The Pantaloon

pan·ta·loon
/ˌpan(t)lˈo͞on/
noun

1. women's baggy trousers gathered at the ankles.

2. a Venetian character in Italian commedia dell'arte represented as a foolish old man wearing pantaloons.

"The Pantaloon" by Twenty One Pilots is about the continuous pattern of how our culture will keep moving forward as older generations fall behind and grow out of touch with both reality and society. The song starts out talking about how the addressee's father died when they were nine years old. It says, "They said he had / Lost his mind / You have learned / Way too soon / You should never trust the pantaloon." These lines tell listeners that the protagonist's grandfather was probably a senile old man and the things he said couldn't be trusted because they were all nonsense. Alternatively, the lines could be referring to the protagonist's own father, who explained away the grandfather's lack of understanding of current society by calling him insane, therefore making himself untrustworthy because he lied to his child. A few lines later, this second theory is supported by the following, "You have learned / Way too soon / That your dad is now a pantaloon." After growing up, the protagonist has realized that their father lied about the grandfather's mental state prior to his death instead of simply telling the truth, making him a foolish old man himself. The lines also mean that, since the dad has grown older, he has become less in touch with modern technology and society, making him a pantaloon just like the dead grandfather.

The chorus of the song isn't addressed to the son anymore, but rather the dad. The line "A moth ate through / Your favorite shirt" describes the literal instance of a moth eating through a shirt, but also how many of the things that the dad loved and was accustomed to, such as music, movies, slang, and other such things (like a favorite shirt), have gone out of style and are no longer talked about or used by the current young generations.

The father's isolation is demonstrated further by the line "And all your friends fertilize / the ground you walk," which essentially just says that all of his friends are dead and he is alone. More evidence of his isolation can be found in the lines "He's been around so long / He's changed his meaning of a chair now / Because a chair now, / Is like a tiny island in the sea of all the people / Who glide across the very surface." These lines bring to mind the image of a classic old grandpa sitting in a chair sleeping during a family gathering while everyone else, the younger generations, talk and have a good time. I feel like almost everyone has a grandparent who fits the always-sitting-in-a-chair description, and the song takes advantage of that to create some interesting imagery of the chair as a socially isolated island. The people gliding across the surface of the sea are the younger generations who have not become out of touch with society yet, but who the dad can't relate to because he's sitting in his island-chair.

I really enjoy this song because it describes something real that is happening to people in our lives and will eventually happen to us, too, as we all get older. It's a bit of a scary reality but at the same time interesting to think about.

[Lyrics] [Song]