Pop culture references are fun. They let you express yourself with minimal effort, kind of like Facebook. They can be dorky, funny, or cool, but they can also be clever. Do you quote Star Trek, Seinfeld, or Shakespeare? Are you someone that drops obscure references without expecting anyone else to understand? Can you make an original joke or are they all derived from something you’ve heard before in a movie or TV show?

Beyond simply dropping quotes into conversations, I enjoy idioms – a phrase with a different meaning than the literal words (think “back seat driver”, “flip the bird”, or “kick the bucket”). One of my favorite idioms that is widely used is “jump the shark.” The phrase comes from the show Happy Days way back on September 20th, 1977 – 30 million viewers tuned in to watch the third part of the opening episode in season five. Why is this episode so memorable? Fonzie actually water-ski jumps over a live shark to prove his braveness, wearing his leather jacket the whole time of course.

What does the idiom mean? It is the point when a television series reaches the point of no return – it has lost its original magic and tries to recapture the spark through increasingly absurd story lines. It happens to just about every long running TV show, can you think of any “jump the shark” moments in the shows you watch?

Here is my real question for you – is it socially acceptable to make up idioms based on pop culture? I have many that run through my head, but I hold back actually saying them out loud for fear of looking like a loony. So I suppose they have remained as inside jokes with myself …

Instead of saying “I was way off”, how bout instead you say “Samsonite!” This comes to us from the classic movie Dumb and Dumber.

There are numerous proper use cases – when you are not even close to a name (like in the movie), gave an incredibly wrong answer to a question, or missed the basketball hoop by several feet.

Did you have a particularly successful night hitting on a lady at a bar? When you are later bragging to your friends, you could say “how do you like them apples” from Goodwill Hunting.

Instead of saying “it hurts”, you could simply say “Janice!” This comes from a viral YouTube video (you’ll enjoy it more knowing that everything turns out fine):

This idiom is particularly useful because you could use it in place of a curse word. Jam your finger in a door? JANICE!

But of course you don’t want to overdo these, or you are in danger of becoming Abed in Community.
 

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• Did you know Henry Winkler jumped the shark again some 25 years later on Arrested Development?
• A more recent replacement idiom for “jumping the shark” for those of us that weren’t alive in 1977: “nuking the fridge.” This comes from the 2008 Indiana Jones movie when Indy survives a nuclear blast by hiding in a lead-lined refrigerator.
• Can’t think of any shark jumping moments in TV shows these days? Luckily TV Guide has put some thought into it.
• The writer of the infamous “jump the shark” episode defends it.