History YMMV / Friends

** As hated as the spin-off ''Series/{{Joey}}'' was, a lot of fans like to think he married Alex, his LoveInterest in that show, so he could also have happy ending. (And of course, that he moved back to New York to be with the Friends again.)

** Even though fans generally liked Monica and Chandler as a couple, some of the plot arcs dealing with their relationship made many viewers feel they were being stretched too thin. After the two first hook up, they decide to keep their affair a secret from others. Even after Monica and Chandler realize they're actually in a serious relationship, for some inexplicable reason they still don't want to tell their closest friends about it. This whole arc is stretched over 14 episodes of the fifth season before it finally gets resolved. Compared to that, their proposal arc is relatively short, taking only the last four episodes of Season 6. But after the proposal, ''the entire seventh season'' is spent dealing with various dramas and shenanigans leading up to the wedding: Who will pay for it? Will it be fancy or modest? Who will be the maid of honor? Will the engagement photo look good? What about Monica's wedding dress? What band will pay at the wedding? Will Chandler's dad be there? Will Chandler get cold feet due to the failure of his parents' marriage?

** Dr. Green's last appearance in "The One Where Joey Speaks French" left a lot to be desired. The story centers around Rachel going to the hospital due to her father having a heart attack, which seemed like the perfect set-up to see a bit of bonding between father and daughter. However, the episode never actually shows Rachel talking with her father, and is instead just a comedic scene with Ross accidentally waking Dr. Green up in his hospital bed (though the episode's uncut version shows her coming back into the room when he wakes up and she holds his hand and, apparently lying to her, he tells her that Ross has been of great comfort.

** Dr. Green's last appearance in "The One Where Joey Speaks French" left a lot to be desired. The story centers around Rachel going to the hospital due to her father having a heart attack, which seemed like the perfect set-up to see a bit of bonding between father and daughter. However, the episode never actually shows Rachel talking with her father, and is instead just a comedic scene with Ross accidentally waking Dr. Green up in his hospital bed.

* ActorShipping: Matthew Perry/Courteney Cox have a pretty big fanbase due to their chemistry and close friendship. The shipping wasn't as prevalent during the actual show as Courteney was HappilyMarried to David Arquette, but after the couple split up 'Matteney' fans grew exponentially and were regularly fueled by Cox guest starring on Perry's show, their habit of crashing each others interviews (in Courtney's case to kiss Matthew on stage) and Matthew throwing around comments like "I just wanted to make her laugh all the time" and "she's a very beautiful woman" and making sexual jokes about their relationship: "would Courteney be the bike?" and even a skit on Ellen joking that they're a couple. Not to mention Courteney posting on Twitter that, on a scale from 1 - 10, she loves Matthew '13.6'. When Courteney's guest starred on Matthew's show there were photos of them practically snuggling during breaks. Tumblr exploded.

** Despite how hated the spin-off ''Series/{{Joey}}'' was a lot of fans like to think he married Alex who was his LoveInterest from the show so he could also have happy ending. (And of course he moved back to New York to be with the Friends again.)

* ContinuitySnarl: One episode centers on Ross moping because it's the anniversary of his first having sex with Carol (and also losing his virginity). Monica is the one who first remembers, which is {{Squick}}y but Ross says there were few people he didn't tell. In the very next episode, Monica says the line "Wow, my brother didn't even tell me when he lost his virginity." Continuity error? Or is she just saying that Ross didn't tell her close to the time when he lost his virginity, but he did tell her some time later?

*** Creator/MatthewPerry's first play getting a worldwide premier in a [[UsefulNotes/BroadwayAndTheWestEnd West End]] theatre [[note]] called ''The End of Longing'', it received mixed reviews, with the ''New York Times'' calling it "a synthetic play that mostly points out just how much better ''Friends'' was written"[[/note]].

In "TOW The Candies", Chandler takes a quick huff on a woman's cigarette, and Monica smells it on him. Chandler feebly tries to claim a neighbor blew her cigarette into his mouth. With the effects of second hand smoke better understood, Chandler nowadays could believably claim he accidentally inhaled the woman's secondhand smoke while trying to get into their apartment.

