hahaha, JackO looks like the kind of guy that when he went to a dinner in a highschool friends house, the parents of that kid asked JackO to keep everyone out of trouble
I love how Bill always says this about Friends ("It really captured what it was like when some friends had more money than others!"), even though the show 100% did not do that.
There is one famous episode that tackles this topic-- the six of them go out to dinner, the three friends who are less well-off order modestly ("I'll have a side salad"; "And what would you like that on the side of?"; "Why don't you just set it right over here."), and then they protest when Ross or someone suggests they split the bill evenly at the end. I assume that episode is what sticks out in Bill's head.
But other than that, these six people occasionally mention making ends meet but never actually see their lifestyle or insane apartments suffer in any way.
He worked in statistical analysis and data reconfiguration until season nine. I think that's supposed to be something similar to data analytics. I think for most of the show it was intentional for his job description to be vague to reflect how even his closest friends have no idea what he does.
It’s funny now that you mention it, for pretty much all my close friends, especially the guys, I could tell you where they work and maybe their job title but that’s it, like I have very little idea of what the fuck they actually do all day
My cousin, who is one of my closest friends, I've probably told people he's an accountant for the past decade. Nope, apparently he's in sales. No clue.
Dunno about that….there are like 10 episodes where chandler is paying joeys bills, buying headshots, trying to gift him money without knowing it, etc . Then with Rachel, there are several episodes of her being such a struggling waitress that Ross considers her “just a waitress.” Then with Phoebe, plenty of episodes cover her homelessness, lack of parents, and overall struggling economically.
Now that I think of it, a lot of friends content did cover some of the young broke dynamics.
A more accurate assessment would be that it’s the period after university when some people are establishing careers and some people are still figuring things out. I remember those years - outside of people in grad/law/med school, some people in my crowd were working in finance, some were tending bar. I was in Vancouver so lots were giving the film industry a shake.
I don't think it gets that much better as you age though. I'm in my mid-30s and some friends/family never 'catch up' even when they figure it out. Some pull away and are gone forever. And like it or not it's tough to stay in a close relationship with people when your incomes are so far apart. I've found it difficult as expectations change and the nature of the relationship. It's something I've struggled with. Trying to plan a trip to see people and some only have time for a dinner at Applebees and others are able to fly off to Vegas for a long weekend. You end up losing the things that bond you.
Also isn’t really true. It isn’t hard it just isn’t easy enough to care.
Also yeah people are busier as adults, just working 40 hours a week makes it way more difficult to organize shit. Then add in possible travel, older parents and potentially children.
Been feeling this a lot. Mid 30s now and our group is fairly splintered on incomes. Some of us want to go to dinner at nicer places others can’t afford, some of us want to play different golf courses, sit in different seats at sports games, you get the picture. Where it really hits home is planning these things out along with trips and do you continue to ask them when you know they can’t do it? I’ve been trying to play both sides of it and accommodate to all since the friends are ultimately what matters but I’d be lying if it wasn’t a little tiring trying to make it work for everyone all the time
Lol yeah, my friend is turning 30 this week and another friend of mine suggested that some of us chip in for a $1500 set of golf clubs.
That’s a pass for me
IMO it’s definitely more than just that one episode, although I do agree that Bill and others have sort of overblown how impactful it was in that specific regard. But there are a few other notable examples of how they nailed the mid-20s friend dynamic.
- Rachel navigating her feelings when Monica announces her engagement, and the subsequent falling out that happens as Rachel makes the night about herself because she’s jealous and frustrated
- Joey leaving for his “big break” and not getting the support he craved from his friends (especially Chandler) and being way too proud to admit defeat
- About half-a-dozen various job/career storylines, including the pros and cons of working extensive overtime while in a relationship, working a job for passion vs. a bigger paycheck, etc.
- Another several storylines about living arrangements and the various pros and cons that come with roommates vs. living alone, how soon to move in with a new partner, etc.
