Everyone loves the 30-minute comedy. Last year, Netflix paid around $100 million to keep Friends on their streaming platform for one more year before it’s inevitably moved to whatever NBC’s new streaming service is. While Netflix doesn’t release their streaming numbers, that dollar amount certainly is telling. This is just one of the many ways Friends impact has been seen over the years. Another is through “copy-catting”, or what some might call the most important kind of flattery. One might put How I Met Your Mother, a show about a group of friends living in NYC who frequent a local pub as we follow the trials and tribulations of their lives, in that category. Sounds familiar? We thought so – swap out a pub for a coffee shop and you’ve got Friends. Even the characters are similar. The funny, loving couple who hold the group together (Monica and Chandler vs. Marshall and Lily), the playboy (Joey vs. Barney), and perhaps most crucially, the love story that remains throughout the show between the slightly-annoying, intellectual leading man (Ross vs. Ted) who pursues the out-of-his league, career-driven, and beautiful leading woman (Robin vs. Rachel). Also, no offense to Phoebe but there’s no obvious counterpart; so while she is no-doubt a crucial part of the Friends crew, she isn’t going to be factored into this. We (Peter and Rachel) will attempt to suss out which show has the better cast through comparing the character archetypes and which characters are actually more relatable and enjoyable. We love both shows and are able to look at the characters as people with both high points and serious flaws. Rachel will advocate for the HIMYM characters while Peter will attempt to prove why the Friends cast is superior.
Ross vs. Ted
Ross: So first things first: I need to establish the fact that I believe Friends is vastly superior to HIMYM, which is why I chose to advocate for Friends. With that being said, Ross Geller is quite possibly the most insufferable character on television. Just mentioning his name will literally make me seethe with anger. But that’s why Ross is the better character. Ted is just annoying; his story line consists of him running through a bunch of great girls because he’s in love with his best friend (Robin) and can’t stop being a jerk whenever he actually has shots with her. Ross belongs to the nerdiest possible profession (is there anything worse than paleontology?), and he just has a way of infuriating both the friend group and the audience. I think the worst part of Ross is how he is completely unable to empathize with anyone else. Rachel’s entire family could burn in a fire and Ross would still find a way to make it about himself. Ross’ quirks are much worse than anything that Ted can pull, and that’s why he’s the “better” character. From something as small as the way he says “hi guys” in that mopey voice to something as horrible as writing a list of all the reasons NOT to be with Rachel. The last episode of Friends may have made me even more angry than the end of GOT. Why on Earth would someone as incredible as Rachel Green get off the plane for Ross? Because he’s her “lobster”? Get the fuck outta here. I would much rather spend time with Ted Mosby, but no one- I repeat- no one plays the insufferable lovesick loser better than Ross Geller. – Peter
Ted: I may or may not have designed this thought experiment purely to make Peter mad, knowing that he’d have to advocate for Ross. I don’t think this one is much of a contest – Ted is a better character than Ross. Ross really is insufferable and his archaic version of the world makes me angry. I also think his quirks are more annoying than endearing. Also, they were definitely NOT on a break. That being said, Ted is whiny and has annoying quirks in his own right… “encyclopaeeeeedia.” But that seems fitting as he is the center of the show and the whole point is to take us along for the ride as Ted goes through the trials and tribulations of consistently thinking he’s found “the one” only to have that person I don’t know… either move countries (Victoria), go back to her husband (Zoey) or leave him at the altar (Stella). There are so many other sad Ted break-up stories I could choose from but we all know Ted’s end game always was Robin. The show’s insistence on pretending they weren’t going to end up together by calling her Aunt Robin only to just give him a different wife at the end of the show then immediately kill her off so that he can be with Robin is still absolutely insane in my mind. I guess they had to do that (???) to keep some suspense in the show (although again, did they??). Regardless, Ted’s ability to constantly be dragged into one of Barney’s schemes to then find and too-aggressively pursue a slew of women (s/o Slutty Pumpkin) before ultimately ending up with Robin is still extremely more enjoyable than watching Ross pine over Rachel for 7 seasons while entertaining the worst girlfriends (sorry, Julie). – Rachel
Winner: Ted. Ted wins this mostly because Ross is so annoying, so we wouldn’t call it the most impressive win from this thought experiment. As we explain above, Ted’s pursuit of Robin paired with his far more exciting dating life and less-frustrating quirks put him firmly above Ross’s lack of empathy and pathetic pursuit of Rachel.
