The 5 Times Friends Just Didn't Get How the '90s Worked
If you ask people to name the most unrealistic aspect of Friends, everyone will immediately say: those apartments.
It's because of Friends that impressionable young people showed up in New York City all through the nineties expecting to live in hip, gorgeous apartments on a waitressing salary.
Instead, they were surprised by rat-infested five-person-per-room situations. Still, it's not just the apartments that Friends got wrong. Here are 5 times that history's most popular sitcom just didn't get how the 90s worked.
No Internet Revolution
The internet completely changed the world during the nineties, but there was no revolution in the world of Friends. Aside from a couple one-off moments, we can think of very few episodes where this miraculous new technology even merited a mention. It's not like we expect to see a whole episode dedicated to dial-up, but come on!
No Scandals
We're talking about the BIG scandals – OJ Simpson and Bill Clinton both rocked the world while Friends was on the air. When these two cases were going on, they each merited endless newspaper articles, speculation around the water cooler, and television coverage. It was all anyone could talk about – unless you're Ross, Rachel, Chandler, Joey, Phoebe or Monica that is.
How is it possible that these characters never seemed to notice either Clinton's impeachment or the Simpson trial?
No AIDS
Of course, you could point out that this is a lighthearted sitcom that aired on network television, so they're hardly going to bring up a tragic epidemic. And you'd be right. Still, Joey spends his time on the show joyfully bed-hopping with nary an indication that this was in fact one of the scariest times in history to be sleeping with strangers. Are you playing safe, Joey?!
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Why So White?
This one has been pointed out almost as much as the apartment thing. New York is one of the most culturally diverse cities on the planet, but you would never know it by watching the sea of white faces in Friends. One person actually counted all of the black characters on the show, and they only spotted 27 in the entire series.
And most of those characters don't have even names. They're just "Child Who Looks at Chandler" or "Security Guard".
Gen X Fashion
For a show about Gen X-ers, there was a serious lack of that sweet 90s fashion. Don't get me wrong – Rachel was a true style icon, and the men rocked some boxy sweaters. But for a show about New York in the 90s, there's a definite lack of flannel or grunge, even in the background characters.