Top 5 Thanksgiving moments from Friends that will never fail to make you laugh

Among the many reasons why Friends is still celebrated today as a television behemoth, the Thanksgiving episodes assume immense importance. Unlike several other sitcoms of its time that chiefly utilized the Christmas holidays to center their special episodes, Friends upped the game with its hilarious iterations of Thanksgiving episodes that still continue to amuse the audience.

The tradition was established early on when, during the first season of Friends, all the characters decided to spend the holiday with each other instead of their families, and the journey has continued ever since. Here we take a look at the top five Thanksgiving moments as depicted on Friends.

---

What are the top 5 Thanksgiving moments on Friends?

Keep reading to learn more.

1) The One With Rachel's Other Sister

This hilarious episode aired on November 21, 2002, and featured Rachel's single-minded sister Amy. Apparently she invited herself to the Thanksgiving dinner, giving Rachel enough cause for concern. Amy's presence quickly stirs things up among the group of friends when she kickstarts a debate about the ultimate fate of baby Emma in the eventuality of Ross and Rachel's death. Things came to a boiling point eventually as the debate ran out of control, and for a moment it seemed like Monica's expensive wedding chinaware was threatened with violence.

---

2) The One With The Rumour

Airing on November 22, 2001, this episode raked in huge views, especially since there was Brad Pitt in it! Playing the role of a nerd and Monica's childhood friend Will, he came onboard for the dinner. However, little did Monica or the others know that Will had cofounded a club uniting all the haters of Rachel, alongside Ross, back when they were in high school. As can be expected, things spiraled into chaos with the arrival of Rachel herself.

---

3) The One Where The Underdog Gets Away

This was the first Friends Thanksgiving episode that set the humorous tradition. Airing on November 17, 1994, this episode saw all the friends coming together to spend time as none of them could afford to be with their families. The general mood seemed to be going downhill after Chandler admitted that he doesn't partake of Thanksgiving food owing to former familial trauma, and Monica's planned oeuvre as the chef for the night went to waste. However, the morale improves after the group goes up to their terrace and catches a glimpse of the Underdog parade balloon passing them by.

---

4) The One Where Ross Got High

This Friends Thanksgiving episode from November 25, 1999, was filled to the brim with laughs as Chandler tried his best to impress Monica's parents, all because Monica wanted to let them in on their dating. Chandler's efforts go in vain because Jack and Judy Geller had already made up their minds about disliking Chandler, based solely on a lie that Ross told them. As a result, all hell breaks loose as the characters are pulled apart in different directions.

---

5) The One With Chandler In A Box

On this Friends episode from November 20, 1997, Joey rained down her anger on Chandler since he had kissed his girlfriend Kathy. Chandler is then handed down the punishment to be confined in a box for six hours so that he can reflect on his mistake. As the rest of the dinner unfolds, Monica was seen flirting with her ex's son, Tom, and Ross was meddling with Rachel, all the while Chandler provided exceptionally funny one-liners from inside the box.

---

Friends writer reflect on the Thanksgiving moments on the show

Greg Malins was one of the writers working on the show who penned down a few of the hilarious Thanksgiving episodes. While speaking in an interview with the Ministry of Pop Culture, Malins opened up about the episodes. When asked about the episode titled The One with All the Thanksgiving Flashbacks, Malins recalled:

"Thanksgiving was always a big episode. I wasn’t there in the first season but (“The One With the Football”) was so memorable and it started this thing where Thanksgiving episodes have to be special. We thought outside the box for episodes like that. Once the idea of flashbacks came up, we got into all of the characters’ past Thanksgivings and how it could relate to Monica and Chandler’s relationship."

He further added:

"I can’t remember where the turkey on the head came from, but somebody said, “Let’s have Joey get his head stuck in a turkey.” We found out very quickly that could never happen in a million years. There is no turkey that could fit a human head inside of it — we had to custom-make a foam turkey."

He was then asked if the episodes ever had aspects of the writer blended into the narrative:

"There’s a point when Chandler and Ross are talking about how they’re going to test out their new fake IDs. One of the names is Rowland Chang and Rowland Chang was, and still is, one of my best friends, a guy I grew up with. He’s a high-powered lawyer in Shanghai now and people will say to him, “We were watching Friends last night and they used your name! What a weird coincidence.” And he’ll say, “It wasn’t a coincidence.”

Malins was also questioned about the approach to writing Monica and Chandler's attempts to keep their relationship a secret, and the writer explained:

"Well, let me start with this. I thought them getting together was three episodes and that was it. I felt really strongly about it and I argued for it. Everybody else was right. It shifted for me when people started saying, “We could do this kind of episode, we could do this kind of thing with them, we could have each of the friends finding out individually.” I was like, “Okay, I can see how this could be really great.” Back then, you had to do twenty-four episodes, so you needed stories. You needed stuff that generated stories and Monica and Chandler generated stories."

Friends is available for streaming exclusively on Netflix.