How The Cast Of Friends Once Ended Up In A Feud With Kanye West
The cast of "Friends" has had a real-life friendship for nearly 30 years. Back when they starred in the Emmy-winning comedy series, cast members Jennifer Aniston, David Schwimmer, Courteney Cox, Matt LeBlanc, Lisa Kudrow, and Matthew Perry famously banded together to negotiate a group salary increase that ballooned to a history-making $1 million per episode for the show's final two seasons. It was all for one and one for all.
While they are no longer Central Perk regulars, the cast members are still proud of the show they made. In October 2022, Cox even called out rapper Kanye West, aka Ye, when he dared to diss "Friends." In a since-deleted Twitter post, West wrote that he didn't think the long-running sitcom was funny. In a later post, he alleged that he doesn't pen all of his own tweets. "I actually didn't write the tweet that said 'Friends wasn't funny either' but I wish I had. I'd love to know who thought of that," West told his followers.
Cox caught wind of the comment and hit back in an Instagram video that went viral. In the clip, Cox is seen listening to West's 2008 single "Heartless" as she scrolls through her Instagram feed. When she lands on his post dissing "Friends," she turns off his music. "I bet the old Kanye thought 'Friends' was funny," Cox captioned the post, which has been liked more than 475,000 times. Cox's "Old Kanye" was in reference to the rapper's early music in contrast to his newfound Ye persona.
Jennifer Aniston said voting for Kanye West is not funny
Speaking of funny, the whole drama dates back to 2020, when "Friends" star Jennifer Aniston warned voters not to waste their vote on Kanye West during the presidential election. In a lengthy Instagram post, Aniston declared her support for the Joe Biden/Kamala Harris ticket, then went on to list the reasons why she couldn't vote for Donald Trump. She noted that the ultra-important election was not about "one candidate or one single issue" but was about "the future of this country and of the world." She added, "PS – It's not funny to vote for Kanye. I don't know how else to say it. Please be responsible," of West's piggyback presidential campaign as an independent candidate.
West had a retort for Aniston's PSA. "Wow that Rogan interview got em shook," he wrote, in reference to his rambling interview on "The Joe Rogan Experience," adding, "Let's gooooooooo." Soon after, that faux "Friends isn't funny either" tweet circulated.
David Schwimmer publicly called out Kayne West
The ladies of "Friends" aren't the only ones who've beefed with Kanye West. David Schwimmer has been vocal about his disdain for the "Ultralight Beam" rapper. In an Instagram post in October 2022, Schwimmer called out West as being antisemitic after the rapper tweeted he was "going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE," then added, "The funny thing is I actually can't be Anti Semitic because black people are actually Jew." Schwimmer fired back with: "Whether or not Kanye West is mentally ill, there's no question he is a bigot. His hate speech calls for violence against Jews. If we don't call someone as influential as Kanye out for his divisive, ignorant, and antisemitic words then we are complicit."
The "Friends' star also joined a petition to urge Adidas to cut ties with West and his Yeezy sneaker collection after the rapper boasted on the "Drink Champs" podcast that the company would never part ways with him. "The thing about me and Adidas is like, I can literally say antisemitic s**t, and they can't drop me. I can say antisemitic things, and Adidas can't drop me," West said on the podcast. Weeks later, Adidas ended its six-year partnership with West, according to CBS News. We're guessing he's skipping the "Friends" reruns for now.