2000s TV shows like Friends come under FURIOUS fire

‘We have so much damage to undo!’ Gen Z SLAMS early 2000s TV hits like How I Met Your Mother and Friends over ‘fat-phobic’ plots – as resurfaced videos show characters threatening to dump girlfriends if they gained weight

  • TV shows that aired between the mid 1990s and early 2000s are being criticized
  • TikToker Lucie Vallée, 29, shared clips of the characters ‘fat-shaming’ women
  • Viewers said the TV shows prompted them to develop body image issues 

Beloved 2000s TV shows like Friends and How I Met Your Mother have been slammed after clips of the characters threatening to break up with their girlfriends if they got fat resurfaced.

Self-proclaimed body image coach Lucie Vallée, 29, ignited a fiery conversation surrounding the problematic comments made about women’s appearance in TV shows. 

In a viral video, which has amassed over 853,000 views, Lucie shared clips of characters in Friends, How I Met Your Mother, and Sex and the City claiming they would dump their partner if they gained weight. 

Lucie and other viewers were quick to share how watching the TV shows prompted them to develop body image issues and ‘eating disorders.’ 

Self-proclaimed body image coach Lucie Vallée, 29, ignited a fiery conversation surrounding the problematic comments made about women’s appearance in TV shows

In a viral video, Lucie shared clips of characters in Friends, and How I Met Your Mother (pictured) claiming to dump their partner if they gained weight

‘Me born in the 90s, wondering why I care so much about my weight,’ she said before cutting the to TV show clips. 

The first series she uses as an example is How I Met Your Mother. Lucie shows viewers a clip from a season seven episode, which aired in 2012. 

A character named Kevin, played by Kal Penn, says: ‘Robin, I want to marry you no matter what, assuming you don’t turn into a big fat fatty.’ 

The video then cuts to a scene of Friends where Monica, played by Courteney Cox, questions if Chandler, played by Matthew Perry, would still date her if she was ‘still fat.’ 

‘What if I was still fat? You wouldn’t be dating me that’s for sure,’ Monica says. 

Chandler responds: ‘Sure I would.’ 

When the other characters claim there was no possibility of the pair being a couple if Monica was overweight, Chandler insisted he was not that ‘shallow.’  

Ross, played by David Schwimmer, chimes in: ‘I just think Monica was that fat.’ 


Lucie shared a clip from Friends where the characters claimed Chandler wouldn’t have dated Monica when she was fat 

Lucie and other viewers were quick to share how watching the TV shows prompted them to develop body image issues and ‘eating disorders’

Barney in How I Met Your Mother, played by Neil Patrick Harris, claims that if someone refers to a woman as ‘cute’, it means she’s ‘fat’

‘I find it so sad how it’s implied that if your body doesn’t have a particular shape, then it would be impossible for you to ever find happiness in any kind of relationship,’ the body image coach said. 

Lucie explains that re-watching older shows made her realize there was a clear idea that to find love, you had to be thin. 

In a follow-up video, the 29-year-old shares more clips from TV shows that slam ‘fat’ women. 

In one episode of Friends, Chandler tells Ross he doesn’t want to be alone with his pal’s ‘fat sister.’ 

Barney in How I Met Your Mother, played by Neil Patrick Harris, claims that if someone refers to a woman as ‘cute’, it means she’s ‘fat.’ 

In an episode of Sex and the City, the characters are shocked by a pal’s belly. 

Lucie encouraged her followers to set boundaries for themselves and if anyone ever made jokes about their weight to stand up to them. 

‘It’s never okay for someone to comment on another person’s weight. If it’s hard for you to set the boundaries in those moments, maybe it wasn’t a normal thing to do in your environment growing up, but you change this pattern now,’ she explained. 


In an episode of Sex and the City, the characters are shocked by a pal’s belly, with one of them questioning ‘what’s with her gut?’

In one episode of Friends, Chandler tells Ross he doesn’t want to be alone with his pal’s ‘fat sister’


And while she still loves tuning into nostalgic TV shows, she noted that you can admire the series while recognizing the ‘problematic’ behavior

Speaking to Insider, Lucie shared that she hoped to inspire her followers to become confident in their skin, especially because she knew what it was like to be on the receiving end of weight-related comments because she suffered with anorexia and bulimia for 10 years. 

And while she still loves tuning into nostalgic TV shows, she noted that you can admire the series while recognizing the ‘problematic’ behavior. 

She told the outlet: ‘You can have both love and respect for this deep attachment you have for something and at the same time see that it was problematic.’ 

Viewers were quick to rush to the comments section to express their frustrations with the TV shows. 

One person wrote: ‘All that internalized fat phobia made me think I didn’t deserve love and I settled into such unhappiness it hurts.’ 

Viewers were quick to rush to the comments section to express their frustrations with the TV shows

Another user added: ‘I have obsessively thought about my body my entire life. I wonder what life would have been like without that fear.’ 

‘My mental health literally gets worse when I watch old shows,’ someone else wrote. 

One person said: ‘Thank you for all those clips – I have thought about this a lot, wondering if some of my insecurity came through decades of watching these shows.’ 

‘Oh my you are so right,’ commented another person. 

Someone else said: ‘This! What a trash time for media and TV – anti-fat bias was absolutely unhinged. We have so much damage to undo!’

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