Friends star Lisa Kudrow has said new sitcoms are too risk-averse, arguing that comedy requires surprise.
Speaking to Interview Magazine recently, she said she wasn’t drawn to new multi-camera sitcoms, and said she thinks it’s down to the fact that new shows are “too afraid” to make jokes that make audiences “uncomfortable.”
Having starred as quirky free spirit Phoebe Buffay in all ten seasons of Friends – arguably the most iconic multi-camera sitcom of all time – she was asked by the publication if the sitcom genre is evolving or dying.
“I wish they were evolving,” she said. “30 Rock and Seinfeld and Friends were really funny and really well written. But I’m not drawn to new sitcoms that are multi-camera in front of an audience because I’m not buying it.
“I don’t know if that’s just because I’ve seen too many single-camera sitcoms, I think we need to get back to being able to tell jokes. I feel like we’ve been too afraid to make jokes that might make people uncomfortable.”
Kudrow, who recently premiered the third and final season of The Comeback, continued: “The really good ones, they’re not tame jokes. They’re jokes that are kind of, ‘I can’t believe you just said that.’ Comedy is about surprise. You need things you didn’t see coming.”
In recent years, Friends has been critiqued for outdated jokes about the LGBTQ+ community as well as a lack of diversity. In 2024, cast member Aisha Tyler said the demographic of the cast reflected the attitude at the time that “only white stories sold”.
Criticism has also been levelled at queer-themed storylines, such as Chandler (played by the late Matthew Perry) worrying he is being perceived as gay, and another surrounding his transgender parent, who was portrayed by Kathleen Turner.
In 2020, David Schwimmer, who played Ross in the show, refuted the criticism, saying the show was “groundbreaking” for the time.
More recently, Zoe Kravitz criticised the show, having been asked by People last year what elements of the ’90s era she’d like to leave behind.
“Super homophobic jokes on mainstream television,” she replied. “If you watch Friends now, you’re like, ‘Whoa, that’s….’”. Co-star Austin Butler asked: “Wow, even in Friends?”, to which Kravitz replied: “Oh, so much in Friends. Like, things that aren’t punchlines are punchlines. It’s wild. So maybe that? We can keep that there.”
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