1
Getting Older
Posted by D
on
3:01 PM
I’m sitting at work right now, and I can’t help but feel really old. I get up every morning and commute an hour into the city to sit at a desk and do very basic work. I wait anxiously for 5pm to come around so that I can make the hour commute back home.
When did we get so old?
Trey Parker and Matt Stone were guests on The Daily Show a few days ago, and they brought up how everybody was concerned about them following the mid-season finale of South Park. They seemed to be in very good spirits (who wouldn’t after winning 9 Tony Awards) and said that they still loved doing South Park. However, they did make it clear that they were getting older, that there hopes for the future included more than just staying with their nearly 20 year old money maker. Although it’s comforting to know that our childhood TV show will still be with us for at least a little longer, what does it mean that two of the most brilliant and funniest people of our generation are starting to feel the pangs of age?
When did they get so old?
This afternoon, J, DM, and I got together for lunch (see Goodburger post). The three of us and G all work pretty close to each other in Manhattan, so we are trying to schedule lunch dates as much as we can. We’ve gotten to the age where we have lunch breaks and must coordinate to make everything work. After lunch is over (1 hour counts down quickly), we hurriedly head back to our respective offices/lab and wait the several hours before we see each other again back home. Just a few weeks ago, spending an hour together for lunch was nothing special. When you hang out with people all day/every day, individual meals are very memorable. But now that we’re 3 weeks older, these snippets of our childhoods become more memorable. We went to Goodburger after all (which was packed by the way). Even when we’re taking a break from work, we are subconsciously looking for a way to mimic the old days.
Remember when Kenan & Kel was your favorite show?
In hindsight, that last episode of South Park wasn’t so bad. It was definitely shocking at the time, but now that it has been some time, I wonder if our collective dissatisfaction with the episode and subsequent anger at Parker and Stone were misdirected. Things do seem less bright than they used to. Many of the things I used to love doing are no longer fun. Some parents get divorced, some don’t. Some people stay friends, others don’t. They say that all good things must come to an end. I hope that’s not true, but in the meantime, life certainly seems to be trending away from all the things that made my childhood memorable.
10 years from now, we'll all ask: Remember when South Park was our favorite show?
I commuted to the city last summer as well. Unlike this summer up to this point, I did not hang out with the guys afterward. A bunch of people were living away from home, and I was just too tired to hang out after work. This summer has been completely the opposite. Although I still have to leave at a relatively early hour (I’m old and need to sleep), I see everybody everyday. It’s like we all feel older together and therefore make a stronger effort to reconnect as often as possible. Even when I’m at work, I talk to everybody. Barely an hour goes by before I pick up my phone to restart a conversation with one of the guys. Now that life has gotten more serious, none of us want to pass up an opportunity to talk about the same stuff we’ve been talking about for years. Somehow that “same old stuff” is just as fresh every time.
Remember the time(s) that J got hit in the balls?
It’s probably just convenient timing, but I’d like to think that Parker and Stone were writing about us, about our lives, about where our lives are going. Maybe life won’t be as much as fun as it used to. Maybe our time together is winding down (very very very slowly). Maybe we’ll grow apart. Just like that episode of South Park, getting older is making life look pretty bleak. But I remember that South Park has done this before. I remember that every once in a while, an episode comes out that really pisses people off. We think that the Stone and Parker are losing it, that SP will stop being funny, and that soon everything we loved about the past will be gone forever. But every time this happens, they come back as good as ever. Every time. Always. Although Stan is angry now and separated from his friends, he will figure it out. He will. South Park (the community and show) will be okay. Trey and Matt said how much they loved doing South Park and that although their lives have become more complicated, South Park will always be home.
Our favorite show will be back until 2013.
Even though we are getting older and things seem bleaker than they used to, life will not stay this way. Just like we couldn’t be kids forever, we won’t be in between childhood and adulthood forever. Although we will all be going through some major changes soon (many of the guys are talking about finally moving out of our parents’ houses), at some point thing will settle down. We will find time to reconnect. We always do. Even when things have looked bleak in the past.