** Ross and Rachel was undoubtedly the biggest ship in the first seasons but from season four and onward it steadily became less and less popular. The writers and producers continued to love the pairing and believed them to be a lot more popular than they were, making a great many fans frustrated with how the show insisted on focusing on them which in turn made more people abandon the ship. Many found it frustrating that so much focus went to Ross and Rachel and their numerous get-togethers and break-ups while less focus came to Chandler and Monica who were a steady couple for more than half the show's run, with even Chandler and Monica's wedding episode ending on a Ross and Rachel cliffhanger.

*** There's also some evidence Joey may have been written to be secretly bisexual but only dates women due to his career (which could be very detrimental to an actor in the 90s). This included telling Chandler quite openly that he had 'no problem with the gay thing' (when he assumed Chandler was gay), seeming rather sexually relaxed in general, and when interviewed for a Soap Magazine about being homosexual, Joey considers the questions for quite longer than one normally should (due to said episode being a ClipShow) before finally rather defensively claiming he's straight.

** Even though fans generally liked Monica and Chandler as a couple, some of the plot arcs dealing with their relationship made many viewers feel they were being stretched too thin. After the two first hook up, they decide to keep their affair a secret from others. Even after Monica and Chandler realize they're actually in a serious relationship, for some inexplicable reason they still don't want to tell their closest friends about it. This whole arc is stretched over 14 episodes of the fifth season before it finally gets resolved. Compared to that, their proposal arc is relatively short, taking only the last four episodes of season 6. But after the proposal, ''the entire seventh season'' is spent dealing with various dramas and shenanigans leading up to the wedding: Who will pay for it? Will it be fancy or modest? Who will be the maid of honor? Will the engagement photo look good? What about Monica's wedding dress? What band will pay at the wedding? Will Chandler's dad be there? Will Chandler get cold feet due to the failure of his parents' marriage?

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: Creator/RobinWilliams and Billy Crystal's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTmxZ54ICtQ guest appearance]] at the beginning of the episode "The One with the Ultimate Fighting Champion" has no relevance to the plot and is never mentioned again. It wasn't even in the original script, they coincidentally just happened to be in the same building where the show was filmed and the writers asked if they wanted to make a guest appearance. Lampshaded by the gang when it's over.
-->''[cut to the gang, they’re all stunned]''\\

** Frank and Alice's relationship in the modern age would reek of grooming, but give how TeacherStudentRomance was depicted in the 90s [[note]] Even the show itself fell into this in Season 6 [[/note]], it was nuanced by comparison. The show made it clear than Frank and Alice waited till after Frank's graduation to start dating, and the group is quite uncomfortable and try to talk Frank and Alice out of it. Alice is the one who tries to break it off at first because it would be wrong, but ultimately decides not to. The two end up being HappilyMarried with a family through the end of the series showing that despite the highly questionable circumstances, the two had genuinely fallen in love and this was not a DirtyOldWoman who went in with the intent of preying on her students. The relationship even proves to be good for Frank as it gives him stability and direction in his life, and he acquires a good job and is a loving father to his triplets.

** The greater rivalry is with ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}''. "Seinfeld fan or Friends fan" was the [[Theatre/WestSideStory Jets and Sharks]] of the late 90s. Either you loved a show about nothing or a show about ''everything''.

* GrowingTheBeard: While the first season isn't considered bad, it had a lot of [[TheEighties 80s-ish styles and fashions]] [[EightiesHair (particularly in hairstyles)]], and was quite a bit more wholesome, family-friendly, and episodic than the other seasons, with some critics regarding it as an inferior clone of ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}''. It started to grow some stubble with "The One With All The Poker", the first episode to really show what it can do with its GenderEqualEnsemble by pitting Rachel, Monica, and Phoebe against Joey, Chandler, and Ross in a friendly game of poker. However, it doesn't really find its stride until the second season, after that [[TheNineties the styles and fashions match the proper decade much more]], the writing improves, it finds its own consistent humor and voice, the character's personalities begin to gel more, and there are more ongoing story arcs. It had also set itself apart from many other sitcoms of the time by ending most of their seasons in ''soap opera style'' cliffhangers, a trend that ''Series/ThirdRockFromTheSun'' soon followed. By the end of season two, it was already competing with ''Seinfeld'' as the ultimate sitcom of the 90s.

