The thread for Chandler chatting.

(Ideas for more clever "Chandler" labels are appreciated!)

Ah, Chandler.

"I know a limerick! 'Once there was a man named Chandler, whose wife made him die inside!'"

For some reason, the first thing I thought of in this thread was Aurora's pronunciation of his name. Chandlrrrrrr... :)

I think it really has to have the "BE" joke, so this one is great!

I hope Matthew Perry's new show is good. He deserves continued success, and I think he actually does have some range (unlike, say, LeBlanc, whose range is shrinking by the "Joey" episode -- and I say that as someone who still watches, and mostly likes, "Joey).

God, there are so many great Chandler lines. I like this one:
Somebody says:"Guess what?"
Chandler: "The fifth dentist caved, now they're all recommending Trident?"

From The One With The Resolutions:

Chandler: What an interesting approach to guitar instruction! Some might find it unusual--I myself find it REGULAR.

"Too. Many. Jokes. ... Must. Mock. Joey!"

Chandler is my favorite character. Matthew Perry is great. I wonder how much of the humor is the writers and how much is Matthew playing Chandler.

"I tell people secrets. It makes them like me."



I agree. In fact, I've always thought that MP (and LK) had the most range out of everyone on the show. IMO, people don't give him enough credit as an actor and I can't wait for Studio 60.

I think a lot of it is Matthew. He was on Punk'd a while back and it was like Chandler Bing out in the real world. He was making fun of his friend for picking a sports car painted yellow in that Chandleresque way! When the fake police busted the fake stolen car shop and he was talking to one of the "officers" he said his friend was an "Apple Pie guy" who wouldn't be involved in anything shady. Then when the fake cop called another to take down his statement, Matthew said:"I don't have to say "Apple Pie guy" again, do I?"

A lot of the behind the scenes stuff showed the writers asking Matthew for ideas for lines when they couldn't come up with something they really liked. And when they did interviews he does come off as being rather quippy.

Which is fine with me because I heart Chandler and always have.

I love that one too! Chandler had the funniest lines, I'd say, The sarcasm was always awesome.

Chandler was my favorite male character until he fell in love with Monica and sort of became... not quite as funny.

It's so sad, because I never love him more than when he and Monica first get together. I was really happy, because I'd been rooting for them all along "C'mon? Dorf on dating? That's good stuff!"

I liked when Mondler first happened, especially when they were keeping it a secret from the others. I think Chandler was less funny because their relationship took him away from Joey and they were a great comic team together.

I've always loved Chandler. I was saddened by his deterioration pretty much after he and Monica got engaged. He just wasn't nearly as funny as he used to be. However, there were many occassions where his former brilliance would shine through. I just hated how he was Monica's personal whipping boy. He really needed to stand up to her more often. And why did the writers suddenly make him so effeminate in later seasons? I never understood that.

Season 1-6 Chandler was awesome though. Consistantly funny, great sarcastic one-liners, witty, dry, neurotic, and likeable. One of my favorite Chandler episodes ever is The One with the Prom Video, when Joey gives him that god-awful bracelet (Best Buds). He had some great lines in this episode:

Chandler: You know, he could have given me a VCR, he could have given me a set of golf clubs, but no, he gives me the woman repellant; the eyesore from the Liberace house of crap!

Joey: Now we're Bracelet Buddies!
Chandler: That's what they'll call us!

Monica: The camera adds 10 pounds!
Chandler: So how many cameras are actually on you?

Phoebe: What is this?
Monica: Oh, that's my bathing suit from high school.
Chandler: Oh, I thought it was what they used to cover Connecticut when it rains.

I'm sorry if the wording isn't exact on these quotes, I did it all from memory!

Chandler is, and always will be, one of my favourite characters on TV.

I think a lot of the character's changes in S6 happened when Matthew's personal problems came to the forefront, and impeded somewhat the quality of his work. Nevertheless, I always thought he had decent lines, but I think his plots were not always as interesting in the latter seasons.

I personally thought Matthew did some great work in S10 in the storyline about Monica and Chandler wanting to have a baby. You could really feel how much Chandler loved Monica, and how devoted he was to her. The scene with Erica when he begs to have the baby brings tears to my eyes every time. It wasn't the snarky Chandler of yore but it made him all the more real to me.

I like when Pheobe's old boyfriend played by Hank Azaria ask Chandler why she broke up with Mike, he responded without looking up from his newspaper "His penis was too big."

I agree that off-screen, Perry's problems really entered in his work. The constant weight fluctuation is scary, particularly between seasons six and seven. He honestly looks like a cancer patient at the beginning of season seven by comparison.