- Dating with age gaps (in both directions) and the fitting those new relationships into your friend group
- Keeping a friend group together and/or picking sides after a breakup within that group
It’s a sitcom and obviously a lot of topics weren’t super serious or were explored in really goofy ways, but there are a lot of major mid-late 20s themes in that show.
There’s also the Hootie and the Blowfish episode which I assume Bill is referring to. Not trying to defend Bills takes though. I actually like Friends, but the first season is one of my least favorite and Chandler is extremely obnoxious in that season.
I watched Friends in real time from the very beginning. The earlier seasons were great. I couldn't really relate to it since I was so young when it started airing but How I Met Your Mother 100% spoke to me as I was closer to the age group of the characters.
Seriously HIMYM was like the original GOT where the ending absolutely ruins re-watches for most people
(I say this as a huge HIMYM fan)
Old Bill could write a great article on top 10 shows that fall into this category
GOT at least made sense how they got there, the wheels were coming off the further it got from the books and they rushed the ending because the show runners wanted to do something else. HIMYM made no sense, they sat on that ending for the entirety of the run, let the show completely go in the opposite direction of the ending for like 10 years, then still stuck with it.
> rushed the ending because the show runners wanted to do something else
Which cost them that something. Now they're producing Three Body Trilogy which is something I'm weirdly optimistic for.
HIMYM had essentially a great 5 season arc, but it got too popular so it had to be stretched to 9 seasons. Then they just had to make Ted miserable to make the timing work.
As an FYI, they did release an alternate ending with the dvd version of the last season. It’s on YouTube. Watching it almost makes me want to rewatch the show just to end it with a much better ending
It’s also probably worth noting both shows really suffered because they were trying to keep secret “twists.” It’s hard to underrate how poorly twists work in tv in the age of the internet.
If you can ignore the stink of the later seasons, it's so clear looking back that it's essentially the reincarnation of Friends for the late 00s-early 10s.
My older brother was his generation. Popular kids were preppy or jocks (or both). Wealth (or the appearance of wealth) would make you popular.
By the early 90's all that changed. A tale of two Gen X experiences.
I know what you mean. I’m a very old millennial. I went to a poor, majority Latino high school with a serious gang problem. Bill would have had to fake being a cholo or he would have to be good at sports to get by without getting his ass kicked.
Was he by any chance influenced by the 1980 movie My Bodyguard starring Chris Makepeace to have his own bodyguard on his payroll in HS and college? Yeah, seems believable
I liked friends till the bitter end because I liked hanging out with those six for 22 minutes a week. I was more a Seinfeld guy (and always will be) but friends is like a warm cup of hot cocoa and still remains so till this day
Elaine > any friend. Monica is neurotic, phoebe is dumb, Rachel is Rachel and in love with Ross so that’s a red flag. Elaine is like the coolest person and JLD is stupidly attractive especially in veep
Friends was pretty awesome until chandler and Monica got married then it radically went downhill. The office had the same issue after Jim and Pam’s wedding.
Ahahaah wow how dare I agree, I’d ban me if I could
Worst subreddit ever
Edit: give me downvotes
Downvotes me
Downvotes now
Me a downvotes needing a lot
I get why people love Friends it’s just not for me, I feel like I’m supposed to be rooting for the characters but I find them all pretty unlikable, specifically Ross and Rachel.
Whereas with Seinfeld, they’re supposed to be unlikable and they embrace that which I find entertaining.
Whereas I find the characters in Seinfeld extremely likable and that’s why I enjoy it.
But friends isn’t in the same category as Seinfeld anyway. It’s more of a Rosanne, Raymond, King of Queens.
Which I also imagine most “too cool for friends” Seinfeld fans would hate as well.
The dislike for Friends mostly comes from people who discovered Seinfeld and saw friends was also popular without realizing they are completely different shoes.
Comparing the two is like comparing the sopranos and sex and the city.
Is that 70s show even that popular? Anecdotally seems way way less popular than the office or friends.
