Friends: 5 Times Phoebe Was A Good Friend (& 5 She Was Awful)

Phoebe’s childhood experiences have shaped her into the person seen in Friends — loving, innocent, and blatantly honest about her opinions. As naive as she usually is, she has been shown, on occasion, to be eerily smart, especially during moments when she is least expected to offer anything of consequence.

Furthermore, Phoebe has a radically distinct perspective of life in comparison to the other five, for instance, in her openness about relationships and sexual encounters, or her interest in supernatural phenomena and a generic brand of spirituality. Regardless, she doesn’t hold these differences against her friends, but often tries to care for them any way she can. At other times, though, she can be quite awful.

10 Good Friend: When She Gets The Owed Money For Monica’s Catering Job

Monica is offered a chance to cater for a funeral, but she rejects it because she doesn’t have the necessary equipment to feed a party of 60 people. However, when she asks the widow for payment, the client begins to weep and sob, which makes her nervous and uncomfortable.

Good thing she has the eagle-eyed Phoebe by her side, who subsequently notices the so-called mourning widow all cheery and gleeful, realizing that it’s nothing more than a ploy to get the funeral catered without having to pay. Phoebe doesn’t fall for the woman’s tricks and forces her to pay upfront.

9 Awful Friend: When She Suggested That Monica Should Have A Fling Before Her Wedding

Monica, like many people with wedding jitters, mentions to Phoebe that she would be losing out on a lot after marriage, such as her personal space, decision-making rights, and so on.

In an uncharacteristic turn of events, her friend merely scouts Central Perk for “eligible” men, telling Monica that it wouldn’t make any difference if she indulged in one final hook-up before getting hitched. It’s an egregious thing to say to anyone, let alone one of her closest friends.

8 Good Friend: When She Bonded With Rachel Over Playboy Paolo

Rachel and Paolo enter into a tentative relationship, which obviously infuriates Ross, but not for the right reasons. In fact, it is when Phoebe starts giving the man a massage that he shows his true colors — by squeezing her behind and exposing himself. Phoebe doesn’t blame Rachel for what happened, nor should she, given that the guilt lies squarely on one head: Paolo’s.

However, she is anxious about informing her friend about what took place. She goes ahead with it anyway and she is pleasantly surprised to watch Rachel instantly dump Paolo (in a justifiably humiliating manner).

7 Awful Friend: When She Tries To “Teach” Joey Guitar

Joey has had enough with all the fake skills on his resume, so Phoebe agrees to instruct him in playing the guitar. Unfortunately for him, she doesn’t use any ordinary chords, not to mention flat-out refusing to let him touch the instrument.

What’s worse is that she actually bans him from learning what chords are supposed to be called, instead teaching him bizarre versions like “bear claw” and “old lady.” While this all didn’t make her a terrible person, her willingness to help was a bit misguided here.

6 Good Friend: The Whole French Fiasco

Similarly, her attempts at teaching Joey how to speak French end in miserable failure. He cannot, for some inexplicable reason, pronounce sentences correctly, even though he does perfectly with individual syllables. Tired of his unending streak of nonsense mimicry, she initially gives up.

However, in order to save his face during the audition, Phoebe pretends that Joey’s babble is actually a “regional dialect” from “the French town of Estée Lauder.” While this is one way to help him feel better about himself, the scene is unfortunately not cut here. Phoebe proceeds to speak in French with the director, claiming that Joey is her little brother who’s “un peu retardé.” Current sitcoms have generally (thankfully) moved beyond this kind of insensitive language, and despite Phoebe’s horrible choice of words, her heart was in the right place in trying to help Joey.

5 Awful Friend: When She Was Angry With Ross For Something She Had Dreamed Up

Phoebe is angry with Ross, but she doesn’t remember why — she claims that it’s because she “is so focused on being mad at [him] that [she] forgot what it was [she] was mad about!” At some point, though, her memories apparently return to her, and she mentions that they “were playing chess,” which confuses Ross because they “have never played chess!”

Phoebe shrugs off his disbelief, telling him that they have played the game “on the frozen lake,” which is when he called her “boring” and transformed into Cameron Diaz. This enrages Ross, and for good reason.

4 Good Friend: When She Took Ross To Newark Airport

Right before Rachel is about to board her flight to Paris, leaving NYC and her closest friends behind forever, Ross realizes that it’s the right moment to reveal all of his feelings for her. Phoebe takes him in her grandma’s cab, and although the ride there is filled with countless near-death scenarios, they reach their location.

Except, as it turns out, they’re at the wrong airport. Luckily, Phoebe’s presence of mind saves the day — she calls Rachel, and vaguely describes a problem with the “left phalange” of the plane. A passenger in a nearby seat overhears the conversation, and his reaction leads to the jet being grounded, giving Ross and Rachel one last moment. Or so it seems.

3 Awful Friend: When She Accidentally Humiliates Chandler

Chandler finds one of the most beautiful women he has ever seen, claiming that “she makes the women [he dreams] about look like short, fat, bald men!” Monica encourages him to try his luck, as does Rachel, but Chandler scoffs at their suggestions.

He then asks Ross to confirm that the woman is out of his league who, of course, agrees. Phoebe decides to chime in a twisted form of reassurance, saying that there are hordes of gorgeous women who date “these really nothing guys,” adding that he “could be one of those guys.”

2 Good Friend: When She Pretends To Be Pregnant

Chandler mistakenly assumes that Monica, his new wife, is pregnant, but she denies the possibility. They are bewildered by the turn of events, so Monica turns to Rachel and Phoebe, demanding to know what’s going on.

Phoebe understands instantly that it must have been Rachel (being the only odd one out), but simultaneously realizes that her friend clearly doesn’t want anyone to know about it. She announces that she is, in fact, the one who’s pregnant, protecting Rachel for the time being.

1 Awful Friend: The Pregnancy Insult

During Halloween, Rachel is handing out candy to trick-or-treaters, when she asks Monica to go get some more because they had apparently run out. Monica is shocked because there haven’t been more than four children to visit the apartment.

Rachel reveals that one of the kids “said that she loved” her, so she “just gave her everything.” Phoebe, as unnecessarily snarky as can be, remarks “No wonder you’re pregnant.” This was a very insulting comment and not really being fair to Rachel, was it?

About The Author

Ajay Aravind
(429 Articles Published)

In real life, Ajay disguises himself as an academic, mainly writing textbooks for children — who all hate him for making their lives more miserable. He also writes about TV and film, strewing his opinions across the internet to see if people care (they don’t). You can find him @stain_dprinc_ss on Twitter.

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