Jennifer Aniston admits 'Friends' might offend today's kids

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ASPartOfMe
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31 Mar 2023, 7:09 pm

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"Friends" Emmy Award-winner Jennifer Aniston acknowledges that some of the humor in that era-defining sitcom would offend some viewers today.

"Comedy has evolved, movies have evolved," Aniston, 54, told the European news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) while in Paris promoting her and Adam Sandler's new Netflix movie, "Murder Mystery 2," which starts streaming Friday. "Now it's a little tricky because you have to be very careful, which makes it really hard for comedians, because the beauty of comedy is that we make fun of ourselves, make fun of life."

The Manhattan-set ensemble comedy "Friends," which ran on NBC from 1994 to 2004 and ubiquitously in reruns, has long been criticized for its all-white cast, something co-creator Marta Kauffman and other producers have since said they regret. The show more recently has taken fire for jokes considered sexist, fat-shaming or homophobic, as well as insensitive toward trans persons. Many episodes contain "gay panic" jokes when, for example, two male characters hug or one is found knitting.

"There's a whole generation of people, kids, who are now going back to episodes of 'Friends' and find them offensive," Aniston said. "There were things that were never intentional and others … well, we should have thought it through — but I don't think there was a sensitivity like there is now."

The show, conversely, was progressive in some areas, with interracial romance, surrogacy, public breastfeeding, two gay major recurring characters raising a child together, and episodes guest-starring Kathleen Turner as a confident and sharp-witted trans woman.

Nevertheless that character was consistently referred to by the wrong gender. As well, Monica Geller (Courteney Cox) was made fun of for her teenage obesity. Joey Tribbiani (Matt LeBlanc) objectified women as one of his major character traits. And while Long Islander Rachel Green (Aniston) was never explicitly identified as Jewish on the show, the venerable Jewish newspaper The Forward says she embodied "the stereotype of a Jewish American Princess."

Comedy, Aniston said, may be more difficult now since in the past "you could joke about a bigot and have a laugh — that was hysterical. And it was about educating people on how ridiculous people were," as in such classic comedies as "All in the Family." "And now," she said, "we're not allowed to do that."


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IsabellaLinton
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31 Mar 2023, 7:16 pm

I always thought Ross and Monica were Jewish too, not that it matters.

The Holiday Armadillo taught Ross's son about Hanukkah.

My daughter is mid-20's and still loves Friends.

fwiw I liked All in the Family too, and I learned a lot through Archie.



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cyberdad
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31 Mar 2023, 7:38 pm

Friends was the probably the last popular sitcom of the pre-internet age so I'm actually not sure its even culturally relevant to the current generation of 20 somthings.

The only thing cringey about Friends (and I think all of the cast are 100% aware of this) is how in a multicultural place like New York how young white people from different locations manage to somehow find living spaces where only people who look like them exist. After several seasons it becomes painfully obvious that none of the cast have friends of different cultures or races. Eventually in the final season they had to manufacture Ross dating a black girl but by then the damage was done.

As far as what Aniston is talking about, there was nothing in their lame conversations that was offensive. I think she was/still is avoiding the elephant in the room.



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01 Apr 2023, 8:57 am

I never watched Friends.

I grew up watching All in the Family. I think that the problem with that show was that a lot of people missed the irony, and took Archie Bunker as a role model.


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01 Apr 2023, 9:06 am

Honey69 wrote:
I never watched Friends.

I grew up watching All in the Family. I think that the problem with that show was that a lot of people missed the irony, and took Archie Bunker as a role model.



Archie was great. There was always a moral of the story. Some people forget Edith's shrewd wit, too. She and Gloria put him in his place all the time. Edith changed my perspective on women for the better, and I was only 6 or 7 when I watched it. One of my all-time favourite TV episodes ever was the one where she tried to buy a TV for Archie as a surprise and the bank wouldn't loan her any money because she was "only" a housewife. I'd LOVE to see that one again for the way she reacted.

Back to Friends, I remember it being socially-forward at the time because of gay parenting rights.


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02 Apr 2023, 11:57 am

cyberdad wrote:
Friends was the probably the last popular sitcom of the pre-internet age so I'm actually not sure its even culturally relevant to the current generation of 20 somthings.

The only thing cringey about Friends (and I think all of the cast are 100% aware of this) is how in a multicultural place like New York how young white people from different locations manage to somehow find living spaces where only people who look like them exist. After several seasons it becomes painfully obvious that none of the cast have friends of different cultures or races. Eventually in the final season they had to manufacture Ross dating a black girl but by then the damage was done.

As far as what Aniston is talking about, there was nothing in their lame conversations that was offensive. I think she was/still is avoiding the elephant in the room.


Or for that matter, finding a living space in NYC they could all afford, given their jobs.


