So this is the point we've come to as a culture: The New York Times is helping us suss out the relative merits and/or hipness of dueling catch phrases, one drawn from the television show Happy Days ("jumped the shark"), the other from the film Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull ("nuked the fridge"), both designed to describe something that has become meritless due to a loss of hipness. Sort of like this argument (probably before it began) and even, perhaps, this post.
Just to be safe, until this gets sorted out, I'll be adopting the compromise phrase of "Nuke the Fonz."
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