History Headscratchers / Friends

** Because while Rachel might not have been ready for
Motherhood, she also didnt want to not be the mother once she got over the shock of being pregnant. Id say a more meta view is that this plot point if having a kid would be the catalyst for Rachel's character maturing but she really didnt.

** It's also possible that is was him, but Ross stopped short of actually having complete sex with her.
** It's also likely that he either forgot (as he did attribute it later to Chandler) or simply lied about it, finding the experience embarrassing or humiliating.

** Why would they even keep them in the bathroom? It seems to make much more sense that they would each keep their own supply in their bedrooms. You know, where the sex actually happens.

** She did have a low-level fashion job when Mark helped her out. Also, it's implied she did graduate college, even if she didn't take it too seriously.
* Why wasn't Rachel fired? Of course, she's pretty, so I understand how she could woo around male co-workers or even guests to make them forget about her mistakes. But "Pretty Privilege" ends somewhere. She always messes up the orders and doesn't care about the hygiene rules. Regardless of her looks, she should've been fired because she might have caused severe financial damage. Complaining customers, wasted ingredients, not to mention a whole lotta nerve she must've costed.
** From the coffee house? Gunther appears to be her boss and he's got a massive obsession with her, so he's probably more forgiving of her mistakes.

** Rachel was insulting Monica, as the two were fighting at the time and by writing "What were you thinking?" on Chandler she was saying how could he date Monica?

*** Yes you do. Even if everyone folds you still must show the winning hand. It's how to know if your opponent won legitimately or through a bluff.
*** You absolutely do not in any game actually played for money. If you raise and everybody else folds, you win, period. You are under absolutely no obligation to show anything - the winner may CHOOSE to do so voluntarily. In fact, demanding to see cards on a hand you folded can actually get you ejected from casinos. If you want to see your opponent's cards, you better be willing to pay to see them.
*** No, you don't. When everybody else folds you win by default, no matter what cards you held. You can choose to show your cards if you want to rub it in or prove a point, but there's no obligation.

** Ross does say he wonders what it'd be like if Carol didn't "realize" she was a lesbian. Might be a bit of ValuesDissonance going on, but the idea there is, Carol is still a lesbian, but never comes out or acts on it... until Ross mentions the threesome.
*** In the first season, at the hibachi restaurant, both admit that they still love each other. Ross thinks that this is enough to keep the relationship going. It is not.

** Given that most of the friends barely know Janice except as Chandler's ex-girlfriend, Ross may also feel that there is no reason whatsoever to discuss their most personal and intimate histories with her.

** It's also entirely possible that he took Elizabeth for ice cream because she wanted it and ate some to participate.

** The Fridge page is rampant with this very discussion: it's quite possible that Monica actually did develop an eating disorder. She would have been too young for weight loss surgery (which was very uncommon in the early to late 80s anyway), and her fertility struggles later in life are pretty common among people who have struggled with disordered eating. But eating disorders do not always have raging, visible-on-a-sitcom side effects (trust me), and many of them are digestion/bodily function-related and probably not something Monica would discuss freely. Even if there were, Monica and her mother seem so relieved that she's "thin" now that she would probably have downplayed them as acceptable tradeoffs.
*** Monica also says "my heart's not in trouble anymore," indicating that her heavier weight was also dangerous to her health, and the weight loss may well have been physician-supervised.

** Monica does seem the type to give Joey a hard time since she would have to go to the trouble of making an extra main course just for him.

** The same could be said about Gary the cop - she went as far as moving in with him.

** The window might also have been repaired in between those years, for one reason or another. Maybe it was originally a larger French window.

** I'm not sure, but I don't think the episode made it clear Ursula had been doing porn for a long time. The guy in the coffee shop was portrayed to be a loser (as is Gunther, really), and Ross was actually trying to rent a porn when he saw Joey and Phoebe's video in the store. So maybe Ursula's was just starting out in porn and the guys would've found out sooner or later.

** He managed to get the Days of Our Lives role by sleeping with a casting agent, though.

*** Yeah, whenever one of the ladies respond to his flirts he panics and backs off or tells the others not to let them drink any more.

** Maybe Carol has a second car, and this one is used for long trips like that. She and Susan might go on camping holidays together?

** Indeed. They specifically point out that they wouldn't be taken seriously if they did call 911.

** Ross didnt question her suitability as a girlfriend, he juust didnt find bald headed Bonnie atractive. Couple that with Rachel making a play for him and he decided he'd prefer to be with Rachel. Start the next season and suddenly Rachel who had been all over him was all reticent and had a 18 page (front and back) letter about how she needed Ross to take the entirity of the blame for the incident before she would even consider getting back with him.... Roas should have stuck with bald headed Bonnie!

** A bit of FridgeHorror is that, if Ross had given her the money to go to space camp, her dad would've spent it with his implied sketchy behavior.

