I’m now in my mid-30s, so this is the perfect time in my life to start noticing successful, famous people in their mid-30s and wonder why I’m not as successful and famous as they are. This is an unhealthy habit that I seem to have developed in the last year or so as I entered the mid-portion of my life, but I’m sure it will pass, once I become successful and famous myself.
My most recent bout of inverse-schadenfreude happened this weekend. There was an article in the Chicago Tribune about Clerks II, and the article contained a nice little interview with Kevin Smith, the man who created the classic Clerks. The main character in the sequel is deciding whether to keep his low-paying job as a clerk and stay true to his friends, or go live with his rich uncle. Clerks II is clearly about Smith’s recent past and future in moviemaking, his own sort of mid-life crisis, and the difficulty of leaving the “View Askewniverse” behind, versus the opportunity to “grow” or move on to other movie styles, characters, and stories.
The interview nicely captures Smith’s non-desire to grow and move on. Thankfully, the original Clerks crew is back to do Clerks II, and they all know the responsibility they bear, so it is unlikely that Clerks II will be in the same category of sequel-disaster as Caddyshack II or Meatballs II.
Now, back to the inverse-schadenfreude. Regular schadenfreude is taking pleasure in someone else’s misery. My inverse-schadenfreude results in misery for me when I learn of other people’s success. Like I said, not healthy. But if you’re my age, and if you have ever listened to music, tell me you don’t feel it after reading this…
During the interview, Smith mentions that he recently held a fundraiser at his house for his daughter’s school. That’s nice, I would like to be able to raise some funds for my daughter’s school too. No problem so far.
Some famous people attended. Eddie Izzard, I don’t care, I barely know who he is. Kathy Bates, interesting, don’t care. Eva Longoria, total babe, I’m sure a very nice lady, don’t care. John Lydon, -
Wait. John Lydon? No, it can’t be! Yes, it is. John Lydon, a.k.a. Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols, and if you didn’t need me to explain who he was, you may be starting to feel some inverse-schadenfreude here.
So yeah, Kevin Smith is 35. He’s made a bunch of movies, he’s famous, and whatever career high points and low points he may experience in the future, I’m sure he’ll continue to create great things.
But to have John Lydon over to do some readings to benefit his daughter’s school? And to have him insult the politics of everyone in attendance? And to then ask Kevin afterwards if it was OK, because he didn’t really mean to make anyone mad??? That is just way too cool, and I know I’ll never experience this by the time I’m 35 because… well because I’m already 36.
So, true to the nature of my recent habit of being miserable when learning about the success of others, I mentioned this situation to my wife.
Me: “Kevin Smith, you know, the guy who made Clerks?”
Wife: “Sure” (she wasn’t just being polite, either, she rattled off Mallrats and Chasing Amy to make it clear that she actually knew who I was talking about).
Me: “He’s 35.”
Wife: “Oh, wow” (she knew that some complaint about his success was coming next)
Me: “He recently had a fundraiser at his house, for his daughter’s school, with some famous people.”
Wife: “Uh huh…”
Me: “And John Lydon was there! You know, Johnny Rotten, Sex Pistols, Public Image Limited! If I had him over to my house I’d be a hero! I mean, everyone I know would think I was the coolest person on the planet! It would be the biggest thing ever, people would be talking about it for the rest of my life! And Kevin Smith just has him over for a fundraiser!” (she probably didn’t need the detailed explanation of who John Lydon is either, but I had to make it clear how big a deal this was).
Wife: “Wait, you say it was a fundraiser?”
Me: “Yeah.”
Wife: “So…”
Me: “So what…?”
Wife: “So, really, John Lydon actually PAID to go to Kevin Smiths house.”
Me: “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!”
