For those that didn't see it, Penny Arcade shot it's wad this week.

[Threash]

HELLO, MCFLY. Llava just posted the definition from the guys who came up with the word. I was right. Why are you trying to convince me otherwise. Here, lemme copy and paste it.

A. 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. Some call it the climax. We call it "Jumping the Shark."  From that moment on, the program will simply never be the same.

Have you actually seen the "jumping the shark" episode of happy days?  The definition is simply phrased wrong.  Yes it does mean the whatever has reached its peak, but the actual jumping of the shark is the moment that makes you realize its gone to shit.

[Roac]

HELLO, MCFLY. Llava just posted the definition from the guys who came up with the word.

They didn't come up with the phrase.  It's a bullshit site, Biff.

[schild]

Well that's depressing.

[Threash]

Hell their own site contradicts their definition, married with children is said to have jumped the shark when the new kid joined.

[Roac]

Hell their own site contradicts their definition, married with children is said to have jumped the shark when the new kid joined.

Just glancing at the site, it looks like they're reaching, in order to have content, to get his ad money. 

[Samwise]

Theirs one apostrophe too many in the title of this thread.

Indeed. And I like your use of "theirs."

High comedy.

Careful now, you wouldn't want to fall into that gaping sarchasm.

[schild]

Theirs one apostrophe too many in the title of this thread.

Indeed. And I like your use of "theirs."

High comedy.

Careful now, you wouldn't want to fall into that gaping sarchasm.

Pretending like you meant to do that is dirty pool.

[Samwise]

Theirs one apostrophe too many in the title of this thread.

Indeed. And I like your use of "theirs."

High comedy.

Careful now, you wouldn't want to fall into that gaping sarchasm.

Pretending like you meant to do that is dirty pool.

And here I thought duse was the only one who fell in.  Or did I fall in just now by thinking that you did?  This is getting confusing.

[dusematic]

If making fun of people's grammar is socially acceptable around here then I just got a lot more annoying!

[Soukyan]

But they did mention Starforce and have a few times. Just because it isn't (well-deserved) vitriol and hate doesn't mean it's suddenly whore territory.

Here's how I look at it. They win, indeed. They get paid to do what they love. They make in the neighborhood of >$30,000 a month. Do they need to accept work from UBISoft? Is that going to break them completely? People are banging down their fucking door. Right now they're about on the level of EA or the aforementioned UBISoft. They're contributing to the evil rather than at least making a tiny stand. So fuck them, fuck them in their puckered up assholes. I could care less if they're rolling in dollar bills if they can't at least stand up for their rights as gamers.

Making money hand over fist and maintaining integrity at the same time is improbable these days. I would be disappointed at a lack of integrity, but I don't see one. I don't know the whole story behind them and Starforce though, but I think the charity work they do is far more important than whether or not they bash Starforce.

[Yegolev]

I can't read all that.

When something, historically a TV show because that's the originating medium, jumps the shark, it just evokes the circumstances that would lead a wrting team and producers to decide that having Fonzie jump over a shark in waterskis would be an awesome way to bring back viewers.  Happy Days was already in the shitter, and someone thought that this idea was the thing that the audience wanted.  Using the original and pure sample as a base, it's not sharkjumping if the thing in question doesn't already suck hobo balls, nor if it actually is a good idea and/or succeeds.

Married: With Children actually had a few of these moments, such as the kid and other things I can't remember.  I can't think of any show that has done anything to top the Happy Days shark jump.  Although adding Jonathan Winters to Mork & Mindy was close, unironically... and I like Winters.

[HaemishM]

If making fun of people's grammar is socially acceptable around here then I just got a lot more annoying!

UNPOSSIBLE!

[Shockeye]

I don't know the whole story behind them and Starforce though, but I think the charity work they do is far more important than whether or not they bash Starforce.

I concur.

[Llava]

they aren't indirectly condoning the gang rape of young Indian women either, so they are one up on Mother Terresa in my book.

If making fun of people's grammar is socially acceptable around here then I just got a lot more annoying!

I fucking love this thread.


Also, I made this yesterday cause... well, for no reason, really.  I just did.



I invite you all to improve on it.  We need a Grammar Snake equivalent.

[Samwise]

Also, I made this yesterday cause... well, for no reason, really.  I just did.



I invite you all to improve on it.  We need a Grammar Snake equivalent.

You rule.  Where were you this morning when I was Googling "sarchasm" and coming up empty?

