You're Getting Old
From ice cream to movie trailers, Stan can now only see the bad in things, and this negative outlook alienates him from Kyle, Kenny, and Cartman, who begin avoiding him.
When Stan catches them secretly going to the movies without him after lying about having the flu, he comes along, only for his attitude to ruin the trailers and Kyle, Kenny, and Cartman leave the theater.
Sharon accuses Randy of merely feigning interest in modern music in order to hold onto his childhood dreams of being a musician, and deny that he is getting older.
Randy, however, ignores her, and starts performing tween wave music at the local bowling alley under the name "Steamy Ray Vaughn," with flatulence as part of the act.
Parker noted later that they had backup songs to use if necessary, though none fit as well as "Landslide",[5] The producers were very satisfied with the ending, feeling it provided a very emotional conclusion to the show.
[6] In addition, the episode contains what Parker describes in the commentary as "our favorite thing of any South Park ever": the Duck President, who communicates by spraying feces from his mouth.
The episode makes it clear that Stan's pre-adolescent battle with cynicism is not necessarily representative of all "tweens"; one reviewer described the character's problem as more common to depression.
"[1] Time reviewer James Poniewozik disagreed with his assessment, but did note that "there's definitely an argument that the instant dissection of all experience online encourages a kind of protective dismissiveness.
[1] South Park generally ends on a positive note and "resets" upon the next episode, in which way it is connected to traditional television sitcoms, as it does not serialize or employ story arcs with frequency.
[11] The character of Sharon references this in one of the episode's final moments, criticizing, on a metafictional level, the show's form and reliance on "happy endings".
Stone likened this structure to an "immature view of the world": he remarks in the episode's DVD commentary that things do not often end on a "happy" note in real-life.
[12] A central element of the episode's plot line concerns the fictional "tween wave" genre of music, which consists of audible flatulence and defecation in a literal sense.
[9] Reviewers interpreted the episode's use of literal feces as just a simple example of the show's use of scatological humor, but also a comment on the dismissiveness of things vulgarly described as "crap" or "shit".
"[14] The episode makes reference to the 2011 films Mr. Popper's Penguins and Jack and Jill, the latter an Adam Sandler comedy notable for its extremely poor reception.
[18] In his desperate attempt to fit in with popular music, Stan's father, Randy, forms his own tween wave act: "Steamy Ray Vaughan", a pun on the blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan, who collaborates with singer "Steamy Nicks", a pun on Stevie Nicks, vocalist from Fleetwood Mac.
[16] Comedy Central's press release prior to the airing of the episode alluded to its significance, stating: "After Stan celebrates his 10th birthday, he begins to see everything differently...
Much of the conversation centered on the final scene of dialogue between the Marshes, with Entertainment Weekly noting it could be "a not-so-thinly-veiled way of Stone and Parker telling us they had a similar discussion about their very show.
"[20] Critics pointed to a March 2011 profile in The Hollywood Reporter, in which they spoke at how they dreaded to return to producing South Park: "I don't know how we're going to do it.
"[21] "Knowing that Parker and Stone have been experiencing a bit of an existential crisis or even just restlessness definitely made tonight seem unusually thematically heavy", remarked Sean O'Neal of The A.V.
While Ramsey Isler of IGN found the episode to be largely humorless and monotonous, he interpreted this as intentional on the part of the show's creators, who he believed had grown weary of creating the series.
