Friends sent Monica and Chandler off on their honeymoon in the episode where Rachel sold Ross she’s pregnant.
It was scheduled to air shortly after 9/11, so they replaced a scene at airport security where Chandler makes a joke about a bomb and winds up in questioning.
I was just making a joke. I know the sign says no jokes about bombs, but shouldn’t the sign really say “no bombs.” I mean isn’t that the guy we really have to worry about here, the guy with the bombs? Not the guy who jokes about his bombs, not that I have bombs, because if I did I probably wouldn’t joke about about them. I’d probably want to keep that rather quiet.
Sadly, it’s not really that original a gag.
It’s strange to think back to the time shortly after 9/11, you really couldn’t have reasonable dialogue about things like airport security, the creation of a new super German-sounding federal mega-agency, or ‘Merica. Even now, as this old deleted Friends scene just now goes viral it’s scolded as an inappropriate joke. Yet there’s a certain amount of truth there…
(HT: Roadwarrior Voices)
It is not an inappropriate joke in modern day. However, having lived in NYC during 9/11 and actually have flown AA to Europe shortly after flights were resumed post 9/11 (the passenger jet was really empty- as in everyone had an entire row of seats to themselves) I do recall the climate at that time. It was a good move to pull this scene and the right thing to do at the time. They could have put it back in for the syndication episodes a few years later though.
I remember flying ORD-LHR shortly after flights resumed and there wasn’t more than a handful of passengers in Y (I think the flight was well under $300). Everyone on the flight was on edge.
I also remember the incredible amount of goodwill I encountered by strangers of all different nationalities on the streets of London when they heard my American accent. Shame that goodwill was all squandered so quickly.