‘Friends’: Courteney Cox’s Cut Joke in Monica and Chandler’s First Bed Scene Revealed
The Friends cast was known for making the audience laugh. But sometimes, they went the extra mile for a joke. Courteney Cox added a joke to Monica Geller and Chandler Bing first getting into bed together. It was cut, but now it has been revealed.
Courteney Cox’s Cut Joke in Monica and Chandler’s First Bed Scene Revealed
“The One with Ross’s Wedding, Part 2” continues to follow what the characters are doing in London for Ross’s (David Schwimmer) wedding. Monica struggles to be happy for her brother, but her mother is making it hard for her.
A man mistakes her as Ross’s mother. Monica is obviously insecure and starts to believe she’ll never get married. She does find comfort when talking to Chandler (Matthew Perry).
There is a scene where Ross bursts into Chandler’s room, and Chandler is in bed naked under the sheets. Ross leaves after shouting, “I’m getting married today!” Monica then pops her head up from under the covers, wondering if her brother saw her. The audience goes wild.
The show picks up with Chandler saying, “I never done that with you before.” But Cox actually said a joke before this line, and it was revealed in Friends: The Reunion.
Cox and Perry waited for some time for the audience to be quiet after the big reveal. She then said to Perry, “OK, your turn.” They then went back under the sheets. Cox didn’t take credit for the joke and revealed Perry gave it to her. “No, I’m kidding. He told me to say it! He did!” she told the audience.
Monica and Chandler became a couple because of the audience
The audience didn’t just help actors know if a joke was working or not. It also helped figure out which stories were compelling enough to continue.
“One of the times we listened to the audience the most was when we were shooting in London, and Monica and Chandler are in bed together,” writer Marta Kauffman said in the special.
The actors had to pause to wait for the response to die down. “I think that moment was the beginning of how we rethought Monica and Chandler, cause the original plan was they would sleep together in London, it was a brief thing, and we’d have some fun with it afterward,” writer David Crane said.
But because the audience reacted so strongly they decided there might be more to the characters’ relationship with each other. After the finale, the writers regrouped and changed their plans.
They decided Monica and Chandler would hide their relationship for a while to get more jokes. The cast did a table read together of the scene from “The One Where Everyone Finds Out.” They did the scene where Phoebe and Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) accidentally catch Monica and Chandler about to have sex. It looked like the cast still had fun playing out that scene, and the reason they got it was because of a live audience.
