Top TV Memes: The Best Meme Formats From 'Friends'

Friends is a popular TV show that originated in 1994. It explores the sitcom adventures of Monica (Courtney Cox), Rachel (Jennifer Aniston), Joey (Matt LeBlanc, Chandler (Matthew Perry), Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow) and Ross (David Schwimmer) as they navigate life and relationships in New York City. After Friends left its mark on young adults who’d grown up watching it, the obsession began to spread to younger audiences until it gained a huge mainstream fandom comparable in size to that of the national news or Saturday Night Live.

Friends remains especially popular among Millenial and Gen-Z audiences, leading to its massive online following in the form of memes. Throughout the age of the internet, it’s led to millions of stand-alone memes, as well as several different references (Pheobe’s "Smelly Cat" song, for example) and popular meme formats, such as the well-known Joey's Delayed Reaction. Plus, there are thousands of parodies out there based on the opening song. Here are some of the best episodes to find both famous and underappreciated memes from Friends.

Most Popular Memes: Season 10, Episode 13: "The One Where Joey Speaks French"

After lying on his acting resume, Joey has to learn French in order to audition for a role. Throughout the episode, he is completely incapable of speaking in French and instead spouts only meaningless gibberish. Phoebe, who actually speaks French, decides to help. She tries a few different ways, including having him repeat after her word by word, but Joey is still incompetent and makes up his own words without fully realizing it. This brings us the recently trendy meme Phoebe Teaches Joey, in which her lesson is replaced with various simple concepts that Joey ultimately rejects after repetition.

Eventually, Phoebe gives up and watches Joey horribly fail his audition. In a desperate move to save Joey’s self-esteem, she tells the casting director Joey is mentally handicapped. The casting director’s mood changes instantly and he turns around to praise Joey. This leads to a line that’s become a popular GIF, "Good job, little buddy!" Though it’s far from a politically correct moment in the series, this moment has been immortalized in this GIF and meme, which have infinite uses (almost all of which are not exactly encouraging).

Most Meme Potential: Season 8, Episode 16: "The One Where Joey Tells Rachel"

This episode is a bit different from all the rest since it tells a bit of a depressing story. I’m not going to spoil it, but I will say watching it all play out with the laugh track in the background is a little unsettling and gives off the same vibes as a meme about wanting to die, which a teenager deep-fried so people would take it less seriously and stop reporting him to the guidance counselor. In a similar fashion, Joey explains his frustrations to Ross, then jokingly adds, "These are just feelings! They’ll Go Away!" Needless to say, this became a meme, however, it has the sense of nihilism the internet loves, so it could have become much bigger than just a few screenshots on Friends fan pages.

There’s another point in the episode where Joey considers running away to Vermont because he believes it’s another country. For years, Americans have endured people tweeting about moving to Hawaii, California or Alaska to escape the USA. For all those who aren’t living in the U.S., all three of these are among the 50 states that we all had to memorize in elementary school. Given how frequently this mistake is made online, the screenshots could be forever immortalized with a complimentary Joey quote about Vermont, and you’d have a guaranteed way to earn a bunch of fake internet points.

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