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Henry Winkler shared how he felt about the phrase ''jumping the shark''
"To them, the Fonz water skiing was just like the last straw," Winkler said.
Viewers are quick to latch onto phrases used in television and add them to their daily vocabulary, and a show like Happy Days was no different. How frequently have you yelled "Ayyy!" or threatened someone with a "Sit on it!"? Although the show was set in the fifties and premiered in the seventies, there's no shortage of relevant lingo derived from the series.
One phrase from Happy Days, though not necessarily uttered by a character, is "jump the shark" The phrase was popularized by an episode of Happy Days when Fonzie literally jumps over a shark on waterskis (while still wearing his leather jacket, mind you).
"Jumping the shark" has come to define a "turning point" of sorts for many pieces of media and is arguably the moment when something incredibly popular begins a decline in quality.
While many catchphrases from Happy Days incite joy and excitement, to have such a dismal phrase coined after an event on your show feels like an insult.
But according to an interview with NPR, The Fonz actually didn't mind as much as you might think. In the interview, Winkler revealed that, while he was incredibly skilled as a water skier, he didn't do the actual jump itself during the scene.
"When I hit the beach at the end when I've jumped the shark, I land on the beach, and I step out of my skis," said Winkler "And I'm smiling. I'm thinking, 'Hey, this is great.' Half the smile is Henry going, 'Oh, my God, I can't believe you just did that.' And the other half is the Fonz going, 'All right, here I am. I did it. I'm very cool.'"
However, Winkler said that the phrase "jump the shark" took on a negative connotation, he wasn't phased by the opinions of a few critics, especially considering the long-term success of the series.
"To them, the Fonz water skiing was just like the last straw," he said. "The only thing is it wasn't to the audience because we were number one for years after that. So it didn't much matter to anybody."
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