Phoebe and Rachel enter Emma in a beauty pageant. Chandler heals from some childhood trauma with a homemade batch of cranberry sauce. Joey “steals” Ross’s shirt pocket. And four of the friends, locked out of Monica’s apartment and their Thanksgiving celebration, create a totem pole of “floating heads” in the small opening allowed by the door chain.
These are all key moments from the last Thanksgiving episode the TV show Friends ever aired. As its name suggests, the show—perhaps inadvertently—epitomized and immortalized the idea of the “Friendsgiving.” This trend diverts the traditional idea of Thanksgiving as the holiday celebrated with close relatives and extended family. Instead, Friendsgiving is about close friends gathering to eat together, celebrating the family-like ties of their friendship. No group of friends better exemplifies the idea of “friends as family” than the iconic six portrayed in NBC’s timeless sitcom. This episode in particular shows some of the rockier parts of familial relationships, which often come up around this holiday: disagreements.
In this episode, “The One With the Late Thanksgiving,” which aired in Season 10, Monica and Chandler begrudgingly agree to host the friends’ last Thanksgiving together. Already reluctant to cook and host, Monica insists that her guests arrive on time. When they make impromptu plans and end up an hour late, Monica locks them out of her apartment and their holiday celebration. This is what leads to the “floating heads,” as Chandler calls them, when Monica opens the door with the latch in place, making Ross, Joey, Phoebe, and Rachel stick their heads through the opening to plead their case. The door only opens when the unexpected occurs: Joey finds himself unable to pull his head back out of the opening. As his friends pull on the door to try to widen the opening, the door gets torn off its hinges!
Now, this friends’ Thanksgiving celebration involved a lot more drama and a lot less eating. Cal Poly students, though, are likely much more interested in the dining and gathering part of the holiday—those who celebrate, at least. Many will be spending Thanksgiving with their families or close friends. On the other hand, some students are staying on campus for Fall Break.
Luckily, Campus Dining recognizes that these students deserve a good holiday gathering, too. As such, they will be hosting a Friendsgiving meal on Thursday, November 28, from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm. The event will be held in the Cerro Vista Community Center and all on-campus students are welcome. An email was sent out to all Cal Poly students with a survey to fill out indicating whether they will be staying on campus over break and if they plan to attend the luncheon.
So, if you are a Cal Poly student staying for Fall Break and you feel inspired by NBC’s timeless friend group, be sure to attend Campus Dining’s Friendsgiving! Here’s to all the camaraderie of the friends (and hopefully none of the disaster…)!