The Best Friend Trope, Explained 

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Can we just talk about how Sandra Oh went from being the POC best friend to the white woman in “Under the Tuscan Sun,” to being the POC best friend to the white woman in “Grey’s Anatomy,” to finally getting to be the protagonist in “Killing Eve,” tho? Like, she finally got her due and I love that

I can’t tell you how done I am of the “black best friend” trope. That needs to be thrown out the whole window.

The Best Friend Trope", otherwise known as the fun, more interesting character that gets treated like crap by the protagonist. I would love to see a show or movie where the Main character is actually a *good friend* to their so-called Best Friend. It always seems like the main character is so self-involved and vain because they're dealing with the plot and the best friend just takes kind of takes it.

I'm really loving this trope series. Can you do one explaining the "Final Girl" trope from horror/slasher movies?

My bestfriend since I was 5 is a beautiful, kind, intelligent women who looks like Jessica Alba. She got the highest grades at her school was amazing at sports and is basically the prototype for perfect main character who everyone likes and is good at everything. I did have moments of jealously towards her when I was younger sure (not many). But now I am so happy for her and I want nothing but the best most joyous life for her. Also she works in a hospital and is helping fight corona right now, so she is truly selfless and a hero to me.

Samwise Gamgee did not carry the Ring of Power and Frodo Baggins into the heart of Mordor to be called "not a protagonist"!

this made me realize i need to prioritize my friendships more. but also we are in a quarantine so that isn't really going to work

All movie childhood best friends: *”yOu”Ve ChAnGeD”*

I often feel like the "best friend" - I'm there when needed for advice, emotional support, helping with things, and maybe their personal character growth. Otherwise I'm fairly invisible.

YES, I've been looking for them to deconstruct this trope! "Sex Education" defies this overdone cliche extremely well, by not defining Eric as solely the Black and Gay Best Friend to lead Otis, as he has his own problems, life and relationship dramas outside of Otis. All the more reason to adore this show!

I'm waiting for the Avatar series, or even the Rebel/Blacksheep trope. Since they already made the child prodigy trope.

I think it’s kinda sad and telling about the Hollywood industry when in these trope explaining videos we only ever see white characters, yet only when explaining the best friend “token” trope, we see the most diverse set of characters yet 😬

In Pride and Prejudice, Charlotte is described as being plain, and at the end of her marriageable years. She worries about being a burden on her family and makes the wise choice to face reality and make the most of the cards she was dealt. Lizzie on the other hand is pretty and young. Lizzie comes from a family that will become destitute once their father dies, and yet she acts only in her own self interest, prioritizing romantic love over her families safety. This works out for Lizzie in the end because P&P is fictional. Jane Austens own life didn't work out quite as well, though her personal circumstances mirrored those of the Benetts' in many ways. In the real world, sometimes it's better to be a Charlotte.

i saw this title and immediately thought of the hilarious and gorgeous Judy Greer.

The Cool Girl: Male Fantasy The Nice Guy: Female Fantasy The Best Friend: All Heartbroken People's Fantasy

Your 'Trope, explained' series are some of the best analyses of pop culture characters I've ever seen! I get so excited whenever y'all post one of these.❤

Judy Greer is SO underrated, smh

Fun fact: i watch your take on movies i have never seen before. I just love your analyses and now i have a lot of knowledge and opinions on media i have never seen

I think a lot of people like the “best friend” better than the main character because the main might seem perfect. A lot of main characters don’t seem like real people because it’s intimidating when someone has no flaws. For example: Harry Potter. I know that Harry has flaws, but his flaws were often pushes aside to focus on how he was the “chosen one.” Rowling spent so much time emphasizing how he was powerful and intelligent, she forgot to write an interesting character. That’s why a lot of people like Ron and Heromine better.

I think Best Friends are sometimes even better written than love interests and people often times forget how platonic relationships are as important as romantic ones. Also Princess and the Frog inverts the usual best friend set up with the underprivileged girl of color being the protagonist, while the privileged white girl is the best friend.

This one I thought was very funny, because I am overweight, gay and has dyslexia and my best friends have always been these beautiful skinny smart people (that I love more than anything) but sometimes it’s hard not to take it personal when everyone else kinda ignores your for them. But that’s the thing isn’t it, they never ignore you or treat you badly it’s always someone else and to make matters worse it’s off in yourself that put your needs second

I stop being a few girl’s friends because this. You have to be each other’s sidekicks.

WHY WASN'T RON IN THIS VIDEO?

I’ve always felt like I was “the best friend”. Do you guys ever feel like you aren’t the main character in your own life? You feel like the side character or the background character? That’s why I think I empathize with the side characters more than the main ones.

I loved how Duff flipped the script on the best friend trope.

