Friends: 10 Jokes From Season 8 That Aged Poorly

Has Friends aged well? It’s up for debate. It’s one of the most rewatched shows of all time and remains immensely popular, with streaming services paying huge sums of money in the past for exclusive rights. Fans lost their minds when a reunion special was announced. But some now say the show is problematic and others claim it was never that fun to begin with.

Some elements of the show don’t suit modern sensibilities, but as it’s a show that started almost thirty years ago, that’s not really surprising. It was a product of its time and is mostly still a great watch. There are still new Friends fans being introduced to the show right now. Some jokes just aren’t that funny though. Here are ten jokes from Friends season eight that haven’t stood the test of time!

10 Ross Dancing At The Wedding

Ross tries to impress Mona at Monica and Chandler’s wedding by letting all of the young girls dance on his feel. His plan initially works, until a girl called Gert asks for her turn. This girl is a little bigger, and Ross is clearly uncomfortable about her dancing on his feet.

What did the ad read for this job? The episode ends with Ross yelling in a woman’s face about how he’s a nice guy because he danced with the kids all night. He also needs holding up because he’s in so much pain from allowing Gert to dance with him. What a hero.

9 Ursula’s Fiancé

Where to begin? Phoebe meets her sister’s fiancé, Eric, but learns that Ursula has lied to him about who she really is. Phoebe intervenes, and the two break up; that’s fair enough. In the next episode, Phoebe starts seeing Eric. He’s initially full of rage seeing Phoebe, because she reminds him of her twin’s lies towards him, a bit of a red flag.

Phoebe continues to pursue him, and they are going to give it a go. Then, due to not having his contacts in, he ends up sleeping with Ursula thinking she’s Phoebe. He slept with a woman who disgusted him by accident. To top off this really classy storyline, his final moment in the show is telling Phoebe she smells just like Ursula. Phoebe replies, “Yeah, so do you.”

8 Monica And Her Cleaner

In “The One With The Stain,” Monica and Chandler get a new cleaner, who Monica initially loves because of her diligence. Sometime later, she gets it into her head that the cleaner has stolen her jeans and then worn them in front of her. Monica first scares the cleaner by trying to look at her crotch for a noticeable stain on her jeans.

Later, Monica forces Chandler to try and seduce the cleaner, because she thinks she stole her bra as well. This culminates in Chandler begging to look at the woman’s bra. Remember when these sitcom characters seemed at least vaguely like people you might actually meet in real life? As a final note, the writers go back to that hilarious well to pull out another, “Sorry, your wife is a lesbian” joke.

7 Monica’s Secret Closet

Monica has a cupboard full of disorganized stuff that she doesn’t tell anyone about – that’s the joke. Writing a sitcom for eight years must be difficult, having to be funny every week, hitting joke after joke for a 20-30 minute span. This one is really scraping the barrel though.

We know Monica is neurotic and obsessive about cleaning. This storyline just didn’t really add any good laughs to the episode or character development for Monica. She thinks she’s sick, and Chandler quickly resolves it by telling her he loves her in spite of how organized she is.

6 The Birthing Video

In “The One With The Birthing Video,” Chandler is thrilled when he thinks Monica has bought him a porn video for Valentine’s Day. He puts on the video, and we’re treated to some wonderful screaming and sound effects. Chandler’s first reaction is pretty funny. Later on though, everyone’s abject trauma at watching the video makes for a bit of a miserable episode.

5 Ross Being Useless With Mona

Ross meets Mona at Monica and Chandler’s wedding. They later start dating. This poor woman does not know what a mess she has tied herself to when she does this. Ross continually forgets about her when dealing with other things, including leaving her alone in a cinema. He also gives her a key to his apartment then gets the locks changed to avoid an awkward conversation.

She finally breaks up with him after he lies about Rachel moving in with him, but it doesn’t end there. Ross goes to her apartment to get a shirt back, but she’s not home because he obviously didn’t call ahead. So, instead of coming back later, he just lets himself in. Her whole arc sees Ross being dishonest, cowardly, and neglectful in every interaction.

4 Gay Moments Montage

In “The One With Joey’s Interview,” Joey has an interview with a magazine and recalls past moments from the show. Buckle up; it’s a clipshow episode. At one point, the interviewer asks Joey if he’s gay.

What follows is a montage of clips where the guys get a little close – Ross kissing Joey for acting practice, them napping together, Joey being feminine because he had a female roommate. What this really highlights though is just how much mileage the writers got from whole punchlines revolving around the LGBTQ+ community. Clipshows are weak either way.

3 Monica Hijacks A Cooking Class

In season one, Monica went to a tap class because she realized that she wasn’t living life to the fullest. She wanted to get out more and loosen up. It was a sweet and human storyline culminating in her defiantly dancing even though she was getting it all wrong.

Cut to season eight: Monica pretends to be a beginner chef and goes to a class, without paying, so that she can be given false praise. Monica’s always been competitive and hard on herself, but one bad review sparking this weird string of behavior just isn’t funny.

2 Rachel’s Attitude

Like the birthing video, this joke wasn’t really that funny. Rachel is at the end of her pregnancy and struggling with comfort, sleep, and stress. She just wants it to be over. Throughout the episode, she’s horrible to her friends, especially Ross.

This change in character due to hormonal changes, and the pressures of pregnancy is probably quite realistic. However, Friends is such a light show that her attitude kind of kills the tone of the whole episode.

1 Rachel Says Yes To Joey’s Proposal

First, Joey loves Rachel, then Rachel likes Joey. They try being a couple and immediately decide they’re better as friends. It’s an ongoing mess that goes nowhere after three seasons of build-up. After Joey’s been painfully in love with Rachel for all of season eight, he tells her and is able to move on.

Later, Joey accidentally picks up Ross’ grandma’s engagement ring. Rachel, having just had a baby, thinks he’s proposing and says yes. She’s portrayed as lonely because Janis gave her some bad advice and is obviously emotional after giving birth, but is this whole plot point just kind of horrible for all involved?

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