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Scott recorded his first video right after a month alone in his apartment, and the response astounded him: thousands of likes and comments from viewers asking him to be their grandfather and hoping to be like him when they’re older. “Then it went viral, and I thought, Hey, maybe I have a hidden talent.” He’s a regular guest on the Spectrum Retirement TikTok (93,000 followers), which is produced by a company called Spectrum Retirement Communities and features residents from its senior living facilities across the country.

“At first, it was just a little prank,” said Lou Scott, 78, who lives at Burr Ridge Senior Living in Burr Ridge, Ill. “This is a group of older people who are perfectly capable of doing everything on their own, and having a lot of fun while they’re doing it.” ‘Have the Best Be the Last’Īt the same time, over a million seniors in the United States live in nursing homes - and some of them are going viral on TikTok, too.

“It’s not a home, where you need care and somebody to cook for you and bring you your pills,” Ms.

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Retirement House, for all its artifice, presents a version of aging full of novelty and active curiosity. “Maybe it’s time for us to start getting older in a different way.” The TikTok account has told its fans “that they don’t have to take the usual route into being old,” Ms. “We’re actually building shared memories together - and it’s on videotape.” “You see so many stories of older people that are not happy, because as you get older, you lose friends, you lose relatives, you don’t have people to share your life with,” said Reatha Grey, 72. The silly group antics of the Retirement House are a welcome counterpoint to stories of isolated elders quietly diminishing in nursing homes during the pandemic. (“Bubbe,” he said, using her character name, “do you know what ‘sneaky links’ means?”) On the back patio, Patti Yulish, 81, performed a rap as Mr. Boyd, to camera: “You sweet on me? Take one of these pills, and you’ll be sour on me.”) In the kitchen, Chuck Lacey, 70, and Jerry Boyd, 76, ate miracle berries before tasting an array of sour foods on camera, reacting to lemon slices and Warheads made sweet. On a recent Thursday at the Retirement House - a Hollywood set rented by the hour - there were two shoots going on. “I’m having a great time.” Rewriting the Script for Old Age “The irony, of course, is that we’re in Retirement House, but I don’t have anything to retire from,” she said. They meet up by the pool each weekday around 10:30 a.m., rehearsing and shooting videos that Mr. Today, they have 7.1 million followers on TikTok and a few hundred thousand on Instagram, among them Rihanna, Jessica Alba, Rosie O’Donnell, Drew Barrymore and Lance Bass. Soon, though, the men were ready to take their talents to a bigger platform. Martin moved into a house across the street.Ī few years later, a younger neighbor, Ryan Yezak, 35, who’d gotten to chatting with the men during his Saturday morning dog walks, suggested they film a few videos for Grindr, where Mr. Reeves’s Craigslist ad for a room in a gay-friendly, nudist-friendly home. “What we’re doing, through the strength of our friendships and our mutual support, is changing the course of the way one lives their life.” Chosen Familyīy the time the Old Gays started posting on TikTok, in December 2020, the four men already had half a century of friendship between them. “As you get into old age, moving into a nursing home is what’s expected, and many older people buy into that plan,” Mr. Rather than rely on younger relatives or paid strangers for care and companionship, why not turn to each other? Even those who can manage without support face increased risks of loneliness and depression. He raised his eyebrows, then said in a stage whisper: “Bob didn’t wear any underwear.”īut for people who have lost mobility, the rising cost of home care can be prohibitive. It wasn’t like the first drag video they did, Bill Lyons, 78, said as he took a sip from his milk chocolate Ensure. “I need to wear my pretty underwear for this,” Mr.

There, he sat down in a stuffed armchair beside a well-endowed wooden sculpture of the male form and rubbed sunscreen into his bald pate as the group discussed the day’s video concept: an outfit transformation set to the rapper Jack Harlow’s single “First Class.” On a blistering afternoon earlier this month, Jessay Martin, 68, headed across the street for the usual poolside confab, stopping to grab a Bud Light Seltzer Pineapple from the fridge on his way out to the patio.

The four of them talk about what’s new - recovery from a recent corrective foot surgery, some chronic inflammation issues - and record videos for social media, where they’ve amassed millions of followers as the Old Gays. Robert Reeves, 78, spends most days lounging by the pool, taking in the low-desert sun with his friends and neighbors.