Weird request, but I think it would be interesting to see your analysis of The Most Popular Girls in School, despite being ridiculous I think it has very interesting character dynamics, friendships and even development

thats one of those things I love about "Skins": all are friends to each other with well defined backstories, lifes, problems and plots

That's me. I'm the best friend character.

11:45 "can you ever just be whelmed?" so that's where that line comes from

Love Judy Greer, when I think of the most beautiful actresses she never comes to mind yet when she's onscreen she's the one I crush on regardless of who is standing next to her.

Sam from LOTR had his own complete arc and story. He was a fully fleshed out character, not just "Frodo's best friend". He arguably is the true hero and he gets his personal happy ending while Frodo does not. Just because Sam is being supportive and endlessly loyal does NOT mean he is a "Best Friend TM"! Imma fight people on this!

I'm always really annoyed when a movie set in middle school or high school has kids talking about the social hierarchy. yes, the hierarchy exists but kids dont talk about it or necessarily dream about being at the top. Also, the group considered the "top" isnt always football players and cheerleaders as teen movies would have us believe. Please make a video on this!

This made me cry. YES YES YES Friendships are important! And it is so important to not be jealous of their success, but to encourage them and yourself to be a better version of oneself and to aim for the stars! To lift each other up and be in the first row to applaud. You are not in their shadow, you are their light.

Certain "Token" best friends can be occasionally done right if they're given their own story and issues, which especially can be done well in serialized shows cause they have time to explore the character in moments without the protagonist. Sex Education's Eric, Euphoria's Jules, and All Americans Coop are best friends done right in my opinion, by having their own issues and character traits explored, while also giving them screen time and sometimes whole episodes without the protagonist being heavily involved.

You missed Daria Morgendorffer and Jane Lane of the MTV animated series, "Daria". Both acid-tongued socially-distant hetero life-partners, but in very different ends of the spectrum. Daria is a bookish intellectual with an aptitude for literature, whose parents are workaholics; and Jane is an artist of varying media and also a fun-runner, whose parents are wholly neglectful and core-family are spread far-apart.

perfect opportunity to put in blair and Serena's fight from gossip girl

As a single 29 year old woman, living alone during this quarantine, with an amazing best friend 3000 miles away... I commend you for taking the time to acknowledge the importance of friendship. This hit home, and moved me to tears, while also being an excellent dissection of a common character trope. Bravo ❤️

I also noticed with the black best friend thier almost always portrayed like their white female friends 'Hype girl' and are very one dimensional in character like they have only one personality trait. Thier also always stereotypically portrayed as 'Sassy or Trendy'. Just my thought

Hey! Judy Greer doesn’t just play the “Best Friend”, she also plays “The Shrill Ex-Wife” and “Concerned Mom”! Get it right!

I really love the trope, can u do the 'fat girl trope'

We need a margarey tyrell analysis ..... Also the femme fatale trope and rich bad boy .... Plz

As a Type 2 on the Enneagram, a theatre nerd, and a person whose highest priority in life is people/friendship, this video is my absolute favorite one that y'all have done. The intersectionality, the self-awareness, the diversity, the solutions, all of it is just a chef kiss. Wow.

I'm currently binging Gilmore Girls on Netflix and am actually surprised by how well they characterized Sooki. I was intially afraid she would be a fat-friend stereotype, but she actually is a well-rounded, likeable character. She is the first out of the female characters to get into a loving, stable relationship, and Lorelai and Rory are supportive of her when she starts her new family. Of course, Lorelai is very demanding and demands a lot of support from Sooki, but she isn't just one-dimensional and has her own life. Lane also started out as a best friend trope but ended up getting a life outside of being Rory's friend.

Would love to see a character study on Christina Yang.

I always felt like the "best friend/sidekick" growing up, my best friend was prettier, outspoken, interesting, she decided everything and I was always unnoticed (I have a slew of stories where people with us forgot who I was but never her). Then I worked with a girl in high school and she had a similar friendship where she felt over shadowed and passive. We became close, ended up living together for our early 20's and now I'm her maid of honour, we went from being the "best friends" to having a healthy equal friendship with each other!

The bad boy trope please! I’ll keep commenting this until you do lol.

