F.R.I.E.N.D.S

Who hasn’t heard of “Friends”? This ubiquitous group of six friends struggling to balance their love lives, career, relationships and finding solace in their redeeming friendship, has spawned generations of fans or what me and my sis call Friends’ Fanatics. We’ve lost count of how many times we’ve seen the re-runs, re-re-runs, re-re-re-runs and so on and so forth. But not once have we tired of watching the repeats. We know the dialogues by heart and could rant them off in our sleep, but we still laugh every time we hear the very same jokes.

Ross’s histrionics, funny faces and expressions, Chandler’s sarcastic gags and a knack for getting into awkward situations, Joey’s slow brains and smooth “How you doing?”s, Monica’s finickiness and obsession with cleanliness, Phoebe’s weird and ludicrous antics and Rachel’s girly habits all make you roll with laughter. So here are some of my personal favorite episodes. Spoiler alert for all of you who aren't Friends Fanatics. :)

1. The episode where Chandler’s hyper-annoying girl-friend, Janice with her “Oh my God”s and a laugh that drives you up the wall, proclaims that it’s impossible for six people who are such good friends, so close to each other and who spend so much time together to have never gotten involved with one another. Now, we all know about Ross and Rachel, and Monica and Chandler. But this proclamation has everyone scurrying away from the scene as they reminisce about their past ‘almost encounters’.
   
   
2. The episode of ‘What-If’s, where sitting at Central Perk, all of them try to imagine how different their lives would have been had Rachel married Barry, Monica still been fat, Phoebe accepted a job proposal to work at Meryl Lynch, Joey still been on ‘Days of our Lives’, Chandler quit his job to pursue comic writing and Ross still been married to Carol. Hilarity ensues!
3. The series of episodes of Ross’ doomed wedding to Emily when Monica and Chandler hook-up and do everything within their power to keep the affair under wraps and how each member of the group finds out. Phoebe pretends to hit on Chandler to freak him out and worm the truth out of him, and Chandler (on Monica's instructions) in turn pretends to reciprocate, to give Phoebe and Rachel (who is Phoebe's partner in crime) a taste of their own medicine. The kitschy competition between Phoebe and Chandler is uproarious.
4. The Las Vegas episode where Rachel and Ross try to embarrass each other in a bid to prove that the other one gets more embarrassed. They however, go overboard and get married in a drunken stupor. Ross’ obsession with not getting a third divorce is hilarious.
5. Monica and Chandler's wedding episodes in which Chandler, finally in keeping with his character, gets cold feet at the eleventh hour, triggered by the epiphany that they are soon to become the "Bings". Ross and Phoebe leave no stone unturned in trying to catch hold of Chandler and eventually do manage to find him and bring him back, while Rachel stalls Monica at her apartment. All is well and Monica completely in the dark till Joey blurts it out right in the middle of the wedding ceremony. Once the cat is out of the bag, all the secrets start pouring out including, Chandler and Phoebe's belief that Monica is pregnant.
6. This is the next one in which one by one everyone except the real father realize that it is Rachel who is pregnant, not Monica. They start the hunt for the real dad whose identity Rachel has kept secret, only to discover that the real father is, hold your breathe, none other than Ross!!!
7. The episode in which Ross buys a new couch and being too stingy to pay for the extravagant delivery charges, takes it on himself to carry it, without successmof course. No point for guessing that one. Then he takes Rachel and Chandler’s help with disastrous results and rib-tickling entertainment.
8. The Unangi episode in which Rachel and Phoebe take self-defense lessons which Ross thinks are not enough, much to his own chagrin. According to him they need to have “Uangi”, a state of constant and total awareness, to protect themselves from danger. He tries to prove his point to them and ends up getting beaten up himself.
9. The episode of Ross’ inappropriate song, where Ross makes his daughter with Rachel, Emma laugh after singing an inappropriate, sexist song “Baby got back” and Rachel is furious. But after many failed attempts at making Emma laugh again, she too resorts to the same means and finally both end up singing and dancing to the raunchy number to make Emma laugh, only to be caught by the rest of the Friends.
10. The episode where Rachel's sister Amy visits her for Thanksgiving and joins the celebration at Monica's place. It no longer remains a celebration as she broaches on a rather sensitive but comical topic of who would get Emma's guardianship after Ross and Rachel's death. What follows is a cat fight between the two sisters & a laugh riot, and one that I'm not gonna ruin for you.  

     I could go on and the so would my list of personal favorites. But I don't wanna kill the fun of actually watching the episodes for all of you out there reading this blog, who haven't seen all these episodes. As for the rest who remember all these episodes and nodding your heads and laughing, welcome to the the club of Friends' Fanatics.

     PS: I'd love to know your favorite episodes :) .