** A flashback reveals Chandler and Monica almost have sex when he calls her "the most beautiful woman I've ever known [in real life]." In season 5 when they have sex for real what does he say that sparks it? "You're the most beautiful woman in most rooms". Clearly that line works on her.
** In Season 1 Chandler offers to get together with Monica and raise a family together if they're both still single at forty. Turns out he doesn't wait until they're forty.

** In Season 1 Chandler explains he hates Thanksgiving because it's the day his parents split up. By the end of the series, Thanksgiving is the day he met the love of his life (shown in flashbacks) and the day they found out they were getting a baby. For him it stops being about his parents' family falling apart, and about his own family coming together.

** Another Ross example is in the season 4 finale, where Emily wants to call off the wedding and move it to a later date because the venue has undergone sudden construction work. Ross is portrayed as a jerk because he wants to keep the date as is and just find a new place, and Monica tries to explain to Ross about how Emily has been dreaming of her wedding her entire life and thus her wishes come first. Except Ross, Joey, Monica, Chandler and Ross's parents had flown all the way from America to England and they had already spent a fortune on planning the wedding so Emily's wanting to move the wedding last minute comes across as pretty impractical.

* NarmCharm: The cast dancing in the fountain. Ridiculously cheesy, obviously not the characters and proves the show as unabashedly [=90s=], but they're all young, cute and having fun, and it's hard not to be endeared.

** Ross and Rachel. As mentioned above, thanks to a combination of ValuesDissonance and this trope, a lot of younger fans who got on board after the show ended watch their relationship pan out and question what made it so popular. While it's easy now to pinpoint everything that was wrong with them as a couple (pettiness, having very little in common, jealousy issues, etc.), during the mid-90s, such a relationship was seen as fresh and unique. As, until then, the GiveGeeksAChance trope was rarely (if ever) represented in television. While, in film, it was still seen as a refreshing break from the predictable "pretty boy gets the hot girl" trope so prevalent until the mid-80s. Today, with the GiveGeeksAChance trope being more-or-less played out and the culture as a whole taking a much more cynical view of the DoggedNiceGuy, it might be hard for younger fans to really appreciate how significant the Ross and Rachel romance was nearly 20 years ago.

** The show was seen as very progressive in its handling of Carol and Susan as a gay couple. In fact, the Season Two episode "TOW The Lesbian Wedding" almost never aired due to its content.

** Chandler and Joey briefly dated [[Series/CriminalMinds Emily Prentiss]] in season 4.

** Marcel, Ross's pet monkey in Season One, was so hated that, in a S6 episode, [[{{Lampshading}} Ross himself wonders what he was thinking by getting him.]] The big reason for him being so hated isn't so much that he's a monkey, but for the fact that the show seemed to promote the illegal keeping of exotic animals.

* SeasonalRot: The show took on a DenserAndWackier tone towards the end of season three and {{Flanderization}} kicks in sometime around season five. Common complaints are that flanderization was stretched beyond believability (to the point where the characters had basically become cartoon versions of their former selves), the plots were less creative and more outrageous (for example, one episode centered around Joey not even being able to successfully repeat basic French words), and the actors were very visibly bored with doing the show.

** In the season 6 premiere, "The One After Vegas", when Phoebe and Joey are driving back in Phoebe's car, the high-definition version of the episode clearly shows the projection panels of the stock footage outside the stationary cab.

** A much harsher criticism of the show is that it's basically a {{race lift}}ed version of ''Series/LivingSingle'' which premiered a year earlier, [[DuelingShows ran concurrently with this show in the mid-90s]] and lasted half as many seasons, not to mention the fact that both series were [[Creator/WarnerBros Warner Bros. Television]] productions (it didn't help that ''Living Single'' had been pitched to Creator/{{NBC}} first, making accusations of racial discrimination and white favoritism a bit more palatable).
** ''Friends'' also inspired a lot of this in regards to other shows after it became such an unexpected smash hit. While there were a good handful of obvious knockoffs, critics were calling virtually any show that featured an ensemble cast of people who were friends with each other "a ''Friends'' clone". Creator/DrewCarey even mentioned that despite the fact that he liked the show himself, its theme song became a BerserkButton for him because of the constant claims that [[Series/TheDrewCareyShow his very different show]] was a ''Friends'' imitation. ''His'' show was the ''Seinfeld'' knockoff, since ''Seinfeld'' created the template for all 90s sitcoms starring stand-up comedians. (Drew= Jerry; Kate= Elaine; Mimi= Newman; Lewis and Oswald= George and Kramer, etc.)

