Friends. Arguably one of the most loved and celebrated TV shows of all time. Fans around the world re-watch all ten seasons over and over and over again each year, even though the show ended well over a decade ago.
As more fans discover it, and more fans re-watch it for the twentieth time, little "easter eggs" (aka audience treats) come to light. Here are some of our favourites!
Thought you fooled us there? Think again!
Phoebe says that Ross has never chased someone to an airport before, to which he agrees "Not since my copy show got canceled." In fact, he chased his second wife Emily to the airport to tell her he loved her in a very similar fashion to this scene.
Quora
Continuity is key
In the episode where Joey finds out his dad is cheating on his mom, his mom enters the apartment with a bag of groceries and puts them on the stove, where they promptly fall over. The next time you see them, the back is back up. Next scene, down.
3. How can you forget this one?
In season one Monica claims it's her first Thanksgiving in the apartment, however in the fifth season Phoebe tells the story of Monica's worst Thanksgiving which takes place a year before season one with all of them gathered together. Remember, it's the one where Joey puts the giant turkey on his head?
4. Make up your mind!
Rachel's birthday keeps changing! In season four she says she was born on May 5th, making her a Taurus. In season season, when a policeman asks for her driver's license, he remarks that she's an Aquarius meaning she was born in January or February.
5. Wait, now I'm confused
Is it Greene or Green? Ross spelled Rachels last name wrong on his wedding invitation.
Buzzfeed
6. Such a hypocrite
Phoebe is superstitious... sort of. In "The One with All the Wedding Dresses" she says she believes that on the wedding day, the groom should not see the bride before the ceremony. However, on her own wedding day, Phoebe and Mike hang out together before the ceremony.
Quora
7. I feel like this might have been a prank actually
In the episode where Monica opens all the wedding presents, the yellow Kitchen-Aid mixer is somehow both unwrapped in the pile of presents AND already unwrapped sitting on the countertop.
8. B-b-b-but you already said it!
Joey says in season eight that it's the first time he's ever truly been in love with someone, but this contradicts what he said when he fell in love with Kate in season three.
Quora
9. I think they just can't be bothered to keep up
Rachel finds out she's pregnant at Monica's wedding in May, putting her at four weeks pregnant, meaning she'd be due in January. But by the time we get to the Christmas episode when she should be busting, she's only four months pregnant. so she probably got pregnant in April, so she'd be due in like January. But in the next Christmas episode, she's only 4 months pregnant.
Jessica Giffin
10. Maybe she just doesn't remember?
Phoebe says that her father ran out on her before she was born, but when Frank actually turns up at a later episode he reminisces about being around when she was a kid and singing her songs at bedtime.
What Culture
11. This is sort of a cute one
Monica's apartment initially has wood boards from floor to ceiling but as time goes on there's only wood board by the fridge. Certain directors of the show enjoyed putting their own mark on the show, and some like James Burrows would move the wood around every time he directed an episode.
IMDB
12. You never know, he might need another one
During "The One In Vegas", Chandler says if he won $5000 he would join a gym and build up his upper body strength. But we already know that he and Ross have gym memberships and can't bring themselves to quit...
Quora
13. This was totally the props crew joking around
The burglar who robbed Chandler and Joey left a note on the Magna Doodle saying Thanks for all your stuff!
Buzzfeed
14. It's just basic math, dude
When talking about his mother, Joey says to Ross, "You think it's easy giving birth to seven kids?" This is incorrect because Joey has seven sisters, meaning Joey's mother gave birth to eight children.
15. Maybe Chandler was just trying to make him look cool?
Early on in the series we find out that the first and only person Ross had ever slept with was his wife Carol. Years later, however, Chandler says Ross slept with a woman who cleaned their dorm building while they were in college.
16. Ross has the memory of a goldfish!
When Monica and Chandler are getting married, Ross says it's his first time walking down the aisle knowing it can't end in divorce, but he previously walked down the aisle during Susan's wedding to Carol!
Quora
17. Good point!
Phoebe's mom killed herself when Phoebe was 13, which is often the explanation Phoebe gives when asked her middle name or real birth year. Think about it though. What 13 year old doesn't know their full name and birthday?!
18. My bet is on the second option
In "The One Where Chandler Doesn't Like Dogs," Ross says he doesn't like ice cream because it's too cold but when he starts dating Elizabeth you see them eating ice cream together. Either he changed his mind or someone in the writer's room forgot he's supposed to hate it.
What Culture
19. When you're trying to tell a good story, you sometimes have to change things up a bit
There are multiple flashbacks in the show to when Monica, Ross, Chandler, and Rachel are younger and hanging out together. Somehow this is all forgotten in the first episode where Monica introduces Rachel to the group as if Rachel doesn't know who they already are.
