"Friends was racist and sexist"

spiralism · 30-01-2018 02:44AM

_Dara_ wrote: »

We’re in a golden age of dramatic television currently but I feel like comedy has lagged behind for a while now. The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother were and are the huge sitcoms of the last decade and they barely raise a titter out of me. This makes me sad. The widely popular 90s sitcoms were so goddamn good. Mass appeal and quality.

Watch It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia then. Funniest sitcom of this generation by a mile.

_Dara_ wrote: »

I agree. I feel like TBBT did have potential but I just don’t feel that the writing was strong enough. And I think the premise was too restrictive. But in the hands of better writers, a sitcom about nerdy scientists could have been great.

So essentially, The IT crowd then?

inforfun · 30-01-2018 08:56AM

Funniest character now on TV: Sheldon Cooper

Comedy is dead.

El_Duderino 09 · 30-01-2018 09:02AM

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

.

As far as I can see, the fact that millenials spotted those things about a show from the 90 shows that culture has changed since then. It's completely normal.

You're mixing up "spotted" with "invented"

Are you saying the gay jokes weren’t stodgy by today’s standards and that the cast wasn’t entirely white - with exception of 2 characters over 240 episodes?

Because I think it’s fair to say they spotted those things rather than inventing them.

Franz Von Peppercorn · 30-01-2018 09:04AM

There is plenty of great comedy recently. It’s just not making prime time.

El_Duderino 09 · 30-01-2018 09:12AM

inforfun wrote: »

Funniest character now on TV: Sheldon Cooper

Comedy is dead.
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/tGmTKoC.gi f[/IMG]

Sheldon cooper is of his time too. Autism and people with behaviour disorders/learning difficulties are part of the zeitgeist. See Undateables. I also say an ad for a show about a learning disabled job agency.

I’ve no doubt that general knowledge about learning difficulties will be moved forward due to characters like Cooper and in 20 years time, Cooper will be seen as a terribly inaccurate portrayal of learning difficulties. Which to be fair, he is.

Times change during other people’s lives and to pretend they don’t change during your own life probably means you’re failing to keep up.

Franz Von Peppercorn · 30-01-2018 09:29AM

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

Sheldon cooper is of his time too. Autism and people with behaviour disorders/learning difficulties are part of the zeitgeist. See Undateables. I also say an ad for a show about a learning disabled job agency.

I’ve no doubt that general knowledge about learning difficulties will be moved forward due to characters like Cooper and in 20 years time, Cooper will be seen as a terribly inaccurate portrayal of learning difficulties. Which to be fair, he is.

Times change during other people’s lives and to pretend they don’t change during your own life probably means you’re failing to keep up.

Lol. He really doesn’t have learning difficulties.

30-01-2018 10:04AM

This thread is for people who think the term "PC brigade" is a figment of people's minds. This is what people mean when they talk about the PC brigade.

El_Duderino 09 · 30-01-2018 10:23AM

Franz Von Peppercorn wrote: »

Lol. He really doesn’t have learning difficulties.

He can’t understand social subtlety like facial expressions. Has an eidetic memory, but can’t learn to drive.
He’s autistic. Well, he’s a mishmash of autism spectrum disorders. As I said above, he’s not an accurate depiction of learning disabilities.

At the moment Shelton is a progressive depiction of a character with autism and the challenges he faces in his job and social network.
As common understanding of ASDs grows, sheldon could eventually be seen as a terrible depiction of autism even though it’s progressive in its own time.

_Dara_ · 30-01-2018 10:35AM

spiralism wrote: »

Watch It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia then. Funniest sitcom of this generation by a mile.

I’ve half watched it before but will give it a better go.

So essentially, The IT crowd then?

I’m not a fan of The IT Crowd. It never really made me laugh and lags far behind Black Books and Father Ted for me. Linehan is at his funniest when he writes with someone else. And actually, I’m a huge believer in the comedy writing partnerships in general. They up their game in the spirit of competition and trying to make each laugh. I’m a disciple of the ‘other people make you funnier’ idea.

When I judge comedies, it’s very simple. Did it make me laugh or didn’t it? The Inbetweeners wasn’t groundbreaking or intellectual or innovative but it made me laugh like a drain.

Franz Von Peppercorn · 30-01-2018 10:54AM

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

He can’t understand social subtlety like facial expressions. Has an eidetic memory, but can’t learn to drive.
He’s autistic. Well, he’s a mishmash of autism spectrum disorders. As I said above, he’s not an accurate depiction of learning disabilities.

At the moment Shelton is a progressive depiction of a character with autism and the challenges he faces in his job and social network.
As common understanding of ASDs grows, sheldon could eventually be seen as a terrible depiction of autism even though it’s progressive in its own time.

Ack stop labelling people. He’s an uncomfortable scientist. He’s certainly got no “learning disability”.

pleas advice · 30-01-2018 11:14AM

That post was of its time

c68zapdsm5i1ru · 30-01-2018 12:11PM

Deleted User wrote: »

This thread is for people who think the term "PC brigade" is a figment of people's minds. This is what people mean when they talk about the PC brigade.

The PC brigade don't like the term 'PC brigade'. It's offensive, apparently.:rolleyes:

Here we go · 30-01-2018 12:21PM

Franz Von Peppercorn wrote: »

Ack stop labelling people. He’s an uncomfortable scientist. He’s certainly got no “learning disability”.

You mean intelligence wise as he's shown to have an extremely high IQ the other poster is referring to his social intelligence which is shown to be lacking which is a trait of autism not knowing when some one is joking or able to read body language or know how to read a situation by the reactions of others around you.

