I’m sure I don’t have to tell you how important Friends was growing up — we were all into it back in the day. The show taught us how to love, laugh, and support each other — well, kinda. A show needs some drama to keep it interesting and Friends had it in spades!
Some of the funniest and weirdest moments in the show are from when the friends were anything but friendly. Sure, they usually learned their lesson and/or apologized, but they were still savage! So, in no particular order, here are a bunch of the most horrible things they did to each other.
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“What if I don’t wanna be a shoe?”
Might as well start at the beginning! In the first episode, Rachel invites herself to stay at Monica’s place — despite not having seen her for many years before that. Sure, “I’ll be there for you” and all, but a little discussion would have been nice!
“I am still your WIFE?!”
Just because he didn’t wanna be “the guy with three divorces,” Ross thinks it’s just fine to never get his and Rachel’s drunken Vegas wedding annulled — and never tell her! Honestly, how did he think that would work out?!
“Hey, I’m Chandler — could I BE wearing any more clothes?!”
Look, I love to hate on Ross as much as the next Friends fan, but this was a legit low for all of them. From Chandler and Joey bickering over a chair like children, to Monica obsessing over Richard’s phone call and Rachel just procrastinating like she was me in college, everyone was a super jerk to Ross that night…well, maybe not Phoebe.
That being said, Ross was a TOTAL spaz to Rachel!
Oh yes, you didn’t think I wasn’t going to hate on Ross at all in this one, did you? Sure, I have a lot of sympathy for the guy, and his friends did do him wrong here — but that is no excuse to berate Rachel in front of everyone like that. This scene still makes me cringe every time.
“Somebody wants people to know you have a boyfriend.”
Ross was insanely jealous of Mark when Rachel got her new job because of his recommendation. Not only does he flood her desk with over-the-top gifts, but he even goes so far as to send in an entire barbershop quartet to sing a song about him in front of everyone in her new workplace.
“That’s a lot of information to get in 30 seconds.”
Ross finally steps up and admits to his parents that he dabbled in the devil’s lettuce back in college and blamed Chandler. This ends up in a spiral of secrets being unleashed as Monica just keeps piling on! Sure, Ross had some harsh truths to unleash, but Monica really took things to the next level here.
“And Joey with his, you know, TEENY PIZZA!”
Three friends are experiencing money troubles, while the other three don’t see money as an issue — as Rachel points out, it’s because they have it. A bit of empathy goes a long way in these situations, but things are just awkward and uncomfortable throughout.
“Dude, I totally understand. Usually, after I have a baby with a woman I like to SLOW THINGS DOWN!”
Joey accidentally proposes to Rachel — both he and Rachel feel incredibly embarrassed and awkward about the whole situation. After finding out, Ross, of course, spends every moment yelling at Joey and putting him on blast for this incident. Like, dude, you’ve done way worse out there — give them a break! (no pun intended)
“He wants me to come over and feel his bicep and more!”
Poor, poor Joey. He was always caught in the middle of Chandler and Monica’s early stage relationship — even going so far as to seem like a total perv to help them out. Then this little game gets played and Joey is thrown under the bus again and again.
“Did you see ‘Time Cop’?! Rachel, he like, totally changed time!”
Rachel wants to help Monica get over her fear of talking to action superstar Jean-Claude Van Damme and just ask him out! Of course, it’s not too long after gassing her up that Rachel herself decides to date Jean-Claude. Cool…cool move, there, Rachel.
“What made you so mad at me?!” — “I don’t know! I don’t remember!”
Phoebe decides she’s incredibly mad at Ross, but she has absolutely no clue as to why. This doesn’t stop her, however, from treating the guy like garbage, saying things about him under her breath, or just generally ignoring his existence.
Of course, the whole reason she was actually angry was because of a dream.
Right on, Pheebs — really cool to just jump to judgment like that. That’s the last time we ever play chess on a frozen lake!
“I’m leaning…this is where I lean.”
Monica becomes obsessed with the idea that their new maid is stealing from her and so forces Chandler to creep on the poor girl to see if she stole a bra! Monica is, of course, wearing the freakin’ bra the whole time. Luckily, Chandler wasn’t taken to court for harassment.
“They’re thinkin’ of changing the name of this place…to PUT THE CAMERA AWAY!”
Poor Joey was so excited to do all the touristy things in London, England, and the entire time, Chandler just makes him feel like crap. The apology is nice, but lighten up, dude! Take in the scenes!
“How is that worse?!” — “I dunno, but it’s the same!”
This classic betrayal led to Chandler apologizing in “the box,” but the betrayal is still very real. Joey was even so nice as to tell him that he could date her because he asked first…except, he really didn’t. Yikes.
“Potatoes are ruined, potatoes are ruined, potatoes are ruined!”
Thanksgiving is usually pretty rocky for the Friends gang, but this one was an uproar. After Monica makes everyone their own special, family-style dinners, everything goes up in smoke. But then the whole crew has a meltdown and yell at each other saying they didn’t even want to be there. Luckily, the grossness of Ugly Naked Guy having dinner with Ugly Naked Gal finally brought them all together again.
“Now go shave that head!”
Whether she still had feelings for Ross or just didn’t want him to be happy with someone else, Rachel purposefully sabotages their date by lying to Bonnie about how awesome it would be to shave her head completely bald again. Needless to say, Ross was not a fan of that look.
“We were on a break!”
Yep, of course we had to mention the conflict of all conflicts on Friends . The fact that Ross literally hides the girl he cheated on Rachel with — debatable, I guess — behind the door as she comes to try to make things okay again. Just to add to the tension and scumbaggery of it all.
“You did a BAD thing.”
Sleeping with the copy girl is one thing, but running around town all day, trying to stop anyone from leaking your secrets is just super low. There were around four people who he tracked down — unfortunately for him, one of them was the Rachel-obsessed Gunther.
“We will, we will, call-you-back.”
When Ross invaded Joey and Chandler’s apartment, he completely took it over. From changing their answering machine, to moving the Foosball table, and of course the “bye-bye little puppet Joey hand(?)” motion was just insufferable.
“This is how HE wears it.”
Phoebe gives Monica a horrible haircut all because she thought she heard Monica say she wanted it like ” Dudley Moore” and not ” Demi Moore” — which makes way more sense. Good for Monica here, though, for not “being all Monica about it,” even though this was the one case where she probably should have.
“I ordered that first!” — “Yeah, but I’m so much faster.”
Not as severe as some of the others on this list, sure, but straight-up licking and claiming the last muffin — which Monica definitely ordered first — is childishly jerkish…if not pretty funny. Still, you gotta feel bad for Monica when she tries to get back at him by licking his coffee cup only to find out that wasn’t his cup and in fact “was there when [he] got in.”
“Cookie, now you can punch him!”
In another “Chandler is a jerk to Joey” move, Chandler sleeps with one of Joey’s sisters — which would be fine, if he remembered which one she was. That’s one tough family you do not wanna mess with!
“Uh-oh.”
Ross is sad about Rachel — because of course he is — and Chandler’s mom consoles him. That consolation, however, turns pretty steamy, pretty quickly. Everyone knows Chandler has a rocky relationship with his parents, this would be bad to do to any friend, but especially him. Great job, again, Ross!
