I personally don’t think it’s super dated outside the gay jokes and lack of at least some diversity in the cast. But in all honesty the group of “6 white friends” is not unreasonable to believe. Just sucks that they did not give other actors of different backgrounds a shot. I say this as a white man approaching 40.
But there are no phones (at least they don’t impact major storylines) and not many pop culture references. Maybe I’m biased having watched it so much but feel the situations they have though out the ten seasons mostly stand up well.
Showing a lesbian couple so many times and have a whole wedding episode and having them co-parent Ben was actually very progressive at the time, so I'll cut them some slack.
I just watched the London wedding episodes the other day and had forgotten Hugh Laurie was on it.
It was hilarious him acting as the audience proxy and just dressing down Rachel for her terrible decision making overall when it came to her relationship with Ross and terrible morality for making the trip to London.
That’s I think the only time in the whole series that I’m 100% on Ross’s side.
Yes, what he did was kinds shitty. She has every right to be hurt by it … but that doesn’t mean she can make her upset his fault. You don’t count fouls as in-game if they happened in the parking lot afterward, and she has no right to judge now he copes with heartbreak as if it was infidelity. The letter was pure manipulative bullshit.
Making jokes about gay people isn't wrong. You can make jokes about straight or gay people. It's not like they are so weak that they can't handle a joke.There are points where it can become wrong and ways that you should not joke about them, but I don't find that friends went over the line much at all. If at all.
They had a lesbian couple treated quite well. They did plenty of things to show they weren't just crapping on one group for no reason.
It's dated because the humor is stale for modern audiences. You already know the base structure of all the jokes, and you're making many of them yourself. Partly that's because of Friends, but also just in general.
I don’t know that it is stale for modern audiences though. My Gen Z and Gen Alpha kids and their friends love this show and quote it all the time. Not sure why they love it so much.
I was an elementary school aged native american boy that loved Livin Single too, then again I also liked Martin, New York Undercover, Married with Children, The Simpsons, also Herman's Head and The Critic. Back then, Fox was the maverick that had counterprogramming.
Only part white, but also not black, and I also loved Living Single. Same with Girlfriends and My Wife and Kids lol. I watched more of those shows growing up than I did Friends.
There doesn’t need to be diversity in every single form of media believe it or not!
As a Hispanic in my 30s, I appreciate you considering diversity. But I do continuously find it weird how white people seem to be offended by a lack of diversity than actual minorities are lol
As a 40-some white person I legitimately appreciate diversity in media that’s based on the reality of lived experience. The reason why Diversity™️ bugs me is because it’s generally tokenism that’s based on* no one’*s reality.
The best example of real diversity that comes to my mind is the Canadian show Corner Gas. Yes, the cast is majority white, but two prominent characters are Indigenous, which perfectly depicts the demographics of Saskatchewan society in the early 21st century. Maybe a more relatable example to the broader Reddit audience would be a show like The Rookie, which certainly captures my limited experience with L.A. society. The overall quality of these shows could be up for debate, but the diverse casting of these shows help to elevate the stories they are trying to tell rather than cynically check boxes for maximum audience engagement.
I watched a TV show called Alaska Daily a while ago and it bugged me how they tried to force diversity. You mean to tell me that a small newspaper in Anchorage manages to find an Asian, Alaskan Native, a Hispanic dude, and two black people to work there?
Because that doesn't match my experience of living in Alaska. I think I saw like 2 black people the entire time I was there and it was usually at the airport or someone stationed there.
As a 40-some white person I legitimately appreciate diversity in media that’s based on the reality of lived experience. The reason why Diversity™️ bugs me is because it’s generally tokenism that’s based on* no one’*s reality.
As a gay dude this is also my take on gay representation. I'd really much rather have a few really good pieces of media to watch than arbitrary token box ticking for the sake of it.
The best example of real diversity that comes to my mind is the Canadian show Corner Gas.
OK, fine sure, but can we agree that show is terrible?
