Jennifer Aniston, star of the hit sitcom Friends, recently spoke with the Agence France-Presse news agency about the show’s impact today and the changes that have come with the evolution of comedy and film.
Aniston suggested that there may be some aspects of Friends that are seen as offensive to a new generation of viewers. She said that while comedy has evolved, it’s become a lot harder for comedians to make jokes, as there’s a much shorter list of what can be joked about now.
“There’s a whole generation of people, kids, who are now going back to episodes of Friends and find them offensive,” Aniston said. “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.”
“Comedy has evolved, movies have evolved,” said Aniston. “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.”
The actress’ comments come a year after Friends co-creator Marta Kauffman admitted in an interview with the Los Angeles Times that there were some aspects of the show that could have been better, highlighting the lack of diversity in the cast. Kauffman and fellow creator David Crane, as well as director and executive producer Kevin Bright, also acknowledged that if the series were made today, it would likely feature a different racial makeup of its six main stars.
“If we did Friends today, no, I don’t imagine they would probably end up being an all-white cast,” Bright, 67, said in the piece, which came on the heels of the Friends reunion special on HBO Max.
“We would be so aware,” he added. “So much would change, but to get them to behave realistically within this time, there would be a lot that would change about them. And the racial makeup of them would change because of that.”