** Lisa Kudrow got in a lot of good acting with Phoebe's real family, but as soon as the father appeared (with a scene that ended with Phoebe still being uncomfortable around him) in season five they dropped the plot and any more chances to work through her past issues. Similarly, her biological mother only showed up in three episodes before disappearing entirely, with the suggestion that Phoebe is spending time with her offscreen.

** "TOW Ross Got High" has Ross' parents realizing despite his success Ross has made some major screw-ups in life. This would've been a perfect chance for Judy to have a HeelRealization and start to realize Monica turned out quite well and start to repair their relationship. This never comes to fruition and while Jack does have a genuine HeelRealization 1 season later, by Season 9 Judy has forgotten Monica even exists.

** Joey in season 8 when he was in love with Rachel. Then he lost the only girl he ever loved and was the only friend who ended up without his soulmate.

** The entire Ross/Rachel relationship. Some love it for being a great WillTheyOrWontThey, OppositesAttract plot and believe it's an epic love story. Others think it's an unrealistic and unrewarding MasochismTango of two unsuited people who treat each other horribly. The split is probably highlighted by the younger, newer fans who, thanks to SeinfeldIsUnfunny, find WillTheyOrWontThey plots over-used in TV and the GiveGeeksAChance mantra cliché. The relationships also draws ire from Monica/Chandler fans, who find the 'Lobsters' reputation as the 'greatest couple ever' undeserving when the Mondler relationship lasted six times as long, worked far better together and had a greater impact on the group dynamic.

** While the show is still regarded as a great sitcom in America, it definitely becoming more and more a case of SeinfeldIsUnfunny. But in Europe, the show is still remembered as an all-time classic, long after it has ended. A common comment among Europeans is that the characters were "universal", and even timeless, hence why they could smash cultural barriers with stunning ease. That's a pretty strong contrast with many of its American detractors, who accuse the show of being nothing but trendy dribble and a ArcFatigue ridden show that overstayed its welcome.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: While it is still regarded as funny, and a benchmark that other sitcoms try to reach, the impact it had is largely forgotten after the slew of other shows that followed.
** At the time, it was unique for a show to have a cast of young people who could be romantically paired up in many different ways. Pretty much every heterosexual combination between the main cast was explored during the series (even Ross and Monica had an accidental kiss in their background). This type of series premise has since become the norm.
** Friends was, at the time, also unique for delving into the trials and tribulations of 20-something life. A demographic that had, until then, been mostly ignored by television and was just gaining cinematic recognition through movies like ''Film/RealityBites.'' Whereas, today, at least half of all prime time sitcoms are about 20 and early-30 something life.
** Things like the coffee house, now a cliché, were actually considered 'too hip' by the executives, and they had to be talked into accepting it.
** When the Pilot was filmed, NBC actually screened audiences to see if they thought Monica having sex with Paul on a first date would make her seem slutty. Given what women on network television get away with these days, it's hard to believe such a thing was cause for concern among network executives in 1994.
** Ross and Rachel. As mentioned above, thanks to a combination of ValuesDissonance and SeinfeldIsUnfunny, a lot of younger fans who got on board after the show ended are watching their relationship pan out and questioning what made it so popular. While it's easy now to pinpoint everything that was wrong with them as a couple (pettiness, having very little in common, jealousy issues, etc.), during the mid-90s, such a relationship was seen as fresh and unique. As, until then, the GiveGeeksAChance trope was rarely (if ever) represented in television. While, in film, it was still seen as a refreshing break from the predictable "pretty boy gets the hot girl" trope so prevalent until the mid-80s. Today, with the GiveGeeksAChance trope being more-or-less played out and the culture as a whole taking a much more cynical view of the DoggedNiceGuy, it might be hard for younger fans to really appreciate how significant the Ross and Rachel romance was nearly 20 years ago.
** Also the WillTheyOrWontThey on/off nature of their relationship: At the time it was a innovative and relatively new way of setting up a couple. Nowadays, virtually every show has an UnresolvedSexualTension pair and their initial UnrequitedLoveSwitcheroo seems text-book form. (Especially as they first got together as early as Season 2, now writers drag it out much longer.) In fact, it's gotten to the stage where the creative approach is ''not'' to break up your main couple, so ironically, Monica and Chandler's relationship appears more unique.
** The show was seen as very progressive in its handling of Carol and Susan as a gay couple. In fact, the Season Two episode "TOW The Lesbian Wedding" almost never aired due to its content.
** Most prior sitcoms centered around [[DomCom families]], [[WorkCom a particular job]] or the cast is otherwise unified in some fashion by being [[RoommateCom roommates]], classmates or all visiting the LocalHangout. ''Friends'' was unique in that it was literally nothing more than the adventures of a group of friends, everyone had different history with each other, different career paths and different social circles outside their clique. Together with ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'' the show redefined the sitcom genre with the "a group of friends" premise.
** As with ''Seinfeld'', the show's willingness to disrupt its status quo ''often'' regarding relationships, jobs, roommates, etc. Where most shows of its day kept a relative status quo to make it easier to write episodes and air them in any order in syndication, ''Friends'' (and ''Seinfeld'') relying heavily on serialization helped pave the way for future sitcoms to trust their audiences with such upheaval and evolve themselves beyond their initial premise (plus lay the groundwork for endless running gags and call-backs).

