rant · moment 8 of 19
The Friends Reunion, Fat-Shaming Discourse, and Beverly Hills 90210
from #254 - Apocalypse Olympics with Abby Martin | The Tim Dillon Show · #254
10 min
Tim discusses the Friends reunion backlash, defends the show against claims of homophobia and fat-shaming (including the Chandler's dad and fat Monica storylines), and recalls a disturbing pilot scene from Beverly Hills 90210 about a fat girl being shunned.
- Friends reunion was completely unnecessary but was the biggest show when Tim was growing up.
- Tim preferred Frasier because it was smarter and better written than Friends.
- Friends is a time capsule of New York City with unrealistically large apartments for people who worked at coffee houses and never met a Black person.
- People are so miserable they want any joy tempered with misery and are disgusted by others being happy without something horrific introduced.
- The Friends cast wasn't castigated enough for problematic moments, but none of them are actually problematic when you look at the specifics.
- Chandler was called homophobic for gay panic jokes, but it's not inherently homophobic for a straight guy to worry about seeming gay.
- Friends was actually insanely progressive with storylines involving Ross's ex-wife being a lesbian and Chandler's father being a drag queen.
- Tim watched the Beverly Hills 90210 pilot and noticed extreme fat-shaming where a fat girl is visually repulsed by and excluded from sitting with other students.
- In 90210, the characters joke about eating under sweaters in Minnesota versus worrying about pool parties and essentially promoted bulimia.
- The Friends fat suit storyline shows Monica as insanely possessive of food, perpetuating the stereotype that overweight people eat constantly.
- The push to divorce fat from eating seems scientifically questionable since the two appear somewhat inextricably linked.
- Chandler got big at the Friends reunion and there's nothing wrong with that, though people speculated about his slurred speech.