Grandpas gone viral: Millions tuning in to geriatric TikTok
They put them in a home — with hilarious results.
On the app best known for spitting out new dance crazes and beauty tips, one TikTok account is leaning into being, like, totally uncool, and millions of users are smashing that follow button.
Welcome to Retirement House. Population: Larry, Curtis, Mabel, Eugene, Rose and Bubbe — six actors living and creating content in a Hollywood hype house like so many others stuffed to the gills with young wannabes in search of social-media stardom.
There’s one key difference — the six, all between 70 and 85, are old enough to be your typical Gen Z TikToker’s grandparents — or even great-grandparents.
The semiscripted series, launched by Los Angeles directors and writers Brandon Chase and Adi Azran in September 2021, isn’t all that unusual, offering humorous takes on dating advice, various gross-out pranks and participation in app-wide trends like dancing to Armani White’s viral hit “Billie Eilish.”
The age of the cast members, however, and their unique perspectives, has helped make the account a smash: Retirement House can rack up millions of views per clip, and boasts more than 3.8 million followers.
The account came about when Chase, 25, and Azran, 27, both eager for a hit, noticed there were only a handful of popular “grandfluencer” accounts on TikTok. The pair saw opportunity on an app with 1 billion users in over 150 countries.
“In order to reach a lot of people, we needed to figure something out that was different; it’s kind of out of the norm for [seniors] to be creating content on a platform with all these young people,” Azran told The Post.
The duo, who met working at creative studio Flighthouse Media, originally put out a casting call for something quite different from what you see on the channel today.
“Our goal originally was almost to re-create ‘Jersey Shore,’ but with senior citizens in Hollywood,” Chase said. “Instead [we] sort of encompassed this idea of being the grandparents of the internet.”
He explained that they also originally planned for the series to be more scripted, but realized it worked better with the cast delivering their own takes on everything from Eugene’s hilarious look for the Met Gala to a skit about Valentine’s Day.
Chase and Azran hope Retirement House helps people to re-evaluate age in the notoriously youth-obsessed entertainment industry.
“I think it’s really changing the the perception of old people,” Azran said. “[Now] people are commenting, ‘You don’t really age do you? It’s in your mind.’ “
The cast agree, gushing over their newfound fame and marveling over the recognition they’ve received after years of working in the industry.
“What we get to do is wonderful,” said Reatha Grey, 73, who plays Rose. “I want to make people laugh and have a good time. This is my dream job.”
“It definitely keeps us younger,” said Gaylynn Baker, 85, who plays Mabel.
The six dynamic actors — who had varying degrees of experience as performers — said they didn’t know anything about TikTok before they started the series, but they now regularly scroll through “as a part of their jobs.”
“I watch TikTok so I think I can understand when I show up here,” Grey said with a laugh.
“We have to come back and have Adi or Brandon explain to us what [some things] mean,” said Patti Yulish, 82 — better known to viewers as Bubbe.
With a few brand deals with KFC and Virgin Voyages in their first year of the series and their content spanning across Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube shorts, the creators say a spinoff TV show is the dream.
“We’re playing with these ideas, bigger-scale ideas, that we love and we will get to,” said Azran.
And what do their own grandparents think of “Retirement House”?
“They’re huge fans,” Chase said, admitting it did take them “awhile” to understand the concept. “I still can’t believe I got my grandma to download TikTok, but it warms my heart to know she’s keeping up with our content.”
At the end of the day, the pair said they’re having a lot of fun bringing different generations together with the wildly popular videos.
“The dynamic of us being young with these older people and hanging out spending a lot of time with them has really been cool,” Azran said. “[We hope] the audience watch it, they feel something from it, and just laugh and enjoy themselves.”
