Friends/Characters

Rachel Karen Green (Jennifer Aniston)


Spoiled, naive Rachel enters the series in the first episode in her wedding dress, running away from her own big day. She moves in with Monica, gets a menial job serving coffee, soon learns a little bit more about grownup life and ends up dating Ross off and on (and off and on and off and on and...).


 * All Guys Want Cheerleaders: Rachel claimed that she had never failed to score when wearing her cheerleader uniform, leading to her donning it at a party in a desperate attempt to win the attention of one particular guy.
 * Ambiguously Jewish
 * Book Dumb: She doesn't know the plot of Wuthering Heights or who was the enemy in World War One. She even actually believes Phoebe when she sarcastically says that the plot of Jane Eyre involves cyborgs.
 * Catch Phrase: Her long drawn out "No..."
 * The Cheerleader (former)
 * The Ditz: In earlier seasons when she was still recovering from her spoiled upbringing.
 * Even the Girls Want Her: Her college friend (played by Winona Ryder) is still in love with her.
 * Heavy Sleeper
 * Hot Mom: starting in season 9.
 * Lethal Chef
 * Season 3 showed she made brownies which received no complaints. Same can't be said for the rest of her cooking attempts, which may make her an example of a One-Note Cook.
 * Is the Trope Namer for It Tastes Like Feet... from the incident when she makes a Trifle/Shepherd's Pie.
 * Longest Pregnancy Ever: Lasting from May 2001 to August 2002.
 * And then evoked in-verse, as she's two weeks overdue, and spends nearly 24 consecutive hours in labor.
 * Lovable Alpha Bitch: She was The Cheerleader in high school, but was friends with the unpopular Monica. She still retains some traits of this as an adult.
 * Naive Newcomer
 * Not a Morning Person
 * Playing Hard to Get
 * Runaway Bride
 * Selective Obliviousness (for Ross' feelings, and later hers)
 * Spoiled Sweet: In her high school days, she was probably more Alpha Bitch-like (there was an I Hate Rachel Green Club, though with a low membership).
 * The Unfair Sex ("We were on a break!")
 * A couple episodes after the break-up, she actually goes on a date with Mark - the guy that Ross was constantly jealous of and certain was trying to get with Rachel. And of course, Rachel even tells Mark that she's only dating him to get back at Ross.
 * Then again, Ross's real reason for sleeping with that waitress wasn't because they were "on a break" and he was therefore free to play the field--it was because he wanted to get revenge on Rachel for something she hadn't even done.

Monica Geller (Courteney Cox)


Monica is Ross' sister and the group's Team Mom. She has signs of OCD and a generally very controlling attitude, although she puts it to good use in her job as a chef. She was fat in high school, which is still a source of shame for her. Eventually, she ends up with Chandler, although the first half of the series has her dating a tremendously moustachioed man named Richard.