Paige Elizabeth Mansfield
20. There's really no reasonable explanation for this
In "The One with a Dozen Lasagnas", Monica's aunt won't eat the lasagnas because they are filled with meat and she's a vegetarian. Later Phoebe, a strict vegetarian, is seen eating the lasagna with Monica.
Quora
21. This is such a nice easter egg
For several episodes after the 9/11 attacks, the episodes were dedicated to the "The People of New York". If you pay attention you'll notice that the Fire Department of New York logo appears several times throughout the show as well as an homage to those people who dedicated so much. You'll see the logo on Joey's and Rachel's shirts, on the Doodle board, on a baseball cap, on a mug, etc.
Elodie Davoise
22. This doesn't sound like something you'd forget
In season five Joey uses finger quotes to tell Rachel that Monica and Chandler are in the next room "making love", but four seasons later he tells Ross that he doesn't know what finger quotes are.
23. This one escalated quickly!
Phoebe finds out she's pregnant around the time that Ross and Emily meet. Despite the fact that their wedding is only three months later and she would be max. 5 months pregnant, she's somehow so close to labour that she can't fly to the wedding.
24. There are no words
In one episode Joey goes to Central Perk and there's a potato in the cake stand...
Sami Warkow
Redditor BarooTangClan wanted to compare notes on all the entertainment we've said "that's enough" to.
"What will make you instantly stop watching a movie or show and why?"
I hate bad acting, writing, storytelling... I hate bad anything.
Stop Jumping
Fight Scene GIF by Operation FortuneGiphy"Fight scenes with a million visual cuts. Gives me motion sickness. Contrast the absolutely masterful work in John Wick. long cuts, realistic use of weapons (mostly), 100% skill."
StabbyPants
Louder
"When the actors whisper the whole movie and you have to crank the volume to hear what's being said - but the soundtrack or some other misc noise starts blaring at a higher volume directly after."
Blaze*itch
"I basically had to watch Stranger Things up in my attic with the windows and doors closed. I was worried the neighbors would think something was wrong or be annoyed if I watched it downstairs in my single family home. It was ridiculous."
ForecastForFourCats
"spice things up"
"Love triangles out of no where in a second or third season to 'spice things up' because studio writers are hacks and their idea of relationship drama is 'potential infidelity' at all times. It's the most tired trope on the go**amn planet and the second I see it rear its head I dip right the hell out."
amalgamas
"The whole concept of a love triangle to begin with an incredibly juvenile. Any healthy functioning adult who found themselves in a love triangle would soon choose to find themselves single."
Ouch_i_fell_down
Save your lips...
"When couples in a movie/show have a fight and one of them instantly goes to a friend and end up kissing her/him after talking for 5 minutes. I cringe so hard i turn it off and never watch it again."
Dry-Mycologist3966
"This pissed me off so much in Manifest. Girl is desperate to get back her ex-fiancé, he finally breaks up with his wife to get back with her and she's like 'nah, it's not fair to your wife, let me do this other dude I just met through a calling and be pissed at you for being jealous.' Michaela was the worst and everyone acted as if she were a saint the entire time."
gingerisla
Talk to Me
In Love Flirt GIF by OriginalsGiphy"Shows where a single polite conversation could fix everything."
Horror_Librarian_133
We are going overboard with the witty repartee. Talk normal...
Shut Up
Scared Home Alone GIF by FreeformGiphy"Annoying main character, especially if it's a kid."
abananation
"Kids who have a quippy, sassy retort to everything, and everyone just kind of crumbles before their wit."
CarpetPure7924
Speak Good
"Shows where kids in high school talk like they are 30 years olds who have done everything, been everywhere, know it all and use a ridiculously flowery and extensive vocabulary in every conversation. Like, have any of these writers ever been to high school? Literally no one talks like that. Even worse is when, in addition to this, all the adults talk normal or are just plain stupid, like so weird parallel universe."
StretchArmstrong74
Nonsense
"If the movie is too dark. Not graphic, just literally dark. I lose all sense of intensity in dark scenes and I'm not straining my damn eyes trying to figure out what the hell is going on."
TheShadowOfKaos
"I've seen about 10 percent of all DC movies recently. I've seen all of the individual films in full, just actually saw 10% of each of them."
Mortlach78
"Movies in the late 80s had a lot of dark but you could see the depth because of different shooting techniques. Now you cant see crap because its a CGI fest drowned in black color so you can't see crap because you have no depth in a scene. Compare night scenes in dark alleys in 80's movies and movies now. Utter crap show in the new ones."
Bombzey
Pay Attention Storytellers
"Bad editing would be a big one. A lot of modern horror movies can't help but edit the movies like they're trailers, with added noises to scare the audience because they are afraid the script alone isn't enough to keep people watching."
