30 of the Best ‘Friends’ Jokes to Celebrate 30 Years

Oh. My. Gawd. Have there really been three full decades of Friends? Thanks to the sitcom’s creators, Marta Kauffman and David Crane, some of its most memorable jokes have been quoted around the world. They even coined the “friend zone” and created a whole new way of picking people up: “How you doin?”

But Friends also changed the standard of joke-writing in sitcoms, inspiring later favorites like How I Met Your Mother, New Girl, and more. So to celebrate 30 years of Friends, we’ve picked the 30 best jokes (in no particular order) over the course of the Emmy-winning series’ 10 seasons.

1. The Joke with the Creepy Tailor (Season 2, Episode 1)

Joey recommends his tailor to Chandler, who demonstrates the definite “cupping” right up to his intimate parts. “That’s how they do pants!” Joey insists. Looking to Ross for validation he asks if that’s how a tailor measures pants. Ross confirms, “Yes. Yes, it is… In prison!”

2. The Scene with the Bagpipes (Season 7, Episode 15)

Ross teases his wedding gift for Monica and Chandler — he’s going to play “Celebration” by Kool & the Gang at the wedding … on the bagpipes. It sounds like a dying cat. But this is a two-in-one joke, because Phoebe singing along to the song without knowing the words is so hilarious that it’s rumored the cast went off-script laughing with their genuine reactions. As Monica and Chandler try to work out what to do, Monica asks, “Why is your family Scottish?” to which Chandler responds, “Why is your family Ross?”

3. The Joke When Rachel Enters (Season 1, Episode 1)

The Friends pilot is arguably one of the best pilots in sitcom history, and one of its earliest jokes is one of the smartest. After Ross states, “I just want to be married,” Rachel enters Central Perk in her wedding dress. Chandler then tries his hand at the same luck: “And I just want a million dollars!” But the best part is when Ross gets up to greet Rachel, his umbrella pops open, representing his potential male excitement, foreshadowing their relationship, and creating a fun bit of physical comedy.

4. The Joke Where Joey Misunderstands the Question (Season 8, Episode 4)

Ross approaches Joey to talk about his dry spell, asking, “Do you have a minute? I’d like to talk to you about something I’m really uncomfortable talking about.” But Joey misunderstands the question, thinking Ross needs a topic, so he suggests, “Sure, what? How about uh, you showering with your mom?” It’s always such an unexpected silly laugh.

5. The One with Matthew Perry’s Favorite Joke (Season 2, Episode 1)

The creepy tailor created a lot of humor for Friends. Joey tries to remember the first time he went to Frankie the Tailor, oscillating multiple times about how old he was. Chandler simply states, “You have to stop the Q-Tip when there’s resistance!” in one of the show’s smartest and quickest jokes. In 2017, Matthew Perry told Good Morning America that it was his favorite joke of the show.

6. The Scene with the Scary Clowns (Season 2, Episode 6)

Chandler and Joey are on baby-watch caring for Ben when they accidentally leave him on the public New York City bus. When they go to pick him up from Port Authority, there’s another baby there and they can’t tell the difference between the two babies. One is dressed in ducks and the other in clowns; Chandler and Joey decide to flip for it. “Ducks is ‘Heads’ because ducks have heads,” Joey says. “What kind of scary-ass clowns came to your birthday?” Chandler hilariously retorts.

7.  The Time When Judy Solves Everyone’s Problems (Season 6, Episode 9)

Judy and Jack Gellar go to Monica and Chandler’s apartment to celebrate Thanksgiving, but Monica hasn’t told her parents that she and Chandler are dating, let alone living together. Ross lied to his parents and blamed the smell of weed in his college dorm on Chandler. Phoebe has a crush on Jacques Cousteau. Rachel accidentally put meat in the trifle and Joey wants to go to a party with his dancer roommate. Luckily, Judy saves the day with her iconic speech, piecing together every joke in the episode.

8. The Bit Where Ross Slinks Under the Bed (Season 6, Episode 22)

Ross dates his college student, Elizabeth, whose dad, Paul, (Bruce Willis) is not happy about their relationship. So when Ross and Elizabeth almost bump into Paul and Rachel during a weekend away at Elizabeth’s family home, Ross is forced to hide under Paul’s bed. But to do it surreptitiously, David Schwimmer employs his best physical comedy skills in a hilarious physical joke, slinking down and under the bed, before imitating Paul’s embarrassing routine to amp himself up.

