Friends Opening Parodies

About

Friends Opening Parodies are a series of remixes and satirical remakes based on the opening credits of the popular American TV sitcom Friends.

Origin

The opening theme song of Friends, "I'll Be There For You," was co-written by the show's executive producers David Crane and Marta Kauffman, along with Phil Sōlem and Danny Wilde of the American pop rock duo The Rembrandts, who recorded the song as their first single from their third studio album LP.

The Song

Upon the release of the song in 1995, The Rembrandts' full-length studio version of "I'll Be There For You" soon began topping the charts in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada, largely driven by the immense popularity of the TV show in North America and overseas; In the U.S., the song topped the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay chart for eight weeks, while it peaked at #3 on the UK Singles Chart and peaked at #1 for five consecutive weeks in Canada.

The Music Video

The iconic music video of the song features the six main cast members of Friends singing and dancing to the song around a couch set in front of a fountain that resembles the Cherry Hill Fountain in Central Park, New York. However, contrary to popular belief, the music video was filmed on Warner Brothers' Ranch in Burbank, California. Song "I'll Be There For You" by The Rembrandts plays during the intro.

Spread

Throughout the mid-to-late 1990s, the Friends opening theme spawned a number of notable covers and parodies by other popular bands and TV shows of the decade; In 1996, American pop rock band The Goo Goo Dolls recorded a cover version of "I'll Be There For You," featuring slightly altered lyrics set to a more upbeat tempo and grungy sound, accompanied by a glockenspiel in the rhythm track. In 1997, American animated TV comedy series Animaniacs ran a parody rendition of the Friends theme song titled "We Won't Ever Leave" in an episode that spoofed the sitcom itself. In 1997, American punk rock band Pink Lincolns also covered the song for a compilation album titled Show & Tell.

Opening Parodies

Not long after the finale of the show aired in May 2004, a slew of comedy skits parodying and satirizing the opening began to surface on YouTube and other video-sharing sites, many of which featured footage from other popular films and TV shows, as well as news reels and historical footage, in the style of the Friends opening sequence.

Various Examples

Jay-Z “Moonlight” Parody

On August 4th, 2017, Jay-Z recreated the opening theme with an all black cast of comedians for his music video for the song “Moonlight.” The music video teaser was released on TIDAL’s twitter account and received over 4k likes. The full version of the music video was released on the music streaming service. The video stars comedian’s Issa Rae, Tiffany Haddish and Jerrod Carmichael as corresponding characters from Friends and aims to provide commentary of the diversity in Hollywood.

Denver Broncos Parody

On August 6th, 2017, the NFL team Denver Broncos posted a parody of the theme song on twitter for #NationalFriendshipDay.
The video gained over 4k likes and 2k retweets in just four days.

2019 Instagram Revival

In March 2019, the intro gained significant popularity on Instagram, with numerous edits using the song "I'll Be There For You" by The Rembrandts and following the structure of the intro posted by users. The trend caught up after on March 15th, 2019, Instagram user prodigy.exe posted a Florida-inspired edit following the intro structure (shown below).^[9] The post gained over 1.2 million views and 163,000 likes in twelve days. At least one earlier edit was posted on the platform in April 2018.^[10]

In the following weeks, numerous posts following the format were made by Instagram users, including notable edits by thicc.m4v^[11], nitro.if^[12] and utopiaofmemes.^[13]

Search Interest

External References