The One With The Worst Best Man Ever

"The One With The Worst Best Man Ever" is the twenty-second episode of the fourth season of Friends, which aired on April 30, 1998. 
==Plot==
Phoebe starts to get tired of being pregnant. Her pregnancy also becomes a problem for the gang because of her mood swings, which she denies to have. Monica and Rachel decide to throw her a baby shower, however since she won't be keeping the triplets they decide to give her things she can enjoy after the babies are born. This plan backfires, and Phoebe is angry that she's got a bunch of presents she can't use yet. The next day, Phoebe experiences contractions, which sends Monica and Rachel into a panic, but Phoebe assures them that it is only false labor. After the three calm down from this, Phoebe admits that she is upset that she will not be able to experience motherhood with the triplets after giving birth to them. Monica and Rachel assure Phoebe that she will have nieces and nephews who will look up to her as a cool aunt. Touched, she makes up with the girls, but they cool down again after Phoebe keeps tricking them that she is going into labor. 
Ross comes over to give the ring to Chandler, which causes problems with Joey, as he expected to be the best man at Ross' wedding. When Chandler tries to solve it by offering Joey to be the best man on his wedding, he comes in problems with Ross, who also wants that position. Ross decides that Joey will be his best man, leading to problems with Chandler, him even asking Gunther to be his best man. Joey organizes a bachelor party for Ross, but of course he has to sleep with the stripper after the party. Worse is that the ring is gone when he wakes up. The guys immediately suspect the stripper, but when they invite her to Chandler's office under a false name, it turns out that she wasn't the one who stole the ring. The only other person that has been in Joey's room was the duck, so they take him to the vet and it turns out that he actually swallowed it. Joey wants to step back as the best man because he screwed up, but Ross wants them both to be his best men, telling them that he's lucky to have both of them, which causes all three of them to get emotional.
==Cast and Crew==
===Main Cast===
Jennifer Aniston - Rachel Greene
Courteney Cox - Monica Geller
Lisa Kudrow - Phoebe Buffay
Matt LeBlanc - Joey Tribbiani
Matthew Perry - Chandler Bing
David Schwimmer - Ross Geller
===Supporting Cast===
Helen Baxendale - Emily Waltham
James Michael Tyler - Gunther
Lisa Rotondi - The Stripper
Robert M. Koch - The Veterinarian
Cynthia Mann - Jasmine
===Crew===
Directed By: 
Peter Bonerz
Written By: 
Greg Malins, Michael Curtis & Seth Kurland
== Trivia ==
=== General ===
*In the cold opening Phoebe describes the babies playing "Bringing In Da Noise, Bringing In Da Funk" a reference to the Broadway musical of the same name which used a lot of tap dance and stomping, similar to what Phoebe felt the babies were doing in her belly.
*The magna doodle at the beginning of the episode says "Big Chief Ain't Got No Fire Water".
*During the party, "Another one bites the dust" is written on the magna doodle. This the title of a song by the British rock group Queen. In "The One Where Ross Moves In" Ross will use a snippet of another Queen song, "We Will Rock You" to record an answerphone message.
* Jasmine appears as one of the guests at Phoebe's baby shower. In the uncut DVD version of the episode, Phoebe screams at her for giving her the leather pants. At the end of the scene, Phoebe gets up and goes to the bathroom, ripping down the decorations in the process.
* The DVD episode also features a tag scene with Ross and Monica in Central Perk, where Ross confesses that he has his grandmother's ring because Judy thought Monica didn't need one. Monica then tells Emily where the ring has been. The regular episode features a tag scene with the duck swimming in a bucket.
** Helen Baxendale is credited in both versions of the episode, despite her only appearing in the tag scene of the uncut DVD version of the episode.
* Instead of balloons for decorating Ross' bachelor party, Joey covers the in apartment in blown up condoms.
*This is Jasmine's first and only appearance in season 4. It's also her first appearance since "The One With The Morning After" (S3E16).