9. The Joke with Rachel’s “Not a Cat” (Season 5, Episode 21)

Rachel decides to bring home a “cat,” but it’s a Persian show cat, meaning it’s hairless. “That is not a cat,” Joey says in fear. “Yes it is,” Rachel insists. “Why is it inside out?” Ross asks in a creative joke about the uniqueness of hairless cats.

10. The Joke Where Joey Is Extra Prepared (Season 5, Episode 5)

The first time Rachel and Ross had a blowout fight, the other four friends get locked in Monica’s bedroom for hours on end. So when Ross has to tell Rachel about Emily’s ultimatum, Joey pulls out his secret stash of preparedness, full of magazines, Doritos, and … condoms. He justifies it: “You don’t know how long we’re going to be in here. We might have to repopulate the Earth,” to which Chandler astutely responds, “And condoms are the way to do that?”

11. The Scene When Monica Teaches Chandler About the Female Orgasm (Season 4, Episode 11)

Not only is this a great moment of foreshadowing for Chandler and Monica’s future relationship, but when he dates Kathy, he’s nervous to please her properly. Luckily, Monica has the perfect advice. While we don’t see the figurine she draws and labels with numbers 1-7 to represent the seven erogenous zones, the scene when she gives him the “instructions” leads to one of the show’s funniest moments, ending in “seven, seven, seven, seven!” 

12. The Time When “Joey Logic” Wins Out (Season 7, Episode 8)

“Joey logic” is when something is so dumb, it’s actually smart, such as when he coins the term, a “moo point.” While he means to say a “moot point” to explain away Tag’s potential feelings for Rachel, he says “moo point” and logics it out by saying it’s like a “cow’s opinion” because it doesn’t matter. What could be smarter?

13. The Joke When Chandler Thinks Out Loud (Season 1, Episode 1)

The pilot is really full of some of the show’s best written jokes. When Ross talks about his wife leaving him for another woman, Chandler nonchalantly says, “I wish I were a lesbian.” When everyone looks at him, shocked, he surprises himself: “Did I just say that out loud?” Yes, Mr. Bing, yes you did.

14. The Joke Phoebe Tells to Make Some Money (Season 6, Episode 3)

30 years ago, email wasn’t a thing the way it is in 2024. In fact, even during Season 6, which aired in 1999, not everyone had a household computer. With her natural charm and humor, Phoebe finishes her busking set by saying, “If you wanna receive emails about my upcoming shows, then please give me money so I can buy a computer.”

15. The One with the Dirtiest Joke of the Show (Season 6, Episode 9)

In the same Thanksgiving episode as Judy’s iconic speech, the friends realize the reason Rachel made the trifle wrong is because the cooking book’s pages were stuck together. After learning this, Joey shouts, “Chandler!” implying that the book provided him with some adult entertainment. Apparently, the show’s creators have said that it’s the dirtiest joke of the show.

16. The Joke with the Reference to ‘Of Mice and Men’ (Season 3, Episode 21)

Chandler and Joey adopt the chick and the duck, but when Joey squeezes the chick a little too hard, Chandler says, “Easy Lennie.” It’s a dark, yet hilarious and astute reference to John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, in which Lennie accidentally kills his puppy by cuddling it too hard.

17. The Time Joey Misunderstands a Common Word (Season 5, Episode 13)

Rachel offers a “man’s bag” to Joey, and when he’s surprised it looks good, she reiterates, “Exactly! Unisex.” But Joey misunderstands and responds, “Maybe *you* need sex. I had sex a couple days ago.” That might be the end of the joke for some sitcoms, but not Friends. Rachel clarifies, “No, no, Joey. U-N-I-sex.” Once again, Joey misunderstands, so he says, “Ain’t gonna say no to that.”

18. The Thought Chandler Has About Donald Duck (Season 3, Episode 2)

In a classic Friends bottle episode, Chandler says one of his thoughts out loud as he waits for the gang to get ready. “You know what’s weird? Donald Duck never wore pants. But whenever he’s getting out of the shower, he always puts a towel around his waist. I mean, what is that about?” What is that about?

19. The Time Joey Wore All of Chandler’s Clothes (Season 3, Episode 2)

In another hilarious moment from the same bottle episode, Chandler and Joey fight over the chair (and its cushion, which is the chair’s “essence”). Chandler steals Joey’s underwear to make him go commando in a rented tux, so Joey does the “opposite” by wearing all of Chandler’s clothes. “Look at me, I’m Chandler! Could I be wearing any more clothes?”

