If you're in your 20s, Friends might have been the defining sitcom of your youth/student-day hangovers. Everyone and their mum watched it and the interactions (that lunge), catchphrases ('How you doin'?'), songs (seriously, what* are* they feeding Smelly Cat?) and even storylines – unless you're lucky enough to have never endured being On A Break before – might have impacted on your life in myriad ways.
READ MORE: 10 Years On Here Are Some Questions We're Still Asking About Friends
But we've always been taught that the biggest enduring cultural influence the show had on the world was The Rachel. The flicky hair-do sported by Jennifer Aniston's character was basically second to Farrah Fawcett's Charlie's Angels side-flicks when it comes to legendary female locks, so much so that even Jennifer herself admitted that The Rachel was beyond her reach sometimes.
READ MORE: Jennifer Aniston Admits Even She Struggled To Do The Rachel Hair At Home
However, all that is ancient history when it comes to Generation Z, as Miley Cyrus has shown us. Let us explain in a sentence that is basically so 2014 you might have to read it twice. After Bangerz tourmate Sky Ferreira instagrammed a photo of her grown-out hair with the comment 'THE RACHEL IS REAL', Miley Cyrus screen-grabbed it and sent it to her 14-year-old sister, Noah. Noah simply replied 'who is rachel?', which Miley then screen-grabbed and posted to Instagram, adding the caption: '@skyferreira we are ancient #therachel'. Sky then screen-grabbed *this *along with the caption 'call me grandma', and if the comments underneath Miley's screen-grab are anything to go by, a whole bunch of young people really have no idea who or what The Rachel is.
Comments included: 'maybe it's the girl that owns that account :) @mileycyrus taking a wild guess
'I AM RACHEL' (posted by a girl with the username rach.el_)
'Rachel looks fcked lol'
'I am rachel, you are rachel, this is a rachel, EVERYTHINGS RACHEL!!!!!!'
'THE QUEEN SAID MY NAME OMG'
And, bizarrely:
'this message is cursed post it on 7 other pics or your mom will die'
And, perhaps, most depressingly:
'i was named after her baby emma'
Which, if true, shows just how old we are – there are kids using Instagram young enough to have been named after Rachel and Ross's baby in Friends.
Of course, quite a lot of the kids either knew or did their research because they knew what The Rachel was, but excuse us while we hobble off to get some tea and cake; when Miley Cyrus and Sky Ferreira – 21 and 22 – feel ancient, you know it's time to have a little think about where life's got to. Especially when so much of that life has been spent watching Friends repeats.
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Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophwilkinson
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.