Should We Be Offended?

Time to really think about this issue. Should we take personal offense to the jokes in some of our favorite sitcoms? A blog post by Janie Salmon

Wait… hold up. Is it true that people today find Friends and New Girl extremely offensive? Well… this is news to me. I guess I’ll try to dive into the issue some more to understand what’s so wrong with these sitcoms.

Let’s start off with why people find these shows so offensive. So, people think Ross is homophobic because he continually makes jokes about other men being gay, and he seems embarrassed that his ex wife is now a lesbian. Chandler makes inappropriate jokes about his cross-dressing dad, and is afraid of being perceived as gay. Joey overly sexualizes women, and talks about them as if they’re objects. Rachel hires a hot, young, unqualified assistant who she then begins to date, and if this happened today it would without a doubt be considered sexual harassment. Monica is never allowed to forget that she was once fat. Oh, and she dates her father’s best friend who has known her since she was a little girl… Creepy. Finally, the show has a huge lack of diversity and critics find this unacceptable.

Next, New Girl. New Girl is conceivably much better than Friends in terms of being offensive, but there are still some aspects that grind peoples’ gears. First, Winston is a competitive basketball player… oh yeah and he’s black. Maybe this was a coincidence, but many people think it’s a hint of racism. Schmidt tries to help Winston become his “blackest self”. Oh and Schmidt talks to Cece, his love interest who is indian, with racist undertones. He follows her to an Indian marriage convention and wears a jeweled turban… yikes. Nick pretends to be gay and calls himself “gay nick.” And Jess is the damsel in distress who needs her three male roommates to protect her. Overall, the show uses themes of racism for comedic relief, but is this really funny?

While watching these two sitcoms it’s important to remember why we are watching them. We aren't looking for some deep philosophical discussion about race and equality. We want to laugh, and we want to detach ourselves from the everyday stresses. Yes, some of these jokes are offensive, and it may seem that by making them, it is justifying and normalizing the use of sexism, racism, and homophobia. However, we often times forget that Friends was written 25 years ago, and society has changed so much sinse then. Friends is a hit because of the lovable dysfunctional family, not because of its jokes. And, the fact that New Girl is considered so much better in terms of sexism and homophobia, proves that we as a society have learned from the past, and have become a more inclusive and accepting society. Friends allows us to realize that what is found to be funny has changed with time. The fact that these jokes are even being called into question today shows just how much our society has grown with maturity and respect to all types of people.

So, should we be offended? Should we consider these shows evil spirited and malicious? I would argue that we shouldn’t. We have to remember the time period that these jokes were made in. We have to consider the true purpose of the jokes. They aren’t meant to attack, but instead to add comic relief to serious situations. We have to remember why we watch sitcoms. We watch them to destress and remove ourselves from the seriousness of everyday life. So, the next time you go to watch a sitcom, just think, I want to relax and not take life so seriously. But this is all just my opinion. After considering all of these aspects, what do you think?