On Friends some pretty wacky games have been invented. Here are some facts about them.
Inventor: Phoebe
How To Play: Someone asks the player a series of questions, and they have to choose the answer as quick as they can.
When Played: This game was first played when Joey was trying to figure out what route to go on to get to Las Vegas, in "The One With Joey's Big Break".
Script:
Phoebe: Oh hey Joey! What's up?
Joey: I can't decide which route to take to Vegas. Hey, you've traveled a lot right?
Phoebe: Yeah, I've been around.
Joey: Okay, so-so which route should I take the northern route or the southern route?
Phoebe: Ooh, if you take the northern route there's a man in Illinois with a beard of bees. {Okay, I must protest this, I've lived in Illinois all my life and know of no man with a beard of bees! Wisconsin, on the other hand, might be a different story.}
Joey: Great! Problem solved!
Phoebe: But on the southern route there's a chicken that plays tic-tac-toe.
Joey: Well, back to square one.
Phoebe: Oh, I know a way that you can decide! All right, I'm going to ask you a series of questions and you answer as quickly as you can.
Joey: (quickly) Yes!
Phoebe: Good, but wait. Okay, all right, here we go. Now I want you to relax. Take a deep breath. Clear your mind. (Quickly) Which do you like better peanut butter or egg whites?
Joey: Peanut butter!
Phoebe: Which would you rather be a fireman or a swimmer?
Joey: A swimmer!
Phoebe: Who would you rather sleep with Monica or Rachel?
Joey: Monica. Oh… huh, I always thought it would be Rachel.
Phoebe: No thinking! No thinking! Tie or ascot?
Joey: Ascot!
Phoebe: North route or south route?
Joey: North route!
Phoebe: Bamn! There you go! Huh?
Joey: Wow! That was incredible! Beard of bees, here I come!
Ross: (entering) Hey!
Phoebe: Oh, this guy again. (She ignores him.)
Joey: Hey man, what's up?
Ross: Uhh, not much. You guys want to see a movie tonight?
Joey: Sure, what do you want to see?
Ross: I don't know, umm…
Joey: Oh, I know how we can decide. Phoebe, show him your game!
Phoebe: Umm, no thank you. (She gets up and moves to the couch.)
Ross: What's with her?
Joey: I don't know. But hey, I know we can decide. Okay, I'm gonna ask you questions and you answer real quick. Okay?
Ross: Okay.
Joey: What do you like better action or comedy?
Ross: Action.
Joey: Who would you rather sleep with Monica or Rachel?
(Ross pauses and looks at him, Joey motions for him to hurry up.)
Ross: Dude, you are sick.
Joey: Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot you had that whole Rachel thing.
Inventor: Chandler
How To Play: Name all the states in six minutes.
When Played: Chandler had everyone play this on Thanksgiving.
Statistics: Rachel got 48, Monica got 36, Joey got 56, Phoebe got bored and stopped playing, and Ross got 49(but not in six minutes).
Script:
[Scene: Monica, Chandler, and Phoebe's, Monica is in the kitchen, Joey, Rachel, and Phoebe are sitting around the table writing one notepads while Chandler is looking over their shoulders.]
Ross: (entering) Hey everybody! Happy Thanksgiving!
Chandler: No, no, no. No-no-no.
Joey, Rachel, and Phoebe: Shhhh!
Ross: What, are we keeping Thanksgiving a secret this year?
Chandler: No, we're playing this game I learned at work. You have to name all the states in six minutes.
Ross: What? That's like insanely easy!
Chandler: Now, that's a lot harder than it sounds. You always forget at least one, or in some cases... fourteen (looks over to Monica).
Monica: It's a stupid game and I wasn't playing against other people, so technically I didn't lose.
Ross: What? You forgot fourteen states?
Monica: Nobody cares about the Dakotas.
[Chandler's watch beeps]
Chandler: Oh, okay, time's up!
Rachel: All right, I got 48.
Chandler: Oh that's not bad, Pheebs?
Phoebe: Oh, I got tired of naming states. So I decided to list the types of celery, and I have one: regular celery.
Chandler: Okay, so Rachel's got 48 and Phoebe has the lead in... vegetables, Joey?
Joey: Say hello to the new champ of Chandler's dumb states game.
Ross: Wow, how many have you got?
Joey: Fifty-six!
Opening Credits
[Scene: Monica, Chandler, and Phoebe's. Ross is sitting in the couch doing Chandler's game. Chandler is sitting in his barca-lounger. The girls are in the kitchen.]
