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"The One Where The Stripper Cries" is the eleventh episode of tenth season of Friends, which aired on February 5, 2004.

Plot[]

Rachel and Monica throw Phoebe a clean and elegant bachelorette party, unbeknownst to them that Phoebe really wanted a typical, wild party complete with a male exotic dance show. Upon Phoebe's request, Rachel and Monica quickly go through the yellow pages and find one telephone number for a male exotic dancer. The dancer arrives dressed in a police officer costume, however to the girls' dismay, he turns out to be an old, dimwitted and ugly dwarf who started panting by just climbing a few stairs. Realizing that the ladies are cringing at his performance, the dancer gets mad and depressed. Phoebe refuses to allow Rachel to pay him his fee, causing the stripper to cry and decide to leave the profession once and for all. Feeling sorry for him, the ladies feel sorry for him and comfort him, eventually convincing him to teach stripping to younger men and pass on his wisdom to them. They also allow him to put on one more striptease routine for them which they all end up enjoying anyway.

Meanwhile, Joey appears on the game show, "Pyramid", where he loses almost every round, though his partner's clues are apparent and simple. His partner was Gene Lester.

Chandler and Ross go to a college reunion, recalling the various misadventures that they experienced in 1987. Chandler tells Ross that he kissed Rachel at a party in college, which upsets Ross because that was the night he kissed Rachel for the first time as well. Later at Monica and Chandler's apartment, Ross and Chandler tell Monica that Rachel had kissed the both of them at the college party. When Ross said that Rachel was on his bed, Chandler reveals he put Rachel on his bed. This causes Ross to wonder who was on his bed, before Monica realizes she was and Ross is disgusted to realize that it wasn't Rachel who he had kissed, it was Monica, his own sister. In horror, Monica realizes that Ross, her own brother was her first kiss ever. After hearing these details, Chandler is stunned and questions what kind of family he married into.

Cast and Crew[]

Main Cast[]

Jennifer Aniston - Rachel Greene
Courteney Cox - Monica Geller
Lisa Kudrow - Phoebe Buffay
Matt LeBlanc - Joey Tribbiani
Matthew Perry - Chandler Bing
David Schwimmer - Ross Geller

Supporting Cast[]

Ryan Carlberg - Pizza Delivery Boy
Leslie Charleson - Herself
Kimberley Davies - Adrienne Turner
Danny DeVito - Roy "Goodbody"
Gregory Jbara - Gene Lester
Cyndi Martino - Henrietta
Matthew Mullany- Stage Manager
Donny Osmond - Himself
Ellen Pompeo - Missy Goldberg
George Adams - Reunion Guest
John O. Nelson- Reunion Member

Crew[]

Directed By:
Kevin S. Bright

Written By:
David Crane & Marta Kauffman

Trivia[]

  • The fact that Monica hates Chandler for calling her fat is a callback to "The One With All The Thanksgivings".
  • As a stunt for February sweeps by NBC, it was "super-sized" to 27 minutes, not including ad breaks, when this episode originally aired.
    • The DVDs present these episodes as first aired, however, the Blu-ray presents them in their edited syndicated cuts (though the original super-sized versions are available as a special feature).
    • As a result, the transition from one scene to another suffers when the episode is edited to 22 minutes.
  • Matt LeBlanc received his third Emmy nomination of the series for this episode.
  • Fat Monica's fifth and last appearance in the series.
  • In the original aired version, Rachel passes out after kissing Chandler. Also, in the tag scene, Monica falls asleep after struggling to get out of a beanbag chair.
  • Ross mentions a person named Jeffrey Klarik in the reunion. Jeffrey Klarik is actually David Crane's husband. He was also referenced in "The One With The Male Nanny" (S9E06).
  • Ross also mentions someone named Michael Skloff in the reunion. Skloff has composed the theme for the show and was Marta Kauffman's husband.
  • In "The One With All The Jealousy" (S3E12), Phoebe says that a stripper for a bachelorette party is cliche, however, she insists on having one at her party in this episode.
  • During the Pyramid game show, there's a quiz where Joey's partner says some Spanish words. In the Spanish version of this episode, he says French words.
  • Danny DeVito is the second voice from 1997's Hercules to make a guest appearance on the show, the first one being Tate Donovan, the voice of the titular character, as Joshua in season 4 and DeVito was the voice of his satyr sidekick and friend Philotectes. However, their characters on Friends may not know each other at all.
  • The laughter from Rachel during the stripper's dance is the legitimate laughter of Jennifer Aniston.
  • Apparently Danny DeVito came up with the routine himself. Also many of his lines were suggested by Danny during recording including the comment "whew, that's a lot of stairs".
  • The music Roy dances to first is "Tainted Love" by the British band Soft Cell. When he finishes his dance, the music is "You Make Me Feel" by Sylvester.
  • The Pyramid scenes were filmed on the actual Pyramid set with the permission of the TV company producing Pyramid.
  • The music playing in the final 1987 flashback scene is "Disco Inferno" by The Trammps which was released in 1976.
  • The hotel where Ross and Chandler attend their college reunion is called "The Plaza". This is the same hotel booked for Rachel's wedding to Ross when she told her father she was pregnant before admitting they weren't getting married. This is also the location of the Baby Pageant in "The One With The Late Thanksgiving".
  • When Rachel suggests to Roy 'Goodbody' that he could get a job in an office, this is likely a reference to one of Danny DeVito's earliest roles as a taxi dispatcher in the 1970s sitcom Taxi.
  • The reference to Chandler and Ross' mom is a callback to Ross kissing Chandler's mom in "The One With Mrs. Bing".
  • The flashback party scene is set between the two flashback Thanksgivings in "The One With All The Thanksgivings": it's after the 1987 one (referenced by Monica) but before the 1988 one (when Rachel had had her nose operation). It most probably occurred in December 1987, as Chandler says it was their "freshman year, a week before Christmas vacation".
  • This episode was used as "O is for Officer Goodbody" in the Nick at Nite Friends A-Z Event (January 2023).

