Question: One episode has a very short scene with Rachel + Phoebe in Central Perk, just them, sitting near the door (not sofa). Rachel has a problem, Phoebe is solving, while Rachel eats cake. While chatting, but not mentioned at all, Phoebe tries to get Rachel's cake. End of scene, Phoebe succeeds and Rachel has gained advice but lost cake. Cake is not referred to at all in the dialogue or plot, making it pretty tricky to search for. Anyone know the episode?
The One With The Jellyfish - S4-E1
Question: When Ross and Rachel are fighting, Chandler hides behind the door and bursts out saying, "I knew it!" When Rachel says, "It's not that common, it doesn't happen to every guy, and it is a big deal!" is this just a Chandler moment or is there another joke I have missed?
The One With The Dirty Girl - S4-E6
Question: When Joey asks why he can't give Kathy the pen, Chandler says, "Because she's not eleven. And it's not the seventh night of Chanukah." What is Chandler talking about when he says, "It's not the seventh night of Chanukah?"
Answer: Usually by the seventh night of Hanukkah you don't know what to get the other person, and you will probably resort to getting the other person something insignificant. Chandler is basically saying that the pen is a stupid gift.
Answer: Chanukah is a Jewish celebration that occurs around the same time as the Christian Christmas. The celebration lasts for eight days and it is customary to give a small gift on each of the eight days. There is no special gift required and the line about it being "the seventh night" of Chanukah is just Chandler's sarcasm.
Question: What is all that stuff with "Zippowitz" and the "Kid from Silver Spoons" about? Who are those two?
The One With the Sharks - S9-E4
Question: What's the name of the "scary painting" that Joey saw in the apartment of the girl he thought he'd slept with before? The strange and creepy painting (black and white, with an amorphous body and a chair). I really, really want to know who is the artist. Not Gladys - that's Phoebe's painting that comes out of the frame.
Answer: The painting doesn't have a name, and if it does it is never mentioned in this episode.
Question: Does any episode of Friends make a reference to the destruction of the World Trade Center towers?
Answer: No, although shortly after the event, there was a "I *heart* NY" seen written on the small message board that hangs on Joey and Chandler's front door. A small tribute, no doubt. Also, during the end-credits of the 2001 Season Eight episode, 'The One After "I Do"' there is a dedication to the people of New York. Joey wears an FDNY shirt as well.
Answer: They actually had to re-shoot the episode following 9/11. Chandler had made a joke about a bomb on a plane while in the airport during the honeymoon episode, so they changed that subplot.
The One With Joey's Fridge - S6-E19
Question: In this episode there is a lot of reference to what seems to be some American custom I don't get. Monica says to tell Elizabeth that she "wants her cookies early this year" and later Ross orders "one box of thin mints". What is this all about?
Answer: This would be a reference to the Girl Scout cookie selling drive each year, to raise money for the organization. Girl Scouts are typically (not always) known as being younger children. So Monica is making fun of how young Elizabeth is by referring to her as a Girl Scout. The Thin Mint is one of the perennial best-sellers, chocolate-mint wafers coated in a layer of dark chocolate - Ross is saying it so the professor that walks in on him and Elizabeth will think he's just buying cookies.
The One with the Blackout - S1-E7
Question: When they're all playing the game where everyone has to reveal the weirdest place he/she had sex, Rachel says, "Oh, alright. The weirdest place would have to be. Oh, the foot of the bed." This has Joey and Ross much impressed and the girls are smiling too. Could anyone explain the joke? Or are the friends just being sarcastic at Rachel being relatively 'less' adventurous?
Answer: They are being, as you say, sarcastic.
The One With The Jellyfish - S4-E1
Question: After Ross and Rachel break up the 2nd time, Rachel yells, "Just so you know, it's not that common, it doesn't happen to every guy, and it is a big deal." What is she referring to?
