Friends - General Discussion

[mojoween]

I know that I have crowed about David Schwimmer before, but “that must be our alcohol and beers” and “woah woah woah…are you ok?” after he falls on the floor are just perfection.

Too bad Ross was such a dingus because it sometimes takes away from David’s sublime physical comedy.

[Catfi9ht]

36 minutes ago, mojoween said:

I know that I have crowed about David Schwimmer before, but “that must be our alcohol and beers” and “woah woah woah…are you ok?” after he falls on the floor are just perfection.

Too bad Ross was such a dingus because it sometimes takes away from David’s sublime physical comedy.

The more I rewatch these episodes, the more I appreciate his physical comedy and extreme commitment to making Ross mega obnoxious.

PIVOT! wouldn't have had nearly the impact in that scene without his overly obnoxious delivery.

When he's drunk on the double date with him, Mona, Rachel, and Joey, is one of my favorite Ross scenes.

The leather pants in the bathroom scene are just amazing from a physical comedy perspective.

[Kawaiiko]

18 hours ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

There's lots of great Friends cookbooks.

I second this - there's an official one, but there are loads of unofficial ones out there too!

[MBJ]

22 minutes ago, Kawaiiko said:

I second this - there's an official one, but there are loads of unofficial ones out there too!

I have two "official" ones now.  A new official one was JUST released (which you can also buy with a Central Perk apron).  And I have some unofficial ones that are way cheaper because they're smaller, black and white, etc.

[Kawaiiko]

1 hour ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

A new official one was JUST released

Huh. I had no idea! Also a Monica's apartment Lego set was released a few months ago :D 

[Guest]

50 minutes ago, Kawaiiko said:

Huh. I had no idea! Also a Monica's apartment Lego set was released a few months ago :D 

They actually have Lego sets for both apartments. I have the Central Perk set; not sure if I'll get the apartments.

[MBJ]

1 hour ago, Kawaiiko said:

Huh. I had no idea! Also a Monica's apartment Lego set was released a few months ago :D 

It was you who told us about the cookbooks.  Thank you so much.  My bank account doesn't thank you but I've definitely made a bunch of recipes from the books like french toast, crab cakes, etc.  I also have cookbooks based on The Office, Gilmore Girls, ..... etc.  🤐

[mojoween]

Barnes & Noble had TWO Friends cookbook gift sets, one available now and one to preorder, so next week I will own two Friends cookbook gift sets.  I’m so mad at all of you for bringing this to my attention.

[LexieLily]

James Michael Tyler dead at 59.

[Kawaiiko]

9 minutes ago, LexieLily said:

 

James Michael Tyler dead at 59.

 

I just heard. So sad. :(

[Artsda]

So young, we just saw him and didn't know his suffering. It's so similar to my dad too. 

May he rest peacefully. 

[WendyCR72]

1 hour ago, LexieLily said:

James Michael Tyler dead at 59.

I think this scene was one of James Michael Tyler's/Gunther's best. May he RIP.

 

[LexieLily]

5 hours ago, Artsda said:

So young, we just saw him and didn't know his suffering. It's so similar to my dad too. 

One of the articles I read (it might have been the one I posted, not sure) said that is why he came to the HBO reunion via-Zoom when everyone else was there in person. He was in a wheelchair at that time. 

[Hiyo]

May he Rest in Peace.

[mojoween]

*sniffle*

[LexieLily]

Jennifer Aniston posted that same clip/scene on her Instagram :(

[mojoween]

When Carol was first pregnant and played by that other lady, she and Susan were not married yet.  So why the hell would the baby have Susan’s last name?

Since the mother and father were both involved, lesbian life partner would not be included on the birth certificate.

[MBJ]

28 minutes ago, mojoween said:

When Carol was first pregnant and played by that other lady, she and Susan were not married yet.  So why the hell would the baby have Susan’s last name?

Since the mother and father were both involved, lesbian life partner would not be included on the birth certificate.

Yes, this is a storyline that always pissed my brother and I off.  It was like they were making Susan TOO villainous.  They could have given her more depth and nuance.  

Another one is that odd line when Ross goes over to Carol's house and says she's looking for a skull.

