In this weeks People magazine, Friends is mentioned as a show that has become one of the more risque examples of "edgy" TV of late. The episode with Phoebe mistaken as a porn star is used as an example.
The thing that struck me as strange about that, is that Friends often hides it when they are being risque, probably to get past network censors. Certain "innocent" lines can have all sorts of double meaning on Friends, and really can't be called "dirty" by the censors. Here are a few examples:
(TOW Candy Hearts) MONICA: I'll take a little crying any day over Howard-the-"I-win"-guy. "I win! I win!" I went out with the guy for two months--I didn't get to win once.
(TOW the Birth) ROSS: Carol never threw me out of a room before you came along. SUSAN: Yeah? Well, there's a lot of things Carol never did before I came along.
(TOW R&R You Know) RACHEL: Oh God! Oh, honey, oh that's OK. ROSS: What? Oh no, you just rolled over the juice box. RACHEL: Oh, thank God.
(TOW the Ballroom Dancing) JOEY: Yeah! Like-like when I'm doing something exciting and I don't wanna get *too* excited, I just y'know, try to thing of other things like ah sandwiches, and ah baseball, and ah Chandler! CHANDLER: Thank you, Joey. JOEY: No-no, thank you.
Basically, I find it a little odd that Friends can go from subtle stuff like this, where you have to think a little (and have a dirty mind) to understand what the characters are *really* talking about, to things like C&M's all day sex-a-thons and Ursula as a porn star.
I'm not sure if this means the censors are relaxing their standards or letting Friends get away with more.
Bobby C.