"Rachel: I couldn't get Joey but I got the next best thing. Chandler: Hey. Ross: You got Chandler?! The next best thing is Monica!
 * Berserk Button: Mostly involving tidyness.
 * Also anytime there's a competition, no matter how seemingly insignificant.
 * Bridezilla: And at Phoebe's wedding, Maid-of-Honor-zilla.
 * Catch Phrase: Her panicked I KNOW! whenever she done goofed.
 * Also her hyper-chipper "OKAY!" when all gets resolved.
 * The Chew Toy: Monica is usually a tool for physical comedy, such as hitting her eye and wearing a patch, getting her hair caught in a shower curtain, wearing agony inducing boots, and getting stuck in a bean bag chair during her 'fat days'.
 * Christmas Cake: Before she met Chandler.
 * Control Freak
 * Eighties Hair: In the earlier seasons.
 * Fat Monica (Former Trope Namer)
 * Feminine Women Can Cook (And make their lives as chefs!)
 * Wouldn't she be more of a subversion? Monica -- especially post-Flanderization -- is feisty, loud, competitive and downright domineering, especially with Chandler. By the last seasons she was probably the least feminine of the girls.
 * Not to mention in The One With Rachel's Sister Monica bought a different set of wedding china then the ones Chandler picked out, because in her words, the ones Chandler picked out were "too feminine"
 * Flanderization: Her neatness and competitiveness.
 * Happily Married: To Chandler in the last three seasons.
 * Hot-Blooded
 * Informed Judaism: The Gellers' religious affiliation isn't clear until season 7, when Ross appears as the Holiday Armadillo, and then the only other mention is three seasons later, when Chandler has to remind Monica she can't be a minister because she's Jewish. Considering the care she gives to decorating the Christmas tree, we might not have known.
 * Neat Freak
 * Nerd Nanny: Unless it's a subject she is nerdy about.
 * Nerds Love Tough Schoolwork: Which shows up when she accompanies Phoebe to night school.
 * The Perfectionist
 * Red Oni, Blue Oni: Oddly enough both. She's the Red to Chandler's Blue, but is often the Blue to Rachel's Red.
 * Super Strength: Lampshaded when Ross was trying to get his new couch up to his apartment.

Chandler: You'd think I'd be offended, but Monica is freakishly strong."


 * And again when she forces Rachel to take her eyedrops.
 * Supreme Chef
 * Team Chef
 * Team Mom: Though it wouldn't be wise to call her that... as Chandler found out.
 * The Unfavorite: Often criticised by her mother, Judy, the same way Judy had been criticized by her own mother. Also, both parents favored Ross, which their dad tries to rectify (seemingly successfully, judging by the reaction) by giving Monica his Porsche.

Phoebe Buffay (Lisa Kudrow)
Phoebe is the group's Cloudcuckoolander who, after her mother killed herself and she lived on the street for some time, found a job as a masseuse. She plays the guitar (badly) and sings (badly) at Central Perk. "Joey: They let you get married when you're drunk. Most people who get married in Las Vegas are drunk. Phoebe: Hell, I'm drunk right now! (Beat) What, I can't have a mimosa at breakfast? I'm on vacation!"
 * Agent Mulder
 * Bitch in Sheep's Clothing
 * Apparently Phoebe became this more by the end of the series because of the revelations about her family.
 * Which is somewhat egregious because as she ends up reconciling with her father, her birth mother, finds her half brother and was the surrogate mother for her nieces and nephews... she was more upbeat before this when all she had in the way of family was a mother who killed herself.
 * Makes perfect sense when you realize that she  She probably started being such a bitch when she realized her entire family lied to her almost all of her life.
 * Bottle Fairy: Not often, but it comes up now and then.

"Rachel: In case you didn't notice, that is a scary man. Phoebe: He's right, though. The '74 is absolute piss."
 * Catch Phrase: "Oh no."
 * "Ew, ew, ew!"
 * Cloudcuckoolander
 * Dark and Troubled Past: Already had a troubled family life before having to live in the streets when she was 14.
 * The Ditz
 * Dreadful Musician: To some, but she's mostly more of a Dreadful Songwriter.
 * Evil Twin: Ursula
 * Erudite Stoner
 * Granola Girl: More in earlier seasons.
 * Hair of Gold: Played with. She has both a wide-eyed look on the world similar to a child's, but certainly isn't innocent.
 * Head-Tiltingly Kinky: Some of her humor derives from the fact her sexual practices have no boundaries.
 * Hidden Depths: She spoke to Joey's grandmother in Italian. Even Phoebe was unaware of her skill.
 * She also knows French... from learning it in a street corner with some other people, presumably.
 * And she demonstrates her knowledge of wines when Rachel's father berates a waiter for serving the '74 Lafite instead of the '75, then storms off.