Joey: Hey! How is New England not a state? Huh? They have a sports-team!
Chandler: Does South Oregon have a sports-team? (Joey strikes one from his list) There you go.
Phoebe: Regular Celery! (Starts to write that on her list) Oh, I already have that. (She gets up and heads for her room)
Ross: Done! With time a-to-spare.
Chandler: Oooh that may be a New World's record (Looks at his watch and picks up Ross' pad)
Ross: You know, I hate to lecture you guys, but it's kinda disgraceful, that a group of well-educated adults and Joey can't name all the states. Did you ever see a map, or one of those round, colorful things called globe? Hmm?
Chandler: Uh, Magellan? You got 46 states. (Smiles and hands Ross back his pad)
Ross: What? That's impossible.
Joey: 46. Wow! Who's well educated now, Mr. I-forgot-ten-states?
Chandler:Okay Ross, time is up!
Ross: No, just give me another minute.
Chandler: Look Ross, if you don't know them by now, you will never know them, okay? That is the beauty of this game. It makes you want to kill yourself.
Ross: This-this is crazy! I can do this! All right, uhh, I bet I can get all 50 before dinner.
Chandler: Okay, but if you can't…no dinner!
Ross: You're on!
Joey: (gets up) All right. Don't look at my list, Ross, 'cause there's a lot on there that you don't have.
Inventor: Chandler and Joey
How to Play: Take a tennis ball and some lighter fluid and mix them together. Then light the ball on fire and try to throw it into a bowl. Wear oven mits for when you need to catch it.
When Played: This was played in "The One With the Inappropriate Sister". While trying to concentrate on writing a script, Joey is distracted by Chandler, and they make up the game.
Script:
[Scene: Chandler, Joey, and Ross's, Joey is trying to write his movie, Chandler is playing a game on the counter by trying to flip a ping pong ball with a spoon into a nearby bowl.]
Joey: Hey, how do you spell suspicious?
Chandler: Why?
Joey: Because I think this character is going to be suspicious about stuff.
(Chandler makes it into the bowl.)
Chandler: Yes! Chandler Bing, 7! Chandler Bing, 0.
Joey: You're driving me crazy with that!
Chandler: Okay, I'll stop.
Joey: Don’t stop! Move the bowl further away! Ross could make that shot!
(Chandler slides the bowl to the far end of the counter. He tries again, but he hits the spoon to hard and the ball goes flying away.)
Joey: Well, you suck! But at least you suck at a man's game now.
Chandler: You wanna play?
Joey: Chandler, I can't be playing games, Ross is gonna be home soon. And I have to write five whole pages if I'm gonna stick to his schedule.
Chandler: Well, so, play for the next 30 minutes and then write until he gets home.
Joey: (jumping up) All right! But uh, listen, what do you say we crank it up a notch?
Chandler: I'm intrigued.
Joey: All right, all we need is a little lighter fluid.
Chandler: Okay, but be careful okay, because I wanna get our security deposit back.
Joey: Yeah, I think we said good-bye to that when we invented hammer darts.
Chandler: Do you even remember which part of the wall is not spackle?
Joey: Uh yeah, right here. (He punches his fist through the wall next to the door.)
[Scene: Chandler, Joey, and Ross's, Ross is reading what Joey wrote.]
Ross: All right. (Reading.) A room. A man enters, he looks suspicious. (Stops reading a flips the page to find the next one is blank.) That's it? (Joey shrugs.) Joey, you're supposed to have five pages done by now! Including an exciting incident! (Flipping through the rest of the pad.) And what is, and what is all this?! (Reading.) The official rulebook of Fireball.
Joey: Yeah, that's the uh, game we were playing.
Chandler: (entering from his room carrying a fire extinguisher and wearing oven mitts) Oh yeah, it's great! See you take a tennis ball, a bowl, and some lighter fluid... Op! Op! (He puts out a small fire which has re-ignited in his room.)
Ross: This is helping your career?! Huh? I thought you wanted to be an actor not the creator of crazy lawsuit game!
Joey: You're right, you're right, I'll get back to work.
Ross: (To Chandler) And shame on you! You should know better, Joey needs to work. (To Joey) Now come on!
Joey: Hey!
(He tries to throw a burnt tennis ball into the bowl Chandler is standing by, but Ross grabs the ball away from him.)
Ross: No! Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah! You can have this back when the five pages are done! (After Joey walks past, Ross throws the ball down in pain.) Ahh! (Chandler shows him the burn spots on his oven mitts.)
Cups
Inventor:Chandler
How to Play: There are no rules to cups. It was pretty much, whatever cards Joey had were the right cards.
