Opening- The Funny Man
Winston, Phoebe, and Marshall fill the category of comedic relief, the funny man. They are not necessarily the funniest characters on screen but they are the quirkiest and goofiest and that breaks the tension from the more serious storylines that their friends carry. Yes it seems that this title should go to Chandler, but the reality is though he was funny he wasn’t really on the show for comic relief. What these characters have in common is quirks and inconsequentialism. They all get their own storylines of course, but they all seem separate from the rest of the group, nothing they do truly has any effect on anyone else. I’ve come to the vague conclusion that that means that you could remove them from their shows completely and it really wouldn’t change the overall story or the other characters that much. Funny isn’t enough to stay relevant.
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Conclusion
For the most part there are no major moral failings in these characters because, quite frankly, they are less relevant to the overall story and the surrounding characters. They add humor, whether you consider them funny or not. On one hand I think that if you remove them completely the overall story and show would not be that much different but on the other hand it feels like they fill some sort of necessary void and if they left there would be something missing from the show. We will explore this in the deep dive analysis and comparison of these three shows. Another thing that I think needs to be mentioned is though these are actually (with the exception of Marshall) my least favorite characters in their respective shows. That said I think they each add something of relevance even if that is just perspective for the main characters. These are also as close as we get to side characters in ensemble casts.