Rachel vs. Robin
Rachel: Full disclaimer here. I’ve been in love with both Rachel Green and Jennifer Aniston since I can remember, so there is a possibility that I am looking at this through rose colored lenses.
I’m a big Robin fan. Cobie Smulders is great, and all of Robin’s Canadian bits are great. She completely deserves all of the praise Rach heaps on her. Definitely my favorite HIMYM character too. HOWEVER, Rachel Green is a bonafide icon. When girls in the 90s would go to get their hair cut, they would ask for a Rachel Green. JenAn became one of the most popular actresses overnight, and she is still one of the hottest women in the world. Rachel may also have the best transformation as a character out of anyone here. She started off as a lazy, naive trust fund baby who ran away because everything wasn’t perfect, to one of the most driven and powerful personalities in the fashion industry. She matures as a person so much throughout the show, and especially later on continually puts up with Ross when he’s being an asshat. She is also a great mom to Emma, and an equally good step-mom/ caretaker to Ben. If Ross pulled the shit that he pulled to a lesser woman, she might not have treated Ben as well as Rachel did. Her ability to forgive Ross after all of his mistakes- absolutely NOT on a break- continues to show how good of a person she is too.
On a more humorous note, Rachel is the queen of the over exaggeration. I personally love the “kick you in the crotch spit on your neck fantastic.” line, but there are a bunch of others to choose from like “Did my back hurt your knife?” Or “No uterus, no opinion.” Even early on, in episode one, she compares herself to a shoe and claims to be more turned on by a gravy boat than her fiance. But what I think my favorite part of Rachel- outside of her beauty- is her human side. The way she reacted when finding Ross’ list of reasons to not be with her, and claiming that she didn’t break up with him because she stopped loving him really shows her emotional growth from that first episode. Though I did hate when she got off the plane. – Peter
Robin: Is Robin the ultimate “cool-girl”? She might be. A guys-girl for the ages. She’s hot, loves sports, crushes beers, has both daddy / commitment issues and an impressive job. Robin came into the show as supposedly Ted’s “the one.” Ted pulls a Ted and takes things way too fast after stealing her the blue french horn from the restaurant on their first date, but due to her utter-coolness, she edges her way into the friend group by her instant connection with Lily and general likeability helping her appeal to Barney and Marshall. Robin drives a lot of the story in HIMYM. The Ted-Robin (and then Barney-Robin) relationships push and pull throughout the entire show, very similarly to the Ross-Rachel dynamic. While I’m die-hard Ross and Rachel, we only actually get to experience them together from middle of season 2 to middle of season 3. They almost get back together in the beginning of season 4, but don’t because Ross couldn’t read Rachel’s 18 pages and take responsibility for his actions (re:: Ross Sucks). Robin and Ted / Barney are together for a significant amount of time in the show. We actually get to experience these relationships grow. We see Robin go through the falling in love stage, the stagnant stage, the lets-take-it-to-the-next-level stage and the end-game stage, which I think is much more enjoyable than just the constant tug between jealous Ross and Rachel. PLUS Robin gives us what I think is the best bit in either show: Robin Sparkles. “Lets Go To the Mall” and “Sandcastles in the Sand” are two of the funniest things to happen in the show and I wouldn’t be doing Robin Scherbatsky justice if I didn’t mention the fact that she’s Canadian. Her over the top accent and ridiculous outfits in these videos are hysterical and make me love the character even more. – Rachel
Winner: Rachel. We acknowledge that this one isn’t fair because Rachel and Robin are two of the best characters on both shows so pitting them against each other was impossible. However, due to Rachel’s influence outside of just the show, as well as her personal growth within the show, she is able to edge out Robin in this battle.
