Jump the shark

Updated 2014-09-13

Jump the shark is not yet a meme at The Many Memes of Meta, a page on the meta site for the Stack Overflow family of Q&A sites ("Q&A sites" means "question and answer sites", Wikipedia is useless in this instance).

It is based on Jeff Atwood's blog post Has Joel Spolsky Jumped the Shark? on 2006-09-11.

There are many references both inside and outside the Stack Overflow podcast:

1. 2007-04-26. Episode 232 of the .NET Rocks podcast, 25 min 37 sec - 30 min 15 sec. Joel Spolsky explains/defends the choice of writing their own computer language, Wasabi. MP3 download link (the episode is in two parts, this is the second part). 22.2 MB.

2. 2008-04-29. Episode 3 of the Stack Overflow podcast, 18 min 34 sec (indirect reference to Jump the shark, "wasabi". By Jeff Atwood.). And 20 min 14 sec - 32 min 31 sec. MP3 download link. 21.4 MB.

3. 2008-05-13. Episode 5 of the Stack Overflow podcast, 01 min 02 sec - 03 min 18 sec. Jeff Atwood actually calls it a meme and that several times. MP3 download link. 22.3 MB.

4. 2008-05-27. Episode 7 of the Stack Overflow podcast, 58 min 58 sec - 59 min 44 sec. MP3 download link. 21.9 MB.

5. 2008-06-03. Episode 8 of the Stack Overflow podcast, 06 min 53 sec. Indirect reference to jump the shark by Jeff Atwood: "You are a wasabi guy, it is worse!". MP3 download link. 31.3 MB.

6. 2008-06-03. Episode 8 of the Stack Overflow podcast, 47 min 36 sec. Indirect reference to jump the shark by Jeff Atwood (transcription is difficult): ""I have a mental image of Joel Spolsky like pulling the fridge and being unable to do so. Going "I felt Wasabi would totally solve this problem""". MP3 download link. 31.3 MB.

7. 2008-06-03. Episode 8 of the Stack Overflow podcast, 49 min 50 sec. Indirect reference to jump the shark by Jeff Atwood: "What? You are creating a new language, what, you are crazy. You know what that sounds like, right?, Joel ". MP3 download link. 31.3 MB.

8. 2008-07-22. Episode 13 of the Stack Overflow podcast, 25 min 19 sec. Joel Spolsky makes a reference to Jump the shark. MP3 download link. 30.6 MB.

9. 2008-08-12. Episode 19 of the Stack Overflow podcast, 58 min 48 sec. Joel Spolsky makes an indirect reference to Jump the shark ("... had to have our compiler [wasabi]"). MP3 download link. 32.6 MB.

10. 2008-12-02. Episode 32 of the Stack Overflow podcast, 35 min 28 sec. Jeff Atwood makes indirect/unnamed reference to Jump the shark. MP3 download link. MP3 download link. 32.7 MB.

11. 2009-04-07. Episode 48 of the Stack Overflow podcast, 02 min 23 sec. Joel Spolsky makes a reference to Jump the shark. MP3 download link. 36.0 MB.

12. 2009-04-14. Episode 158 of Hanselminutes. 2 min 03 secs - about 13 minutes. Scott Hanselman interviews Joel Spolsky. Joel Spolsky explains in depth the story behind Wasabi. Some of the reasons are constraints. And later, at 23 min 30 secs - about 27 minutes Jump the shark is directly discussed. Scott Hanselman asks directly whether Joel Spolsky was insulted by Jeff Atwood's blog post.

13. 2009-05-05. Episode 52 of the Stack Overflow podcast, 42 min 30 sec. Joel Spolsky makes a reference to Jump the shark. MP3 download link. 29.6 MB.

14. 2009-05-26. Episode 55 of the Stack Overflow podcast, 17 min 57 sec. Joel Spolsky makes a reference to Jump the shark. MP3 download link. 30.5 MB.

15. 2009-06-02. Episode 56 of the Stack Overflow podcast, 1 hour 14 min 02 sec. The guest makes a reference to Jump the shark. MP3 download link. 34.7 MB.

16. 2009-10-19. Episode 71 of the Stack Overflow podcast, 1 hour 24 min 30 sec. Joel Spolsky makes a reference to Wasabi (origin of Jump the shark). MP3 download link. 30.4 MB.

17. 2009-10-23. Episode XX of Hanselminutes. Hanselminutes on 9 - Spolsky, Atwood, Blyth, Hanselman = Crazy-Delicious || Content-Free?

18. 2009-12-15. Episode 78 of the Stack Overflow podcast, 35 min 25 sec. Jeff Atwood makes a reference to Jump the shark. MP3 download link. 30.4 MB.

19. 2010-01-05. Episode 79 of the Stack Overflow podcast, 56 min 05 sec. Joel Spolsky makes a reference to Jump the shark. MP3 download link. 35.0 MB.

20. 2010-01-26. Episode 81 of the Stack Overflow podcast, 16 min 49 sec. Jeff Atwood makes an indirect reference to Jump the shark. MP3 download link. 32.1 MB.

21. 2010-02-16. Episode 84 of the Stack Overflow podcast, 30 min 34 sec. A member of the Stack Exchange team makes an indirect reference to Jump the shark (Wasabi). MP3 download link. 26.5 MB.


To be continued...