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Photo credit: Sean Lanigan
By Sean Lanigan
“We were on a break.” That’s the famous line David Schwimmer used as Ross Geller in the popular 1994-2004 NBC show , Friends. One thing that’s not on a break is the show’s continued popularity from generation to generation.
On November 5th, I was able to cover and participate in an Advanced Friends Trivia night at the Connetquot Public Library. “Advanced” is the keyword here as everybody indeed agreed that’s what the questions were. Before you judge, could you answer a question like “What was the first song Monica sang at the piano bar?”
Before the event, I met with Nancy Seims, a Librarian at Connetquot Public Library and the organizer of the event, to find out what gave her the idea to put this event together. “I love Friends and trivia programs here at the library get great turnouts. We had a Seinfeld trivia night that also had a great turnout,” she said.
More importantly, I wanted to hear Nancy’s thoughts on what she thinks makes Friends stand out from generation to generation. “Friends is very referenceable, very watchable, and very quotable. I can think of at least five Friends quotes or moments a day.”
Ok, on to the trivia. There were four teams for the trivia game. The demographics of the groups included people of all different age groups. The team names were Dirt Bikes, Future Friends, Dr. Drake and the Ramores, and Friends Forever, which was the name of my group. I pitched the idea to come up with a name that relates to the legacy and the continued popularity of the show, and my teammate came up with Friends Forever.
The game had five rounds plus a bonus round. People in all of the groups were taken back how difficult it was to answer all of the advanced questions. Questions like, “From what state is Erica from?” “What is the figure on top of the Geller Cup?” “Name the cop that Phoebe dated?” “What other show was Ursula on?”
The Ursula question I knew. One person in my group thought she was on the show Frazier, but I knew that Ursula was on the NBC show Mad About You. I also knew the first question posed about Monica and the Piano Bar, the song being “Delta Dawn.” The rest of the topics ranged from head-scratching to impossible. Our group, Friends Forever, finished in second place out of the four groups. The group that walked away victorious in this trivia night was Dirt Bikes. Amazingly, that group was made up of mostly younger people who probably watched Friends through either television re-runs or on Netflix. Often when I turn on Netflix at my house, it always seems to be trending. The show’s continued popularity was apparent at trivia night.
Each member of the winning Dirt Bikes group received a gift card from Amazon and a Friends coffee mug that says, “How You Doin’?” If you don’t recognize that phrase, it would be impossible for you to compete in Friends trivia night.
At the end of the night, I asked one of the contestants what she loved about Friends and how she felt that the show has managed to continue its amazing popularity? She replied, “Friends is a great show, it’s very funny. It is a timeless show and great humor still holds up.”
“Oh. My. Gawd.” I couldn’t agree more.
