Reassessing 'Friends'

Personally, I enjoy the Aniston R-rated comedies "Horrible Bosses" & "We're The Millers".
They've got a 'sit-com' element to them, but........... I like 'em.

 

Sir, I'm not sure why you chose me among the many who found no humour in the TV show Friends. If those of us have problems with our humour-detection mechanisms in your opinion, so be it. IMHO, it wasn't funny and won't be unless my consciousness is altered and anything and everything is funny.

In short, Friends - not funny.

 

I meant no personal offense. In part, I quoted your post as being representative of those who found zero humour in the show. And I suggest that you - by which I mean one - would have to be quite a churl to not find any humour at all in any episode of Friends.

 

But if I find no humor in my sampling of Friends shows, how could I be a churl?

 

I can understand not liking Friends. I can understand not finding it funny. There are lots of highly rated comedies on tv -- past and present -- that I don't find funny. Some of them would probably be derided by the same people who don't like Friends, but some of them are the very comedies that some people hold up as being the best that tv has ever given us.

Who cares what someone else likes or doesn't like unless you have to live with that person and, thus, their likes and dislikes have an impact on what you watch?

 

That was around the time that I stopped watching the show altogether. Possibly the stupidest 'song' of all time. It makes "My Ding-A-Ling" seem like Shakespeare.

 

You ask me why I picked your comment to respond to, yet you keep on hammering your point. Fine. You don't find it funny. I find it hard to understand someone not finding *any* humour at all in the show, but if you don't then so be it.

 

You mean to say that you ACTUALLY watched the clip in post #50 & did NOT find it screamingly hilarious?

 

It was supposed to be a stupid song, like all of Phoebe's compositions. That was part of the joke. My Ding a Ling was also a joke. Jeez....

 

I think that was the point.

 

I love jokes. They need to be funny, however...

 

I did not watch the clip in post #50 because YouTube is blocked from my work machine.

 

Me too, so I watched it on my phone. Watch it when you get home if you can't at work. You will not be sorry.

 

One of the beswt episodes is when the whole group is going to attend an awards dinner for Ross. While everyones getting dressed to go, Chandler and Joey are fighting over who was sitting in a chair first.
Best line: "Never go commando in another mans fatigues" LOL

 

I find that when I watch the "hd" versions (which are gorgeous) I'm always referring back to the uncut versions, especially in the late seasons. The episodes seem much more fleshed out and not quite as manic. If you get the Amazon gold box alerts the Blu-ray box has been on sale for pretty cheap. And about the all-time bad laugh track: I think Big Bang Theory would have something to say about that.

 

It's funny how often the best comedy situations are more-or-less real time and where nothing really happens.

 

Not horrible, but seems much more of its "time".....(( the humor or something ))

Seinfeld seems to have gained status over the years, friends.....seems to be slowly fading away.

 

I thought it was well cast and generally pretty funny. It was one of the few shows from back then that I enjoyed watching. IMO it was certainly not in the same league as Seinfeld but it more than held its own. I haven't really watched it in reruns, other than an occasional episode.

 

And yet both shows were filmed before a studio audience most of the time.

I seem to recall earlier seasons of Seinfeld were filmed before an audience that would go wild when Michael Richards' character made his appearance. The second coming of Fonzie, I guess...

 

This was just a dopey show, period.

 

It's common practice to "sweeten" the audience response to jokes with judicious use of the laugh track. Because these shows are filmed in front of an audience, they may have seen the same gags repeated several times during retakes, and thus a more muted response may need to be goosed up a bit. With few exceptions (The Office, Parks and Rec), I prefer the multi-cam, live audience sitcom setup-I think there's a dynamism there that single camera productions can't capture.

 

Not even a chuckle. The Ross guy sounds like a whiny Jerry Seinfeld. In fact, I'd like to see that clip done by George as Ross and Jerry as Joey.

Also, I notice the poll currently has 40% of people indicating that they "Always hated (the show)." Maybe you could post that clip and do a poll to see how many people think it's funny.

I think we can all agree that different people find different things funny. It's what makes life interesting. I wouldn't suggest to anyone that there's something wrong with them if they thought something that I thought was funny, they should think is funny too. Didn't we learn that lesson as children with The Three Stooges?! Most women - not funny. C'est la vie!

 

Funny you mention Ross being like a whiny Jerry Seinfeld. David Schwimmer, the actor who played Ross, almost makes me dislike the show because he's so whiny. Jerry Seinfeld's whinyness is a big part of why I could never get into Seinfeld.

 

But did you watch that clip?! I sat here and listened to him whining away on the phone and thought "This is really bad writing and/or acting." I could imagine something sort of like that on Seinfield, but with George as the guy with the leather pants and Jerry giving George help on the phone.

 

There were some great funny 90s sitcoms - and there was Friends.