** Yet another Ross example. In "The One with Ross's Sandwich," Ross is depicted as being crazy, unstable, and overreacting to his boss eating his sandwich to the point where he gets suspended from his job and eventually loses it. Even though it's just a sandwich, it's completely understandable that Ross would be upset by this, especially considering he put his name on it and the boss stole it anyway and the sandwich meant a lot to Ross. It's not like he hit his boss. Many fans feel like his anger was justified and the punishment was too severe.

* DesignatedVillain:
** Emily is treated as a villain due to trying to forbid Ross from seeing Rachel, breaking up with him when he wouldn't, getting engaged again within the same season and then in "The One with the Ride-Along" Monica calls her controlling and unstable for thinking of running out on her wedding. Except she only became paranoid and distrusting of Ross when he said Rachel's name during their vows, meaning her actions are very much justified especially after catching Ross about to leave on their honeymoon with Rachel. However "The One with the Ride-Along" does bring up the hypocrisy by pointing out that many of Monica's accusations about Emily apply to herself and Rachel.
** Paul is treated as an antagonist for, not wanting his daughter to date a professor at her school. It was already questionable back the for Ross to date a student, but nowadays would be flat out inconceivable to view a guy in the wrong for having a problem with that. The fact that Ross gets around it by blackmailing him with a mildly weird but harmless self motivation technique Paul does which comes off as even worse on Ross' part as what he did is nowhere near as bad as what Ross is doing.

* GrowingTheBeard: While the first season not considered bad, it had a lot of [[TheEighties 80s-ish styles and fashions]] [[EightiesHair (particularly in hairstyles)]], and was quite a bit more wholesome, family-friendly, and episodic than the other seasons, with some critics regarding it as an inferior clone of ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}''. It started to grow some stubble with "The One With All The Poker", the first episode to really show what it can do with its GenderEqualEnsemble by pitting Rachel, Monica, and Phoebe against Joey, Chandler, and Ross in a friendly game of poker. However, it doesn't really find its stride until the second season, after that [[TheNineties the styles and fashions match the proper decade much more]], the writing improves, it finds its own consistent humor and voice, the character's personalities begin to gel more, and there are more ongoing story arcs. It had also set itself apart from many other sitcoms of the time by ending most of their seasons in ''soap opera style'' cliffhangers, a trend that ''Series/ThirdRockFromTheSun'' soon followed. By the end of season two, it was already competing with ''Seinfeld'' as the ultimate sitcom of the 90s.

