It’s finally that time of year again: the time where people sit around their tables and talk about what they’re thankful for before eating their body weight in food.
Personally I love Thanksgiving. It’s one of my favorite holidays, after Halloween, but that’s not the point. The point is that when we think of Thanksgiving, we each think of something different. We all have our own family traditions that we keep near and dear to our hearts. With that. a lot of us probably have Friendsgiving with our closest friends. The hit TV show, Friends, is no exception with having their very own Friendsgiving.
Now, I might be slightly biased because Friends is my favorite show, but really, the Thanksgiving episodes are classic. Some are better than others, but I’m going to focus on my two favorite episodes, “The One with the Football” from season 3 and “The One With All the Thanksgivings” from season 5.
Let’s take a step back to season 3 where Rachel, Phoebe, Chandler, and Joey suggest a game of Thanksgiving football. Little did they know that Monica and Ross had a Geller Bowl when they were growing up. Anybody who’s ever seen the show can vouch that Monica is hella competitive. It was 12 years since the Geller siblings have been able to play Thanksgiving football. To no surprise, Monica got extremely competitive and decides to make it girls vs. guys. Rachel almost made a winning touchdown but Chandler points out that she didn’t make it to the end zone. Monica and Ross being their competitive selves both jumped on the ball and refused to let go. Eventually, the others give up but the Gellers stay put by refusing to let go of the ball. After the sun goes down, they end up calling it a tie.
Fast forward to season 5 where they all sit around after eating their body weights in Monica’s Thanksgiving feast and share their worst Thanksgiving memories. Yes, I know it’s not usually what we might talk about on Thanksgiving, but bear with me in that it works for the episode.
Monica’s worst Thanksgiving was when she met Chandler when she was overweight in high school and she overhears Chandler tell Ross that, “he doesn’t want to be stuck with his fat sister all night.” Rude, I know. A few years later, Monica lost a ton of weight and would encounter Chandler again, and per Rachel’s advice to pretends everything turns her on. In the process, she ends up dropping a knife on Chandler’s shoe which causes him to lose part of his toe. I don’t know about you, but losing part of my toe on Thanksgiving would probably top having my parents getting a divorce if I was Chandler. When Chandler finds this out, he’s furious and Monica tries to cheer him up by putting an entire raw turkey on her head like Joey had done as a prank to Chandler.
Whether you’re having Friendsgiving or not this year, I’m sure we’ve all had those Thanksgivings that we will remember for the rest of our lives. Hopefully, they’re happy memories that you’ll laugh about with your friends and family when you retell the stories.
From me to you, I hope this Thanksgiving you’re surrounded by your loved ones laughing and loving life, and you get to eat until your heart’s content.