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Reader question: Please explain this sentence: “We now know the iPhone and Apple jumped the shark.” My comments: Whoever makes that remark is of the opinion that the iPhone along with Apple the company as a whole has gone over the hill. We are able to make the inference because of the phrase “jumped the shark”. Unlike most idioms, this American expression is one you can take at face value – You can read the words and take their meaning literally. Yes, and at any rate someone really did jump the shark originally. This, from Wikipedia: The phrase jump the shark comes from a scene in the fifth season premiere episode of the American TV series Happy Days titled “Hollywood: Part 3”, written by Fred Fox, Jr., which aired on September 20, 1977. In the episode, the central characters visit Los Angeles, where a water-skiing Fonzie (Henry Winkler) answers a challenge to his bravery by wearing swim trunks and his trademark leather jacket, and jumping over a confined shark. The stunt was created as a way to showcase Winkler’s real life water ski skills. For a show that in its early seasons depicted universally relatable adolescent and family experiences against a backdrop of 1950s nostalgia, this incident marked an audacious, cartoonish turn towards attention-seeking gimmickry. Initially a supporting character, the faddish lionization of an increasingly superhuman Fonzie became the focus of Happy Days. The series continued for seven years after Fonzie’s shark-jumping stunt, with a number of changes in cast and situations. However, it is commonly believed that the show began a creative decline in this era, as writers ran out of ideas, and Happy Days became a caricature of itself. As a nod to the episode, Henry Winkler’s character again jumped a shark in the 2003 show Arrested Development. | 
