History Main / WhenIWasYourAge

-->"You were lucky to have a lake! There were 150 of us living in t' shoebox in t' middle o' road."\\
--> "And when we got home, our dad would kill us, and dance about on our graves, singing "Halleluja"!"
--> "Paradise!"
--> "...right!"

* The "Four Yorkshiremen" skit, originally from ''AtLastThe1948Show'' and later famous in the ''[=~Monty Python's Flying Circus~=]'' rendition. Starts out plausible, but quickly turns into a one-upping contest, until...

"And when we got home, our dad would kill us, and dance about on our graves, singing "Halleluja"!"

[[AC:{{RealLife}}]]
* This trope is OlderThanDirt.
--> I see no hope for the future of our people if they are dependent on the frivolous youth of today, for certainly all youth are reckless beyond words. When I was a boy, we were taught to be discreet and respectful of elders, but the present youth are exceedingly wise and impatient of restraint.
---> Hesiod, '''Eighth Century''' B.C.
** Believe it or not, old people have been complaining about young people for almost three millenia. If even half of them were right, civilization should have completely decayed by now.
** Of course they were ''taught'' to be polite, wait their turn and be respectful of their elders. And like every generation before and since, they didn't pay attention then, and we don't pay attention now!

* On ''{{Franklin}}'', when Franklin first went to school, he was told that his father, instead of taking a bus, had to walk two and half miles to school and back, even in the rain and the snow. His parents didn't go so far as "uphill both ways," though.

When the point of the speech is how much ''better'' it used to be, you have a NostalgiaFilter in place.

* [[Comicbook/FantasticFour Benjamin J. Grimm]] indulges in this from time to time, especially when comparing the undisciplined kids of today to the high-spirited teenagers of his youth.

-->'''Old monkey who looks like Diddy Kong:''' And by gum, Junior, we liked it!

* In ''BackToTheFuture'', Lorraine chastised Linda for thinking it's okay to call a boy, saying that "when I was your age I never chased a boy or called a boy or [[AutoErotica sat in a parked car with a boy]]." Then Marty goes back in time and discovers that [[FormerTeenRebel this a great big lie]].

-->'''Cranky:''' Four buttons! That's all we had! And we had to tag in for the other player to play!

-->'''Old version of Diddy Kong:''' And by gum, we liked it!

--> "Son, when I was your age, I was twelve."

--> I see no hope for the future of our people if they are dependent on the frivolous youth of today, for certainly all youth are reckless beyond words. When I was a boy, we were taught to be discrete and respectful of elders, but the present youth are exceedingly wise and impatient of restraint.

Compare [[{{Ptitleef829e6819f4}} Screw Politeness, I'm A Senior!]], WhileYouWereInDiapers.

* The "Four Yorkshiremen" skit, originally from ''AtLastThe1948Show'' and later famous in the ''[=~Monty Python's Flying Circus~=]'' rendition.

-->"You were lucky to have a lake! There were 150 of us living in t' shoebox in t' middle o' road."

-->"This never would've happened back in my day! You kids these days and your Millennium Items and your {{card games}} and your loud music and your hula hoops and your hopscotch and your dungarees and your lollipops and your Sony {{Playstation}}s and your voice-activated light switches and your leather pants and your artificial insemination..."

** Believe it or not, old people have been complaining about young people for almost three millenia. If even half of them were right, civilization should have completely decayed by now.

[[AC:Other]]
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Yorkshiremen_sketch The "Four Yorkshiremen" sketch]]

-->'''Cranky:''' Look at all these buttons! Back in MY day, kids were ecstatic if we gave them two of 'em to press! And these colors! We only had four shades of grey, and we were happy!

* In YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries, Grandpa Mutou is an expert at giving these, culminating in TheMovie with the following rant:
-->"This never would've happened back in my day! You kids these days and your millennium items and your card games and your loud music and your hula hoops and your hopscotch and your dungarees and your lollipops and your Sony Playstations and your voice-activated light switches and your leather pants and your artificial insemination..."

Also see [[{{Ptitleef829e6819f4}} Screw Politeness, I'm A Senior!]]

This is a StockPhrase speech by any character denigrating modern kids, modern conveniences, and/or modern behavior against the standards of the speaker's past. It doesn't matter how many modern conveniences or benefits are available; the speaker of the When I Was Your Age rant will not waver in his view that TheyChangedItNowItSucks.

The most common version of this trope is for the speaker to criticize young people as having things easy compared to the hardships of the past; the When I Was Your Age rant almost always concludes that having these modern conveniences and benefits has made the young people of today soft, lazy, spoiled, or frequently all three.

This is a StockPhrase speech by any character complaining that modern kids (or young people) have it easy compared to the hardships the speaker had to endure "when I was your age." The When I Was Your Age rant almost always concludes that having these modern conveniences and benefits has made the young people of today soft, lazy, spoiled, or frequently all three.

This is a perennial favorite of the GrumpyOldMan or RacistGrandma. It's often played for comedy; expect to hear some variation of "I had to walk five miles to school barefoot in the snow! Uphill both ways!"

This is a StockPhrase speech by any character complaining that modernkids (or young people) have it easy compared to the hardships the speaker had to endure "when I was your age." The When I Was Your Age rant almost always concludes that having these modern conveniences and benefits has made the young people of today soft, lazy, spoiled, or frequently all three.

This is a StockPhrase speech by any character where contemporary events and behavior are comparing negatively with their predecessors. It doesn't matter how many modern conveniences or benefits are available; the speaker of the When I Was Your Age rant will not waver in his view that TheyChangedItNowItSucks and that having these modern conveniences and benefits has made the young people of today soft, lazy, spoiled, or frequently all three.

This is a perennial favorite of the GrumpyOldMan or RacistGrandma. It's often played for comedy, and inversions are common, with the character complaining that kids these days don't know how good they have it. Expect to hear some variation of "I had to walk five miles to school barefoot in the snow! Uphill both ways!"

* Done by [[DonkeyKongCountry Cranky Kong]] rather frequently. Its pretty clear that he's looking through a NostalgiaFilter, though, given he was Donkey Kong's age during the original DonkeyKong arcade game, and there had most certainly been improvements between then and the first DonkeyKongCountry game.

* [[CrowningMomentofFunny Hilariously deconstructed]] by ShelSilverstein in his poem 'When I Was Your Age'.

* On ''{{Franklin}}'', when Franklin first went to school, he was told that his father, instead of talking a bus, had to walk two and half miles to school and back, even in the rain and the snow. His parents didn't go so far as "uphill both ways," though.

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]

-->"This never would've happened back in my day! You kids these days and your millennium items and your card games and your loud music and your hula hoops and your hopscotch and your dungarees and your lollipops and your Sony Playstations and your voice-activated light switches and your leather pants and your artificial insemination..."