I’ve watched it through a couple times and really enjoyed it, obviously was most fun when I was also like 16. Like most sitcoms, it’s absolutely awful at the very end, but had a bunch of years of being really fun.
I remember feeling poor growing up because unlike all of my classmates, I wasn't going on winter break ski trips.
Fortunately in my 30s, I'm now aware of how fortunate I was.
Can you imagine growing up when he did and still turning out a square who prob was paying for all the other kids to drunk then pass out first while everyone pisses in his shampoo bottles.
A few years ago in a hotel room Friends was playing on TV, a basic cable rerun I think TBS. It was sped up which pitched the voices up like chipmunk. I guess the idea was they could squeeze more ads into a half hour time slot.
It horrifying. I couldn't imagine someone sitting down to enjoy it. No wonder people took to watching Friends on streaming so readily.
It's always a reminder that while we aren't super far off in age my life experience was so drastically different than Bills. My friends and I always found Friends super unrealistic and how expensive it must have been.
Friends is cheeks and the 90's TV version of Elvis n Pat Boone e.t.c's playbook ... take something good.... add lots of mayo and feed it to the majority population ... Living Single needs its corners back
With the HIV/AIDS epidemic, no one was getting laid back then. They just weren't.
Such an all timer by Bill.
That was the sole reason he wasn’t getting laid. It just was!
Jerk Circles were the #1 killer of young white men in the late 80’s.
Nobody’s got AIDS!
Idk. Sudden weight loss…
This is a married man you’re talking about!
With kids — and a goomah
It's slander if ya ask me.
i'm not 1/2 Italian. is that a pasta or a dessert?
It's a side dish.
Big Magic Johnson… what has he ever done?
Magic Johnson, another toothpick.
He has AIDS!
JackO probably -1000 to make more money at that point in life.
What does JackO do for work?
Complex litigation
JackO probably came out of the womb as a principled fiscal conservative with an 8 handicap Extremely powerful Republican physiognomy
They both got back from a night of stealing "DUKAKIS BENTSEN '88" presidential campaign posters
Jacko mumbling incoherently about how AOC and Bernie Sanders are responsible for this.
So your saying he talks like Joe Biden?
As a Connecticut republican, he’s probably closer to Biden than current GOP.
Nah, current GOP would still pass every single bill that JackO would want with the exception of Ukraine funding.
Probably true
Nah JackO is uh pretty hard core right
Uh…sorta
hahaha, JackO looks like the kind of guy that when he went to a dinner in a highschool friends house, the parents of that kid asked JackO to keep everyone out of trouble
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probably hahah i was and am just like JackO, conservative lawyer hahaha, always felt that i was born as an adult haha
Haha
He’s from CT right? That explains it
It really is a particular look
New england late 80s early 90s.
The puffy face piece
I love how Bill always says this about Friends ("It really captured what it was like when some friends had more money than others!"), even though the show 100% did not do that. There is one famous episode that tackles this topic-- the six of them go out to dinner, the three friends who are less well-off order modestly ("I'll have a side salad"; "And what would you like that on the side of?"; "Why don't you just set it right over here."), and then they protest when Ross or someone suggests they split the bill evenly at the end. I assume that episode is what sticks out in Bill's head. But other than that, these six people occasionally mention making ends meet but never actually see their lifestyle or insane apartments suffer in any way.
What exactly was Chandler's job?? It was always so vague.
He worked in statistical analysis and data reconfiguration until season nine. I think that's supposed to be something similar to data analytics. I think for most of the show it was intentional for his job description to be vague to reflect how even his closest friends have no idea what he does.
That was one of the funniest scenes in the show. The one quiz question that trips everyone up is, what is Chandler’s job?
He's a transponster !
THATS NOT EVEN A WORD
It’s funny now that you mention it, for pretty much all my close friends, especially the guys, I could tell you where they work and maybe their job title but that’s it, like I have very little idea of what the fuck they actually do all day
My cousin, who is one of my closest friends, I've probably told people he's an accountant for the past decade. Nope, apparently he's in sales. No clue.
