During her first monologue on Saturday Night Live, Quinta Brunson chose to make mockery of Friends’ lack of black characters.
Friends was the most popular comedy in the world when it first aired. Every week, countless people would tune in, carving each moment into their brains to the point that some individuals could possibly recite every episode from memory.
Nevertheless, in recent years, the humor has come under fire since some of the gags haven’t aged well.
Moreover, some of the portrayal was handled in such a manner that the show’s makers now regret it. As new generations of fans have grown up, they’ve pointed out that some characters have acted horribly.
Quinta Brunson, on the other hand, took aim at something else: the paucity of black characters on Friends.
She quipped during her opening speech that she had always wanted to appear on SNL but that the audition process sounded arduous. She made fun of herself, saying she built her own TV show, made sure it became incredibly famous, won a number of Emmys, and then was invited to host.
The Abbott Elementary creator described her program, drawing comparisons to the popular comedy Friends, with one notable exception.
It’s a network comedy like, say, Friends, only it’s about a group of teachers rather than a group of friends, she said.
It’s in Philadelphia instead of New York, and rather than not having black people, it does!
The joke earned a large cheer from the SNL audience as Brunson proceeded with her opening monologue, going on to compliment the tough work teachers have to do while stressing how they ‘get taken for granted’.
Brunson was technically incorrect when she said that Friends lacked any black characters, since someone counted the total number of characters on the program and discovered that it was a whopping 27.
But, glancing over that list actually really confirms her argument, since they include such memorable characters as ‘Mattress King Delivery Dude’, ‘Child looking at Chandler’, ‘Security Guard’, and, of course who could forget, ‘Man’.
So, okay, most of them on the list do have names for their characters, and some of them are even permitted to talk, even if just for one phrase.
The longest-running black character on Friends was Aisha Tyler’s Charlie Wheeler, who appeared in nine episodes out of the show’s total of 236.
