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Monica Elizabeth Geller  is a fictional character television sitcom Friends (19942004), portrayed by Courteney Cox. Monica is known as the "Mother Hen" of the group and her Greenwich Village apartment was one of the group's main gathering places. She was also known for her obsessive personality and competitive nature.

Background[]

Monica (b. March 1969) is the younger sister of Ross Geller, was best friends with Rachel Green in high school, was roommates with Phoebe Buffay-Hannigan,

During the series, a few episodes contained flashbacks which revealed that Monica had been obese, weighing 255 pounds in high school.

Monica met Ross's friend, Chandler, when he and Ross were in college. After hearing Chandler call her fat, Monica lost weight and, in a flashback episode, tried to get revenge by seducing him but accidentally cut off his toe. It was Chandler's suggestion that she become a chef. Monica and Chandler got together in London during the Season 4 finale and married in the Season 7 finale. They adopted two children, twins named Jack and Erica, in the series finale.

Monica initially shared her New York City apartment with Phoebe, who had moved out prior to the pilot episode over worries that their friendship would suffer due to Monica's obsessive tidiness. In the pilot episode, Rachel left her fiancé, Barry Farber, at the altar and moved in with Monica.[1] Monica met Joey Tribbiani when he moved in with Chandler, who lived across the hall from Monica. It is revealed that upon first meeting, Monica had a crush on Joey.[2]

Her catchphrase is a loud, excited and exaggerated "I KNOW!".

[edit] Geller family[]

Monica and Ross are usually quite affectionate, although there is a lot of sibling rivalry. In many episodes, Ross and Monica used an odd childhood gesture - knocking their fists together with their thumbs pointing outward (as an alternative to "the finger"). Monica and Ross are particularly competitive around their parents, and Monica feels her parents favor Ross.

Monica is Jewish. In "The One with the Holiday Armadillo," Ross introduces Ben to Hanukkah and talks about getting Monica a Hanukkah present several times. Monica also mentions her Bat Mitzvah. Chandler also reminds her of this when Erica, the twins' birth mother, mistakenly thinks she's a reverend.

[edit] Relationship []

In season 3, episode 25 (The One at the Beach), Chandler and Monica are at the beach when Monica says that even if Chandler was the last guy on earth, she would still be unsure about dating him.[3] In a later episode, Monica laughs when Chandler offers to be her boyfriend after she mentions she is worried about dying as an old maid.[4] "You're not gonna die an old maid...Maybe a spinster cook".

At the end of season 4, Monica began a secret relationship with Chandler in London, at Ross's wedding to Emily Waltham-Geller.

As their relationship deepened, Monica tried keeping it secret but their friends found out. Chandler moved in with Monica in season 6 and they got engaged in the season 7 finale.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Friends_recurring.

[edit] Physical appearance[]

Monica is an attractive woman with silky dark brown hair, sculpted cheekbones, blue eyes and a distinct hourglass figure. Her beauty is acknowledged not only by  who flirted with her a lot before they eventually got together, but by Joey, who called her "hot" on more than one occasion and confessed to having rather suggestive dreams about her. She is often described as "freakishly strong." However, Monica used to be extremely obese during her childhood and her teenage years, but went on a strict diet after hearing  cruel remarks about her weight one Thanksgiving. Because of her past obesity, Monica tends to be more careful with men than  Phoebe, and Chandler and Rachel tend to use it to their advantage when mocking her.

[edit] Personality[]

[edit] Cleanliness[]

"Neat Freak" Monica is comically obsessive about her apartment and loves cleaning (describing the dry cleaner as her Disneyland). This personality trait becomes exaggerated as the series progresses. Examples include:

