Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

DonQOnIce t1_je6iqru wrote

Reply to comment by muad_dibs in Jennifer Aniston Says ‘A Whole Generation of Kids’ Finds ‘Friends’ Offensive: ‘You Have to Be Very Careful’ With Comedy Now by Neo2199

I opened the whole article hoping I could defend her and that maybe she was just making a point about the cultural climate but not necessarily complaining about it. But many of her quotes are very explicitly complaining about it.

This one stood out also:

“[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.”

You are definitely allowed to do this and there are jokes like this all the time. What is she on about?

15

KristenJimmyStewart t1_je6zija wrote

Maybe she hates the bigot being the butt of the joke lol

−3

DonQOnIce t1_je739ng wrote

Bring back our lovable bigots!

But in all seriousness, that quote stood out as frustrating because she is literally describing what people want out of comedy now. People who talk about how “punching down” is bad would LOVE more jokes making fun of bigots. So it’s like she heard the complaints but didn’t really hear what people are saying and instead twisted it into making her and other comedians into victims. It makes her look incredibly out-of-touch which would track with her wealth and decades of success.

3

Genoscythe_ t1_je96f0l wrote

Also, Friends famously didn't do that.

It was a notably stale, politically correct show by 90s standards, which is exactly why it feels so inappropriate today.

When 95% of your jokes are just about six likeable randos hanging out and getting into relatable mishaps like "lifting a sofa to the next floor is hard", or "I just bought a midlife crisis car", then the rest were "My father is a woman I'm so traumatized by that", and "My ex-wife is a lesbian that's so emasculating to me" will instantly feel like further examples of that, where we were meant to laugh with the cast about their sympathetic relatable human foibies.

3

DonQOnIce t1_je9flzt wrote

Yes! I thought this too and didn’t even get to it. The “controversial” jokes in Friends were not about laughing at bigots, that’s a weird attempt at a historical rewrite. And I don’t really have an issue with Friends at all myself, it’s just dated.

2

zsreport t1_jeab16p wrote

I think the problem is that there's a lot of easily triggered violent bigots out there, and they'll start send those death threats after they hear Tucker Carlson complain about the joke.

1