D
|
When did we get so old?
Trey Parker and Matt Stone were guests on The Daily Show a few days ago, and they brought up how everybody was concerned about them following the mid-season finale of South Park. They seemed to be in very good spirits (who wouldn’t after winning 9 Tony Awards) and said that they still loved doing South Park. However, they did make it clear that they were getting older, that there hopes for the future included more than just staying with their nearly 20 year old money maker. Although it’s comforting to know that our childhood TV show will still be with us for at least a little longer, what does it mean that two of the most brilliant and funniest people of our generation are starting to feel the pangs of age?
When did they get so old?
This afternoon, J, DM, and I got together for lunch (see Goodburger post). The three of us and G all work pretty close to each other in Manhattan, so we are trying to schedule lunch dates as much as we can. We’ve gotten to the age where we have lunch breaks and must coordinate to make everything work. After lunch is over (1 hour counts down quickly), we hurriedly head back to our respective offices/lab and wait the several hours before we see each other again back home. Just a few weeks ago, spending an hour together for lunch was nothing special. When you hang out with people all day/every day, individual meals are very memorable. But now that we’re 3 weeks older, these snippets of our childhoods become more memorable. We went to Goodburger after all (which was packed by the way). Even when we’re taking a break from work, we are subconsciously looking for a way to mimic the old days.
Remember when Kenan & Kel was your favorite show?
In hindsight, that last episode of South Park wasn’t so bad. It was definitely shocking at the time, but now that it has been some time, I wonder if our collective dissatisfaction with the episode and subsequent anger at Parker and Stone were misdirected. Things do seem less bright than they used to. Many of the things I used to love doing are no longer fun. Some parents get divorced, some don’t. Some people stay friends, others don’t. They say that all good things must come to an end. I hope that’s not true, but in the meantime, life certainly seems to be trending away from all the things that made my childhood memorable.
10 years from now, we'll all ask: Remember when South Park was our favorite show?
I commuted to the city last summer as well. Unlike this summer up to this point, I did not hang out with the guys afterward. A bunch of people were living away from home, and I was just too tired to hang out after work. This summer has been completely the opposite. Although I still have to leave at a relatively early hour (I’m old and need to sleep), I see everybody everyday. It’s like we all feel older together and therefore make a stronger effort to reconnect as often as possible. Even when I’m at work, I talk to everybody. Barely an hour goes by before I pick up my phone to restart a conversation with one of the guys. Now that life has gotten more serious, none of us want to pass up an opportunity to talk about the same stuff we’ve been talking about for years. Somehow that “same old stuff” is just as fresh every time.
Remember the time(s) that J got hit in the balls?
It’s probably just convenient timing, but I’d like to think that Parker and Stone were writing about us, about our lives, about where our lives are going. Maybe life won’t be as much as fun as it used to. Maybe our time together is winding down (very very very slowly). Maybe we’ll grow apart. Just like that episode of South Park, getting older is making life look pretty bleak. But I remember that South Park has done this before. I remember that every once in a while, an episode comes out that really pisses people off. We think that the Stone and Parker are losing it, that SP will stop being funny, and that soon everything we loved about the past will be gone forever. But every time this happens, they come back as good as ever. Every time. Always. Although Stan is angry now and separated from his friends, he will figure it out. He will. South Park (the community and show) will be okay. Trey and Matt said how much they loved doing South Park and that although their lives have become more complicated, South Park will always be home.
Our favorite show will be back until 2013.
Even though we are getting older and things seem bleaker than they used to, life will not stay this way. Just like we couldn’t be kids forever, we won’t be in between childhood and adulthood forever. Although we will all be going through some major changes soon (many of the guys are talking about finally moving out of our parents’ houses), at some point thing will settle down. We will find time to reconnect. We always do. Even when things have looked bleak in the past.
D
|
