Friends: 10 Best Pop Culture References & Homages In The Show
It's impossible that anyone in 1994 could have predicted that Friends would become so ingrained in pop culture. Today, it is still one of the most beloved shows of television. The show created so many references people use in day-to-day life and half of the people using them don't even know where they came from.
Of course, Friends is not just a show where pop culture references were born, it's also a show that is littered with pop culture references from its time and can be seen throughout all 10 seasons. Here is a look at 10 of the very best of these references that you can find in the show.
10 The Joker
The bet for the apartment is one of the many fantastic Friends episodes and in it is a pop culture reference that may be easy to miss if you are switched off.
Ross asks two questions about Joey. The first being, "What is the name of Joey's childhood imaginary friend?". The second question asks for said imaginary friend's occupation. The answers to these questions are Maurice and Space Cowboy, a reference to the smash-hit song "The Joker" by Steve Miller Band.
9 Vulcanized Rubber
Joey's intelligence continues to deteriorate throughout the later seasons of Friends. One of the slightly better storylines that proved Joey's dim-wittedness was when Penn Jilete guest stars as an encyclopedia salesman.
The salesman goes through the "V" book of the encyclopedia with Joey and asks him what he knows about vulcanized rubber. Joey confidently answered that the vulcanized rubber is "Spok's birth control". As all Star Trek fans know, Spok is a Vulcan. This reference is a hilarious and little nod to that.
8 Sony PlayStation
Friends aired on tv during a time where video game consoles were coming in hot. The SONY PlayStation was released the same year that Friends first aired.
In typical Chandler fashion, he brings up the PlayStation in a sarcastic quip. When Phoebe says she will be giving Frank and Alice the greatest gift ever (talking about carrying their child), Chandler remarks, "You're gonna carry their child and get them a SONY PlayStation?"
7 The Slave Leia Fantasy
Leia Organa is one of the most iconic heroines in all of cinema. She is easily one of the most influential and most inspirational female protagonists of all time. She is also the source of many people's first crush.
This can be said for Ross Geller, who tells Rachel about a Leia fantasy he has. The fantasy being when Leia is Jabba the Hutt's slave. The end of that specific episode sees Rachel fulfill that fantasy, which was ruined by Chandler earlier, as he hums the iconic Star Wars theme.
6 DIE HARD!
As one of the biggest, best, and most iconic action films of all time, Die Hard is referenced a ton in pop culture. Friends both pays homage to the film but also created a continuity error because of it.
In "The One With The Nap Partners," Joey, Ross, and Chandler watch Die Hard proclaiming it as the best movie ever. Then Ross and Joey watched it a second time directly after. Of course, Bruce Willis appears in Friends as Paul, the father of Elizabeth, creating a strange continuity error.
5 Ross Came Up With The Idea First
Ross is a paleontologist that adores dinosaurs. It is well known that he is a massive nerd when it comes to the subject. Naturally, he references Jurassic Park on a couple of occasions throughout the show.
One episode's opening begins with a class lecture where Ross proclaimed that he was the first person who created the idea of Jurassic Park. There is also an earlier reference to the movie where Rachel teases Ross saying that the events of the film could happen in real life.
4 The Shining & Little Women
Both Stephen King's The Shining and Louisa May Alcott's Little Women are two of the most iconic and beloved books of all time. Both get paid homage to in "The One Where Monica & Richard Are Friends."
Joey's favorite book is The Shining and Rachel's is Little Women. The two swap books. It turns out Joey becomes majorly invested in Little Women and Rachel loved The Shining.
3 Party Wizard
In "The One Where They're Going To Party," Chandler and Ross get excited and disappointed at the revelation that a high school friend is coming to town to party. This particular friend is known as Gandalf the Party Wizard.
This is, of course, a reference to J. R. R. Tolkien's phenomenon The Lord Of The Rings. When Ross and Chandler get excited about the prospect of Gandalf coming, they question whether or not Joey read the books in high school to which he replied that he had sex in high school instead.
2 Ground Control To Major Tom
When Joey gets a role in a hit TV show, everyone gets ready to watch it, including Joey's grandmother. Joey ends up getting cut from the show and decides to go to his apartment to videotape himself performing a hostage scene.
Joey uses a tape that already has something on it, that being Chandler performing David Bowie's hit song "Space Oddity." Chandler quickly jumps up to take back the tape right as he sings the iconic "Ground control to Major Tom" lyric.
1 Al Pacino's Butt Double
In "The One With The Butt," Joey gets the role of a lifetime as he gets cast in a feature film with Al Pacino where he will perform as his butt double.
When he tells the gang, Joey gives a speech about how Al Pacino is the guy who made Joey want to be an actor. Joey recites Pacino's famous "out of order" line from Scent Of A Woman, in what is the shows finest homage.