"Best Friend isn't a person, it's a tier"- The Mindy Project

The rom-com doesn't have much time for friends. It's not about them

I've been writing a movie called "Sidekick" for the past few months trying to talk about this exact thing. My character actually wants to be the best friend character more than anything, and her struggle is that her best friend refuses her attempts to help. It's not the story I thought I would write when I started, because I've always been frustrated with all the things this video is talking about with the way that the supporting characters are more interesting and never get enough attention. But really, I think the core of many best friend characters is that they define themselves by the person they are supporting. It's sometimes said that every hero needs a sidekick, but I think everything points to the opposite: that every sidekick needs a hero. So (spoilers for anyone who cares) my character leaves her "protagonist" at the end. In case this story never sees the light of day, I want to put what I've learned from writing it here because it has changed my life. Being a sidekick doesn't mean putting someone else before you, or putting your life on hold. A lot of it is about wanting to help your friend(s), but sometimes they won't want your help and THAT IS NOT YOUR FAULT. But most of it is about knowing that you are enough without your "hero". You don't need to have a hero to be a sidekick. If you can get to a place where you love yourself and you are willing to be a selfless friend, then you are a sidekick. And someday, you're going to meet someone who appreciates that. It might take a while, but it'll happen. Thanks for making this video. And especially for including Troy and Abed. I thought for a minute that you were gonna forget about the best on-screen friends ever, but you didn't.

Could you make a video on representation of Tomboys in media? Would be nice 😊. Nice work as always.

I was that character in high school.

The whole basis of Judy Greer's career.

"Best friends are usually the token" The MCU can make their own Avengers team with their token best friends

this almost comes as a "cheer up, you got this" kind of video. I've always been plagued by the ''bestfriend' mindest. Ever since I was a kid and I learned from a young age that some of us were "main characters" while the rest were just"bestfriends" or "the comic relief". I've slowly been working on trying to become the main character of my story and so far it's been going like shit on a platter. So this video is really helpful and does a lot more than just painting a detailed picture of a recurring trope tht always haunted my life. Thank you a lot for it.

This trope made me idealize friendship to the point where I spent most of my teenage years looking for that One Best Friend who doesn't exist. And when I thought I had found that best friend, I acted like the super loyal, encouraging, always-there-with-no-life-of-her-own Best Friend and it only broke my heart because, obviously, friendship doesn't work like that. Friendship is a two way street and you have to give and take in equal measure or you'll feel underappreciated and resentful towards that person. Now we still talk ocassionally but we have grown distant because we have different goals for our lives and That's OKAY. Friendships come and go. The romantization of Best Friends is just as harmful in my opinion to that of The One Romantic Interest as it sets wrong expectations on people which can end up hurting a lot more in the long run.

I kind of hate how this trope is used for tokenism, as the video touches, the best friend is usually that black character in the story that is there just to be there.

You missed Paisley and Lexis relationship from “Ant farm” . 😂

When I think about the best friend trope i always remember lane kim, from gilmore girls. She was always an amazing friend to rory and rory was always "ok, nice, but let me tell you about dean, or jess, or harvard, or yale, or whatever... anything but you"

I’ve come to realize that seeing my friends succeed is just as important to me as seeing myself succeed-it’s exciting to see that highlighted by this video

A well known but very underrated trope. Also I hope for a video of the Blood Knight Trope the character who is violent by nature but has a lot of character depth.

You argue that the Best Friend is never the main character - when that's by definition since they are best friend to the protagonist You even mention the exception, Ferris Bueler, who is best friend to the protagonist Cameron, but complain that Cameron's the Best Friend who doesn't get to be the main character If you recentred the film around Cameron, you'd be complaining that whacky, charismatic Best Friend Ferris didn't get to be the main character Otherwise your usual grest video!

I have literally been binge watching your videos. It is currently 5 in the morning lol. I love your views on how much film really plays a role on how we portray the world. Please keep doing what you're doing. It really makes me think

"We all see ourselves as the main characters of our own lives, and there's a room in the frame for us and our friends to stand shoulder to shoulder, equally bright, reflecting each others glow" Thank you for this, The Take.

In crazy ex girlfriend Paula was written as the archetype of the the best friend, her whole life turns around Rebecca at a point where it’s toxic for the both of them. Paula put herself in that position cause she always felt like she wasn’t good enough to want things for herself but when she realize she is, she became her own person with her own goals and life and that was one of the most beautiful thing that happened in the show

You actually took our suggestions to do the token black best friend! Thank you!!

This was a really wholesome watch and shows how great friendship really is. Sometimes we forget but friendship is unmatched

Okay, I never comment but I looooooooove your videos. I watched most of them during lockdown while watching classics. I became so fancy now talking about movies and tropes with friends.

They’re so often a POC so that the show can be like ‘look!!! Equality!! We’re so woke!!!’ But really it’s just they can’t put a POC as the protagonist because some white people will think that’s all there is to their character and won’t be able to ‘relate’ or something. It’s like having a disabled person or gay person as the protagonist: clearly that defines their entire personality! Every single time where I think oh maybe this film will have a POC as the protagonist or love interest even... NOPE just two white people trying to bang while the POC bff gets treated like crap the whole film despite being a really good friend. Shocking.

