I think Fasier's right that I'm misusing the phrase "jump the shark" in my iPod post below, though I don't totally buy his extended definition of the phrase:

["Jumping the shark"] doesn't mean by itself that something has become a sell-out, or that something has become uncool. It means that something that or someone who has reached this status has tried ridiculously so to reacquire its former, more glorious, status. Hence The Fonz "jumped the shark" when he literally "jumped the shark."

I think there is some reasonable debate over what you have to do to "jump the shark." But Fasier makes an excellent point that shark-jumping is something that a creator has to do deliberately to his product (i.e., creating an whole episode about the Fonz riding a motorcycle over a shark -- and worse, freeze-framing it with a "to be continued" mid-jump.) So unless Steve Jobs somehow orchestrated that iPod conversation between George Bush and Britt Hume, it's not right to say that the iPod has jumped the shark. It was simply a sign of something that was probably obvious already: there's nothing cool any more about having an iPod. That's not to say it isn't an incredible product. It's just hard to defend the cool factor when the President apparently has two of them...

Comments

[Faiser]

Yes!

Hopefully this helps stop the deluge of misuse (John Battelle's blog yesterday was my latest sighting).

In any case, perhaps what's lacking in pop culture right now is a phrase to describe the turning point at which it becomes strikingly clear that a once-hip entity has becomes unhip. The 'untipping' point, if you will. The IPod example is an undeniable manifestation of this phenomenon. So is Snoop's appearance on a Burger King commercial.

Cheers to you writing about this.

-Faiser

[Steve]

"Jumping the shark" is so last year. This year the phrase on everyones lips is "Jumping the couch".

[jon]

According to the 'Jump The Shark' web site (done by Jon Hein, the guy who has certainly done the most to popularize the phrase):

"It's a moment. A defining moment when you know that your favorite television program has reached its peak. That instant that you know that, from now on ... it's all downhill. Some call it the climx. Others call it _jumping the shark_."

By this definition, whether or not Steve Jobs orchestrated this incident or not is beside the point.

Jumping the shark can be the result of a calculated move (like COusin Oliver appearing on the Brady Bunch) or something that just happens (liek when Gary Hart met Donna Rice).

[risser]

Actually, it sounded like the President had at least three. That one (the "clunker"), the sleek new one Bono left for him, and the Shuffle which he uses for riding.

Peter

[france]

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