Did You Know That Friends Was A Homophobic, Transphobic, Xenophobic, Misogynist Sitcom?

The whole point of this project is to show the very extent to which homophobia pervades the show, and how it changes over the years. It only makes sense to do this if you can give an idea of the scope of the issue. Otherwise it would have been like, ‘Oh look, there’s twelve homophobic jokes in Friends.’

Homophobic Friends [is not an] attempt to ridicule the underlying homophobia, but rather strives to bring this attitude to the viewer’s attention in all of its apparent normality. [The homophobic and transphobic jokes in Friends tend] to avoid provoking either aversion or anger, and instead prompts the viewer to be swept away by the hilarity of the situations.

I noticed all sorts of other problematic content, some of which I found even more upsetting, like the place of women and foreigners…You could do a whole series of videos, like Misogynistic Friends and Xenophobic Friends.

The whole thing was a useful exercise in terms of training me to pay more attention to the subtexts of these mainstream shows. That is, this vague feeling of discomfort and hostility that I’d always had watching Friends (or other like-minded shows) crystallized into something that was analyzable.”