*** That answers the original headscratcher but to be clear, Phoebe did not bring him to meet Monica. She very clearly apologizes to Chandler and says that she didn't know they would be running into them. She makes a lot of insensitive jokes, but she doesn't try to ''actually'' break them up to my knowledge. And to further clarify with Phoebe and Monica's "soulmate", dating does not mean they are being exclusive (as in boyfriend-girlfriend.)

*** Maybe, but 'borrowing' and driving around somebody's incredibly expensive Porsche (depending on the options, the model of Porsche was a $50-100k car, in the 90's that was a LOT OF MONEY) when you don't have a license OR INSURANCE is incredibly selfish and irresponsible. How exactly was Rachel planning to pay Monica back if she damaged the car??? It was insanely selfish and irresponsible, and the writers brushed it off with a joke, and never even bothered to show Monica's reaction when she found out.

* So the naming convention of the episodes comes from the idea that each episode would be named for what people were most likely to be discussing after it aired. All the Friends are supposed to be equally important to the show, there is no main character among the six, and in the early seasons the characters' names appeared fairly evenly in the titles. However after a while the number of times each character's name appears in the titles become ''very'' uneven. It's reasonable to presume that the titles reflect what the show-runners and/or writers believed the audience would find most interesting about each episode, which in turn speaks volumes about how much importance they appear to have assigned to each character. I had enough time on my hands to go over the titles and if you look at episodes where only one name features in the title Rachel wins with 20 episodes, Ross comes in second with 18, then there's a bit of a gap down to Joey who clocks in at 13, Phoebe then follows with 10, Chandler at 9, and Monica with a measly 5 (6 if you count the pilot's alternate title). Five episodes with Monica's name in the title, 20 with Rachel's. That's a ''huge'' difference. Monica's name is in a title every other season, Rachel's is twice each season (on average). Looking at episodes with two character's names in the title Ross and Rachel win with four, Joey and Rachel follow close behind with three, then Ross/Monica and Chandler/Monica each have one (add these to the above numbers and you get Rachel 27, Ross 23, Joey 16, Chandler & Phoebe 10, Monica 6/7). Chandler and Monica were together for six seasons, got married, had children, and only one episode is titled for them while Joey and Rachel, a plotline the aduience was vocally against (as were Matt LeBlanc and Jennifer Anniston) have three episodes. All of this might seem like nitpicking, and it probably is, but I can't figure out why there's such a huge difference in episode titles. If all six characters are equally important than the titles should reflect that. I can understand to a degree that Rachel had her name in many titles, she was popular, but Ross has more than three times as many titles as his sister and Ross seems to be the least popular Friend. Adding to all that, some of the titles with character names are just plain ridiculous. Say ''TOW Phoebe's Rats'' and most people will know what episode that refers to. Say ''TOW Ross Hugs Rachel'' and most casual viewers won't know which episode that is since they hug in many episodes. Are we supposed to deduce from all this that Rachel and Ross became the main characters while Monica faded to a supporting character? Why such a huge difference with the titles?

*** In addition to what I posted above, the point of the game was to show you know the other team. Passing in that jnstance is no different to getting someone wring as it shows you didnt know the answer. It could be, if the rules of the game were ever thought about in enough detail (its a game Ross out together in 10 monutes or so) that one team with 5 correct answers out of six questions with 1 wrong knows the other team better and therefore wins, than if the other team got six right out of 7 with 1 pass and 1 wrong answer, as for the winning team there was only ine question they didnt know whereas the other team didnt know two.
*** That’s not how the game works. You get one point for every question you get correct, and the team with more points at the end wins. It doesn’t matter how many you miss in the lightning round, since the point of a lightning round is to attempt as many points as possible in the time limit. Ross even states that the rules of the lightning round were “thirty seconds, all the questions you can answer.” When it was Rachel and Monica’s turn, he also told them “five correct questions wins the game”; it didn’t matter how many they got wrong, only how many they got right.
*** Ross also never said that you couldnt pass yet no one did even when they came up against questions they clearly didnt know. It was more A philosophical musing on it anyway. If it's a quizz to show how much you know someone, then passing is no different to getting it wrong, as it shows you didnt know that point about the other people.
*** You’re getting a bit off topic here. The game determines which team knows the other team better based on which team has more points at the end of the game. No one’s arguing that either of the teams would’ve gotten points for a question if they passed on it; they most likely wouldn’t have. However, during the lightning round, passing on a question you don’t know (or giving a random answer) would mean moving onto a new question that you might actually know and could thus get points for. The question is why Monica and Rachel didn’t attempt to pass or just blurt out a guess when they were stumped on what Chandler’s job is, when doing so would’ve clearly been a better use of their limited time?
*** and the answer, quite clearly, is that they didnt pass because you werent allowed and did t blurt out any old answer as that would show they didnt know them as a wrong answe is no different to passing.
*** Additionally, Rachel and Monica actually needed two more points to win. They were behind the guys by one point when they were asked what Chandler's job is, which is why they lost when they failed to answer it. With how much time they were spending on that question, even if they got it correct in the time limit, they would've only tied with the guys, as they probably wouldn't have had any time left to get another question correct to win. So even if they felt the answer was on the tip of their tongue, it still doesn't make sense for them to sacrifice so much time on that one question when they would have likely had a better shot at other questions.

