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Jennifer Aniston Sparks Debate After Lamenting That 'Friends' Is Now 'Offensive' To Gen Z
While making a red carpet appearance for her new flick with Adam Sandler, Murder Mystery 2, Jennifer Aniston opened up to AFP about her '90s sitcom Friends and the way younger audience perceive its humor.
Let's be honest, the jokes didn't all age well.
But Aniston explained her stance on the matter:
"There's a whole generation of people, kids, who are now going back to episodes of 'Friends' and find them offensive."
"There were things that were never intentional and others... well, we should have thought it through."
She continued:
"But I don't think there was a sensitivity like there is now."
Aniston expressed the difficulty for comedians to portray to the audience the intention is exposing a bigot rather than laughing at his or her jokes.
"Now it's a little tricky because you have to be very careful, which makes it really hard for comedians because the beauty of comedy is that we make fun of ourselves, make fun of life."
"[In the past] you could make a joke about a bigot and laugh."
Last year, The Office writer and actor Mindy Kaling expressed similar thoughts, stating that the idea was to showcase and call out ignorance, but the humor instead was usually found in what was said or done by that person. She also claimed, "what offends people has changed so much."
Aniston explained:
"That was hysterical. And it was about educating people on how ridiculous people were. And now we're not allowed to do that."
She finished:
"Everybody needs funny! The world needs humor!"
"We can't take ourselves too seriously. Especially in the United States. Everyone is far too divided."
People took to social media to share their thoughts on the matter.
Some thought Aniston was trying to appear "edgy" by expressing the show contained some currently-forbidden content.
\u201cEvery few months some washed up 90s/00s sitcom star will pop up to try to reframe the boring corporate mush they put into the world as super edgy works of art while whining about kids these days.\u201d— Parker Molloy (@Parker Molloy) 1680114051
But mostly, people agreed with Aniston that many of the punchlines were, in fact, in poor taste, typically sexist and often at the expense of others' physical appearance.
\u201c@ParkerMolloy I hate this constant rhetoric about the kids being "too woke now." I'm in my 50s and I recognized FRIENDS as dull, racist, queerphobic pablum when it was airing but we were told to settle for crumbs. The only generational shift is that the kids are demanding better now \ud83d\udc4d\ud83c\udffd\u201d— Parker Molloy (@Parker Molloy) 1680114051
\u201c@ParkerMolloy I catch an old friends episode, and there is an awful lot of blatant sexism and homophobia\u201d— Parker Molloy (@Parker Molloy) 1680114051
\u201c@ParkerMolloy You really couldn't make F\u2022r\u2022i\u2022e\u2022n\u2022d\u2022s\nIn 2023 actually\nSmdh\u201d— Parker Molloy (@Parker Molloy) 1680114051
\u201c@ParkerMolloy Many episodes were offensive. I was miffed back then.\u201d— Parker Molloy (@Parker Molloy) 1680114051
\u201c@ParkerMolloy Ross\u2019s aversion to his son playing with a doll, the \u2018male Nanny\u2019, Phoebe saying Joey wanting to trim his eyebrows was for \u2018a man wanting to be a woman\u2019, just name a few things that were NOT funny. Not enough characters to name all unfunny things.\u201d— Parker Molloy (@Parker Molloy) 1680114051
\u201c@enews It\u2019s always been offensive. It\u2019s nothing new.\u201d— E! News (@E! News) 1680141028
\u201c@Independent Yeah it doesn't hold up well. Lots of homophobia. Zero diversity. It's ok, I still watch it while bored\u201d— The Independent (@The Independent) 1680113346
\u201c@TMZ @TooFab Sad but true\u201d— TMZ (@TMZ) 1680201606
To Aniston's point, the show has come under criticism many times before. Friends creator Marta Kauffman even responded to the lack of diversity in the show as well as the casting of cisgender actor Kathleen Turner to play Chandler's trans "father."
Kauffman revealed:
“I’ve learned a lot in the last 20 years."
"Admitting and accepting guilt is not easy."
"It’s painful looking at yourself in the mirror."
"I’m embarrassed that I didn’t know better 25 years ago."