To think Ross was a jealous control freak and Joey was a sex pest?

[Cerseirys]

I was watching a Friends marathon last night as I had insomnia, and thought bloody hell, Joey was actually pretty creepy the way he would pursue women with his "how YOU doin'" line and do things like take down the shower curtain when he had a female roommate and ask her sex-related questions when interviewing for a new flatmate.

And Ross was bordering on psychotic with his sandwich fixation and jealousy of just about any guy Rachel interacted with. And also that weird overprotective thing when he first found out about Monica and Chandler. She was his sister, not his possession!

Joey was a creep. The earlier series' in particular were terrible; yes, all men sit in their underwear watching porn and women are hysterical/emotional nags.

I found Phoebe irritating.

Ross was controlling and manipulative. Yes, I know it was a comedy, but he emotionally abused so many women. He was a controlling, jealous bully, IMO.

Chandler and Rachel, I liked. I would have preferred if Rachel did not end up with Ross at the end though, as he tried so many times to destroy her career and relationships, and really hadn't changed at all.

Yes, yes, I know... Not real and a comedy but I'm sad that I enjoyed it as a teen and considered it all to be normal...

I loved Friends when it was first shown. I can't watch it now. All of the characters are so irritating and its worse when you know what's going to happen.

That said I think The Inbetweeners is hilarious so maybe I am not the best judge of comedy.

Aaah, Friends viewed in retrospect. Uncomfortable isn't it?

Of course they're all caricatures, it's a sitcom. However, the way it normalised abuse, sexism, bullying, misogyny and so on is awful from a distance. As a teen, I loved it. In fact I can still watch it now and laugh. But it is terrible.

I'm going to patent my Ross Rant. I never liked him. Abusive wankbadger.

Phoebe is played as if the actress is intelligent, bored and increasingly fed up imo.

Link to this thread you speak of, please

Oooh yes a Friends thread! I often think this when I rewatch them although I do remember thinking they were quite regressive at the time.

YY to Ross being red flag city and Joey being a poster boy (note the ref!) for rape culture.

And yes Phoebe's character was so full of contradictions. She was the most feministy / hippy of them all yet was always putting the men down. Although the scene where she brought Ross down over evolution was a classic.

Chandler normalised porn and homophobia. Monica represented the Men are from Mars fallacy that women just lurve to clean clean clean even when they are working full time.

Men = emotional idiots. Women = obsessed with marriage and fashion.

I still love it though because at the end of the day the relationships are strong.

Phoebe was the worst. The constant 'when I was homeless and had to knife-fight for food' (or whatever). Why, Phoebe, with this gritty backstory are you such a vapid waste of space with such shallow friends?

This comes up regularly on mumsnet and yes you're all right, it should have been a show about 6 normal people going about their everyday lives, that would be great!

Some of you could do with removing the poker for a while...

I watch Friends sometimes for comfort and actually think it has some great jokes.

But one thing that always bothered me a lot was how Carol's being a lesbian was just never-endingly funny.

Rachel: Of course Carol and I are close friends!
Someone else: Then what's her last name?
Rachel: Carol..... Lesbian?
How was that funny even in the early 1990s?

On the other hand, I did like the fact that Carol and her wife whose name I've forgotten are just "normal" women. Not wearing "I'm a lesbian" tshirts or anything. But then that whole stupid thing when the wife met up with Emily in London and Ross worrying she'd "convert" her.

Carols wife was Susan

I'm watching it now.

I still like it. Monica was my least favourite character; too shrieky and controlling, the episode where Phoebe said she'd prefer Rachel over her is a case in point.

I know it's not real but that really pissed me off 😉

I always thought the supporting characters were funnier and got a lot of the best lines too. The actress who played Janice had amazing comic timing. And the Geller parents too, although obviously they were awful. Jack talking about driving his car into a nativity scene and being accused of hate crimes in the papers always leaves me hysterical.

Friends gave me one thing, which the name of DD.

But they were all awful and shallow but that's the point of the show. If they were all normal, they probably wouldnt be friends.

Monica was a control freak.
Ross was neurotic.
Phoebe was dumb and but manipulative.
Rachel was shallow and prissy.
Chandler was the butt of all the jokes.
Joey was creepy.

They all are guilty of fat shaming. Joey was the worst for that.

While we're at it, I've been binge watching Gilmore Girls again now that it's on Netflix and I'm reminded how much the Dean/Tristan/Jess/Logan characters annoy me. They are all so jealous and possessive of Rory, it's ridiculous. Every time she looks at another man they have a fight and she is constantly doing things only to make them feel better. Bleugh!

Ross was vile. Jealous, needy, insecure, controlling. Horrible character. He got worse as the series went on so I really don't think that extreme characters were needed for comedy.

I agree with you KingJoffrey, Phoebe was horrible. She was downright nasty a lot of the time.

Ross was a spineless asshole, Phoebe a very unlikable character, I really could not stand her.
I had a dear friend that was actually like Monica, warts (compulsive cleaning, controlling) and all, so I could not help but be fond of her. I appreciated Rachel's evolution from spoilt useless brat to spoilt career woman with wit, so I liked her a lot. My favourite was Chandler, with his zingers. Joey was ok in small doses.

I know this is a Friends whinge but...Everybody loves Raymond. WTF? Eyepoppingly dreadful.

And also that weird overprotective thing when he first found out about Monica and Chandler. She was his sister, not his possession!

I don't remember this?

I remember he found out because he saw them having sex through the apartment window ... so hardly the best way to find out.

I have a male best friend and a sister and I would be shocked too if they started hooking up.

But that scene was resolved within a couple of minutes so I'm not sure why you even mentioned it tbh.

God yes Merde, Friends I can still laugh at but Raymond was truly dreadful and has possibly two of the worst characterised female characters in recent years, yet the show ran for years and the two actresses playing his mother and wife were always winning awards.

They all are guilty of fat shaming. Joey was the worst for that

When were they ALL guilty of it?

It doesn't have to be either normal.people or abusive cunts dressed up.as romance. Abd no one ever called Joey on his creep8ness or Ross on his EA. Instead it was playedthat we were all supposed to hope that R & R wpuld end up together becauae he was onky controllong because he really loved her right. So that makes it all ok .

Ross made a huge big deal out of Monica and Chandler. Did you miss that episode?! He saw them through the window and charged over, banging on the door to be let in, chased Chandler around the apartment screaming MY SISTER. It was vile.

One thing I'll say for Ross and Rachel is that it wasn't Joey and Rachel. That 'romance' of theirs was cringe worthy. I couldn't bear to watch it, made my toes curl.

That was one of the worst ideas the scriptwriters had, especially as they dumbed down Rachel so she could be with Joey. I remember them both laughing at the term "homo erectus", which the Rachel of previous seasons would never have done.