The Definitive Ranking of Every Friends Thanksgiving Episode
By Emily Scott
Friends, “The One With The Late Thanksgiving,” Screencap via Warner Bros.
5. The One With The Late Thanksgiving
Monica decides she’s not going to make Thanksgiving dinner this year to avoid the stress, but when egged on by her friends, she changes her mind. The friends immediately make other plans that end up running into the time they were told to arrive for Thanksgiving dinner. Ross scores three great tickets to a Rangers game, but when Chandler brings up that it will make them late for dinner, they all agree not to go. Then, of course, when Chandler leaves, Joey and Ross decide to go anyway. Meanwhile, Phoebe and Rachel enter Emma into a baby beauty contest. All the friends show up to Monica and Chandler’s apartment an hour late for dinner, but Monica locks them out, inciting a stand-off.
Sneakily Feminist Quote:
Rachel: Oh my God, that is the creepiest thing I’ve ever heard! [Note: This is her original reaction to the idea of a baby beauty pageant. It is the appropriate reaction. See below.]
Political Correction: Baby beauty pageants. The weirdness and grossness of baby beauty pageants is at least somewhat addressed; Rachel sees a one-year-old wearing pantyhose and a creepy guy (“I don’t think he came with a kid!”). When Phoebe comments on another kid’s chubby arms and Rachel admits that she’s already put makeup on Emma, it’s all played for laughs. But child beauty contests are actually really, really messed up. And when Rachel wants to pull Emma from the pageant, her vicarious vanity and the $1,000 prize keep her from doing so. So basically, she’s just as bad as those Toddlers and Tiaras moms.
Best Moment: When Monica and Chandler get the call that they got chosen as adoptive parents. Seeing their journey from friends to partners to spouses to parents is probably the best thing about Friends as a series. So including this major news in its last Thanksgiving episode was a very smart and very emotionally moving choice.
Ranking: 5/10. While the selfishness and general badness of all the friends is on full display here, the fact that it culminates with that phone call helps a lot. It’s an exaggerated version of how fights just disappear when something big happens to your friends, and it’s a nice way to end the Thanksgiving episode tradition.