Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Friends, the one where we get annoyed

204 replies

SatansReject · 08/11/2019 08:19

Light hearted!

I like Friends but I often have moments of getting annoyed by it.

Rachel and Monica would never have been best friends at high school. One was a popular cheerleader type and the other was an overweight, immature nerd ... you’re telling me that in an American high school these two girls would have been besties?

Joey is loved by everyone, yet he’s a sexist player that disregards and disrespects women and he’s thick as pig shit with no job - but he’s so lovable 🤔

Ross is the bad guy in the whole Carol and Susan thing yet his wife cheated on him, Susan insisted that the baby was as much hers as it was his (??!!) and he’s expected to just accept it? I hate Susan!!

What annoys you about Friends?

(Before anyone starts, no I don’t make a habit of calling people fat nerds but the program specifically plays on this which is why I said it)

OP posts:
coatlessinspokane · 08/11/2019 08:27

The way that Monica is made fun of for being fat in the past and that it’s blamed on her past food addiction because otherwise they couldn’t explain why she’s so skinny now.

Basically they want a fat person to take the piss out of but they want a skinny woman as a protagonist.

Also Joey’s overeating is lauded and has no consequence cos he’s a bloke and it’s seen as manly.

On the other hand part of the fat shaming of Monica is about mocking her for being too manly, strong and aggressive (she can lift Ross, he’s scared she’ll sit on him etc)

It’s a pretty sexist double standard of women, men and eating.

Racmactac · 08/11/2019 08:27

How they manage to afford apartments in New York on their jobs!

How they have so much time to spend drinking coffee - they would have pretty full on jobs surely - see point above !

coatlessinspokane · 08/11/2019 08:28

Like you OP I love Friends but can see its faults. Nothing is perfect.

Member984815 · 08/11/2019 08:29

I loved friends as a teen , I can't stand it now . Everything about it . The fact they live in such a cosmopolitan city and there are mostly white people in it

ShatnersWig · 08/11/2019 08:30

What's your AIBU?

CallMeOnMyCell · 08/11/2019 08:30

I agree about Susan! Ross is just expected to go along with whatever they want even though Carol cheated on him and he’s the baby’s father!

Original poster
SatansReject · 08/11/2019 08:32

@ShatnersWig

I would have thought it was obvious, AIBU to get annoyed by the faults in a non serious comedy show

OP posts:
Pinkiii · 08/11/2019 08:33

I agree there are some things that don’t make me laugh as much now.

However I do think Ross gets a very hard time from people Most of the time, saying he is controlling and jealous etc.. you can’t blame the guy, his wife cheated on him with another woman and he was right about Rachel and Mark in the end.

Original poster
SatansReject · 08/11/2019 08:36

Also, Phoebe. She’s supposedly a pure of heart hippy who won’t eat meat or wear fur and is innocent and naive (still thinks Santa is real etc) yet she’s also an ex street robber who lived on the streets of NYC? Come on ...

OP posts:
WotchaTalkinBoutWillis · 08/11/2019 08:36

@Pinkii How was Ross right about Rachel and Mark in the end?
They were only ever friends, never cheated on Ross with him or even got together at all Confused

TheMidasTouch · 08/11/2019 08:36

Nothing annoys me about it. I love it.

rosegoldivy · 08/11/2019 08:37

Nowadays if they were to peer into fat naked guys window every night... They would probably be arrested.

Pinkiii · 08/11/2019 08:38

@WotchaTalkinBoutWillis Ross suspicion was always that Mark liked Rachel, and Mark asked Rachel out as soon she she was single, so his suspicions were kind of right even if they weren’t reciprocated by Rachel

Lonelymum11 · 08/11/2019 08:42

I agree about Ross and Susan. Ross gets a lot of criticism generally (most of it I agree with) but Susan was the other woman in his relationship, she refers to him as the sperm donor and wants the baby to have her surname as well. Of course he doesn't like her!

coatlessinspokane · 08/11/2019 08:43

Pinkii
I think you need Monica to jump on the sofa and clip you round the ear!

“So what if he likes her? Does that mean he gets to have her? Don’t you trust her?!”

Ross was wrong about Rachel. Plus he cheated on her faster than a bullet acc Chandler.