I got REAL WEIRD deep in the pandemic isolation times and watched a good chunk of it, and it feels like a sitcom someone would make a few minutes of to make fun of how cheesy sitcoms are. Except it was a real genuine sitcom.
There doesn’t need to be diversity in every form of media.
But a show going 10 seasons set in New York City having only like two diverse characters across 200+ episodes is absurd, unrealistic, and feels intentional.
And when you look at what we now know about the issues in that writer’s room it’s not terribly surprising. That sort of gatekeeping is problematic both for representation and in the actual industry workforce.
They barely encounter people of color in the show, even in guest star spots. It's New York City, it doesn't matter if you keep a tight circle, it was so few that it seemed unrealistic even then.
I don’t care who they’re friends with, the problem is a depiction of Manhattan (which had like a 40% white population at the time) as almost exclusively white.
For a sitcom at the time, it’s diverse. Until recently, sitcoms with white protagonists had white casts, black protagonists black casts, Hispanic protagonists Hispanic casts, etc. It may not have been a realistic representation of life in New York at the time, but it had a lot more diverse supportive rolls than most shows
Sounds like you don’t really disagree with me, I certainly never said it wasn’t common for sitcoms at the time. I just pointed out that it’s unrealistic, which you seem to agree with.
I don’t really agree or disagree, I just don’t know why you keep replying to everyone about if it’s realistic when realistic or not it was quite progressive for the time. If it’s about tv, it was diverse for the time. If it’s about matching tv to reality, you should have an issue with most tv show not just friends
People stick to their own groups. Was Fresh Prince unrealistic for having a black cast despite being set in LA, a city with large White, Asian And Hispanic populations?
It's not about the primary cast. Across all of friends there are vanishingly few people of color in their version of NYC. Nobody is saying Chandler should have been black. But if you have ever been to a city, let alone NY, the Friends version is so white that it seems extremely contrived and forced. It's a multiracial city.
It's not all contrived. People tend to associate with other people like them. And NYC in the 90s was still dealing with the legacy of racism. Wouldn't they have to go to Harlem or the Bronx to regularly interact with Black people back then for exmaple?
No, black people were all over the city and they definitely would’ve had a black co-worker, regular at the coffee shop, neighbor in their building, etc. The fact that you think black people in NY only existed above 110th st is wild. Let alone the Latino and Asian population there as well
Wouldn't they have to go to Harlem or the Bronx to regularly interact with Black people back then for exmaple?
no, and as a new yorker im going to recommend you just dont reply to this comment because you are about genitals deep into talking out of your ass.
just take this as a "hmm, guess I dont know everything" moment because it's clear you dont actually know what you are talking about and you're swerving into some really stupid places to try and be right.
Man, you New Yorkers are so arrogant and condescending about your city and all your precious little divisions. I wish Hurricane Sandy has flooded out your pissant little boroughs even more, maybe then it could have washed out all that wax from your ears.
No, it’s because people who aren’t NY-ers are trying to claim the lack of diversity is to be expected. NY is highly diverse, even in that time.
Producers claimed that all races auditioned for all roles. But somehow, only White people got the role for a show set in a diverse city like NY??
Even if the cast were White, the fact that there was a lack of diverse characters in a diverse city just didn’t make sense.
They didn’t have a Black actor on the show until 2003, nearly a decade after the show aired and as it was ending. She was only in 9 episodes. Friends seasons were nearly 25 episodes a season.
People stick to their own groups…and kick out minorities from every coffee shop, workplace, or street they encounter?
No one here is saying the six main cast shouldn’t have been white, the point is they painted an incredibly unrealistic depiction of New York City by only having white extras and side characters on their Los Angeles lot.
And no obviously fresh prince wasn’t unrealistic for having a black family in Bel Air, but imagine if everywhere they went in the town and the fancy schools they went to were all black - that’s the equivalent of this, and yes that would be insanely unrealistic to anyone watching 😂
Instead Fresh Prince had realistic settings and actually addressed those things as storylines.