"Rachel: How have you never been on Oprah?"
 * Little Miss Badass
 * Multiple Choice Past: Lampshaded-


 * Platonic Life Partners: With Joey.
 * Real Life Writes the Plot: Ursula was appearing on Mad About You before Friends premiered. (It was actually Kudrow's appearances there that helped get her cast as Phoebe.) When this series launched, it was decided to make Phoebe and Ursula twins to justify Kudrow playing characters on two different NBC shows.
 * Running Gag: "Regina Philange".
 * Soapbox Sadie: Often rails against cruelty to animals and preservation of nature but she sometimes falls short.
 * Street Urchin: From the age of 14.
 * Weird Aside
 * Weirdness Magnet: Having the ghost of an old woman posses her, being chased around a junkyard by a psychotic, being stalked by men who mistake her for her twin sister, Ursula, and having her apartment haunted by her grandmother.

Joseph Francis "Joey" Tribbiani (Matt LeBlanc)


A laid-back Italian womanizer, Joey is Chandler's best friend and roommate, and often the group's comic relief. He tries to make a living as an actor. Later seasons turned him into a The Ditz. He ended up with his own spinoff, which was cancelled very soon after.

""What's not to like. Whipped cream? Good. Jam? Good. Meat? Good.""
 * Ambiguously Gay: One of the flashback episodes had a whole montage of these moments with Chandler.
 * Berserk Button: "JOEY DOESN'T SHARE FOOD!"
 * Big Eater
 * Extreme Omnivore
 * Rachel's little incident of It Tastes Like Feet mentioned above? Yeah, didn't bother him in the slightest. He actually ate everyone else's slices.

"Joey: You hid my clothes?! Well...I'm going to do the exact opposite! Chandler: ...You're going to show me my clothes?"
 * Book Dumb: But street smart and friend savvy. At least that's how the writers viewed him.
 * Brainless Beauty
 * Casanova
 * Catch Phrase: "How you doin'?"
 * Dawson Casting: As the image indicates, Joey tries to pull this off in-universe in order to land a part for a 19-year-old character. Everyone else calls him on how ridiculous it would be.
 * The Ditz
 * Bordering on Genius Ditz, he's practically mentally impaired when it comes to anything but women (and food), and even then he only knows how to get them into bed. Once in a while though, he can be inexplicably cunning, fire off weird but practical knowledge or think brilliantly outside the box, and then go right back to being a ditz, sometimes in the same sentence.
 * Take note that Joey was also the only one in the group to figure out on his own that Ross had a thing for Rachel. (Chandler being Ross's confidant and the girls finding out when the secret was blown.)
 * Flanderization: His eating habits and intelligence (lack of).
 * Friend to All Living Things: He adopted a chick (the bird) because he saw on TV about how chicks given as Easter gifts are mistreated to the point of being killed. And he didn't seem to have any problem with the duck Chandler took in moments later.
 * Girl-On-Girl Is Hot: Is the most likely one to suggest this.
 * Handsome Lech: His treatment of potential female roommates borders on stalking.
 * Heterosexual Life Partners: With Chandler.
 * Hidden Depths: In "The one with the Kips", he shows his strange knowledge of elevators.
 * He also knew how to turn off the radiator in Monica and Rachel's apartment after they broke the handle off. Might not seem like a big deal, but nobody else on hand knew what to do.
 * Kindhearted Simpleton
 * Ladykiller in Love: As short-lived as it was, his crush on Rachel in season 8 was genuine.
 * He also develops feelings for his co-star Kate in season 3, and his new roommate Janine in season 6.
 * Man Child
 * Nice Guy
 * Platonic Life Partners: With Phoebe more so.
 * Red Oni, Blue Oni: Red to Chandler's Blue.
 * Sex God: He is sometimes portrayed as an extremely satisfying lover.
 * Too Dumb to Live: Several times
 * You Fail Logic Forever: Joey naturally falls into this a lot.

"It might fall a little into Squick since he wears all of Chandler's clothes without any underwear, then he stretches so the clothes will rise up into his butt, and nut sack."
 * Which is pretty much what he does.

