David and Marcel

Its New Years Eve and the Gang publish compelling evidence about which thing is harder to live without, your mom's turkey or meaningless sex with an annoying person you hardly know.  

Plus we get to see the fledgling moments of the most important and enjoyable relationship over the ten years that follow and spoiler alert it doesnt involve a monkey.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Good afternoon, good morning, good evening, whatever happens to work for you at the moment. Uh, welcome back to Gen Z versus Friends. I am your host, Todd Sullivan, and welcome back to the internet's premiere podcast discussing whether or not Friends is as uh offensive, boring, unlikable, or awesome as differing generations happen to think. Uh, today we're gonna talk about episode 10 of season one. Uh so sit back, relax, get yourself a coffee, get yourself a comfy spot on the couch, and prepare yourself for Dave DeMarcel. Okay, so first up, front and center, before we do a single other thing with this episode, let's shout it out to one of the unsung heroes of television from the mid-80s to this very day. Uh, the man, the legend, but not so much a myth, because you know, he's got a wiki page and an IMDB page. Um but that is Hank Azaria. If you have been living under a rock for the last three decades, and if that is the case, I'm very flattered that you're here, but maybe start with a nice NPR podcast to get you up to date. Um Hank Azaria is possibly the most talented voice actor and character actor working today, and potentially ever. Um he is most known for work that has never actually shown his face in voicing dozens and dozens, if well hundreds of characters at this point uh on The Simpsons. Uh to the point where, you know, he said recently that um by the time he hit the year 2000, he had literally made every voice he thought was possible, uh, using every sound that his body would create. Uh but pretty much every character on that show, and we you know we won't get into that one too much here, uh, but every every Springfielder who isn't in fact a Simpson, and a couple of the ones who are, uh, are voiced by Zaria. Uh and this is fairly well known, and even more so since 2020, uh, when he stepped aside from playing the role of a Pooh, uh, which was his actions were based on a documentary called The Problem with a Pooh. Um, and he spoken about how seeing that documentary and and the negative effect, the negative unintended effect of the character, uh, made him rethink the role as he had never intended, uh obviously never wanted anyone to be made fun of or hurt because of a character that he had portrayed. Uh now, many can, and have absolutely argued that he probably never should have taken on though that role, uh, or that he should have stepped away much sooner. And that is absolutely possible and valid, uh, though I think it would be deserving of a more nuanced discussion of the changing standards over the decades that that show's been on the air, um, and the overall positive representations, uh, if even if comedic in nature, uh, that he has that he brought to those characters in those roles. In addition to all that voice work, uh, he has played more live-action guest roles than it's possible to lift here, list here in film and television. And he's also had some some leads and some strong supporting roles, including his frankly hilarious turn, uh, both in the film The Bird Cage and the the stage uh adaptation as Agador Spartacus. Um, as well as the the his double mystery year, I believe it was 1999, where he starred in both Mystery Men and Mystery Alaska, weirdly enough. Um and he's he's had TV vehicles that were made specifically for him, not just as guest stars, uh, where he played uh the eponymous characters Huff and Brockmeyer in those two series at different points in the 2000s. Um, but my favorite role, definitely his favorite live, my favorite live action role of his. Um oh, and I may oh, well, my favorite role is probably from you know Mystery Men, but uh that's a great movie, highly underrated. But anyway, favorite live-action television role, at least, and the reason for this very long introduction into his work um is of course that of David, the science guy. So we we meet David at the coffee shop, shocking, I know, uh, when he and his friend and compatriot in science are are talking too loudly about what turns out to be how beautiful Phoebe is. Um this uh overly boisterous conversation upsets her deeply, which calls her to call them out, um, but also made me question the rules at Central Perk. Um I've been in a lot of coffee shops where someone was playing music. Uh, and since it isn't a ticketed gig usually, uh, people have always been more than welcome to carry on a little harmless, little respectful chatter in the background. It's kind of the expectation. Um, in fact, it could even be say it's encouraged since, as I said, not a ticketed gig. It's not the reason why everyone's gonna be there. Um, so the owners of the coffee shop are not gonna want people to leave because they can't talk over music they didn't intend to hear in the first place. They're they're really there for the coffee, not the show. And so, you know, a very strict code of silence um seems like a good way to actually lose customers, not bring them in. Luckily for us, uh Terry and the Central Park team are willing to afford more