5 Friends Episodes To Watch During Thanksgiving (Photo Credit – Instagram)
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When Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a national holiday in 1863 to foster unity and solidarity during the Civil War, he couldn’t have anticipated its cultural impact extending into television programming. There also lies a tradition of binge-watching crowd-pleasing shows that ask viewers to turn their brains off and just soak in the entertainment. FRIENDS stands as one such common denominator.
Over the years, the American sitcom has created its own tradition, with all but a handful of its ten seasons delighting viewers with Thanksgiving-themed episodes where the misadventures of Joey, Chandler, Rachel, Phoebe, Ross, and Monica happen to align for the festivities, and a confined space emerges in the semblance of a pressure cooker for comedy gold.
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These Friends Thanksgiving episodes bring out the best of the show, especially when comic timing meets cast chemistry, and the background laughter is not a mere gimmick anymore but feels earned.
In India, Friends is available on both Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. In the US, all episodes stream exclusively on HBO Max.
1. Friends Season 9, Episode 8: The One With Rachel’s Other Sister
Year of Release: 2002
IMDb Rating: 8.7/10
Rachel’s troublesome sister Amy (Christina Applegate) crashes Thanksgiving dinner at Monica and Chandler‘s apartment, bringing with her the commotion that defines what people tune into Friends for. Amy represents everything shallow and self-absorbed about the Green family, constantly mischaracterizing baby Emma and dismissing Phoebe as just “a funny noise.” Little did Rachel know the havoc her vapid younger sister would wreak until the latter casually nominates herself to become the benefactor of Emma in case of Ross and Rachel’s demise. This innocent comment spirals into a full-blown debate about guardianship that exposes everyone’s insecurities.
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Monica obsesses over her wedding china throughout the meal, creating a secondary source of tension that adds to the powder keg atmosphere. Joey faces his own mini-crisis and desperately enlists Phoebe to help fabricate a convincing excuse. Chandler surprisingly emerges as the voice of reason at a critical moment to make Ross reconsider his parenting capabilities. Christina Applegate’s Emmy-winning performance as the oblivious, narcissistic Amy makes this Thanksgiving episode the highest-rated of the series.
2. Season 6, Episode 9: The One Where Ross Got High
Year of release: 1999
IMDb Rating: 8.6/10
Solidifying Friends’ status as delirious and incoherent by reality standards, yet a hilarious amalgamation of overlapping stories without requiring the structural integrity of bodily tissues, this episode from November 25, 1999, featured one of the most-watched “30-second” clips from the sitcom. Ross and Monica’s parents arrive for Thanksgiving as the evening devolves into a rapid-fire confession session where decades-old secrets tumble out faster than anyone can process them. The catalyst turns out to be Monica and Ross’s mother when she finally divulges why she doesn’t like Chandler, the latter being subjected to a heinous false accusation.
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What follows is a domino effect of truth-bombs, ranging from Ross’s marijuana addiction and third marriage to Rachel’s little experiment with beef and trifle. The gang’s attempts to choke down the dessert-meat hybrid while maintaining poker faces effectuates more comedy gold. The episode’s crescendo of chaos resolves itself with everyone laughing, utilizing Friends’ ensemble to maximum effect.
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3. Season 8, Episode 9: The One With the Rumor
Year of release: 2001
IMDb Rating: 8.5/10
Friends has never been a show in need of reinforcements, given its ensemble’s own prowess, but for Thanksgiving 2001, it fired all cylinders to bring in Jennifer Aniston’s then-husband and Fight Club megastar Brad Pitt. Only this time, the club featured was “I Hate Rachel Green Club,” and Pitt’s Will Colbert co-founded it with Ross back in high school after Rachel had cruelly mocked him for being overweight, leaving the latter upset about being confronted with her past mean-girl behavior. The plot crackles with the uncomfortable tension of old grudges meeting present-day civility, as Will can barely mask his contempt for Rachel. The latter, pregnant at the time, becomes the target of Will’s passive-aggressive jabs throughout dinner, her condition adding extra vulnerability to the situation.
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The episode gradually reveals the depths of the club’s misdoings, including spreading a rumor that she was a hermaphrodite. It also exposes Ross’s suspected pervert side with talks of his affair with a cougar librarian in college. Monica, meanwhile, attempts to outdo previous Thanksgivings as Joey commits to the “noble goal” of eating an entire turkey himself, unbuttoning his pants halfway through the meal. Phoebe floats through the pandemonium with her typical detached amusement, pointing out the absurdity of grown people engaging in high school vendettas. The real meat of the episode is watching Aniston and Pitt’s chemistry, or intentional lack thereof, as their characters spar, with Will’s obvious lingering resentment providing delicious dramatic irony given their real-life relationship.
4. Season 5, Episode 8: The One With All the Thanksgivings
Year of release: 1998
IMDb Rating: 8.5/10
Friends has never been one to play around with timelines like shows like How I Met Your Mother or Arrested Development, and when it does venture into the past, the results can feel jarring. But this Thanksgiving miracle proved that when the stars align, even Friends could pull off elaborate flashback sequences featuring character histories. The gang sits down to discuss their worst Thanksgiving memories in a series of increasingly absurd flashbacks dating all the way back to the Nurse’s War in 1862, as told through Phoebe’s reincarnation story.
Monica’s painful memories of being overweight in the 1980s collide with Chandler’s revelation about losing his toe, thus serving as the emotional and comedic centerpiece. The 1988 Thanksgiving shows a newly-thin Monica attempting revenge by seducing Chandler, while Ross’s incessantly evolving hairstyles across the timelines get monopoly on the visual gags, only to be confronted by Rachel’s pre-nose-job appearance from 1992.
5. Season 3, Episode 9: The One With the Football
Year of release: 1996
IMDb Rating: 8.5/10
Not every Thanksgiving needs to be confined to the dinner table and Monica’s apartment, as this episode proves by taking a trip outdoors to Central Park (not “Perk”) for a full-on physical challenge that unleashes their competitive demons. Ross and Monica’s decades-old football rivalry materializes during a friendly game, which takes the form of a battle for sibling supremacy and the coveted “Geller Cup.” The casual touch football makes the group divide into teams, and the competition’s intensity comes to the surface with elaborate plays and trash talk worthy.
The episode features everything from Phoebe going long and demanding someone throw deep, to women pulling their shirts up and flashing to distract male opponents. As if the sibling war was not enough, Chandler and Joey’s bromance also steps on thin ice in order to woo a Dutch woman. The episode maintains Friends’ signature claustrophobic energy despite being set outdoors in open space, while the characters’ close relationships and competitive natures create brand-new dysfunctional elements.
