{"id":351738,"date":"2026-03-22T03:47:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T03:47:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/351738\/"},"modified":"2026-03-22T03:47:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T03:47:14","slug":"10-friends-episodes-that-havent-aged-well","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/351738\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Friends Episodes That Haven’t Aged Well"},"content":{"rendered":"

Friends<\/a> has timeless appeal as a perfectly cast ensemble sitcom, but there are a handful of episodes that haven\u2019t aged well. The enduring popularity of Friends is pretty spectacular. More than 30 years after it first premiered, Friends is still one of the most-streamed shows<\/a> in the world. It was a juggernaut when it was on the air, and it\u2019s a juggernaut now.<\/p>\n

But, while the cast\u2019s electric on-screen chemistry is aging gracefully, every now and then, Friends plants itself firmly in the cultural milieu of the \u201890s<\/a> and reminds you you\u2019re watching a 30-year-old show. Whether it\u2019s Ross forbidding his son from playing with a Barbie doll or Chandler\u2019s dad being made the butt of constant transphobic and homophobic jokes, Friends shows its age in a few unfortunate episodes.<\/p>\n

The One With The Rumor<\/p>\n

Season 8, Episode 9<\/p>\n

\"Friends
\n Friends Thanksgiving Brad Pitt looking annoyed across the table at Rachel<\/p>\n

The season 8 episode \u201cThe One with the Rumor\u201d is most notable for Brad Pitt\u2019s guest appearance<\/a>. Pitt proved to be one of Friends\u2019 all-time greatest guest stars, playing against type as a petty, arrogant former high school loser seeking revenge on the popular kids. He\u2019s hilarious in the role, but the episode itself has some insensitive humor.<\/p>\n

As with any episode dealing with Ross and Monica\u2019s childhood, \u201cThe One with the Rumor\u201d takes a lot of cheap shots at Monica\u2019s weight. A lot of the gags in this episode rely on fat-shaming Monica, and it\u2019s just uncomfortable to watch now.<\/p>\n

The One Where Ross Dates A Student<\/p>\n

Season 6, Episode 18<\/p>\n

\"Ross
\n Friends Ross and Elizabeth<\/p>\n

The problem with this one is right there in the title. In season 6\u2019s \u201cThe One Where Ross Dates a Student,\u201d Ross learns that one of his students has a crush on him, and instead of just feeling flattered and moving on, he decides to start dating her. He justifies the age gap and the power imbalance with the weak excuse that they hit it off.<\/p>\n

This relationship lasted a full five episodes, and it only got worse and worse. Ross even threatened to blackmail Elizabeth\u2019s dad when he threatened to expose the relationship \u2014 and somehow, Ross is presented as the hero in that situation.<\/p>\n

The One Where Eddie Won’t Go<\/p>\n

Season 2, Episode 19<\/p>\n

\"Friends
\n Friends happy Eddie and annoyed Chandler<\/p>\n

In season 2, when Joey briefly moves out, Chandler gets a new roommate: Eddie, played by Dazed and Confused\u2019s Adam Goldberg. Eddie clearly suffers from serious mental health issues, which are, of course, played for laughs. When Chandler wants Eddie to move out, he takes advantage of his mental illness to convince him that they were never roommates in the first place.<\/p>\n

At the time, this was framed as a creative solution to a comic situation. But now, it just comes off as a prime example of gaslighting. The word \u201cgaslighting\u201d gets thrown around a lot these days, often incorrectly, but this is textbook gaslighting. It\u2019s a really cruel thing to do to someone who already struggles to distinguish reality from their own delusions.<\/p>\n

Season 3, Episode 4<\/p>\n

\"Ben
\n Ben plays with a Barbie doll in Friends<\/p>\n

There are a few different story threads in \u201cThe One with the Metaphorical Tunnel,\u201d but the most notable (and problematic) one involves Ross\u2019 son Ben<\/a>. Ross was never shown to be a particularly good father; he dipped in and out of Ben\u2019s life, and when he was around, he just projected his very rigid view of masculinity and gender roles onto his son.<\/p>\n

In this season 3 episode, Ross won\u2019t let Ben play with a Barbie doll. It\u2019s his favorite toy, but Ross is determined to steer him toward something else. He keeps trying to force Ben to play with more traditionally masculine toys like G.I. Joe.<\/p>\n

The One With Rachel’s Assistant<\/p>\n

Season 7, Episode 4<\/p>\n

\"Rachel
\n Rachel sitting behind her desk in Friends<\/p>\n

In season 7, Rachel gets the chance to hire an assistant and, out of all the potential candidates, she chooses Tag, just because he\u2019s handsome. She even makes him pose for Polaroids during his interview, and spreads a rumor that he\u2019s gay so the other women in the office will back off. Imagine all this the other way around.<\/p>\n