respect to their performers, apparently, um, because David's sheepish nature likely would have meant he never would have spoken to Phoebe otherwise had she not interrupted him and called him out mid-song. Um and then we would have been robbed of what is in fact my favorite love story in 90s television. You heard me, Ross and Rachel. Phoebe and David are better. And not despite of how it ends, because of it. Why? Well, let me tell you why. Um because, you know, that's kind of why I'm here. Um so first first reason why it's better is that the tension the tension is more real, even though it's you know it's it's shorter, and that probably actually adds to it, not takes away from it. But their their tension is very real based on on real issues and real things. It's not years and years of overinflated drama resulting in a few genuine brilliant moments of joy. And don't worry, we're gonna get there. We'll talk about that when it comes up. And I'm not saying it's terrible. There'd be no point. You couldn't you couldn't watch friends, you couldn't call yourself a fan of the show if you really found the relationship that annoying. And in fact, I I sympathize with people who say, you know, the central conceit, the central storyline of the the entire series is this whole Ross and Rachel will they won't they thing. And I hate that. And if you do, I get it, you would hate the whole show. But in there there is there's a reason it drags out for nine years. Not every moment of that, not all of that drama is going to be real and effective. Whereas for Phoebe and David, because it's so tight, because it's one episode, um, or at least at this point, it's one episode, it's simple, it's clean, and it's very real. You know, they they love each other, but they're young and the timing is wrong. And that's just that's a much more realistic portrayal uh of love in your 20s. You know, you're still growing in a million different ways. And the tragedy of that may be that the edges of your puzzle piece don't fit where you think they should or where you hope they should or with who you hope they should. You can't force it. That just means one or both pieces will break. And there isn't even really ever any sense in being angry about it. Not saying breaking up in your 20s can't be angry. There's a million reasons to break up. But when the when the edges of your life just aren't lining up right, um, you can't take that out on anybody. That's just fate. That's just kind of how it goes. All you can do really at that point is just squeeze every single moment of joy you can out of it and pour that joy back into the other person and the relationship and whatever moments you have together to just experience as much as you can in that moment and take as much from it as you possibly can. And and things might work out later. That can absolutely happen because you have so much life left to live. But the chances of that happening are so much higher if you actually leave things in a spirit of love and a spirit of remembering the joy rather than the anger. And for me, this is not coming from a theoretical place I know of which I speak. Um, my wife and I had kind of a David and Phoebe arc in our life, in that the timing was totally wrong when we first got together. Um, she had to leave, then she came back, then I left, then we both left, and and then we found each other in another place entirely. But most importantly, my edges didn't fit when we were 21. Um, I had to spend some time, you know, adapting and building that shape on my own. Um, it had had to be separate. There was things I needed to learn about myself and that I probably wasn't gonna learn uh with another person uh that tightly entwined. And then when, you know, a few years later, when I was a more finished project, um, I realized that I knew what pieces went where. I knew I recognized that edge. I recognize, I apologize, I'm stretching this analogy, but I I like it, it works. So, you know. Um, but no, I I could recognize that edge um and and was pretty sure I knew what fit where. Um and now I I will say I didn't follow my own advice. We didn't leave things in a particularly good place. Uh, but luckily I am, or at least I was, at the point we got back together, incredibly charming. Um so it wasn't that wasn't the hard part. Uh now if this was a video podcast and you could see me now, there's a very solid roguish wink coming your way, listener. Um, but you'll just have to trust me on that at the moment. This is probably why I sympathize so much with, of course, David and and Phoebe's story. Um I I'm also not gonna jump ahead nine years to talk about how things wrap up, how the story kind of ends for them. Uh that's for another time and place, literally, like you know, many, many episodes from now. But all I'll say on that, and you know, of course, once again, I assume everyone here is has in fact uh seen the whole thing, and so it's not a surprise. Um but the fact that she genuinely loves David so much that letting him go is such a big deal for her actually makes where she ends up that much better because it there's contrast because she, you know, it's not settling, it's not ending up, it's um knowing that there was multiple avenues, multiple possibilities for love in her life, and she was able to choose the one that fit her best. Their whole relationship is also more realistic in the sense of just weighing