to not understand the fascination with the Friends TV show?

[whataloadofoldshit]

I don't get it? Can someone explain. The fake laughing audience, rubbish story lines. Everyone seems to love it but me? Why?

My DD loves Friends and has the box set. She's studying abroad at the moment and has taken some of the DVDs with her . Me, I love Father Ted and can watch episodes time and time again, never get bored.

Love friends!!!

It's not as sophisticated or sharp as Frasier, but I still love it.

But it was big during my teenage years, so there's a real nostalgia element. And you can still hear chandler-esque inflections in the speech of a whole generation of guys.

Somehow you can watch them again and again without getting bored. I'm currently stuck on the couch fb my newborn so have dusted off my old box sets.

I've never really got it either, I used to watch it occasionally as DH liked it and I didn't mind it, but would never have watched it of my own accord, I was always surprised at how popular it was. It was SO far removed from my own experience of house sharing as to be totally unbelievable. I didn't mind it being on when it was still being made, and shown in the evenings but started to find it really irritating once it was on endless daytime repeat as DH was always putting it on at random times during the day. I would hate it now I think.

Friends is brilliant! It started in the UK a couple of months after I gave birth to my son, so for us, it was a show to look forward to when we couldn't go out on a Friday evening! He is the same age as the show and is a massive fan himself - he's got the entire box set, whereas we occasionally dip into the re-runs on Comedy Central.
We're also huge fans of The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother - they're just easy to watch, funny shows.

You had to like it the first time, it doesn't work now I don't think. Same with lots of stuff - I can't get into Buffy although I feel like I should like it!

Friends threads aren't the same since TSC left.

She had a perfectly reasoned argument with examples of what an emotionally abusive, narcissistic, grade a CUNT Ross Geller was.

I left a teenager confused recently by referring to her a "Monica" because she admitted to being obsessed with cleaning and tidying. She'd never seen. Friends made me feel so fucking old I can tell you! But it has dated badly, and it was never really hysterical laugh until your ribs ache funny like Father Ted was, and still is.

I love it. It was funny, the characters were attractive and Monica's apartment was just gorgeous.
I also liked the sense of genuine friendship that existed between a group of people that were all a bit quirky and slight misfits in different ways. Joey was dim, Ross was fussy and pedantic and a bit whiny, Chandler told crap jokes and gave off gay vibes, Rachel was shallow, Monica was anal and Phoebe was on a different planet a lot of the time. But they just gelled as a group and accepted each other warts and all.

Probably overthinking this.

My 40 plus year old boys still get pulled in if it happens to be on..They watched this as students and I think they all thought life would be so easy and careferee.

Pure nostalgia and the Idea of good friends being around always.Now they slave in the banking sector and friends are all over the planet,slaving too.

I quite like it because it reminds me of being a teenager.

But I find whole Ross and Rachel thing very annoying.

I agree with you, OP. My kids love Friends, I never found it the slightest bit funny. It's just smug and twee IMO.

I love Friends!
I studied it for A-Level Media Studies and I got an A in my course work on it. So I owe a lot to that show!
I think it was that when it began it was a new concept, it showed how friends could become the new modern family structure when a nuclear family structure was not available.
I personally started watching Friends in my early teens, so I grew up with them, they were there every Friday night consistently for 10 years. They became a constant in my life in a way (yes I know how sad that sounds!) much like friends are.
I spent the last few weeks rewatching Friends from season one, and it brings back that warm glow I used to feel when I watched it for the first time.

I never really watched it when it was on (I am one of those people who never watches things everyone else is watching, I have never seen CSI or Breaking Bad or - gasp! - Bake Off) but I often watch it now and really enjoy it.

Joey reminds me of DS1 (he says one of his friends says this too). Unfortunately DS1 is not as good looking as Matt LeBlanc - even to a devoted mother's eye - but there is a slight resemblance when Joey does that thing with his eyes when the penny has just dropped. An episode the other night, Joey was angry about his eyebrows - he looked just like DS1 then too. As DS1 can be a bit slow on the uptake as well this just gives me extra viewing pleasure.

I love love LOVE Friends! They have started showing re runs constantly on Comedy Central and I can't get enough of it :D

The lotion and the powder have made a paste!

Its not canned laughter - it was filmed in front of a live audience. I still love it btw even though I've seen it a million times. I think the scripts are really witty - but it did get silly in the middle.

It's a marmite thing. You watched it or you didn't. You liked it or you hated it. If you watched it chances are you enjoy American comedy and so enjoyed it.

I was the 'right' age group for it when it was new but i found it obvious and cheesy and avoided it. And now it's dated as well.

"Chandler, have you ever put on a black cocktail dress and invited me up to your room?

No...

Then you are neither of your parents."

We have the boxed set and dd 18 and Ds 15 love it.
Also on comedy channel.

Phoebe is wonderful. "My eyes my eyes"

uh OP you and me both. I didn't really have tv growing up much (grew up with crofting grandparents who didn't really believe in it) but DH love this and watches all the shitty re runs and I want to throw things at him. I think its bollocks and no matter how many times he makes me watch it I still want to take a cricket bat to that aniston thing for her whingeing!!! it drives me mental!! I genuinely believed it was just me too.

Chandler has some funny lines.
But mostly it's the 'beautiful club'.

Its simple, you don't get the humour! I laughed when it came out and still cry with laughter when i watch it today. Nothing wrong with having a difference sense of humour. I don't get Benny hill or Frasier, don't find them remotely funny and like you, wonder what all the fuss is about.

I think the funniest friends episode has got to be the one where Phoebe was pretending to fancy Chandler...or is it the one where Ross and Monica re-enacted their high school dance? hmm..