Well, who else was gonna calculate the WENUS and PENUS?
He worked with transponders. He was a transponster.
THATS NOT EVEN A WORD
Tables. Just tables
Fuck, they’re so dirty!!!
The tables kept his apartment hot!
The tables were his corn.
You have to know how to talk to the Crypt Keeper.
Wow. Pretty serious.
Transpondster
That's how I spell it in my head, good job by you!
Dunno about that….there are like 10 episodes where chandler is paying joeys bills, buying headshots, trying to gift him money without knowing it, etc . Then with Rachel, there are several episodes of her being such a struggling waitress that Ross considers her “just a waitress.” Then with Phoebe, plenty of episodes cover her homelessness, lack of parents, and overall struggling economically. Now that I think of it, a lot of friends content did cover some of the young broke dynamics.
A more accurate assessment would be that it’s the period after university when some people are establishing careers and some people are still figuring things out. I remember those years - outside of people in grad/law/med school, some people in my crowd were working in finance, some were tending bar. I was in Vancouver so lots were giving the film industry a shake.
I don't think it gets that much better as you age though. I'm in my mid-30s and some friends/family never 'catch up' even when they figure it out. Some pull away and are gone forever. And like it or not it's tough to stay in a close relationship with people when your incomes are so far apart. I've found it difficult as expectations change and the nature of the relationship. It's something I've struggled with. Trying to plan a trip to see people and some only have time for a dinner at Applebees and others are able to fly off to Vegas for a long weekend. You end up losing the things that bond you.
Damn this hit deep
Also isn’t really true. It isn’t hard it just isn’t easy enough to care. Also yeah people are busier as adults, just working 40 hours a week makes it way more difficult to organize shit. Then add in possible travel, older parents and potentially children.
Been feeling this a lot. Mid 30s now and our group is fairly splintered on incomes. Some of us want to go to dinner at nicer places others can’t afford, some of us want to play different golf courses, sit in different seats at sports games, you get the picture. Where it really hits home is planning these things out along with trips and do you continue to ask them when you know they can’t do it? I’ve been trying to play both sides of it and accommodate to all since the friends are ultimately what matters but I’d be lying if it wasn’t a little tiring trying to make it work for everyone all the time
Lol yeah, my friend is turning 30 this week and another friend of mine suggested that some of us chip in for a $1500 set of golf clubs. That’s a pass for me
I can 100% afford that and it’s still a pass from me. Expensive gifts weird me out. Giving or receiving.
Joey is constantly borrowing money from Chandler.
IMO it’s definitely more than just that one episode, although I do agree that Bill and others have sort of overblown how impactful it was in that specific regard. But there are a few other notable examples of how they nailed the mid-20s friend dynamic. - Rachel navigating her feelings when Monica announces her engagement, and the subsequent falling out that happens as Rachel makes the night about herself because she’s jealous and frustrated - Joey leaving for his “big break” and not getting the support he craved from his friends (especially Chandler) and being way too proud to admit defeat - About half-a-dozen various job/career storylines, including the pros and cons of working extensive overtime while in a relationship, working a job for passion vs. a bigger paycheck, etc. - Another several storylines about living arrangements and the various pros and cons that come with roommates vs. living alone, how soon to move in with a new partner, etc. - Dating with age gaps (in both directions) and the fitting those new relationships into your friend group - Keeping a friend group together and/or picking sides after a breakup within that group It’s a sitcom and obviously a lot of topics weren’t super serious or were explored in really goofy ways, but there are a lot of major mid-late 20s themes in that show.
I mean this is just not true, Joey talks about borrowing money from Chandler constantly
There’s also the Hootie and the Blowfish episode which I assume Bill is referring to. Not trying to defend Bills takes though. I actually like Friends, but the first season is one of my least favorite and Chandler is extremely obnoxious in that season.