  • She categorizes towels into 11 sections, examples being "everyday use," "fancy," "guest," and "fancy guest."<sup class="reference"
  • She labels everything, from dishes to photographs.
  • In Season 1, she tried acting like a "kook" and didn't care that she left her shoes in the living room but couldn't sleep, wondering if she should go and get them. Also, Rachel moves the green ottoman when cleaning the apartment, making Monica anxious. exclaims to Rachel, "Thank God you didn't try to fan out the magazines — I mean she'll scratch your eyes right out."
  • In another episode, it is learned that she has supplies for cleaning cars despite the fact that she does not not own a car because there was a dirty car parked out front of the building. She washed it, and six others.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-5
  • In Season 5, Rachel didn't want to go to an eye appointment and tried stopping Monica by knocking over a box of cereal. Monica pretends she isn't bothered and they leave, but then anxiously to clean it up.
  • In Season 6, Rachel do pack when she is supposed to and defends herself by claiming that packing Rachel's belongings is a gift for Monica. Monica is immediately and immensely pleased at this, apologizing for not getting Rachel a gift.
  • She is obsessive to the point that she cleans her cleaning supplies, using a Dustbuster to remove dirt from a vacuum cleaner and wishing there was a smaller vacuum to clean the Dustbuster.
  • In Season 10, when Phoebe says they couldn't meet because she was "cleaning and organizing" her apartment before Mike moves in, Monica "forgets" and goes to Phoebe's apartment with her label maker.
  • In Season 3, when Mark asks Rachel why all the cups have numbers, Rachel claims that Monica labels her cups so she knows which one is missing.
  • After Rachel's birthday party in "The One With Phoebe's Rats," Rachel offers to help Monica clean up to which Monica replies, "Are you kidding? You had your party, now I'll have mine!"
  • Also in "The One With Phoebe's Rats," upon discovering that Phoebe has brought rats, she is shell shocked and mutters to herself, "So this is what a stroke feels like!"
Rachel is telling Phoebe about her kiss with Gavin. Monica wonders how she didn't see it when it was on her balcony, and Phoebe replies, "It was after the party — you were probably ironing the wrapping paper." Monica looks offended, but then replies, "Oh, yeah," reminiscing happily.
  • In another episode,  cleans the apartment as a surprise. Ross sees him doing this and explains that she will "kill" him if everything is not back in exactly the same place. She returns home after a hard day at work and notices that the apartment is different (even though it appears the same). Although upon seeing how worried  of angering her, in a rare compromise she tells him that although she is a neat freak she doesn't expect him to worry about that.
the right cases when he states, "If I can't find the right case, I just put it in the nearest one." Monica responds nervously, "OK, no need to panic... deep breaths everyone, I'll just have to spend some time putting them back in the right cases."
  • In "The One with the Stain," Monica comes home to find that the apartment has been cleaned. After clean, Monica asks, "Oh, no, was I cleaning in my sleep again?" to which replies, "I got a maid." Monica nervously replies, "I hope that by maid you mean mistress, 'cause if some other woman was here cleaning, then...!". Chandler tells her, "Honey, I know you don't like to relinquish control...," to which Monica replies, "Relinquish is just a fancy word for lose!"
  • Also in "The One with the Stain," Monica becomes anxious when she discovers that had hired a maid. When asks her, "What's wrong," she replies: "Usually when I'm this anxious, I clean!"
  • In "The One with Rachel's Other Sister," Rachel and her sister, Amy, had a fight, and Rachel accidentally breaks a plate from Monica's wedding china, causing Monica to nearly faint.
  • In "The One Where Ross is Fine," Monica are given a binder about adoption, which is perfectly neat and organized, by another couple. Monica whispers to, "I think I just had a tiny orgasm." Monica also makes wash his hands before he touches the binder because "It's so pretty and white."
  • When Monica and discuss having a baby, Monica panics that the baby's stuff will take up so much space that there will be no room for the "ribbon drawer," causing Monica to scream "where will all the ribbons go!?" she might have to fake it because "I'm a little shook up."
  • It is revealed that one of the reasons why Monica is able to keep such a clean apartment is because she has a secret closet full of junk. Monica is deeply ashamed of this, calling herself "sick," but she also won't let put anything in the closet because he might mess it up.

Monica is highly competitive, allegedly throwing a plate in a fit of rage during a game of Pictionary and claiming "rules help control the fun!"

When Joey and Ross were casually tossing a ball back and forth, Monica joined in and threw the ball too hard at Ross to which he exclaimed, "Monica, stop throwing the ball so hard! We're on the same team." Sometimes, however, she takes her competitive nature too far. One dramatic example of this was when Monica impulsively gambled her and Rachel's apartment during a trivia game created by Ross. When she and Rachel then lost the final question, they were forced to swap apartments with Joey. However, they won their apartment back several months later by agreeing to kiss for one minute, much to the boys' delight. Monica also demonstrates athletic prowess, which, coupled with her competitive streak, makes her formidable, especially in foosball. During the group's trip to Barbados, Monica became obsessed with beating Phoebe's boyfriend, Mike, at table tennis, and the two became engaged in a marathon match, lasting hours. Monica eventually won. Sometimes, however, Monica becomes too rough. While attempting to give a sensuous massage, she hurts him to the point of his crying out. Later during the episode she becomes very upset that she "loses" at giving massages until, "You give the world's best worst massages," which immensely cheers her up. Moreover, she won a arm wrestle contest against in "The One with the Halloween Party." During a competition with Phoebe, Monica that Phoebe will give in way before he does because her "team always wins." Also, in their youth, Monica broke Ross' nose when a game of touch football turned ugly in an attempt to win the  The cup was thrown into a nearby lake. What Ross didn't know until "The One with the Football" was that Monica jumped into the lake to retrieve it. In the series finale, while trying to rescue the birds Joey bought, she managed to destroy the foosball table.

[edit] Bossiness[]

Monica is notoriously bossy. She is often referred to as such by her friends. Her bossiness is best seen in her relationship, where she frequently wins the upper hand in their disputes. After becoming a couple, says "so I really don't get to win [arguments] any more?", to which Monica replies "how often did you ever really win anyway?"

