Words and Picture by Sam Quarelli Fleming
As part of the good will junket of Japan by Kawasaki the collective American journalist contingency was treated to two days at Kawasaki’s magnificent race track: Autopolis. The first day was a during the fourth of the seven round Japanese national race series. The second was a track day for interested journalists.
Once upon a time there was a TV show called “Happy Days”. This romanticized vision of the 1950s (devoid, for instance, of: red scares, ruthless conformity and systemic racism) was widely regarded for its fresh and uplifting tales of a simpler time. At one point in the show a new character was introduced into the story line. That character rode a motorcycle and wore a black leather jacket. Although ‘the Fonz’ was supposed to be only around for one episode he quickly became one of the stars of the show.
On one dark day the writers of the show ran out of ideas. They were dry. They smoked cigarettes, drank coffee, and threw darts but nothing came of it. There was no new high school dilemma they could rehash, no moral crisis to be solved by doing the right thing, no more good-natured sibling tension to exploit. Grasping for straws the team of writers used the last plot device that was possibly open to them. They would have the Fonz use his trusty Triumph to jump a shark in a tank.
“Jumping the shark” henceforth is colloquially known as the dreaded moment where the ideas run out and one turns to the realm of the absurd to continue the franchise.