** Paul is treated as an antagonist for, not wanting his daughter to date a professor at his school. It was already questionable back the for Ross to date a student, but nowadays would be flat out inconceivable to view a guy in the wrong for having a problem with that. The fact that Ross gets around it by blackmailing him with a mildly weird but harmless self motivation technique Paul does which comes off as even worse on Ross' part as what he did is nowhere near as bad as what Ross is doing.

* DesignatedVillain: Emily is treated as a villain due to trying to forbid Ross from seeing Rachel, breaking up with him when he wouldn't, getting engaged again within the same season and then in "The One with the Ride-Along" Monica calls her controlling and unstable for thinking of running out on her wedding. Except she only became paranoid and distrusting of Ross when he said Rachel's name during their vows, meaning her actions are very much justified especially after catching Ross about to leave on their honeymoon with Rachel. However "The One with the Ride-Along" does bring up the hypocrisy by pointing out that many of Monica's accusations about Emily apply to herself and Rachel.

** The incredibly obvious green-screen background when Rachel tries to teach Joey how to sail a boat in the third episode of Season 7, "The One With Phoebe's Cookies". The "boat" itself is also a pretty obvious stage piece that's just rocking back and worth.

* ValuesDissonance:
** For a sitcom from the mid-90s, you can expect a lot of derogatory gay jokes, mostly directed at Chandler. ([[OffendingTheCreatorsOwn Note that series co-creator and writer David Crane is gay.]])
*** Especially in the episode where Ross, Chandler and Monica were telling each other embarrassing stories. One of the first was Chandler drunkenly making out with a man dressed like a woman at a party. As the episode progresses, the stories get more and more humiliating (Chandler winning a Music/VanillaIce look-a-like contest, Ross coming in fourth and crying '''and''' sleeping with the college maid, Monica being unable to tell time until she was 13 and ''eating'' the macaroni from a homemade jewelry box after being sent to bed without dinner.) However, none of these simply compare to "Whatever, dude, you kissed a guy." That alone undercut everything else.
*** When Joey is helping Treeger with his dancing, Monica asks Joey how it's going: "Gay yet?" Also crosses over to behind the scenes.
*** Funnily enough, there actually was serious consideration early on to have Chandler be gay (note his now quite out of character line from the pilot "Sometimes I wish I was a lesbian. Did I say that out loud?"), before they decided audiences weren't ready for it yet.
** "The One With The Rumor" had Brad Pitt's character and Ross started a rumor in high school about Rachel being a "hermaphrodite," ending with Monica telling her she needs to get over it because it didn't hurt her long-term popularity. With greater awareness of both anti-intersex prejudice (including the recognition of "hermaphrodite" as a slur when used to describe humans) and the effects of childhood bullying in the two decades since the episode's airing in 2001, these antics would be far more scrutinized nowadays.
*** Alternatively, the effects of childhood bullying are a lot more recognized nowadays. With the effects on his mental health very apparent throughout the episode, Will comes off as a case of JerkassWoobie.
** In the same episode, the gang make fun of Ross for making out with a high school librarian. The joke is because she was [[MayDecemberRomance incredibly old]]. But if you think about it, although she wasn't a teacher, she was still in an authority position and took advantage of a teenage boy. With [[DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale awareness of the double standard]] now more widespread, this gag would probably not fly today.
** Joey regularly mentions [[DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale picking up girls (in the college age bracket) when he was way under the age of consent]] (he knew [[TheArtOfBraRemoval how to unhook a bra]] at age ''fourteen''), something that never even gets mentioned by the other characters as, well, icky. He even once said that he ''[[SextraCredit slept with a teacher in seventh grade for an A]]'', to Monica, and she didn't even react to it.
** When Rachel takes Ross out to dinner with her father, Dr. Green pays for the entire meal but only puts out a 4% tip. He's portrayed as a jerk for both this, and for getting mad at Ross for leaving extra money on the table to pad out the tip. In the US, where waitstaff are often paid lower than minimum wage, Ross's outrage at the small tip makes sense (a common tip ranges from 15-20%, which can be a great payout for waitstaff on an expensive meal). In other countries where restaurant wages are better regulated, this is not common knowledge, and so Ross ends up looking more unreasonable for expecting a man who just paid for a very expensive meal to pay even more for the tip.
** Chandler making fun of Ross or Joey for taking part in any 'unmanly' activities. One episode had Chandler accuse Joey of turning into a woman all because Joey was trying to bond with his temporary female roommate by knitting pot cozies with her and learning floral arrangements. Ross likewise gets worried when Ben is found playing with a Barbie doll, and he tries to get him to play with a GI Joe instead. Ross also wants to get rid of Sandy the nanny just because he's a slightly effeminate male (though this DoubleStandard is repeatedly lampshaded in the episode itself).
** Given the increasing epidemic of teenage eating disorders, a lot of the jokes at Monica's expense at being an overweight teenager come off as cruel.
*** In general, the show's negative portrayals of fat people (for another example, see the character of Girth[[note]]It's actually Gert, as in Gertrude, but the {{mondegreen}} is just too perfect to remove.