Here's every Thanksgiving meal from 'Friends,' the only Friendsgivings that really matter
No sitcom has ever better portrayed the Thanksgiving feast better than Friends.
Combine Monica's cooking with Joey and Chandler's weird feuds and Ross' sandwich with all the celebrity guests, and yeah, you have your dream holiday meal.
While laughing at the jokes every Thanksgiving never gets old, it's the food that keeps us watching and rewatching these 10 classic episodes. Okay, it's really the jokes. But the food is impressive too! Cue: Laugh track.
Let's take a look back at a decade of Thanksgiving meals with our favorite Friends.
Season One: "The One Where the Underdog Gets Away"
The menu: Grilled cheese, wine, love and friendship
The first Thanksgiving. The gang sets a precedent for not spending the next decade of Thanksgivings with their families when all of their individual plans are ruined, forcing the crew to spend Thanksgiving together in Monica's unrealistically huge New York City apartment. Friendsgiving tradition, commence! Though Chef Monica planned a major feast, the turkey burns when she's locked out of the apartment, so grilled cheese replaces the traditional festive fare. The group spies on Ugly Naked Guy chowing down on Thanksgiving food with Ugly Naked Gal, and everyone is happy.
Season Two: "The One With the List"
The menu: Mockolate! Mockolate! Mockolate! Mockolate cranberry cake, pumpkin pie with Mockolate cookie crumb crust and Mockolate chip cookies, "just like the Indians served."
This is the least Thanksgiving-y of the Thanksgiving episodes, the premise being that Monica, who is out of work, takes a job as a freelance recipe developer for a "totally synthetic chocolate substitute," Mockolate. Attempting to turn Thanksgiving into the Mockolate holiday, Monica creates recipes using minuscule amounts of the product, which Phoebe describe as "what evil must taste like." This is easily the least delicious of the Friends Thanksgivings.
Season Three: "The One With the Football"
The menu: Roast turkey, stuffing, yams with marshmallows in concentric circles (and one mini marshmallow from Monica's nose), cranberry sauce, "amazing" vegetarian stuffing for Phoebe and special mashed potatoes for Chandler, eaten out of a serving bowl with a wooden cooking spoon.
If you wanted to watch sports on Thanksgiving you'd watch sports, not Friends, but the gang kills two birds with one stone by playing a game outside. "So are we not having dinner at all?" Rachel asks midway through the episode, just as you're thinking the same thing. Hope you have your streaming snacks ready, because the feast doesn't come out until the credits roll, but what a feast it is. Well, except for Monica and Ross, outside in the dark still fighting for the Geller Cup, which is not a drinking vessel btw.
Season Four: "The One With Chandler in a Box"
The menu: Roast turkey, gravy, green beans, yams, mashed potatoes, dinner rolls, generous pours of white wine
With Monica's ice-in-the-eye emergency, Phoebe takes over as the left-handed sous chef. Eye-patched Monica returns to help finish the meal prep, while Chandler is confined to a box to help earn back Joey's friendship. The gang enjoys the meal together, along with a special guest, Monica's ex-boyfriend Richard's son, because that's not weird at all. Of the first four seasons, this is their most delicious-looking Thanksgiving yet, even to Chandler, who has the unexpected luxury of sitting out his most hated holiday in a wooden crate.
Season Five: "The One With All the Thanksgivings"
The menu: Memories, and lots of them
Groaning and stuffed from the "best Thanksgiving ever" that we don't get to see on-screen, the gang reminisces about their worst Thanksgivings. Chandler's father's house boy still haunts him, Phoebe recalls terrifying memories from a past life and an 1980s teenage Monica grates cheese for some "great" macaroni and cheese, according to Chandler. The following flashback year, a carrot-peeling Monica tries to seduce Chandler and he ends up losing part of his toe. To make Chandler feel better back in the present, Monica puts a turkey on her head, in what may be the most iconic Friends holiday scene of all time.
Season Six: "The One Where Ross Got High"
The menu: A traditional English trifle, prepared by Rachel, preceded by all the typical Thanksgiving fixings
Remember the Thanksgiving when Rachel screwed up the trifle? That's what she didn't want you to remember, but the faces of Ross, Monica and the whole group digging into that layered whipped cream and meat-sautéed-with-peas-and-onions dessert is just too laugh-out-loud funny every time. Or as Joey put it: "Custard? Good. Jam? Good. Meat? Good." The first Thanksgiving Day Monica and Ross have spent with their parents in at least five years is turned into Truth Day, when Ross has to confess to smoking pot in college to stop his parents from hating Chandler.
Season Seven: "The One Where Chandler Doesn't Like Dogs"
The menu: Turkey, stuffing, acorn squash, sweet potatoes, green beans, red wine and some type of cream pie that Monica eats on the couch after dinner
In a Thanksgiving game that no one would lose in November 2016, the friends fail to remember all 50 states of the United States. Good job, pals. Phoebe is babysitting a dog for the holiday and Chandler's fake allergy turns out to just be an aversion to dogs. The friends' families have all disappeared again, but instead, Tag, Rachel's assistant, is at the table.
Season Eight: "The One With the Rumor"
The menu: Turkey for Joey, chicken for Chandler, rolls, stuffing, mashed sweet potatoes, pecan pie
Brad Pitt guest stars and Rachel is outed as the faux hermaphrodite cheerleader from Long Island when the I Hate Rachel Club is revealed by Ross and his old friend, Will (played by Pitt, Aniston's husband at the time).
This Thanksgiving, Monica didn't want to make a turkey because pregnant Rachel is averse to poultry, Phoebe is a vegetarian, and it's just so much work. Joey won't go to a Thanksgiving without his turkey (is now a good time to mention that his loving family lives just a subway ride away in Queens?) and insists he will eat the entire bird, a challenge we should all aspire to — in maternity pants, of course.
Season Nine: "The One With Rachel's Other Sister"
The menu: Rolls (always), a full bar (a first!) plus red wine, turkey (featuring drumsticks to be cut in the air to protect the plates), mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, stuffing, cranberries
Rachel's older sister, Amy (Christina Applegate) comes to visit and wreaks havoc in her niece Emma's personal life. Chandler convinces Monica to set the table with their yet-to-be-used wedding china (except for Joey, who gets a regular plate for obvious reasons), and the crew eats their feast very cautiously to appease Monica. Let this be a lesson in why you should just go for paper plates. After the table is cleared and the plates are packaged, Chandler, in a huff earlier about being the last to serve as Emma's guardian in the case of her parents' and relatives' death, shatters the once-used wedding china with a swoop of the diaper bag — and thus realizes he may just be the one to die first.
Season 10: "The One With the Late Thanksgiving"
The menu: Brussels sprouts Phoebe stuffs down Joey's pants, a Jackson Pollock-eqsue Thanksgiving spread off Joey's shirt, rolls, spinach, sweet potatoes topped with marshmallows, Chandler's cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, red wine for everyone but Chandler and Ross, who drink white
The last supper. Stressed and tired, Monica doesn't even want to cook Thanksgiving this year, but her four best friends convince her that she absolutely must. Their loyalty really shows when Rachel and Phoebe head to a baby beauty contest with Emma, and Joey and Ross spend their afternoon at a Rangers game, making both duos late for Monica's special meal. Cut to the floating heads and Monica's belabored Thanksgiving meal (which is all sitting out on a table getting cold, for some very un-Monica reason) spilling all over the floor.