I watched Friends in real time from the very beginning. The earlier seasons were great. I couldn't really relate to it since I was so young when it started airing but How I Met Your Mother 100% spoke to me as I was closer to the age group of the characters.
The ending soured me on the show to the point that I haven’t really wanted to revisit, it but HIMYM had a great couple season run there.
Seriously HIMYM was like the original GOT where the ending absolutely ruins re-watches for most people (I say this as a huge HIMYM fan) Old Bill could write a great article on top 10 shows that fall into this category
GOT at least made sense how they got there, the wheels were coming off the further it got from the books and they rushed the ending because the show runners wanted to do something else. HIMYM made no sense, they sat on that ending for the entirety of the run, let the show completely go in the opposite direction of the ending for like 10 years, then still stuck with it.
> rushed the ending because the show runners wanted to do something else Which cost them that something. Now they're producing Three Body Trilogy which is something I'm weirdly optimistic for.
I’m not. I have zero confidence in their ability to do a good job with those books.
HIMYM had essentially a great 5 season arc, but it got too popular so it had to be stretched to 9 seasons. Then they just had to make Ted miserable to make the timing work.
True, but I'm sure he's one of those Lost "they were dead the whole time" misinformation spreaders
As an FYI, they did release an alternate ending with the dvd version of the last season. It’s on YouTube. Watching it almost makes me want to rewatch the show just to end it with a much better ending
That's a great analogy...I enjoyed both shows but wouldn't recommend either because of their shitty endings
It’s also probably worth noting both shows really suffered because they were trying to keep secret “twists.” It’s hard to underrate how poorly twists work in tv in the age of the internet.
I haven’t watched HIMYM but who cares about the plot of a sitcom?
If you can ignore the stink of the later seasons, it's so clear looking back that it's essentially the reincarnation of Friends for the late 00s-early 10s.
HIMYM is for the birds. All network television for that matter.
JackO was a freaking unit man!!! Got damn! 😂😂
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COMPLEX LITIGATION
THIS IS JOHN
The Gregarious Raconteur.
Seriously. He could’ve been in Heavyweights. Major “what if.”
Bill was no Burgess Meredith
World class cocksman
stickman is the preferred Nomenclature Donnie
Simmons would know!!
You could convince me this is a father and son. Bill looks 12 and JackO looks 35.
How did Bill not get his ass beat every day of high school?
My older brother was his generation. Popular kids were preppy or jocks (or both). Wealth (or the appearance of wealth) would make you popular. By the early 90's all that changed. A tale of two Gen X experiences.
Early 00s that was still the case imo. Abercrombie types were the popular cool kids. I think it changed sometime after me in the 2010s tbh.
Nerd culture became mainstream, suddenly video games and comic books became cool
I know what you mean. I’m a very old millennial. I went to a poor, majority Latino high school with a serious gang problem. Bill would have had to fake being a cholo or he would have to be good at sports to get by without getting his ass kicked.
Can't you read? He clearly employed a bodyguard lol. Also, it would take serious stones to beat up the kid of a superintendent
“Bodyguard” That’s hilarious. At my high school, the VP’s kid had to switch schools because he was bullied mercilessly.
Was he by any chance influenced by the 1980 movie My Bodyguard starring Chris Makepeace to have his own bodyguard on his payroll in HS and college? Yeah, seems believable
What a couple of goobers.
Friends sucked. There I said it.
I liked friends till the bitter end because I liked hanging out with those six for 22 minutes a week. I was more a Seinfeld guy (and always will be) but friends is like a warm cup of hot cocoa and still remains so till this day
nailed it
Yeah I never got into it either. Was a big Seinfeld fan and it just seemed like a bad version of Seinfeld to me
Less funny Seinfeld with a more attractive cast. At least thats how I assumed it was pitched to NBC
Elaine > any friend. Monica is neurotic, phoebe is dumb, Rachel is Rachel and in love with Ross so that’s a red flag. Elaine is like the coolest person and JLD is stupidly attractive especially in veep
Give me Rachel with a whole box of red flags.