the costs of things, personally, emotionally, and financially, you know, right from the very beginning, from the fact that David knows how much a microscope costs microscope costs and his respect for his tools and can't just smash it because, as they often do in television, knock thousands of dollars of materials to the floor, like that stuff is as replaceable as a prop. Um, to knowing the actual impact that it would have on his career and his professional community if he loses this opportunity to go and pursue his research. Um, but Phoebe is also very realistic about what the weight would be for her. As weird as it sounds, I actually think her decision to encourage him to go is actually selfish, but in a good way, uh kind of an ultimate example of self-care, necessary self-care. She knows that her soul or aura or psyche, whatever you want to call it, um, can't be what it's going to be meant to be if it's carrying the weight of taking more from David than she can give back, at least at this point in her life. Staying for love, having him stay for love, beautiful as it may be, uh, will ultimately end in neither of them actually being the best version of themselves. Few other characters, I think, on TV, let alone on a sitcom, are this honest with themselves and the audience. And once again, this really lets Phoebe be who she is and eventually grow into the happiness and the partnership that she's going to find. So good work, Lisa and Hank. Uh Phoebe's a little bit of a side character through the first nine episodes of the series. But here in 10, she really shoulders the weight, the emotional weight, and the character, and of course, Lisa Coudreau were more than up to the task. Um, also, if anyone is worried that in a very gendered way, I talked a lot about Hank Azaria and not Lisa Coudreau in this episode. I apologize and fear not, Lisa Coudreau is a rock star, and I am excited to talk about her many more times to come, but Hank Azaria only shows up here and there. So kind of got to give credit when the opportunity presents itself. We will come back. Lisa Coudreau is awesome. We all know that this whole interaction isn't just on Han Cazaria. It works because the two of them work and do an amazing job together. So, with that in mind, and with Phoebe carrying everybody's water here, um, what's everybody else doing? Well, it's New Year's. Uh, we flew right from Thanksgiving through Christmas onto New Year's. Once again, not having to settle the question of um which of our characters are obviously Jewish and which are part and which are celebrating Christmas. And you don't know we don't have to get into any of that. Um, we just go right through from the secular Thanksgiving to nice secular New Year's Eve. Um at the beginning of the episode, the friends are all single except for Rachel. Uh, it's also earlier in December, so the episode sort of starts timeline-wise right after Thanksgiving because you're always getting a job as a Christmas Santa and all that kind of stuff. Um, but yeah, everybody is technically single except for Rachel, of course, who's still seeing Paolo. And so the other five all agree to have a romance-free Friends First New Year's Eve. And Rachel will be there because Paolo's actually going to be out of town. Uh, she believes he's going to be in Rome. Um, this follows fairly naturally out of if we think about the Friends Thanksgiving. So you just had Thanksgiving and sort of proved you don't need your family to have a good time at that holiday. So here's another great example of the things that you don't need uh if you have a great group of friends. Your mom used to make you turkey, you don't need that anymore. And you, you know, you had to have a romantic entanglement for New Year's Eve. Well, maybe you don't need that anymore either. Maybe you just need good friends. Um as we know, this quickly falls apart, and we're going to learn that apparently um sex or the possibility of sex is more important than turkey. So, of course, um Phoebe's gonna bring David, you know, their relationship goes very quickly over a month. Um, Monica eventually decides to invite uh fun Bobby, who we do see from time to time, very early on in the series, but he is rarely, if ever, actually fun, despite everyone's claim that they're so excited to see him. Um Chandler runs back to Janice, invites her out for New Year's Eve. Uh Joey does his thing, picks up a random woman working as an elf at the department store, and Paolo's plans change to bring him back in time for all of the New Year's Eve festivity festivities. Uh so the only one left alone is Ross, except Ross isn't alone. Ross brings his new friend, Marcel. So, Marcel the monkey. Is a monkey, a stupid pet for Ross to get, of course. A dog or a cat? Sure. Yeah, totally. Uh getting a pet is a great way to get over the loneliness of a big breakup. Having a totally normal, responsible, domesticated pet would be a great step towards emotional maturity. But a monkey, that is one step in weird above ferret, and that one step is only because he's actually just hiding him as a rescued lab animal. So there's, you know, some moral reasons why this might be a good thing. Um, at least if he was a snake guy, you know, you could get into that whole like punk heavy metal niche and just lean hard into that. But a monkey, you're now strictly working with circus people now, man. Not to mention the