Having watched Friends throughout my childhood, there were a lot of jokes I didn’t understand first time round. And to be honest, there were some jokes that I never fully understood until I looked them up. So, let’s do the worst thing you can do to a joke and explain it. Here’s a list of Friends jokes I didn’t get the first time round. But not the friends dirty jokes, this is a family channel!

Pick captains and Tennilles joke:

I had no idea about this joke and after watching the episode many times I just had to look it up one day. I didn’t even know what word chandler was saying, so that made it even more difficult. Anyway, I found out that Captain & Tennille were a husband and wife music duo from the 70s. The wife’s name being Toni Tennille and the husband’s name being Daryl… Dragon. He got the stage name ‘captian’ because he had a habit of wearing a ship captain’s hat while performing. Even though I had no idea who they were, they have five albums certified gold or platinum and scored numerous hits on the US singles charts. So when Joey says we need to pick Captains, Chandler jokes… you get it, I don’t need to explain it anymore. Next joke.

Marcel Marceau joke:

I actually really like this joke, but again only entirely understood it after I looked it up. Marcel Marceau was a famous French mime born in 1923. Having researched this man to write this video, I want to take a second to talk about the incredible work he did. To only say that Marcel Marceau was a famous French mime is an understatement. He was Jewish, and during the second world war he and his family were forced to flee their home. Marceau was part of the French underground which helped children escape to safety in neutral Switzerland. He is credited with saving at least 70 children. It is even said that he used his mime skills not only to comfort the kids on the journey but also to keep them quiet when they needed to be. Finally, one great last story about this man, towards the end of the war, he unexpectedly ran into a group of German soldiers. In an instant, he apparently pretended he was a solider of the French Army and demanded they surrender. And they did—all 30 of them. Cool guy.

So, back to Friends, that’s who Chandler is referring to when he asks joey to do his Marcel Marceau impression.

The Spanish joke:

I didn’t speak Spanish when I, sorry, no I don’t speak Spanish. Wish I did though. Anyway, I think the Spanish here is relatively easy to guess given the context. But to confirm, tu madre es loca translates to your mother is crazy.

Easy Lenny joke:

If you’re like me, you might have read Of Mine & Men in school. So, depending on when you watched this episode, you either got this reference right away, or you retroactively understood it. Lenny is one of the main characters in the book, he is a mentally disabled, but big and physically strong man. In an effort to not spoil the story for anyone who hasn’t read it. I’ll just say in the book, Lenny has an unfortunate habit of accidentally killing small animal when he pets them. It’s a short book and worth reading if you’re a fan of classic American literature. Is it technically a classic? I don’t know.


Qtip resistance joke:

This is just a little one I wanted to point out. It seems obvious, but why it confused me was we don’t called Qtips Qtips here in the UK. We call them cotton wool buds or ear buds. So it was only when I found out that they are called Q tips in America did I actually get this joke. Fun fact though, this is apparently Matthew Perry’s favourite chandler joke from the show.

Well, there you go 5 friends jokes I didn’t get first time round. Let me know of any friends jokes you didn’t get first time round in the comments section down below. Hope you enjoyed the video, thanks again for watching and I’ll see you in the next video.

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