Answer: It is one of two things, one being his inability to achieve or maintain an erection while they are going at it, and the second is premature ejaculation, both of which Ross would be mortified about.
The One With The Halloween Party - S8-E6
Question: Why does Rachel think Gunther is gay? And why does Gunther like Rachel so much?
Chosen answer: Gunther is rather particular about his appearance, keeping his hair carefully cut and colored, and is always wearing well chosen shirts and ties. This is what is commonly referred today as being "metro-sexual" which a lot of people consider to be gay. Gay men (stereotypically) are particular about how they look, so she just assumes. Also, since he is SO in love with Rachel, he doesn't have other relationships to prove her opinion incorrect because he is always hoping she will be single soon and notice him. Who can say why he is so in love with Rachel. Why does ANYONE love someone else? Infatuation? Her looks? Her personality? We will never know. Love is funny that way.
Question: When Phoebe's mom died she went and lived on the street. But why? I am sure they had a house. Why would someone take it away from them? And what about her Grandmother?
Answer: Any answer would be a guess, it's never explained. But she mostly likely ran away from home and lived on the streets and later reconnected with her grandmother.
Answer: According to Phoebe her mother had severe mental problems. It could be that had a house but lost it because of it, they lived on the streets and sometime later after her mother died she went to live with her grandmother. They could have lived with her grandmother, but the mother's mental problems drove her out. Either way Phoebe would want be with her to take care of her.
I don't believe it likely Phoebe and her mother would have been on the streets / homeless at the time of her mother's suicide. Multiple times in the series Phoebe explicitly states that her mom committed suicide by putting her head in an oven / was "in the kitchen." The context and phrasing as Phoebe describes it strongly implies they were in their house at the time.
The One With Rachel's Assistant - S7-E4
Question: At the start of the episode we see the end of Joey's appalling show, listing the executive producers as Colleen Mahan, Eric Goldberg, and Missy Krehbiel. Missy Krehbiel is assistant to David Crane, Friends writer/producer/creator, etc. Anyone know who the others are and what their link to the show is?
Chosen answer: Colleen Mahan and Eric Goldberg also work on the show they are assistants to Kevin Bright, Marta Kauffman and David Crane.
The One With Rachel's Crush - S4-E13
Question: I think it's in this episode (I'm not sure), but in Central Perk, when Ross and Joey are naming celebrity couples who have been in movies together, Ross mentions Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger. What movie were they in together?
Answer: It was a remake of "The Getaway," in 1994.
Question: Was Jennifer Aniston actually pregnant whilst Rachel was pregnant in the story? If not, how did they get her to look so 'round'?
Answer: Nope, Jennifer Aniston hasn't got children, it was all prosthetics although it did look really good!
Question: What does Joey mean when he says "quarters, or rolls of quarters?" when he replied to the lady that says she can "pick up quarters with her toes"?
Answer: She says quarters, but then starts sliding her foot up his thigh and demonstrates that her toes are more dextrous than he first realised.
Answer: This can be answered two ways. Joey could be asking if she is nimble enough with her toes to be able to pick up an individual quarter as well as grab an entire roll of them. However, this is Joey, and he is likely implying a sexual double entendre to the meaning of "rolls of quarters" by implying they are phallic in shape.
The One With The Ballroom Dancing - S4-E4
Question: What does this joke mean? "Tribbiani. Hold on. I'll get the plunger."
Chosen answer: Because the only time Joey Tribbiani goes to Treager's apartment is when he has clogged the toilet.
Answer: It implies that Joey has to call Treeger often for clogged toilets etc. so Treeger automatically assumed it was for that.
Answer: The statements that she's contradicting (that it is common, it happens to every guy, and it's not a big deal), are the things that a woman commonly says to a man who is suffering from erectile difficulty, typically to assuage his bruised ego. However, most men do not believe that these statements are true, as evidenced by Chandler's outburst. He's so caught up in the proof that women are lying about it that he gives himself away.
Rooster of Doom