Monica vs. Lily
Monica: Look Monica is extremely annoying sometimes. There’s no denying that. But I can’t stand Lily. She talks down to everyone on the show like they’re preschoolers, which fine, she is a kindergarten teacher, but it’s still infuriating. The amount of unacceptable things she does that Marshall and Ted let her get away with is just ridiculous. Remember that time she secretly applied for that art fellowship without telling Marshall. Or when she lied about the credit card debt? Or how her first instinct always seems to be to run? We also constantly have to deal with that whole “Lily potentially settling for Marshall” nonsense. Monica is neurotic and insecure too, but in a less judgy, less patronizing way. She is that one friend that we all have (see Oates, Rachel) whose obsessive tendencies may be annoying at times, but they make us all better people. Many times Marshall dropped to Lily’s level, but Chandler became a much better person after he got together with Monica. Plus Lily and Marshall were together nearly the entire show. It got stale. With Monica we got to experience legends like Coma Guy, Paul the Wine Guy (RIP watch), Roy, Fun Bobby, Ethan, and of course Richard. Her past boyfriends range from high schoolers to full blown alcoholics and it makes it even better when she finds true love with Chandler. Her interactions with Ross are some of his better moments in the show, from the Routine to the competition between them whenever their parents are around, Monica is both crazy enough to create great content with Ross, but she is never afraid to call him on his bullshit, which as mentioned earlier is a frequent occurrence. – Peter
Lily: This one is really difficult. Monica is my favorite character on Friends because I feel I can relate to her the most. Neurotic, type A, obsessive, competitive yet sweet, caring and mothering. Lily has some similar traits but I’d leave the type A, neurotic, obsessive characteristics out of it. Lily is the mother of the group – she (and Marshall, but more Lily) is the glue that holds the whole group together. Everyone goes to Lily when they need someone to give them advice – Barney when he’s falling in love with Robin but doesn’t know what to do about it, Robin and Ted turn to her with pretty much everything in their dating life and of course, Marshall leans on her as his wife more than anyone. Lily’s hilarious inappropriate tendencies consistently make me laugh. She’s an extremely sexual character and the show does not shy away from it which I really admire; from her and Marshall’s random, but extremely obvious word they use to essentially openly communicate that she wants to have sex at any point during the day, to always suggesting that she and Robin make out, to which everyone kind of ignores and fakes confusion by. I love the woman-forward sex positivity in this show as it’s a subtle way the show tries to be more progressive. – Rachel
Winner: Monica. Another difficult choice, but Monica edges out Lily in this battle (Monica would be so excited since she’s uber competitive about everything). We were able to really experience Monica go through more of the life experiences so many of us go through – the dating life and the job stress before finally ending up with your best friend and realizing your place in the world (although we’re both still in our Fun Bobby stages… assuming we’ll get it together eventually). Going through that journey and ending up with Chandler while Lily really was just with Marshall for 9 seasons, which while admirable, made some of her character arcs slightly less inspired than Monica. Plus, Lily did leave Marshall to go to art school in San Francisco for 6 months and we still haven’t fully forgiven her.
Chandler vs. Marshall
Chandler: I mean, this shouldn’t even be a competition. Chandler is the best character on either show. It must be impossible to be in his situation. Neurotic wife, best friends with a meathead and the aforementioned worst character on television, not to mention his unstable childhood, Chandler has quite a few insecurities. While Marshall- much to my annoyance- mopes and complains when the world treats him wrong, Chandler makes jokes- often at his own expense. The relationship that Chandler and Monica had was one of the few I have ever truly rooted for. (Another one was Dany and Jon Snow, and oh Lord did that turn out well for me.) But as funny as Chandler is, the one thing that I truly loved about him is how difficult it is for him to portray any type of emotion. It’s not that he can’t he is just truly afraid to, making him all the more relatable to me. I mean he moved to Yemen, just because he couldn’t bring himself to tell Janice to hit the bricks.