A lot of the characters' problems didn't stem necessarily from Chandler but from Monica. The decision to make her cute obsessiveness become a shrill, non-endearing trait really hurt her. The competitiveness was really taken out of control, and by the end of the series, she was completely changed. As a result, they needed a foil and since she spent most of her time with Chandler, they had to emasculate Chandler and go for the gay jokes. It was often very sad.

They also seemed to stray from Chandler's quick wit. He was witty, sure, but part of his charm in the earlier seasons was that he was fast. He always had something funny to say almost too soon. By the end, he was just saying funny things. There's a huge difference, and it's what led Chandler to becoming a standard sitcom character.

one of my favorites is in TOW the Poker where they're talking about settling the game, and Rachel asks, "Settle what?" and Chandler says, "The Jamestown Colony of Virginia. You see, King James is giving us the land..."

I love history jokes.

It's really sad to notice that the quippy Chandler fades away. The first season is full of Chandler's comments, and they slowly disappear. By the time they put Monica and Chandler together (which I think killed the show because Chandler was no longer funny after that), Chandler was just another whipped dude. I don't care if he would have remained mentally stunted, I wanted him to use humor as a defense mechanism, dammit!

I think that's true but I started liking Chandler more when he and Monica became involved. It was time for his character to grow and in his relationship with Monica the writers found the perfect place for Chandler to do that. I loved the odd moments of friendship the two of them showed, like when they'd high-five each other as a greeting. Funny Chandler's great but I love grown-up in love Chandler more.

Hold on everybody, I feel a huge fanwank coming: OK, my theory is that Chandler was so very funny early on is because he's unhappy. I think Chandler says a couple times (and I know Pheboe's crappy therapist guy calls him on it) that part of the reason he's so funny is because he's sort of desperate to get people to like him, and he's using humor to cover up other emotions.

So with Monica he's the happiest he's ever been, and he knows the whole group better each year, so he feels less of a need to be relentless with the getting people to like him. I miss the funny, but if I think of it that way, it's much more important to me that he ends the show happy.

chunkyrice13-I love that theory. I was on the 'Chander was awesome before he and Monica made their relationship public' train. Either way, he is still on my list. :)

Edited to make sense!

My feelings exactly. Happy Chandler is nicer to watch because even if you don't think he is as funny, its obvious that the character is the happiest he's ever been.

I still think he was funny but not in the "Go-to joke guy" kind of way. The quips he made early on were good but they were also emotionally detached from what was usually going on. I liked in the Thanksgiving ep with Christina Applegate where R&R told him he wasn't getting Emma if Monica died and he said "Are you saying I'm not careful, because I apparently managed to survive whatever it was that killed the three of you!"

The Thanksgiving ep with Christina Applegate is a great one for Chandler. His faking interest in football to get out of doing anything useful (like Monica would let him in her kitchen anyway?) to the whole bit with Emma's custody.

"Two of my best friends die, then my wife dies, then Emma, the one last good thing I have gets ripped away from me?!"

I also like the way he told Rachel and Amy to knock it off and start behaving like humans only to drop ALL of the fancy China and say: Well, it looks like I'm going to be the first to die.

Chandler can always bring it but I do agree that he was a lot less quippy because he was so happy. And I loved Chandler enough to want him happy rather than quippy.

One of my favorite Chandler moments was when he took Monica to see his father's drag queen lounge act, the sight of which was obviously difficult and slightly embarrassing for him. But he still loved his dad and wanted him to meet Monica, and he forced down his years of pain and re-established the connection. The writers mined a lot of laughs from Chandler's discomfort, but it was a serious, character-defining moment as well.

I didn't mind the more serious Chandler of later seasons. I always liked those moments when Chandler stopped with the defensive humor, put on his resolve face (TM Willow Rosenberg) and fought for what he believed. When he defied Monica and told her they were going to save the money for the house and not spring for the big wedding, I was right there with Phoebe with the admiration...

Heh.
"You opened all the presents without me??"
"You kissed another woman??"
"Call it even?"
"Ok!!"

Love, love, love that!

well said, cjl. I agree, Chandler going to see his dad took a lot of guts, and I was so proud of him (we're sad, being proud of tv characters, but they're real people to me!)
And Dandesun, one of my all time fave Chan moments is when he breaks the china. Just the look on his face, oh man!

I LOVED Chandler. Could I BE more ecstatic to have found this thread? No, I don't think I possibly could. I loved Chandler before Monica, during and After. Personally I think Chandler was never funnier than when he and Monica first got together. Yes he wasn't 'on' a lot after they got married, but he was still Chandler and that alone made him head and shoulders above everyone else.

