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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:
RaraRachael · 13/04/2025 15:28

I watched both and enjoyed them. My son could absolutely relate to the Inbetweeners. We all love FND and still quotd from it although I wasn't keen on the later ones . Jim was fine as an occasional character but didn't like when he got more air time as I felt it got too silly.

InWithThePlums · 13/04/2025 15:28

mumuseli · 13/04/2025 13:34

I loved Inbetweeners at the time, and felt it was spot on in terms of how teenage boys were. I do get that it wasn’t really misogynistic as the joke was on them being losers really. However….. watching it now makes me feel really conscious that I wouldn’t want my teenage son talking like that about females. Call me woke if you want but I like to think that things have moved on in terms of what is acceptable. (Well I think we all know that things have probably worse got in some ways eg with Andrew Tate incel culture… but at the same time we’re trying to move on and teach our boys to not objectify women 🤷‍♀️)
I still love all the general ribbing of each other in it, just not the talking about girls’ bodies and what they’ve done/ would like to do to them - ugh!

They’re just not supposed to be aspirational though! You’re supposed to think “what knobs”.

CarpetKnees · 13/04/2025 15:44

Now you've put
"On the poll, YABU means the Inbetweeners is better and YANBU means Friday Night Dinner is better"
I can't vote, as they are / were both great shows. But shows aimed at different target audiences despite the fact lots of people found both to be funny

YABU to suggest The Inbetweeners is crap. It was hilarious.

AnAlpacaForChristmasPleaseSanta · 13/04/2025 16:06

Oh I love them both.

I watch the Inbetweeners fully in the knowledge that it was of its time whilst still very much enjoying it (the trip to Thorpe Park is always a favourite in my house). I love the film's too, although find the second one much funnier.

FND will never not make me laugh and I'm so glad they got to finish it was a beautiful ending before the untimely passing of Paul Ritter. Just the sight of him.with his top off saying "Hello Bambinos" makes me smile.

It's so hard to find actual funny sitcoms these days IMO, they all seem to be too try hard or too safe. Think the most recent ones I've enjoyed were Derry Girls and Here We Go.

PoorPhaedra · 13/04/2025 16:10

The Inbetweeners is like a documentary of secondary school life in the 90s. Interestingly I re-watched with DS age 14 and he was shocked and said secondary school is nothing like that nowadays. Which was quite reassuring.

ARealitycheck · 13/04/2025 16:22

The inbetweeners was fantastic satire. Total opposite of misogynistic, it shows four insecure teenage boys being repeatedly shown up by the girls as the hormone fueled idiots they are.

I'm confident most of us from age 18-80 can recognise people from our past or even ourselves in some of the characters and their behaviour. This is what makes it so funny.

Alwaystired23 · 13/04/2025 16:57

I think the Inbetweeners is of its time, but it is funny. There are some one good liners. I haven't relly watched much of Friday night dinner, but might try and get in to that.

AnAlpacaForChristmasPleaseSanta · 13/04/2025 17:12

@PoorPhaedra Interestingly I re-watched with DS age 14 and he was shocked and said secondary school is nothing like that nowadays. Which was quite reassuring.

Particularly for any Briefcase Wankers who join mid term!

JandamiHash · 13/04/2025 17:15

I really couldn’t get in to Friday Night Dinner. I maybe just need to give it another go only watched a few episodes

FiveWhatByFiveWhat · 13/04/2025 17:18

whatwaytoturn · 13/04/2025 10:21

I think Inbetweeners at the time was good “lad” humour, but lots of it hasn’t aged well. But it gained a lot of popularity because there was nothing else like it.

Friday night dinner was an absolute classic and I could watch it over and over and still laugh out loud.

I agree. I remember watching it when it first aired and I must admit I loved it.

Teenagers on TV at the time were mostly waaaayyy too cool/written to act older/looked really glamorous.

At least the Inbetweeners felt vaguely accurate 🤣 The bullshitter who was hiding behind ridiculous lies, the bully who was butter wouldn't melt around parents, the way they'd argue, call eachother a wanker and move on.

I'll rewatch Friday night dinner regularly because it's absolute gold. And I don't really rewatch the Inbetweeners. But I'll always remember the whole cinema laughing at them awkwardly dancing towards the 4 girls in the first film and just thinking yeah I know kids who would have done that.

JandamiHash · 13/04/2025 17:18

chakrakkhan · 13/04/2025 10:29

The Inbetweeners is firmly a Millennial show. Gen zers were babies or young children when it came out. The cast are all almost, or already 40.

Show quote history

Gen Z-ers would probably cry watching the inbetweeners from how triggered they’d be.

