Spoiler space for those outside the US
"TOW No One Proposed"
There were several excellent comedic moments in tonight's episodes, too many for me to remember even a half hour after watching it. The epitome of classic comedic timing was turned in by Matt Perry when Monica came up behind Chandler and said, "I want to have a baby!" With perfect movement and timing, Chandler turned his head and said, "I've told you before, Monica. I need to be facing the other way for that."
Now that's comedy!
Joey was very funny throughout, and old Joey kept creeping out every once in awhile, even while new Joey was doing his best - lame as it was - to untangle the mess he made.
At the same time, it is hard to get past the fact that if it weren't for the fact that the main goal was hijinx, it is very hard to see how such confusion would have gone on so long in real life. While it was all very funny, there were some very predictable things about it. We *knew* as it unfolded that Phoebe's conversations with Rachel and with Monica would not unearth the confusion but merely compound it. How could Phoebe go that long in her conversation with Rachel sticking to the personal pronoun "he"? What is the likelyhood that a real person wouldn't have said "his" name at least once in there? It seems astronomically small to me. Phoebe's conversation with Monica was not as bad on that count, I guess. Monica did use "his" name, but that brings up another question: how could Phoebe take that question seriously enough to answer "Ross, especially!" Wouldn't your first response be more like, "Um, why would Ross be the one that has a problem with it, he's the one who proposed!" ? It's almost like Phoebe was trying to perpetuate the confusion.
Things left unsaid: "Um, Rachel, the ring was given to me by my Mom here at the hospital - she wanted me to propose, but I didn't want to rush into it."
Speaking of which, where was she? Man, plot device characters are never around when they're *really* needed ;-) They just kind of swoop in, drop the time bomb, and then parachute out to safety.
I also wondered about Ross saying he hadn't slept for 40 hours. Is that really realistic? Or is that just hyperbole on his part? I guess I can see where he would have had trouble sleeping.