Monica Geller

Monica E. Geller was a fictional character on the popular US television sitcom Friends (1994-2004), played by Courteney Cox.

History

Monica is the younger sister of Ross Geller. A used to be fat child. She met Ross' friend Chandler Bing when he and Ross were in college; Monica and Chandler got together in season 4 while in London and were married in season 7. Monica shared her apartment with Phoebe Buffay, who moved out before the series actually began, fearing their relationship would be strained when Monica's neatness became a burden. Monica's new roommate was her best friend from Lincoln High School, Rachel Green; in the pilot episode, Rachel left her fiancé Barry Farber at the altar and moved in with Monica. Monica met Joey Tribbiani when he became the new roommate of Chandler, who lived across the hall from Monica.

Monica quickly emerged as the "Mother Hen" of the group; she tended to look after her friends and took on the mammoth task of cooking Thanksgiving dinner for them every year, tailoring the menu to each member's peculiar tastes. Related to her obsessive personality, Monica is also very competitive, especially with her older brother, Ross.

Chandler and Monica

In season 4 Monica began an affair with her close friend Chandler.This happened at Ross's disastrous wedding to English girl Emily in London. Monica was upset after a guest mistook her for Ross's mother and turned to Chandler for comfort. They kept their relatiobship secret for a while but eventually Joey found out and it spread throughout the group. The two fell in love and eventually moved in together, forcing Rachel to move out. The two married and, in the final episode, watched as their adopted twins -- Erica and Jack -- ("We only ordered one!"), were born.

The two almost didn't get engaged because one of Monica's ex-boyfriends, Dr. Richard Burke, came back into her life. Burke was significantly older than Monica (21 years - "I'm a whole person that can drink older than you;" he was friends with Monica's parents) but the two fell in love during season 2. They broke up at the end of that season because Richard was not interested in having children again. A chance meeting with Monica during season 6 rekindled Richard's passion, and he told her that he was willing to have kids if it meant he could be with her. When Richard discovered that Chandler was going to propose to Monica, he stepped aside so the two of them could be together. They had a romantic day aside from Joeys questionable attire, and found out that Rachel was pregnant.

Personality

Monica is comically obsessive about the state of her apartment, and appears to relish the idea of cleaning (she described the dry cleaner as her Disneyland). This personality trait became more and more exaggerated as the series progressed. In one episode, it was revealed that she categorised her towels into 11 sections, with examples being "Everyday use", "Guest", "Fancy" and "Fancy Guest". She labels everything from dishes to photographs. Chandler was also able to wake her up by announcing that he "probably won't spill coffee granules all over the kitchen floor" when going for a cup of coffee. When Ross tells her that one of his girlfriends has an incredibly messy apartment, Monica tries to go and clean the messy apartment because she is unable to sleep. She is obsessive to the point that she even cleans her cleaning supplies, using a dustbuster to remove dirt from a vacuum cleaner and wishing there were an even smaller vacuum to clean the dustbuster. In a humorous twist during season 8, it was discovered by Chandler that the locked hall closet next to the bathroom in the apartment was actually a disorganized storage unit where Monica kept useless junk that she didn't want to throw away. Monica is also very competitive, once allegedly throwing a plate in a fit of rage during a game of Pictionary, and once declared that "rules help control the fun!" She also demonstrates incredible athletic prowess, which, coupled with her competitive streak, makes her formidable against even the guys; in their youth, Monica broke Ross's nose when a game of touch football turned ugly.

"Fat Monica"

It is revealed early in the series that she had been obese as a child and teenager. When she joined the Brown Birds (a Girl Scouts-type of organization); she ate all the cookies she was supposed to sell. When she was a goalie for the field hockey team, her nickname was "Big Fat Goalie," and her oversized high school band uniform was a special project for the home ec classes. She kept the weight until she was 18, then lost it in one year after she overheard Chandler call her "fat". The writers of the series often used flashbacks to show the overweight Monica. In one episode, when the group watched an old prom video and were surprised to see her weight, Joey yelled "Some girl ate Monica!" Monica tried to stick up for herself, claiming the camera adds ten pounds. Chandler was quick to retort, "So how many cameras are actually ON you?" In an alternate reality storyline during the show ("The One That Could Have Been"), Monica was still overweight, but nonetheless kept her occupation as a chef and still ended up in love with Chandler.

