When it first aired, my mom was a fan and it would regularly be on in the living room, which was the crossroads of my childhood house - you had to go through it to get anywhere else. Which meant that Friends was impossible to ignore. Walking by, the highest praise I could conjure was, “Wow, that laugh track is doing a lot of heavy lifting.”
At the time of its popularity, I never heard anyone else dislike it. When the show ended, I felt alone in not being sad about it. Since then, I can’t tell if people look back on it with nostalgia or if they are truly still amused by the bland, low-fruit, celebration of stupidity that makes up most of that show’s humor.
Friends was created in a different time for media.
Part of it fulfilled the parasocial relationships we see in modern social media. People developed real relationships with these fake characters.
Second is that most television had to have broader comedy because they had larger audience. Over 10% of America watched Friends regularly. I can’t think of any show nowadays that even approaches that.
It makes me happy to see others shit on Friends.
When it first aired, my mom was a fan and it would regularly be on in the living room, which was the crossroads of my childhood house - you had to go through it to get anywhere else. Which meant that Friends was impossible to ignore. Walking by, the highest praise I could conjure was, “Wow, that laugh track is doing a lot of heavy lifting.”
At the time of its popularity, I never heard anyone else dislike it. When the show ended, I felt alone in not being sad about it. Since then, I can’t tell if people look back on it with nostalgia or if they are truly still amused by the bland, low-fruit, celebration of stupidity that makes up most of that show’s humor.
The theme song was good though.
Friends was created in a different time for media.
Part of it fulfilled the parasocial relationships we see in modern social media. People developed real relationships with these fake characters.
Second is that most television had to have broader comedy because they had larger audience. Over 10% of America watched Friends regularly. I can’t think of any show nowadays that even approaches that.
We were out there… What a terrible show.