What Friends storyline wouldn’t work today?

[KyraLittle]

• Ross not wanting Ben to play with a Barbie
• Monica sleeping with an underage boy
• Monica being slut shamed
• Joey and Chandler finding breast feeding gross

Sure there are loads more.

I do love the show though

The " we were on a break" thing.

Once its over its over you have no claims to that person fuck off with thinking they owe you some kind of explanation as to who they saw slept with or spoke too.

Why would the We Were On A Break storyline not hold up today?

It’s kind of sad you can’t make a joke about anything today. For instance the Ben playing with dolls thing. A lot Men would still have an issue with that, but at least in the past you could have explored those issues and had a discussion about it, now we have to pretend everyone is OK with it, when they really aren’t.
No wonder a section of society is turning more and more right wing. They feel oppressed by the left.

I agree that it's sad that none of these jokes would work today. Friends is FUNNY! Most of the humour is actually directed at the person that is being narrow minded anyway.

The left is so so so humourless!

I saw a BuzzFeed article on this recently, on all the jokes that have aged badly. I just thought, surely that's the point... It's a critique, we aren't meant to go haha that's so funny I wish I was like that, were meant to go "wow that's so embarrassing, you should never say that!'

My dcs were watching the one with cousin Cassie the other day & saying that you couldn’t make tv like that now. They love friends- it’s their go to.

I think a lot of the above still works because it wasn't presented as ok at the time. Ross' reactions to Barbie and his wife's sexuality was always presented as ridiculous (which it was) and the male nanny turned out to be a hit! It's the stories where the theme was not presented as a problem that, for me, are problematic...but they were at the time! I can remember 16 year old me being outraged that Rachel threw her dreams away for Ross. Why didn't he get ON the plane??

The one with all the porn.... wouldn't even be a novelty now

All the above would still work for reasons already mentioned.

What wouldnt work is waiting for ten mins of free porn.

Disagree with some of these.

Society has moved on and it would make the jokes about chandler’s dad and things unacceptable these days “A-man-duh!” etc

But “we were on a break” hasn’t aged surely. Also the one night stands with Joey. It’s not like ONS are a part of history now. They’re probably more common if anything thanks to Tinder. He’d be very similar now.

@omikron

Name me one funny right wing comedian.

I agree that as far as things like Ross being against the male nanny etc, the joke is, and always has been, on Ross. I don't think at the time he was meant to be portrayed as reasonable for having this view.

The thing that strikes me is how much porn is openly mentioned. I feel like today it's a bit more hushed up, despite its proliferation.

I don't think you'd get stage space if you made sexist or right wing jokes.
in real life people take the piss all the time over the present supposed accepted norms.

Geoff Norcott is a right wing comedian.

(He’s also really creepy)

I love friends and think a lot of jokes are fine now. Likewise with representation, there are shows specifically aimed at sub-sections of culture, do we need to ensure the cast of every show is entirely diversified?

Rachel wouldn’t be able to use the word “spaz” though

When did Rachel use the word "Spaz" I do know a lot of " terminology" referring to disability is different in America , they use the term " Handicapped " for example which hasent been used in the UK for a long time ,they also use intellectually disabled ,whereas we tend to use Learning disability, I agree about the marriage between Susan and Carol , it was shocking at the time but common place now .Friends started nearly 25 years ago the world's moved on a lot since then.

I've watched every episode of Friends about 5 million times and I can't remember where Rachel allegedly says spaz either

Although lighthearted, this thread is so depressing

Rachel says spaz in The One With The East German Laundry Detergent

I really want to see Friends again now!

She says she’s a “total laundry spaz” in the episode where she has a fight in the laundrette with the lady who takes her dryer

www.tvfanatic.com/quotes/am-i-being-like-a-total-laundry-spaz-am-i-supposed-to-use-like/

In what way passion?

Oh, forgot about that, yes she does! Not seen that episode for ages so had forgotten

Ok thanks , does " Spaz " mean the same n America as it does in the UK? obviously the UK it's completely offensive ,but it was 25 years ago too.

While I agree in general I always assumed he didn't get on the plane (ie discussions of him moving were a non-starter) because of Ben. Rachel was choosing to move away with Emily and presumably would come back regularly.

A storyline that wouldn't work today - phoebe being stood up on her birthday. Mobile phones and social media would make it impossible.

Rachel was choosing to move away with Emily and presumably would come back regularly.

Rachel was moving away with Ross’s English ex-wife?!