Friends

Answer: They're cardboard cut-outs of two actresses from Joey and Chandler's favourite show, Baywatch, Pamela Anderson and Yasmin Bleeth. Monica and Rachel's heads were just placed over the faces.

SexyIrishLeprechaun

Chosen answer: It isn't a song in its own right. It's incidental music. It sounds like a variation in the style of "I'll Be There For You."

Michael Albert

Answer: In the episode where they pack for London and Monica realises that saying check is weird. Phoebe says something like "My mom used to stick her head in the oven. Well, just the one time." She also mentions in a song about a snowman that her "mum was dead in the kitchen".

edelian

Answer: Ross starts with the correct translation for "Thanks for the coffee". Gunther: "Je spreekt Nederlands?" (You speak Dutch?) "Dat is te gek!" (That's great!) "Heb je familie daar?" (Do you have family there?) And "ezel". Literally translated it's a donkey, but we also use for the word jerk or idiot. And finally Gunther says "Jij hebt sex met ezels" (You have sex with donkeys).

Nelleke Rietvink

The One With The Ride-Along - S5-E20

Question: What is the joke supposed to be when Ross says "Want me to grab the berry for you?" to Gary in the car, and he says that it's called the cherry, and Ross goes, "Chandler!". I never understood that joke, can someone please explain?

Answer: Chandler deliberately told Ross the wrong name for the red light, knowing that Ross would try and look "cool" to Gary by using the correct slang, but instead end up making himself look stupid.

Answer: The woman who wanted Monica's wedding dress from the blow-out sale retaliated by booking the Swing Kings for the same day as Monica and Chandler's wedding. She would only let Monica have the band if Monica agreed to give up the dress. Monica honored the agreement to ensure that Chandler got his favorite band for the reception - if she'd kept the dress after booking the band, the deplorable woman would have retaliated in some other way. Monica simply found another dress.

raywest

Answer: The first answer is 100% correct, but in S8 E1, the band they actually have at the wedding is called ‘Jungle Swing'.

If you haven't yet, you should totally submit this as a Mistake / Plot Inconsistency. Nice catch.

Answer: The Hormones are playing at Ross and Emily's wedding.

Super Grover

Answer: A Triscuit is a cracker that is made of wheat or something. You set them out at cocktail parties with crab cake or something. You understand it a little more when you hear his next line, something about the sharp edges.

Show generally

Question: When I was watching an episode the other day, Rachel said Richard, Monica's former boyfriend, gave her a little get-well kiss when she was young. This implies that she already knew Monica, as Richard was friends with Monica's dad. With this in mind, and with all relevant characters aside from the main group as well as the six 'Friends' I was wondering if anyone could provide a clear and concise explanation of the backstory to them all meeting, where they lived, school, etc.

Answer: Monica and Rachel went to school together and grew up in the same area of Long Island. Chandler met Ross at college and was introduced to both Monica and Rachel over thanksgiving. After college, Monica and Rachel lost touch, Rachel went off to get engaged to Barry the evil orthadontist, Phoebe moved in with Monica (we've never been told how Phoebe and Monica met, although coincidentally Phoebe mugged Ross when they were teenagers and she lived on the street), and after Kip (Chandler's roommate) left (either to get married or after a bad breakup with Monica, depending on which episode you watch), Joey moved in with Chandler (he was actually a second choice roommate, but Mr. Heckles scared off the first choice). Ross got married to Carol but got divorced due to her lesbianism, and Rachel ended up running out on Barry on her wedding day - she lived with Monica up until Chandler moved in.

Kara

Show generally

Question: I recently read in a magazine that Lisa Kudrow had to wear a wig for an entire season because of a dramatic haircut that would not suit her character. Is this true and if so which season?

Answer: In Season 6 Lisa Kudrow had a short bob, and as this would not suit her character (couldn't possibly have a short-haired hippy) so they added hair extensions to the end of her hair. Her real haircut at the time was shown in The One That Could Have Been, part 1 (and 2). In Season 9 episodes she wore a wig, as she dyed her hair brown for her part in the movie 'Wonderland'.

Answer: If you look at the clip when Lisa Kudrow won her best supporting actress in 1998 she has a mousey blonde short bob.

Answer: "On the Q.T. is slang for quietly. Q.T. is an abbreviation for quiet. The phrase dates to at least 1884." Found on wordorigins.org.

Ingabritzen

Answer: "Here he comes to save the day...Underdog..." and "There's no need to fear Underdog is here" are two of the famous sayings that I remember. It was a cartoon that ran in the 60s and 70s. Underdog was modeled after Superman, and he had a canine girlfriend named Sweet Polly. The canine superhero was the secret alter ego of Shoeshine Boy. As for Curious George, he's a monkey that lives with the 'man in the yellow hat' and is a character in children's story books.

Super Grover

Answer: They had already dated and broken up. When they began their online relationship, they were unaware who the other person was.

raywest

Show generally

Question: When the friends gang can't get in or out of Monica's apartment because they have locked the keys in or out why couldn't the other gang members let them borrow theirs? In the last ever episode it shows them having a key each.

