WORK — ROSS GAY

Contents:

• FRIENDS WRERS CUT A JOKE ABOUT JOEY BEG SECRETLY GAY
• ROSS GAY
• ‘FRIENDS’ CHA: THE ONE WHERE ROSS’S EX-WIFE ISN’T GAY
• ROSS MATHEWS: GAY PEOPLE 'WANTED ME OFF TV'

FRIENDS WRERS CUT A JOKE ABOUT JOEY BEG SECRETLY GAY

He got divorced om his ex-wife who turned out to be gay, he married spunky Br Ey only to say the wrong name at the altar, and he even msed thgs up wh Rachel (who'd he'd been love wh sce high school), but his teractn wh his Cassie (played by Denise Richards) is beyond creepy. Later on, Ross is forced to accept that his wife is gay and ends up nsolg Rachel after she disvers that her hband, Barry, is havg an affair as well wh the neighborhood dog walker.

As a recent news em volvg a squashed gay-themed storyle remds , Friends is still really, really homophobic. Acrdg to a newly published look behd the scen of the smash s, Generatn Friends: An Insi Look at the Show that Defed a Televisn Era, the show's wrers pched a B-plot which Chandler Bg (Matthew Perry) sneaks to a gay bar, not for the queer mrarie or the love of ABBA songs but bee he lik the tablishment's tuna melts. The male characters on Friends showed a noted disfort and disda toward LGBTQ+ people durg s 10 seasons -- om Chandler's aversn to his transgenr parent (played by Kathleen Turner, still slayg the role) to a particular episo which Ross (David Schwimmer) sists his male nanny mt be anytime LGBTQ+ people are brought up through the show, 's played for lghs -- whether 's the nng joke that people thk Chandler is gay or an episo where Joey (Matt Leblanc) nvc an actg stunt who he is petg for a role on All My Children to play the character "homosexually.

"In perhaps the most on-the-nose pictn of s tenncy toward gay panic for cheap lghs, Joey and Ross eak out the seventh season of Friends after they accintally fall asleep together on the uch.

ROSS GAY

"While would be easy to dismiss Friends as a product of s time, many of s ntemporari were well ahead on LGBTQ+ reprentatn -- om Blanche (Rue McClanahan) learng to embrace her gay brother on The Goln Girlsto the groundbreakg same-sex weddg Roseanne. Intertgly, when creators David Kffman and Mara Kffman reflected on the storyl they regret, neher of them mentned the show's homophobic history. Friends wrers ially clud a joke about Joey beg secretly gay.

Friends wrers origally clud a joke  the much-loved TV show about Joey beg secretly gay, but was later cut. As news of the eagerly-anticipated Friends rnn was announced, has also emerged that an early draft of “The One Wh Ross’s Weddg” explicly referred to Joey as gay. But acrdg to Grazia, the first draft of the scene, published the book of the origal Friends script, saw Phoebe ntue: “Or, ‘Hey, Joey, you’re gay.

San And Ey Are Beg Gay Together.

‘FRIENDS’ CHA: THE ONE WHERE ROSS’S EX-WIFE ISN’T GAY

Ey, for example, was gay to Ross bee she was dog poetry readgs wh San London. Ross creat a page for Chandler where he claims that Chandler is ed very gay. At first, Ross plans to post doctored photos of Chandler beg gay, but then mocks Chandler that his fake ments on Ross' ath didn't get any he realiz that this means none of his llege iends re if he is ad.

In one scene, after Ross spread the mor about Chandler beg gay, Moni reveals that Chandler keeps makg her watch Moul Rouge!, to which Chandler stat that is a great movie. Was Friends homophobic and way too whe?

ROSS MATHEWS: GAY PEOPLE 'WANTED ME OFF TV'

It has bee a way for to look at (and argue about) enormo societal issu — racism, misogyny, homophobia — through the lens of a s. Is Friends homophobic? It’s riddled wh lazy gay jok, which was standard for ss of s era.

But the homophobia on Friends is also more plex than that. This tensn is perfectly exemplified season two’s “The One Wh the Lbian Weddg, ” an episo that’s equal parts envelope-phg and full of gay panic.