Chandler Muriel Bing (Matthew Perry)


The group's Deadpan Snarker. Not much is known about his work, most likely because it only seems to involve data entry and accounting. His dad (now mom) is transgender and attracted to men, which he still has trouble coping with even as an adult. He ends up with Monica.

"Joey: You know, with that goatee, you kinda look like Satan."
 * Accent On the Wrong Syllable: Only occasionally, but when he does...could he BE more of an example?
 * Adorkable
 * Ambiguously Gay: The character of Chandler was originally meant to be gay, but the writers dropped the idea when Matthew Perry was cast. It does come up now and then; early on in the first season it turns out most people get gay vibes when the first meet him.
 * Doesn't help that he's a huge fan of romantic comedies, and once started a sentence with "If I was a guy..."
 * Beard of Evil: Lampshaded when he grew a goatee towards the end of the third season:

"Monica: Come on. Why don't you put on the tux and I'll fix you up a nice Martini. Chandler: You know I don't really like Martinis. Monica: Oh. Well, how about a Yoo Hoo with a funny straw? Chandler: Ooh, yum!"
 * Butt Monkey: A very close second, after Ross.
 * Cool Loser: A prominent Butt Monkey, though he takes most of it in stride.
 * Deadpan Snarker: Of legendary proportions; it seems like Chandler can't go a scene without snarking some way. It's even exploited in "TOW All the Resolutions," in which he truly takes pains to not snark as part of his New Year's resolution (and proceeds to give up in less than a week).
 * Digging Yourself Deeper: A sometimes specialty of Chandler's, especially around Monica's parents.
 * Embarrassing First Name: Chandler's first name is considered embarrassing, though not so embarrassing that he doesn't use it (which makes sense because his middle name is...
 * Embarrassing Middle Name: Muriel
 * "Chandler Muriel Bing. Wow, your parents never even gave you a chance, did they?"
 * Gag Penis
 * Happily Married: To Monica in the last three seasons.
 * Has Two Mommies: Played by Morgan Fairchild and Kathleen Turner.
 * Of course, Turner is playing Chandler's transgender father.
 * Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today?: Oh, so many times. Lampshaded when he does this when he and Monica go to the drag club his father performs at. One of the workers tells him, "We get it. You're straight."
 * Heterosexual Life Partners: With Joey.
 * Hidden Depths: He plays a mean game of ping pong much to Monica's surprise. (Note he was well-aware of this skill. He just didn't tell Monica because he didn't want to do couples tournaments and the like.)
 * It's not just ping pong, judging by the kinds of games Joey and Chandler play in their apartment Chandler actually is fairly athletic, just not competitive.
 * Hilariously Abusive Childhood: His parents were never intentionally abusive per se, but his past does come close.
 * Ho Yay: To a small degree with Joey. In the episode where Chandler wears panties, Joey seemed to thoroughly enjoy seeing him wearing panties, but it could also be that Joey enjoyed Chandler's humiliation more.
 * Hollywood Dateless: Before he starts a relationship with Monica.
 * Hollywood Pudgy: In one episode, several members of the group comment that he has put on weight. Phoebe even mockingly pretends that she can't put her arms around him to give him a hug. A particularly glaring example of this trope, as not only does Chandler look exactly the same as he always does, until the rest of the group point it out, he is completely unaware of having put on any weight.
 * During the worst of Perry's struggle with alcoholism, though, he is noticeably bloated.
 * It's even more noticeable if you watch the last episode of season 6 and immediately after the first episode of season 7. In the story, the events of the latter are supposed to happen a few minutes the events of the former. However, Perry/Chandler managed to lose something like 15 kg in the few minutes that it takes to Ross to reach the apartment.
 * Humiliation Conga: Happens to him twice, first when he is tricked into wearing a grade school friend's panties and then she takes his clothes and runs off, leaving a panty-clad Chandler in the bathroom to be found by Joey and Ross who take great pleasure in his humiliation and eventually, has to walk out the restaurant with nothing but a bathroom stall door to cover his unmentionables. The second time is somewhat similar when he is hooking up with Rachel's boss and she handcuffs him in her office wearing nothing but a shirt and underwear only to be found by Rachel who gags him and locks him up again so her boss doesn't know she was in her office.
 * I Was Quite a Fashion Victim: Chandler had a Flock of Seagulls haircut in his college days. Also, he once won a Vanilla Ice look-alike contest.
 * In the Blood: Gets severe cold feet right before his wedding because "Bings get divorced."
 * Man Child:

