Caveat: America Jumps the Shark

The phrase “jump the shark” is a contemporary idiom that means that moment when something that was for a long time a serious artistic undertaking is transformed into a kind of parody of itself, as the work’s creators pursue novelty. Originally it was applied to TV shows and other works of a serial or episodic nature – e.g. book series, etc. Nowadays, the idiom seems applicable to anything where an initially earnest project becomes self-parody. I believe the expression arose in a critical discussion of a certain episode of the TV series “Happy Days.”

So this happened to that project called “United States of America.” The USA has jumped the shark. I have evidence.

Exhibit A:

It doesn’t even matter if this is intentional satire or if it “real.” It is out there. 

Some points to consider:

  • History repeats itself, “the first as tragedy, then as farce.” – Karl Marx.
  • At what point does satire, parody, or fiction also become reality (e.g. we have a president who emerged from the realm of “reality TV” – which has always been a type of fiction)?
  • Finally – we must never, ever misinterpret stupidity or ignorance as evil.

Slightly related:

Perhaps Obama’s biggest mistake: the blogger “Atrios” at Eschaton blog speculates that Obama should bear some of the blame for the current mess in the White House: “Do not sanction powers you do not want your successor to have.”

[daily log: walking, 8km]

Caveat: Poem #522

The conversation takes a wrong turn.
The mood slips down into a mode
of a defensive anger.
Words then transform themselves
into parries, thrusts.
Whence this attack?
Disturbing.
Seething.
Dark.

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