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Jennifer Aniston is reflecting on the changing world of comedy — and admitted “Friends” probably wouldn’t be deemed ready for prime time today.
“There’s a whole generation of people, kids, who are now going back to episodes of ‘Friends’ and find them offensive,” the “Murder Mystery 2” star admitted in an interview with the international AFP news agency while promoting her new film in Paris
“Friends” aired from 1994 to 2004 and has been criticized in recent years for its absence of diversity in casting and storylines.
Throughout the 10-year run of the show, the sitcom continued to whitewash New York City and rarely featured a character of color. “Friends” only introduced two recurring characters of color, both of whom were brought on as short-lived love interests for Ross.
“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, 54, said about some of the show’s more controversial plot lines that would likely fall prey to “cancel culture” in 2023.
“Comedy has evolved — movies have evolved,” the Emmy-winning “Morning Show” star added. “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.”
She went on to recall how comedians “could joke about a bigot and have a laugh” back in the day. “That was hysterical,” she said, ” and it was about educating people on how ridiculous people were, and now we’re not allowed to do that.”
Aniston also believes that the world would be a much sadder place without humor. “Everybody needs funny,” she pointed out. “We can’t take ourselves too seriously. Especially in the United States. Everyone is far too divided.”
As for the lack of diversity present in “Friends,” star Lisa Kudrow got candid about how the show’s writers struggled with including characters of color during the 10-season run.
“The Comeback” Emmy winner, 59, told the Daily Beast last year how series creators David Crane and Marta Kauffman did not have the resources or the knowledge to write stories about people of different races.
“Well, I feel like it was a show created by two people who went to Brandeis and wrote about their lives after college,” Kudrow explained.
“And for shows especially, when it’s going to be a comedy that’s character-driven, you write what you know. They have no business writing stories about the experiences of being a person of color.”
However, an “embarrassed” Kauffman, 66, attempted to make amends in 2022 with a $4 million donation to her alma mater, Brandeis University, to fund an endowed chair in the school’s African and African American studies department, one of the oldest in the country.
Along with millions of other Americans, the writer-producer said the 2020 murder of George Floyd pushed her to reckon with the country’s racist past and her own part in perpetuating systems of racism.
“I knew then I needed to course-correct,” she explained at the time.
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