10 Worst Friends Episodes
Which episodes do you wish were "on a break!"
Calling Friends one of the best sitcoms of all time is like saying "Joey doesn't share food", everybody already knows. The series took the world by storm and became the blueprint for how to create a successful sitcom, with great characters, writing and a sense of identity.
Running for ten seasons and amassing a staggering 236 episodes is no easy feat, and the writers, actors and crew deserve masses of flowers thrown at their feet for it. But, it's also plenty of time to take a couple of missteps.
The beauty of Friends is that even the worst episodes still have merit to them, and it's impossible to say that there are any bad ones objectively. But that doesn't mean the show managed to get by scot-free without a couple of duds.
These coming ten chapters in the Friends saga were poor representations of the charm, humour and creativity that made it a classic. While there might be some you genuinely like, try to take a step back and compare them to the show's overall quality, and you might be surprised by what you find.
10. The One With The Joke
One of the things this show did so well was carrying a simple joke and expanding it. They could take a tiny concept and create an array of gags, emotions and humour. But, in this one, you get a lot of the same in both the A and B stories.
The One With The Joke follows a dispute between Chandler and Ross after a joke of theirs gets published in Playboy, and they argue over who wrote it. Alongside this comes more conflict as Phoebe accidentally insults Monica and Rachel by calling out their flaws.
As you can tell from that description, you'd better enjoy bickering; otherwise, this one might be a snore-fest for you. The pettiness from Ross and Chandler has legs to stand on, but it stays the same throughout and doesn't progress enough to feel funny.
A great example of this kind of bickering working is Chandler and Joey's argument in The One Where No-One's Ready, which actually goes somewhere, but here, it's just a damp squib.
The outings only saving grace is a fun side-plot with Joey taking a job in Central Perk, but even that just runs through the motions rather than doing something unique.