I also love how awkward Chandler is when his boss keeps slapping him in the butt. The way he reacted throughout that fiasco is probably how any guy would react, and it’s just more proof as to how relatable he is. I’m also not a big Marshall guy. I don’t like his relationship with Lily, I don’t like his approach to things. That dislike honestly is probably a major reason as to why I’m really not wild about HIMYM. It took multiple tries for me to get into the show, and even then, I feel like I was just powering through it so I could talk about it with my friends. By comparison, any episode of Friends will suck me in. Chandler plays a huge role in that, whether it’s dunking on Joey or Ross, dealing with the girls of the group, or just pointing out the obvious in a way that almost never fails to be funny. He’s very self aware in admitting that his humor exists mainly to deflect his emotional insecurities and that certainly resonates loud and clear with me. Personally, one of my favorite parts of a good TV show is the ability to connect with one of the characters, and there are few out there that I connect stronger with than Chandler. – Peter
Marshall: My take on Marshall is that he’s just a normal Midwestern guy. Someone you could meet on the street anywhere in Chicago or Minneapolis. I guess this makes sense since his character is from St. Cloud, Minnesota (and proudly so). Things Marshall is passionate about: his friends, his mom, the Minnesota Vikings, and of course, his wife, Lily.
They’re that adorable couple that’s been together forever and call each other Marshmellow and Lilypad. They only use “we” instead of “me.” And while I love Marshall and hope to find my own Marshall one day, I think all the personality in that relationship comes from Lily. I don’t want to leave my man hanging so I will thank him for his contribution to two of my favorite continuing bits: the doppelgangers and the slap bets. Marshall and Lily decided that they cannot start trying to have a child until they find the universe shows them the 5th doppleganger; they had already found Lesbian Robin, Moustache Marshall, Stripper Lily and Mexican Wrestler Ted. They think they found Cab Driver Barney once but it ended up being real Barney dressed as a cab driver in another scheme to get girls; this takes a toll on them and it’s not until they go to a fertility doctor that they discover the real Barney Doppelganger is the Fertility Doctor giving both the real storyline and the bit a happy ending. The Slap Bet episodes are all time great episodes. The genesis of the original bet came when the gang was trying to uncover the reason why Robin refuses to go to the mall (please see above for more details on how much I love Robin Sparkles). Barney assumes it has something to do with Robin being in porn while Marshall guesses that she was married in a mall in Canada; they agree to a slap bet with Lily as the Slap Bet Commissioner. Barney wrongly assumes he is right and preemptively slaps Marshall – Lily explains his punishment for “premature slapulation” is either 10 slaps immediately, or 5 slaps over time. Barney chooses the five over time and thus commences one of the longest, best running bits in the show. Marshall plays key roles in both of these ongoing bits and part of what makes this show special is its ability to get every character in on their own specific, hilarious bits. – Rachel
Winner: Chandler. Chandler is absolutely an iconic character so it’s no surprise that he was able to beat out Marshall. As described above, Marshall is just your average-Joe where Chandler is the one of the most sarcastic, endearing characters to ever grace our screens. Sorry Marshall, but this one was easy.
Joey vs. Barney
Joey: Joey gets a bad rap sometimes. Sure, he’s dumb as rocks, but he’s the guy that holds the entire group together. Every great team has a glue guy, whether it’s Eddie House on the 08 Celtics or Iggy on the Warriors, and Joey fills that role perfectly. He sets up everyone to succeed, whether its a Chandler joke, or Rachel realizing that she’s meant to be with Ross. Joey is also without question the most loyal friend in the group. While he may be a serial womanizer, no one would do more for that group of people than Joey would. He gave up meat for Phoebe while she was pregnant, bought her all of the Christmas trees so they wouldn’t go in the chipper, gave Emma Hugsy, stepped aside for Chandler to date Kathy, kept Monica and Chandler’s secret, and took dance lessons with the super so the girls could keep their apartment. Yeah he dated Rachel, but he was so broken up about it. Imagine having the opportunity to date Rachel Green and even stopping to think about it. That’s incredible conviction. Plus there were some more light-hearted moments like the friendship bracelet, eating the entire meat trifle so Rachel wouldn’t get offended, stocking Monica’s room with snacks after the London wedding disaster, and of course being an excellent pillow for Ross.