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02 Apr 2023, 12:27 pm

IsabellaLinton wrote:
Honey69 wrote:
I never watched Friends.

I grew up watching All in the Family. I think that the problem with that show was that a lot of people missed the irony, and took Archie Bunker as a role model.



Archie was great. There was always a moral of the story. Some people forget Edith's shrewd wit, too. She and Gloria put him in his place all the time. Edith changed my perspective on women for the better, and I was only 6 or 7 when I watched it. One of my all-time favourite TV episodes ever was the one where she tried to buy a TV for Archie as a surprise and the bank wouldn't loan her any money because she was "only" a housewife. I'd LOVE to see that one again for the way she reacted.


That show was based on a UK show called Til Death Do Us Part that was supposed to be a satire on racist 'little Englanders'. But it had the same problem that many people just saw it as an affirmation of their bigoted views.


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02 Apr 2023, 12:58 pm

I only watched a few episodes of Friends. As a baby boomer I just did not get a show that was very Generation X oriented.

As far as the show being all white they are being damned because of this. They would be damned for cultural appropriation if they had a diverse cast. Lose Lose.

The all white cast was authentic to the neighborhood it was set in. Despite what you see in the streets of New York looks like it is more segregated then the south as has been for a long time.

All In The Family was an anti racist liberal show but it was no woke show and not only because they did not use euphemisms for slurs. The good people were not always so good, and the bad people not always so bad. Jefferson was just as much of a racist as Archie, liberal Mike was sexist and called out for it. Archie was both abusive and loving in his own way.

Did the show affirm peoples racism? For some it did, most infamously President Nixon, but I believe the show did help heal the country from Vietnam and other divisions of the time because it made us laugh at ourselves. They were extreme versions of ourselves but they were us or somebody we knew.

As brilliantly acted and written as the show was it would not have worked without the use of words such as n****r, fa***t etc and with the liberals being purely righteous people, and Archie purely evil. That is what Anniston was getting at. Would have it been nice if she mentioned lack of diversity, yeah but there are plenty of people doing that, we need more people pointing out what she pointed out. She did blame the shown for being insensitive. Note she said “we should have thought it through”, that means her personally.


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02 Apr 2023, 3:34 pm

Tim_Tex wrote:
cyberdad wrote:
Or for that matter, finding a living space in NYC they could all afford, given their jobs.


For some reason I always assumed they were rich kids from the money they had to buy all those expensive clothes?

In Australia wealthy families give their kids large allowances so they can "look good" in expensive clothes.



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02 Apr 2023, 3:35 pm

cyberdad wrote:
Tim_Tex wrote:
cyberdad wrote:
Or for that matter, finding a living space in NYC they could all afford, given their jobs.


For some reason I always assumed they were rich kids from the money they had to buy all those expensive clothes?

In Australia wealthy families give their kids large allowances so they can "look good" in expensive clothes.


Ross was a university professor and archeologist (lol sure)

Rachel had family money but also a high-power job in fashion, and she waited tables

Monica inherited the apartment from her grandmother as a legacy

Chandler had a fulltime job and a roommate (Joey) who also worked as an actor

The only one with questionable income was Phoebe who was a masseuse.


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Last edited by IsabellaLinton on 02 Apr 2023, 3:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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02 Apr 2023, 3:36 pm

ASPartOfMe wrote:
All In The Family was an anti racist liberal show but it was no woke show and not only because they did not use euphemisms for slurs. The good people were not always so good, and the bad people not always so bad. Jefferson was just as much of a racist as Archie, liberal Mike was sexist and called out for it. Archie was both abusive and loving in his own way. .


Steve Erkle became a mascot for us nerds before Big Bang Theory.



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02 Apr 2023, 3:38 pm

IsabellaLinton wrote:
The only one with questionable income was Phoebe who was a masseuse.


Oh I'm sure Phoebe would have been a very popular masseuse
Yeah their jobs would have bought in enough to pay the NY rent



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05 Apr 2023, 12:04 am

I saw this on Facebook. I love Friends :heart: Too bad it only on HBO Max, I don’t have cable.



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05 Apr 2023, 12:06 am

cyberdad wrote:
IsabellaLinton wrote:
The only one with questionable income was Phoebe who was a masseuse.


Oh I'm sure Phoebe would have been a very popular masseuse
Yeah their jobs would have bought in enough to pay the NY rent



Why would she be very popular, or are you joking?

* also Monica was a chef.

They all had roommates except Ross and Phoebe.


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05 Apr 2023, 12:09 am

I never watched it. But sometimes things just age poorly. What was acceptable back then often is not acceptable now. Just take it as a product of its time, I doubt there was any ill intent behind the disagreeable stuff.


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05 Apr 2023, 12:50 am

I don't think it's aged any more poorly than any other sitcom.
Sitcoms themselves have aged now that most TV is those streaming dramas or reality TV.


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