| Jump the shark in quest for latest zippy language
FOOTNOTE Last update: 20 November 2003 |
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A
reader wrote with a good question about Sunday's column. "I wonder how
many folks got that reference to 'jumping the shark,' " wrote Arthur
Byrnes, who was my city commissioner back when I lived in Holly Hill.
It is reassuring when people are looking out for the language. And I
had to admit to him that this was a close decision.
There are a lot of new words and catch phrases out there. ("You know,
out there," he said gesturing vaguely out the window.") And a lot
of them have little or no relation to the way anyone really talks.
"Jump the shark," started out as a private joke among a couple of
roommates and was spun into a Web site in 1997. Now it's a franchise with
a book and calendars for sale.
The site defines the phrase thus: "It's a moment. A defining moment
when you know that your favorite television program has reached its peak.
That instant that you know from now on . . . it's all downhill."
More precisely, the jump is the exact point a television show,
entertainment career or other continuing endeavor exhausts its creative
energy and must rely on self-parody and increasingly desperate and silly
gimmicks to continue.
Here was how the phrase appeared in Sunday's column: "He asks for a
song made after Mr. Wonder's career showed signs of jumping the shark, 'I
Just Called to Say I Love You.' "
Now, I am a huge fan of Stevie Wonder, but it is affection tempered by
the understanding that this is also a man who willingly participated in
the song "Ebony and Ivory."
The phrase's etymology is obscure -- it refers to an episode of "Happy
Days" -- yet it still somehow has resonance. Not only does it sound
pleasantly silly, but it describes a situation people recognize
immediately. It says in a single metaphor what would take several
sentences to explain.
And I have heard people say the phrase. People who are hipper than I,
but real people nonetheless. This is important. Somehow over the years,
spoken language has become more conservative than the printed word.
This is a turnaround. A generation ago, seeing a word in print settled
things. There it is in black and white. Now, you have words that exist
solely on the shaky consensus of lifestyle feature writers, technology
commentators and motivational consultants. Nothing people in what we
laughingly call The Real World would say.
Even dictionaries are accused of throwing in words that exist solely in
a few news stories and television shows purely for the cheap pleasure of
enjoying some reflected hipness. And to differentiate this year's edition
from last year's in order to move the product.
Perfectly good words are often thrown out to make room. This
contributes to language churn. (Don't look up the term. I made it up.)
Reassured by having heard the phrase in the field -- a sports bar to be
precise -- I still wasn't certain about using it. So I settled this the
way I settle many a thorny question of language and style. I typed it in
and waited for editors to complain.
And they didn't. Not yet.
"Slang is a language that rolls up its sleeves, spits on its hands and
goes to work," Carl Sandburg once told the New York Times. This might be
rather silly work and light lifting, but it's work that somebody has to
do.
Every use of a new word is a shot at the linguistic futures market. New
issues fail at an alarming rate and can make you look mightily dumb inside
of six months. It used to take years to look that dumb.
If you find fresh words and they take, you look cool, cutting edge.
Choose badly, and people will think you have jumped the shark.
In a manner of speaking.
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