[The Jewish Cunthead]

Can't really say either show made me laugh so let's go the Hot Chick route, shall we?

(30) Friends



vs.

(35) Strangers With Candy



Voting ends 10/30

[Courtney]

God, I cannot count the ways with which I absolutely fucking loathe Friends.

[punk/core]

courtney said:

God, I cannot count the ways with which I absolutely fucking loathe Friends.

And that's a chick talking there, guys. Namely, the four of you who voted so far... you should be fucking embarrassed for yourselves.

[creepy]

Not only did Freinds suck balls, Strangers With Candy was simply marvelous. Except the last part of the last season. And the movie was horrible.




Oh, it Stephen Colbert in it, too!

[Batman]

I love the title of this thread. Friends versus Strangers. Who will triumph?

All my friends are gonna be strangers from now on, as Merle once said.

[Jack Quinn]

I voted Friends, not because I liked is as much as Strangers was annoying and not funny

[Lori]

Joey (dancing): "Oh mommy, oh daddy, I am a big ol' baddy."

Monica: "What's with Joey?"

Chandler: "Well, either he got that part in the new play he auditioned for, or Gloria Estefan was right. Eventually, the rhythm really is going to get you."



I'm sorry, I am not going to jump on the late great "I hate Friends" bandwagon that everyone seemed to hop right on when the show went off the air. Yes, like any sitcom, it had its ups and downs. For the most part, it was pretty damn funny, and Chandler had some of the best lines a character has ever had.


[edit]

And from what I have seen of Strangers With Candy, all I can tell you is that I desperately want to stab that woman with a pitchfork. In her eye.

[Lucky]

Gee, who would win a Hot Chick showdown here?

Friends is a bit overrated but I don't hate it. I enjoy it enough to watch it randomly during the week when there's nothing else on. And I've done that enough to see most of the episodes and know the whole series. Definite down points and the final seasons seem kinda crappy and VERY heavy on bad high drama and celebrity guest stars. But the first whatever seasons were decent.

Strangers was fun at first but it wore thin on me quickly.

[Batman]

I'm no bandwagon jumper. I hated the "Friends" phenomenon from the moment I even heard of the show.

I basically don't like sit-coms much, don't usually like phenomenons, and really don't like shows featuring characters with crappy jobs who nonetheless have nice apartments in Manhattan and never seem to worry about money.

[punk/core]

I thought Friends was horrible when it came out too... and I was 15 for fuck's sake.

I really don't get the "hot chicks" vote thing. Seriously, are you guys that hard up to see a girl? Go look at porn or buy a Stuff Magazine or something. Beyond that, the Friends chicks are not that great. Lisa Kudrow is ugly, Jennifer Aniston is an annoying cunt and Courtney Cox married David Arquette.

DAVID ARQUETTE!!! Think about that.

Oh, and people were talking about over-quoted lines from TV shows over in the Chappelle's Show thread. I can't even count how many fucking times I've heard some douchebag say, "how YOU doin'" in a Joey voice. Those people should get cancer. Seriously.

[Batman]

As Lucky always has to explain, it's only supposed to be a way to break a mental tie if you can't decide which to vote for on the merits.

And Courtney Cox is way uglier than Lisa Kudrow.

[Krydor]

Well, based on the notion that Jennifer Aniston was the "hot" one of the three, I would have to say that the hot chick rule doesn't apply.

[Lucky]

punkerhardcore said:

I really don't get the "hot chicks" vote thing. Seriously, are you guys that hard up to see a girl? Go look at porn or buy a Stuff Magazine or something. Beyond that, the Friends chicks are not that great. Lisa Kudrow is ugly, Jennifer Aniston is an annoying cunt and Courtney Cox married David Arquette.

Its a gag, dude. I started it back during the Kids' Show Showdown. Since I was unfamiliar with so many of the programs I decided to just come up with a way to settle ties of apathy. So I went with Hot Chicks. Its just carried over as a general "tie breaker" argument since then, sometimes being less of a gag. Although I meant it clearly as a gag here because Candy is fucking hideous. I don't think I've voted a hot chick over a relevant factor once in any showdown.

Kudrow had a hot run there but generally I'm not a fan. Aniston had an amazing run and being a "cunt" isn't really a major factor in that. Cox went from amazing to scary when Arquette stole her soul. Its still fucking Candy. I'd do you first.

sergeial said:

I basically don't like sit-coms much, don't usually like phenomenons, and really don't like shows featuring characters with crappy jobs who nonetheless have nice apartments in Manhattan and never seem to worry about money.