[HaemishM]

I actually listened to the PA podcast. It was a boring day at work. The best part? They are actually funny to listen to, if you can stand listening to geek talk for 30 minutes or so. Now, let's argue about whether geek webcomics guys should have a podcast during their creative process!

[Margalis]

Jumping the shark does NOT mean it is at it's peak. When Fonzie jumped the shark literally in happy days that was really LAME, not really cool.

The definition whoever quoted makes zero sense.

"It means the show is at it's peak - like when Fonzie jumped the shark!" That makes no sense because that moment was pathetic. When people saw that they thought to themselves "god, what the fuck is this shit?" not "wow, that ruled how can they ever top themselves?"

Edit: If you look at the site, where they list jump-the-shark moments, they are inevitably really lame moments, and as I said the literal jump-the-shark moment was incredibly lame. So either these guys didn't really invent the term or they are so dumb they can't verbalize what it actually means. The definition they give makes no sense relative to any examples, including the example the phrase is named after.

[murdoc]

This thread jumped the shark when Haem listened to the PA podcast and posted about it.

[Soukyan]

This thread jumped the shark when Haem listened to the PA podcast and posted about it.

Har!

[Krakrok]

I rarely find PA comics funny. It's about as funny as Garfield. This one I didn't even read the whole thing. It had too many words which said nothing. I thought it was going somewhere in the first first pane when they compared WoW and Warhammer (to the effect that Warcraft originally copied Warhammer or some shit) but it ended as a random word generator. Maybe that was the point.

Fuck the shark.

[Xanthippe]

Generally speaking, I like Foxtrot better than PA.

(I had one on my refrigerator for a long time, from when Simcity was popular (the first one).  The strip was about playing Simcity, and the last panel had the guy saying something like "19 nuclear power plants.  Life is good.")

I don't believe that the jumptheshark guys made up the phrase jump the shark.  I recall seeing that Happy Days episode when it aired, and the critics' chorus of derision at the time about the episode and the show, and how stupid it all had become.

[Azazel]

I give them about a 20-30-50 hit to meh to miss ratio in general, but fuck it's a cold day in hell today since I find myself agreeing with Krakrok's assessment of that particular comic.

[Ironwood]

Seriously. if that's not the definition of Jumping The Shark I don't know what is.

That's not funny.

Like, at all.

[Roac]

I'm guessing you don't know many table top gamers then?  It's like their own personal Jesus, in miniature.

[HaemishM]

Having played Warhammer religiously for a few years, yes, that's funny.

[Soln]

Why am I always late to these threads?

anyways.

har, and whatnot

[Ironwood]

I'm guessing you don't know many table top gamers then?  It's like their own personal Jesus, in miniature.

I was a table-top gamer in my youth.  I did the whole Warhammer thing.  I've mixed with the dregs of that crowd.

Still not funny.

[schild]

I'm guessing you don't know many table top gamers then?  It's like their own personal Jesus, in miniature.

I was a table-top gamer in my youth. I did the whole Warhammer thing. I've mixed with the dregs of that crowd.

Still not funny.

Let's chalk it up to the language barrier.

[Wolf]

I rarely find PA comics funny. It's about as funny as Garfield.

You just bashed Garfield. I hate you.

And the comic was funny even if you didn't play table-top warhammer. I didn't and it was funny to me.

[bhodi]

I don't want to have sex with wolf's avatar anymore.

[HaemishM]

That's good. It'd probably be illegal in most states anyway.

[bhodi]

I do still like penny-arcade though. Their charity work is amazing and I just LOVED The last christmas.

I just listened to the podcast on a lark.. wow, it's actually funny and entertaining. I'm pretty shocked; they can carry the podcast. I'll listen from now on.

[Hoax]

Yeah suddenly wolf's presence bothers me, in fact I think I hate wolf...

[schild]

Truly he should change his avatar. It's poorly drawn girl.

[Daeven]

Having played Warhammer religiously for a few years, yes, that's funny.

My comment about Warhammer Online? Where the fuck are my Lizzies? Bastards.

Humor scale definition: The bottom is when you stare at something in slack-jawed uncomprehending horror and dispair as your brain cells indulge in an orgy of apoptosis to purge the memory forever - to struggling valiantly to contain the burst of laughter in the vain attempt to keep your coworkers from thinking your are even more of a stark raving lunatic than they already believe.

This comic, as a wargamer who has encountered the 'GW is ripping off Blizzard' species before, lies somewhere in between those two points.