There are episodes of TV that entertain you. Some that make you think. But once in a long while, there’s one that holds a mirror to your soul, and you just sit there – staring into your own reflection- wrecked.
For me, that was South Park’s “You’re Getting Old” (Season 15, Episode 7).
This wasn’t the usual South Park chaos. No celebrity parodies. No outrageous toilet humor. Just a kid named Stan who wakes up one morning and suddenly everything he used to love; his music, his movies, his whole world – starts to feel like literal crap. And I mean that literally. The show visualizes it as turds spewing from speakers and characters saying nothing but the word “shit.”
At first, it plays like a gag. But it’s not. It’s depression. Pure and honest. And it’s one of the most brutally accurate portrayals I’ve ever seen on screen.
Overview of the Episode
In You’re Getting Old, Stan turns 10 and suddenly starts perceiving everything he used to love; music, movies, even food – as “crap.” Literally. The world becomes cynical and gross.
Meanwhile, his parents’ relationship begins to unravel, and the episode ends not with a reset or a joke, but a melancholic fade-out to Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide,” a song about time and change. It’s one of the only South Park episodes that doesn’t resolve with humor or absurdity. It just… ends, quiet and reflective.
Why It Hits So Hard—From My POV
I’m in my 50s. I’ve got a family I love, a career I’ve built, passions that used to light me up, and yet, sometimes the color feels like it’s draining from the things that once brought me joy. Like Stan, I still see value in the things I love, but there’s this gnawing feeling that the world around them; and maybe even I; have shifted.
This isn’t just physical aging. It’s emotional evolution. In a world obsessed with what’s new, loud, or trending, that inner shift can feel isolating. Stan literally sees everything as poop – it’s a metaphor for when your passions start to feel stale, or worse, meaningless. For me, it’s those moments when everything I own or have built feels like an echo of something more vibrant. That little voice whispering: Was it better back then, or am I just tired now?
The Marital Subplot, Randy & Sharon
This part crushed me. Not because it was dramatic. Because it was quietly honest. It’s not about infidelity or betrayal. It’s about emotional erosion. Randy says, “I’m unhappy alright?”
That line is a dagger. For anyone in a long-term relationship, it reflects a truth we rarely admit: sometimes it’s not about fights or crises. It’s about the slow, painful process of growing apart while silently mourning the people you used to be.
Like everyone else, I’ve got a lot on my shoulders: work pressures, aging, a daughter with her own struggles. That kind of weight doesn’t leave room for spontaneity or passion. It builds walls. It creates silence. And if you’re like me, an overthinker and a geek with a hidden, deep emotional core, you feel that distance even more.
‘Landslide” by Fleetwood Mac
This is where the episode becomes transcendent. The song is so raw, and pairing it with Stan watching his world crumble makes it feel like a sucker punch to the soul.
“I’ve been afraid of changin’ / ’Cause I built my life around you…”
Those lyrics don’t just match the scene – they explain it. They speak to building your life on things – your partner, your fandom, your child, your sense of identity, and realizing time erodes all of it, no matter how deeply rooted.
For me, it reflected that feeling of trying to hold onto what made me “me” – the kid who escaped into horror films and comics, while now trying to make sense of being a grown man watching his daughter grow up, watching the world get louder and weirder, and trying to make peace with all that change.
It’s not just nostalgia. It’s mourning.
And yeah, I cried. Shhh.
Stan Is All of Us
Stan’s journey mirrors our own. He’s not just getting older—he’s being stripped of illusion. The things that once gave life color now feel… brown. And if you’ve ever battled the gray, flavorless fog of depression, you know exactly what that means.
But here’s the twist – Stan does come out of it, eventually. But not in this episode. Just like real life, it takes time.
South Park didn’t fix him. It didn’t offer a joke to soften the blow. It just let the truth hang there. And that was everything.
Maybe the message is this: Even if everything sounds like crap, the fact that you notice means you still care. You’re still alive inside. Even if it hurts.
Fleetwood Mac asked:
“Can I handle the seasons of my life?”
Some days, I don’t know. But I’m still here, still asking.
And maybe that’s enough.
https://youtube.com/shorts/PQczEiPM470?si=XDVooNA8moQoNPht
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Genex Geek 
There’s a profound sense of loss of so much time, and grief over so many wrong turns when one is 50+. For Stan to feel this at 10 seems odd but I haven’t seen the episode either. I don’t think I will. I cry over the smallest things these days, so watching Stan have this moment? I’ll give the episode a miss but I do appreciate your insight. I often sing along to Fleetwood Mac’s Oh Well Part 1.
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That song always broke me, this episode made it more powerful.
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