When Played: This game was invented in The One With The Last Night. Chandler was going to move in with Monica, and therefore leave Joey alone in their apartment. Joey couldn't really afford to keep the apartment by himself, so Chandler wanted to find a way to give him $1,500 without Joey thinking of it as charity. He made up the game of cups, in which Joey just happened to have beginner's luck.
Script:
[Scene: Chandler and Joey's, Joey is examining the broken foosball table as Chandler enters from his room.]
Chandler: Still broken?
Joey: This sucks man! The last night you’re here and I lose the two most important things in my life, the foosball table and $500.
Chandler: Well, there are other ways of winning back your money, how about a little uh, a little Blackjack? (Holds up a deck of cards.)
Joey: Nah, not my game.
Chandler: Okay, uh, how about, how about—y’know what? We could play a new game. A new game, it’s fun.
Joey: Well, what’s it called?
Chandler: Cups.
Joey: I don’t know how to play Cups.
Chandler: I’ll teach ya! Come on, come on, it’s really easy and really, really fun.
Joey: All right.
Chandler: Okay, here you go. (He deals out two cards each.) I have two queens, what do you have?
Joey: A two and a five.
Chandler: Ho-ho, you win! 50 dollars!
Joey: Really?!
Chandler: Oh yeah! Okay, let’s play again. (He deals out two cards each again.) What do you got?
Joey: A four and a nine.
Chandler: You’re kidding right?
Joey: No. Why?
Chandler: Well that’s a full cup! (Pays him again.)
Joey: Damn! I am good at Cups!
[Scene: Chandler and Joey's, they’re still playing Cups.]
Chandler: You win.
Joey: Well, what did you have?
Chandler: It doesn’t matter because nothing beats a three and a six. That my friend is D-Cup. Okay, now much have you won so far?
Joey: Uh, (counts the money) wow, 700.
Chandler: Not 700 exactly?
Joey: Yeah.
Chandler: Double it! (He does.)
Joey: What?
Chandler: Well you see in Cups, once you get $700, you have to double it.
Joey: Really?
Chandler: Hey, I didn’t make up the rules. Now, after you receive the doubling bonus, you get uh, one card. Now that one card could be worth $100 bringing your total to 1,500. (Joey gets excited.) Don’t get to excited because that’s not gonna happen unless you get—No way! (He takes the top card, which is the two of clubs. Of course, any card would’ve won. Chandler pays him.)
[Scene: Chandler and Joey's, (Ohh, that’s the last time I’m ever gonna type that line. It’s just so sad.) Joey is entering, angrily.]
Joey: Hey!
Chandler: What’s wrong?
Joey: Ross and I were helping the girls pack, took a little break, I lost $1,500 to him in Cups!
Chandler: Wh-How did you lose at Cups?!
Joey: The same way you lost. I started out with a King and a Queen, bamn! Ross gets a 2 and a 3. Then I get a Jack and a King, boom! Ross gets a 4 and a 5! Ross was getting the Cup card, the D-Cup, the Sittin’ Down Bonus! Meanwhile, I didn’t even get half a cup! Nothin’!!
Chandler: Oh man!!
Joey: And he never played before either! Y’know what I think? I think beginner’s luck, very important in Cups.
Chandler: All right, let’s play one more hand! One more!
Joey: No, no, no more! I cannot lose another dime! I’m serious this time! In-in fact, look, there’s a—I wanna give you something. And let me give it too you know before I pawn it for Cups money. (He rolls the big white dog over) Now, I want you to have the big white dog as a kinda of a, y’know, thank you for being such a great roommate.
Chandler: I can’t take the big white dog! You love it!
Joey: It’s him, not it!
Chandler: No, but wait—what if I bought it from you, y’know? And your nice gesture would be giving it to me at a reasonable price, say (Gets choked up) $1,500?
Joey: Wait a second, I see what you’re trying to do here! You-you’re trying to give me money again!
Chandler: When did I try to give you money?
Joey: Over there! (Points to the couch) Before, with the bills! You tried to give some charity, I said "No," you dropped it. Okay? Then we had a nice last night together, we had some fun, we gambled, nobody tried to give anybody any money! Now out of the blue, you start with the charity thing again!
Chandler: I’m just trying to help you out! Okay? I wanna make sure that you’re okay.
Joey: I will be okay! Look Chandler, you gotta get it out of your head that I can’t take care of myself. Okay? Look, I’m not gonna miss you helping me out with money. The only thing that I’m gonna miss…is you. And now the dog.
