Justin Trudeau jumps the shark -- again
There was a tragicomical moment at the Justice Hogue inquiry on foreign interference this week when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau jumped the shark with his testimony, claiming he did not want to be partisan while collaring Conservative parliamentarians as the foreign agents of interest.
Wikipedia defines the idiom to “jump the shark” as a term that describes an entity that “has reached a point in which it has exhausted its core intent and is introducing new ideas that are discordant with, or an extreme exaggeration of, its original purpose.” It is a term that was coined by an episode of the comedy sitcom Happy Days, where the central character, Fonzie, in swim trunks and his leather jacket completes a waterski jump over a live shark. It was a vaudeville stunt that, even in its performance, was viewed as wholly unbelievable. That particular show, that act of jumping the shark, has been immortalized for its cringey senselessness.