bitchy | Jennifer Aniston: Youths find ‘Friends’ offensive, people are more sensitive now

Jennifer Aniston is currently promoting Murder Mystery 2, a sequel to the popular Netflix film starring Aniston and Adam Sandler. These films must be a breeze to make, honestly – like all of Sandler’s films, or at least the ones he produces. This is the first promotional tour Aniston has done in a while (or at least that’s the way it feels), so of course she’s getting questions about Generation TikTok’s obsession with Friends. The youths love Friends, even if they have long-winded conversations about how some of the jokes in Friends are super-offensive and the show is too white and all of that.

As someone who watched Friends when it originally aired… it was seen as a popular “mid” comedy starring all white actors getting into shenanigans. It was fine for the time. I think it’s still popular with the youths not because of the comedy, but because it’s a glimpse of life and friendship before smartphones and social media. People actually hanging out and talking and living without being on their phones constantly. In any case, Aniston is upset because the youths keep yelling at her about how some of the jokes are offensive.

Jennifer Aniston recently told AFP (via Yahoo News) that “comedy has evolved” so much that it’s a bit tricky these days to be funny.

“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,” Aniston said. “[In the past] you could joke about a bigot and have a laugh — that was hysterical. And it was about educating people on how ridiculous people were. And now we’re not allowed to do that.”

“There’s a whole generation of people, kids, who are now going back to episodes of ‘Friends’ and find them offensive,” Aniston added. “There were things that were never intentional and others… well, we should have thought it through — but I don’t think there was a sensitivity like there is now.”

Aniston concluded: “Everybody needs funny! The world needs humor! We can’t take ourselves too seriously. Especially in the United States. Everyone is far too divided.”

[From Variety]

Eh. I think it’s fine to shrug off the criticism of Friends in the year of our lord Beyonce 2023 because wtf are they supposed to do now? Go back and censor all of the jokes which offend people? That would be how I would react if I was in Aniston’s stilettos – shrug it off and say “that was the time, it was 25 years ago, that’s what was funny then.” Sometimes the jokes don’t hold up, sometimes they do, and that’s life. I dislike that she’s telling the youths that they’re being too sensitive or that they should, what? Fake-laugh at some of the stupider or offensive jokes in the series? The kids have a right to to be offended, just as Aniston has the right to tell them to settle down. God, is Aniston going to start complaining about cancel culture now?

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Backgrid.