fact that you're gonna have you're having a baby soon, Ross. And yes, you aren't gonna be the full-time father, but at some point you're gonna want to have your baby spend the night. And do we really expect your ex-wife is gonna be cool with a monkey roaming around the apartment? We'll all just hope the monkey doesn't see the tiny, weak, monkey-sized human as a threat, let alone as potential food. Good lord, Ross. Like you're a scientist. I know you're a paleontologist. I know that's not a biologist. You may not be totally aware of animal behavior, but seriously, still a scientist, still evidence-based. Terrible idea, top to bottom, really hard to believe that that would be a thing that would happen. Now, for all of that, in some ways it kind of does work out for Ross, weirdly enough, in that his is the only date that actually stays and goes as planned. Um, Joey's date ends up bringing her kids to the party, which puts uh blanket on things. And then he does hook, she does then hook up with David's lab partner for some reason. Um why not Joe? I guess she was into into the beard and the mustache, the goatee thing, uh, and the long hair, more so than and Joey's thing. Joey was babysitting most of the night, you know. She got a free babysitter and then got hook up with uh her own cool science guy. Um Chandler ends up breaking up with Jan Janice really in a speech that you get that feeling like you could have delivered that tomorrow. No reason that had to be tonight. Enjoy the evening tonight, deal with um the sad love story tomorrow. Um course, she doesn't, you know, she takes it better than than he expects her to, um, you know, uh disbelieving that this is their final moment. Um but she definitely leaves and leaves him alone. Um Fun Bobby has a family emergency. His grandfather dies, so he has zero fun. That's you know, not not even a date situation there. And in the end, Paulo misses his flight, though some somehow he manages to not tell Rachel till she's actually at the airport, which would have been at least six, seven, maybe eight hours later than he was supposed to catch his flight in Rome. Um she is then accosted by a woman fighting for the cab. Actually, literally just thought that we know who Paulo ends up being. Uh, we'll know that very soon. Um he doesn't last that long. Um, so we can only imagine what he was doing for six hours that uh was keeping him too busy to let his girlfriend know he was in fact not going to be arriving in New York. But either way, she has a very bad trip to the airport, gets beat up by a woman in a fight for a cab. We don't know if maybe it was a woman from the laundry who recognized her, uh, felt that her racism was still uh unaddressed, and they had a bit of a fight. The there were they had the good sense not to show it. Um but in any event, as the ball drops, uh course David is already gone, and uh we learn once again that the only people who are actually there for you in the end are your friends. No, sweet. Um, so two real takeaways uh beyond the the the ending there. Well, all right, first one, stay with me here. Um first one is that Mike Brabiglia is right. Now, if you listen to his excellent podcast, working it out, uh, which you should, as I said, top-notch, excellent comedy podcast, go listen to it right now and come back. Um, all 500 or something episodes, get yourself caught up. Um, he has recently been workshopping a bit. Please don't do that. Or, you know, listen to a couple and come back. Just, you know, it's a lot. Um, he has recently been workshopping a bit about how everyone has said something that could be interpreted as offensive. Uh, for example, every single person you know has said something to the effect of bros before hoes. Now, I am making no excuses for the use of the word ho, especially as it is intended to be derogatory there to place women below your male friends in that context. But the reason that everyone has said it is because of a situation exactly like the friend on New Year's Eve. Every one of us has had a friend who's putting their friendships, their long-standing, positive, supportive friendships in the backseat in favor of a relationship that we all know is doomed. Half of this group of friends did just that. Sacrifice their friendships and the agreements and the plans they'd made with their friends to just have a significant other for a pointless party. Uh, and Ross calls them out, and he's right to call them out. Um, because it was, you know, once again, we've got a couple holidays here. Theoretically, they all went home for Christmas and Hanukkah in between. Um, we got a couple holidays here where your friends were the only ones who were there for you, and now you've said, meh, but I'm gonna go back to this bad relationship, new relationship, easy relationship. Um, just because I that's more important to me than enjoying the evening with my friends. And look what happens. It falls apart and you fall back on your friends eventually. If you have good friends, they will be there before and after the relationship ends. So there's no need to treat them like crap in the middle. We all know that this isn't what is meant when some asshole says pros before hoes, or the less catchy but equally as true sistas before mistas. I can't believe I wrote both those things and then have said them now. Um but they're assholes. So why do we care what they think? We