Shadow5

Chosen answer: That doesn't mean they all had keys before the final episode. The lockout incident happened earlier in the series when Rachel was still living with Monica. It could be that after they got locked out, the girls decided everyone should have a key to their apartment to avoid another similar dilemma.

raywest

The One With The Kips - S5-E5

Question: In this episode, Chandler and Monica go on a small trip together. They have a fight because Chandler is too obsessed with watching a car-chase on TV and Monica keeps switching rooms. When they come home, they have a conversation in Monica's apartment where Chandler says "I guess it's over now", to which Monica replies "Why, exactly?" Chandler says " Cause we had a fight" and Monica's respond is "That's silly. If you were going to give up every time you had a fight with someone, you'd never be with anyone longer than...OH!" They both seem to realize something here. What is it??

Rebekka Hildre

Chosen answer: They both realise that one of the reasons Chandler hasn't had a long term relationship is because he assumes a fight means the end of things (together with his generally rocky attitude towards relationships!). Monica never realised that's how he thought, and Chandler never realised that was wrong.

Jon Sandys

Answer: Is that the entire answer? The way Monica responds makes it sound like she's finally understanding an incident that occurred many episodes or seasons before. Like they expect the audience to realise it's the punchline to a joke long-ago uttered.

She kind of is - Chandler has had a string of failed relationships, Monica has clearly never identified a common point of failure with some of them, and now she's realising he assumes one fight = breakup, his love life history makes sense.

Chosen answer: Rachel attended college, but in one of the Thanksgiving flashback episodes she mentions that her major was psychology but there was no parking around the psychology building, so she switched majors. She never says what her new major was.

The One With The Donor - S9-E22

Question: Chandler and Monica are told that aside from adoption there are two ways for them to have a baby, either using a surrogate or a sperm donor. But if Monica would be able to carry the child of the sperm donor, and a surrogate would be able to carry Monica and Chandler's child, wouldn't Monica be able to carry Chandler's child using the same process as used with a surrogate?

Answer: If (just) surrogacy is an option, that means that IVF using Chandler's sperm and Monica's egg must be possible. If (just) a sperm donor is an option, that means that Monica must be capable of carrying a child. So, yes, with the situation as presented by the doctor, Monica could have carried Chandler's child after IVF. The only rational explanation would be that the doctor misspoke, and should have said that they would need both a sperm donor -and- a surrogate (because Chandler's sperm couldn't be used in IVF and Monica couldn't carry a child at all). This was simply a mistake made by the writers.

Show generally

Question: I know that some shows/films changed their cityscape shots between scenes after September the 11th but did Friends? I noticed in an old episode from series 6 the Trade Center Towers are still standing. I thought they might have changed it for the later episodes, but are there any plans to go back and edit episodes featuring shots of the Twin Towers?

Answer: No I don't think so. Earlier episodes show the Trade Center Towers in some of their shots but after 9/11 Friends started using new cityscape shots, which makes sense.

Tobin OReilly

Show generally

Question: I've always wondered about this - how is the Friends set/studio laid out? It's fairly obvious that the two main apartments and corridor are one large set with the audience behind the camera (as is fairly standard), but what about Central Perk? Is that part of the same set with the audience...somewhere, or is that filmed elsewhere and shown to the audience separately?

Jon Sandys

Chosen answer: Monica's apartment is centre stage, with Joey's on the audience's left, separated by the hallway in between. Central Perk is on the right of Monica's, and stays up permanently because it features in every show. Ross' appartment is on the right of Monica's but alongside the audience. 1. Monica's room and the guest room formerly known as Rachel's room are not set up all the time because they are often used for filming from different angles. When they are set up it is often on a different part of the set. 2. The poster next to Monica's tv hides a camera hole for filming kitchen/door scenes. 3. The street outside Central Perk is also part of the set, not filmed outside. However I am unsure of where this is in relation to the set. 4. Monica's secret closet is actually a door to the backstage area, the shelves featuring in The One With The Secret Closet were a one time thing. These facts were correct at the end of series nine, details of the layout of the series 10 set are not yet available.

Show generally

Question: What does the insult "Fafanapolie" mean? I don't know if it's spelled correctly but the meaning is what I really want to know.

Answer: "Va fa Napoli" means go to Naples (Joey is speaking Italian). What Joey probably meant to say was "vaffanculo" which is a very rude saying in Italian.

Shay

The saying is technically va fa in il culo (Americanized as bafangoo), which means go f*** yourself (in the a**).

More mistakes in Friends

Kathy: So, what did you do today?
Chandler: Well, I had an appointment to get my hair cut...
Kathy: Oh, it looks great!
Chandler: ...and then it got cancelled.

More quotes from Friends

Trivia: The Magna-doodle on the door in the boys apartment has a different picture on it every episode. There is usually some tenuous connection between the picture and the plot of the episode.

More trivia for Friends

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