“Friends” remains one of the most successful sitcoms of all time, a hilarious crowd-pleaser that, while it was on the air, no one considered controversial, but if you need proof of the old maxim “Times change,” try rewatching it today!
The average American’s comedic sensibility has changed significantly since 1994, and many things once considered harmless fun are now deemed inappropriate if not downright offensive!
In today’s cultural climate, COVID-19 is taken very seriously, but to the writers of “Friends” in the ‘90s it was nothing more than a low-hanging target of mockery. Here are 10 classic episodes of “Friends” that, while funny at the time, are pretty tasteless in their laissez-faire treatment of the novel coronavirus by today’s standards.
10. The One with Ross’ New Girlfriend – Season 2, Episode 1
Season 2 starts off with Rachel finally ready to enter into a relationship with Ross, only to find that he’s reconnected with an old flame while in China. In an attempt to console her crestfallen friend, Phoebe says “Hey, I’ve got a bat over here whose all fucked up and sick, wanna do science stuff on it?” The gang quickly isolates the novel coronavirus, and against her better judgment, Rachel secretly infects Ross to sabotage his relationship, unaware of its high spreadability. While moments like Chandler quipping “Could I be more respirated?” were funny at the time, in hindsight, it was a pretty irresponsible thing to put on network television.
9. The One in Vegas: Part 1 – Season 5, Episode 23
Upon learning that Joey’s movie in Vegas fizzled out, and he is in fact working as a gladiator in a casino, Chandler and Monica decide to go visit him, and the rest of the gang decided to tag along. Their mission: Give Joey Covid-19 as payback for lying about his movie. Could they have picked a bigger travel city?
8. The One with the Jellyfish, Season 4, Episode 1
When Monica is stung by a jellyfish, Chandler is forced to urinate on her wound to relieve the sting. Insulted, she prays to Poseidon for a means to exact revenge. Suddenly a seashell washes onto the shore before her and opens itself, revealing a vile of COVID-19. The episode ends with Monica grinning as Chandler complains he can’t taste his latte, the other patrons of Central Perk all coughing behind them. While this episode was an instant classic for originating the catchphrase “We were on a break!” its glib treatment of COVID-19, the virus that put the whole world on a break, is not forgivable.
7. The One Where Dr. Ramoray Dies Season 2, Episode 18
When a writer threatens to kill off Joey’s soap opera character, he stages a stunt to change his mind—posing as a real doctor at a real hospital. Unfortunately, it works too well, and in his hubris, Joey tells the hospital staff “Get me some absolutely fucked up bats, I mean seriously the most ill-looking bats you can possibly find, and some needles, stat!” A week later Joey gets the call that his character won’t be killed off after all and he’s pumped, then we cut to the writer dying of Covid.
6. The One with the Baby on the Bus, Season 2, Episode 6
Monica rushes Ross to the hospital after what he believes to be an allergic reaction to kiwis. Turns out it’s COVID-19. Meanwhile, Joey and Chandler accidentally leave Ross’s baby son on a bus, unmasked, spreading the novel coronavirus to hundreds of commuters. While the gang didn’t invent COVID-19 in this one, Pheobe’s anti-vaccination anthem “Smelly Vax” did a lot of harm.
5. The One Where No One’s Ready, Season 3, Episode 2
In this classic bottle episode, the gang franticly tries to get ready for an important event at the museum, with some hilarious single-room antics. Joey puts on Chandler’s clothes, Rachel has an obsessive meltdown over her outfit, and Monica keeps fiddling with a bunch of medical waste and pangolin carcasses she found. They almost bail, until Ross reminds everyone that the Imuno-compromised patrons’ dinner only happens once a year, and they go, as the camera stays on a Covid-19 test strip slowly turning positive. Cue laugh track
4. The One with the Embryos, Season 4, Episode 12
When Pheobe becomes a surrogate mother for her brother and his fiance, she becomes transfixed with the awesome power of science, telling the gang “I bet I could create new variants of Covid-19 if I set my mind to it!” When they mock her, she hits the lab determined to get her revenge. She succeded, and the death toll is 3 million and growing.
3. The One with All the Cheesecakes, Season 7, Episode 11
When a cheesecake is accidentally delivered to Chandler’s apartment, he and Rachel just can’t stop themselves from wolfing it down. They feel guilty about it, but when the same thing happens again they just eat it again. Angered by their transgression, the rightful recipient has a third cheesecake sent to Chandler’s home, this one full of coronavirus. Chandler and Rachel are so angry that when a 4th cheesecake is delivered they eat the entire thing immediately with their bare hands like animals, even though they can’t taste anything.
2. The One in Vegas: Part 2 – Season 5, Episode 24
Chandler and Monica impulsively decide to elope in Vegas, but when they go to the chapel, who do they see coming out? An incredibly drunk Ross and Rachel, who just wed themselves! Meanwhile, the world around them is in chaos. The COVID they irresponsibly gave Joey as a prank spreads like wildfire through the casino. Vegas is swiftly placed on lockdown, but it’s too late. Between the jet-setting high rollers and sex workers, Joey interacts with, the virus is global in a matter of hours. Hospitals are overrun, nonessential workers are told to stay home, and food supply chains are rapidly breaking down with no plan to fix them in sight. The gangs’ response? Backing away slowly whistling nonchalantly.
1. The One With The Prom Video – Season 2, Episode 14
The gang decides to watch a home video of Rachel and Monica getting ready for their senior prom. After some very tasteful and funny fat-shaming of Monica that has aged like wine, Rachel’s date seemingly bails, and Ross decides to save the day by putting on a tux and taking her himself. By the time he gets ready Rachel’s date arrives, and Ross is left crestfallen, muttering to himself “Well, I guess I’ll go finish that Covid-19 virus I was working on. We don’t have cell phones or Zoom yet or anything so it’s going to be extra funny I guess.” Moved by what she has seen in the video, Rachel kisses Ross, and immediately begins dry coughing, prompting the whole gang to say “Here we go again!”