One of my favorite Chandler scenes was the one ... hee, I just sat here for like five minutes with hundreds of Chandler scenes flying through my head all volleying for #1. But the one that comes to mind as I type this is the episode when they were in Barbados and he takes over Monica's ping pong game for her and wins. And she's all, how did you never tell me you were so good at this game? We could have been in tournaments, we could have ... and she goes off there dreaming of championships and what not ... and he just looks at her and he's like ... that's why.

I love any scene where Chandler 'wins' whether verbally or physically.

I think my loving his character so much is why I hate Rachel and Phoebe so much. They both said some mean things about him maybe once or twice and my hate was on from then.

I particularly remember the episode when Rachel was moving out and she and Monica ended up arguing and insulting each other and Monica picked up a box of Rachel's stuff and said she was going to label it "What were you thinking" and Rachel said funny she was thinking of going across the hall and putting that same label on Chandler.

Fuck you, you spoiled, narcissistic bitch. Chandler is worth a million of you.

No I don't think my Chandler love is obsessive ... The man spent almost an entire episode inside a box and was still the best part of the show ... How could you not love him?

Or after Monica's engagement, when Phoebe and Rachel were reassuring each other that they'd find someone and get married, too, and they're like, "yeah, someone way better than Chandler!" Bitches.

I know right. Bitches. They'd always make these shitty comments about him being weaker or not good enough to be with. Please, they wish they'd gotten a guy as devoted and as sweet as Chandler.

I was watching "The One Without The Ski Trip" last night. Neurotic Chandler is priceless.

Joey: You're smoking again?
Chandler: Well, actually, yesterday I was smoking again. Today, I'm smoking still.

My favourite moment is probably when everyone starts fighting, and Chandler starts dancing like crazy. There is nothing that makes me laugh more.

My favorite line is a little one. When they are playing the trivia game for the apartment and the question is about the name on the TV guide. "MRS. CHanandler Bong!" Just a funny name. Not sure I spelled it write....who would know, though?

We named our son after his character, so my wife and I are big fans.

There's a thing I didn't like in the later years where there would be jokes about Chandler being kind of effeminate or gay-like which the show didn't do before. Like when Chandler accidently says "If I were a man...Did I just say 'IF'?" I think because Chandler was already married to Monica at that point and definitely straight, that they could make jokes like that.

Nah, they did jokes like that all the way through the series.

CHANDLER: The meaning of the box is three fold. One (holds a finger up through the air hole), it gives me the time to think about what I did. Two (holds up another finger), it proves how much I care about my friendship with Joey. And three (holds up a third finger), it hurts!

Hee! And the saddest little finger wave when Kathy broke up with him, cause she didn't want to ruin his friendship with Joey. Oh man, stole the show right there, that little finger wave. It was so sad.

Chandler ruled.

I didn't mind Rachel's comments to Chandler. I never took them seriously. She was fine.

But Phoebe, in the later seasons, ALWAYS took digs at Chandler. That just infuriated me to no end. Ridiculously mean. Phoebe's inconsistent character always made me mad, but it was never worse than when she was picking on Chandler. Poor, poor writers.

And it's sad, too, because I was watching TOW The East German Laundry Detergent (an episode I think deserves its own thread since it's good on so many levels) and they had amazing chemistry together. Just fun, fun moments.

Chandler and Rachel were always good together, too. It was always sweet to think they had regular lunch dates.

Yeah I liked that the show gave them their own moments, but Rachel's comments just always got to me. I didn't see them as just being joking or not serious.

Why should Rachel get a pass for being a bitch? She was just as out of line as Phoebe was. In fact, in the later seasons, almost everybody on the show kept treating Chandler like crap, or like they didn't even know him in that episode where he got glasses. Chandler would even join in on the deprecation with, "Those are my bedroom eyes? Why did you ever sleep with me? Oh--don't explore that."

In the episode where they told everyone that Chandler had to move to Tulsa, the Friends only were upset about losing Monica, because she was the glue that held them together. Ross said quite pointedly to Chandler, "Not you. Monica." And when he left, Phoebe slammed the door on him. I hate those writers, treating Chandler like a leper.

I certainly don't buy that Chandler was happier, being treated like that.

Cress, I remember you from TVTome, so I'm glad to see you're still bringing the Chandler love and the "Mondler" (how I hate nicknames) hate.

