jumping the shark" as a term meaning when things, mostly TV shows and Internet sites, have veered terribly off the course of their original intention. You can read the full post here here.

"Jumping the shark" apparently comes from an episode of Happy Days that aired 30 years ago this month. Here’s the clip:

I think that it’s only fair to extend the term "jumping the shark" to anyone who uses crazy escape and paradise imagery to try to push or describe something that is so terribly unrelated, just as a leather-jacket-wearing water skier is — even if it is the Fonz. This means that we’ll be able to apply it to a lot of different posts here at Rapidsea. The Lending Tree loan shark instantly jumps to mind as an obvious Fonzvertising moment.

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Posted on September 21, 2007
Filed Under Advertising, Sharks, Television | Leave a Comment

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