The insufferable wokeness of David Schwimmer

The actor has suggested an ‘all-black or all-Asian’ reboot of Friends.

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In a crowded field of cloyingly woke celebrities, David Schwimmer (aka Ross from Friends) is becoming a real contender.

In a recent interview with the Guardian, he made clear he was ‘very aware of my own privilege as a heterosexual white male’.

When conversation turned to another series of Friends, the hit Nineties sitcom that typecast him forever, he suggested that ‘maybe there should be an all-black Friends or an all-Asian Friends’. Quite what the point of this would be, other than to signal Schwimmer’s and the showmakers’ virtue, is not quite clear.

This isn’t the first time the New York actor has made headlines for taking an achingly right-on stance. In the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, he was praised for offering a female reporter a chaperone for an interview, which was (as is often the case) taking place in a hotel room.

While actors can be forgiven for a tendency towards worthiness, the insufferably woke utterances of Schwimmer are at least a reminder of how identity politics is really about paternalism. It’s about self-described privileged people offering their patronage to women and minorities.

Such people think they have the power to boost people’s self-esteem through on-screen representation, and (in Schwimmer’s case) treat women in literally the same way as the Victorians did – as in need of protection from kindly chaperones. More self-awareness on the part of woke celebs is desperately needed.

Picture by: Getty.

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Comments

Neil McCaughan

3rd February 2020 at 2:04 pm

There was an Ayatollah-inspired version of The Golden Girls on TV years ago. The protagonists all wore burqas, and so were indistinguishable. Unable to see, they just bumped into the sets and each other.

Perhaps Friends could do something similar.

Ven Oods

2nd February 2020 at 9:35 am

I was always amazed that Schwimmer was reportedly the only one of the cast of Friends to have had a part written with him in mind.
Something must have gone badly wrong, since the episodes that I watched suggested that his was the weakest and least likeable character.
Admittedly, my pool of paleontological acquaintance is very limited, but I’m sure most of them aren’t such self-absorbed wimps.

christopher birkin

2nd February 2020 at 1:14 am

Only issue schwimmer has is lying about being hetrosexual, gay for sure but not out yet.

Ed Turnbull

31st January 2020 at 1:43 pm

I watched a few episodes of Friends ‘back in the day’ and found it to be insufferable garbage, though, to be honest, I found the ladies quite easy on the eye. (Oh no! Is my toxic patriarchal cis-hetero masculinity showing? I did ask Santa if he could bring me the girls from Friends and a gallon of baby oil for Crimbo, but he never granted my wish. Either I was on his Naughty Children List that year, or Santa’s an intersectional feminist…).

Anyway, I can’t see how changing the ethnicity of the cast (I didn’t notice Mr Schwimmer suggesting that they should all be Ashkenazi Jews, or maybe Amish) is going to create a better slice of light entertainment. I think the only solution for Friends is to apply what I like to call the ‘Ripley Doctrine’: take off and nuke it from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.

Chin chin!

christopher birkin

2nd February 2020 at 1:19 am

By his name schwimmer is jewish, but you are correct the woke brigade don’t want diversity of nationality they just want to parade a disproportionate amount of black faces on tv to grab woke points from each other.

Danny Rees

29th January 2020 at 10:21 pm

Very ironic as feminists and progressives view his Friends character Ross Geller as the very epitome of a toxic white fragile male. They even labelled Ross as an MRA because he dares rebuke Rachel for negatively generalising men.

jessica christon

29th January 2020 at 9:56 pm

It’s not as mad as it sounds. Lately, everything that predates woke has to have a woke reboot (black female 007, etc.) I’d rather just leave it down the memory hole.

Eliot Jordan

29th January 2020 at 8:21 pm

Could he be more of a tool?

Matt Ryan

29th January 2020 at 10:34 pm

Woke
Tool
Twat
Cunt

All coincidentally 4 letter words.

Michael Lynch

29th January 2020 at 8:10 pm

To a man of my generation there is nothing worse than seeing another man crawl on his belly out of sheer cowardice and that’s precisely what Schwimmer is doing. After ‘Friends’ had typecast him he has had no choice but to eek out a living on the periphery of Hollywood; a tenuous place between being somebody and a nobody. If he doesn’t network as an ardent ‘woke’ his career could well and truly be over at any moment. Personally, I’d rather eat my own crap than have to carry on like that.

jessica christon

29th January 2020 at 10:00 pm

Harsh but true. Top comment.

Ven Oods

2nd February 2020 at 9:40 am

“he has had no choice but to eek out a living”
I know he comes over as timid, but that should still be ‘eke out a living’.

Michael Lynch

3rd February 2020 at 3:31 am

They ought to give you the job of spellchecker on here!

nick hunt

29th January 2020 at 4:56 pm

Another title comes to mind: the unbearable lightness of being woke

Michael Lynch

29th January 2020 at 8:11 pm

Excellent!

John Lewis

29th January 2020 at 4:04 pm

Maybe there already is an all-black equivalent of friends in, say, Uganda.

Or even an all-Asian equivalent in, oh I don’t know, Malaysia perhaps?

Schwimmer actually may be a bigger dickhead than his character.

R Rodd

29th January 2020 at 5:22 pm

There was already a U.S. TV show called “Girlfriends”. It was rather good.

steven brook

29th January 2020 at 3:02 pm

Ladies, protect yourselves whilst in railway carriages entering tunnels by placing protruding hat pins in your mouth.

Jonnie Henly

29th January 2020 at 1:38 pm

“More self-awareness on the part of woke celebs is desperately needed.”

Translation: shut up and stop saying things we don’t agree with.

Jim Lawrie

29th January 2020 at 3:41 pm

The article did not disagree with an all black remake. It just asked what would be the point. Perhaps, Jonnie Boy, you could extol the virtues of such a venture. Or an all gay version. In real life a household of lesbians and gay boys would be great fun for those not living in it. Though it wouldn’t be called friends for very long.

Jonnie Henly

29th January 2020 at 6:11 pm

Are you speaking from experience there Jim?

Or are is your take merely based on prejudice?

nick hunt

29th January 2020 at 4:55 pm

So is that way of silencing those with opposing opinions as effective as the wankerati mob all calling Lawrence Fox a wacist?

Joseph Brown

29th January 2020 at 5:01 pm

At a stab I’d say the irony of your own comment is completely lost on you…

Jonnie Henly

29th January 2020 at 6:10 pm

At a stab I’d say you wouldn’t be able to convincingly describe said irony if you tried. Because there isn’t any…

Ven Oods

2nd February 2020 at 9:38 am

“Translation: shut up and stop saying things we don’t agree with.”

I’d have thought it was more: Stop believing that what you think or say is really influential. Judging by the effects of the celeb input to the last election, that’s probably reasonable advice.

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