Growing up in the 1990s, I think I was lucky enough to be exposed to some of the greatest pop culture in United States history, whether it was music, movies, or TV. The decade had its fair share of great sitcoms, and I'll admit that I was a huge Friends fan.
Like many millennials, I think we looked up to Gen X, and here we had a whole show full of Gen X characters to give us an idea of what life might be like when we reached our twenties and thirties (or, at least, what we hoped it would be like).
Unfortunately, I think that was lost on Gen Z. I see younger people on social media all the time bashing the show because it's "offensive." They're not down with the gay and "trans" jokes, and for some reason, they're offended that the six main characters are all white. They feel it's misogynistic, and not "inclusive" or "authentic" enough.
But the thing is — the show was not transphobic or homophobic or any other kind of phobic. Heck, it brought a lesbian couple into the mainstream and had the first lesbian wedding on network TV. It even won GLAAD Media Awards.
It was funny. Yes, it made fun of gay and "trans" people, but it also made fun of straight people. It was a comedy, and no one was off limits. That's not something you'll find much of today outside a Dave Chappelle stand-up routine, especially if you don't want to get canceled.
One of the stars of Friends, Lisa Kudrow, who played Phoebe Buffay, recently spoke out about the state of modern TV, and I think she is 100% correct. She says that modern shows are "too afraid" to make people uncomfortable.
Actress Lily Tomlin interviewed Kudrow for Interview magazine, and she asked, "Do you think sitcoms are dying or are they just evolving?"
Her response:
I wish they were evolving. 30 Rock and Seinfeld and Friends were really funny and really well written. But I’m not drawn to new sitcoms that are multi-camera in front of an audience because I’m not buying it. I don’t know if that’s just because I’ve seen too many single-camera sitcoms — I think we need to get back to being able to tell jokes. I feel like we’ve been too afraid to make jokes that might make people uncomfortable.
"The multi-cameras with an audience, they’re not short on jokes," Tomlin responded.
"Right. But the really good ones, they’re not tame jokes," Kudrow replied, "They’re jokes that are kind of, 'I can’t believe you just said that.' Comedy is about surprise. You need things you didn’t see coming."
Amen, sister. I don't think I've enjoyed a sitcom since The Office went off the air. That may have been the last great one. I did watch and enjoy the first season of Abbot Elementary, but I kind of lost track of it. Other than that, I couldn't even tell you the names of any current sitcoms. The lack of funny is exactly why.
In 2023, actress Jennifer Aniston, who played Rachel Green on Friends, also confessed that she felt today's generation was a bit too sensitive when it came to TV shows. She said that things had "evolved" since the 1990s, but the show's jokes were never meant to intentionally hateful toward certain groups. She laughed off the idea that it was offensive.
"There’s a whole generation of people, kids, who are now going back to episodes of Friends and find them offensive," she said. "There were things that were never intentional and others … well, we should have thought it through — but I don’t think there was a sensitivity like there is now."
Of course, the show's creators haven't been so... realistic.
In 2022, Marta Kauffman told the L.A. TImes that she hadn't initially understood why younger generations were critical of the show, but the death of George Floyd made her understand. "Admitting and accepting guilt is not easy," she said. "It’s painful looking at yourself in the mirror. I’m embarrassed that I didn’t know better 25 years ago."
To make up for it, she also said she donated $4 million to her alma mater, Brandeis University in Boston, for the establishment of an endowed professorship in the school’s African and African American studies department.
Guilt? For creating one of the most beloved TV shows of all time? She's apologizing for her success and bowing down to the woke mob. That's what this woman should be embarrassed about.
Again, I was born in the 1980s and grew up in the 1980s and 1990s. Thinking back, I watched shows with mostly white casts (Friends, Seinfeld, Golden Girls, etc.). I watched shows with mostly black casts (The Cosby Show, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Good Times, etc.).
I loved them all. I never really stopped and thought about the skin color of the actors. Then again, I feel like most people my age didn't grow up looking to be offended like many of this younger generation seem to. We wanted laughs, comedy, humor, quotes we could share with our friends, not a DEI quota.
If a show is good and unafraid to make the audience uncomfortable, as Kudrow said, race, sex, gender, sexuality, and the rest of that stuff doesn't matter. Comedy is meant to transcend all of that, not shrink itself to avoid offending anyone.
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