Best Comedy Shows to Watch: Friends

I was incredibly tired when I got home which was only minutes before I started writing this article. I condemned myself for making such a commitment to myself and to you to reveal one show each day on my list and no matter how tired I am I'll see that it is done! However, despite my exhaustion when I thought about my number 3 I got a silly smile on my face which gave me more than enough energy and motivation to write about it. Because this show deserves so much more than just that. 

This show actually deserves to be in ANY Top 5 comedy list as it screams comedy. It is practically the definition of sitcom. If we wanted to take a look at a dictionary to check what sitcom means, we'll come across this show's title! It surely deserves to be number 1 but I've got other plans for that spot so this show will have to make do with a 3rd one :( 2nd spot is also taken so there are no spots left I'm afraid :D

So let's find out more about my number 3!

- 3 -

FRIENDS

I am sure everyone at some point in their lives got a chance to watch this brilliant sitcom Friends! Even my football freak of a father who doesn't watch anything but football matches and live commentary got a chance to watch an episode, and to be perfectly honest with you even if that particular episode wasn't that funny, my dad was hysterically laughing out loud. This was a huge surprise for me because he is a serious chap and I've never really caught a glimpse of him smiling before. His mouth is usually a straight line. For a show to make my dad laugh like this is a pretty big achievement and if he liked it I'm sure everyone around the world likes it too.

The plot of the show is very simple. It's about 6 FRIENDS! :D We witness their love affairs, family relationships, arguments and everything else about their lives. This show is a prime example of how friendships should be like. We all get backstabbed by the people who we consider to be the closest to us and then we start to grow apart like all that years of friendship meant absolutely NOTHING because no-one cares enough to fight for a friend anymore. They just...prefer to pack up and leave. Believe me I've had my fair share of so called "friendships" like that. But in Friends, not matter how heated their arguments get, they always end up getting back together again. Now that's a real friendship right there!

After speaking about the plot let's get to know a little bit about each of our "friend".

Rachel is a fashion enthusiast who is best friends with Monica. Rachel is completely rubbish at being a waitress though. She works at the coffeehouse Central Perk. Even though she finds a job to work at Ralph Lauren in the later seasons, her best moments involve the coffeehouse. She never cleans the coffee machines and always brings the wrong orders. Gunther who is the owner of this coffeehouse can never get mad at Rachel because he is in love with her. But she completely ignores his attention. Ross is Monica's older brother. He works as a paleontologist at the Museum of Natural History. Later on in the show he becomes a professor of paleontology at New York University. He is completely obsessed with dinosaurs and this makes him a nerd in the eyes of his friends. He is a very well-mannered sweet-natured man and not to forget a great brother and a father. However he can be socially odd at times. He is divorced with a son named Ben. He is divorced because his wife Carol turns out to be a lesbian. He still can't accept this and is quite jealous of his wife's girlfriend. On the show Ross is mostly famous for his divorces. He divorces three times in 10 seasons. His three failed marriages are frequently subjected to mockery by his friends.

I am pretty sure everyone is familiar with Joey catchphrase "How ya doin'?". That's just how he picks up his ladies. He is the womanizer on the show, he always has short term relationships. Despite all that he is a very innocent person with a good heart. I should also mention that his mind is really slow. He is a very simple lad and often can't engage in his friends' conversations as they talk about cultural things because he doesn't really know anything about well...anything. He doesn't even have the capacity to think of a name other than Joey or Joseph for his main character in a screenplay he tries to write. He is quite passionate about food. Actually he's got so much passion for food that he hates sharing it! He doesn't mind taking other people's food though. He is an actor who is most famous for his role as Dr. Drake Ramoray in Days of our Lives. He also landed minor parts in some porn movies in his earlier acting career. We get to see him portray Dr. Drake Ramoray but in one of his porn movies, we only get to hear him say just one line :D

