The case for curmudgeons
Matt Porter
Over the recent Thanksgiving break, my mother demanded only one thing of all her children: to go see the Muppet Movie together as a family. While watching the movie I was reminded of how much I love Statler and Waldorf. For those that are not familiar with the Muppets, these two characters are old men who sit in the balcony and mock whatever is happening onstage. However, after the movie I was struck by the realization that characters like Statler and Waldorf have been hard to come by lately. With the recent passing of Andy Rooney, American culture seems to have lost a kind of character that has always made it great. America is lacking curmudgeons.
A curmudgeon is defined by Wikipedia as, (yeah I’m citing Wikipedia, get over it) “An ill-tempered (and frequently old) person full of stubborn ideas or opinions.” Curmudgeons often get lumped in with other more negative terms such as crank and sourpuss. The role, I would argue, is often gendered. I don’t know of many women that are thought of as curmudgeons, but this may just be my own perception.
However, I don’t agree with the view that being a curmudgeon is a negative thing. Curmudgeons give people context, just in a jaded perspective. There is some comfort in the idea that some people are grounded enough to point out the obvious absurdities that surround us. According to Jon Winokur, “they do not hate mankind, just mankind’s absurdities.”
I think the loss of curmudgeons is especially important for the American media. It seems when watching cable all news is breaking news, all things are emergencies, and it must be reported in the most fast, in-your-face style to make sure you are constantly paying attention. Curmudgeons allow us to take a more methodical and slow approach to events. Instead of being constantly caught up in an emotional fervor, they take a more critical and sarcastic approach to separate the minutia and momentous.
This form of careful skepticism is why Andy Rooney was brilliant. It is no small feat to be able to have a dedicated segment for 33 years on one of the most prolific news shows in American history. The stories that he often pursued pointed out the absurdity of humankind in a way that showed he was not beyond that absurdity. It is that self-reflecting and totalizing view that would help give needed perspective back to media that can too easily be swept up by the next balloon boy.
However, this perceived loss is merely an opportunity in disguise. We can renegotiate as country what the value and place of a curmudgeon can be.
First, I would start by trying to de-gender this social role. I think if we can accept Sarah Palin’s vice presidential nomination as feminist progress, I don’t see why we couldn’t start to view Joan Rivers as a curmudgeon. Also, by revaluing what it is to be a curmudgeon we start to revalue old people. Though some people below the age of 40 do posses the cynicism and saltiness necessary to appear curmudgeonly, these people are false curmudgeons. They have not lived through enough crushing defeats or suffered enough personal setbacks to assure this cynicism for life. We never know, some of the people below 40 may still end up happy.
I can understand that it is trying sometimes to deal with people that constantly and maybe unnecessarily have a sour view. I would argue though that these people allow us to stay grounded as a society. It is important that it’s impossible to get emotional reactions from some people. This just means that when these reactions happen they are truly genuine.