*Although it's likely that he was kidding because of Joey misplacing the ring, Chandler tells him that he is gonna go and see Titanic in the cinema. The film came out December 19, 1997, 5 months before the airing of the episode.
*The music heard while the men are waiting in the vets is Barry Manilow's 1976 hit "Weekend in New England". 
*The music heard when the duck is in the bucket is Sailor's Hornpipe originally written down as College Hornpipe by J. Dale of London in 1797 or 1798.
*The guys also joke about who will be Chandler's best man. As it turns out Ross is Chandler's best man with Rachel as Monica's maid of honor while Joey gets ordained to marry them.
*While planning the bachelor party, Ross mentions having his last bachelor party in Pizza Hut. ( This would have been in 1991 when he married Carol). 
**Ross and Rachel get drunkenly married next season and have their wedding reception at a Pizza Hut (as Rachel discloses after signing the divorce papers) which was the Newlywed Special.
*This is one of the few episodes in the Netflix version to have subtitles written in normal sentence case, as the subtitles for most episodes on Netflix are written in all-uppercase, with only portions for off-screen dialogues being written in sentence case.
* When the girls want to go to the bachelor party, Joey asks if any of them are bachelors or strippers. Jennifer Aniston later played a stripper in We're The Millers. In the extras on the DVD, they once play the Friends theme during a take of a scene of the movie.
*This episode was used as "W is for Wedding Ring" in the Nick at Nite Friends A-Z Event (January 2023).
===Goofs===
*When Joey talks about Ross' bachelor party, Rachel has the water bottle in her left hand and points to Phoebe with her right saying "hormones". Instant cut to Phoebe then back to Rachel and the bottle is in her right hand and her left hand is resting on the chair.
* Immediately prior to that, Rachel is seen closing the fridge door but when the shot changes to Phoebe's close-up, Rachel can be seen closing the fridge door again.
*In the scene when Joey is showing the stripper how he has the duck totally trained you can see where the wall ends near his bedroom door and you can see his bed where the wall ends
*In the scene when they confront the stripper at Chandler's office. Ross starts shouting about his grandmothers ring, and as Chandler says "way to be cool, man", you can see Joey ducking behind Ross, covering his mouth with laughter. A brief cut away, then back and he's standing with the others again looking serious.
*Why does Monica have a bible sitting out on her table? It may be because she wants to learn about Jesus, like Ross does in a later episode or perhaps it belongs to Rachel or was left behind when they switched back apartments.
*Monica and Rachel are brainstorming ideas for Phoebe's baby shower, they mention that someone could get her those leather pants that "she's always wanted". However, Phoebe is a vegetarian and very opposed to wearing clothing made from animals. In "The One With The Yeti" (S5E6), she gave away the mink coat from her mom. Also, in "The One Where Ross and Rachel...You Know " (S2E15), when Joey and Chandler first bought their leather chairs she said she couldn't believe that "two cows made the ultimate sacrifice" for the guys' comfort.
**It's possible that Monica and Rachel were talking about faux leather pants instead of real leather
*In the scene when Chandler is saying "it's awkward", you can see Joey getting up. in the next scene, he's still sitting down.
*In the scene when Joey and Ross are freaking out about what to do about the ring, Chandler stands up in the background to share his idea. In the next shot, he's still sitting and standing up again.
*In the credits scene, the Duck is taking a bath, but his position keeps shifting, making it clear the scene was cut in several places.
*In the scene in the vets, Chandler (along with Joey and Ross) turn away to cry after getting emotional but in "The One Where Chandler Can't Cry", he tells Monica he can't cry.
*In the wide-screen version (during the flashbacks of the duck) The wall in Joey and Chandler's apartment ends and you can see a crew member. 
*Matt Leblanc turns away to laugh behind David Schwimmer during the scene in Chandler's office. 
==External links==
* Transcript of the episode including the deleted scenes
*"The One with the Worst Best Man Ever" at the Internet Movie Database
==Episode Navigation==
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