“The One With Ross's Tan”

Friends season 10, episode 3
Original air date: October 09, 2003

Ross becomes obsessed with Monica's perfect tan, which she has sprayed on at a salon. At first he ridicules her for the spray-on part, but he eventually decides that he, too, needs to get this perfect tan. (Monica begins telling everyone that Chandler gets pedicures, in retaliation for his revealing her spray-on tan secret.) When Ross goes to the tanning salon, though, he's unable to follow the instructions the clerk gives him. He's supposed to get sprayed on the front, count to five, turn around and get sprayed on the back. He counts too slowly and ends up getting sprayed on the front both times. He tries to even it out by getting sprayed on the back twice, but the same thing happens again. Hilarity ensues, as he continues to try to even it out, over and over again with the same results.

Monica and Phoebe are having difficulties, as well, with their friend Amanda, who has returned from a few years in England and is — they believe — faking a new British accent. Monica tries to defriend her, at Phoebe's urging, and simply stops taking her calls. Unfortunately, she doesn't let Chandler in on the plan, and when Amanda calls, he hands the phone over to Monica. Unable to avoid Amanda, Monica ropes Phoebe into dinner as well. When the three of them get together, Amanda mentions that she's so happy that Phoebe and Monica are still friends, what with Phoebe having tried to defriend Monica back before Amanda left the U.S.

Monica's outraged at the revelation that Phoebe was trying to defriend her. However, Phoebe explains that when she was trying to defriend Monica, it was right after they'd been living together, and they were just absolutely driving each other nuts. Phoebe further tells Monica that she's the only person Phoebe's ever tried to defriend who clawed her way back to friend status. Phoebe praises Monica for being so scrappy, and they agree to join forces against Amanda, who is now giving Chandler a very unwelcome dance show.

Joey and Rachel are facing the most serious difficulty of all, though. They've gone on their first date, and although they're each using their best moves, suddenly neither one of them is turned on anymore. They try to soldier on, after Monica reminds Rachel of how weird she felt the first time Ross tried to kiss her, but they just can't do it. They agree that they must just be scared of screwing up such a great friendship.