[[/note]] in "The One After I Do") would today come across as both cruel and insensitive, now that we've become more aware of the psychological/emotional dangers of "fat shaming."
** When Paolo crudely comes on to Phoebe at her job as a masseuse, the show treats Rachel as the one who is primarily wronged because Paolo tried to cheat on her with her friend, while glossing over the fact that Phoebe was sexually harassed by him. In the post Me Too era, this would be treated much more seriously.
** Ross's actions - particularly in the early seasons - are looked on far more critically than they would have been at the time. He claims to be a 'NiceGuy' but here's a rough list: accuses Rachel of cheating just because he's jealous of Mark; acts incredibly smothering and possessively and later lies about getting their marriage annulled. Any of these actions would be used to portray him as a {{Jerkass}} today rather than the DoggedNiceGuy he was presented as in the 90s.
** Chandler's boss playfully slapping his butt is played for laughs, with the other employees mentioning this demonstrates that Chandler is his favourite, and Chandler convincing his boss to slap other employees' butts to stop them feeling jealous. In today's society, in the wake of the #[=MeToo=] movement, it's less likely this sort of behaviour would be played for laughs, especially as Chandler is clearly uncomfortable with this.
** Chandler's father being played by a cis woman was actually considered an admirably daring piece of casting at the time, but is now looked on much more critically as awareness has grown about the plight of trans actors losing even roles fitting their identity to cis actors.[[note]]It's actually not quite clear if the character is supposed to be trans or a male drag queen, but it's still uncomfortable either way.[[/note]] Co-creator Marta Kauffman later [[https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/friends-marta-kauffman-creator-transgender-jokes-chandlers-dad-a8896611.html admitted]] that she regrets the character being written that way, as well as the ambiguity with which their identity was handled.
** With increased understanding of the terrors of stalking, it’s now quite off-putting to watch "The One With The Jam", where Phoebe is flattered when it appears she has one, and when it turns out the man is actually stalking her twin sister Ursula and followed her by mistake, she tries to convince him to switch to her. During the show’s 25th anniversary in 2019, [[CreatorBacklash this was named as the episode the crew most regretted]].
** In 3x10: an elementary school-age girl being alone with Ross in her bedroom, and visiting the apartment of two adult men for a ''playdate'' without anyone accompanying her, would absolutely never fly today regardless of how innocent his intentions were.
** Monica pretending to forgive Chandler for smoking to get them to have sex can be quite uncomfortable and feel like a double standard.
** In season 2, Joey auditions for Days Of Our Lives and is told by the casting lady that he wants the part he needs to sleep with her. The show treats the issue more like it's a question of Joey's integrity if he earned the role or if he has to sleep his way to the top to get it. However, in today's Me Too era, it's the casting lady who is seen as exploiting Joey, especially with the revelation that [[CastingCouch real life producers like Harvey Weinstein used similar tactics of holding roles over actresses heads in order to force them to sleep with them.]] The fact that the genders are reversed in this situation doesn't make it any less repugnant.
** Many of the show's workplace-related humor/incidents would not fly in this day and age:
*** Joanna' s treatment of Sophie and to a lesser extent Rachel would now be considered workplace bullying.
*** Rachel's behavior towards her assistant Tag - in particular, her telling people that he's gay so that no one else will date him (aside from being untrue, it is not her business to disclose regardless), could have gotten her reprimanded or even fired for sexual harassment--and the others even tease/warn her about this.
*** A little after Rachel begins working at Ralph Lauren, she finds out that one of her coworkers, Kenny The Copy Boy, regularly pretends to be Ralph Lauren in order to sleep with female coworkers. Such behavior would now be seen not only as sexual harassment but possible rape.
** Ross's GirlOfTheWeek with the filthy apartment is as usual played for laughs. Nowadays--and even then--an apartment that messy wouldn't indicate that someone was merely a slob, it'd be suggestive of a hoarding disorder, a serious mental illness that can be a symptom of other mental illnesses such as anxiety or depression.
** Conversely, so would Monica's NeatFreak and ControlFreak tendencies.
** "TOW The Fake Monica": Identity theft has become a serious danger for most people, now that the internet has made it ''ridiculously easy'' for hackers/phishers/etc. to steal sensitive personal information. Thus, the idea of Monica being a victim of it (let alone ''embracing'' it) is no longer as harmless or funny as it might've been in 1995.
** In "TOW the East German Laundry Detergent", Rachel casually asks Ross if she's acting like a spaz, which is nowadays recognized as an incredibly offensive and ableist slur.
** Ross' erratic behavior after dealing with several traumatic events is treated with derision, and he's told he just needs to get over it even though it's clear he needs mental health treatment. Nowadays, he would probably have sought treatment well before his behavior got out of hand.
** Chandler was originally written to be gay, but the writers backed out of that decision because they thought the audiences weren't ready. Nowadays, no one would bad an eye at this. In fact, most sitcoms have at least one LGBT major character nowadays. Most fans don't mind this however, because of the payoff of Monica & Chandler ending up together.

