Nobody Hated Thanksgiving Like Matthew Perry’s Chandler Bing

It’s that time of year again, when we sit around a gigantic table of mediocre American food and pretend to be grateful for relatives we rarely speak to because they’re, shall we say, out of touch with the times. It’s a holiday built upon lies, considering we didn’t really treat Indigenous peoples with the whole “This land is your land” thing. It’s also stressful for broken families and children of divorce, who have to shuffle between homes or choose one parent to spend time with over the other, resulting in chaos no one asked for. TLDR: Thanksgiving sucks.

No one understood this horrible holiday better than Chandler Bing on Friends, regarded by the great Judy Geller as “the boy who hates Thanksgiving.” During its 10-season run from 1994 to 2004, Friends celebrated holidays like any other American sitcom. There were several Christmas episodes (ex: Season Three’s “The One Where Rachel Quits”), Hanukkah (Season Seven, “The One With the Holiday Armadillo”), and Halloween (Season Eight’s aptly-titled “The One With the Halloween Party”). 

But Friends took Thanksgiving more seriously than any other series, dedicating an episode every season to the holiday. These episodes are intensely beloved; as of this year, over 50 websites have ranked each of the ten episodes. Many of the lists place Season Nine’s “The One With Rachel’s Other Sister” low — which is insane considering it won Christina Applegate an Emmy — while “The One With the Rumor” (Season Eight starring Brad Pitt) and “The One Where Ross Got High” (Season Six) are considered favorites. Several lists only feature nine episodes because Season Two had a minor B plot about the holiday (Monica makes “mockolate” for guest star Michael McKean in “The One With the List”), but we won’t get too technical.

The reason why Chandler hates Thanksgiving is simple: The evening of Thanksgiving 1978, when he was just nine years old, his parents announced their divorce. “Now Chandler dear, just because your father and I are getting a divorce doesn’t mean we don’t love you,” his mother, played by Morgan Fairchild, tells him. “It just means he would rather sleep with the houseboy.” (Chandler’s father is turned away from the camera here, but it’s later revealed that his dad transitioned and is portrayed by Kathleen Turner.) When the housekeeper abruptly arrives and says “More turkey, Mr. Chandler?” his hatred of Thanksgiving has officially begun. (Diehard fans know that upon Chandler telling this story, Rachel comments on the housekeeper’s accent, but the line was taken out — among others — when Friends landed on streaming services.) 

This backstory was briefly mentioned in Season One, but we get a full flashback in Season Five’s “The One With All the Thanksgivings,” undoubtedly the series’ greatest episode on the holiday. Well before the Eighties throwbacks, when Monica tries to seduce Chandler and he winds up losing a toe, we’re taken to that fateful evening in the late Seventies. Here we see the severity of Chandler’s childhood trauma and where his fear of commitment stems from. “Reliving past pain and getting depressed is what Thanksgiving is all about,” he informs the group.

As with any series, Chandler evolves over the show’s ten seasons, and so does his stance on Thanksgiving. In Season One, Monica packs him his unique Thanksgiving dinner: Tomato soup, grilled cheese, and a family size bag of Funyuns. But by the final season he offers to help her make the Thanksgiving meal (they’re married at this point). He fails after attempting to wash the cranberries with dish soap, but it’s the thought that counts: He’s a grown man with a family of his own, one he has to keep together by not repeating the same mistakes.

Following Matthew Perry’s death on Oct. 28, Chandler’s entire Thanksgiving arc hits us even harder. At 54, Perry’s life was cut short, but Chandler will always be right there, scowling at the very idea of giving thanks when families are broken and dysfunctional. “I am the king of bad thanksgivings,” he once said. Long live the king. 

From Rolling Stone US.