"The One With The Monkey"
Friends episode
Ross arrives at the New Year's Eve party with his new companion, a monkey named Marcel, who seems to take no interest in him at all.
Season	1x10
Episode no.	10
Written by	Adam Chase Ira Underleider
Directed by	Peter Bonerz
Guest stars	Hank Azaria - David Vincent Ventresca - Fun Bobby Wayne Pére - Max Sarah MacDonnell - Sandy Maggie Wheeler - Janice Hosenstein Dick Clark - Himself (uncredited) Katie - Marcel the Monkey (uncredited) James Michael Tyler - Gunther (uncredited)
Original airdate	December 15, 1994
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"The One With The Monkey" is the tenth episode of the first season of Friends, which aired on NBC on December 15, 1994.

PlotEdit

It's the holidays coming, and Ross introduces the guys to his new roommate, Marcel the monkey. Meanwhile, Chandler proposes a no-date New Year's Eve, which no one is really enthusiastic about. In the middle of her "suicidal" performance (suiting enough, as twelve of thirteen songs are about her mother's suicide), Phoebe notices two guys whose racket is disrupting her singing. On the other hand, one of the guys, David, has noticed how she's cute, which is enough for her to start going out with him.

Phoebe wants to bring him to New Year's at Monica's, which the guys find annoying as this will break the no-date promise. Ironically, Chandler is the first to break the pact by inviting Janice. After talking it out with him, Phoebe gets David to kiss her. Eventually, what with Rachel's Paolo catching an earlier flight, Monica inviting Fun Bobby and Joey hooking up with Sandy, Ross is the only one without a date for the Dick Clark festivity. Max interrupts the group with news - he and David have gotten the grant, full expenses paid, for research in Minsk for three years - and the departure date is January 1. However, David is not sure whether to go or not because of Phoebe, and when he decides to give her the power of decision, she makes him stay.

At the party, almost everyone is with their dates, but plans are not nearly as good as expected: Joey's date has brought her two children so that he couldn't even kiss her without them watching, and then ends up with Max; Janice keeps pulling out all of her features which made Chandler dump her in the first place; Rachel's Paolo misses his flight and Rachel is beaten up by a woman; following his grandfather's very recent death, Fun Bobby is far from fun; and Ross contends by bringing Marcel but doesn't stick with him for more than a couple of seconds. Just as Phoebe's night promises to be a good one, Max reveals to David how despite David's decision to stay, he's still going to Minsk. Broken-heartedly, Phoebe tells David how she believes his life is in and belongs to Minsk, and he'll have to go to fulfill his career. But as David doesn't know how to break up with her, she has to teach him that too. David does, however, promise her that he won't ever forget her, and that he loves her. Phoebe replies how she's going to miss him.

The friends find themselves keeping the promise they all strove hard to break - alone. Nobody's in the mood to kiss anyone, but Chandler is upset having no one to kiss at mid night. Joey kisses him so that he stops moaning.

Cast and CrewEdit

Main CastEdit

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

Supporting CastEdit

Hank Azaria - David
Vincent Ventresca - Fun Bobby
Wayne Pére - Max
Sarah MacDonnell - Sandy
Maggie Wheeler - Janice Hosenstein
Dick Clark - Himself (uncredited)
Katie - Marcel the Monkey (uncredited)
James Michael Tyler - Gunther (uncredited)

CrewEdit

Directed By:
Peter Bonerz

Written By:
Adam Chase & Ira Ungerleider

TriviaEdit

• Fun Bobby would be later seen in The One With Russ. In this future episode, he gets a more prominent part of the plot.
• This is the first time Chandler reunites with Janice.
  • This also happens to be the only season where Chandler breaks up with Janice more than once in the same season.
• This episode is the first to feature a shot of a kiss between two same-sex people (Chandler and Joey).
  • The first episode to feature a shot of a kiss between two women is The One With Ross' Wedding, Part 1 (Monica and Phoebe have a quick peck on the lips). The first full-lipped girl-girl kiss takes place in The One With Rachel's Big Kiss, where Rachel kisses Melissa (guest star Winona Ryder).
• Max says that Minsk is in Russia but is actually in Belarus.
• In this episode we can see Phoebe and Chandler decorating Monica's tree, but in "The One With The Routine" on Season 6, Ross suggests that Monica never let people help decorate her tree when he says "Wow, Monica's letting other people help decorate her tree!"

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