Ross selects Joey to be his best man, but after the bachelor party, Joey has an encounter with the stripper they hired, and Ross’ ring goes missing. Meanwhile, Phoebe is dealing with severe mood swings and irritability due to her pregnancy hormones. Monica and Rachel organize a baby shower for Phoebe, but since she won’t be raising the babies, they give her gifts intended for after her pregnancy, which only frustrates her further.Joey, in a panic, attempts to recover the ring, a treasured Geller family heirloom. When Ross finds out about the missing ring, he becomes anxious, prompting the group to contact the stripper in hopes of retrieving it. However, they soon discover that the duck had swallowed the ring. After a visit to the vet, they manage to recover it. In the end, despite Joey offering to step aside, Ross decides he wants both Joey and Chandler to stand by his side as his best men.
Did you know ?!
• The magna doodle says: “Another one bites the dust.”
• The bachelor party decorations in Joey and Chandler’s apartment include inflated condoms. You can see them behind Ross in the scene when Joey first tells him about the ring.
• The magna doodle during the best man argument says, “Big chief ain’t got no fire water”.
• The $1600 that the stripper makes a week, in today’s money 2024 is $3, 065.84 a week
• Phoebe being a vegetarian wouldn’t wear leather pants having been made from cows. We know this based on her telling Chandler and Joey in a previous episode “I can’t believe cows had to make the ultimate sacrifice for your 2 chairs.”
• The fake name that Chandler uses to get the stripper to come to his office is Gunther Centralperk, a lukewarm tribute to the quirky waiter at the gang’s favorite hangout. It’s actually a joke because Gunther (from Central Perk) asked the guys, “Do you even know my last name?” to which Chandler responded “Gunther Centralperk?”
• Ross says that the ring was so special, when his grandmother emigrated she only had the clothes on her back and the ring. However it’s never explained why he never gave the ring to Carol. We know he never did because he says that anyone who’s worn it had a long marriage which he and Carol didn’t. Edit: the grandmother stilled lived when Ross married Carol, so why should Carol get the ring? However, later in the series, Ross gets the ring from his mother Judy, and Judy wants him to give it to Rachel when they have a baby.
• A scene featuring Emily only appears in the DVD version of the episode with Ross and Monica in Central Perk, where Ross confesses that he has his grandmother’s ring because their mother thought Monica didn’t need one. Monica then tells Emily where the ring has been. The regular episode features a tag scene with the duck swimming in a bucket. Despite this, Helen Baxendale is credited in both versions of this episode.
• When the guys call the stripper back to Chandler’s office to confront her about the stolen ring, Chandler tells Joey and Ross to “be cool” so that she wouldn’t recognize them right away. After she comes in, Ross immediately and in a panic asks her “Where is my grandmother’s ring?! Where is it? Where is it?!” The scene cuts to a wider angle, and Chandler responds “Way to be cool, man.” As he says this line you can see Joey hiding behind Ross bent over and stifling a laugh.
• Joey is upset about not being Ross’s best man at his wedding, but Chandler says to Joey, “You can be my best man when I get married.” When in fact Joey officiates the wedding between Chandler and Monica.
