213: We Can Be Sad About Matthew Perry Dying and Still Think Friends Is Homophobic

“The One With the Memorial Service” (March 13, 2003)

Since Matthew Perry died, the tone of conversations about Friends has shifted from looking at all the reasons it wasn’t so great to trying to focus on the reasons we like it. That’s fair. Grief does that. But in seeking comfort in Friends, let’s not rush to thinking that Chandler Bing was something more than one long-running gay panic joke. Matthew Perry was a great comedic actor and we enjoy him delivering a one-liner with perfect timing, but we can acknowledge that without giving Friends a pass for its homophobia.

Here’s the Slate article that inspired this episode, and here’s the Substack post where it originally appeared, with its original headline.

Friends, previously on GEE:

• Everyone Thinks Chandler Is Gay

• Ross’s Lebsian Ex-Wife Gets Lesbian Married

• Rachel Kisses a Lesbian

• Ross Gellar Brings Gay Panic to The Single Guy

Listen to Magnificent Jerk, a great podcast about one woman’s journey to understand how her uncle’s autobiographical movie script became a B-action movie starring Rob Lowe.

Episode artwork by Ian O’Phelan.