Friends is my go-to comfort show. I watch it when I need a laugh or simply have nothing better to do because I find it so entertaining. At this point, I know all the lines and jokes, and in my opinion, the show never gets old. However, there are a few episodes that stand out. These episodes are the ones that give you that laugh-so-hard-until-you-pee-your-pants kind of laughter. Here six of these episodes.
“The One with the Cop”
Also known as the “pivot” episode, this one guarantees a lot of laughs. The hilariousness starts when Ross somehow knows all the times that Rachel and he have slept together and goes all the way until Chandler’s “shut up, shut up, shut uppppp.” However, nothing beats Ross’ loud, annoying and over-enunciated “pivot.” Moving large furniture is not easy on a normal day, so I can’t even imagine how annoyed Chandler must have been dealing with Ross in that situation.
“The One Where Everybody Finds Out”
I don’t think it gets better than Phoebe seeing Monica and Chandler together through Ross’ window and screaming like a lunatic. The rest of the episode consists of Phoebe and Rachel messing with Chandler and Monica (“they don’t know that we know they know we know”) until Chandler confesses that he’s in love with Monica. The episode ends with Ross losing it after seeing Chandler and Monica through his window (“that’s my sister!!!”), clearly showing that he is not over his anger management problems.
“The One with the Jellyfish”
This episode is packed with hilarious plotlines. Rachel gives Ross a letter to read (“18 pages front and back!), and he falls asleep mid-read. He takes a gamble and responds to Rachel’s big question in the letter with “it does,” which clearly was the right answer in Rachel’s mind. He later goes on to finish the letter and realizes his actual answer is “it so does not!” Joey, Chandler and Monica are acting weird after being on the beach together and finally confess that Chandler had to pee on Monica because she got stung by a jellyfish (“ewwwww!). This plotline gets me giggling every time I watch it.
“The One Where Joey Speaks French”
The absolute gibberish that comes out of Joey’s mouth this episode makes me laugh so much. Phoebe is a patient teacher, but Joey just can’t grasp the language. I think it’s so funny because of how unrealistic it is. The other storyline in the episode is that Chandler and Monica fear that the father of their baby is a shovel killer, instilling some expected panic within them.
“The One with Princess Consuela”
After Phoebe finds out that she can change her name to anything that she wants, she decides on “Princess Consuela Banana-Hammock” (but her friends can call her Valarie). Mike is obviously not too pleased with it and decides that he wants to change his name to “Crap Bag.” After Phoebe runs into a friend with Mike, who insists that she introduce him with his new name, she realizes that she shouldn’t change her name to something so ridiculous.
“The One Where Ross Got High”
Last but not least is an episode where so many things are going on that you can’t help cracking up at least once. Monica and Ross’ parents are coming over for Thanksgiving and don’t know that Chandler and Monica are living together. When they get there, they act coldly towards Chandler for no reason. Ross finally remembers that in college he lied and told his parents that Chandler was smoking in their room when they thought it was him. Another thing happening in this episode is that Rachel is making a dessert but messes it up because some pages of the recipe book she is using are stuck together. She ends up making half an English trifle and half a Sheppard’s pie, which everyone pretends to enjoy. Ross and Joey are in a rush to leave the entire time because Joey’s dancer roommate invited them to Thanksgiving with all her dancer friends. All the confessions come out the end and Judy makes a hilarious final remark. This line is memorable: “Joey, if you wanna leave just leave. Rachel, no you weren’t supposed to put beef in the trifle, it did not taste good. Phoebe, I’m sorry but I think Jacques Cousteau is dead. Monica, why you felt you had to hide the fact that you were in an important relationship is beyond me.” (Jack chimes in with “and we kind of figured about the porch swing”). “Ross, drugs, divorced, again?” (Jack chimes in again with “what happened, son?”). All in all, this episode is one of the best.
If you’re a Friends fan like me, you would have understood every reference that I’ve made. If you’ve never watched Friends, you’re probably very confused. These days we all need a laugh, so I recommend that you re-watch one of these episodes if you’re an avid Friends fan – and if you’re not, maybe start at the pilot episode because this show is a must-watch.