Quote

Ross: Oh, well... I, uh, just came by to pick up my skull. Well, not mine, but...
Susan: Come in.
Ross: Thanks. Yeah, Carol borrowed it for a class and I have to get it back to the museum.
Susan: What's it look like?
Ross: Kinda like a big face without skin.
Susan (Sarcastically):  Yes, I'm familiar with the concept.  (Audience laughs)

Then why the fuck did she ASK then?!?!?!?!?!?!  Who doesn't know what a skull looks like?!

It's like the writers went out of their way to make her hateable.

 

Edited October 28, 2021 by Ms Blue Jay

[ifionlyknew]

6 minutes ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

Yes, this is a storyline that always pissed my brother and I off.  It was like they were making Susan TOO villainous.  They could have given her more depth and nuance.  

Not sure why the writers thought they needed to make Susan the villain.   It's not as if they wanted the audience to root for Ross and Carol to get back together.  They were already positioning Ross and Rachel to be a couple. 

[Bort]

30 minutes ago, mojoween said:

When Carol was first pregnant and played by that other lady, she and Susan were not married yet.  So why the hell would the baby have Susan’s last name?

Since the mother and father were both involved, lesbian life partner would not be included on the birth certificate.

This is all true, not to mention that when Carol and Susan got married, at the time, same sex marriages weren’t legally recognized. However, you don’t have to be married to give a child someone else’s last name. They can be given a completely different last name from either parent if they want. 

[Irlandesa]

I'm probably reading too much nuance into the portrayal of Susan than was intended but I kind of liked that undercurrent of tension that was between Ross and Susan. Her resentment, even though she "won", added layers to her character.

She fell in love with a woman who thought she was straight.  The woman eventually realized she was a lesbian and left her husband.  Susan hoped that Ross (and remnants of when her wife thought she was straight) was going to be in Carol's past.

But then the baby happened.  He gave Carol something by accident that I'm sure Susan hoped she'd get to do with Carol on their own but something that would require more intention (adoption or a sperm bank).  Ross wasn't going to go away. 

Their dynamic was a dynamic between a husband and the person his wife left him for.  They didn't remove that touch of jealousy and resentment just because the affair was between two women instead of another man.

[mojoween]

Michelle (Richard’s daughter) answering the phone “🎶hola🎶“ is rather pretentious.

I get sad when I see that Rachel’s hair is straighter and that glossy coppery color, because I know that Mark and WE WERE ON A BREAK is coming, and it makes 1996 me sad every time.

[MBJ]

Yeah it was weird that they randomly had Rachel be a redhead in Season 3, but I kind of like it!  I love the 90s fashion of it all.  It was like pseudo grunge but not actually touching grunge.  

55 minutes ago, mojoween said:

Michelle (Richard’s daughter) answering the phone “🎶hola🎶“ is rather pretentious.

I know she was like the Hilaria Baldwin of her time.

Edited November 7, 2021 by Ms Blue Jay

[helenamonster]

That red Rachel had for a time seemed like it was everywhere in the late '90s (I feel like I remember Sarah Michelle Gellar sporting a similar shade for awhile)--not sure if it was another hair trend like The Rachel that Jen inadvertently kicked off, but I love when I see it in movies and tv shows because I can immediately situate myself in a very specific era. It's not something you ever see anymore, and haven't seen for at least 20 years.

[MBJ]

Wow, you're right, it really was everywhere

[SusanM]

On 10/28/2021 at 12:08 PM, ifionlyknew said:

Not sure why the writers thought they needed to make Susan the villain.   It's not as if they wanted the audience to root for Ross and Carol to get back together.  They were already positioning Ross and Rachel to be a couple. 

Speaking of Carol and Susan - I haven't seen the episode in years so someone may know more about the whys than I do but one thing I never understood was why Ross was even expected to go to Susan and Carol's wedding.  If Carol had left him for another guy would anyone have even thought for a minute that he should go to their wedding?  

[chitowngirl]

33 minutes ago, SusannahM said:

Speaking of Carol and Susan - I haven't seen the episode in years so someone may know more about the whys than I do but one thing I never understood was why Ross was even expected to go to Susan and Carol's wedding.  If Carol had left him for another guy would anyone have even thought for a minute that he should go to their wedding?  

That’s exactly what Ross said!

[Bort]

32 minutes ago, SusannahM said:

Speaking of Carol and Susan - I haven't seen the episode in years so someone may know more about the whys than I do but one thing I never understood was why Ross was even expected to go to Susan and Carol's wedding.  If Carol had left him for another guy would anyone have even thought for a minute that he should go to their wedding?  