Rachel promises Phoebe that her relationship with Tag will be strictly professional, but she instantly starts pursuing him romantically. The show treats this as a setup for a sweeping romance, but in a post-#MeToo era, it\u2019s clear that it\u2019s completely inappropriate, so the only people laughing are the studio audience.<\/p>\n

The One With The Dozen Lasagnas<\/p>\n

Season 1, Episode 12<\/p>\n

\"Phoebe
\n Phoebe gives Paolo a massage in Friends<\/p>\n

In addition to being a freelance coffee shop singer, Phoebe is also a professional masseuse. That field is rife with sexual harassment, and Friends did address that in the season 1 episode \u201cThe One with the Dozen Lasagnas.\u201d When Phoebe gives Rachel\u2019s boyfriend Paolo a massage, he gropes her and exposes himself to her.<\/p>\n

But the conflict is how Phoebe will break the news to Rachel, not that she was sexually harassed at work. The episode frames this incident more as a mere uncomfortable situation than a serious violation. Rachel\u2019s boyfriend assaulting Phoebe is shown to be Rachel\u2019s trauma, not Phoebe\u2019s.<\/p>\n

The One With Ross And Monica’s Cousin<\/p>\n

Season 7, Episode 19<\/p>\n

\"Friends
\n Friends Ross serious and Cassie smiling<\/p>\n

The season 7 episode \u201cThe One with Ross and Monica\u2019s Cousin\u201d is just icky. When Ross and Monica\u2019s beautiful cousin Cassie, played by guest star Denise Richards, comes to visit them in New York, Ross spends the whole episode fawning over her and trying to sleep with her. There\u2019s a pattern on this list: a lot of these episodes are uncomfortable to watch because of Ross being a creep.<\/p>\n

Cassie is appropriately horrified when she finds out Ross is attracted to her, but just the fact that this was a storyline that made it through the writers\u2019 room, the network approvals, the table read, and the taping is pretty disturbing. A lot of people had to sign off on this, and apparently, they all did.<\/p>\n

The One With The Ick Factor<\/p>\n

Season 1, Episode 22<\/p>\n

\"Monica
\n Monica in bed with a teenager in Friends<\/p>\n

The fact that this episode is called \u201cThe One with the Ick Factor\u201d seems to suggest that the writers knew they were dealing with icky subject matter. The episode sees Monica entering a romantic relationship built on lies, and unwittingly becoming a sex offender.<\/p>\n

Monica meets a young man that she thinks is a college senior, tells him she\u2019s 22 even though she\u2019s 26, and sleeps with him. Then, it turns out he\u2019s a senior in high school, not college, so he\u2019s only 17. If Friends was more realistic, not only would Monica\u2019s apartment be a lot smaller; she\u2019d be a registered sex offender.<\/p>\n

The One With The Male Nanny<\/p>\n

Season 9, Episode 6<\/p>\n

\"Friends
\n Friends Sandy and Ross<\/p>\n

Season 9\u2019s \u201cThe One with the Male Nanny\u201d has an absurdly antiquated view of gender roles. Rachel hires a male nanny named Sandy, played brilliantly by guest star Freddie Prinze, Jr., and Ross spends the whole episode questioning his qualifications and making fun of him for being kind and caring and sensitive.<\/p>\n

To be fair, the episode makes it clear that Ross\u2019 view is ridiculous, and he\u2019s the only one who has an issue with the nanny being a man. About a decade later, Modern Family had its own male nanny storyline, and it was much more progressive. Jay and Manny protested Gloria hiring Andy because he was forcing them to eat well and exercise, not because he was a man.<\/p>\n

The One With Chandler’s Dad<\/p>\n

Season 7, Episode 22<\/p>\n

\"Friends
\n Friends Kathleen Turner as Chandler’s father<\/p>\n

In the season 7 episode \u201cThe One with Chandler\u2019s Dad,\u201d we were introduced to Chandler\u2019s biological father, a drag queen who goes by the iconic stage name Helena Handbasket. Chandler\u2019s dad is portrayed as a transgender woman, but she\u2019s played by cisgender Kathleen Turner<\/a>, and the way the character is treated on-screen is even worse.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s constantly being misgendered with he\/him pronouns, her gender identity isn\u2019t taken seriously by anyone, and she\u2019s constantly made the butt of homophobic and transphobic comments \u2014 particularly by her own ex-wife. It was pretty revolutionary for Friends to include a trans character at all, but the actual representation is at rock bottom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Friends has timeless appeal as a perfectly cast ensemble sitcom, but there are a handful of episodes that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":351739,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[146,85,46,411],"class_list":["post-351738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}