A TikTok User Warns This Rachel Montage From ‘Friends’ May “Ruin Your Life”
Updated Feb. 20 2021, 12:44 p.m. ET
If you see the phrase “Jennifer Aniston verbal tic” trending on social media, you likely have TikTok user cts.trphe to thank. And the montage that cts.trphe shared might just change how you watch Friends from now on.
“What I’m about to say is going to ruin your life. It’s going to ruin your life especially if you are a big fan of the show Friends,” cts.trphe says in the clip. “If you’re a big fan of that show, I’m begging you, scroll away because I’m going to ruin your life.”
Rachel Green clears her throat … a lot.
In the Jan. 14, 2021 upload — which currently has a million views and more than 175,000 likes — cts.trphe stitches a response onto a prompt from user sheherzog, who asked, “What is a trope in media that once you saw it you could not unsee it?”
Cts.trphe responds: “OK, so technically, this isn’t a trope, but … Jennifer Aniston has this sort of vocal tic that she does at the beginning of every single sentence that she starts on any show that she’s in. It’s very specific and it’s very hard to unsee once you notice it.”
The TikTok video then cuts to a montage of Jennifer, in character as Rachel Green on Friends, clearing her throat before speaking a line in more than a dozen scenes from the ever-popular NBC sitcom. “These are just the ones in Friends,” cts.trphe wrote in a caption.
And in the comments, cts.trphe wrote, “Poor Jen Jen. Someone get her a lozenge.”
Others have noticed Jennifer Aniston's vocal tic, too.
The montage cts.trphe shared comes from a 2019 YouTube video purporting to show Rachel clearing her throat 200 times over the course of the series, a video with more than 12,600 views. A shorter 2016 YouTube video, meanwhile, has racked up far more views.
And in a 2016 Cracked listicle, writer Erik Germ quipped that there must not have been water at the craft services table on the set of Friends. “If you find yourself watching reruns of the show, just try to ignore that constant cough you'll be hearing from now until forever,” Erik added.
Fans say Jennifer Aniston's vocal tic is just acting.
Some fans agreed with cts.trphe’s assessment. “Yes! She does this so much,” one TikTok user wrote. “A lot of people have crutches when acting when they don’t know what else to do. A lot of people sigh or grunt, etc.”
But others say it’s not a tic (not that there’s anything wrong with tics). “I thought it was just, like, acting?” another commenter wrote. “To indicate that the character is uncomfortable. She only seems to do it in situations that are a little awkward.
A third TikTok user commented: “Bruh, she’s… acting. She does it when the character/situations are awkward.”
Another possible explanation? One commenter suggested the throat-clearing comes from Jennifer’s past cigarette use. The actress told GQ in 2012 that she had recently quit smoking, with Glamour reporting two years later that yoga helped her kick the habit.
