Friends is now offensive?

No. It’s still funny.























Any questions?

If each episode was retro fitted with a trigger warning “this episode is too white or to trans or fatfobic” it would be better.
If I see anything that offends me without a trigger warning I need to linger for hours in a safe space!

Yup it's Quinta Brunson who took issue with the show in a recent interview because it didn't star enough black people for her standards

To be pedantic; nothing is offensive. People take offence, not give it. People can find it offensive but that is subjective.

it was never offensive, it was anything but... but go back and look at it. translate it into how this new society of ours sees things...

joey saying "how you doin?" would be sexual harrassment and be target of "me too"

everyone was white, straight and binary, which in reality is the norm usually in 1990s america where 90 something percent of the population was white, straight and binary! and you usually do stay friends with people you grew up with.

they made fun of monica being over-weight which is now "fat shaming" because God forbid you'd want to be healthy...

they were generally too attractive according to todays standards, which again we're told is offensive...

i could go on and on...


the only thing i found "offensive" was the crazy idea that an often out of work chef and waitress could afford an appartment like that in manhatten!

"Friends is now offensive?"

Everything is now offensive for leftists.
Clapping, eye contact, saying "black", ...

Mainly there are a number of jokes that wouldn't go over as well today. Jokes at the expense of minorities in general: gay people, trans people, fat people, non-white people, and so on all over the board. They were taken in stride then, because being PC about things, as well as educated about them at all, was not so much a priority then. Now as a society, we like to think we've learned better, improved, become more sensitive, so these things wouldn't fly as well. The remarks in general I don't think were intended as mean-spirited, which I think makes all the difference. I was born in the 80s, so I can remember when Friends was still a current big thing. I also don't like having to force things from years ago into today's lens. Now, I'm pretty liberal and PC myself, but I do think it gets crazy sometimes. View it as a product of the times, and be glad that we collectively know better now. Doesn't mean you have to hate something from almost 30 years ago.

I think the reason Friends didn't include as many non-white characters is because racial relationships are a difficult subject and they wanted to avoid dealing with it altogether. Sex and the City followed almost the same tactic, with the exception of one episode where Samantha goes out with a black guy, which creates racial tension between her and the guy's sister... and it was just awkward. You could tell the writers were out of their comfort zone and didn't know how to handle the situation. It ended up being a silly storyline.
Friends is a product of the 90s. It was meant to be a feel-good show that reflected the optimism and naivety of pre-9/11 America, before disillusionment, the war on terror, toxic social media and woke paranoia. There's nothing offensive about it, some people just can't deal with the fact that times change.