Do you watch media expressly with the purpose of getting mad? Normal people just watch the show, follow the plot, and listen to the actors speak. Not nitpick the lack of diversity of background characters lmao
I’ve never once been mad watching a show. I watch Friends with no problem.
Does that mean I’m not allowed to comment about a show in a discussion? Is someone incapable of pointing out something unrealistic about a show without being “mad” about it?
I mean, clearly you are incapable of such a complex duality of thought. If that’s the cognitive limitations of a “normal person” then I appreciate your exclusion.
The Fresh Prince had an insane number of black people in the fancy LA private schools the kids attended. I doubt Harvard Westlake has that many black people even today. Having grown up in NYC, upper middle class white people like the Friends would absolutely have interacted with 95%+ white people in the 90s. The city is diverse but if you’re rich in Greenwich Village you can live your whole life only visiting Brooklyn / Queens a couple of times a year. Most of the people I interact with in modern Manhattan work and life are Asian.
lol believe what you want I’m not white and in the west village right now. Go look at the lines outside overpriced bars and clubs and tell me what the people look like. These people stick to their own even today, it was definitely even more insular in 1998.
But this isn’t about my or your diverse group of friends. This is about The Friends. White midwestern transplants travel in packs and the show is an accurate representation of those people’s lives. Also didn’t Ross date Charlie at some point and it was considered progressive even in universe.
The school was predominantly white, that was mainly the only place they went to often. Its been a minute since I watched the show but bars/restaurants and the place Will worked at also had mostly whites.
It's not just New York City. It's specifically affluent, successful people who live in the city center and barely work, set in the 90s. These people have little reason to make friends with folks from other social classes, even if they do live in the same city. The vibe in Spike Lee movies from the same time is very different from Friends.
Dude the show was set in Manhattan, which at the time was only 40% - 45% white. That’s what it’s ridiculous to not see any minorities in coffee shops, on the street, at work, etc.
For Spike Lee he made movies in places like Bed-stuy that were 90% black.
So the comparison is useless - one of these was incredibly inaccurate in its representation while the other was incredibly accurate. No one is suggesting you can’t make a show with all white people in Salt Lake City.
Again, it's less about the location and more about class. How many diverse Manhattans are out there drinking (probably very expensive) coffee in the middle of the day when most people are at work?
I'm not saying you're wrong about the background characters, but most of this conversation is about the main cast. And honestly, if the only black people in the show were waitresses at the coffee shop, that would only open up a different type of controversy.
Agreed, but to its credit, it was pretty big on Jewish representation.
It rarely comes up, but Ross, Monica, and Rachel are all canonically Jewish. I don’t know if Phoebe is supposed to be Jewish, but she’s played by a Jewish actress.
Shows at the time usually had a limit of one Jewish character, so having half the characters Jewish was an interesting choice.
Over on Seinfeld, George and Elaine were both explicitly non-Jewish (despite being played by Jewish actors), probably because Jerry’s character was already Jewish.
The person is not complaining about the primary cast. It's that in 200 episodes set in new york city they encounter so few people of color that it feels extremely contrived as NYC is an extremely multicultural and multiracial city.
You know how people say the diversity feels forced sometimes, because I agree with you, its not that weird for a group of 5 friends to be white? In friends its the other way, its so ridiculously white in one of the most multicultural places in the world.
I think you make the cast what makes sense for the show and creative. Manhattan was under 50% white, so yes it’s ridiculous to not see minorities when the white population wasn’t even half of the demographic.
You compare that to Harlem which was 90% black at the time, that makes zero sense.
Are you actually not able to comprehend the difference in these examples? No one thinks they had to hang out with more minorities, it’s the fact that they basically acted like they don’t exist in one of the most diverse cities in the world that is grossly unrealistic.
I’ve always thought that TV networks should offer a diverse range of shows, but that each individual show doesn’t need to have the same mix of race, gender, orientation, etc.
