I'd say it was a product of its time. Take that however you wish

Standards were different back in the 90s and early 2000s. Not to say that makes it any more acceptable, but understand that many things and jokes said now that would be considered offensive were not generally thought of that way in the mainstream past. Same goes for alot of comments and jokes about race and religion.

Sort of OT, but I was watching an old season of Big Brother the other day and I was sort of shocked by how much lack of political correctness their was surrounding a gay man's mannerisms or persona in general and it made me realize how far and quickly we've come in such a short period.

Girl, the straight people don't get made fun of BECAUSE they are straight, it's different.

I of course do get that times were different back then...
But Friends being my all time favourite show, this is the only thing I wish was toned down a bit.
I'm saying this BECAUSE the creator was indeed gay and out. So it is a bit disappointing that he did not try to not normalise these homophobic/heteronormative jokes. I mean look at ****ing Ellen and what she did with her sitcom even though it was the 90s... Just saying.

Where did I state no one else got made fun of?
The difference is straight characters got greater storylines, emotional development and personal characteristics on top of being made fun of. Gay characters just got made fun of.
And that's not equality.

Technically, it is.

But it isn't a hateful show or something like that.

I don't agree at all. I understand how media can and do reinforce heteronormativity but I don't think that's the case with Friends.
Is a comedy show about 6 young friends, they have jokes about all the aspects of their life and sexuality is no different and I don't feel like they show gay people in a bad light; there were some awkward moments with Carol but it was not really because she was a lesbian, the thing is that she was Ross' wife before accepting she is a lesbian and then married a woman, that's why the whole thing was messy and gave some funny moments.

If anything I think it was kinda progressive, I know why being politically correct is important but that show is 22 years old and even though that doesn't make it better we need to understand the times and context in which the show developed, also I don't think they ever crossed a line, yeah sure, homosexuality/heterosexuality were topics they joked about but also friendship, love, sex, work, family and you could even argue religion/spirituality with Phoebe and her beliefs...

Carol and Susan got married, Chandel-Joey/Ross-Joey had some type of bromance even though they had their awkward moments, when Joey said that he had to kiss a guy Ross was like "so what? you are an actor" or when Joey and Chandler were taking care of Ross' baby and a woman thought they were gay it was funny because they were trying to flirt with her, nothing offensive about it.

I just realized I wrote such a long post but yeah those are my thoughts, and didn't the whole main cast kissed with almost each other? Joey kissed Chandler just because he wanted a kiss on new years, Joey kissed Ross and then said that it was one hell of a kiss, and Phoebe kissed Rachel just to see what was the big deal about it but for her it was just another kiss.

So many gays hate themselves on this site. It's sad.

I just wanna say (and this is a radical opinion but) I don't think Friends is homophobic, however the people saying "God these SJWs" or "I hate this generation" or "We can't make any joke anymore" for five pages straight have the same exact attitude as the people who voted for Trump, like this ever-waging battle against PC culture. Just food for thought I guess, I don't really want to drag it on but it happens all the time on this site and I want to call it out

What gay characters got made fun of? The show was about 6 heterosexual friends. The whole situation with Carol and Susan was one you have to put into context considering the fact that Carol cheated on Ross with Susan and divorced him. You have to look at it from Ross' perspective, that was the love of his life and she tore his heart out.

There were some Joey/Chandler, Chandler/Ross jokes within the series run that I guess the sjw's could label politically incorrect in terms of joking about implications of homosexuality but you also have to keep in mind the show is of a different generation.

I genuinely think its flat out idiotic to consider this show problematic or specifically homophobic. If anything for the sitcom format it was quite progressive and did not show any particular race, religion, sexual orientation, etc in a negative light.

This

I think its ridiculous to compare that to voting for Trump. Theres a lot of aspects of PC culture that is regressive imo. This constant policing on everything doesn't solve sh*t. Pointing fingers and being further judgemental and elitist doesn't solve sh*t. A lot of current youth PC culture consists of youth (and even more specifically white youth) desperately trying to be apart of fringe culture because otherwise they feel they'd be too dull to be considered unique or valid. I think there needs to be a balance of viewpoints and imo a lot of current youth pc culture is a practically fascist hive mentality where people don't think for themselves yet adamantly argue that they are.

.
I probably need to watch that 'homophobic Friends' 50 minute YouTube video before I make a judgement though.

!!!!!

I didnt know atrl gheis hated friends until this year

No.

Ya for sure, when you re-watch its uncomfortable at times.

Well that’s exactly it. There are homophobic moments where the men do something “gay” or “too intimate” and they are disgusted or embarrassed or whatever, making gayness into a joke or something that should be embarrassing.

It was a long time ago, no one should expect it to be perfect by today’s standards, but let’s not lie and say it’s a show that does homosexuality justice.

But onto race though, it was notoriously white... in a place like NYC.

Not so much homophobic as it is heteronormative as f***

Any queer character is mocked about their identity in some way or another. Even the straights on Friends are mocked but the difference is they're still given a chance to have strong characters and identities that go beyond the scope of their sexual orientation.

Not to mention the toxic masculinity thing that is extremely prevalent in all the male characters