"Rachel: Oh, gosh. It has something to do with numbers... Monica: ...And processing... Rachel: He carries a briefcase... Ross: Ten seconds. You need this, or you lose the game. Monica: It's, um, it has something to do with transponding. Rachel: Oh! Oh! He’s a transpons... transpondster!
 * One-Hour Work Week: So much so that it's a Running Gag that no one can remember what his job is - at one point, it costs Monica and Rachel their apartment.

Monica: That's not even a word!! I can get this, I can get this!

(their time runs out)

Monica: NOOOO!!!"

""That was back when I used humor as a defense mechanism. Glad I don't do that anymore.""
 * Reality Subtext: His Season 9 storyline about working in Tulsa was to give Matthew Perry time to go through rehab.
 * Red Oni, Blue Oni: Blue to both Ross and Joey.
 * Sad Clown


 * Sex God: After some coaching from Monica and Rachel when he dates one of Joey's exes. Later, while secretly sleeping with Monica, she tells Rachel her new secret boyfriend is the best she ever had
 * Smoking Is Cool: Why he took up in the first place.
 * Actually, it was originally to help him deal with angst over his parents breaking up: this trope is just how he justifies it.
 * Tough Room: He's considered to be the funniest character on the show, but his friends find his jokes annoying for most of the time. Mainly because they're on the receiving end of his snarkery.
 * What Exactly Is His Job?
 * A Crowning Moment of Funny happens when Monica is able to say what Chandler's job is... after he has left it. Chandler lampshades it, of course.
 * This trope was also how he and Joey won Rachel and Monica's apartment. Ross asked the question, and they froze up.

Ross Geller (David Schwimmer)
The nerd of the group, Ross is a Hollywood Dateless paleontologist whose wife left him when she realized she was gay. She also turned out to be pregnant, and Ross tries his best to be a good dad to his son Ben. He loves Rachel, but you knew that already, right? "Ross: Do you really want to start your life together by letting [Monica] down? Chandler: ...Marriage advice? Really?"
 * Agent Scully
 * Berserk Button: "MY SANDWICH?"
 * "WE WERE ON A BREAK!"
 * "GET OFF MY SISTER!" (This one may have been some fallout from the sandwich incident.)
 * Butt Monkey: the whole cast go through instances of getting dumped on, but poor Ross seemed to become the official Butt Monkey in later seasons, ending up the victim of failed attempts, misunderstandings and overreactions one right after another.
 * The director's commentary for one of the early episodes claims this is because David Schwimmer is excellent at physical comedy (such as walking into an open washing machine door).
 * What's worse is, more than half of the instances aren't even played for laugh. His romantic life is cruelly wrecked by said misunderstandings and overreactions, and his somewhat pathetic, lovesick nature makes sure he always suffers the full impact without ever really getting to stand up for himself and make an honest effort at a healthy relationship.
 * None of the other characters miss a chance to rib Ross about being thrice divorced.