Employment

Monica is a chef, and, as with most areas of her life, she is obsessive and competitive about it. Originally, she merely worked as a poorly paid chef at a restaurant called Iridium. When she was fired for accepting a gift from a food distributor, Monica went on to stint at a 50s theme restaurant called the Moondance Diner, where she wore a blonde wig, rollerskates and massive fake breasts. While working at the diner, she met millionaire Pete Becker. Monica also had a short-lived catering business with Phoebe.

Monica was eventually hired as head chef at a local restaurant, Allesandro's. At first, her employees disliked Monica due to the fact that many of them were the children of the previous head chef, coupled with a fairly scathing review she had published in a local newspaper about the restaurant. However, Monica hired her friend Joey as a waiter, solely to fire him, thereby appearing to be a tough boss. It apparently worked as her problems with her employees were reduced. She left Allesandro's when Chandler's employer required him to relocate to Tulsa, Oklahoma; however, when she contacted a job-hunter about Tulsa restaurant openings, she found out about, and accepted, her new job as head chef at Javu, an upmarket restaurant.

The Geller Family

Monica is the younger sister of Ross Geller, and there is a great deal of competition between the two. Ross was often mean to her as a child, although she has since forgiven him. Monica and Ross often fall back into childish "brother/sister" arguments, especially when their parents are around. Monica feels her parents favor Ross - her mother tends to be especially critical of her and has sometimes forgotten that she has two children. Her mother also is always telling her to get married. Monica's father is Jewish and, although she never shows any religious or ethnic identification, she is sometimes identified as Jewish by others in the group (as in Phoebe's holiday song "Happy Hanukkah, Monica" line)though it could be coincidental and Hanukkah rhymes with Monica!

The Mysterious Middle Name

Monica's middle name is the only one never revealed throughout the series (if we consider the fact that even Phoebe herself didn't know her own, for not having a birth certificate). There are just two mentions about Monica's middle name: when she bought stocks named as MEG only because the company had the same initials as her (in "The One With the Bullies") and when Phoebe invents a middle name when signing a delivery on behalf of Monica ("The One With the Racecar Bed" - the script spells the name as "Felula", which was just a joke and can't be counted). Therefore, her whole name is only known to us as Monica E. Geller (when she married Chandler she never took his last name because she couldn't stand the idea of being an official Bing, having previously told Chandler that "Bing's weird", which was revealed in "The One With Princess Consuela"). However during an argument in one episode ("The One with the Memorial Service") Phoebe refers to her as "Monica Geller hyphen Bing".

Trivia

• The role of Monica was originally conceived as the oldest of the friends, but was changed after Courtney Cox was cast. Ironically, Courtney Cox is the second oldest member of the Friends cast.
• Leah Remini auditioned for the role of Monica.
• Maggie Wheeler also auditioned for the part but ended up playing recurring character Janice instead.
• Monica lost her weight because she overheard Chandler making fun of her during the first Thanksgiving he spent with the Geller Family. Monica also became a chef because Chandler liked her macaroni and cheese and jokingly told her she should be a chef.
• Monica's apartment was one of the main focal points of the series. Many critics of the show began to question how Monica could ever afford the apartment on a chef's salary, so the writers of Friends came up with the explanation that she illegally sub-let the apartment from her grandmother, who had moved to Florida. Also, in the final episode, Chandler remarked that "thanks to rent control, it was a friggin' steal."
• In The One with the Giant Poking Device, season 3, Monica bangs Ben (Ross's son) against the pillar in her apartment. Ben spends the rest of the episode saying "Monica Bang." In his little boy voice, it sounds like "Monica Bing," foreshadowing her marriage!