‘Friends’: Jennifer Aniston’s ‘Vocal Tic’ as Rachel Green Just Went Viral Again
Rachel Green cleared her throat. A lot.
One benefit to Friends fans watching the series over and over is they catch every little detail. Inside jokes and subtle references never get lost in the noise. But sometimes, fans also notice unintentional quirks on the series. One of those is how often Jennifer Aniston clears her throat, which viewers describe as her “vocal tic.”
A TikTok compilation of the phenomenon is making the rounds on social media. Someone put together a montage of every time Rachel made the distinctive noise in her throat.
It’s not the first time Friends fans noticed how often Aniston had a vocal tic.
Rachel Green was an integral part of ‘Friends’
Friends was a true ensemble show where each of the six main characters received ample screen time. But despite the creators striving to keep Ross Geller (David Schwimmer), Rachel Green (Aniston), Monica Geller (Courteney Cox), Chandler Bing (Matthew Perry), Joey Tribbiani (Matt LeBlanc), and Phoebe Buffay (Lisa Kudrow) on the same playing field, there were always some clear favorites.
Ross and Rachel became super popular with fans during season 2 when they take their relationship from friendship to romance. That interest persisted even when the duo broke up (“We were on a break!”) and continued for the rest of the series.
Friends fans adore Rachel. However, not all of them are so delighted by her throat clearing tendencies.
Aniston cleared her throat a lot while playing Rachel on ‘Friends’
A TikTok post has this conversation started all over again. The clip of Aniston clearing her throat while portraying Rachel has more than 1.1 million views since January. It was created in response to another TikTik user’s challenge to answer the prompt, “What is a trope in media that once you saw it you couldn’t unsee it?”
It’s true, once you hear Aniston doing her throat clearing, it’s impossible to not notice it.
“Jennifer Aniston has this vocal tic that she does at the beginning of every single sentence that she starts on any show that she’s in. It’s very specific and it’s very hard to unsee once you notice it,” the TikTok user said.
And it’s not the first time fans noticed the little quirk. A similar compilation called “FRIENDS – Rachel Clears Her Throat 200 Times (Entire Series)”appeared on YouTube in 2019.
Rachel Green was a unique character on ‘Friends’
Some viewers had harsh or negative feedback about Aniston’s so-called vocal tic. But others saw it as a totally expected aspect of her character.
A few commenters pointed out how Rachel cleared her throat when she was uncomfortable, lying, or put in an awkward situation. That could explain why she cleared her throat so often. Maybe the sound was intentional and maybe it wasn’t. Either way, it added depth to the character and made Rachel feel more like a real person.
Plus, Aniston is far from the only actor to always use the same ploys over and over. The same TikTok prompt revealed that Tom Cruise runs in every movie, even when he doesn’t have to. And Tom Hanks pees on things in most of his early films, Today reported.
