Matthew Perry Was an Ambassador of Gen X Snark for Today’s Young ‘Friends’ Fans

livemint.com:

As a voice of his generation, Matthew Perry’s was the one with the sarcasm. “I’m Chandler. I make jokes when I’m uncomfortable," says his signature character, Chandler Bing, in one episode of “Friends," meeting an awkward moment with a self-deprecating grin and a quip that sums up Perry’s crucial role in the comedy.

Of the sitcom’s six core cast members, Perry had the punchlines with the most bite. After absorbing yet another befuddled remark by his roommate, Matt LeBlanc’s Joey, Chandler deadpans, “OK, you have to stop the Q-tip when there’s resistance." Perry’s lines were a catalog of Gen X culture, with jokes involving the specifics of “Three’s Company," “The Waltons" and other references shared by audiences of his age raised in 1970s and ‘80s America. To younger “Friends" fans—Millennials and Gen Zers—who eventually found the show in their own eras, the sardonic tone of Perry’s character could sound as anachronistic as his pop-culture vocab.

And they loved him for it. “Even from the first episodes, he had these one-liners that really hit me," said 25-year-old Nikita Limoran of Toronto, describing how Chandler’s edge made him funny and endearing but also refreshing to young people who came of age with different social norms. “Everyone’s a little more sensitive now, so it’s hard to be that sarcastic as he was toward other people.