A more realistic version would be the good doctor

El_Duderino 09 · 30-01-2018 12:27PM

Franz Von Peppercorn wrote: »

Ack stop labelling people. He’s an uncomfortable scientist. He’s certainly got no “learning disability”.

This isn’t controversial. If you know anything about autism spectrum disorders, you’d know Cooper is a representation of autism.

The interesting thing is that someone mentioned black/white thinking. The whole point of viewing things like autism in a spectrum is that it can be a problem in some ways and not a problem in other ways. Cooper is extremely successful in his career but has difficulties with simple social situations.

Ironically, saying he doesn’t have learning difficulties in spite of the evidence, is an example of black/white thinking.

Why do you think he doesn’t have a learning difficulty when he hasn’t even managed to kerb the meaning of facial expressions - the classic sign of Autism.

Franz Von Peppercorn · 30-01-2018 12:34PM

Here we go wrote: »

You mean intelligence wise as he's shown to have an extremely high IQ the other poster is referring to his social intelligence which is shown to be lacking which is a trait of autism not knowing when some one is joking or able to read body language or know how to read a situation by the reactions of others around you.

A more realistic version would be the good doctor

A trait of autism isn’t the same as autism. And not getting social clues isn’t a learning disability.

Ludicrous the way society wants to label people. Are we saying that you h Shelton should have been put into a class with learning disabilities.

El_Duderino 09 · 30-01-2018 01:04PM

Franz Von Peppercorn wrote: »

A trait of autism isn’t the same as autism. And not getting social clues isn’t a learning disability.

Ludicrous the way society wants to label people. Are we saying that you h Shelton should have been put into a class with learning disabilities.

Absolutely not saying he should be in remedial class. That’s your prejudice. If you think school is the only place people learn then I can see where you’re coming from, but you’d be wrong. Academically he’s very intelligent, socially he’s not.

If you know anything about autism, you’ll know that Shelton is a representation of autism.

If you think identifying autism means he should go to school on the short bus, then that’s your prejudice too.

Irish Guitarist · 30-01-2018 01:54PM

The Big Bang Theory is a sitcom full of ridiculous characters. I seriously doubt any of them are meant to have an actual condition. If Sheldon is autistic what condition is that makes Raj unable to speak to a woman?

El_Duderino 09 · 30-01-2018 03:24PM

Irish Guitarist wrote:

The Big Bang Theory is a sitcom full of ridiculous characters. I seriously doubt any of them are meant to have an actual condition. If Sheldon is autistic what condition is that makes Raj unable to speak to a woman?

I don't know what you would call Taj's inability to speak to women. Does that kind of thing happen in real life?

KrustyUCC · 30-01-2018 03:29PM

Funny enough Raj's former condition does exist

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_mutism

TheBoyFromAus · 30-01-2018 04:26PM

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

I don't know what you would call Taj's inability to speak to women. Does that kind of thing happen in real life?

Are you misspelling character names on purpose to get a rise out of someone? I look forward to you discussing the traits of Lanyard Hoffstarter.

El_Duderino 09 · 30-01-2018 04:38PM

TheBoyFromAus wrote:

Are you misspelling character names on purpose to get a rise out of someone? I look forward to you discussing the traits of Lanyard Hoffstarter.

Autocorrect. Keep your wig on. I don't think i have anything to say about Lanyard anyway

pemay · 30-01-2018 06:14PM

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

Autocorrect. Keep your wig on. I don't think i have anything to say about Lanyard anyway

"Excuse me, but did you know every single thing is problematic?"

PROBLEMATIC!!!!

PROBLEMATIC!!!!!

except for Lanyard......so far

Irish Guitarist · 30-01-2018 07:22PM

The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air is on Netflix too. Why is it that no one is complaining about how there are no white characters on it? And what about the disgusting fat shaming of Uncle Phil?

pleas advice · 30-01-2018 07:31PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAk7tHMp8Yw

The Rape of Lucretia · 30-01-2018 08:16PM

Irish Guitarist wrote: »

The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air is on Netflix too. Why is it that no one is complaining about how there are no white characters on it? And what about the disgusting fat shaming of Uncle Phil?

Because like the Cosby Show, everyone knew that really all the characters were white, just played by African American actors.

Irish Guitarist · 30-01-2018 08:34PM

pleas advice wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAk7tHMp8Yw

There would have been an uproar (even at the time it was broadcast) if the regular characters had complained about Ross' girlfriend being black, or if Rachel had told Ross to dump that Chinese girl he was going out with in the second series.

twill · 30-01-2018 09:04PM

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

Are you saying the gay jokes weren’t stodgy by today’s standards and that the cast wasn’t entirely white - with exception of 2 characters over 240 episodes?

Because I think it’s fair to say they spotted those things rather than inventing them.

I remember watching the US Whose Line is it Anyway?, which competed with Friends for ratings, and they constantly made fun of the fact that Friends never had black characters.

(Albeit, not sure how their own frequent gay jokes would hold up nowadays...)

Irish Guitarist · 31-01-2018 02:58PM

I was looking for a written list or a video of the black characters that appeared on Friends. I couldn't find a serious one but this still lists them. And it's a catchy tune.

demanufactured · 31-01-2018 03:04PM

All these snowflakes and princesses need to **** off.

Irish Guitarist · 31-01-2018 04:05PM

The best black character to ever appear in a sitcom

"Friends was racist and sexist"

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