Ranking Friends' 9 Best Thanksgiving episodes

If there was one show that made its Thanksgiving episodes one of its calling cards, it's Friends. That's due in part because not many shows consistently did Thanksgiving episodes, or ones as iconic as Friends for that matter.

However, what made it even more special is that some of Friends' best episodes took place on Thanksgiving. Not all were home runs, but they were good enough that fans usually rewatch their Thanksgiving episodes when the holiday comes around.

Nine episodes in the show's 10-season run revolved around Thanksgiving. Season 2 did not have one, as the holiday is mentioned off-hand. For reference, "The One with the List" is a pivotal episode, but no one remembers it because of the time of year in which it took place.

Some of these episodes were among the show's best, while others were pretty meh. So, let's take a look at where Friends' nine episodes rank amongst each other.

Also, spoilers.

9. Season 7, Episode 8: "The One Where Chandler Doesn't Like Dogs"

Unlike in Season 2, Thanksgiving is involved in the episode, but not as much as the others. Take out the Thanksgiving aspect and this is just a standard episode. It has some good gags, like Chandler and Phoebe watching the NFL's Thanksgiving games to get out of helping with dinner, along with Ross coming to terms with not knowing the USA map as well as he thought he did.

The A plot involves the friends trying to hide a dog from Chandler in his apartment with Monica, who apparently is allergic (but is he?). Compared to the other Thanksgiving episodes, this one is the most forgettable.

8. Season 9, Episode 8: "The One with Rachel's Other Sister'

This episode revolves around Rachel's sister, Amy, played by Christina Applegate. Amy comes to visit Rachel at first for a hair straightener, only for Rachel to invite her to Thanksgiving dinner when Amy's original plans fall through (the reason why is actually pretty funny).

Amy doesn't take long to make an impression, as her lack of self-awareness and unapologetic remarks make her stand out like a sore thumb. Applegate's cameo is funny overall, but sometimes the jokes are more grating than comical.

This episode also handles some dark subject matter that isn't all that appropriate for Thanksgiving, but hey, the show was in its ninth season. Luckily, Applegate is funny enough that, even if the show was showing its age by that time, it's still worth a watch.

7. Season 10, Episode 8: "The One with the Late Thanksgiving"

This episode revolves around Ross, Joey, Rachel, and Phoebe being excluded from Monica and Chandler's Thanksgiving dinner after they put their plans first ahead of their married friends. There are some funny jokes in this one like Joey trying to hypnotize Monica and Chandler into letting him in with his bug eyes or Chandler trying to validate his importance to the dinner with the cranberries he made.

Even if Friends was in its dog days, this episode has one of the show's most heartwarming moments: Monica and Chandler find out that they will adopt a baby. When it was revealed in one of the show's most heartbreaking moments in a prior episode that they would likely never get pregnant on their own, finding out they would get a baby via adoption was a real tearjerker.

Even if Friends was on its last legs, it never lost its touch entirely by the end. The show still produced some memorable moments as it reached its expiration. One of them was seeing Monica and Chandler taking that next step in their lives together by becoming parents.

6. Season 8, Episode 9: "The One with the Rumor"

Friends never shied away from having high-profile celebrities make guest appearances. From Robin Williams to Julia Roberts to Bruce Willis to Reese Witherspoon to Alec Baldwin to George Clooney. Some celebrities even made appearances before they became famous, like Jane Lynch, Anna Faris, and Dakota Fanning.

However, no celebrity appearance made the audience erupt in cheers louder than Brad Pitt's guest appearance as Will Colbert in Season 8. That's not hyperbole.

The writers went for irony in this episode since Pitt was Aniston's husband. Hence, Will is portrayed as having an intense grudge against Rachel for how she treated him for his obesity back when they were in high school. His problems with Rachel are so deep in his psyche that he confronts and antagonizes her every chance he gets. This goes on throughout the entire episode, even after dinner.

It's funny, but the gag gets a little old after a while. For real, why is he still there if he can't handle being around Rachel? This worked as well as it did when it aired because Pitt and Jennifer Aniston were married then. Also, it is because Pitt is borderline psychotic in this episode, a change of pace from what he typically played.

Question though: if Rachel endlessly teased Will for being overweight back in high school, how was she friends with Monica?

5. Season 1, Episode 9: "The One Where Underdog Gets Away

When Friends first tackled Thanksgiving in Season 1, it showed brilliance by going the unorthodox route and having everyone have different approaches to It. This started with the introduction of Chandler's open disdain for it since his parents told him they were divorcing on the very holiday when he was a kid.

That sets the stage for what unfolds throughout the episode. Ross' Thanksgiving plans fall through because his parents are going on vacation. Joey's plans fall through because his family thinks he has an STD. To top it all off, Monica's and Rachel's plans also fall through because they accidentally lock themselves out of the apartment.

Because nothing has gone according to plan, most notably dinner itself, tensions run high for everyone. But when the group notices their repulsive neighbor has a date while in the buff, they all realize that even if things didn't go according to plan, they still had each other. Even though they had differing opinions on the holiday, they all learned they had something to be collectively grateful for.

This isn't a remarkable Thanksgiving episode, but it definitely exemplified what made Friends so special when it started. Friends were among the first shows to delve into what life is like for people in their mid-20s, and part of growing up is adapting to when plans fall through and starting new traditions around the holidays.

