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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think that Friends has a lot to answer for.

56 replies

TheLadyOfTheGreenKirtle · 21/08/2010 16:56

following on from the other thread, why do people find it so hard to believe that you can remain friends with someone once a relationship has ended? have programmes like friends led us to believe that wanting to remain friends with an ex means that you have unfinished business and will therefore always be one drink away from declaring undying love? why is it acceptable to have friends of the opposite sex but only if they've never seen you naked?

OP posts:
UnquietDad · 21/08/2010 18:41

It's also guilty of making you think that a junior chef and a waitress and a data inputter and an actor can share two huge apartments in a trendy part of NY without really having any financial worries!

That apart, I really like the first series of "Friends". It has a depth and a wryness, and almost a melancholy for lost youth, woven into the comedy.

Subsequent series would veer into "O! M! G! Phoebe/ Chandler/ whoever must not find out about this!" (cue frantic running around and misunderstandings galore) type of territory.

UnquietDad · 21/08/2010 18:41

And by the way -

They were

ON

a

BREAK!!!

cupcakesandbunting · 21/08/2010 18:52

Yes, I do love those glorious little inconsistencies that are rife in tellybox programmes.

Like in EastEnders, right. Everyone works in the launderette/Minute Mart/cab office/Ian's catering business, but they can all afford to live in seemingly spacious townhouses in an area of London, that if it were not fictitious, would most likely be extorionate in terms of property prices. Hmm

Definitely think too much about this stuff...

tethersend · 21/08/2010 18:55

Shitting crikey- if I'd been through with a friend what I'd been through with my exes, I'd have to break off all contact with them too. It's impossible to be friends with someone you can't look in the eye.

Or perhaps that's just me?

Morloth · 21/08/2010 19:04

Yeah yeah I was feeding the baby, I am always bloody feeding the baby.

squeaver · 21/08/2010 19:16

UQD - and that you can be a chef who never works on major holidays or in the evenings

peeringintothevoid · 21/08/2010 19:32

Oh this is such a nicer thread than the one to which it refers. [exhales in relief]

YANBU to think that you can genuinely be friends with ex partners, without there being some simmering sexual/romantic tension. Not sure that you could credit/blame Friends for this not being the case for most people though.

Grin at squeaver

fluffles · 21/08/2010 19:37

i don't think it's anything to do with tv or films, i think there has always been a big group of people who are weird about exes and a big group who are not.

i am friends with two exes, both part of my circle of university friends, i went to a small uni where it was impossible to never see an ex again after a breakup. most people i know from then are friends with exes unless there was a big betrayal (unusual).

i also get on with the wife and girlfriend of both those exes adn my fiance gets on with them too, we don't see each other often (live far away) but meet up occassionally and stay in email/fb contact.

ValiumSingleton · 21/08/2010 19:44

UnquietDad, there was a reason for that apartment craziness, it was supposed to be Monica's aunt's apartment.

cupcakesandbunting · 21/08/2010 21:10

Monica's grandma, acksherlly.

[/too much time on my hands to watch tv]

Portofino · 21/08/2010 21:19

Tis televison for fecks sake! Entertainment (or not according to your point of view). It is not meant to be taken this seriously!

tribpot · 21/08/2010 21:21

Is this Monica's grandmother with the handcuffs?

I know R&R get together in the end but in between they maintained a friendship.

cupcakesandbunting · 21/08/2010 21:39

It's all real, you know, Portofino? I've got Joey and Chandler coming for dinner tomorrow.

Portofino · 21/08/2010 21:46

Grin I would do Chandler....though actually typing that for the first time ever - what a crap name!!!

UnquietDad · 21/08/2010 21:48

Oh yes, I knew there was a reason for the apartments.

I had a friend in the 80s at university who quite seriously said that she might as well treat "Neighbours" as if it was all real. As it was set thousands of miles away, she said, the chances of her meeting Stefan Dennis - excuse me, let's try that again: the chances of her meeting Stefan

Dennis were about as high as those of meeting Paul Robinson. So she might as well act as if it was all real, given that she'd never be in a position to be disenchanted... It sort of made sense at the time...

cupcakesandbunting · 21/08/2010 21:51

Oh dear. DH likes to sing that Stefan Dennis song around the house at regular intervals. It's grown on me now.

Portofino · 21/08/2010 21:52

LOL UQD! Tis deluded!

cupcakesandbunting · 21/08/2010 21:53

Incidentally, I (sort of) did meet Stefan Dennis when he was doing pantomine at the theatre in our town. He's less attractive than he thinks he is.

UnquietDad · 21/08/2010 22:00

It's the principle I apply with Girls Aloud. I might as well believe that they are all natural, and wake up in the morning looking fantastic with their hair all done and perfect eyelashes etc., and always go out in superbly-fitting designer dresses and killer heels which accentuate their lithe and lissom forms. After all, when will I get to see them with morning hair, smoking a fag and eating beans in their trackie bottoms?

Sorry, have veered off the point of this thread. DW and I once tried to do a "Friends" snog-o-meter, working out who had snogged whom in the incestuous little sextet (and there are more moments of single-sex osculation than you might expect). I think we worked out Phoebe had had everybody. Grin

cupcakesandbunting · 21/08/2010 22:11

Phoebe snogged Ross, Chandler and Joey. And I think one of the other girls but can't remember which.

Rachel snogged Ross and Joey. Did she do Chandler too?

Monica as far as I know snogged Joey and Chandler.

Am I the only one that doesn't really like Monica? Grin

UnquietDad · 21/08/2010 22:19

Monica also snogged Rachel, in the famous "how they got the apartments back" deal.... and we didn't see it. Pah!

Phoebe definitely snogged Rachel, in that episode where her old friend comes back. Don't know why I think she also had Monica, but I do.

Ross gave Joey a kiss to practise for Joey's audition (the punchline being that Joey had already had the audition!).

cupcakesandbunting · 21/08/2010 22:22

Oh yeah. The Phoebe/Rachel snog was something to do with Winona Ryder's appearance, wasn't it? Did Winona snog anyone? I used to have a vague girl-crush on her after watching Heathers :)

ZacharyQuack · 21/08/2010 23:27

Ross and Monica snogged each other in one of the "when we were young and Monica was fat" flashbacks. They were at a college party, it was dark and they both though they were snogging someone else.

ZacharyQuack · 21/08/2010 23:27

Monica was much nicer when she was fat. Hunger made her shrill and bossy.

cupcakesandbunting · 21/08/2010 23:31

You are right, ZQ. Being thin turned her into a control freak.

Also preferred '80s Ross with his 5 a side 'tache :)

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