should care when someone we know and we know is a good person, tells us to stop being a jerk to the people who actually care about us for what is objectively. Temporary emotional high. The other thing taking away from this episode, and this is a little more personal, I'll acknowledge that, is that this episode reminded me, and it's currently June. It's a very ret, wet, rainy June in central Canada, and I'm looking out. Um and by saying that, for those of you who are not aware, technically Central Canada's Ontario, but I think of it as anywhere not the coast for my current purposes, because we don't expect it to be as wet and rainy as it is right now, but it is. And that's an aside. It's a wet, rainy June in Alberta, Canada. Got me thinking about New Year's Eve by watching this episode. You know, it's a stupid holiday. Um stupider than most of the stupid made-up holidays. Um we'll get around to some Valentine's Day and things eventually, but I really I've long thought that New Year's Eve, especially as a big event, is a silly holiday. It's cool if you're a kid, or it's cool if you're a parent. For everyone else, once you're able to set your own bedtime, and to decide on a Tuesday that you're okay with having a Wednesday hangover, all the uniqueness about a New Year's Eve do is overshadowed by the perpetually inflated cost of the event. Now, don't get me wrong, I've had some fun or had and attended some fun New Year's Eve parties. But most of the time that's because the best ones, at least, were just because I was with the people whose company that I enjoyed doing a thing that we enjoyed doing and that we would do on other nights too. One of the best was something that we called New Year's Eve Eve, where a group of us went out on the 30th when the prices were still cheap, the lineups were not long, there was no bouncers, no crowds, etc. So we got all dressed up the night before, hit a bunch of the best bars in town, and then the next day had a relaxing New Year's Eve in, doing whatever we wanted to do individually. As the friends find in this instance, the more exciting a New Year's Eve party is supposed to be, the that all that means is it has more opportunities to disappoint you. So, with all that, what about this episode itself? Does it disappoint, or is it what the one that you will be trying to recreate for years and years to come, like that one epic New Year's Eve party? Well, for the most part, I'm I'm gonna score the episode based on the Phoebe and David storyline. Um in my mind or my viewing of it, everything else is really just it's a comic and emotional foil. It's just them it's just there to give them some space to work in and some some pressure to work against. So, with that in mind, is the episode funny? Well, yes, it is still very funny. Um Hank and Lisa Coudreau do a great job in their their budding relationship. Um Ross, we didn't get much into the monkey stuff. There'll be other opportunities. It's it's it's pretty funny. The party is good, like it's all it's all funny. It's a good episode of a good show. Um and it was memorable. My and actually the two scenes where David goes to sweep his workbench off for Freebie to hop up on. Great moments, very memorable. Um, big fan of those in particular. Um, I did also give it full marks for novelly addressing a new topic. Um in case it wasn't clear, I do think addressing the balancing act between finding love and finding yourself is really wonderfully done here. Um, you know, finding those limits of who you are and who you want to be, as well as who you want to be with, they're all wrapped up so well by Phoebe finding enough love for her scientist man um that she can let him go. It probably isn't wholly unique. I'm I'm not gonna say that. Every love story has already been told, and you know, it's just a 30-minute sitcom. But I do think the way it was told was was timely and of the moment um and true to the characters. And so to me, it gets full marks. Um overall, I I did end up docking the episode a point on the scringe on the cringe scale, mostly for the you know, kind of very predictable outcomes of the party dates and the don't worry your friends are here for you moment at the end. Um not to mention even the need to have the dates in the first place, but you know, I I will say I also didn't find anything offensive or overly formulaic, so I only docked the one point um for that. Um I also gave it a point, an additional point on the fact you definitely could make the episode today, but I then took that point right back on the fact that you should not. This was not because of Phoebe uh or any of the bad dates or you know, Joey's elf shoes or anything like that. It is because no one, not even the friends, should promote owning an illegal animal in a New York apartment, especially if you are untrained to handle that animal. I see you, Ross, and I got you SPCA. In the end, that gives us an eight, which is a good score for a good story. I've said. Hope that this is not the last time that you will hear my voice. Um, as a reminder, as always, this is an entirely human-created podcast. So, from the music to the scripts to the voice to the editing, everything in between, there is no AI. Um, so thank you so much for celebrating and supporting your fellow humans in all of this. Um and once again, can't wait to see you again for episode eleven.

SPEAKER_00 28:01

Till next time.