Retirement is wonderful. It's doing nothing without worrying about getting caught at it.

Perret’s quip treats retirement less as an economic milestone than as a psychological release. The “wonderful” part is not idleness itself but the end of surveillance—no boss, deadlines, or social expectation that one must appear industrious. The joke hinges on the idea that many working lives involve performative busyness and a low-grade fear of being judged for inactivity. By framing retirement as “doing nothing” without anxiety, the line satirizes workplace culture and the moralization of productivity, suggesting that leisure becomes truly restful only when it is socially permitted.