Class Representation

The characters were mainly middle-class and lived in spacious, nice apartments. However like other sitcoms, they were only shown at their job sometimes. They were often shown hanging out in either the apartments they lived in or their local coffee shop, The Central Perk. In some of the earlier episodes, each of the characters, with the exception of Ross, experience being jobless without an income. yet are still able to afford their apartment, luxuries, etc. They are usually shown in dressier clothing, especially in the later seasons.

In the last season, the character Erica was introduced. Later in the series, Monica and Chandler get married. After learning they are unable to conceive children, they begin looking to adopt. Monica and Chandler plan to adopt Erica's baby after gives birth. She comes from a country-like, lower class background. In the episode ‘The One Where Joey Speaks French,’ her origins are made fun of by joking that the baby will be named Jiminy Billy Bob. Chandler is especially not fond of this. Although Erica is the deliverer of the joke, Monica has suggested it, making Erica, unwittingly, the butt of the joke. The class difference between the characters is shown in a joking matter, poking fun at the lower class. The show also jokes about Erica’s intelligence. She is shown as not knowing much about her pregnant body. In ‘The One With Rachel’s Going Away Party’ Erica confuses her contractions with being random stomachs aches. In the first part of the series two-part finale episode, Erica also discovers she is pregnant with twins. She misinterprets the doctor’s information about two heartbeats as her own heartbeat and the baby’s. Since she is of a lower class, it is assumed that she must not be intelligent. The many jokes about her pregnancy also send a message about her, along with other lower-class people, being unfit mothers. These messages display ideas of the upper class being superior and the lower class being inferior.