Monica Geller
Monica E. Geller Bing was a
fictional character on the popular
US television sitcom Friends (
1994-
2004), played by
Courteney Cox.
Monica is the younger sister of
Ross Geller. She met Ross' friend
Chandler Bing when he and Ross were in college; Monica and Chandler
got together in season 4 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 Greene; 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.
In season 4 Monica began an affair with her close friend Chandler. 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 ("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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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, which was revealed in "
The One With Princess Consuela").
*
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."
* The fact that Monica and Chandler name one of their adopted children Jack, after Monica's father is strange given the fact that he is alive. In Judaism, children are traditionally named after dead relatives; naming someone after a person who is alive is generally considered a death wish for the relative (however, considering Chandler's history with Jack hating him, and Monica always feeling second place to Ross, a death wish isn't that far fetched; in addition to this, Chandler isn't Jewish, and Monica is never clearly stated as being a devout Jew, which could contribute to the naming).
* Jennifer Aniston was supposed to play the role of Ross' sister Monica, and Courtney Cox was cast for Rachel. But when Courtney saw the script, she saw that the she would fit the role of the obsessively clean Monica of Friends.
