Friends: 10 Best Characters Only In One Episode
5. Gentleman On The Plane
Episode: The One With Ross's Wedding, Part 2 (S4E24)
Hugh Laurie only has around a minute of screen time across the entire show, but he makes those seconds count. Appearing as a disgruntled passenger sat next to Rachel on a plane, his character hits her with a couple of hard truths in an amusingly blunt fashion, forcing Rachel to evaluate whether what she's doing is right.
In this episode, she's on her way to London to tell Ross that she loves him, which is a problem, because he's about to marry Emily. Rachel has loved him for a while but has been deflecting those emotions, only realising now - when it might be too late - that she has to tell him how she feels. After listening to (or rather, eavesdropping on) her story, the gentleman says what a lot of us were thinking at this point: that ruining someone else's wedding, whether her intent is pure or not, is a bad, selfish move on Rachel's part.
The matter-of-fact way in which Laurie delivers his lines cuts through some of Rachel's pretences like butter, which gives his character more narrative value than a lot of other guest stars. He's not just there to be a throwaway joke or a cheap gag (though he is funny): he's providing a different viewpoint on the episode's events, a viewpoint that a lot of audience members probably shared.