Blog Posts

"Harold and George Destroy the World!" - Tom Clancy

March 2026

https://tomclancy.info/harold-and-george.html

Never thought I'd see someone reference Captain Underpants, but this quote has stuck with me for a chunk of the 2020s:

Regardless, having realized Harold & George are now responsible for a significant portion of our media, I’ve started to see their hand elsewhere.

When I was 15, I had a friend at summer camp named Ben. I cannot remember where he got it from, but he came up with an "XTREME" catchphrase for some activity or another and I instantly vibed with it. When we went on a camp-sponsored trip to an amusement park, we did the catchphrase and x-crossed arms pose he came up with every time we were on a ride with a descent camera. We were cool dudes doing crazy things, living extreme lives.

I instantly understood what Clancy meant from my own lived experience. Everything needed to be "epic" and "badass", demonstrating and constantly hinting at courage and masculinity, signaling our thrill-seeking teenage desire. It's fun to reminisce about and even revisit. I look back at it as an important step of development, understanding my own feelings and desires: I now have that behavior as a part of my greater personality and I relate to those experiencing it.

My friend Ben and I eventually let the joke go and become a shared memory. Some people never do.