That said, Joey is also hilarious. He mixes in great one liners with the perfect bit of naivete, and it absolutely works. He’s a guys guy through and through who loves sports, and food. Yes he’s a player, but he is certainly more respectful towards them than someone like Barney. Plus “How you doin?” is the best pickup line out there. It works literally every time. Barney needs his whole elaborate playbook to get laid, Joey just needs that look and those three magic words. – Peter
Barney: In this day and age, this character archetype is generally hard to defend. I get that – however, we still must evaluate Joey and Barney the best we can. Despite some of their offensive storylines, Joey and Barney still have their lovable qualities. I’m going to advocate for Barney over Joey due to depth and bits. We get VERY little from Joey – he mostly plays a complete idiot who’s only interests are sex and food – two universal things that while understandable, lack any type of deep emotion attached. His idiocy plays mostly to set up for Chandler to alley-oop dunk on him with joke after joke. Don’t get me wrong, I love Chandler’s jokes but it comes at the expense of character development for Joey. Barney on the other hand gets multiple storylines that give him real emotional arcs. He genuinely falls in love with Quinn, who yes, is a stripper, but its the first time we see him put actual emotion into a relationship – he even gets engaged to her. He also has a meaningful relationship with Nora who really pushes him to be a better man. But his most important storyline of course comes by way of Robin. Robin, the perfect girl-friend (and girlfriend) and Barney actually fell in love – they had a meaningful relationship where we got to see a different side of Barney.
He was kind, thoughtful, caring while also staying true to his joking-bizarre self. The two bonded over their shared disdain for committed relationships (??? no wonder this didn’t work out). This is something we never saw in Joey. Plus, Barney’s commitment to the bit is something to be admired. Who can forget the ducky tie, the Bro Bible, the Playbook, Challenge Accepted, Legend-wait-for-it-because-Barney-has-a-long-list-of-bits-DARY, the fact that we don’t know what his job is, and so many more gems that he has in every episode. – Rachel
Winner: Barney. This choice was relatively simple as well – by the end of the show, we’ve witnessed Barney go through so many changes and really push himself out of his comfort zone. Joey is a good side-kick to Chandler and is a loyal friend but his character isn’t given the ability to move beyond that, allowing Barney to edge out Joey in this final race.
Overall Winner: Friends
The ultimate winner here is Friends with three wins (Rachel over Robin, Monica over Lily and Chandler over Marshall) while HIMYM came away with two (Ted over Ross and Barney over Joey). Reviewing this made us realize something that should be pretty obvious – characters are better when they’re given meaningful arcs. It’s why Barney is more effective than Joey and Monica is more impactful than Lily. When the writers shape character’s in such a way that we really get to accompany the character on a personal journey, something that maybe we can see for ourselves, it’s easier to connect to them.
We tried to be as objective as possible in our determination of the winners but we are both more partial to Friends than HIMYM so having the Friends cast win is not shocking. Although this did make us really appreciate how great the HIMYM bits are – this show perfected the long-running joke better than any other show, including Friends. The 30-minute comedy battle is difficult and something we’ll continue to explore as people always need their wind-down, on-in-the-background, decompressing shows.
Bonus: Personal Character Power Rankings
Rachel:
- Robin
- Monica
- Chandler
- Rachel
- Lily
- Ted
- Marshall
- Barney
- Joey
- Ross
Peter:
- Chandler
- Rachel
- Robin
- Monica
- Joey
- Barney
- Marshall
- Ted
- Lily
- Ross