Ross said that specifically in the episode, that he wouldn’t be expected to go if Carol were marrying a man. But nobody ever said why he was expected to go.

[MBJ]

I'm sure the show wanted to showcase the wedding because it was probably quite progressive in 1994.  But yes, it's an interesting point and so it's good the writers called to it.

[scarynikki12]

On 11/7/2021 at 2:53 PM, SusannahM said:

Speaking of Carol and Susan - I haven't seen the episode in years so someone may know more about the whys than I do but one thing I never understood was why Ross was even expected to go to Susan and Carol's wedding.  If Carol had left him for another guy would anyone have even thought for a minute that he should go to their wedding?  

I guess it was because he's Ben's dad and it was supposed to be show of solidarity or something? Ross was correct about no one would be expecting him to attend if Carol had left him for another so they needed to stop bugging him. I do love his talk with Carol and agreeing to give her away when her parents chose their homophobia over her. 

A theory I've always had about Susan is that she didn't want Ross to even know about Carol's pregnancy and only went along with his involvement because she couldn't come up with a way to pull it off and keep Carol. The way the actor played her it was clear she wanted Ross' involvement to be minimal at best but I'm talking about Ross not knowing  to the point that if he were to ask Carol about giving birth less than a year after their divorce they'd lie and say they went to a sperm bank. 

Logistically, Carol being pregnant right when they got divorced meant that she and Ross had sex while she and Susan were having their affair so I wish they'd revealed that some of Susan's insecurities had to do with feeling like Carol was cheating on her even while she was cheating on Ross and a part of her is afraid she'll turn out to be nothing more than a fling.

Ross' relationships with Carol and Susan were always fascinating to watch and I wish they'd explored that more. I love that moment from the Valentine's Day episode in season 1 where we get to see Ross and Carol laughing and being comfortable with each other before he asks to get back together. It's easy to imagine college Carol assuming the love she felt for her friend Ross was the same as romantic love. That scene also showed me that she probably felt a lot of guilt about not being able to love him the way he loved her. That no doubt also contributed to Susan's insecurities about Ross and I wish we'd gotten more than their fight at the hospital. If the three of them had really cleared the air it would have been great to watch.

[mojoween]

When Ross blew Joey off at the museum to sit with the lab coats, later on he went to Monica’s to try to make up with Joey.

Joey must have been very VERY upset, because he got up, AND THREW AWAY HALF OF A SANDWICH.

On an unrelated note, it was creepy for Chandler to want Kathy to make the same sex noises with him that she made with Joey.

[Kawaiiko]

1 hour ago, mojoween said:

Joey must have been very VERY upset, because he got up, AND THREW AWAY HALF OF A SANDWICH.

Well, Ross blew him off just because he was wearing a white coat and Joey has wearing a blue blazer. 

*sigh*

At least we had Snack Packs. From P.S. 129!

Edited November 10, 2021 by Kawaiiko

[LexieLily]

"I'm Rhonda, and THESE AREN'T REAL!"

[princelina]

7 hours ago, mojoween said:

On an unrelated note, it was creepy for Chandler to want Kathy to make the same sex noises with him that she made with Joey.

Well technically I don't think he wanted her to make the exact same noises - he just wanted to enjoy it with him as much as she had with Joey, and she obviously wasn't.

[mojoween]

Ok so Carol and Susan obviously brought Ben up with Christmas since he was a baby because he knew a whole lot about Santa.  Shouldn’t Ross have been doing the same with the Jewish holidays and not waited until Ben was 8?

Unrelated, while I do love Chandler and Rachel’s adventures with cheesecake, Chandler eating the first one whole without cutting it into slices makes my teeth itch.

Edited November 17, 2021 by mojoween

[WearyTraveler]

8 minutes ago, mojoween said:

Ok so Carol and Susan obviously brought Ben up with Christmas since he was a baby because he knew a whole lot about Santa.  Shouldn’t Ross have been doing the same with the Jewish holidays and not waited until Ben was 8?

Well, sometimes people find the need to rediscover/transmit their culture later in life.

I had a colleague who is Jewish but wasn't practicing much when I met him. A couple of years later he was very keen on keeping kosher and observing the Shabbat. It happens.