** He did sleep with his high school's librarian, too.

*** They actually needed two points to win. They were behind the guys by one point when they were asked what Chandler's job is, which is why they lost when they failed to answer it. With how much time they were spending on that question, even if they got it correct in the time limit, they would've only tied with the guys, as they probably wouldn't have had any time left to get another question correct to win. The rest of your explanation makes reasonable sense, though.

** for a start, a plot like that in the 90s would not necessarily be considered “rape” with twin brothers. Many shows from that period aged poorly, regarding attitudes towards sex and assault. Barney Stinson was certainly doing worse to women years later… Plus, we had no reason to believe that Ursula was tricking Eric.

* I've got one for this topic - what in Sam Hill is the YMMV page talking about when it says Fat Monica is just slightly overweight by modern (2010s?) standards? If you plonked her into a random sampling of 2010s American women, the only reason she wouldn't look out of place is because Americans in general are fatter than most.
** Read it again; it says that modern viewers ''see her'' as being slightly overweight because standards have changed, not that she ''is'' slightly overweight. Given that the size of the average American has changed drastically since fat!Monica, she would now most likely be seen as around or below average now.

** Another hypothesis: the two pages that were glued together were the ones with the pictures. Maybe the page layout had the ingredients in one column, the preparation in another, then the other page had a picture of the trifle, a picture of the pie, and the ingredients for the pie in the other column, in a visible page. Of course, contrived stupidity still applies.

** there’s a line that made it clear that Joey would often try to unhook the women’s bras. I’d certainly say he wasn’t always completely harmless. That’s downright creepy and out of order.

** for a start, a plot like that in the 90s would not necessarily be considered “rape” with twin brothers. Many shows from that period aged poorly, regarding attitudes towards sex and assault. Barney Stinson was certainly doi no worse to women layers later…
Plus, we had no reason to believe that Ursula was tricking Eric.

** The boys had only gotten one question wrong in their round. The girls had gotten a question wrong earlier so if they answered this question wrong, they would have lost and couldn't just keep going.
*** They could’ve kept going if they had just blurted a guess or passed immediately rather than waste so much time trying to answer that question. Again, there’s no limit to the number of questions you can attempt in a lightning round as long as you do so within a set amount of time. Also, prior to the lightning round, they were tied with the guys, who then got four questions right during their lightning round. Ross even states that the girls needed five correct questions to win the game. Rachel and Monica got three correct before the question about Chandler’s job. If they’d skipped that one and got one more correct in the remaining time, which is very likely given how quickly they went through their first four questions in the lightning round, they would’ve at least ended the game with a tie. They might’ve even had enough time to answer two questions correctly, which would result in them winning the game.
*** Leaving aside whether technically the option to pass was allowed, as no one mentioned it and the guys never passed on their questions even when they were having trouble with how many towels Monica had. The girls didn't pass because Rachel thought she knew the answer and it was just on the tip of her tongue. When she finally got the word out and Monica realized how stupid and incorrect that answer was, there was no time left to ask another. If you need one more to win and think you know the answer you're much more likely to try and remember that answer than randomly say something to just move on.

*** No, they answered four questions. They got one wrong. They were on their fifth question. Not to mention they were running out of time anyway. Rachel answered transsponster about five seconds after Ross said they had ten seconds left.
*** Again, it doesn't matter how many questions they already answered; they're allowed to attempt as many as they can during the thirty-second-long lightning round. Also, they were only running out of time because they wasted almost half the round trying to remember what Chandler's job is. The question is why Rachel and Monica didn't just pass or give a random guess immediately after realizing neither of them knew the answer, which would have given them a better chance at winning or at least tying the game?
*** leaving aside whether technically the option to pass was allowed, as no one mentioned it and I dont think the guys passed on any did they? They didnt pass because Rachel thought she knew the answer and it was just on the tip of her tongue. When she finally got the wordout and they realised how stupid and incorrect that answer was, there was no time left to ask another. If you need one more to win and think you know the answer you're much more likely to try and remember that answer than randomly say something to just move on.

*** leaving aside whether technically the optiin to pass was allowed, as no one mentioned it and I dont think the guys passed on any did they? They didnt pass because Rachel thought she knew the answer and it was just on the tip of her tongue. When she finally got tge wird out and they realised how stupid that answer was and how incorrect it was there was no time left to ask another. If you need one more to win and think you know the answer you're much more likely to try and remember that answer than randomly say something to just move on.

** No, they answered four questions. They got one wrong. They were on their fifth question. Not to mention they were running out of time anyway. Rachel answered transsponster about five seconds after Ross said they had ten seconds left.

** The Lighting Round had a set amount of questions. It was true true that they needed or they would loose the game as it was the last question and they had already gotten one wrong.