Friends star Jennifer Anniston admits that the smash-hit ’90s and early 2000s TV comedy has not aged well among some younger audiences.

“There’s a whole generation of people, kids, who are now going back to episodes of Friends and find them offensive,” she told AFP.

“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.”

Comedians often had to be more “careful” now, she said, noting the comedy game had changed since the days when Friends was a juggernaut.

Comedy was a way for people to make fun of themselves and life, Aniston said. In the past, jokes could be made at the expense of a bigot to get a laugh and it was a way to educate people on “how ridiculous people were”.

However, Aniston said people were no longer allowed to do it, making it a “little tricky” for comedians.

She said for this reason, Hollywood was producing far fewer comedies.

“Everybody needs funny! The world needs humour! We can’t take ourselves too seriously. Especially in the United States. Everyone is far too divided,” she said.

Changing expectations

The actress is promoting her upcoming movie, Murder Mystery 2, where she stars alongside Adam Sandler.

Sandler also told AFP that comedies were now expected to emulate the look of an expensive blockbuster or drama.

“Remember when we used to make comedies? They would give you a budget, not too much money, and say: ‘Do whatever you can with that’,” he said.

Sandler and Aniston star in the Netflix comedy Murder Mystery 2. Photo: Getty

He said that with the added expectation of making movies look “pretty awesome”, creatives worked “harder on that”.

Sandler’s comments come months after a few within Hollywood criticised the Marvel movies for changing the game.

Most notably, director Quentin Tarantino expressed his distaste for the action movies. He said they were the only films that seemed to be getting made, and claimed their big name actors weren’t movie stars. 

“My only axe to grind against them is they’re the only things that seem to be made,” he said on the 2 Bears, 1 Cave podcast.

“They’re the only things that seem to generate any kind of excitement amongst a fan base or even for the studio making them. That’s what they’re excited about.

“It’s just the fact that they are the entire representation of this era of movies right now. There’s not really much room for anything else, that’s my problem.”