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The Gay Punchlines of “Friends” Episodes Aren’t Funny Any More
Watching Friends in the 1990s, the six main characters seemed the quintessential modern young things about town. Chronologically, our lives were in lockstep. But as a young woman figuring out her lesbian identity, their lives were no more within my grasp than a trip to the moon.
Fast forward to 2021 and I hadn’t given it much thought until my eleven year old daughter discovered back-to-back encore episodes on television in Australia. She’s since developed an encyclopaedic knowledge of every episode in every series - I feel that I need to credit her as my expert consultant. Now with a reunion and a growing pile of merch destined for landfill, it’s almost impossible to ignore the return of the 1990s phenomenon.
Watching the sitcom now is a completely different experience. For one thing, I hadn’t realised just how sex-obsessed the characters were. There’s no shielding the youngster: that horse has long since bolted. So we have lots of teaching moments.
But it’s not the bedroom shenanigans that have fired up the household discussion — it’s the startlingly primitive approach to representing sexual and gender diversity. And it’s as obvious to me as it is to the…