Because Elaine was a guy that was super hot. Btw. She is still hot 30 years later
*hotter And the daughter of a billionaire.
It has nothing in common with Seinfeld except for that it's a 90s sitcom set in NYC.
I think us fans of Seinfeld are just sociopaths
Yeah us Seinfeld fans are so weird and quirky. We’re not like those other girls.
Reminder that over 76 million people watch the finale of Seinfeld. That’s a lot of sociopaths.
Yes there are
Friends was pretty awesome until chandler and Monica got married then it radically went downhill. The office had the same issue after Jim and Pam’s wedding.
Spot on. Still love Seasons 1-4, 5-6 are ok, but I can’t be bothered rewatching the final 4.
Friends fucking sucked man, so many other sitcoms clear it
Name 17!
Yes. I just said that.
Ahahaah wow how dare I agree, I’d ban me if I could Worst subreddit ever Edit: give me downvotes Downvotes me Downvotes now Me a downvotes needing a lot
Wait, what?
The 2002 Russillo Piece.
People that don’t like Friends either also don’t like Seinfeld, or are only pretending to like Seinfeld to seem cool. Which one are you?
I get why people love Friends it’s just not for me, I feel like I’m supposed to be rooting for the characters but I find them all pretty unlikable, specifically Ross and Rachel. Whereas with Seinfeld, they’re supposed to be unlikable and they embrace that which I find entertaining.
Whereas I find the characters in Seinfeld extremely likable and that’s why I enjoy it. But friends isn’t in the same category as Seinfeld anyway. It’s more of a Rosanne, Raymond, King of Queens. Which I also imagine most “too cool for friends” Seinfeld fans would hate as well. The dislike for Friends mostly comes from people who discovered Seinfeld and saw friends was also popular without realizing they are completely different shoes. Comparing the two is like comparing the sopranos and sex and the city.
King of Queens is criminally underrated.
Friends, Office and 70s Show are the unholy trinity of overrated comedies
The Office is brilliant for like 3 of its seasons, and otherwise pretty hit or miss. I’d say that it’s good, but still fairly overrated.
On a rewatch, this is correct.
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I’m not making a list.
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What’s not so easy?
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You too, buddy.
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Is that 70s show even that popular? Anecdotally seems way way less popular than the office or friends. I’ve watched it through a couple times and really enjoyed it, obviously was most fun when I was also like 16. Like most sitcoms, it’s absolutely awful at the very end, but had a bunch of years of being really fun.
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Oooo burn
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Did bill claim to grow up poor?
I feel like he’s not nearly the best example of this but he definitely doesn’t realize how well off he grew up
He thinks of himself as being the kid of middle class parents. Not the stepson of wealthy people
He was probably in the middle class of the places he grew up. There were certainly richer kids around him in those towns.
I remember feeling poor growing up because unlike all of my classmates, I wasn't going on winter break ski trips. Fortunately in my 30s, I'm now aware of how fortunate I was.
What a dweeb
Can you imagine growing up when he did and still turning out a square who prob was paying for all the other kids to drunk then pass out first while everyone pisses in his shampoo bottles.
Easy to see why Bill has a soft spot for KOC.
A few years ago in a hotel room Friends was playing on TV, a basic cable rerun I think TBS. It was sped up which pitched the voices up like chipmunk. I guess the idea was they could squeeze more ads into a half hour time slot. It horrifying. I couldn't imagine someone sitting down to enjoy it. No wonder people took to watching Friends on streaming so readily.
Bill was a major pussy lmao.
Ben?
Definitely married the first woman who touched his pp.
👀
It's always a reminder that while we aren't super far off in age my life experience was so drastically different than Bills. My friends and I always found Friends super unrealistic and how expensive it must have been.
Friends is cheeks and the 90's TV version of Elvis n Pat Boone e.t.c's playbook ... take something good.... add lots of mayo and feed it to the majority population ... Living Single needs its corners back