Phoebe is the most eccentric character on the show. You can never know how she is going react. She loves giving exaggerated reactions to almost anything. She has an endless love for animals thus she is a vegetarian and hates fur. She works as a masseuse. When she is attracted to one of her clients she wears toe nail polish to impress him which is quite funny when you think about it because her client will only get to see her feet. But she is mostly famous for song-writing, singing and playing the guitar. She has got a horrible voice but she loves singing songs so who can stop her? She loves her voice even more when she gets the flu so she tries to do everything in her power to get sick. Her songs are quirky and probably has no meaning at all. Her most famous song is called "Smelly Cat". A videoclip is actually recorded for this song. She is a horrible music teacher though. Joey wants her to teach him how to play the guitar but she never lets him actually touch the instrument. She is also well known for her toughness because she brags a lot about living on the streets. All the characters are funny on the show but unfortunately I find Phoebe to be the least funny one. Well someone has to be on the bottom right? :P

I am not sure if you have realised but I always leave my favourites for last on my posts. If you are familiar with the show then you'll know now that my favourite characters are Chandler and Monica. I particularly like Monica a lot cause our personalities are quite similar but Chandler always steals the show for me :)

Monica is like the queen that keeps everyone in check. She is like the bond between all of them. She is a control freak, perfectionist and highly competitive by nature (just like me :D). She is particularly more competitive against her brother which is natural. We see them wrestle a lot. She is simply the boss of everything and she loves hosting people in her apartment to cook for them. She is obsessed with cleaning as well. She is very well organised and if something doesn't go according to her plan she freaks out. She makes huge lists for even the simplest party. She works as a chef in various restaurants in the show. She also tries to start a catering business with her business partner Phoebe but that doesn't work out. And she really wants to have a BABY! She is so like me in many ways except that I don't want a baby :|

Chandler works for a large multi-national corporation as a statistical analyst. I actually don't even know what he does for a living like NOONE else on the show either. His friends always ask him what he does for a living. He is the goof-ball on the show and to me the funniest character. He constantly mocks everything and loves making jokes. He even takes on a bet to NOT make a single joke for just one day which he ends up losing so he has to pay up :) When his jokes don't receive any laughter he can get upset though which is understandable. He is always sarcastic and hard to take seriously. He also has difficulty in relationships. I don't understand how a lad like him can have women issues. Maybe because he just has to break the silence or tension with a silly and meaningless joke? I don't know, it's a big mystery to me. Chandler IS my favourite character but my explanation about him is shorter than my lesser favourite characters because Chandler is just very difficult to explain. One just has to witness his greatness because sometimes words are not enough to describe something or someone.

The characters on the show are very well known for their catchphrases, here is a list:

Chandler: "Could I BE any more..."

Monica: "I know!"

Joey: "How you doin'?"

Ross: "Hi" (in a very depressed and deep tone), "We were on a break!" and "Oh you guys!"

Rachel: "Noooooooo!"

Phoebe: "Oh no!" and "My mother killed herself"

Here is the cast list of Friends:

Jennifer Aniston - Rachel Green

Matthew Perry - Chandler Bing

Courteney Cox - Monica Geller

Lisa Kudrow - Phoebe Buffay

Matt LeBlanc - Joey Tribbiani

David Schwimmer - Ross Geller

The show also had some major actors and actresses as guest stars. Brad Pitt, Bruces Willis, George Clooney, Gary Oldman, Sean Penn, Julia Roberts, Alec Baldwin, Robin Williams, Charlie Sheen, Hugh Laurie, Reese Witherspoon, Ben Stiller, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Jeff Goldblum, Dakota Fanning, Christina Applegate and many more. As you can see the list is pretty long and impressive. 

The show was nominated for 63 Primetime Emmy Awards. It won 6 of them which is a low number for a show like this. Jennifer Aniston and Lisa Kudrow are the only ones among the cast that won awards and Courteney Cox is the only one who was not nominated which is a huge RIP OFF! I can't understand why Matthew Perry didn't win anything either! Well, this is partly because none of the cast listed themselves for the supporting role categories. So they were all nominated for leading roles which diminished their chances to win more awards.

Feel free to share your opinions below about Friends. Who is your favourite "friend" on the show and why?