Was Friends homophobic? Everything critics realized while watching “Friends” in 2015 - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

TMC · 09-21-2016, 12:29 PM

http://www.salon.com/2015/01/24/chan...iends_in_2015/

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“Friends” hit Netflix for the first time in 2015, and while it’s certainly not the first time people have had the opportunity to rewatch the show since it went off the air in 2004, it has provided a handy excuse for people to ruminate belatedly on the show’s impact — and for crazy super-fans to binge-watch all 10 seasons, obviously — and perhaps learn something new about the gang in the process. And they did! Some revelations were goofy, some light, and others pretty damning. Here’s what the Internet dug up about our favorite sitcom when viewed in the cold harsh light of 2015:

Chandler is the worst, and he’s also pretty homophobic.

As Ruth Graham wrote in Slate: “Chandler’s treatment of his gay father, a Vegas drag queen played by Kathleen Turner, is especially appalling, and it’s not clear the show knows it. It’s one thing for Chandler to recall being embarrassed as a kid, but he is actively resentful and mocking of his loving, involved father right up until his own wedding (to which his father is initially not invited!)… his continuing discomfort now reads as jarringly out of place for a supposedly hip New York thirtysomething — let alone a supposedly good person, period…. When it comes to women, Chandler turns out to be just as retrograde as Joey, but his lust comes with an undercurrent of the kind of bitter desperation that I now recognize as not only gross, but potentially menacing.”
Although, this, of course, is not the first time the show’s homophobia has been addressed:

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“In the show’s storyline, Monica loses weight in college after overhearing Chandler make fun of her size. Shamed into thinness, Fat Monica becomes just Monica — desirable and (finally) human. Monica is many things: funny, uptight, loving, competitive. Fat Monica is just fat… and always hungry. I was grateful for Fat Monica as a kid. She was proof I could overcome my disgusting plumpness and be seen as lovable, too. True, I would always bear the shame of my inflated past, just like Monica did, but I was willing to live with that if it meant I’d be a person instead of a punchline.”

The Globe and Mail’s John Doyle, meanwhile, asked if nostalgia for “Friends” is all about white privilege.

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“The issues of race and ‘white privilege’ make some Americans deeply uncomfortable. Maybe, at a time when mainstream U.S. TV is finally airing shows with ensemble casts that look like the ensemble that is America, and after the shooting of Trayvon Martin, and after the shooting and rioting in Ferguson, Mo., and all the attendant questions raised, there’s an instinctive need on the part of some to return to the bubble of white-bread America that is epitomized by ‘Friends.'

Kasey · 09-21-2016, 12:38 PM

I never understood the appeal of this show. Most overrated sitcom ever.

tlc38tlc38 · 09-21-2016, 01:04 PM

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Originally Posted by Kasey

I never understood the appeal of this show. Most overrated sitcom ever.

Totally agree. Very overrated show.

opus · 09-21-2016, 03:17 PM

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Originally Posted by Kasey

I never understood the appeal of this show. Most overrated sitcom ever.

The appeal was strong writing matched with pitch perfect casting.

king of comedy · 09-21-2016, 04:42 PM

Never realized that.

Kasey · 09-22-2016, 12:03 PM

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Originally Posted by opus

The appeal was strong writing matched with pitch perfect casting.

Not from the episodes I've sat through. Pilot was dreadful and I don't see how NBC even green-lit this on basis of Paul the Wine Guy which I what I remember most about it. Couldn't stand the cast or characters, but to each his own.

Dale Key · 12-28-2016, 09:35 PM

The pilot sucks. If you can make it through the whole first season, The second one is where they get really funny and maintain that all the way through the seventh season. 8, 9, and 10 are kind of stale after that.

And to the topic that was posted, Friends was the most pro-gay hit sitcom ever. None of the guy characters were ever disturbed when other men were attracted to them, and Chandler ended up happy to invite his transvestite father to his wedding. Salon writers should go to hell, they make huge deals out of nothing.

09-21-2016, 12:38 PM	#2
Kasey Member Senior Member Join Date: Aug 22, 2004 Location: Ontario, Canada Posts: 1,143	I never understood the appeal of this show. Most overrated sitcom ever.

09-21-2016, 04:42 PM	#5
king of comedy Member Forum Veteran Join Date: Aug 31, 2012 Location: New Jersey Posts: 5,140	Never realized that.

12-28-2016, 09:35 PM	#7
Dale Key Member Frequent Poster Join Date: Oct 17, 2005 Location: Washington state Posts: 410	The pilot sucks. If you can make it through the whole first season, The second one is where they get really funny and maintain that all the way through the seventh season. 8, 9, and 10 are kind of stale after that. And to the topic that was posted, Friends was the most pro-gay hit sitcom ever. None of the guy characters were ever disturbed when other men were attracted to them, and Chandler ended up happy to invite his transvestite father to his wedding. Salon writers should go to hell, they make huge deals out of nothing.