Fonz Jumps the Shark on HAPPY DAYS vs Drinking Your Milkshake
The reason I’m posting this infamous 1977 clip from Happy Days which gives us the expression to ‘jump the shark’, (meaning to pass ones prime and descended into gimmick) is that I realized that I had never actually watched it.
But that’s not the only reason. The recent ‘I’ll end up drinking your milkshake’ line from There Will be Blood (which originally came from the 1920s) looks set to also become a permanent part of contemporary English vernacular.
What these expressions both have in common is that they are not descriptive of what they have come to mean, without knowing the reference, and yet they are and will be used without knowing that reference. This points to the conclusion, that expressions such as these stick precisely because they are unusual enough for people to take notice, and different enough that there is no existing competition from similar expressions.