Confrere
#52: They love Friends.
To some very weird extremes.
Item: My first encounter was two years ago, hanging out with my roommates for one of the first times. We were going through each others DVD collection, when a squeal erupted, "Oh my God, you have Season 10!!" I saw the girl waving around the box and was perplexed, "Huh. Didn't that show start sucking about 7 seasons before this?" I was amazing at how everyone groped for the box.
Item: My new roommate has three Friends posters, one Friends calendar, one massive boxset containing each and every single Friends episodes, and (as I discovered yesterday for the first time) a Friends coffee mug. She's a lovely, lovely girl but I'm starting to wonder about her sanity.
Item: Look, everyone has a few select great stories. Stories that they save and tell to crowds at parties that everyone loves; these are your defining life stories. I have mine. My best one, my best story to date, is getting robbed at gunpoint in Adams Morgan a few years ago. It is a really great story, and I always get total devotion whilst telling it (especially to the English, who are far less likely to have their own gun stories). In fact the only time I've ever been interrupted was here, by a Brit, who actually said, "Oh yea! It's like that time on Friends where Monica's date thought 'gunpoint' is an actual place!! You know, two people robbed at GunPoint?!" "Ok," I thought, "I quit. If you people want to talk about TV episodes rather than hear actual life stories, I just give up!!"
I'm concerned that they see it as some sort of microcosm for New York, or even America itself. I wonder what happens to all these poor saps when they finally do make it to NYC; I guess these are the one wandering around, looking for the real Central Perk. But I guess it goes the other way as well..... Hopefully Americans don't see Wernham Hogg as the quintessential British workplace.
To some very weird extremes.
Item: My first encounter was two years ago, hanging out with my roommates for one of the first times. We were going through each others DVD collection, when a squeal erupted, "Oh my God, you have Season 10!!" I saw the girl waving around the box and was perplexed, "Huh. Didn't that show start sucking about 7 seasons before this?" I was amazing at how everyone groped for the box.
Item: My new roommate has three Friends posters, one Friends calendar, one massive boxset containing each and every single Friends episodes, and (as I discovered yesterday for the first time) a Friends coffee mug. She's a lovely, lovely girl but I'm starting to wonder about her sanity.
Item: Look, everyone has a few select great stories. Stories that they save and tell to crowds at parties that everyone loves; these are your defining life stories. I have mine. My best one, my best story to date, is getting robbed at gunpoint in Adams Morgan a few years ago. It is a really great story, and I always get total devotion whilst telling it (especially to the English, who are far less likely to have their own gun stories). In fact the only time I've ever been interrupted was here, by a Brit, who actually said, "Oh yea! It's like that time on Friends where Monica's date thought 'gunpoint' is an actual place!! You know, two people robbed at GunPoint?!" "Ok," I thought, "I quit. If you people want to talk about TV episodes rather than hear actual life stories, I just give up!!"
I'm concerned that they see it as some sort of microcosm for New York, or even America itself. I wonder what happens to all these poor saps when they finally do make it to NYC; I guess these are the one wandering around, looking for the real Central Perk. But I guess it goes the other way as well..... Hopefully Americans don't see Wernham Hogg as the quintessential British workplace.
Monica's fat suit aside, there are far too few fatties on Friends for it to act as a decent microcosm matching the typical British sterotypes of America.
Posted by
Huw |
11:30 am, November 07, 2006
I would think about asking how old your room-mates are. Maybe if they are young it still speaks to them.
Also, gun-point stories that happened in America, well, they're a bit...you know. Maybe it's a cultural thing. Maybe it's a bit like that time Michael Jackson came round my house to use the bathroom.
Posted by
Monozygote |
11:35 pm, November 07, 2006
by the way, thanks for all that fast talking during our robbery so that we still kept our wallets and coats.
Posted by
Anonymous |
11:25 pm, November 08, 2006
It's also worrying that they're using the phrases from the show as well, such as "It's like that time".
I loathe how a part of British social culture has been influenced by shows such as 'Friends' and 'Sex in The City'. People seemingly think that they're actually characters from the show if they go and have a Frappuccino at the same place day in, day out.
Also, the word "Like" gets overused. Escpecially by me, which makes me REALLY mad.
Posted by
Curly |
10:24 am, November 09, 2006
Marginally better that they learn from Friends than from The Simpsons. I can't even tell how many times I've been asked if "Nacho hats" actually exist.
Posted by
Monica |
10:37 pm, November 09, 2006
Yup EVERYONE loves Friends over here (from ages probably 18 - 30+) It's on all most all the time (same as in the US) but it's all the "classic" episodes. I don't full understand it either...maybe they haven't realized it's a bit old now...I don't know...
Posted by
Juls |
8:06 am, November 10, 2006
I know it's off topic but just wanted to say that my twin sister is in New York for the week so if you go to Manhatten and you see a short brown curly haired Brit who probably is reading Shakespeare for actual enjoyment and making elegant and eccentric hand gestures alot, please be really nice to her as I'd like her to have a nice holiday.
Thank you!
Posted by
Anonymous |
8:29 pm, November 10, 2006
I've just spent 3 weeks in London visiting from Chicago and 3 of my London mates dvd collections partially consist of every season of Friends!
So yeah, that's interesting....
Posted by
Anonymous |
5:27 am, November 22, 2006
Are you saying Central Perk doesn't exist?
Posted by
Will |
4:52 pm, November 22, 2006