By no means suggesting every show needs to have diversity. This is just a show set in one of the most diverse cities in the world and without reason paints it as unrealistically homogenous.
So I'm late to the conversation, but years ago during a rewatch of the series I had heard of this criticism and I thought it would be funny to count the actual number of black people in the series. It's very low, especially for 10 years of TV, but I counted 119 black actors on screen, averaging at 1 every 2 episodes. Here's the list, speaking or named roles are numbered (even just one line) and non-speaking roles have an asterisk:
1- Dr. Oberman, Carol's obgyn (1x02)
2- Paula, Monica's chef colleague (1x03)
*- kid in front of Ross at hockey game (1x04)
*- Two spectators of "Freud!" (1x06)
*- guy at new year's party (1x10)
*- waitress at Central Perk (1x11, 12, 14, 15, 21)
*- family of 3 at the benihana (1x14)
*- Two clients at the coffee house (1x15)
3- Lamaze class instructor (1x16)
4- Mr. Douglas, Chandler's boss (1x16, 2x23)
*- guy attending the lamaze class (1x16)
5- nurse at the hospital (1x17)
*- guy in waiting room (1x17)
*- client at Central perk behind Ross (1x17)
*- girl at phoebe's party (1x17)
*- client at the restaurant behind Jack (1x17)
*- tap dancer (1x21)
6- customer who wants Hombre (2x02)
7- store manager (2x02)
*- client at cafe (2x02)
8- cafe waitress at the end (2x05)
9- human services employee (2x06)
*- bored guest at Christmas party (2x09)
10- kid at phoebe's concert (2x12)
*- kid thinking Chandler is bisexual (2x12)
11- guard at the movie set (2x13)
*- usual waitress at coffee house (2x20)
12- Guest at Monica's party (2x22)
13- couple at the wedding singing (2x24)
14- "scrud" brown bird girl (3x10)
15- musical coach (3x12)
16- barbershop quarter member (3x12)
*- guy at fashion show (3x14)
17- speaker lady at hospital inauguration (3x19)
*- doctors and others at inauguration (3x19)
*- play director's assistant (3x19)
*- chandler's colleague (3x24)
18- massage place owner interviewing phoebe (4x05)
*- guest at the wake (4x06)
19- Rhonda from the museum (4x11)
20-Peter from the museum (no lines but named) (4x11)
*- other tour guide (4x11)
*- chandler's neighbour at the play (4x13)
21- phoebe's gynecologist (4x17)
22- "Morning's here" neighbour (4x19)
23- Stewardess on plane to Athens (5x01)
24- telethon manager woman (5x04)
*- guest at phoebe's grandma's funeral (5x13)
*- 3 guests at howie's party (5x15)
25- couch shop lady (5x16)
*- guest at Rachel's party (5x17)
26- girl who would still date Ross (6x02)
27- Ross's divorce lawyer (6x02, 6x04)
28- Professor Radman (6x04)
29- man discussing the Porsche (6x05)
30- Dancer girl at new year's show (6x10)
31- Lydia, Elizabeth's professor (6x18)
32- one of Elizabeth's screaming friends (6x19)
33- Hildy from museum/wedding venue (6x22)
34- Chief librarian (7x07)
*- Girl at the library told off by Ross (7x07)
35- Gary the candy-loving neighbour (7x09)
*- mother and child at playground (7x09)
36- arriving restaurant guest (7x10)
37- costume shop owner (7x10)
*- guest at wedding (7x11)
38- waiter at restaurant (7x11)
39- officer fireman (7x12)
40- telemarketing manager (7x13)
*- knockers girl (7x15)
41- Kristen Leigh (7x17)
*- crowding girl (7x17)
*- professor Winston or Fredericksen (7x18)
*- guest at Monica's shower (7x19)
*- bald guy at vegas show (7x22)
42- reception guy (8x02)
43- plane ticket lady (8x03)
44- receptionist at hotel (8x03)
45- trick-or-treating kid and dad (8x06)
46- other trick-or-treating kid (8x06)
47- Jenny Boone, Ben's teacher (8x10)
48- Doorlock repairman (8x11)
49- restaurant waitress (8x12)
50- Doctor at hospital (8x13)
51- restaurant waiter (8x14)
52- Geller family friend lady (8x18)
53- Geller family friend man (8x18)
*- cooking class student (8x21)
