Word.ws English Dictionary

jumps the shark

jumps the shark is the third-person singular simple present indicative of jump the shark.

Meaning of jump the shark

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 television program or other narrative, to undergo a storyline development which heralds a fundamental and generally disappointing change in direction.
    • 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.2003, Jon Hein, Jump the Shark, book overview (revised edition; Plume; →ISBN, 9780452284104)
  2. (broadly, idiomatic) To experience a decline in quality, appeal, popularity, etc.
    • Pintsize: Wait, don’t you want to know why I’m tied up and hanging from the ceiling?
      Faye: Not really. Nighty night!
      Pintsize: Shit! My wacky antics have jumped the shark!2007, Jeph Jacques, “Time To Add A Cute Kid To The Cast”, in Questionable Content, number 951

Questions about jumps the shark

What is jumps the shark the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Jumps the shark is the third-person singular simple present indicative of jump the shark.

Words near jumps the shark in the dictionary

  1. jumps the gun
  2. jumps the line
  3. jumps the queue
  4. jumps the rattler
  5. jumps the reservation
  6. jumps the shark
  7. jumps through hoops
  8. jumps to
  9. jumps to conclusions
  10. jumps to it
  11. jumps up

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: jumps the shark (page history and authors); jump the shark (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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