I never found Rachel's comments to be too mean spirited. The "I was going to write that on Chandler" seemed, to me, to be a way to hurt Monica and not really Chandler. I suppose that for it to hurt Monica, she'd have to have some kind of animosity toward Chandler. God, I don't know. I can't really justify it, I guess. I just never felt that she was that bad. Nothing like Phoebe was. And I don't really even remember scenes between Chandler and Rachel after season five or so.

For instance, Phoebe says to Monica, "I hate to be the girl who ends up with him...after you, of course," and it makes me cringe. As do the scenes you described. I really hated it when Chandler would make jokes about himself as a homosexual because while they addressed that in season one, and there were certainly gay undertones to Chandler/Joey, it just never seemed like it should have been a huge issue. True, I chuckle when he says, "If I were a guy..." but it's kind of depressing all at once.

I think the worst part about some of these things was the inconsistent writing. Monica suddenly becomes controlling and domineering after being cute and friendly as Chandler's girlfriend in season five. She feels just as lucky to have him as he does to have her. There were some incredibly endearing moments between the two, particularly in The One Hundredth. And so it felt like a lot of the mean-spirited jokes were just thrown in the script to have something. In season four, when no one knew his job title, it was something that had been building. We knew he hated his job in season one, and then, at the beginning of season four, Joey has the wonderful line, "You call yourself an accountant?" For me, it builds very well to TOW the Embryos. And Chandler truly does hate his job, so it's logical his friends don't take too much interest in his actual title.

They really did butcher Chandler at points in the later seasons. It's very sad.

That particular comment might be dismissed as her just being spiteful, like Monica was spiteful about Rachel's ups and downs with Ross. "I love Ross! I hate Ross! I love Ross!"

However, the other example that was cited--where Phoebe and Rachel are discussing backups and saying, "I'll find somebody to marry--better than Chandler"--was spoken with sincerity, as was Phoebe's response of "Yeah, like that's hard." (Or maybe it was a nonverbal eye-roll, but the meaning was clear.) I can't dismiss that as joking around.

I'm not going to get into a whole anti-Mondler speech here, because I'm too tired of the argument. But I just want to say that the writers treated Chandler like crap and distorted the characters of the Friends so much in the final seasons. It was hard for anyone to be likable anymore.

I didn't even remember the "better than Chandler" part. Eek. I did hate that part.

I do like when Chandler was putting his foot down over not spending the money he had saved just on their wedding and Phoebe said:"Wow, money and a firm hand! Finally a Chandler I can get on board with!"

I was over in another thread and was reminded of one of my favorite Chandler moments. It was when he was trying to break up with Janice by telling her he had to move to Yemen. I just love it when she repeated the address he gave her. "15 Yemen Road, Yemen." And, then he realizes that she's not going to leave the airport until his plane leaves, so he tries to find someone to live with in Yemen. His face was priceless.

I want to bitch slap Rachel when she says this and in TO On the Last Night. I don't enjoy the girl half of that episode at all because of Rachel.

While I don't like some of the stuff the writers write for Mondler, I think they are trying to be funny and write typical sitcom married couple stuff(have you ever seen Everybody Loves Raymond, its hard to believe Ray and Debra aren't divorced) and don't realize how insulting some of the stuff they write comes across and I am very sensitive to anything that is anti-Chandler. I don't like Chandler is gay jokes one bit and am very anti-J/C slash. IMO Chandler and Mondler are the best part of Friends(I can't stomach R/R).

I also prefer Mondler's stability over the R/R rollercoaster.

People are mad over Rachel's treatment of Chandler but I thought Chandler and Rachel had an interesting friendship. They could both be kind of shallow. One of my favorite Chandler episodes is where he's dating her bitchy boss again and she locks him handcuffed to a chair in his office! Another great moment is when she was feeling sad over her divorced parents ripping each other at her birthday parties and Chandler hugs her. Then Ross comes in and Chandler silently gets him to switch so her boyfriend could be comforting her. That was sweet.

Chandler and Rachel were great together in the early seasons, as were Chandler and Phoebe. Remember how cute it was when they discussed Donald Duck not wearing pants, and when they sang Endless Love together? But by the final seasons, Chandler's supposed friends kept putting him down and insulting him more. They were so out of character and mean.

I hated when none of the friends noticed Chandler's glasses, because they all thought he'd always had glasses. Even Monica, who was his wife (or fiancee) at that point. That was stoopid.

ah, the old Chandler/Phoebe friendship, man that was awesome.
I loved the Donald Duck thing, but I also adored their convo of Spiderman's name. 'Phil Spiderman' that still cracks me up