Is A Part Of
I am among the millions saddened by the death of Crocodile Guy Steve Erwin, and among the millions who really don’t want to see the video of his fatal accident, OK? But, being the pop culture vulture that I am, I knew that this was an opportunity to attempt to coin a Brand New Phrase! And that’s it up on the title. And thanks to Google, I can confirm that it has only been used three times since Steve Irwin’s passing within the WWWeb,
As part of a long rambling post on a blog called Glögg (with totally unnecessary umlaut):
In a comment on the Gawker-owned sportsblog Deadspin:
Roy Keane says:
With these new rule, Deadspin just jumped the stingray.
09/05/06 02:56 PM
And, inevitably, in the first comment added to Jump the Shark‘s Crocodile Hunter thread to mention his death:
So, Gregory of Glögg gets the prize for first use, Roy Keane gets the honor of using it first to refer to something other than Steve Irwin, and Jump the Shark demonstrates again why they should have time stamps on their comments.
But all things considered, I believe I should get credit for the first definition of what it means to “Jump the Stingray”:
While Jumping the Shark is the defining moment when something has reached its peak and it’s all downhill from here, Jumping the Stingray is a defining moment when the downturn is so steep and extreme that it is inevitably and almost immediately fatal.
A TV show “Jumping the Stingray” only occurs only when it airs something that leads directly to its cancellation. A celebrity “Jumping the Stingray” has done something truly career-ending (which considering this culture’s absurd tolerance for “second chances”, is rare, and most often will, sadly, involve fatal accidents like Steve’s). I’m still pondering some examples of the phenomenon. So, Pinky, are you pondering what I’m pondering?
JUMP THE STINGRAY is not a registered trademark of Wendell Wittler’s OneSwellFoop NetWorks, but should be. (Consider this your collective punishment for not picking up on any of the other words I’ve coined)
