This might be the first episode that could actually be called hilarious. It is filled with so many priceless, laugh-out-loud moments (the blurting of "vulva," the moment when Chandler walks in on Joey and Ross talking dirty, and pretty much every move Steve makes), that it's difficult to imagine why they are all packed into one episode. But we're glad they are.
Steve's presence in the story is more than funny, however. He serves as a roadblock in Monica's quest for the perfect job. Friends was originally conceived as a show about those few years after college when your life seems to be going nowhere ("It's like you're always stuck in second gear...") and all goals, especially career and relationship goals, seem distant and vastly uphill. Two stories in this episode exemplify this post-collegiate inertia expertly. Both Monica and Chandler, separately, have career crises of different natures, and to these problems, most of us can relate. Some of us have no idea what we want, and for those of us who do, the road isn't always clear.
At the risk of sounding nitpicky, the show's format normally does not include two similar stories that resonate in the same way, as this episode does. With that in mind, the Stoned Guy story and the Chandler's promotion story should have been treated in separate episodes.
But hats off to David Schwimmer and Matt LeBlanc for the fantastically awkward dirty-talking scene, in which both actors are eating sandwiches while practicing the art of verbal filth.
For a full account of the charms of this episode, please see this URL:
http://www.geocities.com/friends.episodeguide/stoned
Steve's presence in the story is more than funny, however. He serves as a roadblock in Monica's quest for the perfect job. Friends was originally conceived as a show about those few years after college when your life seems to be going nowhere ("It's like you're always stuck in second gear...") and all goals, especially career and relationship goals, seem distant and vastly uphill. Two stories in this episode exemplify this post-collegiate inertia expertly. Both Monica and Chandler, separately, have career crises of different natures, and to these problems, most of us can relate. Some of us have no idea what we want, and for those of us who do, the road isn't always clear.
At the risk of sounding nitpicky, the show's format normally does not include two similar stories that resonate in the same way, as this episode does. With that in mind, the Stoned Guy story and the Chandler's promotion story should have been treated in separate episodes.
But hats off to David Schwimmer and Matt LeBlanc for the fantastically awkward dirty-talking scene, in which both actors are eating sandwiches while practicing the art of verbal filth.
For a full account of the charms of this episode, please see this URL:
http://www.geocities.com/friends.episodeguide/stoned