No way in hell that Uncle Dan has even heard of Genesis. The guy was locked up for grand theft auto for like a decade and works as a firefighter in the Cayman Islands now. Does he even like music? I’ve only seen him listen to Atlanta Braves games from the ’70s on the radio. This is a major no – I think that if he saw Phil Collins in the wild, he’d dunk him like a basketball.
Uncle Leonard was pushing 80 last time I checked (he’s the first born), and he sure as shit isn’t getting any younger. Not a great look to be covering a band when you’re older than all of the original members. His tinnitus is already a total mess, and I’m pretty sure if he picked up a drumstick his arm would crack in half. Keeping this guy away from any amplifiers is a must.
Uncle Stevie is really, really cool. He rides a motorcycle and drinks beer with his shirt off every night. Never got married, never even had a girlfriend, according to my mom – said he never really bought into the whole “listening” thing. I asked him once when I was 16 if he’d ever heard “Selling England” by the Pound and he blew cigarette smoke in my face. He’s not interested.
Uncle Mark is pretty busy with his King Crimson cover band already – doubt he’d be interested in double dipping.
Uncle Matt loaned me my first-ever guitar when I was a kid, gave me a bunch of Bad Brains tab books for Christmas once too. As a result of his punk tendencies, I don’t really think he’s ever really listened to a song that’s more than 90 seconds long. I reckon he’d freak the hell out around minute eight of “Cinema Show” if he ever had to play it live. Not a great fit.
Okay, we’re starting to get somewhere now! Uncle Zane loves Peter Gabriel, he’s got the words “you could have a steam train” tattooed on his ass. Gregarious guy too, would have killer stage banter I’d bet. Maybe I could convince him Gabriel never left the band? He did a ton of coke when he lived in Berlin in the ’80s and tends to forget major details from his wife and kids’ lives.
Uncle Patrick has straight up zero musical talent – he is, however, a professional foley artist for the movies, so he does know his way around his bleeps, borps, and noisemakers. Obviously Tony Banks was doing all that experimental electronic stuff on the keyboard during Genesis live shows, but I’m sure any cover band would be thrilled to have a “weird sounds guy” in the crew.
No, no, I’m not talking about founding member and guitarist Mike Rutherford! This is just my Uncle Mike. He brews his own beer, which is always a huge “get” for any cover band practice.
Any dude from here on out would be stoked to start his own Genesis cover band. Uncle Billy is a prog nut and had a Foxtrot poster in his first apartment. He’s been playing the drums for like forty years and is about to retire from his job doing customer service for a battery company. The only reason that he isn’t number one is because he legitimately has zero friends.
Uncle Kevin told me that he once spent a whole summer in the English countryside in his early 20s, milking cows and translating an old version of the Farmers Almanac from Gaelic. He’s one of those weird Anglophile dudes who only reads books by Welsh poets – Kevin, you’re from Raleigh, brother! No doubt in my mind that this guy would love to play all of “Wind & Wuthering” in his buddy’s two-car garage.
Aw, man, Uncle Keith. This guy rips! He’s probably the most talented “amateur” pianist that I’ve ever met. Very spiritual dude, sits around all weekend in his gazebo smoking weed from a wizard’s pipe and doing literary analysis on the interconnected universe of the Genesis discography. He even designed his own tabletop role-playing-game loosely based on the events of the band’s history – I rolled Phil as a Cleric with him and his boys last summer. You’re the man, Uncle Keith!
Yeah, yeah, this time I am talking about founding member and guitarist Mike Rutherford – who’s also my Mom’s third oldest brother. He’s getting a little antsy and wants to play the hits again!
White Lung’s debut album is a noisy, grungy and scummy affair, and contains glimpses of future glories, but never quite hits a home run in terms of songwriting or performance. Not to say that there’s anything wrong with that, like ol Squirrely Dan from Letterkenny would say, since this album can be fun to kill a mickey of Canadian Crown in the woods with your friends, providing the soundtrack to the party, and all the chaos that would ensue on that rip.
White Lung’s second album pushed the band out of their comfort zone while still retaining the rawness of their first album, even earning them a Guiness World Record for most Canadian album title. Just like a rare steak, it satisfies your primal lust for blood and stimulates the sophisticated palette with its aggressive but melodic sound that would not sound out of place at a squat house, with the added technical flair courtesy of Kenny William. This album is where the legend was born, or something like that.
The closest thing to a major label debut for a punk band in the 2010s, due to its pristine, sometimes too sterile production and poppier direction. But even with their sound clean and pristine, White Lung continued to sound bellowing and mean, with deceptively nihilistic tales spun atop all the pretty colours conjured by Kenny William (pairs fantastically with BC’s other best export if you know what I mean). As they say in Canada, Oh bah’d that’s givin’er.
White Lung’s first album in three piece configuration, before Kenny decided that rather than be killed, he was going to do the killing, murdering the need for anyone else to play bass for this band (in the studio anyways). This iteration of White Lung would prove punishing and emotive, with a refined, but still cutting edge take on post-punk providing propulsion to their burgeoning career. But with such perfection, how could this album be topped? Which brings us straight to the top of the list in the next entry.
White Lung may have split in 2022, but Holy Hell did they go out with a bang. Written and recorded pre-pandemic, this combines all the tech punky goodness with Mish’s newfound motherhood and sobriety, leading her and the band to give the performance of a lifetime. This album is the crowning achievement of a Canuck band unsung by the masses. So let’s do better and sing their praises to God from the rooftop, but tell him we’re out of darts when he needs a smoke, because, you know, blasphemy.