Has Jump the Shark Jumped the Shark?

Jump the Shark has chronicled the moments when tv shows and bands have put on their leather jackets and attempted to waterski over the holding pens of apex predators to keep their street cred.

Starting as a web site, then slipping into the publishing realm, the average Gen Xer felt proud that John Hein's ingenious contribution to the English language was becoming a mini-empire of sorts. I mean , someone had to hold powerful and shadowy men like Asaad Kelada's feet to the flame when they hoisted that noxious flame-haired country music child star Danny Cooksey, aka "Sam" from Diffrn't Strokes on us to be "the new cute kid." Pshaw!

What does any Gen Xer want to do anyway when we are not doing the important things in life? We like to "pop culture reference." And no, I don't know why we do, maybe it's a latchkey thing, I don't know, but boy do we like to make up lists and impress each other with our knowledge of pop culture trivia (for example, Mr. Drummond was played by the unforgettable Conrad Bain, hows that for spiffy? Just don't ask me who played the dizzy Aunt Sophia).

Cue to 2004, and the creation of "Jump the Shark" the desk calendar. The Corsair wants to feel the love for JTS, back in the day when it was only a website and was, for lack of a better word, fresh.

Oh how I chuckled as posters blasted Janet Jackson's underwritten character Cleo for ruining Fame, or when that mop haired little girl ruined Growing Pains (what's that? Growing Pains was never worth a peep?), or when Edna's Edibles (run by the indomitable Charlotte Rae, thank you very much) fucked up the whole girls in private school scenario. But the blush is off the rose, dear friends; Jump the Shark has officially bitten the big one exceding it's reach and mandate. Ah well, we'll always have the memories and those cheesy retrospectives on TV Land.