Tolkien actually said that Sam is the true protagonist of Lord of the Rings.

i feel so lucky and appreciative to have a best friend. she means the world to me and the trust and support we give eachother gives my life so much meaning, guidance and positivity. i love her so much, and living 9 time zones away now makes it all the more important to keep in contact and share our lives w each other day to day. i love technology for that. remind your bestie you love them! your relationship is important to maintain

there are countless love stories but not enough friendship stories. Stories where the main focus is a friendship. some ppl will be like "but it's not as appealling" but it actually is.

Looks like I'm watching booksmart again😂

19:46 I find it interesting that you use this quote where Oprah tells us what SHE thinks Gayle feels about the situation 😄 It’s definitely a pattern with Lady O

I only now realized how much i love this "trope" series. Every new episode i just know that i am going to love.

Honestly this just reminds me how lucky I got with my own best friend! We really are the cliche of just “drop everything, if you need me, I’m there” sort of friendship where significant parts of our lives do kind of revolve around making the other’s life better and happier, but because it’s entirely mutual instead of being a weird imbalance, it’s honestly just really beautiful and amazing? Life sucks, but it’s nice to know there’s one person in it who always has your back, no questions asked.

You missed to mention House's best friend Wilson. I feel like this relationship worth analisys.

LMFAO, I surprised myself with how fast I clicked on this. I always look forward to your videos. Keep it up dude! (Before the video: I've seen black girls/boys as the "funny best friend" so much, and it DOES affect us. People always expect us to be funny or cool or sassy. It feeds into stereotypes. Also, as a member of the LGBT community, I can't tell you how many times I've heard "UgHhH I WANT A GAY BEST FRIEND :((" like our sexuality is our personality...wth)

I know I’m dumb but this kinda made me tear up. I had a close friend for 10 years that I thought was my platonic true love and then after a big issue in my life I realized she was manipulative and abusive. It was hard to cut her off but I had to. since then I’ve wished for this deep friendship again. I just feel broken.

Man, I feel this personally. Because I’m really empathetic and good at problem solving, I like to hear people out and try my best to life them up. I like helping others and putting a smile on their face. I know what it’s like to have a hard life so I like making others comfortable and happy while around me. This led to a lot of people using me for advice and when I needed to vent, they weren’t there. All I wanted was to be treated with the same kindness they liked to be treated with but I guess they only wanted to receive it.

I am that Introvert Bestfriend, who got adopted by this Popular Extroverted Girl at School. And guess what? Before we became bestfriends, we were enemies. Plus, she is so popular at school that she got tons of friends and guys liking her. And me? I am her quiet friend that always stay at the dark while she gets all the spotlight (I don't mind tho). But if she ever gets into trouble and needed someone to lay her head against? I will always and will be there. If she wanted someone to entrust her secrets to, I am there patiently waiting for her to open up. Story Time: I remember when I told her that I will not go to the school party last year, she barge into my door wearing her beautiful blue dress and said, "Dress up! We are going to a 1 week trip if you're not going to the school party!" We got lost in Japan XD

I'm early! How nice. I've been looking forward to this

Thank you so much for making these tripe videos they are so good!!!

This ended up being so heartwarming!

I like it when the BFF suddenly becomes the hero, as in The Lord of the Rings.

You guys are legendary.

We asked for this and they gave us😀 Thank you, the Take!

I think a great example of best friend is in Brooklyn 99 with Jake and Charles both have their story arcs and enough screentime I love that series

I think Teen Wolf is a good example of how this can backfire sometimes. Stiles became the stand out favorite of the whole show and (as someone who watched from the first season) a lot of it was people so vehemently hating how the main character treated his best friend and abandoned him for a girl he just met. Stiles almost became the main character from Season 2 onward to the point where a whole season was about finding out what was wrong with him and saving him.

i love these videos!

I wanna say thank you for introducing me to My Brilliant Friend. I'm obsessed , one of the best series I watched

Shoulder to shoulder, equally bright, reflecting each others glow... that sounded so good!

Being "the best friend" is the story of my life

Iron Man and War Machine is one of the best male BFF on screen throughout the MCU. Same can be said for Captain America and Falcon.

I love your videos! I always get excited to see a new one

Very inspiring video! You’ve helped me sort out my plot in my writing.

Living Single is a great show

Judy Greer will always be two words to me - "Spring Break!!!" (obligatory flashing, of course.)

The timing of this video is amazing. My best friend of 30 years committed suicide this week. She sent me a message telling me goodbye. My heart is broken in such a way that I'm not sure it'll ever heal back right. She was so kind and so smart. She had a light that is indescribable. I keep asking myself if I could have been a better friend to her. As adults we grow apart from the people that we grew up with. But if you have a friend that you love, reach out to them. Let them know you're there and be there if they need you. If you're a friend who is hurting, contact someone that you love and ask for help. I wouldn't wish this pain on anyone ever.

please continue this series, I love it so much