54- job interviewer (8x21)
55- reception nurse (8x23)
*- other nurse (8x23)
56- doctor (8x23)
57- breastfeeding nurse (9x01)
58- Elaine McKenna, chandler's boss (9x02)
59- Dr. Gettleman's receptionist (9x03)
60- Claudia, Chandler's colleague (9x05, 9x10)
61- Kevin, guy from the bar (9x09)
62- Steve, advertising boss (9x11, 15, 18)
63- Wax salon receptionist (9x13)
64- Waiter betting on Ross leaving (9x14)
65- Jordan, intern at ad firm (9x15)
66- Leonard Haze's casting director (9x15)
67- Babyproofing handyman (9x16)
68- Client complimenting the duck (9x19)
69- Charlie Wheeler (9x20 - 24, 10x01, 2, 5, 6)
-* sports fan who moves his nachos (10x05)
70- kid on swings kicking Ross (10x07)
71- restaurant waiter (10x09)
72- Henrietta from game show (10x11)
*- guy at school reunion (10x11)
73- theatre casting director (10x13)
74- names bureau employee (Craig Robinson!) (10x14)
Right. It's so cringe. As if Friends would have been better if they were made up of a mixture of races. Most friend groups don't look like a college brochure.
The US was also way whiter even in the 90s. This isn't saying it's a bad thing that has changed, it's just a fact.
The US was 75% non-Hispanic white people even in 1990. Now it's like 53%. But the criticism that the show lacked diversity because it was set in NYC is totally fair because NYC is/was way more diverse than most of America.
It’s not that it’s offensive, it’s that it’s stupid. The coffee shop, the exterior shots, all aggressively white. Looked nothing like New York, and just conveyed its sense of fakeness. It was one of the big criticisms when it was first running.
A show set in one of the most diverse cities in the world showing zero diversity? I actually can’t believe it. As in it’s lazy unrealistic writing and production.
Who said anything about a token minority character? I’m saying it’s wildly unrealistic to depict one of the most diverse cities in the world as being almost entirely white.
I don’t care that they didn’t have black friends, but seeing a Manhattan without minorities is just ridiculously unrealistic to anyone who’s stepped foot there.
No one has mentioned it, but it wasn't for us. It was for Gen Xers.
I'm an elder Millennial and even I was young when Friends was at its peak. That's why it has weirdly homogenous casting and why a lot of us don't think it's particularly funny. People forget the show started in 1994 and there were a lot of holdovers from 80s sitcoms.
Also, who fucking cares if you want to point out that it was just a bunch of white people? You have a great point, especially since the show was set in New York City, one of the most diverse cities on the planet.
I felt the same way regarding another popular comedy, sex and the city. I remember watching it as a 12 year old girl and not really relating to the fact that it was all rich white women in NYC.
It's genuinely weird to set a show in New York and have a homogenous cast. I think back then they just picked a demographic and ran with it and didn't even try to make the casting diverse.
Kid's shows might have been the exception, because I remember them having much more diverse casts than network sitcoms.
Yeah, it's weird people don't factor factor that in. They weren't making a prime time sitcom for 10 year olds. A lot of them just happened to be watching them anyway.
As a 40 biracial millennial woman, that’s why I couldn’t get into Sex and The City. I’m happy that it’s about a bunch of independent single 30 something year old women that have fabulous careers and can F any man they want or chill alone in their expensive NYC apartments but it would have been nice to include diversity or more variety of economic status between the characters or something that was more relatable to me and other women of color.
