I think everyone who’s ever seen Friends will agree that Ross Geller’s academic career is depicted with scrupulous accuracy. His career path from adjunct instructor, to keynote speaker at prestigious conferences, to tenure at NYU (without ever spending time on research!) is, it’s fair to say, one that faculty emulate every day.
Kidding aside, I do think that anyone who’s been involved in a grading binge at the end of a semester can identify with this moment:
A colleague pointed out a few days ago that moments like this one are probably an important underacknowledged source of grade inflation.
Update 6/2/08: Welcome, InsideHigherEd.com readers! To be clear, I don’t think that Friends contributes to grade inflation; rather, it’s the “what the hell, B+” impulse.