The latest fun internet catchphrase may just catch on as much as "jump the shark" did when referring to television shows that have crossed the line into self-parodying absurdity, and we may have Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull to thank for it.
As you may recall, "jumping the shark" refers to a specific episode of Happy Days wherein Arthur Fonzerelli got on waterskis and literally jumped over a shark, signaling to many that the show no longer had any reason to exist, or any resemblance to what it once was. The phrase then came to applicable to any television show - i.e. "Survivor jumped the shark when they stopped having naked fat guys."
Now we're hearing that film franchises may have their own turn of phrase to signal the same thing: "nuking the fridge." It's been nearly a month, so we can safely assume you're familiar with the moment in Indiana Jones 4 where Indy manages to survive a nuclear bomb unharmed by hiding in a kitchen refrigerator, despite being flung for miles through the air inside of it. A truly ridiculous moment, even if the silhouette of Indy looking at a mushroom cloud was striking. Whether or not this signals the complete demise of the Indy franchise, thus justifying the use of the term "nuking he fridge" - i.e. "4 Fast 4 Furious really nuked the fridge when Paul Walker came back" - or whether Indy 5 comes back strong remains to be seen.
