My friends Liz, Bibhash, John and I came up with the opposite of “jump the shark” this morning (Saturday, January 19, 2013) at brunch. It is “reveal the robot,” a reference to Ninjago, Season 1, Episode 7, “Tick Tock.” Whereas “jump the shark” is the point at which a great television show goes downhill, “reveal the robot” describes the point at which a regular show becomes great. Example of usage: Ninjago totally revealed the robot in the the episode “Tick Tock.”
On a side note, Ninjago is worth watching. Watch it in order, and you’ll probably agree. Lego really knows what they are doing, and whoever gave the green light to Ninjago (Lego theme, as well as the television show) was a genius.
Excellent! This needs to be submitted to Urban Dictionary!
Ha! There is already an opposite of “jump the shark,” as I found out when looking at Urban Dictionary! It’s “grow the beard,” which was apparently initially reflective of Star Trek:TNG getting better in season 2, when Riker now had a beard. It’s a great term, but I feel ours is a more exact opposite of “jump the shark” because the revealing of the robot occurred as a moment in an episode where everything changed, just as it did in the Happy Days episode from which “jump the shark” was born, unlike the event in Star Trek:TNG, which happened between seasons.