** George Stephanopoulos is a pretty dated reference point (back then, he was UsefulNotes/BillClinton's campaign advisor) but is mentioned a few times in a first-season episode (even complete with him in the title, though he never actually appears in the episode). (Nowadays he's anchor at ABC News.)

** [[CrossCastRole Chandler's Dad is played by a woman]]. It's not really clear whether Chandler's Dad is supposed to be a drag queen, a male crossdresser, or a transgender woman. At the time the show was written, all of these things were seen as one and the same. With hindsight, however, this can seem a bit awkward to the modern viewer now that transgender people are better understood and more accepted. One of the creators, Martha Kaufman, has gone on record saying she regrets the jokes in hindsight (and clarified that she was meant to be a trans woman). While the character is still referred to with male pronouns, episodes do revolve around Chandler learning to be accepting and include her in his life (she's arguably portrayed more sympathetically than Chandler's mother Nora).

** Also Fat Monica. From the way everybody on the show talks, you'd think she was a two ton blimp. But she's just 7/10 on the weight scale, at most. Though it's worth remembering that ''Friends'' was set in the early nineties, and Monica would have been fat in the mid to late eighties. Back then the percentage of obese Americans was just 11%, so while modern viewers see Monica as being just slightly overweight given the current standards, she was genuinely seen as being quite large back then.

* CoolLoser: Despite his neuroses, Chandler is smart, witty, good-looking, has a good job, and is generally a NiceGuy. But he's still treated like a loser, is unsuccessful with women, and is considered lucky to get a woman like Monica who apparently "could do better than him" (according to Rachel and Phoebe, at least).

** The unnamed character played by Hugh Laurie flying to London next to Rachel in [[Series/{{House}} Dr. Gregory House from Princeton, NJ.]] By coincidence, the personality and dialogue are a ''super'' close match to Laurie's future character (although he has Laurie's natural English accent rather than House's American one).

** In “TOT Could’ve Been”, Alternate Phoebe is a ruthless banking executive at Merrill Lynch. Merrill Lynch was one of several casualties in the 2008 Financial Crisis, resulting in it being purchased by Bank Of America and absorbed into Bank Of America Securities the following year (with the "Merrill Lynch" name completely dropped). Maybe AltPhoebe dodged a bullet by being fired?

** In “TOT Could’ve Been”, Alternate Phoebe is a ruthless banking executive at Merrill Lynch. Merrill Lynch was one of several casualties in the 2008 Financial Crisis, resulting in it being purchased by Bank Of America and absorbed into Bank Of America Securities the following year (with the "Merrill Lynch" name completely dropped).