Joey, played by Matt LeBlanc, is seen eating fried chicken in a “Friends” sequence.
Among the many things the girl has accused “Friends” of (a secular prayer for Matthew Perry, please), sexual exploitation of Joey stands out. Not just because of his incontinence like a dog in heat and his treatment of women as objects, but also because of the implausibility of someone effortlessly seducing with a spell: “How does that work?”
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It has always seemed to me to be a symptom of a serious misunderstanding in reading that a comedy whose nature is exaggeration and pantomime is accused of implausibility. To say that Friends doesn't reflect the lives of the 30-plus New Yorkers of its time is like accusing club puppets of failing to accurately portray the relationships between the monarchy and the forest fauna. But to be serious, it really strikes me that only some aspects are given attention (basically those related to money and sex) and others are left out. To me, Joey's other trait is much more insulting: He's a compulsive eater who doesn't gain weight.
Joey spends the series devouring in a way that would make Pantagruel cry. His diet, high in saturated fats and processed foods (he's not a foodie, wow), would shorten the life expectancy of a real human to 30 years. A real joey would weigh 300 kilos and break the cholesterol and high blood pressure scale. He would be blind from diabetes and dragging his leg with gout pain from uric acid. And that assumed he could get out of bed. And yet no one cares that he swallows and swallows without having a little tummy or a measly double chin.
I am alone with this indignation and this envy. Now that the trays of nougat and roast are open to all, who could Joey be and with what fury do I curse him?
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