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s01e01 Monica: Oh, good. Lenny and Squiggy are here

 

Who are Lenny and Squiggy?

Monica comes out of her bedroom after a night with Paul, the guy she is was convincing friends earlier she is only going to have dinner with and NOT have sex. When Monica sees Chandler and Joey in her living room having coffee, she comments to herself:

Monica: Oh, good. Lenny and Squiggy are here.

Who is Lenny and Squiggy? And is there an extra meaning to Joey's and Chandler's new nicknames, Monica just came up with?

Just like Joey and Chandler, Lenny and Squiggy are a couple of guy-roommates that come from a popular TV show in the USA.

The Lenny and Squiggy's TV show called Laverne & Shirley and was filmed from 1976 to 1983. Guess who are Laverne and Shirley? They are a couple of girl-roommates that live in the same building as the guys, Lenny and Squiggy. Now we get why Monica who just got herself Rachel as a girl roommate sees a clear parallel between them and boys across the hall.

Laverne, is a more tough-talking kinda girl, so I'd call Monica being the closest analogy to Leverne.

Lenny is described as a lovable goof of the group, so it would be Chandler.

Shriley was presented as the one with a more bubbly personality than the rest, she is more like Rachel.

Squiggy is a sort of more aggressive and a livelier type of character so I'd say Squiggy is Joey.

But the main reason why Monica draws analogy between Chandler/Joey and Lenny/Squiggy is because of the way the couple has a habit of bursting into her apartment with no permission.

Apparently Lenny and Squiggy entrance without knocking, when girls are saying something unpleasant, was a running gag on the Laverne & Shirley show.

Essentially that's what's happening in the scene above. Because Chandler and Joey are in Monica's apartment without any pre-planned agreement, Monica is forced to let out her I-just-slept-with-Paul secret to the guys.

So there you have it! Two extra layers of the joke we, non-native English speakers, were missing. First the analogy of guy-friends living next door to gall-friends in both TV shows. And the second guys bursting into the apartment of girls without invitation and therefore witnessing something comedic.

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I'd love to hear your take on it

Katia

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Location: New York, NY, USA

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