HigherFurtherFasterBaby · 08/11/2019 08:44

I hated Susan when I first watched as a teen and I hate her even more now. She’s a cheeky bitch and Carol is even worse for allowing this shit to happen.

coatlessinspokane · 08/11/2019 08:47

but Susan was the other woman in his relationship, she refers to him as the sperm donor and wants the baby to have her surname as well. Of course he doesn't like her!

But I think that was the point. We’re not supposed to like her and our sympathy is supposed to go to Ross. When in real life this situation would never happen. The kid usually gets the father’s name regardless. In RL no one would ever insist on the lesbian lover’s name being included. If they did they’d be told to F off.

RavenLG · 08/11/2019 08:49

I think a lot of people look at it with “2019” eyes. Back in the early 90s when it started the world wasn’t the same as it is today, especially America. But there are still a LOT of faults / plot holes with it too.

Rachel and Monica I always thought that they were friends before high school and it followed on. Apart from the prom episode it seemed like to me they didn’t really mix in school. Just outside.

Joey is an actor and is therefore desirable to the airheads he dates. He’s not a pig to them at first he’s charming and funny (then usually a pig after sex). Monica, Phoebe and Rachel call him out on it occasionally. But, I hate to say it, it was the 90s and I think more socially acceptable to be a twat like that.

I don’t think Ross ever came across as the bad guy for Susan and Carol. Susan was awful and Carol was an arsehole to him imo too. I mean, when she came crying to him before her wedding because her parents were not going to the wedding. Why is that your ex husbands problem go cry to your wife or YOUR friends.

My biggest problem was how fast Rachel went from “I like shopping I’ll work in fashion” to corporate buying within a few seasons.

This article about Phoebe does make me laugh though
www.digitalspy.com/tv/ustv/a814758/phoebe-from-friends-is-the-worst/

SquareAsABlock · 08/11/2019 08:50

One was a popular cheerleader type and the other was an overweight, immature nerd ... you’re telling me that in an American high school these two girls would have been besties?

Rachel and Monica were possibly friends before high school, in fact I think its suggested their parents have known each other for many years - possibly through the fact they're both Jewish families. I'm actually quite surprised that Dr Green didn't like Ross, though he may have seen his personality for what it really is (a control freak with women).

RavenLG · 08/11/2019 08:51

I agree with @Pinkiii too. Rachel invited Mark over the night her and Ross broke up. AND tried to hide it from Ross when he called. If she really didn’t have anything to hide why hide it? She was a massive twat in that scenario.

HauntedPinecone · 08/11/2019 08:54

I love these Friends threads Grin

Ross is a terrible person. He is a jealous, controlling arsehole!

I hate the way they changed Phoebe. She used to be quirky and a bit of a hippy but her character changed throughout the series' and she ended up being quite horrible.

I also absolutely hated "fat Monica". No, she wasn't thin like all the others but she was never some huge gargantuan monster. A bit overweight, yes, not the end of the world.

They were all pretty flawed characters. I think Chandler was probably the nicest, and even he had lots of issues!

HauntedPinecone · 08/11/2019 08:57

I hated Susan when I first watched as a teen and I hate her even more now

Agree. I always disliked her. Carol was a lesbian and she married Ross to possibly try and hide from that fact, we can get over that I think. Susan though, she was a smug patronising cow. She treated Ross (who I hate!) terribly and Carol just stood by and let it happen!

Original poster
SatansReject · 08/11/2019 08:57

I really like Chandler, he reminds me of my son 😂

OP posts:
ceeveebee · 08/11/2019 08:58

I’ve rewatched a few episodes recently and must admit some of it shocked me (constant references to porn, Rachel’s fake Indian accent, joey’s attitude to women etc) but that’s because I’m watching it from a 2019 perspective, at the time when I watched in the 1990’s I didn’t notice any of that!

(By the way re the massive apartment - it was Monica’s grandma’s and still rent controlled hence why they were able to afford it)

MissCharleyP · 08/11/2019 08:58

I hated how Rachel got the big, corporate job with zero qualifications or work experience. So unrealistic.

Also how dumb they made Joey; when Mondler were having trouble conceiving he said “So we’re ruling out surrogacy? So I don’t have to learn what that means?” Even though one of his best friends had done that for her brother a few years ago.

Swipe left for the next trending thread