Is "Friends" offensive in 2018?

[Utter Shit]

If we're going to talk about characters we hate, can everyone please confirm that we'll be taking it as read that Phoebe is an awful, awful woman?

[Delete Delete Delete]

Thanks Blodwyn. I hate the 'woke' word but it was all I had at the time

[Colin Sanction]

Can we just keep the Friends bashing down a bit?

[Dr Syntax Head]

I do hate on it but only because I've been forced to watch it so much. However the Nap episode was good and one of my favourite comedy moments ever is when Chandler's new room mate (the new Joey) watches him sleeping. Still cracks me up now.

[non capisco]

I can't see David Schwimmer now without hearing him as Robert Kardashian plaintively whining "Juuuuuiiiiiice!"

[lankyguy95]

Worse than the way people use the word "problematic" is the way they use the word "gross".

And to answer the question - only for pricks.

[Dr Syntax Head]

I see Schwimmer as the acceptable Adam Sandler

[up_the_hampipe]

If we're going to talk about characters we hate, can everyone please confirm that we'll be taking it as read that Phoebe is an awful, awful woman?

That episode in which she believes the spirit of her mother is in a cat. They paint Ross as the arsehole for getting sick of her shit. Sure, he handled it badly, but she needed to be snapped out of that. But the resolution is "if I want to believe my mum is this cat, you should accept it". Pffft! It seems that all they do is humour her nonsense. We rarely see the reasons why they actually hang out with her. She's unstable, often quite mean and very stupid. Joey without any of the charm. Yeah, she sucks.

[Colin Sanction]

I can't carry a piece of furniture without saying "PIVOT!, PIVOT!" etc.

28 years old etc.

[Utter Shit]

That episode in which she believes the spirit of her mother is in a cat. They paint Ross as the arsehole for getting sick of her shit. Sure, he handled it badly, but she needed to be snapped out of that. But the resolution is "if I want to believe my mum is this cat, you should accept it". Pffft! It seems that all they do is humour her nonsense. We rarely see the reasons why they actually hang out with her. She's unstable, often quite mean and very stupid. Joey without any of the charm. Yeah, she sucks.

This is the exact example I always come up with, it's fucking infuriating that the writers expect us to side with her over Ross.

[Utter Shit]

One of the miracles of the show is that Courtney Cox is a fairly accomplished comic actress, while apparently having no sense of humour whatsoever in the real world. I watched the outtakes of Friends once and she seems to have absolutely no understanding of the jokes that are going on around her, it's astonishing.

[Tony Yeboah]

Adam and Joe did point some of this out at the time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRb92CDLlq0

[DrGreggles]

I thought seasons 1 and 2 were pretty funny.
Deteriorated after that - quickly, then VERY quickly.
Never made it to the end.

Phoebe was definitely a massive cunt though.

[up_the_hampipe]

I thought seasons 1 and 2 were pretty funny.
Deteriorated after that - quickly, then VERY quickly.
Never made it to the end.

I'd say it hit its peak at seasons 4 or 5. Around the time where Monica and Chandler got together and tried to keep it secret from the group.

[thecuriousorange]

If you happen upon a repeat, you can instantly tell it's a shit later one if Monica and Chandler are a couple.

[Dr Syntax Head]

If you happen upon a repeat, you can instantly tell it's a shit episode if it focuses on a Pheobe storyline

[St_Eddie]

If you happen upon a repeat, you can instantly tell it's a shit later one if Monica and Chandler are a couple.

My own barometer was whether Chandler was looking bloated and red faced or not.

[mippy]

Fat Monica got some pretty negative reactions at the time, as I remember. I was more a Frasier fan.

I was watching an episode of Just Shoot Me, a sitcom from about the same era, in which a childhood friend of the pervy David Spade character has had a sex change and is now an attractive woman. I was steeling myself for something that would be, at best, dated, but it was surprisingly even-handed given that trans people were often treated as a punchline as late as a decade ago.

[itsfredtitmus]

coupling better

[BlodwynPig]

coupling better

Ooooooof. Stomach punch.

[Captain Z]

The joke being that Ross is being an insecure masculine twat, not that his son playing with a doll is wrong, or that a man being a nanny is weird. I thought that was obvious, considering how the other reasonable characters respond to it.

The development of the story is also that Ross' father said the same thing to him as a child; signposting the source of his own insecurity at never becoming a 'real boy/man'.

[ArtParrott]

If you happen upon a repeat, you can instantly tell it's a shit later one if Monica and Chandler are a couple.

Also true of Niles & Daphne in Frasier

[Sebastian Cobb]

hot takes!!!

[Psmith]

Frasier before Niles ,Daphne and the dreadful Moons is the best sit com ever written .

Friends is horrible.

[Shaky]

Friends is great. I think most people don't bother to look past it's shiny, everybody's gorgeous exterior to see that the characters are all far from the bland US-sitcom tropes they initially might appear to be. They become more flawed and disjointed as the show goes on (and therefore more rounded).  This isn't bad scripting or writers running out of steam, it's absolutely intentional. Ross in particular starts to unravel in the later series and is far more interesting for it. Some of the plots get truly bizarre as well.

Plus it has many genuinely funny gags.

[Rich Uncle Skeleton]

That episode in which she believes the spirit of her mother is in a cat. They paint Ross as the arsehole for getting sick of her shit. Sure, he handled it badly, but she needed to be snapped out of that. But the resolution is "if I want to believe my mum is this cat, you should accept it". Pffft! It seems that all they do is humour her nonsense. We rarely see the reasons why they actually hang out with her. She's unstable, often quite mean and very stupid. Joey without any of the charm. Yeah, she sucks.

Thank you!! Fucking shit character and that episode always drove me up the wall.

[St_Eddie]

coupling better

Left-wing oddballs, Jane and Jeff = great characters.

Middle-class smohes, Steve and Susan = passable characters.

Right-wing schmoes, Patrick and Sally = intolerable characters (also, their names screw up a potential alliterative naming scheme).

_{Jeff 2.0, Oliver = Who?}

[Dr Rock]

In-Show, Phoebe has had a traumatic life. This may be a good reason to let her believe her mother is a cat if she wants, as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else.

[St_Eddie]

In-Show, Phoebe has had a traumatic life. This may be a good reason to let her believe her mother is a cat if she wants, as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else.

Yes but the constant urge to say "mate." would be overwhelming.

[Andy147]

Left-wing oddballs, Jane and Jeff = great characters.

Middle-class smohes, Steve and Susan = passable characters.

Right-wing schmoes, Patrick and Sally = intolerable characters (also, their names screw up a potential alliterative naming scheme).

Sally's a Labour supporter.

I read somewhere that the "Phoebe's mother reincarnated in a cat" storyline was written by someone whose mother had recently died, and no-one wanted to tell her that it was ridiculous.