Dr. Dolly Alderton

Everything is building to something, whether it's a laugh or a gasp or whatever.

When they're sitting around talking about Phoebe's mum having killed herself or Monica being bullied for her weight, are they doing it smiling?

Or are they doing, sitting there, I mean, Martha Kaufman and David Crane being like, with their hands on their chest being like, the thing about Monica is, like, this is like really important because the way the show treats her eating and treats her weight is so cruel.

And I think like one of the things that dates, more than the gay panic stuff, I think it dates even worse is the way people are so cruel to her over her weight.

Yeah.

I wonder were they writing it with love in their heart, if you know what I mean?

Like, were they writing it with a sense of like, the thing about Monica is she has these control issues.

She's a chef for these things.

Or are we, you know...

Is there more?

I don't know.

Are we seeing more there than there is?

You know, are we bringing profound empathy for a creative decision that didn't have that much empathy behind it?

Yeah, that's true.

Yeah, you're right.

A monkey in a tiny waistcoat.

Oh, we were watching some episodes with Ella the other day, and we sort of did realise that, like, because they are always on about how neurotic Chandler is and what a pain in the fucking arse he is to deal with, and therefore, because he's a pain in the arse and because he's the character who's obsessed with making things funny and obsessed with getting a laugh, his trauma is the most often joked about because he almost gets there first with all the jokes.

But actually, when you really lay it out, it is quite upsetting.

Yeah.

Who sold a hundred million copies of her book.