Jennifer Aniston Reflects on People Finding “Friends” Offensive

“Everybody needs funny!”

March 29, 2023 – During promotion and interviews for the the upcoming release of her Netflix film, Murder Mystery 2, actress Jennifer Aniston went deep while discussing the state of humor and comedy. The Friends alum reflected on how the entertainment landscape has changed since the era of the sitcom, which debuted on NBC in 1994, acknowledging that a new generation of viewers now find the series “offensive.”

Aniston recently told Yahoo News that “comedy has evolved” so much that it’s a bit tricky these days to be funny.

“Now it’s a little tricky because you have to be very careful, which makes it really hard for comedians, because the beauty of comedy is that we make fun of ourselves, make fun of life,” Aniston said. “[In the past] you could joke about a bigot and have a laugh — that was hysterical. And it was about educating people on how ridiculous people were. And now we’re not allowed to do that.”

“There’s a whole generation of people, kids, who are now going back to episodes of ‘Friends’ and find them offensive,” Aniston added. “There were things that were never intentional and others… well, we should have thought it through — but I don’t think there was a sensitivity like there is now.”

Aniston concluded: “Everybody needs funny! The world needs humor! We can’t take ourselves too seriously. Especially in the United States. Everyone is far too divided.”