 * Catch Phrase: His distinctive "Hi" and "We were on a break!".
 * Cosmic Plaything: Ross can't catch a break, whenever his relationships endure the initial crush-stage and he convinces himself things are going smoothly, Rachel will interfere, or some misunderstanding happens, or his own desperation gets in the way, invariably resulting in utter heartbreak on his part. This is never seriously acknowledged, and more often than not, his friends rub it in his face afterwards, usually with all the blame too.
 * Dreadful Musician: With keyboard and especially bagpipes.
 * Everything's Better with Dinosaurs: Hence why he's a paleontologist.
 * Flanderization: His nerdiness and neurosis.
 * Semi-justified. After his break-up with Emily, he spends the whole season having a complete mental breakdown (particularly the "MY SANDWICH!" incident with his boss). Whats worse, his friends keep cracking jokes about it, and don't seem to notice or care at all.
 * Grammar Nazi
 * Hidden Depths: Can turn erotic cakes into woodland creatures. Note this was an ability he didn't know he had until he had to fix Emma's birthday cake.
 * Hollywood Nerd
 * Hot-Blooded
 * Informed Judaism: Subverted during his turn as the Holiday Armadillo in season 7, but otherwise there's not much indication of the Gellers' religious beliefs over the course of the show.
 * I Was Quite a Fashion Victim: Ross's 80's curly fro and mustache from his school days.
 * Large Ham: Everyone has these moments, but Ross really ran with this trope as the Holiday Armadillo.
 * Nice Guy
 * Not That Kind of Doctor
 * One-Hour Work Week: Though his profession does come into play every now and then.
 * Self-Deprecation: Even Ross starts making jokes about his three failed marriages by the end of the series.
 * Screams Like a Little Girl: As close as a thirty-year-old man can do without any help. And it is brilliant.
 * That Came Out Wrong

"Ugly Naked Guy"

 * The Faceless
 * Naked People Are Funny
 * No Name Given
 * Put on a Bus

Gunther (James Michael Tyler)

 * All Love Is Unrequited: Poor Gunther never had a chance with Rachel.
 * Ascended Extra: Appeared in 131 episodes.
 * Former Child Star: Claims to have played Bryce from All My Children.
 * Hidden Depths: Has a smoking habit, speaks fluent Dutch and may have been a child actor.
 * Tyler had a real-life example in the form of working the coffee machine. It got him cast as Gunther because none of the other extras knew how to do it.
 * No Last Name Given

Janice (Maggie Wheeler)

 * Annoying Laugh: A signifying character trait, to which Chandler cringes every time he hears Janice laugh.
 * Big OMG
 * Catch Phrase: See below.
 * Incoming Ham: OH. MY. GOD!
 * Most Annoying Sound: In-universe, the above line can apparently cause Chandler's testicles to retract back into his body.
 * Obliviously Evil: She's never actively malevolent, and seems to have a basically good heart. However, whenever she appears she couldn't screw up Chandler's day any more if she tried.
 * Take That: Supposed to be a parody of Fran Drescher.
 * Some local stations, when doing promos for episodes that feature Janice, actually announce, "Fran Drescher guest stars on the next Friends!"

Dr. Richard Burke (Tom Selleck)

 * Badass Grandpa: He never actually demonstrates this, but Joey (generally considered the group's strongest member) is absolutely certain Richard could kick his and Chandler's butts at the same time.
 * Badass Mustache
 * Cool Old Guy
 * Hot Dad
 * May-December Romance: With Monica.

Mr. Heckles

 * Cloudcuckoolander: Often bugged the gang about strange things.
 * Hidden Depths: He was part of a tight knit group before becoming a shut-in.
 * Killed Off for Real
 * Limited Wardrobe: Always in a bathrobe.
 * Shadow Archetype: He is what Chandler would have become if he remained scared of relationships.
 * Sitcom Arch Nemesis: Annoys the gang about the noise they make. His room had bad acoustics.

Jack & Judy Geller

 * Amazingly Embarrassing Parents
 * Happily Married
 * Informed Attribute: Ross & Monica apparantley inherited their competitive streak from Jack.
 * Parental Favoritism: Towards Ross.