Up@dawn 2.0

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

FRIENDS 1 (Michele Kelley H1G3)

Basically FRIENDS is the best TV show. Ever. Shows that are coming out now have been modeled after it. (How I Met Your Mother? same thing but not nearly as good.)

















































































See what I mean? Anyways, people can be catorigized by what FRIENDS character you are. Not a philosophical point, but oh so true. (For instance I am a Chandler). My point with all this is to show that there are philosophical points in this TV show. Sometimes I will evaluate characters, other times specific shows, or perhaps major events in the characters lives.

But let us move on. The first thing I want to do is evaluate is The One Where Phoebe Hates PBS.

The question is... "Is there any selfless good deed?"

Phoebe the optimist , says yes.
Joey the realist, says no.

Through a time of experiments on Phoebe's part, even after letting a bee sting her (the bee dies after stinging points out Joey), she discovers that there is not a selfless good deed. She feels good after every good thing she does.

However they are not talking strictly monetary reward or even praise by peers. Doing good deeds feel good, and the are suppose to. Sometimes they may hurt us , in the pocketbook or taking up time or even hard physical labor, but the reward of the good deed is much greater.

In a later episode, The One With the Home Study, Phoebe and her fiance Mike decide to donate their wedding fund to support a children's charity and just get married at city hall. Phoebe feels strongly that they should do this because she was homeless growing up. However, she also wants the dream wedding too, since she has never had anything extremely fancy like that. So, she and Mike go back and ask for the donation back, return it again, ask for it back, until the clerk finally gives them the money back finally and tells them that they will not accept the donation and to have their dream wedding. Soo... What do we do with this good deed?

Maybe Phoebe is learning a pragmatic view point, she is being practical. A lot of us have many things, but still we have not given everything away. Few people actually give up everything for a cause. We give when we can and when we fell compelled to. Sometimes it would be painful, not to have a wedding ceremony, but  I saw a more balanced way to see this. I would have donated the money in part or had my shower to collect a donation instead of presents.... but that is just me.

The message is, even though we sometimes do good deeds for the wrong reason, we are still doing good deeds. Then finally we will switch to doing the deed for the right reasons.


5 comments:

  1. I love this Michelle! I love both shows and I've thought about how similar they are before, but I never realized they were THAT similar! I think it's crazy how many philosophical ideas are in the tv shows we watch.. I guess that's what makes them so good.. when they're able to hit us on a deeper level. Can't wait for the rest of your posts!

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  2. Kaitlyn B.11:33 AM CDT

    I think this is great, I love both of these shows (friends is better) but that's just my opinion. I really liked the comparison picture you found and how you related the topics of the show to things we've been covering in class!

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  3. Brittany2:10 PM CDT

    I watch Friends every night. I'm glad you did this post. I never realized the many philisophical ideas in the series.

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  4. I'm not too familiar with Friends so blindly I can say that I sorta agree with the character of Phoebe. The good deed was done to try and help others, without thought of herself. Now in the subsequent changing of her mind it became less of a selfless act. However in the moment, the original act was done without showing care for her own being.

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  5. Awesome post, Michele!

    Yes, I agree that sometimes we have to do something "ritualistically" for a while before we actually do it because we want to do it. It takes time, but it's worth it in the end!

    Can't wait to see your next posts!

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