Friends is a lot better if you fast forward any time Ross and Rachel are on screen together. The rest of the show is pretty funny and each episode is like 10min long.
I like both, but Seinfeld is a funnier show 100% because of Jason Alexander.
I’m going to give a non-answer here, but spend some words pointing out that there is an entire TV Trope explicitly named after the phenomenon contributing to much of the current-day Seinfeld hate, namely that it feels trite and predictable only when viewed through the lens of modernity. Seinfeld is unfunny as we decry that it’s all been done before, forgetting that it’s only been done before because Seinfeld did it first and lots of others imitated in the wake of its popularity. In its era it was actually truly groundbreaking, in a way that Friends definitely was not.
Seinfeld (along with Married… With Children) was the original raunchy sitcom that broke the genre free from bland family friendly predictability and opened up the possibility of one being entertainment aimed squarely and indeed only at adults. The core cast of Seinfeld are all terrible people, in retrospect probably because Jerry Seinfeld himself was writing from what he knew, where nobody learns the important lesson at the end of the episode on purpose. Sex, relationships, and even failed relationships were openly discussed. There is no central family unit, and every family we are shown in any detail (mainly Jerry’s and especially George’s) are highly dysfunctional. Before it, the concept of an episode having A and B plotlines that intersect and eventually entangle with each other hadn’t been done, even though this is such a staple that it’s outright expected of any show today. It had a deliberately misanthropic sense of humor that was the perfect fit for the cynical point in history in which it occupied.
In a way Friends is aspirational, an idealized imagining of a hypothetical urban lifestyle that the viewer may hope to achieve even if they don’t personally identify with it. Seinfeld, conversely, is an outright freakshow. You are on the outside looking in at these vain and deceitful people much like a jar full of scorpions someone’s just shaken so they’ll fight. And you’re glad to be on the outside of it, because you really don’t want to be them. But there is a certain bile attraction to it nevertheless, a sort of twisted catharsis in that despite how horrible and selfish as the core cast may be they are also somehow able to live without remorse, speak without filters, and act out without consequences in ways that we only wish we could get away with. (The fact that they spout so many zingers and precipitate so many quotable moments probably also helps.)
I would like to point out that Seinfeld was also possibly the first major network show to take steps to normalizing being gay. They had a whole episode where someone was gay, and every time they mentioned it, they added “not that there’s anything wrong with it!” It was kind of a punch line, but in a positive way never seen before.
I enjoyed Friends for a while, never enjoyed Seinfeld. But other people said the opposite. Most of us wouldn’t rewatch either one.
So, what are you asking? I’m unclear on that.
Friends is worse for people who prefer Seinfeld, while Seinfeld is worse for people who prefer Friends.
Mystery solved. No need to thank me, everyone, it’s all in a day’s work.
I thought both were okay. Not great but not awful. Both aged rather poorly though. But that’s not unusual for sitcoms. Most of them do.
Lemmy sure is a tough crowd.
If only… imagine a Lemmy with Colin Quinn, Patrice ONeal and Greg Giraldo.
RIP Patrice and Greg
Friends.
In Seinfeld the characters are supposed to be miserable and you aren’t supposed to identify with them. People don’t go around trying to put on a Seinfeld persona (at least in my neck of the woods. If your area is different please don’t make me more depressed than I am).
The number of people I’ve met purposely styling themselves after Joey or Phoebe is depressing and it’s more accepted because they’re “normal every day likable people”.
Gag me with a spoon
Lol I forgot about “gag me with a spoon”
I felt discussing old TV shows called for a classic expression, it was either that or “grody to the max”
Now think about the mapping between Friends and Jersey Shore…
Honestly? Most of the jersey shore fans I’ve known have just liked to drink and dance, relatively low drama and relatively self aware. Not the most amazing people but I’ll still take them over the Friends fans I’ve known.
There is an old adage about freedom that goes ‘you have the right to extend your arm until your fist hits my face’.
The Jersey Shore people will be the type to often go too far and make contact with the face.
The Friends people will lobby to make sure arms may only be extended in pre approved motions with proper regulation and paid royalties on the patented movements, which they strive to own dividend stock in.
eh, they are different vehicles. friends sucks cuz its trite, common bullshit. seinfeld was actually interesting because for once the cast was supposed to be unlikable… they were all terrible people destined to be tortured by their own narcissism.
Yeah but I don’t have to listen to Jerry’s jokes or voice on Friends
Friends.
