Admittedly I hang out with a bourgeois crowd (which is French for "snobbish"). Many times my friends and I will eat the finest cheeses, sipping the finest wines, and discuss the "art of cinema" or float the notion that "an assistant butler isn't totally unwarranted." However, in these meetings of high society sometimes something is said which I totally disagree with, and yet never combat. The sentiment is this: "The television show Friends was garbage." It's usually followed by a dismissive guffaw or an eye roll plus head shake. Sometimes the culprit will even say, "Egh," with regards to one of the most popular television shows in history. The charge is that Friends was average, pedantic, lesser, consistently mediocre, and not befitting of a real discourse.

Today I'm here to fight against that tide in the only way I know how, with a low-conflict method I call "blogging." I'd like to talk to you about why Friends deserves our respect, nay, our admiration. Let's look at the issues and see if we can't throw some cold water on our ivory tower buddies.

1. The Manhattan loft apartment

The apartments they all lived in would have cost a trillion dollars per month, and that's even with rent control. The Joey-Chandler early years domicile looked to be about 1300 square feet and seemed to be outfitted with the most current appliances at all times. I don't ever remember one of the gang saying, "Man, the landlord just raised our rent to $4400!" or, "Now that I'm unemployed (Chandler) I will need to start an illegal gambling saloon to cover our monthly bills." This was never said, and so the writers of Friends get dinged for the reality factor. It's a valid gripe, and my only counterargument would be that there was once a sitcom based on an alien from Melmac, the immortal A.L.F.

2. The set-up was always the same, the jokes one-note

We all know the drill. Chandler was the sarcastic one, Ross the goofball, Joey the quasi-learning disabled, Phoebe the weirdo, Rachel the cute girly girl, and Monica the obsessive compulsive. Every joke would revolve around some combination of the characters playing off each other's eccentricities. Well, name another sitcom that didn't involve this formula. If you buy into the very idea of a sitcom, you buy into the idea of situational, character-driven funny. In other words, if Friends is bankrupt of quality, then every sitcom through the ages bears the same mark.

3. The show just wasn't that funny.

The final critique I've heard is that the jokes weren't great no matter what the set-up was. Well, what's funny for one person might be idiotic for another, but I contend that Friends was funny, but it was funny in a non-aggressive, non-controversial, comfortable manner. You can tune in to any Friends any time, during any year, and you'll pick up the story almost immediately. This is a strength of the show, the amazing consistency over a decade of work. Friends may not be funny to a select few out there, but it was funny to the masses. And since we live in a country that values the ideal of the majority, well ....

So I say let's recognize Friends for what it was, the last in the grand tradition of sitcoms. If you look at the prevailing comedies of today, you'll notice the lack of the laugh track and the death of the single angle shot. Gone are the days of six people, rarely having to work, sitting around a coffee shop. I say those days should be lauded; we won't see the likes of them any time soon.