[rubaco]

Today (with the TBS airing) while Ross was struggling to list all 50 of the states, I decided to join him. I had Excel open anyway for work, and that would prevent me from accidentally listing the same state twice (which Ross did, let's not forget!). Like him, I failed big-time, only coming up with 48 before I gave up (I might have given myself more time but I had work to get to). I apologize to anyone who lives in the great states I could not recall, Idaho and Wisconsin! I'm an East Coast dummy. At least I'm admitting my lameness.

[Bort]

I tried that with my dad a few years back. We both forgot one state, a different one for each of us.

[helenamonster]

We learned a song in elementary school music class that lists all the states in alphabetical order ("Fifty Nifty United States") and it is quite the earworm--I still remember the whole thing. I have been primed to dominate Chandler's dumb states game for the rest of my life.

[partofme]

Last time I saw the episode I did that and was able to name them all in under a half hour. 

[mojoween]

Remind me - is it all fifty states plus capitals, or just states?  And what was the time limit?

[Bort]

Just states, not capitals, and I think the time limit was 6 minutes. Ross took all night and still couldn’t get them all. Strangely, of all the other Friends that took the quiz, Rachel did the best.

[MBJ]

8 hours ago, rubaco said:

Today (with the TBS airing) while Ross was struggling to list all 50 of the states, I decided to join him. I had Excel open anyway for work, and that would prevent me from accidentally listing the same state twice (which Ross did, let's not forget!). Like him, I failed big-time, only coming up with 48 before I gave up (I might have given myself more time but I had work to get to). I apologize to anyone who lives in the great states I could not recall, Idaho and Wisconsin! I'm an East Coast dummy. At least I'm admitting my lameness.

The best is when Canadians try to do this, like me.  I am hysterically bad.  And I work for an American company, I really have no excuse.  I should try again now that I've worked for them for a couple of years.

When people use the state abbreviations at work about half the time I have to look them up.  I know I would be really bad at that game.  

Edited November 18, 2021 by Ms Blue Jay

[LexieLily]

5 hours ago, kariyaki said:

Just states, not capitals, and I think the time limit was 6 minutes. Ross took all night and still couldn’t get them all. Strangely, of all the other Friends that took the quiz, Rachel did the best.

Well, she was against Joey, who named 56, and Phoebe who named types of celery (1 - regular celery.)

[Bort]

2 minutes ago, LexieLily said:

Well, she was against Joey, who named 56, and Phoebe who named types of celery (1 - regular celery.)

And Ross, who got 46. Rachel got 48.

[Kawaiiko]

"REGULAR CELERY! Oh... I already have that."

No, Joey, just because New England has a sports team, that does not mean that New England is a state.

And of course Ross forgetting Delaware and getting Nevada twice.

[scarynikki12]

I've got the season 4 wedding dresses episode on right now and I will never understand it. We have Monica wearing Emily's dress and veil, both of which look awful on Courtney, and not remotely concerned that she might be getting it dirty or ripped. Since Emily did end up wearing a different dress and veil at the wedding I tell myself that Monica had gotten it dirty/ripped, Emily assumed it was the dress shop that did it, and was able to exchange for another free of charge at the location in London.

The episode does end well with Rachel's "yeah, well, that oughtta do it." This line is so perfect I use it in my daily life.

[princelina]

On 11/20/2021 at 8:02 PM, scarynikki12 said:

I've got the season 4 wedding dresses episode on right now and I will never understand it. We have Monica wearing Emily's dress and veil, both of which look awful on Courtney, and not remotely concerned that she might be getting it dirty or ripped. Since Emily did end up wearing a different dress and veil at the wedding I tell myself that Monica had gotten it dirty/ripped, Emily assumed it was the dress shop that did it, and was able to exchange for another free of charge at the location in London.

The episode does end well with Rachel's "yeah, well, that oughtta do it." This line is so perfect I use it in my daily life.

Oh - that flat pancake with the dripping beads sitting on her head!  😂

[Snow Apple]

7 hours ago, princelina said:

Oh - that flat pancake with the dripping beads sitting on her head!  😂

I know! (Monica voice)

The dress was fine because it wasn't made to fit Monica. But there's no excuse for that awful headpiece. 

[Hiyo]

Quote

not remotely concerned that she might be getting it dirty or ripped.

This is Monica, she probably already had 1,001 contingency plans ready in case any possible thing could have happened to the dress.