While Seinfeld is certainly overrated and hasn’t aged well, at least it had its memorable moments that still get talked about today (Mostly Kramer Hijinx, to be fair…)
- Kramer vs Kenny Rogers Roasters
- Kramer and the Rickshaw
- Soup Nazi
- 'They’re real…and they’re spectacilar"
- Mulva
- George saves the whale.
Just of the top of my head.
Friends, while popular, is ultimately forgettable generic sitcom crap. I struggle to think of any actual memorable moments other than “Pivot”
There’s also The Contest, where the core group tried to see who could go the longest without masturbating.
It sounds like a crass reference, but I remember it blowing my mind that they included Elaine in it. It was the first time I recall female masturbation being acknowledged on TV, let alone being acknowledged as equally compelling as male masturbation.
Seinfeld - paving the way for female gooners everywhere.
Overall, yes, but this exchange still makes me laugh:
Joey: But come on. And what is with the really hot stick in the bathroom?
Janine: It’s a curling iron.
Joey: Well, that’s okay then. Oh, okay, my towels, for instance. I come into the bathroom, here, and my towel is not on the floor, where I keep it. It’s up here on some hook. And it smells different.
Janine: It’s clean.
Joey: Yeah, well, it feels different.
Janine: It’s dry.
Joey: All right, I can make my peace with the clean, dry towels. Hey, okay, also what is with these chips you bought?
Janine: No, no, no. It’s potpourri. You’re supposed to smell it.
Joey: Well, that’s like summer in a bowl.The sea was angry that day, my friends - like an old man trying to send back soup at a deli.
“we were on a break!”
As one that remembers watching NBC “Must See TV” Thursday nights in the 90’s, back then, Friends was more approachable as a twenty-something that identified somewhat with the idea that it’s ok to be quirky, laughable, and fun.
Now, I prefer Seinfeld. Say what you will about the cast, the show’s darker take wears better on the post 9/11 world.
It’s easy to pick on one or the other now, but having lived the era, and the era of TV that led to it, both shows made more sense back then.
As a teenager at the same time, Seinfeld fit better with my absurdist sense of humor.
But I totally agree that they were products of their time.
Seinfeld has worse jokes, while Friends has worse characters. But Seinfeld has by far the worst personnel involved in the production.
Friends is worse.
Friends feels extremely bland and the characters just react to the misfortune events and the episodes are low stakes drama. Friends cant make the characters pieces of shit because the audience is suppose to like them. Seinfield seems like the characters are intentionally bad people and cause their problems and the show is intentional about the conflict being pointless drama. They are fine with people hating the characters.
I mean, to be clear, Always Sunny is essentially a remake of Seinfeld. They modernized the setting and took advantage of modern broadcasting standards, but the show really is just Seinfeld 2: Philadelphia Boogaloo.
But Ross is an abusive piece of shit.
I must have missed the abuse episode because from what ive watched of Friends it was a pretty mundane show.
I enjoyed both when they were still airing, but I can completely understand why people watching them today for the first time wouldn’t. It’s one of those, “you had to be there” kinda things. Just like I probably wouldn’t enjoy watching The Beverly Hillbillies or I Love Lucy if I tried watching them today.
I haven’t watched The Beverly Hillbillies lately, but the nursing home I worked at had DVDs of I Love Lucy. It still holds up, in my opinion.
As to classic, old shows that feel out of place today, I’d have to go with Looney Tunes and similar early cartoons. Even watching them as a kid, the violence and sexism felt really weird to me. A lot of the “humor” came from physical violence or cross-dressing honey pots, which felt tired, repetitive, and not funny to child-me.
Then a lot of those old shows had stories that involved two male characters fighting over a female character. I remember thinking, “What is this? If two guys started a fist fight over me, I wouldn’t swoon over the winner, I’d walk away from both of them for being violent at the drop of a hat.”
i did appreciate the old Looney Tunes for exposing us to amazing music though. that’s the one thing they did. I remember the music, not the cartoons. that might just be because i’m a musician tho
The Bevery Hillbillies is still pretty side-splittingly funny. Standard product-of-its-time disclaimer applies.
Edit: Honestly, watching their asshole bank manager neighbor get shit on in every which way is all the funnier, today.
Can’t speak for the hillbillies but Lucy stands up, for the most part. She was a real one. It is funny seeing hers and Ricky’s separated twin beds for filming, though.
Friends is horrible, watch Happy Endings if you want the same premise with funny jokes.
Seinfeld was also not good but did introduce a lot of tv tropes, so Larry David and Curb are where the funny is made there without the laugh track.
