To want a Friends inconsistency thread

[NameChangedNoImagination]

I have watched this WAYYY too much. But there must be others like me out there.

To start...

• Ben disappears.

• Rachel's dad smokes but with her smoking episodes she says she doesn't because her dad's a doctor and told her horror stories about it.

And it always bugged me about Monica's wedding/Rachel falling pregnant/giving birth. The timelines just don't add up.

Overinvested that always annoys me too-thed just got back!

Some of these are understandable, especially with the switchover of writers. But birthdays... Really?! Surely they'd have a character sheet with that kind of stuff on!

Phoebe's step dad was still in prison for her wedding. He was supposed to get day release but "apparently stabbing Ice Man" couldn't wait.

The flashback ones do bug me a bit and the fact that early on Joey clearly knows what an Adam's Apple is but later refers to his Joey's Apple. They dumbed his character down so much. But then they all became caricatures of the original characters really.

yeah seren but what about her brother and her birth mother

Ooh I have one - Pheobe is a vegetarian and refuses to wear fur, but in the one where Monica and Rachael throw her a shower, they mention "the leather pants she's always wanted"...
Sounds unlikely!

A mild one but Rachel asks Monica to help pick out lingerie and Monica says it really freaks her out picking people's sex clothes but then in later episodes she asks Rachel to help pick out her sex clothes.

Another one Rachel makes a comment about being sold a pretzel from one of the kids from Fame, whilst working alongside her fellow assistant Sophie who was actually in Fame.

Ross breaks up his and Emily's parents argument by saying if I hear one more word then no grandchildren. What about Ben??

Can I just say despite all of these I bloody love the show it's pure comfort telly

The Rachel doesn't know chandler one is the worst because there is zero reason for it to exist. Monica could have said, you remember Ross and chandler. Nothing else would have needed to change. So frustrating.

@Grundtal

But obviously the flashback scenes were dreamt up years down the line, so as far as the pilot was concerned she didn't know chandler.

Ross won't move to England for Emily because he can't leave Ben, but he doesn't seem to give a shiny shit about Rachel taking Emma to Paris.

I always forgive any inconsistencies/actor changes etc from the pilot of a show as that’s usually given the go ahead based on them changing a few things.

Ross breaks up his and Emily's parents argument by saying if I hear one more word then no grandchildren. What about Ben??

And the way Jack Geller refers to Emma as his first grandchild. It's physically painful how Ben was excluded more and more until he was phased out of existence.

Back when he was a character, the episode where Ross makes a fake Ben very much gets on my nerves because Monica says it's past his bedtime, so why would Ross have gone to the effort of stuffing clothes and carving a pumpkin, and set it up in front of the TV anyway? He could have saved a lot of trouble saying Ben was in bed, or you know, just drawn the curtains.

But I suppose then there wouldn't have been a storyline there, so I will forgive that one too.

When they make a pilot they don't even know if the show will get the go-ahead at all, let alone run for ten seasons. I can forgive that one.

Also re Rachel only having slept with 4 people (yeah, right!) Monica lists all the people Rachel slept with on a first date and that brings the total over 4.

Chandler tells Monica he loves her for the first time when she puts the turkey on her head to make him laugh but then in the episode where phoebe tries seduce him he said he can’t because he’s in love with Monica and Monica looks all shocked,but why? she already knew he loved her.

Joey’s annual roof party that the other’s don’t know about. Surely at some point over the years a neighbour would have complained or atleast mentioned the ‘noise the night before’ in passing.

At parties, they can always rustle up other guests but then only talk to each other

Oh my god, this!! They have a load of people in the flat. None of whom have ever been referred to or mentioned before by any character and none of whom get spoken to by any character.

The house party scenes always made me slightly uneasy and now I know why!

I'm not sure it's a inconsistency but Monica goes crazy at Chandler for smoking and uses him to have sex because she's ovulating - and then a few seasons down the line when they are waiting for the adoption lady to come round she says she knows about the packet of cigarettes taped behind the toilet. She goes from a zero tolerance to a bit '🤷🏻‍♀️' about smoking.

Chandler tells Monica he loves her for the first time when she puts the turkey on her head to make him laugh but then in the episode where phoebe tries seduce him he said he can’t because he’s in love with Monica and Monica looks all shocked,but why? she already knew he loved her.

Oh my god this annoys me so much!!!!!!!!!!

How can writers make such dumb mistakes like this??

Rachel tell Danny she can't go to his party as she is going to a (fake) Regatta gala. He asks her if she sails and she says no, but she supports it.

There is a whole episode where Rachel teaches Joey to sail.

When they were talking about their faults the girls said that Monica was bossy and Rachel was a pushover. Yet in earlier episodes she had a fight with a woman over a cab and arrived home with a cut lip and called a woman a bitch over the "Rachel Greep" name on Joshua's guest list.

Rachel slept with Barry (Berry?) when he was engaged to Mindy and they both confronted him. Yet they still had her as a bridesmaid afterwards.

When Monica puts the turkey on her head to make Chandler laugh, he tells her he loves her and she's shocked. Then when the friends find out they're an item and he shouts that he's in love with her, she's shocked again like it's the first time she's heard it.