Hi Mr. David Hopkins,

Very nicely written. I could never have thought of this angle to such a famous sitcom. If I be allowed to slightly deviate from your take on this and also from the one by Mukilan Pannirselvam in the comments to this post, I’d like to point out a few things that have kind of been in my head for a long time.

Such shows usually come with an implicit (if not explicit) disclaimer that states

“This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.”

If the words above are to mean something, then I would actually not try to connect my life to the sitcom at all. I remember watching episodes, laughing along.

The constant barrage of laughter from the live studio audience will remind us that our own reactions are unnecessary, redundant.

For me, that was about it. I didn’t think about what Ross did or didn’t do. I didn’t reminisce about some silly punch Joey landed or didn’t land. I didn’t try to remember some sarcastic comment Chandler made or didn’t make. If one asked me now, I could barely recollect a scene from it. At times, my friends would quote and trying to relate some action/statement of mine to some scene of F.R.I.E.N.D.S., but it beat me every time. For me it existed as a source of entertainment, and nothing else. I didn’t bring it close to my heart or tried to be one of the characters. The internet is flooded with memes about such shows mocking the fact that the characters in such shows get so much free time to sit and have unlimited coffee/beer with each other.

Being from a different country and with very little understanding of your culture (I don’t consider the sitcoms and movies to be absolutely correct depiction of your culture), I would like to make a small remark — the problem is not the sitcom, but the problem is people wanting to be the characters in the sitcoms. If only people would take a TV show as a TV show and leave it there, we’d be in a comparatively saner world. Well, after watching a Superman movie, if I’m not jumping off buildings trying to fly, then why should I want-to-be/want-to-date someone like Rachel or Monica. They are fictitious characters for me, and that’s what they’ll continue to be.