Jumping the Shark

Jumping the Shark

I’ve got a favor to ask of you.

It’s that time of year—sweeps week, season finales on prime time TV, dramatic plots and cliffhangers. Shows that you like might never come back, and shows that you hate might pop up again. And after the season is over, all that’s left are reruns.

H.E. and I have been discussing some of his favorite shows—which of them are coming back and which of them aren’t, which of them have jumped the shark and which of them are close to doing so.

The conversation led me to think about a casual observation that Christian Finnegan made on his blog some time ago. He wondered jokingly if his blog had “jumped the shark.”

Now I am idly wondering the same thing about mine.

Here’s why. My site consistently gets bookmarked between 150-200 times a month, but I have no idea what makes all those people bookmark me. [Hmm… or is it just one person obsessively bookmarking me five times a day?!] So I got the notion that I should list some favorite entries or recommendations to first-time readers [or to that single nutty person bookmarking me 40 times a week], and I started reading my older entries, even the ones from B.C., before comments. After reading a few of them, I had an uneasy realization:

Some of my writing back then was way, way, waaaay better than it is today. [For one thing, back then, I would never have written the words “way, way, waaaay better” at all.]

Does that mean I have jumped the shark? Am I going downhill from here? Am I only progressively getting worse? I sure hope not. I’ve got many more plots ideas for future episodes entries up my sleeves, and I haven’t even come close to using half of them. There’s going to be a couple of shootings and a kidnapping, a là West Wing, a few murders and instances of extortion, a là The Practice, and some accidents, evil twins, and bouts of amnesia, a là every single damn daytime soap opera.

Yes, I plan to stick around a little bit longer, dishing out new episodes whenever the hormones permit and for as long as Aaron Sorkin is writing my log. But I need to know when I have jumped the shark. Someone has to point it out to me because I’m sure I’ll be too blind to see it. Will you do that for me?

Pretty please? That’s the favor I’m asking of you.

Some blogs come, and some blogs go. Some mysteriously never get taken up again, and all that’s left are the archives, like old reruns on Nick at Night. Some remake themselves, like spinoffs, forever creating new characters, material, and expensive ad buys. Some just keep going and going and going and going, like the Energizer bunny, unchanged yet outlasting everything (even cockroaches) and still coming out fine. And some just keep going and going and going and going, even though they’re no longer any good, having killed off the entire cast (who have all been raped, extorted, kidnapped and deprived of all memory) and having told every sad joke and bit of drivel at least twice or three times over.

Well, I don’t want to be one of those in that last category, so nudge me in the ribs if I start doing the beach thing in a black leather jacket and motorcycle boots.

Or…

Better yet. Among all the blogs or online journals that you’ve encountered online, tell me which ones have already jumped the shark. Then maybe I can go read them and learn what NOT to do. But if you send me a link to my own site, be sure to specify in which entry the shark was hiding, okay?

Thanks!

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13 thoughts on “Jumping the Shark

  1. You? Jump the shark? Nope, it’s just not going to happen. You, dear April, are riding the wave.

    I remain, your devoted fan.

  2. Ah, yes. I still remember the day you first jumped the shark… I was sitting at my desk wondering what’s making you go downhill, but my thoughts were distracted by the pretty pink polka-dotted elephants flying outside my window.

    😉

    Thou rocketh, April.

  3. Aww, thanks, Pam and Minnie! lol. 🙂

    Actually, I wasn’t fishing for compliments [though you won’t get any complaints from me! ;-)], but I was sneakily fishing for links to either of the following:

    1. Entries you’d recommend to the first-time reader here. Many of them stumble on this site via entries like this, for instance, and I wouldn’t exactly call that one of my better posts.

    2. Blogs or journals that you think have "jumped the shark." I’ve been wondering lately if that’s even possible for a blog to do, what with all the redesigns possible.

  4. Don’t ask me how I found your site, I plead the 5th. Well actually I do not remember, but I think it was through Davezilla, but then again, I do not remember how I found Dave or any of the other sites I read.

    As for what would be good posts for first time viewers, all of them. They are all good.

    As for jumping the shark, that might be me, well not in that way, get your mind out of the gutter.
    🙂

  5. April,

    Your’s is the ONLY blog I read.

    I can’t imagine that your writing could have been any better than it is now. I really enjoy reading your entries, and pop-in each day to check for updates. (How dissapointed I am on those days that have no new entries.)

    Remember that changing hair styles is a category in Jump The Shark. So please, DON"T CUT YOUR HAIR.

  6. I’ve seen blogs go in cycles. I periodically take a hiatus (though I don’t say I am because damn, that’s so prima donna — "I can’t handle my hobbies," *nose in the air* "I’m too busy to write my blog, please stop the begging and the phone calls." *hand on forehead, dramatic sweep out of the blogosphere* *peeking back to see who’s weeping at my absence*) (where was I? oh, yeah) when I’m getting forced or annoyed or actually start believing that there are hundreds of people out there hanging on my every word so they have to be the best words ever written or I’ll let down my "fans" (see above note on hysterical prima donnas).

    I’m not writing for any reason other than I have stuff to say. I figure as long as I’m still ME (and by extension, you are still YOU), we will experience natural ebbs and flows of writing and lives and our blogs will reflect that.

    Of course, you rock, though, and you are in a lake, wherein there are no sharks to jump. Does that mean there is no crest? No dramatic tension? Aiyee! Perhaps a cranky manatee — no — a harbour seal…

    No, I don’t actually have a point, you just set off a bunch of incongruent thoughts. 🙂

  7. LOL, Tony. Mind’s out of the gutter, per your request. 😀 (Oh, and I think it was through Dave’s site, too.)

    Brendan, with a comment like that, I will keep my hair long just for you! 😉 As for the infrequency of my posts, I’ll figure out what I can do on the off days so I can have new stuff for you to see when you come by. 🙂

    And Suzanne… LOL… I’m grinning like a fool here thanks to you. Now I will always envision all those prima donna gestures when I see a hiatus post online. The lake thing? Well… I wouldn’t mind jumping the Loch Ness monster if it shows up. 😀

  8. Entries you’d recommend to the first-time reader here.

    Oh, okay. Well then, among my most favourite of your entries are your ‘Kodak moment’ stories. 🙂

  9. "jumping the Loch Ness monster"…huh…I would be careful about that, you know how H.E. is around 4 year olds looking at you. What would he think about a Loch Ness Monster?

    Yeah Yeah, so I could only keep my mind out of the gutter for about 1/5 of a second. I am a guy, what did you expect.

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