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Friends

Writer: Alexa Junge

Original Air Date: February 11, 1999

What It’s About: Monica (Courtney Cox) and Chandler (Matthew Perry) have been secretly having an affair, and as far as they know, only Joey (Matt LeBlanc) knows about it. But when Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) and Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow) accidentally see them getting it on, they take a break from freaking out about it to use the information to their advantage: by screwing with Monica and Chandler’s heads. Meanwhile, the friends notice that Ugly Naked Guy is boxing up his apartment, so Ross (David Schwimmer) tries to ingratiate himself with the neighbor so that he can win his apartment.

Why It’s So Good: Nothing gets weirder than when friends suddenly start doing it, and in the beginning of Chandler and Monica’s relationship the Friends team focused primarily on their efforts to hide it from the rest of the characters. Once Joey and Rachel found out, of course, it upped the stakes. Obviously, Ross and Phoebe would have to find out somehow, but what would be the fun in having Chandler and Monica announce it in a normal way?

A sitcom works best when it resembles a farce, the players bumbling around and doing impossibly idiotic things. Friends, likewise, worked best in this way, and “The One Where Everybody Finds Out” plays on the six friends’ worst characteristics—particularly, their sense of competition—to craft a classically hilarious episode in which a group of people basically conspire to fuck with each other for no real reason.

Another thing that made the cast of Friends so good at their job was that they were all incredibly physical actors. From subtle movements during conversations, to the larger, broader expressions as they schemed and try to break each other, so much of the acting in this episode particularly relies on body movement—from Phoebe’s initial freakout, the strained, awkward flirting between Phoebe and Chandler, to Joey popping open Phoebe’s blouse with one quick flick of the wrist.

Don’t Forget the B-Plot! Very rarely does a sitcom’s b-plot so seamlessly intertwine into the main story, but it’s the b-plot that allows for the main plot to even take place. But while Phoebe and Rachel are scheming to freak out Chandler and Monica, Ross makes attempts to snag Ugly Naked Guy’s apartment—first by sending a basket of mini muffins, then by hanging out with him in the buff. (Apparently Friends still manages to accurately depict the desperation of finding a nice apartment in New York City.)

The Best Moment: Lisa Kudrow is definitely the star of this episode, from her first freak-out to her overtly sexual flirting with Chandler. But the best moment is probably when Phoebe shows off her dance moves, which are pretttty impressive.