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AIBU?

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Original poster

To think The Inbetweeners is crap?

182 replies

tvchoice · 13/04/2025 10:20

And Friday Night Dinner is much better (both containing Simon Bird)? Just find that the Inbetweeners is full of too much dirty language for no reason and irritating 'lad humour'. At least with FND, the dynamic between the family (particularly Jackie and Martin), but also brilliant supporting characters such as Jim and the two Grandmas, make it a much better TV show? Does anyone agree?
On the poll, YABU means the Inbetweeners is better and YANBU means Friday Night Dinner is better😊

OP posts:
MrPrehistoric · 13/04/2025 10:35

Maybe an unpopular opinion but FND is sooooooo overly-formulaic in its presentation which makes it a little hard to binge. You can expect almost the same events in every episode (e.g. Jim and the dog). There's very little that keeps me watching... Don't shoot me

autisticbookworm · 13/04/2025 10:35

I loved inbetweeners back in the day. I’m pretty sure I’d find it childish and misogynistic now. I found Friday night dinner gross and boring at the time.

LikeWhoUsesTypewritersAnyway · 13/04/2025 10:35

OMG I could not disagree more! The Inbetweeners is brilliant! 😆 One of the best comedy shows ever. (Feisty one you are!) 😂 And it was made at a time when there wasn't any whitewashing, or wokeness, or people crying because something offended them!

Not long after this, many things started to become sanitised and censored. Things have not really recovered from the censorship police, and there is little hilarity in comedy on TV now, because so many people are afraid of upsetting the fragile, and professionally offended.

Jay had a filthy mouth though! Shock 😆But yeah, as has been said, this is what some lads talk like. (Not all!)

Friday Night Dinner is brilliant though I agree. Not better. Just different. Shit on the shitting thing! Grin

echt · 13/04/2025 10:35

I watched both in their times and now, and both are excellent. Not sure why you are comparing them as the only common factor is Simon Bird.
Inbetweeners is best for seasons 1,2 and 3. The films less so.

Friday Night Dinner - all of them.

I'm 70, still enjoy them both immensely.

I don't vote as it is fuckwitted.

Antsinmypantsneedtodance · 13/04/2025 10:37

The inbetweeners is iconic. It is really a representation of teen life at the time. Or part of it. It appeals to a certain generation. Some of the words that have come out of it as well are still used by a generation bumder, bus wanker, fwwwend etc.

Friday dinner is a bit meh. The chatacters are unbelievable and its all a bit american in its humour for me.

BinChicken1 · 13/04/2025 10:39

Bus wanker will never not be funny 😁 I remember someone on here referring to people riding the bus as bus wankers and obviously most posters had an absolute sense of humour fail over it.

LikeWhoUsesTypewritersAnyway · 13/04/2025 10:40

Antsinmypantsneedtodance · 13/04/2025 10:37

The inbetweeners is iconic. It is really a representation of teen life at the time. Or part of it. It appeals to a certain generation. Some of the words that have come out of it as well are still used by a generation bumder, bus wanker, fwwwend etc.

Friday dinner is a bit meh. The chatacters are unbelievable and its all a bit american in its humour for me.

The Inbetweeners Thumbs Up GIF

Oh yeah.. 'Friend..' 😆

HRTQueen · 13/04/2025 10:42

I absolutely love the Inbetweeners

It wasn’t a celebration of lad culture at all the are a group of boys that don’t really fit in but not total outsiders who are trying to find their place

I have a teenage son he and his friends are doing the same, how they interact with each other is spot on

it wouldn’t be made now not because teenagers boys have changed and are suddenly so self aware it’s about what is produced now for tv

i love FND too Paul Ritter was great as Martin

justneed · 13/04/2025 10:48

The inbetweeners is so cringe and awkward and that’s why it’s so hilarious. Absolutely brilliant program

TruffleShuffles · 13/04/2025 10:49

Was it really misogynistic? The girls in the show always had the upper hand and usually made the boys look pretty stupid. I thought it showed how childish the laddish culture was and the boys ultimately always ended up as the butt of the jokes.

