i was watching the season finale of friends the other night and i started thinking about something.* when did it become the eighth deadly sin to Hurt Joey? the more i thought of it, the more annoyed i became. i've watched this show from the beginning. i still really like it generally although i do have issues with it. i have become a little tired of some of their fallbacks; especially chandler-is-gay and monica-used-to-be-fat. how and ever, this joey thing is more disturbing, i think. the regular joey jokes are that he's dumb as a stump and has sex with a lot of girls. these are always played for laughs. okay, it's a situation comedy, but how many times are we supposed to laugh as joey continues to mistreat women? i know there are more problems with friends than joey's laddishness, but come on! over and over again the other five characters exhibit selective amnesia whenever a girl appears to be 'special' to joe ('special' seems to mean any woman he actually calls after having slept with her). like, who are these people? there was one episode in which monica was listing off people she wanted to invite to a party, after a couple of women's names joey spoke up:

j: you can't invite her.

m: why?

j: uh...'cause she steals.

c: and by 'steals' he means that he had sex with her and didn't call her.

it's pathological, man. he consistently is horrible to women (the girl with the wooden leg!) and not only are these 3 women still friends with him, now we're supposed to believe he's rachel's soul mate? actually, given their personalities, i would buy it. except for the part where joey's been scum to most every female he's encountered. yet these other five also make a huge point of going out of their way to keep him from getting hurt or having his heart broken. i guess the countless women he's steamrollered over don't have as good friends as good ol' joey does.

when phoebe's sister ursula decided to just stop calling joey instead of confronting and breaking up with him, phoebe pretended she was ursula and even kissed him during the 'breakup.' she went out of her way like this even though 'not calling' is joey's time-honored way of breaking up with someone. i know family is sacred, but there was not even a little irony noted in the episode where chandler makes out with one of joey's sisters. i mean, yeah, it was one of his sisters but for chrissakes, he didn't even sleep with her! i wouldn't be surprised if joe made out with girls without even realizing it.

then there's kathy. yes, chandler was a dick for kissing joey's girlfriend. but really, a little overkill on the guilt doncha think? with phoebe all "he would never do that to you" to ross chiming in with "if you'd asked him to step aside, he would have" we are inundated with the horribleness of Hurting Joey. seriously?? joey would have stepped aside? maybe. but wouldn't chandler, his bestest friend ever, have known that? i'm thinking he might have. and joey never would have done that? really? who knows that? and what, all of a sudden joe has some sort of secret, selective set of ethics? he'll fuck over a throng of nameless, faceless women but he's a good guy 'cause phoebe thinks he wouldn't kiss chandler's girlfriend, if chandler ever had one? um, does anyone recall that episode where joey gets monica to help him break up a couple?? yeah, whatever. and the wounded puppy dog shit joey pulled afterwards really got under my skin. he even brought up their place getting robbed because of him. i mean, yeah, a person is more important than a few chairs but the writers have made it pretty clear that women are pretty interchangeable with joey. and he does seem to care more about his recliner. and that robbery thing is just one of the times joey has let chandler down.*

but this charlie thing really takes the cake. first of all, ross obviously liked her and joe kissed her. that didn't seem to bother joe. but his puppy-dog-beaten-with-a-belt look resurfaced when he saw charlie and ross kissing. i'm not saying ross is the best friend in the world or anything, but they had broken up. and what is with his reason for not going for rachel? "i couldn't do that to ross"!!!?? do what to ross? rachel isn't his property! ross is the father of her child, not her father. what exactly would he be doing to ross? did he think ross still had feelings for her? and, like rachel says, it didn't bother him before when she turned him down. so his principles are subject to change. well, at least now we know. so by turning rachel down, joey's fucked up 'ethics' are intact; at least until he sees ross not abiding by joey's rules. then, by way of revenge, he goes back to rachel's room. i mean, huh? it's not as if i think joey's character deserves to be hurt. no one does. but he suffers no bad karma at all.* at least not enough to make him stop or to make him feel bad about what he does. the most we ever get is him worrying out loud about not ever finding "that one person." which is then undercut by him getting lucky, using his worries as a pick up line. *sigh* but the minute he feels someone has done something to him, he's totally the injured party and is allowed (?) to do something, like sleep with rachel, in retaliation. i bet rach is gonna feel all warm and fuzzy inside when she finds out why joe changed his mind.

now, i am glad joey and rachel are getting together. i think they make a good couple (way better than ross and rachel ever did). but who is to say that he's going to treat her well? 'cause she's rachel? well, if he was a real person, i would advise any woman, rachel or otherwise, to run a mile from him. but since he only exists in a fantasy world and next season is the last--i'd say joey found the dream girl he can settle down with.

*yes, i am aware it's only a television show.