Too long for a reply: I always thought the Friends writers were super inconsistent about coding the characters as Jewish. I always thought Monica and Ross were Jewish and never understood why Monica always had a Christmas tree (I think they eventually explained that they were half?), and I always perceived Rachel as Jewish but then they cast Reese Witherspoon and Christina Applegate as her sisters, and they were shown as mega shiksas.
It was consistent enough in the first season; I think it popped up from time to time in season 2, and Ross of course looked Jewish and didnât need much coding beyond his face (the girls needed heavy coding because itâs not like the showrunners were going to take the risk of casting women who werenât conventionally attractive). So it wasnât so much inconsistent as a conceit used to gain Seinfeld-fueled traction in the first place, that was then discarded as soon as it was deemed unnecessary. Disposal ethnicity.Â
I also think that much of the coding could be lost on goyische audiences. I mean, if I hear of a young woman named Rachel, engaged to a dentist named Barry, who is overly reliant on Daddyâs credit card, I know someone is showing me a JAP. Like, just âengaged to a dentist named Barryâ makes me think AHA, a Jew! I canât expect thatâs true for people who donât live with such things.Â
That being said, that the whole thing was bullshittery in attempting to create âcharacterâ hinges on Monica: Monica, with her expressly Jewish brother, played by a goy and presented as goyische for at least seven seasons.
So, like, fuck Friends, but I feel that way mainly because they pretended for a season or two to acknowledge my existence as something beyond a stock character and then fucked me over.
*eta: please note the tags yâall; goyim do *not* get to use JAP, shiksa, goy, etc. Thatâs our language.