ThisIsCreation
"I remember this is where the first transformers movie lost me. When the transformers are fighting at the end, it's all a big, jumbled mess of metal and I can barely tell what's going on or who is who."
1840_NO
Drama
will devry soap opera GIF by General HospitalGiphy"When they go straight to relationship drama right away when it wasn't the selling point of the show."
LightInthewater
Do better, Hollywood. It's not that hard.
RedditorCallMehRiverwanted to hear about all the ways none of us what to leave this life.
"What Do You Think Would Be The Worst Death Imaginable?"
My list of the worst deaths is long. My imagination runs amok.
Trapped
season 6 friends GIFGiphy"For me? Being trapped in a small tube or cave (like the ones you have to wiggle through) and getting stuck to where you can’t move your arms. And all you can do is wait to die. I’m getting chills just thinking about it."
Stuck
"The more I hear about cavers that get stuck, the more I think that's a crap way to go."
- braydenmaine
"There’s a great YouTube channel called Ask a Mortician and this was her #1 worse way to die. I can’t remember the exact details or their names, but two well-known divers went into an underwater cave."
"One of them became entangled and died. Years later, his friend dives back down there to try and retrieve his body, the body itself is rotten and his head comes off and the other guy also becomes tangled and dies. Really sad."
- melancholybuzzard
A Long Process
"Believed to be in a coma but coherent through the whole 20 year process until they pull the plug."
weebeardedman
"Oh man this just reminded me of a story I read on here about a guy who lost the ability to move and speak but was completely conscious. Had to just lay there and be awake but trapped in a useless body. His family thought he was brain dead or something and he couldn’t communicate to them that he was 'all there.' Crazy"
habeeb51
Slow & Steady
"Being slowly impaled by a growing bamboo. It was a form of torture probably used by the japanese during WW2 against Allied prisoners."
JazzySocrate
"My uncle who served back in the day said that people would have the bamboo slipped under their fingernails because it would continue to grow still. It would just continue growing into the body."
Payness0826
Excruciating
"Rabies."
Santolmo
"The scariest part is that once you have symptoms, you 100% will die. A 100% mortality rate has to be a psychological torture in itself."
RonaldRawdog
"Not only that, you feel irrational fear. Your brain is literally being eaten apart by the virus and it fu*ks up everything on it. You can't drink water because it hurts you. You feel dizzy, present a fever, excessively salivate, everything hurts and it only gets worse. I'd rather take a bullet and die when the symptoms are still tolerable."
Santolmo
Why can't we all just go engulfed in calm and quiet?
Suspended
"Some pulpy sci-fi book I read a while back had one of the best deaths of this real piece of crap bad guy. Left to die in a drowning sea lab under the Antarctic ice, he freezes himself in a state of the art suspended animation pod with some kind cold fusion power source that would keep it running for millions of years."
"But he forgot to inject himself with the drug that would put him to sleep. So basically he is in suspended animation at the bottom of the Antarctic ocean while his mind is perfectly awake and conscious in a near unbreakable machine that won't run out of power for millions of years and nobody knows about it."
DubiousAlibi
No Cure
"As an RN I have always thought that the worst way to die (natural process) is ALS. Lou Gehrig's Disease."
randymn1963
"My mom and grandmother have Huntington's disease, which is essentially ALS, Alzheimer's, and Dementia combined into one really messed up genetic disease. I have a 50% chance of inheriting it and if I hit 40 and there's still no cure I can't promise I'll feel like continuing on with my life because that disease is absolutely freaking miserable."
DevTheDummy
Agony...
"Radiation poisoning."
binhan123ad
"The fact your chromosomes can be so destroyed your body basically lost it's genetic code and with it the ability to make any new cells. It's literally a 'dead man walking' and you slowly rot away in agony. Stuff is so unimaginably f**ked up."
yea_nah448
"What's also bad about radiation is that it affects your nerves and brain cells last, so you have everything in place to feel all the pain of the rest of your cells being destroyed."
nosmelc
Goo
Not Listening Season 2 GIF by The Fresh Prince of Bel-AirGiphy"I want to believe anything that slowly kills you painfully to be the worst. Such as slowly being crushed or something where the pain is beyond compare and yet not enough to throw you into shock or unconsciousness."
Beardless_Man
"Alternatively, being rapidly crushed into goo would probably be the least painful. I'm talking one of those massive industrial hammers they use for large steel work. Basically smooshed before the nerve signals make it to the brain."
Bannon9k
Now I'll never sleep again without nightmares of death.
If you or someone you know is struggling, you can contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
To find help outside the United States, the International Association for Suicide Prevention has resources available at https://www.iasp.info/resources/Crisis_Centres/
