Danny DeVito in a police uniform. Let that sink in for a second. If you grew up in the early 2000s, you remember exactly where you were when the promos for The One Where the Stripper Cries first aired. It was Season 10. The end was near. The stakes for the characters were somehow both incredibly high—Monica and Chandler were getting ready for a baby—and ridiculously low.
It’s a weird episode.
Honestly, by the time we got to 2004, Friends had transitioned from a show about struggling twenty-somethings into a massive cultural victory lap. This specific episode, which is the 11th episode of the final season, serves as a perfect time capsule of that era's "stunt casting" energy. You had Danny DeVito guest-starring as Roy the stripper, Donny Osmond making a cameo on a fake game show, and a flashback sequence that retconned the entire history of Ross and Rachel’s first kiss.
It's a lot.
The Danny DeVito Cameo That Nobody Expected
Phoebe’s bachelorette party was supposed to be sophisticated. That was the joke, right? Monica and Rachel, acting as the quintessential "Type A" and "Fashionista" duo, decided Phoebe wanted tea and crumpets. They were wrong. Phoebe Buffay, a woman who once lived on the streets and has a twin sister in the adult film industry, obviously wanted a stripper.
Enter Roy "Goodbody."
When Danny DeVito walks through that door, the audience reaction isn't just canned laughter; it's genuine shock. He's wearing a 1970s-style police officer costume that fits... poorly. The comedy in The One Where the Stripper Cries comes from the sheer physical commitment DeVito brings to the role. He isn't just playing a bad stripper; he’s playing a man who has lost his passion for the "art" of the peel.
He’s out of breath. He’s sweaty. He’s clearly older than the demographic typically hired for these gigs.
When Phoebe expresses her disappointment—because she wanted a "hot" stripper—Roy has a total emotional breakdown. It’s one of the most uncomfortable yet hilarious sequences in the show's ten-year run. The sight of a middle-aged Danny DeVito crying on a beige sofa while Phoebe tries to comfort him by asking him to "do the thing with the handcuffs" is peak sitcom absurdity.
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Why the Flashback in This Episode Annoyed Hardcore Fans
While the stripper storyline handles the "A-plot" comedy, the "B-plot" involves a college reunion for Ross and Chandler. This is where the episode gets controversial among the fandom. We get another look at "Fat Monica" and "Rachel’s Original Nose," which were staples of the Friends flashback universe.
But then they changed the lore.
For years, we were told that Ross and Rachel’s first kiss happened at the laundromat or, more pivotally, at the coffee house after Ross found out she had feelings for him. In The One Where the Stripper Cries, the writers introduced a new "fact": Ross and Rachel actually kissed in a dark bedroom at a college party in 1987.
Wait. It gets worse.
It turns out that because it was dark, Ross didn't realize he was kissing Rachel, and Rachel didn't realize she was kissing Ross. Later in the episode, through a series of horrified realizations, it’s revealed that Ross actually kissed his sister, Monica, in the dark, thinking she was Rachel. And Monica thought her first-ever kiss was with a mysterious stranger who turned out to be her brother.
Yeah. It’s gross.
Most fans tend to ignore this bit of canon. It feels like a "writer's room" joke that went too far. When you're 230 episodes deep into a series, you start reaching for shocks, and "Ross kissed his sister" was definitely a reach. Still, David Schwimmer and Courteney Cox play the realization with such pitch-perfect disgust that you almost forgive the writers for the continuity error.
The Donny Osmond Cameo and Joey's Career
Then there’s Joey.
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Joey Tribbiani appearing on Pyramid (the game show) is a masterclass in Matt LeBlanc’s physical comedy. Donny Osmond plays the host, and he plays it straight, which makes Joey’s stupidity shine even brighter.
The category is things you find in a refrigerator.
The clue is "You put this in your coffee."
Joey’s answer? "A spoon! Your finger! A paper clip!"
It's a classic Joey moment. He’s a character who has consistently failed upward, and seeing him blow a chance at winning money for a contestant because he can’t identify "cream" is frustratingly on-brand. It adds a layer of frantic energy to the episode that balances out the slower, more sentimental beats of the final season.
How the Episode Ranks in the Final Season
If you look at the trajectory of Season 10, The One Where the Stripper Cries is a bit of a breather. It sits between the heavy emotional lifting of the "Phoebe’s Wedding" arc and the looming finale.
Critics at the time, including reviewers from The A.V. Club and Entertainment Weekly, noted that the episode felt like a variety show. You had the guest stars, the flashbacks, the game show segments. It didn't push the plot forward significantly, but it gave the audience one last chance to see the cast just being funny before the "Final Goodbye" took over the narrative.
Actually, according to IMDb ratings, this episode consistently ranks higher than many other Season 10 entries, largely due to DeVito’s performance. Guest stars on Friends were hit or miss—remember Jean-Claude Van Damme?—but DeVito’s Roy is universally beloved because he wasn't just a celebrity playing himself. He was a character with a pathetic, hilarious arc.
Fact-Checking the Production
There are a few things people get wrong about this episode.
First, people often think this was the episode where Phoebe got married. It wasn't. That happens in the very next episode. This was the bachelorette party "gone wrong" episode.
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Second, the college flashback isn't the same one as the "Prom Video." The prom video happened in high school. This reunion flashback happened during their college years at NYU/Columbia.
Finally, Danny DeVito actually earned an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for this role. It wasn’t just a "fan favorite" moment; the industry recognized that he stole the show. He lost the Emmy to John Turturro (for Monk), but the nomination solidified Roy the Stripper in the pantheon of great TV guests.
The Legacy of the Crying Stripper
Rewatching The One Where the Stripper Cries today feels different. In the age of streaming, we see the cracks in the writing more clearly—the weird "incest" joke, the convenient game show appearance. But the heart of the show remains.
The chemistry between Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow, and Courteney Cox during the apartment scenes is effortless. They aren't just acting like friends; by 2004, they were a well-oiled machine. They knew how to play off each other's timing perfectly. When they realize Roy is crying, their transition from annoyance to "mothering" him is a testament to how well those characters were developed. They were kind people, even when they were being shallow.
If you’re doing a rewatch, pay attention to the lighting in the flashback scenes. The production team intentionally used a warmer, grainier filter to distinguish the 80s from the "present day" 2004. It’s a subtle touch that many people miss on a casual viewing.
Practical Takeaways for Fans
If you're looking to revisit this episode or analyze it for a project, here are the key things to keep in mind:
- Watch for the Bloopers: The DVD extras (and now YouTube) show that Danny DeVito kept the cast breaking character for nearly forty minutes during the stripping sequence. The versions that made it to air are the only ones where the girls kept a somewhat straight face.
- Context Matters: This episode aired in February 2004. The show was only three months away from ending forever. The "vibe" of the episode reflects a show that knows it’s the king of the mountain and isn't afraid to be silly.
- The Continuity Trap: Don't try to make the Ross/Monica/Rachel kiss make sense with the rest of the series. It doesn't. Just enjoy the cringe.
- Guest Star Impact: Use this episode as a case study for how to use a "big name" guest star without overshadowing the main cast. DeVito is the catalyst, but the reactions of the main six are what drive the comedy.
The best way to experience this episode now is to look past the "stunt" nature of the casting and focus on the character dynamics. It's a reminder that even at its most absurd—with crying strippers and game show failures—Friends was always about the specific, messy ways people care about each other.
Check out the behind-the-scenes interviews from the Friends: Final Thoughts special if you want to see DeVito talk about his experience on set. He famously said he had a blast "being the most pathetic man in television history" for a week. That commitment is why we’re still talking about this episode two decades later.