The One Where Eddie Won’t Go (series 2)
Perry was a king of the reaction shot — the double-takes, the narrow-eyed disbelief, the “Oh my god!” These were hilariously deployed at his unhinged new flatmate Eddie across three episodes (starting with The One Where Eddie Moves In). They start with an incredulous flick of his head when Eddie tells him he’s “not into sport” after the offer of a game of foosball and peak with a full-body spasm when woken by the sight of Eddie watching him sleep.
• The night Matthew Perry told me he was lonely
The One After the Superbowl Part II (series 2)
Chandler runs into a girl he once played a mean joke on in fourth grade. She has flowered into… Julia Roberts! Or rather, Susie, a make-up artist. He apologises: “Yes, back then I used humour as a defence mechanism… [perfectly timed beat] Thank God I don’t do that any more.” It leads to a date where she gets her revenge, leaving him stuck in a restaurant toilet wearing only her undies. Once again Perry turns Chandler’s car-crash love-life into something hilarious — all deadpan quips and humiliated self-deprecation.
The One Where Chandler Can’t Remember Which Sister (series 3)
Having split up with “Oh. My. God!” Janice, the forlorn Chandler gets drunk at a party, kisses one of Joey’s seven near-identical sisters, and soon enough realises that he has no idea which sister it was — risking wrath all round. Perry’s sublime mugging fuels the farce that follows.
The One with Chandler in a Box (series 4)
Chandler has kissed Joey’s girlfriend, Kathy, so is told to lie silently in a box to think about what he has done. Of course he cannot help speaking, explaining at one point: “The meaning of the box is threefold. One [holds a finger up through the air hole], it gives me the time to think about what I did. Two [holds up another finger], it proves how much I care about my friendship with Joey. And three [holds up a third finger], it hurts.” And when things get heated at the dining table, he tells the friends: “You can’t tell, but I am trying to break the tension by mooning you guys.” Breaking the tension is what Chandler did so well.
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The One with the Blackout (series 1)
A city-wide blackout means Chandler is trapped inside an ATM vestibule with the Victoria’s Secret model Jill Goodacre. There are physical Bingisms galore, but the brilliance of the two-hander rests mainly in Perry’s interior monologue, which contrasts with his hapless attempts at striking up conversation. When she offers her phone and ask if there is anyone he would like to call, he tells himself: “Yes about 300 guys I went to high school with.” If only he had said that aloud. Still, he wins her over eventually and is rewarded with a kiss, concluding matters by talking to the security camera and requesting a copy of the tape.
The One with the Hypnosis Tape (series 3)
This is probably not one of the stories that would be written today. Still, it is another episode-stealing sub-plot. The main action centres around Monica’s date with the billionaire Pete Becker (Jon Favreau), but it also has Rachel lending Chandler a hypnosis tape to help him quit smoking, but only the audiences realise that it also urges the sleeping listener to be a “strong confident woman”. Cue many moments where Chandler applies chapstick, throws a set of keys like (and there is only one way of saying this) a girl and also urges Monica before her date with Pete: “Just because he buys you dinner doesn’t mean you owe him anything.”
The Last One (series 10)
It is probably no accident that the scriptwriters entrusted the last line in Friends to the actor with the most impeccable comic timing. In the series 10 finale, they are gathered in the main apartment for the last time when Rachel asks the group if they want to go and get some coffee. Chandler responds: “Sure. Where?” In his memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, Perry revealed that he specifically asked the executive producer Marta Kauffman for the honour of bringing the curtain down because “nobody else will care about this except me”, but he delivers these two words so well. As he also says in his book: “I love the look on [David] Schwimmer’s face as I deliver that line — it’s the perfect mixture of affection and amusement, exactly what the show Friends had always given to the world.”
Friends is available to stream on Netflix
