You’ve seen videos like the one embedded below: People are shown content that they haven’t been exposed to. We laugh at their bewilderment.
This one is different.
In the latest Fine Bros. “reaction” clip, elders are shown Queen videos. But it’s 2016, and elders are Baby Boomers who lived through the iconic British rockers’ parade of radio hits in the ’70s.
So things got a little melancholy.
These people are essentially shown a reel of their lost youth, a soundtrack to their high school antics, a reminder of opportunities lost. The sole African-American woman is downright frustrated that songs like “We Will Rock You” and “We Are the Champions,” inescapable anthems, are by artists whom she doesn’t instantly recognize. (It’s a sour reminder that 40 years ago, the radio catered to painfully segregated user bases.)
This video is a stark realization that the old people you remember—the ones from World War II—are mostly dead. In their place, you are the old people.
The Fine Bros. produced this clip with Nov. 24 in mind, as last week marked the 25th anniversary of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury’s death. After their reactions, the elders spoke about what it was like to live through the 1980s AIDS epidemic, which claimed the life of Mercury.
But it’s also a nice reminder that Queen—whether you’re 75 or 15—completely rules.