For whatever reason, I never really got into Friends. It was the sort of thing you’d watch with the young ones, to keep up with new stuff, so that the old parent-kid relationship wasn’t so gappy. (Of course there are those who disagree and say that Hughes never saw a piece of rubbish she didn’t like, citing Carry On movies and Inspector Rex but they forget that I remember their little foibles too. What about that sister with the furtive addiction to Neighbours, hmm? Being in recovery is OK for her but some of us have long memories and a position to defend when necessary.)
However, I watched Friends recently and laughed, like really laughed: the AHAHA-snort-please-stop-cos-my-ribs-are-aching-type of laughter, which is rare and precious, even when you have a family who point out that no-one has seen your ribs for a long time and that they have become sceptical as to said ribs’ existence. It is easy to become deflected at this point, sneering at his beer while he sneers at your *butties. Without beer and butties, what would our civilisation be, after all? (Thinner, at any rate.)
But I have segued (I prefer ‘segued’ to ‘strayed’—so much more intentional-sounding) from the TV topic at hand. Friends made me guffaw because it indulged in some good old slapstick when eternal prat Ross decided to get a fake tan and had some exquisitely timed mishaps. It was rare, good and cautionary fun. When you get your fake tan, be very careful to ask the operator which way you should face, otherwise you will end up looking as if you have fallen in some taupe/orange ink that resembles no skin tone of the human species.
But some people seem to like the look of this, if last weekend’s wedding was anything to go by. (Singing at such festivities enables the Hughes household to keep up the supply of beer and butties that keep one’s ribs from showing too much.) The terracotta tans on the bridesmaids went strangely well with their dresses, which were roughly the colour of a Christmas beetle. In shantung, I think. All subtly different in style, although subtle is not really the word for anything to do with that wedding. You get the idea: one with a peplum, one with a bustier and the other one with a sort of tunic effect a la Dinnigan. They had obviously been reading European