Every now and then there is a phenomenon that leaves me baffled and bewildered.

Herself has the radio on at the moment and as usual it’s a talk show. The topic of the moment seems to be the return of “Friends”, or rather a single “Friends Reunion”.

I’m going to nail my colours to the mast here [end of cliché] and state categorically that “Friends” is unfunny and unwatchable. It is crap. It is shite. It is utter garbage. It is an insult to the senses.

My first memory of the programme was back in my RTE days. There was a girl in the office who was a lovely girl in a lot of respects but she discovered “Friends” in its early days and every coffee break she would regale us at length with the hilarious incidents in the programme. Out of interest, I gave the programme a few minutes one evening and my worst fears were confirmed – over-acted, obvious slapstick and frankly about as funny as a bad dose of toothache.

Now apparently “Friends” are having a “reunion” which is to be aired imminently. The radio discussion consisted of guests raving about the programme and reminiscing on the hairstyles that the characters had and even recalling the very moment they saw their first episode. They talked about the characters as if they were real people and personal friends of theirs. It was unutterably sad. They are counting down the hours to the upcoming programme and would probably take the day off work, but judging from their level of education I doubt they are employable.

Mind you, it’s not just “Friends”. Closer to home, I could never watch “Mrs Brown’s Boys” which suffered from almost identical slapstick humour, over acting and obvious jokes. It baffles me that it has reached the heights of fame with constant repeats and even to the point of making a film. I cringe every time I see a “Mrs Brown” in the schedules and would rather watch one of the shopping channels or a God channel.

I don’t know if it’s my age, but humour isn’t what it used to be. There is the occasional programme that I find funny and will set the television to record in case I miss it – “Fleabag” is a case in point where the humour is quirky and nicely hits the spot. Most modern humour though is banana-skin slapstick and boring. They even stick in canned laughter to tell us there had been something funny in case we missed the point.

A thought has just crossed my mind. What’s the betting that this “Friends Reunion” is going to kick off a repeat of the entire fucking series on multiple channels?

God help us.