20. The Joke When Joey Mixed up Homosapiens and Homosexuals (Season 3, Episode 8)

Joey’s humor almost always comes from little misunderstandings. In Ross’s line of work as a paleontologist, he uses scientific language to describe humans. So, when working at the museum, Joey asks, “If homo sapiens were in fact HOMO sapiens – is that why they’re extinct?” Ross responds, “Joey, homo sapiens are people!” to explain that the word means “humans.” But Joey once again misunderstands and responds like a true ally, “Hey, I’m not judging.”

21. The Time When Ross Rolls Over the Juice Box (Season 2, Episode 15)

Ross brings Rachel to the planetarium for one of their first dates. During a romantic evening under the “stars,” the two start to kiss. Rachel stops after feeling a wet spot, and consoles Ross, “Oh, honey, that’s okay!” thinking that he got a little too excited. “Oh… you just rolled over the juice box!” Ross relieves her (and us!)

22. The Bit with the Bracelet (Season 2, Episode 14)

When Joey gives Chandler an ugly bracelet to signify their friendship, he expects that it will boost Chandler’s luck with the ladies. So when he asks, “Do you know what this will do for your sex life?” Chandler responds, “Well it will slow me down a little at first, but once I get used to the weight, I’ll be back on track,” doubly joking about how it will both deter women and make his arm a little heavier when he’s alone.

23. The Joke After Joey Gets Robbed (Season 4, Episode 2)

When Joey tries to sell the entertainment unit he built, Chandler comes home to an empty apartment with Joey stuck inside the unit. Joey explains that the robber (a potential buyer) didn’t think a grown man could fit inside the cabinet, so Joey crawled in to show him. Then, whoever it was locked Joey in and took everything. Angrily, Joey says, “If I ever see that guy again, you know what I’m gonna do?” to which Chandler sarcastically responds, “Bend over?!”

24. The Scene When Chandler Comforts Joey (Season 1, Episode 13)

Joey worries that he’s going to turn out like his father, who’s been having a years-long affair with another woman. But Chandler tells the perfect joke when comforting Joey with a classic misdirect: “When the right woman comes along, you will have the courage and the guts to say ‘No thanks, I’m married.'”

25. The One with Ken Adams (Season 8, Episode 4)

In one of the best call-backs in the series, this episode revolves around a magical “hook-up story” the gang uses about a backpacking trip through Europe in the foothills of Mount Tibidabo. Joey teaches Ross the story after he’s had a dry few months, but when Ross and Rachel are working on Monica and Chandler’s wedding invitations, Rachel starts to tell Ross the story as a move. When the friends watch back what happened, Rachel said her friend heard it from a guy named “Ken Adams,” to which Joey raises his hand and says that he’s Ken Adams!

26. The Scene When Rachel Finds Monica’s Lunch Receipt (Season 2, Episode 2)

Monica goes out to lunch with Julie, Ross’s new girlfriend, despite Rachel’s feelings for Ross. It’s the biggest betrayal and a brilliant mapping of an affair on a friendship. The writers perfectly capture a romantic couple’s fight through Rachel and Monica’s fight, turning a tense moment into some of the show’s best comedy. The heightened acting and emotion only adds to the genius of the scene.

27. The One Where Everybody Knows and Nobody Knows (Season 5, Episode 14)

When everybody finds out that Monica and Chandler are hooking up, Phoebe decides it would be more fun to play some games with their heads instead of telling them she and Rachel found out. In one of the show’s highest-rated and funniest episodes with a final apex of Chandler and Phoebe’s stand-off date, the tagline is, “They don’t know that we know they know we know,” or any version of that.

28. The Joke About Chandler’s Television Guide (Season 4, Episode 12)

In the ultimate game of who knows who best, Ross asks Rachel and Monica which name appears on the address label. The answer is hilariously, “Chanandler Bong,” which Chandler corrects: “Actually, it’s Miss Chanandler Bong.”

29. The Joke Where Door Inventors Are Pleased (Season 3, Episode 19)

Rachel goes on a date with Mark, so Ross peeps through the guys’ peephole across the hall. David Schwimmer’s physical comedy as he starfishes across the door to see what happens between Rachel and Mark. As they go into Rachel’s apartment and close the door, Ross complains to Chandler that he can no longer see anything. “And the inventor of the door rests happily in his grave,” Chandler rebuts.

30. The Joke About Last Names (Season 3, Episode 19)

In the same episode, Phoebe has some confusion about last names ending in “man.” She asks Chandler, “Why isn’t it Spiderman? You know like Goldman, Silverman,” pronouncing it like a last name. So Chandler explains, “It’s not like Phil Spidermen. He’s a spider man. You know like Goldman is a last name but there’s no gold man.” But Phoebe gets excited: “There should be a gold man!”

There may not be a gold man, but Friends is definitely a golden series.