4. Season 3, Episode 9: "The One with the Football"

Out of all the Thanksgiving episodes the show aired, this one was the funniest without question. It is flat-out comedy throughout, and it doesn't stop. In fact, the funny ups the ante with each passing scene. From the explanation of "The Geller Cup" to the very end of their pickup game of football, it's one funny gag after another.

The comedy, at its core, is the football game itself, with pretty much everyone on their A-game. Ross and Monica rival on the football field, Chandler and Joey compete for a Dutch woman, Rachel is useless, and Phoebe is... well, Phoebe.

The best part is how many joke payoffs occur in the final play, which shows how clever the writers can be.

The only shame is that some scenes from the episode's original airing have been removed from streaming services. Monica's and Ross' sibling rivalry was also one of the show's funniest recurring themes, and some of their finest moments come on Thanksgiving.

3. Season 6, Episode 9: "The One Where Ross Got High"

While the football game was Friends' funniest Thanksgiving episode, Monica and Chandler ratting each other out to their parents during Thanksgiving is the most amusing moment of all the Friends Thanksgiving episodes. But we're getting ahead of ourselves.

This episode had quite a few funny gags. While it's already been spoiled which one is the funniest one, another hilarious gag is seeing Rachel try and fail to make an English trifle, where it turns out that she made half an English trifle and half a shepherd's pie.

But this is a vital episode because not only do the Geller parents not know about Monica and Chandler living together by this time, but they don't even know that they're dating. What's worse is that they later discover that the Gellers don't like Chandler because Ross convinced them back in college that Chandler had smoked weed in their dorm room (when it was Ross).

When Ross refuses to tell their parents what actually happened, Monica outs him, and one of the show's funniest moments ever ensues.

It was cool to see the Gellers come to terms with their children's biggest secrets being out in the open. In the end, they have better relationships with them because of it. Best of all, Chandler, who desperately wanted the Gellers' approval on Thanksgiving, finally gets it.

2. Season 4, Episode 8: "The One with Chandler in a Box"

This was easily one of the most tense episodes the show ever aired during its run. Chandler and Joey's friendship was one of the show's best components, so it is pretty hard to watch them no longer get along around Thanksgiving.

Chandler and Joey have a falling out after Chandler confesses to kissing Joey's girlfriend in the prior episode, which leads to her dumping Joey for Chandler. Joey understandably refuses to hear Chandler out as he begs for forgiveness. In a last-ditch effort to repair their friendship, Chandler agrees to lay in a box as punishment for his betrayal, though he thinks it's stupid.

Besides the friction between the two, it was also hard to see a different side of Joey in real time. While he may have been the group's airhead, which made him so easy to laugh at, he was also the most loyal, which is why it's as sad as it is understandable to see him so distraught over what Chandler did.

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That makes it all the more rewarding when Joey's sense of loyalty also gets him to forgive Chandler upon seeing that the box is getting in the way of Chandler's new relationship. Seeing them make up is one of the show's very best moments because it begins with Chandler wanting to show Joey how much he means to him, and it ends with Joey showing that despite Chandler committing what many would deem a friendship-killing act, he feels the same way.

This all makes it sound like this was a purely dramatic episode. It is compared to most of the show's episodes, but the jokes are on the money, too.

(Oh, and Monica has arguably the best mic drop ever in this episode.)

1. Season 5, Episode 8, "The One with the Thanksgiving Flashbacks"

Before this episode aired, Friends had used stories told in flashbacks before to great success in Season 3, so it makes sense that they would try it again. Not only did it work a second time in Season 5, but it is the show's best Thanksgiving episode. Granted, some of the story doesn't mesh with the show's overall timeline, but Friends lasted for 10 years, so continuity be damned!

The episode features Chandler and Monica—who have been secretly dating unbeknownst to their friends except Joey—first meeting on Thanksgiving back in the 80s. As heartwarming as that may sound at first, their relationship got off to a rocky start (and that's putting it delicately), as it was revealed that Monica found out that Chandler (who she was crushing on) was repulsed by her obesity when they first met.

To get back at Chandler, she loses weight to seduce him the next Thanksgiving as a ploy to humiliate him. While making herself more attractive works like a charm on Chandler, things take a turn for the worse when Monica accidentally cuts off his toe in a hilarious effort to make herself look more seductive. Chandler does not take this well when he finds out.

The gags work well since they center around mocking 80s fashions. There are also some hilarious flashbacks (both real and hypothetical) that flow with the rest of the episode. The fat-shaming jokes are a little cringeworthy nowadays, but they are easy to look past. On a side note, it tugs at the heartstrings seeing how Ross went from the lovesick teenager with Rachel to a man who was falling in love with someone who would sadly later become his ex-wife during those flashbacks.

But what makes this one the best is that despite the damage Monica and Chandler caused each other in the past, their relationship is strong enough that they won't hold what they did to each other against them in the present. This was the first indication that this was not a gimmick with an expiration date.

Pairing Monica and Chandler actually gave the show some unexpectedly fresh and fun flavor that stayed that way leading up to their wedding. Who knows how the show would have turned out had they gone with the original plan of them having a one-night stand?

And if there was one episode that hinted (as opposed to showing) that these two were falling for each other, it was this one. Literally.

Friends Thanksgiving episodes can be streamed on Hulu.

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