Jennifer Aniston Believes That the New Generations Tendency To Think "Friends" Is Offensive Would Harm Creativity
Jennifer Aniston has something to say about how "Friends" and comedy have changed since the show from the 1990s first aired. Aniston told the Associated Foreign Press, "There's a whole generation of people, youngsters, who are now rewatching episodes of 'Friends' and find them insulting."
“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, 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."
"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. Everybody needs funny! The world needs humor! We can’t take ourselves too seriously. Especially in the United States. Everyone is far too divided."
Brett Goldstein, Jerrod Carmichael, John Cleese, Rowan Atkinson, and Hannah Einbinder are just a few of the comedians who have lately criticized the idea of a cancel culture that targets comics. It's particularly "comedy's job to offend," according to Atkinson, and Cleese likened it to the "death of creativity."
Cleese said in July 2022: “You can do the creation and then criticize it, but you can’t do them at the same time. So if you’re worried about offending people and constantly thinking of that, you are not going to be very creative. So I think it has a disastrous effect, If you go to a Republican convention and tell anti-Democrat jokes, you’ll get a very good response. If you tell anti-Republican jokes, you won’t. So you’ve got to fit your material to some extent to your audience. And that’s part of it… If you go to see your granny and have tea with her, you don’t start telling her sex jokes. Now that’s not because it’s illegal, it’s just bad manners.”
“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, 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."
"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. Everybody needs funny! The world needs humor! We can’t take ourselves too seriously. Especially in the United States. Everyone is far too divided."
Brett Goldstein, Jerrod Carmichael, John Cleese, Rowan Atkinson, and Hannah Einbinder are just a few of the comedians who have lately criticized the idea of a cancel culture that targets comics. It's particularly "comedy's job to offend," according to Atkinson, and Cleese likened it to the "death of creativity."
Cleese said in July 2022: “You can do the creation and then criticize it, but you can’t do them at the same time. So if you’re worried about offending people and constantly thinking of that, you are not going to be very creative. So I think it has a disastrous effect, If you go to a Republican convention and tell anti-Democrat jokes, you’ll get a very good response. If you tell anti-Republican jokes, you won’t. So you’ve got to fit your material to some extent to your audience. And that’s part of it… If you go to see your granny and have tea with her, you don’t start telling her sex jokes. Now that’s not because it’s illegal, it’s just bad manners.”
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