First, let me begin by saying that I think The Big Bang Theory is a fantastic series. It’s a personal favorite and I vehemently believe that it’s also one of the greatest sitcoms of all time.
However, when you try and compare it to a show like Friends , any series is always going to come up wanting. The hard truth is that The Big Bang Theory will never be as good as Friends .
To start off, *Friends* is far more relatable.
What do you find more relatable: a show that focuses on the lives of six best friends in their 20s, navigating the ins and outs of life and love, or a series about a gang of juvenile physicists with social PTSD?
Friends has an episode for literally everything you’re likely to encounter down life’s road: from breakups to childbirth. Whereas The Big Bang Theory seems content with an on-the-surface relationship with its audience.
In *Friends* we see actual character growth, whereas *The Big Bang Theory* exists in a state of perpetual arrested development.
When we first meet Chandler, he is so deathly afraid of commitment, he’s to the point of being self-sabotaging. Rachel went from a spoiled daddy’s girl shopping with her father’s credit card to an executive at one of the most prestigious clothing stores in the world.
Sheldon Cooper, on the other hand, still eats Thai food on Mondays. He’s still a complete and total jerk, and for some reason — everyone is still putting up with it.
The rewatch value of *Friends* is incomparable to that of *The Big Bang Theory*.
How many times have you rewatched The Big Bang Theory in your lifetime from start to finish? Once, maybe twice if at all? Now, how many times have you rewatched Friends ? I rest my case.
What makes Friends such an exceptional TV show is that you can constantly take away new things from each viewing. That and the fact that the jokes never get old. No matter how many times you hear them — not ever.
Chandler Bing’s one-liners will never not be funny.
Sure, The Big Bang Theory is heavily ladened with its own unique high-brow sense of humor. But in the history of television, there will never be someone so sarcastic, so utterly and fantastically witty, like Chandler Bing.
Every word that comes out of his mouth is a joke; the guy is a human laugh-track. Even if you combined every character on The Big Bang Theory , they still wouldn’t equal one Chandler Bing.
Howard Wolowitz has nothing on Phoebe Buffay’s musical talent.
I’m a musician myself and Game respects Game. I’m not saying that Howard doesn’t hold his own on the ivories, nor am I saying that he isn’t a formidable songwriter in his own way.
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But Phoebe Buffay wrote ” Smelly Cat ,” arguably the greatest original television song of all time. Ask yourself, if Howard Wolowitz and Phoebe Buffay were hosting their own concerts on the same night, who would you go and see?
Because “How you doin’?” is an infinitely better catchphrase than “Bazinga!”
If I’m being honest, I always hated whenever Sheldon said “Bazinga!” after one of his ‘classic pranks.’ It just felt so forced, so lazy and unoriginal. I also never really understood how Sheldon couldn’t understand sarcasm, yet was completely adept at the art of pranking?
“How you doin’?” on the other hand, became a cultural catchphrase . It infiltrated our society in a way that Sheldon hasn’t even come close to being able to achieve.
Lastly, *The Big Bang Theory* actually steals a lot of its best jokes from *Friends*.
Believe it or not, creator Chuck Lorre is a bit of a biter when it comes to writing jokes. Some of the best scenes in Friends have been recreated with little to no deviation in The Big Bang Theory .
For instance, Sheldon’s rationale for why he chose his spot on the couch is painstakingly similar to Joey’s explanation for why he positioned Rosita (his armchair) in the center of the room.
For these reasons and more, Friends will always outperform The Big Bang Theory .