Goofs[]

  • When the girls are talking about paying the stripper the $300, the top buttons of his shirt are ripped open. Halfway though the scene this changes to only one button being open and his shirt looking neat and pressed, as if he had not started his strip yet.
  • When Ross and Chandler are talking about who broke which pact in college (the girls they agreed not to date) they are standing at the drinks table. Chandler is holding a drink in his left hand and his right hand is in his pants pocket. The shot then changes to face Ross, Chandler does not remove his hand from his pocket, but in the next shot facing him his drink is in his right hand. He then places it on the table.
  • Towards the end of the episode, Ross and Chandler come into Monica's apartment and Ross asks where Rachel is. Watch the objects in Monica's hands, in the shot from behind she puts them on the table, and then does it again in the shot from the front.
  • Near the end when Ross finds out Monica was his 'first kiss with Rachel', he's talking about the one when he was at his college party however in a previous episode (TOW the Routine 6.10), Rachel says Ross kissed her on New Year's in high school to 'get some chapstick' meaning they kissed before the college party.
  • Rachel says she is not going to do well on her SATs tomorrow but in a previous episode where Phoebe meets Mike's parents, Rachel says someone named Wallace Pinser took the SATs for her. It's possible Wallace offered to do them on the same day she was supposed to do the SATs or she didn't want anyone to know about the arrangement.
  • When Gene is describing the kitchen items for Joey, the game show host puts twenty seconds on the clock, but their time actually lasts thirty seconds.  However the commentary for the episode explains that for editing reasons, the normal timing of each round was not followed. 
  • Donny Osmond tells Gene he needs all six answers to stay in the game. They only get one right answer, but Gene still goes on to play with Leslie Charleson (off-screen) and with Joey in the Winner's Circle. 

Quotes[]

Ross: After you told me that she was passed out in our room, I went in there to make sure she was alright. She was lying on my bed, all buried in people's coats. Well, I went to kiss her on the forehead but it was so dark I accidentally got her lips. I started to pull away but then I felt her kissing me back. It was only for a second but it was amazing. And now I found out that you kissed her first!
Chandler: Wait, what bed did you say she was on?
Ross: Mine.
Chandler: I'm pretty sure I put her on my bed.
Ross: No, she was definitely on my bed.
Chandler: Why would I kiss a girl and then put her on your bed?
Ross: Well then who was on my bed?
Monica: Oh! Oh! Oh!
Ross: (realizing) No! No! No!
Monica: Yes!
Ross: You were under the pile of coats?
Monica: I WAS the pile of coats!
Ross: OH MY GOD!
Monica: You were my midnight mystery kisser?!
Ross: You were my first kiss with Rachel?!
Monica: You were my first kiss EVER?!
Chandler: What did I marry into?!

Images[]

External links[]

Episode Navigation[]

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
Preceded by
"The One Where Chandler Gets Caught"
Series Ten Episodes Followed by
"The One With Phoebe's Wedding"
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