The One With The Dirty Girl

"The One With The Dirty Girl" is the sixth episode of the fourth season of Friends, which aired on November 6, 1997.

Plot

Joey's girlfriend Kathy is nearing her birthday, and Chandler has gone to extreme trouble to get Kathy a special edition of The Velveteen Rabbit, her favorite book. The guys point out he can't outshine her boyfriend Joey. When Chandler asks Joey what he's giving her for her birthday, Joey doesn't even consider a birthday gift for his girlfriend but remedies by buying her a pen (which is also a clock). Obviously, this is no gift for a girlfriend on her birthday, but Chandler swaps his book for Joey's pen. Kathy is really happy about the book, but when she's alone with Chandler, she confesses how she knows it's his gift and not Joey's. Chandler is on the verge of confessing his feelings, but resolves to reply that he's Joey's best friend. Kathy joins Joey in the bedroom.

Monica turns down a funeral for sixty people as she has no catering equipment to handle such big parties on short notice.Phoebe offers to loan her money for the equipment, which Monica uses to set up a complete set of catering equipment. The best thing about the funeral is that it's the starting link of catering business for Monica, who has another funeral the next day. This funeral, however, brings complications in that the widow is unwilling to pay. Meanwhile, Rachel is looking to finish a crossword by herself, but finds herself in sticky situations and tricks people into giving her answers for her crossword.

Monica, who hates the paying part of funerals, finds it hard to request payment to a crying widow with giant tears pouring down her cheeks, but Phoebe sees the same widow dance and sing to music the next moment. She explains to Monica how the widow is using a ruse of hers to try and score enough sympathy to have the catering free of charge, but Phoebe goes out and requests the money herself, standing her ground to the widow, who has no choice but to get her purse and give up the money. At Central Perk, Rachel has completed her crossword, but exclaims out loud that there's nobody to hug. Gunther promptly steps up but trips and falls. At that very moment, Monica and Phoebe arrive at the coffeehouse from the catering, where they tell Rachel of the good time they had at the funeral. Monica mockingly suggests she and Phoebe team up, before realizing it to be a great idea. The two set up their own catering business.

Ross goes out with Cheryl, who is undeniably beautiful. Only Rachel seems to try and find something bad in her - the other guys gawk at Ross for his dumb luck. He seems to appreciate his luck at finding Cheryl, who even shares a commonness in work as she is a doctoral paleontology candidate, but unfortunately she lacks a fundamental quality - hygiene. When he gets invited in at her place, Ross finds himself in a massive apocalyptic garbage heap. He tries to persuade Cheryl to his apartment, but she replies that he has a weird smell at his place (the smell is that of soap). Ross talks to Joey about this problem, who tells Ross to get over himself and be with Cheryl in the mess. Ross tries making out with Cheryl on her couch with much discomfort, starting to dig out slices of ham and ink from underneath him, but reaches his limit when he sees a bag of potato chips move on her coffee table and starts whipping it. Fearing that it's Mitsy, her hamster, Cheryl begs him to stop, but it turns out to be a rat. This is the final line for Ross, who dumps her. Cleanliness-obsessed Monica can't sleep when she hears of Cheryl's place, and offers to clean it up, only to have a bemused Cheryl slam the door in her face. Obstinately enough, Monica starts scrubbing the door frame.

Cast and Crew

Main Cast

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

Supporting Cast

Paget Brewster - Kathy
Rebecca Romijn - Cheryl (credited Rebecca Romijn-Stamos)
Gretchen Wyler - Mrs. Burkart
James Michael Tyler - Gunther

Crew

Directed By:
Shelley Jenson

Written By:
Shana Goldberg-Meehan & Scott Silveri

Trivia

Ross uses the phrase "I know!" in the beginning of this episode. This is one of the well known catchphrases of the show, used often by Monica Geller.
If you pause this episode at 11:52, during one of the small intros to scenes where music is played and a locations exterior is shown, you can see a man leaning out of the window of one of the apartments in the building where Monica, Rachel, Joey and Chandler live.
In The One With The Halloween Party, it is revealed the The Velveteen Rabbit is also Chandler's favorite childhood book.
Chandler mentions the 1978 film Grease.
Ironically, a bottle of Pine-Sol can be seen on one of the end tables in Cheryl's apartment.

Goofs

After Phoebe finally gets the widow to pay her and Monica is alone with the guests, the boom mic is clearly visible at the top of the screen.
When Joey is showing the pen he got for Kathy's birthday, Rachel's hair is behind her right ear. When the camera angle changes, her hair is down, and then it's behind her ear again.
When Ross is making out with the dirty girl on the couch he gets something that looks like chocolate sauce all over his left hand and then a few seconds later when he puts his hands on her back and the sauce is gone.
Ross calls his date "Sarah" when they are making out on the couch but when he is apologizing for killing the creature in the potato chips bag, he calls her "Shelly"
Continuity: Chandler says that Joey was with "Angela Delvecchio" for three years. However in the first episode Chandler talks about how they have never had a relationship that lasted "longer than a mento."

Furthermore, in "The One With the Flashback" it is revealed that Joey and Chandler only became friends/roommates a year before the show began. In another episode, Chandler mentions Joey's "breakfast adventure with Angela Delvecchio" on their kitchen table, which means that Joey would have dated her while living with Chandler. However, she was never seen as part of the show. [Counter-argument] It is possible that Joey dated Angela for 3 years before he met Chandler, and then the "breakfast adventure" he was referring to was just a post-breakup hookup.

Episode Navigation

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Preceded by "The One With Joey's New Girlfriend"	Series Four Episodes	Followed by "The One Where Chandler Crosses The Line"


<< Season 3		Season 4				Season 5 >>
#01	"The One With The Jellyfish"		#09	"The One Where They're Going To Party"	#17	"The One With The Free Porn"
#02	"The One With The Cat"		#10	"The One With The Girl From Poughkeepsie"	#18	"The One With Rachel's New Dress"
#03	"The One With The Cuffs"		#11	"The One With Phoebe's Uterus"	#19	"The One With All The Haste"
#04	"The One With The Ballroom Dancing"		#12	"The One With The Embryos"	#20	"The One With All The Wedding Dresses"
#05	"The One With Joey's New Girlfriend"		#13	"The One With Rachel's Crush"	#21	"The One With The Invitation"
#06	"The One With The Dirty Girl"		#14	"The One With Joey's Dirty Day"	#22	"The One With The Worst Best Man Ever"
#07	"The One Where Chandler Crosses The Line"		#15	"The One With All The Rugby"	#23	"The One With Ross' Wedding, Part 1"
#08	"The One With Chandler In A Box"		#16	"The One With The Fake Party"	#24	"The One With Ross' Wedding, Part 2"