As an elderly member of Generation Z there’s a few things I think you should know about us. We consume our news differently than older generations, we love roasting millennials for their weird obsession with Harry Potter, and we have very harsh opinions about the sitcoms our parents and older siblings enjoyed.
All you have to do is google the phrases “Friends problematic” or “Seinfeld problematic” and you will be treated to a plethora of articles and blog posts about how the most beloved sitcoms of the 90s are outdated and insert every liberal buzzword imaginable.
Despite the fact that these shows still do extremely well in the worlds of streaming and syndication, and still bring in viewership numbers that are virtually unheard of for a thirty old sitcom, a large portion of the younger generation just can’t seem to reconcile with what they perceive to be outdated humor.
In 2018, the Youtube channel REACT had eight participants ages 18-29 watch six classic, but controversial episodes of Seinfeld for the first time and decide whether or not the episode “holds up”. Each participant’s feelings varied depending on the episode in question. However, when asked at the end if the show holds up overall five out of the eight participants agreed that it did not.
Some participants took issue with the show’s politically incorrect style of humor, some felt the show’s humor just wasn’t relatable enough, and some simply preferred more modern story driven TV shows.
As for the show Friends, one the most common criticisms of the show revolves around their frequent use of LGBT characters as punchlines (such as Chandler’s drag queen father or Ross’ lesbian ex wife.) Some other issues brought up are the fragile masculinity of the male characters, their objectification of women, Monica’s childhood obesity being played for laughs, as well as the show’s extreme lack of racial diversity.
Obviously most of these criticisms have merit. I mean come on you lived in Manhattan’s West Village for ten years and never once ran into any Middle Easterners? Not even a falafel cart owner? I don’t buy that.
I don’t feel I need to spend a lot of time defending the merit of Seinfeld. A lot of the show’s humor is derived from the fact that the main characters are selfish, irredeemable people who can’t seem to function in the real world. Which is why (spoiler alert) they all go to jail in the finale.
Seinfeld pushed the envelope without ever insisting upon itself. Friends however was different in my opinion. I think the show consciously tried to be inclusive and shine a light on certain social issues. Some storylines were pulled off beautifully such as all three female characters experiencing motherhood in “non traditional” ways. Other times the stories missed the mark. Or they hit the mark for their time period but have since aged poorly.
Rather than harping on old shows for “missing the mark” I think zoomers need to realize that pop culture is a product of its time period and oftentimes ages badly by nature. Without a doubt there are shows on the air today that are perfectly PC by today’s standards that our children and grandchildren will probably cringe at us for having enjoyed.
Each generation has its own tastes, wants, and needs from its pop culture. So instead of overanalyzing every little detail of a show that went off the air before you could even do long division just let people enjoy things instead of trying to force everything through your modern woke lens. And if you don’t like it just change the channel.