What is Jumping The Whale?
1.
An expression used by people too stunned to remember it's supposed to be "jumping/jumped the shark" and too lame to realize that that phrase has, in fact, jumped the shark.
"I think that series is really jumping the whale," said the loser, which brought only stunned looks from the rest of his buddies at the debating club.
2.
When a good TV series runs out of ideas and becomes stupid.
From Happy Days - the point at which the Fonze jumped a whale on his motorbike is the point at which people stopped watching that programme.
"Man, how come everyone in friends is now 40 and fat, but they're still acting like 20 year olds?"
"Yeah man, they're jumping the whale."
Or
"Dude, did you see Bobby Ewing come back from the dead in Dallas?"
"Hell yeah, that frizzy haired man from atlantis was jumping the whale!"