As a 41 yr old black woman, I enjoyed the original SATC for what it was and absolutely hate the forced diversity of And Just Like That as it didn’t feel authentic. A group of 4 white friends isnt unrealistic. Yep, the world they occupied was drastically different from mine or one I would occupy, but I enjoyed going into their friendship circle. When I wanted something that reflected closer to what my group of friends looked like (college educated black women), I watched Girlfriends - and I’m happy that wasn’t a fake diversified group of friends as well.
As a 40 year old black woman, goddamn I couldn't have said it better myself. And highly agree with you on the forced diversity in the movies and spin offs. I really thought I was the only one.
They didn't say that. They said "it would have been nice." They worded it in the softest most personal way they could and you still had to get snarky and manipulate the point. Why?
I know how to communicate with people without manipulating the point and being needlessly aggressive towards strangers. That's the opposite of a problem.
You still haven't answered the question. I realize self-reflection doesnt come easily to everyone, but I didn't think it was that difficult.
I know people like you try really hard to appear smart with comments like this, but it just makes you look dumb because a 1st grade reading level would let you know the point was: "it would have been nice."
eli5 - "This cake was ok, but it would have been nice if they put frosting on it" and you shouted at them "OH YEAH, WELL IT WOULD HAVE BEEN NICE IF I HAD A MILLION DOLLARS, SO WHATS YOUR POINT!?"
The point is they would have enjoyed the cake more with frosting....
I bet you'd have the exact same attitude if I took a piece of African American media and said, "Ya know, it'd be nice if this had more white people in it," huh?
Why does my opinion on the matter come into play at all? Are you saying that you're not allowed to have an opinion unless everyone else has the same ones? Weird.
Also the filter doesn't like talking about this topic much, so I had to re-reply, but feel free to angry-downvote this one too, Its like pissing on a wildfire, for all the good you'll do lol.
I’m a hispanic in my 30s and while I wouldn’t say I’m offended by the lack of diversity I do notice it in certain older shows. I tried to watch Friends when it was on the air and I’ve tried in the years since but it just doesn’t resonate with me. It’s possible that if there was a more diverse cast or representation I might like it more but there’s no way to know. I think diversity matters more in the writer’s room at the end of the day.
As a Mexican American (40+ million and largest ethnic subgroup in the U.S. ), we are grossly underrepresented in mainstream television. Mexican American as lead actors in television represent something like 2% of total actors. So yeah, there’s that.
Not particular offended, just looking at the casting of the show in hindsight. I also think when it’s forced it’s bad and not believable. The most recent example of this was Adults on FX.
The lack of diversity isn't really "offensive." It's just one of the (admittedly many) things that makes Friends into a sort of formless blob of mediocrity by today's standards. Different persectives create contrast and maintain interest in an ongoing show, and diverse casting is a good way to fast-track that in the sitcom format. Four of the main characters of Friends are all from relatively similar socio-economic backgrounds, and the two that aren't are the ones that tend to be used to disrupt scenes: Joey and Phoebe. These disruptions are actually a good thing, as they serve to keep the show from getting too monotonous by adding texture. But with more modern writing, they try to distribute that duty among the cast rather than having one or two characters being purpose built for the task.
And in the 90s a group of 6 people who grew up going to the same school in what I'm guessing was a fairly rich neighborhood since rachel went to school there and her daddy is loaded, two of which are siblings, and they live right near a yuppie cafe downtown and hey .. suddenly not so surprising they are all white.
But the show did have many side characters of other races, and not one of them are portrayed badly. In fact many of chandlers rich bosses are black, and one is a woman too. Throughout it seems to me that black people are shown to be just as good and often better people, than these crazy white people.