However, Chandler has notably won a dispute with Monica. After finding that her parents squandered her wedding fund, Monica turned to Chandler, who revealed he had a considerable amount of money. Chandler was outraged when Monica wanted to spend the entire fortune on the wedding. 

  • When Monica becomes Phoebe's wedding planner, she orders the events run on "military time".[7]
  • In Season 5, she and Phoebe co-ordinate Rachel's surprise birthday party, and Monica takes charge of everything except cups and ice, for which she gives Phoebe responsibility. In reaction to this, Phoebe surprises Monica by bringing hundreds of plastic cups (which she even decorates with) and various types of ice, including crushed, cubed, and dry.
  • While Monica and Phoebe are living together, Monica once apologizes to Phoebe for leaving lipstick on the phone. When Phoebe tells her that she didn't, Monica sarcastically replies "Oh, well, then it must have been you!"[2]

[edit] Relationships and children[]

Monica is repeatedly depicted as wanting to be in a relationship and have children. Before and after her relationship with Richard, she worries about not having a boyfriend.

Early in the series, Monica broke up with Richard because he did not want children. After Richard, Monica seriously considers becoming a single mother through artificial insemination. Interestingly before she and began dating, the two talked about getting together and having a baby if both were single at the age of 40.

[edit] "Fat Monica"[]

It is revealed early in the series that she had been overweight while growing up. Monica lost the weight when she was 18 after she overheard Chandler call her "fat" at Thanksgiving. fat monica was played by another actress untill Season 2

The writers of the series often used flashbacks to show the overweight Monica (with Sirenna dawn Hill wearing a fat suit). In one episode, called "The One With the Prom Video", when the group watched an old prom video and were surprised to see her weight, Joey yelled "Some girl ate Monica!". This was also the first episode where we saw "big-nosed Rachel." Monica tried to stick up for herself, claiming the camera adds five pounds. Chandler was quick to retort, "So how many cameras are actually on you?" In another episode where the group remember past Thanksgivings, one flashback reveals why Monica lost all the weight. She heard Chandler tell Ross he didn't want to be stuck in all night with his fat sister, prompting Monica to break down and refuse the food offered to her by her mother. She lost the weight by Thanksgiving of 1988, Rachel also lost the big nose. In almost every episode that features "Fat Monica", the episode ends with Monica dancing in a funny manner

As revealed in another episode, Monica's weight meant a junior high school member had to play with her on the see-saw rather than someone her own age, and her marching band outfit had to be custom made. also explains Ross's hastened eating when he explains to Rachel "I grew up with Monica! If you didn't eat fast, you didn't eat!" In "The One With the Pediatrician", Monica reveals that Ross had a therapist due to a recurring bad dream, that the real monica would eat it

Another episode reveals that Monica attended fat camp as a child, and was found caught in the barbed wire after trying to catch and eat a squirrel, which she claimed she had been trying to help out.

[edit] Career[]

Monica is a chef, and, as with most areas of her life, she is obsessive and competitive. Monica uses Chantal cookware in blue. Originally, she was a poorly paid chef at a restaurant called Iridium. After accepting a promotion at a restaurant called Café des Artistes, she was fired for accepting a gift from a food distributor. Monica remained unemployed for a while before getting offered a job as a waitress at a 1950s-themed restaurant called the Moondance Diner. At this time, Monica reveals that she worked at the famous Cafe des Artistes when she said "I was a sous-chef at Cafe des Artistes. How can I take a job where I have to make something called Laverne and Curly fries?" At the Moondance Diner, Monica wears a blond wig, roller skates and massive fake breasts. While working at the diner, she met millionaire Pete Becker (played by Jon Favreau), who used his money to open a restaurant and appoint Monica as head chef. After the relationship failed due to the consequences of Pete's desire to become the "UFC Champion", Monica began a short-lived catering business with Phoebe. Also during her unemployed days, Monica worked for an unnamed food company, thinking up recipes and then making them, using substitute food products, such as 'Mocolate', a chocolate substitute which never took off due to its repulsive taste (Phoebe said "this must be what evil tastes like") and side effect of causing urination to become painful if a large amount was eaten. Also during this time, to avoid taking a job in the aforementioned Moondance Diner, she temporarily bought shares in the stock market using the few savings left in her bank account ($127), despite not knowing anything about how it works, buying shares from companies only because of their names, not knowing what the companies did or how successful they were.

[edit] Production[]

When landed on the cast of Friends, she was asked to play the role of Rachel Green-Bing but she thought she should take the role of Monica Geller instead. Maggie Wheeler also auditioned for the part but ended up playing recurring character Janice Litman Goralnik (née Hosenstein) instead. Actress Jami Gertz was offered and declined the role of Monica before Friends went into production.

Monica once stated she was allergic to cat hair, but in another episode mentions she once owned a cat. Also in the episode, "The One with the Cat", she is able to pet and be around Phoebe's cat with no apparent allergic reaction.

Monica utters the first line in the show: "There's nothing to tell, he's just some guy I work with." Monica's last line is answering Rachel's offer to have coffee before they leave: "We got some time".

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