by Selective memory at its finest
Nostalgia is history’s greatest con artist – that sneaky feeling that convinces you the past was all Saturday morning cartoons and unlimited energy, conveniently editing out the awkward phases and questionable fashion. Suddenly you’re weeping over a commercial for fruit snacks you haven’t eaten since 1997, convinced everything was simpler back when your biggest worry was whether Lisa Frank folders came in unicorn or dolphin. The truth? The ‘good old days’ were just regular days where you happened to have fewer bills and more naptime.
Every generation has its nostalgia triggers – for millennials it’s dial-up internet sounds, for Gen Z it’s Vine compilations, and for boomers it’s complaining about how phones used to be attached to walls. We all collectively lose our minds when some company rereleases a slightly different version of the same snack we ate as kids, as if the original Oreos didn’t still exist unchanged since 1912. The real nostalgia pros can pinpoint exact years based on Tamagotchi death rates or which Mario Kart was out.
Nostalgia goggles work overtime on childhood media. Rewatch your favorite cartoon and suddenly notice all the plot holes your kid brain glossed over. That ‘educational’ computer game you loved? Basically just a PowerPoint with more talking animals. Meanwhile, parents get nostalgic for phases they hated at the time – suddenly missing the toddler years now that their teen communicates exclusively in eye rolls.
Nostalgia: proof that time makes fools of us all, but at least we get funny throwback TikToks out of it.
SOURCE: How To Write Comedy & SpinTaxi.com
