Friends: 10 Reasons Why Rachel & Phoebe Aren’t Real Friends

When it comes to iconic friendship groups in sitcoms, the Friends gang is surely one of the most beloved ever. They’re the social circle that every squad tried to emulate, the gold standard of through-thick-and-thin friendship and everything it entails. Or are they?

The fact is, it sometimes seems that Joey, Phoebe, Ross, Monica, Chandler, and Rachel just weren’t as close as we remember them being. Every relationship (platonic or otherwise) has its ups and downs, but sometimes issues go beyond that. Here are some reasons why Phoebe and Rachel may not have exactly been the close buddies we thought they were.

10 Rachel Judged Phoebe For Her Running Style

In Season 6’s “The One Where Phoebe Runs,” Rachel and Phoebe (predictably enough) go running together. Ever the eccentric, Phoebe is revealed to have a joyful, arm-waving running style that causes passers-by to stare at them both. Rachel is mortified by this and tries to get out of running together again by pretending she’d hurt her ankle before sneaking out alone.

She’s soon caught in a lie, and a fundamental issue with their relationship is revealed. Honesty is a crucial component of any close friendship, so couldn’t Rachel have handled the situation better? She hurt Phoebe’s feelings by both being ashamed of her and lying to her.

9 They Have Such Different Backgrounds

Another vital part of a successful relationship is to have shared interests, something in common. In the case of these two women, there’s really nothing that ties them together. Just look at the difference in their backgrounds.

Rachel, one of three daughters of a wealthy doctor, had the luxury of growing up with maids and housekeepers. Before moving in with Monica and asserting her independence, she was the archetypal spoiled rich girl. By contrast, Phoebe’s trouble childhood and time spent living on the streets is well documented, as she regularly offers terrible stories about her former life. How could the two of them ever see eye to eye?

8 Rachel Always Calls Her ‘Quirky’

We’ve already touched on the fact that Phoebe is definitely the most eccentric of the friends (although, in the guy’s corner, Ross certainly has his moments too). Her curious ways and beliefs are the source of most of her funniest moments.

Is it right that her more eccentric ways be made fun of, though? Rachel is particularly ruthless with this at times, dismissing Phoebe as ‘quirky’ and, in one case, calling her “that stupid hippie.” Friendship is all about supporting and understanding each other’s ways, and Rachel clearly struggled with this concept at times.

7 Phoebe Told Rachel’s Father That Rachel Was Pregnant

Of course, Rachel falling pregnant with Ross’s child was a huge hot button issue on the show. For the gang themselves, some supporting characters and the fans, this was a huge deal. Rachel took quite some time to pluck up the courage to tell the father, but she also agonized over telling her own father.

Dr. Greene, as we know, is a critical and thoroughly unlikable man with a vicious temper. Rachel knew he wouldn’t take the news well, so when she invited him to a restaurant to break it to him gently, she asked Phoebe to come along too for moral support. What did the ever-tactless Phoebe do? Blurt out the truth, throwing Rachel for a loop.

6 Phoebe Judged Rachel For Going To A Corporate Massage Chain…

Of the Friends gang, Phoebe seems to be the member with the strongest morals and beliefs. Central to this is the concept of supporting smaller, independent businesses over big, greedy chains. When Rachel scores a voucher for a massage at a big corporate chain, then, issues were bound to arise.

Phoebe asks her friend to promise not to use the coupon, but Rachel goes ahead and does so behind her back. This brings up some complicated issues. Was Rachel wrong to do so? Was Phoebe, in turn, wrong to try and impose her own beliefs on others? Whichever way you look at it, there’s a fundamental problem here. As we’ll see next, that wasn’t the end of the issue either.

5 …But Also Worked There Herself And Lied About It

How did Phoebe know that Rachel had gone back on her word and had a massage at the big, greedy chain? Because Phoebe had been secretly working there herself and was the masseuse assigned to massage Rachel!

A confrontation there and then could have cleared the air and been much healthier, but as Rachel hadn’t seen her masseur, Phoebe opted to lie her way through the job. Rachel didn’t see her face throughout, so Phoebe pretended to be a Swedish woman named Ikea the whole time. Rachel caught on and the truth came out in the end (Phoebe also decided to quit after they argued), but the whole situation was unnecessary if they’d been honest with each other, as good friends should.

4 Phoebe Thinks Rachel Is Too ‘Vanilla’

As we’ve already seen, then, Rachel and Phoebe’s background and characters couldn’t be more different in some respects. Rachel even goes as far as to say, in one instance, that Phoebe was likely to drift out of the group sometime as she didn’t really fit with the rest at all (“you live far away, you’re not related… you lift right out”).

For her part, Phoebe’s extraordinary life to date left her with scathing feelings towards Rachel’s sheltered, “vanilla” existence. In “The One With Rachel’s Big Kiss,” Melissa, a friend of Rachel’s from college, visits, and Rachel regales the group with the story of a drunken kiss the two of them once shared. Rachel is oddly proud of the only “wild” thing she had ever done, and is incensed when Phoebe refuses to believe it had happened. “You’re, y’know, so… vanilla,” Phoebe explains, which clearly hurt Rachel a lot.

3 Rachel Bought The Apothecary Table From Pottery Barn

In “The One With The Apothecary Table,” Phoebe buys said table from Pottery Barn, only to learn that Phoebe absolutely won’t want it in their apartment: she hates Pottery Barn and everything they stand for.

As Phoebe wants all of her furniture to be unique and original, Rachel pretends that the table is authentic and that she bought it from a flea market. As time goes by, she fills the apartment with more and more Pottery Barn produce, under the same ruse. In the end, Phoebe learns to love it (and even makes a purchase there herself), but this is another example of both of them being intolerant towards the other’s beliefs.

2 Phoebe Had No Patience For Rachel’s Dilemma About Joey And Charlie

Later in the show’s run, Rachel develops feelings for Joey. At the time, he is dating Charlie, making for quite a complicated situation. Rachel feels helpless and eventually confides in Phoebe.

Before doing so, the two women offer to take Charlie shopping, as the latter considers herself clueless when it comes to fashion (and Phoebe wants a new outfit to outdo then-ex Mike with). Rachel tries to discuss the situation that’s troubling her, only for Phoebe to dismiss her by claiming, “I’m sorry, Rachel, I don’t have time for your childish games.” Phoebe is often seen considering her concerns more important than others’ (“I wish I could, but I don’t want to”), and this is one of the worst instances of that.

1 They Fought Over The Right To Be Monica’s Maid of Honor

Monica and Chandler’s much-ballyhooed wedding is one of the biggest and most anticipated events of the show’s whole run. It caused a fair amount of friction, especially between Phoebe and Rachel.

Monica decided that the two women should decide which of them would be her Maid of Honor between themselves. They fought over this and had various contests, resorting to underhand tactics to try and sway judges Ross and Joey (who were ‘auditioning’ them for the part). Eventually, Phoebe insisted Rachel take the role after seeing the items the latter had prepared and how much the whole thing meant to her. It’s just a shame that things got so vicious beforehand.