History Main / AGoodOldFashionedPaintWatching

* In Disney's ''TheLittleMermaid'', Scuttle the seagull tells Ariel that before they discovered music, ancient humans "used to sit around and stare at each other all day."

* ''SaturdayNightLive'' Weekend Update segments in the early 1990's would occasionally feature Dana Carvey as "A GrumpyOldMan" who would make comparisons between modern day and "his day" similarly to the WeirdAlYankovic example below, always concluding his remarks with, "...and that's the way it was, and we ''liked'' it!"

* The WeirdAlYankovic song "When I Was Your Age" has lyrics about not having {{Nintendo}} games as a kid and having to pour salt on snails as entertainment.

[[IThoughtItMeant Not to be confused with]] sending a badly behaved child to sit in the corner and stare at the wall as punishment.

* In ''{{Discworld}}'' Granny and Nanny comment on how there is too much "making your own entertainment" these days, they never had time for it when they where young.

* [[MST3K "*sigh*... Y'know, guys: this whole time, we could have been watching an apple brown."]]

* Staring at a wall, in [[http://the-qlc.com/loserz/go/298 this strip]] of ''{{Loserz}}''.

* ''SaturdayNightLive'' Weekend Update segments in the early 1990's would occasionally feature Dana Carvey as "A GrumpyOldMan" who would make comparisons between modern day and "his day" similarly to the WeirdAlYankovic example above, always concluding his remarks with, "...and that's the way it was, and we ''liked'' it!"

* RealLife: A History Channel episode of ''Modern Marvels'' was about paint. One man who tests paints for a paint company is required by his job to watch paint dry. He [[YourMileageMayVary finds it interesting.]]

* They play with this in ''[[WebOriginal/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries Yu Gi Oh The Abridged Movie]]'' Where it is stated that ''Thousands of years ago people were very bored because card games hadn't been invented yet, so in order to pass the time they started killing each other with magical powers''

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* Played for laughs in one of the KevinButler [=PS3=] ads, this one for the Blu-ray player feature

* [[MST3K "*sigh*... Y'know, guys: this whole time, we ''could'' have been watching an apple brown."]]

* Literal example: both ''QuackPack'' and ''GarfieldAndFriends'' had the main characters channel surfing, and one of the TV shows is about watching paint dry.

* In {{Discworld}} Granny and Nanny comment on how there is too much "making your own entertainment" these days, they never had time for it when they where young.

* In The Decline of Video Gaming, the gamers relate something about the villains' games being less fun than "watching paint dry," complete with cheering ("C'moonnnn, blue!"); watching grass grow (one watcher cheats with fertilizer); watching ice melt (with the help of flamethrowers), and the greatest insult of all-- ''[[RunningGag watching Tom burn]].''

* On GarfieldAndFriends, Garfield compares visiting Jon's cousin to watching paint dry. Sure enough, Jon's cousin makes Jon watch boring slides mostly of his wife waving while on vacation.

* Played for laughs in one of the KevinButler Ps3 ads, this one for the Blu-ray player feature
--> '''Kevin Butler''': You know what [your grandma]] did for fun when she was young? She pushed a hoop with a stick.

* In Disney's ''TheLittleMermaid'', Scuttle the seagull tells Ariel that ancient humans "used to sit around and stare at each other all day."

[[AC:ComicBooks]]
* In the U.K. ''[[DennisTheMenaceUK Dennis the Menace]]'' cartoon, Dennis' granny jokes that before TV was invented, they all sat around waiting for TV to be invented. Her actual youth activities however (reading, hunting dodos and listening to the wireless) are little better, as far as the main character is concerned.

* On GarfieldAndFriends, Garfield compares visiting Jon's cousin to watching paint dry. Sure enough, Jon's cousin makes Jon watch boring slides mostly of his wife waving while on vacation.

* They play with this in ''[[YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries Yu Gi Oh The Abridged Movie]]'' Where it is stated that ''Thousands of years ago people were very bored because card games hadn't been invented yet, so in order to pass the time they started killing each other with magical powers''

* Played for laughs in one of KevinButlers Ps3 ads, this one for the Blu-ray player feature

* Staring at a wall, in [[http://bukucomics.com/loserz/go/298 this strip]] of ''{{Loserz}}''.

* They play with this in ''[YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries Yu Gi Oh The Abridged Movie]'' Where it is stated that ''Thousands of years ago people were very bored because card games hadn't been invented yet, so in order to pass the time they started killing each other with magical powers''

* In Jim Henson's {{Dinosaurs}}, there is a TV channel about ''grass growing''.

[[AC:{{Live Action TV}}]]
* ''SaturdayNightLive'' Weekend Update segments in the early 1990's would occasionally feature Dana Carvey as "A GrumpyOldMan" who would make comparisons between modern day and "his day" similarly to the WeirdAlYankovic example above, always concluding his remarks with, "...and that's the way it was, and we ''liked'' it!"

[[AC:Web Original]]
* In The Decline of Video Gaming, the gamers relate something about the villains' games being less fun than "watching paint dry," complete with cheering ("C'moonnnn, blue!"); watching grass grow (one watcher cheats with fertilizer); watching ice melt (with the help of flamethrowers), and the greatest insult of all-- ''[[RunningGag watching Tom burn]].''

** In another strip, Garfield is watching television when the announcer says, "And now we present, ''Watching Paint Dry''!" Garfield responds with, "Rats! They cancelled ''Watching Grass Grow''!"
** In a later strip:
-->'''TV announcer:''' "Welcome to “Watching Paint Dry Theater"!
-->'''Jon:''' It's a rerun.
-->'''Garfield:''' Don't tell me how it turns out!
** In another strip:
-->'''Jon:''' Watching the paint dry, Garfield?
-->'''Garfield:''' I hope he doesn't think that my life is so totally devoid of excitement that I am reduced to that. [[HypocriticalHumor I'm waiting for it to peel]].
** Jon makes toast... for fun. *pop* "Yee Haaww!"

**Jon makes toast... for fun. *pop* "Yee Haaww!"