Actually worrying about money was kind of a common theme of the show. Chandler had a good job as some kind a number cruncher and middle management eventually (I think). Ross was a paleontologist with a job at the Museum of Natural History and then a college professor. Monica was a chef until she got fired, at which case money became an issue for her. Rachel was a waitress who had money issues (which was a big plot point early on because she was spoiled and adjusting to not being rich anymore) until she somehow broke into the fashion world based on the fact that she could dress. Joey was an actor who usually was broke and owed Chandler a ton of money and then he had a brief run as a soap opera in which case moved out into a better apartment. And Phoebe was a masseuse but I don't recall ever seeing her apartment.

Plus, it was an established plot point that THE apartment on the show was cost controlled since it was in Monica's grandmother's name. That they had that amazing apartment at a reasonable price was always acknowledged. And there were a lot of episodes where money was brought up. One had Rachel, Joey, and Phoebe acknowledging a basic class separation between them and the others and how they couldn't afford the shit they enjoyed. Monica spent like a season or two taking crappy jobs because she needed the money. The first season was largely based on Rachel's poor handling of money. When Chandler moved out of the apartment with Joey he went through hoops to give him money to help him get by until he got a roomie (and because Joey wasn't even aware how much the apartment and bills cost them).

[Batman]

OK, I only ever watched it once or twice.

"Poor, but ridiculously lucky in one's living arrangements" still sounds contrived and annoying.

It's not really that it's unrealistic, there are plenty of people like that. It's class resentment. The thought of people who can flounder in their twenties without real consequences because they have upper-middle-class family to fall back on just grates on me, I can't help it.

The perfect portrayal of average working class life in Roseanne is the biggest reason I love that show so much. The afghan over their couch--I have that afghan.

[Jack Quinn]

there was an afghan in Friends too. It didn't cover enough of Rachel.

[punk/core]

Fair enough. I think the hot chicks comment came out a bit meaner than I meant it to be.

But Friends still sucks.

[National Champion Chris Cole]

I still think Friends is one of the best Sit-coms of all time. I enjoy all the episodes still. Doesn't sound like the show will last too long in this showdown though.

[punk/core]

I'm confused about your situation... have you just never seen another TV show ever in your life, so Friends is one of your favorites by default?


Edit: Ok man... you redeemed yourself quite a bit in the Get A Life thread by saying you enjoyed that.

[Batman]

Hey, we're all allowed to have bad taste if we want.

As I just admitted, elsewhere, I love New Wave.

"Wo-o-o-oh! Tainted Love . . ."

[Lucky]

sergeial said:

It's not really that it's unrealistic, there are plenty of people like that. It's class resentment. The thought of people who can flounder in their twenties without real consequences because they have upper-middle-class family to fall back on just grates on me, I can't help it.

The perfect portrayal of average working class life in Roseanne is the biggest reason I love that show so much. The afghan over their couch--I have that afghan.

I can appreciate that. I think Friends is arguably an accurate portrayal of white, middle class, 20s drifters in the '90s. And I always thought the show did a good job of explaining why some were accomplished and had money and some didn't. Ross, Monica, Chandler, and Rachel are all essentially childhood/college friends with similar upper middle class/college educated upbringings. Joey and Phoebe are lower/middle class people who just sort of met the others at a recent time in their lives and who are more or less drifters who tend to be broke and don't live in the insane apartment.

I think it was much more questionable that they spent all their time hanging out in a very nice Village coffee house and yet it was NEVER crowded and the big couch was always available to them.

Or that they never fucking encountered minorities, homosexuals, or just plain weirdos.

[Krydor]

Or that they never fucking encountered minorities, homosexuals, or just plain weirdos.

Who was the Mayor, Lucky? That's right, he was.

[Lucky]

Rudy did a lot of things. He did not manage to drive the gays and weirdos out of Greenwich Village.

[DevSop]

Let alone...single people in their twentie NYC and they never went to a fucking bar or club? Nope, let's hang at a COFFEE shop.

[Krydor]

DevSop,

Ah, so the gays and weirdos were actually the cast of Friends, owing to their lack of cool hangouts.

Lucky,

One more term and Rudy would have built the wall to keep them separate.

[Lucky]

That never bugged me. They dated. A LOT. They clearly had very active night lifes, just not necessarily with each other. They weren't clubbers or bar hoppers. That's believable. They were clearly meeting people and hooking up anyway. And most of the coffee shop scenes seemed to either be during the day or as a meeting place before they went somewhere else. That seemed to make sense to me.

I'm 27 and I hit the bar once or twice a week at this stage. And I've largely lost interest in weekend nightlifes. I prefer to get together with a close group of friends and hang out in the nicest apartment/home any of us have.

They were the sort of people who DO like to hang out in coffee shops and who had a nicely sized group of friends who enjoyed each other's company more than strangers and trolling bars.