I am a few years older than the Inbetweeners characters but it’s EXACTLY what boys were like that I knew. The episode where Will has a tall girlfriend and says her dead dad isn’t relevant to him dumping her makes me cry laughing

JandamiHash · 13/04/2025 17:23

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.

OMG after Jay lets off a flare: “What the fuck did you do that for?
”I dunno, alert the sea police?”
”And say what - help we’ve caught a fish” 🤣🤣🤣

Acc0untant · 13/04/2025 17:24

I was their age (in the show) when it came out and it was honestly the best representation of life at that point. Unlike something like Skins. It felt just like a regular English sixth form.

JandamiHash · 13/04/2025 17:31

Everystripesays · 13/04/2025 12:13

Just find that the Inbetweeners is full of too much dirty language for no reason and irritating 'lad humour'.

That's the basis of the programme though, agree it's not for everyone and hasn't aged well, but it was rare to have such a realistic representation of teenagers in an average school. The reason a lot of my friends still find it funny is because it did seem to capture that moment in time really well, and lots of people could relate to it (for better or worse). I don't think things like that necessarily stand the test of time, but i don't think they need to.

You also came on the heels of lots of dreary wishy washy shows where teenagers are prorated as some sort of 80yo philosophers - One Tree Hill, Dawson’s Creek etc. It was something different and refreshing

GJMJ · 13/04/2025 17:41

Duckswaddle · 13/04/2025 10:26

Bloody love inbetweeners 😆 bus wankers!!

Love that episode!!! 🤣

AnAlpacaForChristmasPleaseSanta · 13/04/2025 17:43

JandamiHash · 13/04/2025 17:15

I really couldn’t get in to Friday Night Dinner. I maybe just need to give it another go only watched a few episodes

I think it's a bit of a slow burn but I found each series better and funnier than the one before.

Another thing I love about The Inbetweeners is that they are still a genuine gang of mates now, even 15 years on (James Buckley talks about this often on his podcast). So they really did grow up together.

AnAlpacaForChristmasPleaseSanta · 13/04/2025 17:48

JandamiHash · 13/04/2025 17:31

You also came on the heels of lots of dreary wishy washy shows where teenagers are prorated as some sort of 80yo philosophers - One Tree Hill, Dawson’s Creek etc. It was something different and refreshing

Show quote history

I loved Dawsons Creek back in the day. Caught an episode on YouTube recently and it was dreadful. My kitchen table leg is less wooden than James VDB, who although very attractive only seemed to have one facial expression.

Lesson learned, even as a raging 90s nostalgic some things are best left where they are.

LiamNeesonIsADerryGirl · 13/04/2025 17:48

70isaLimitNotaTarget · 13/04/2025 11:39

Neil had a sweet gormless innocence to him.

My daughter will always say "Too Jazzy?" When I look at clothes and am undecided

Glad I'm not the only one who uses that phrase in real life! 😂

JandamiHash · 13/04/2025 17:56

AnAlpacaForChristmasPleaseSanta · 13/04/2025 17:48

I loved Dawsons Creek back in the day. Caught an episode on YouTube recently and it was dreadful. My kitchen table leg is less wooden than James VDB, who although very attractive only seemed to have one facial expression.

Lesson learned, even as a raging 90s nostalgic some things are best left where they are.

Show quote history

I think teenage horniness has a lot to answer for. The absolute drivel we watched because we fancied boys ey 😂

doreeen · 13/04/2025 18:01

I was a teenager when Inbetweeners came out, the way it portrayed teenage life was in stark contrast to Skins which was also hugely popular at the same time. Inbetweeners definitely more realistic! 😅

AnAlpacaForChristmasPleaseSanta · 13/04/2025 18:06

JandamiHash · 13/04/2025 17:56

I think teenage horniness has a lot to answer for. The absolute drivel we watched because we fancied boys ey 😂

Show quote history

🤣 That is so true. The hours I must've wasted sitting through utter dross because either me or a friend fancied someone in something 🤦.

TranceNation · 13/04/2025 18:06

I was early 20s when it came out so I could relate to it and how school was, the pressure to fit in, have sex etc but I probably couldn't relate to it now. I imagine teenagers today finding it will probably still relate to it however.

hby9628 · 13/04/2025 18:08

I love the inbetweeners but I guess when it first came out I was only a bit older than them so could kind of relate. I think it’s hilarious.

MarxAndSparx · 13/04/2025 18:16

The Inbetweeners was unlike anything else at the time. As a millennial, this is what many of the lads were like at my high school in the late 90s/early 00s. So many of the scenes and dialogue are a realistic portrayal of teen life during that time.
I’ve also never cringed so much at a show, but that’s what makes it great.

Another poster mentioned Skins. I couldn’t get into that, it was too angsty, try hard and cool.

fuckingangrybirdbrows · 13/04/2025 18:17

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.

It relates to millennials surely