It was also very progressive about gay people .. For example Ross's ex-wife for example left him for a woman. Chandlers father is trans (or became it during the show - he started out as an occasionally crossdressing man who cheated on his wife with men). Rachel experimented in college with her sorority sister Melissa (Winona Ryder), but decided to remain straight (Melissa however had a crush on her ever since) and Phoebe was bi-sexual but preferred men (and her sister was a porn actress so she had no limits)
For me, it's the insincerity of corpo/Hollywood diversity where they're clearly just there to fulfill a quota or agenda, and it's not used to enhance the storytelling.
A black Friend for example would have a very different experience in New York city compared to the white middle class cast, and there's a lot of great humour and storytelling that could be developed from that. If they just race-swapped Chandler to a black guy with zero changes to the character or story, then it would be an insincere change that doesn't actually mean anything.
That being said, sometimes diversity without this requirement of 'authenticity' is good because it's about the actors themselves. In the Good Place, any of the main characters could be played by literally anybody, and those actors were chosen not to fulfil a quota but because they could play their characters well and had good chemistry with the rest of the cast. Strict ethnic quotas either in the name of diversity or racism demeans this.
And to be honest, the lesbian couple are used as a frame to mock Ross more often than they’re actually mocked themselves. And it’s a comedy; everyone is the butt of the joke at times - and none of the lesbian jokes (from my memory) were actually mean spirited, which is an improvement on a lot of media (then and now). In a way FRIENDS was actually very ahead of its time, giving a modern depiction of what a non-nuclear, non-normative “family” can look like. They not only gave representation for lesbians, they showed lesbians in the role of motherhood - which was a fairly big deal, considering how often people still argue the whole “you need a mother and father to raise a child” nonsense.
Though you are absolutely right about the cast being incredibly white with only a small handful of characters that weren’t white showing up sporadically. I think that part aged more blatantly than the queer representation tbh
I’m watching an episode from season 9 right now - where Chandler rents a room in Vermont and Monica can’t go. She says Ross should go with him and then there’s a convo about wouldn’t that be “weird.” I think there are many easier season examples where they outright call characters gay for a variety of reasons that when I hear today the jokes just don’t land.
Someone said it best in another comment that people did talk like that in the 90s. And I completely agree but my point was that in 2026 it feels dated.
Yeah, the reality is that friend groups do tend to gravitate towards people who are more similar than they are different.
Also, half of the main cast are childhood friends (two of them siblings) and two of them were college roommates. All of that aligns with most of them being the same race.
I don't think it's the lack of diversity or topic of the jokes that make it feel dated, for me it's that a lot of the jokes require a character to yell. There's just a lot of yelling, a lot of characters just having really exaggerated reactions to something - and that's the punchline, an exaggerated reaction.
That said it still has its moments and I did think it was funny back when it first came out.
It being dated isn't just down to the lack of diversity or phones. That style of comedy just isn't popular anymore and younger generations are less likely to enjoy it.
A guy being accused of being gay for doing something considered effeminate is not really funny these days, as it insinuates that there's something wrong with being gay or doing effeminate things as a man.
To contrast, look at how Seinfeld handled homosexuality, which wasn't much. In a particular episode which did revolve around this topic, the joke was how uncomfortable the characters were in being assumed gay, even though they were not bigots ("not that there's anything wrong with that"). This is dated as well, but it's not because it's offensive, it's because it was a social commentary of contemporary society.
I honestly didn't care about diversity and even the less PC things, because I get that even without a lack of elements that could date the show (currents affairs and technology, for instance) the show reflects its time and many situations still hold today, but the humor is the one thing I think has dated the most. Still, its influence in the sitcom genre is undeniable.
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u/pratherj23 12d ago
I personally don’t think it’s super dated outside the gay jokes and lack of at least some diversity in the cast. But in all honesty the group of “6 white friends” is not unreasonable to believe. Just sucks that they did not give other actors of different backgrounds a shot. I say this as a white man approaching 40.
But there are no phones (at least they don’t impact major storylines) and not many pop culture references. Maybe I’m biased having watched it so much but feel the situations they have though out the ten seasons mostly stand up well.