Abstract

In this paper I explore some of the meanings and consequences of the 9/11 terrorist attacks as represented in post-9/11 popular culture. I argue that 9/11, terrorism and New York City has been represented in many different ways in various post-9/11 pop-cultural spaces – from television and film, to the media and journalism and social networking websites. I suggest that the representations of 9/11, terrorism and New York City in post-9/11 episodes of the popular television program Friends are especially significant. The representations contained in these episodes are intriguing, surprising and, at times, puzzling. As such, I single out these episodes of Friends for special attention. I argue that the relationships between 9/11 and other programs found in American tele-visual culture such as Family Guy, American Dad, The Simpsons, How I Met Your Mother, The West Wing and 24 are – for the most part – less problematic than the relationships between 9/11 and post-9/11 episodes of Friends. I argue that Friends should be viewed as a special case that serves as a case study for understanding the meanings and consequences of 9/11 in post-9/11 tele-visual popular culture. In analysing these episodes I deploy the social theory of Slavoj Žižek, Zygmunt Bauman and Erich Fromm to articulate the traumatic meaning of post-9/11 Friends