I think it was complete and utter genius but that’s maybe because I was the pretty much the same age as the characters in the show so recognised all of it. I think the geography trip episode is the greatest tv comedy episode of all time.

LikeWhoUsesTypewritersAnyway · 13/04/2025 10:52

Agree @TruffleShuffles ^

Tiswa · 13/04/2025 10:52

Watched Inbetweeners recently with teenage DS and actually found it funnier - both bringing back memories of being a teenager and how some of it still is true nowadays

Zanatdy · 13/04/2025 10:53

I love it

MalleusMaleficarumm · 13/04/2025 10:56

Inbetweeners is absolutely brilliant. I think they are written for different audiences, but I find Inbetweeners has a slight nostalgic factor for me as it really reminds me of my secondary school days in the early 00s!

CommentHere · 13/04/2025 10:56

I don't think you can compare them as they are aimed as different audiences. I enjoyed both but was probably a bit too old to find the Inbetweeners as funny as it was intended.
Friday Night Dinner was brilliant, we loved that as a family. IB, would not watch that as a family!!

WowIlikereallyhateyou · 13/04/2025 10:57

chakrakkhan · 13/04/2025 10:31

I think The Inbetweeners was always a bit cringe, wasn’t that the point? Some of it very funny, some of it very cringe. But reminds me of plenty of lads I knew at the time.

Exactly.

allthemiddlechildrenoftheworld · 13/04/2025 10:57

@tvchoice we used to love kevin and perry. that was hilarious!! we started calling out two kids kevin and kevina because they displayed typical teen behaviour!!

Boreded · 13/04/2025 11:01

MrPrehistoric · 13/04/2025 10:24

Respectfully, I think the Inbetweeners is a cultural masterpiece. I've never seen a show that relates so directly to a whole generation (Gen Z I suppose). It's truly like watching a documentary of a British secondary school, rather than a scripted comedy.

I’m with you. Didn’t appreciate it at all at the time, actually didn’t watch it because the bits I had seen I found stupid. But I’ve watched it 3 times since then, including with my son (probably 14 at the time) and it was perfection.

it has aged beautifully (because it has aged terribly with some things) but it is absolutely how my son and his friends would have behaved if they had grown up in the 90s or early 00s.

MrsCastle · 13/04/2025 11:05

I don’t think inbetweeners can be claimed to be for a certain generation - it’s all about what goes on in the mind of young boys and their aspirations and preoccupations which Is as old as time and funny to people of different ages and generations

Kreisler · 13/04/2025 11:11

Are you a bus wanker OP

PLHJ84 · 13/04/2025 11:13

Moonshinerso · 13/04/2025 10:22

They are both great but written for different audiences.

This. It’s not fair to directly compare them.

different times, different themes, different “target” audience but both funny in their own way!

MummaMummaJumma · 13/04/2025 11:14

Tbh, I don’t think there’s any series around the time of the inbetweeners, or before, that have aged particularly well. Friends was under fire several years ago, too. There are programmes now that will probably be up for debate in 10 years time.

I do love the inbetweeners though, it’s just so silly 🤪

AllyCart · 13/04/2025 11:28

Inbetweeners is just brilliant.

Yes, it's absolute 'cringe' but that's the whole point. They're portraying how awful and ridiculous teen boys can be as they try to navigate their way to adulthood.

I don't think it's in the least bit misogynistic, as someone claims above. The girls and women are idolised by the male characters and portrayed as having the upper hand in pretty much every interaction they have.

CandyCane457 · 13/04/2025 11:29

Different shows made for different audiences?

I found Inbetweeners hilarious when I was 18.

Im now in my 30s and I’d never seen Friday Night Dinner until about a year ago when my partner introduced me to it, and I think it’s great.

But they are very different shows, aimed at different people, so not sure a straightforward comparison is that simple!

florasl · 13/04/2025 11:29

I was 16 when the Inbetweeners came out, I remember it being incredibly relatable as we were at the same stage as the characters. Skins was also on at the same time which I think we wished our lives were like, Inbetweeners was much more relevant though.