10 Times Ross Geller Was The Actual Worst In Friends

Still, Ross, as a person, is kind of the worst. He has some really great moments, but they’re heavily outweighed by his terrible ones. These ten moments stick out as some of the worst.

10 Ross Secretly Recorded Rachel During Sex (And Didn't Destroy The Tape)

In “The One With The Videotape,” neither Ross nor Rachel is perfect. Rachel is wrong for lying and for trying to make it look like Ross came on to her. I don’t approve of that. That being said, it’s incredibly messed up that Ross secretly recorded Rachel during sex and kept the tape.

Even if he forgot the camera was there, the minute Ross realized it, he should have destroyed the video. There is no excuse for keeping someone else’s sex tape when they didn’t consent to it being made. He even knew that because he said he was going to give it to Rachel to destroy it, but then he didn’t.

If we are giving him the benefit of the doubt that he forgot he had it, then it’s just as wrong that he used it as a threat against her. No matter which way you look at it, Ross was the actual worst in this Friends situation.

9 Ross Tried To Attack Phoebe And Rachel To Teach Them “Unagi”

Ross Geller is the kind of person who thinks he knows everything and is always right. He has no consideration for the fact that people could do things differently from him. A prime example of this is when he decides that Phoebe and Rachel don’t have “unagi.” He can’t accept that they don’t see him as the authority on self-defense, so he jumps to “let make them think they’re being attacked.”

On top of that, he clearly has no conception of the fact that men attacking women is a very real fear that activates the nervous system. Gender-based violence is a very real issue. It’s not a funny joke, and it’s not some great life lesson. Luckily, the show paints him as the incorrect jerk, and he gets his comeuppance.

8 Ross Denigrated Susan & Carol’s Relationship

Friends was never great at handling LGBTQ+ issues, and the way they wrote the Susan and Carol situation made Ross look pretty terrible. Ross's initial reaction to Carol leaving him for a woman isn’t great, but I can hold space for the fact that he felt blindsided. He’s allowed to feel hurt.

But the way he treats Susan and Carol’s relationship isn’t okay. He acts as if Susan and Carol’s relationship is somehow lesser than others, with the only exception being at their wedding. He repeatedly refers to the couple as just “friends.” He asks Carol to “put aside” that she’s a lesbian in a happy relationship.

He balks at the idea of them being “wife and wife” when he finds out they’re getting married. He makes a comment about Susan “turning” his wife gay. He doesn’t care when Carol tells him he needs to leave because they're celebrating an anniversary. He thinks Susan will turn Emily gay, even though Susan’s happily married and raising his child. The list goes on and on.

7 Ross Started Dating His Student

In Friends season 6, Ross introduces his friends to his student Elizabeth, whom he started dating. Most of Ross’s less-than-stellar moments didn’t stick out to me when I first watched the show, but the Ross and Elizabeth storyline is a big exception. A professor dating a student is not only unprofessional, but it’s creepy, gross, and an abuse of power.

It doesn’t matter to me that Elizabeth was the one who expressed interest first. She anonymously called him cute, and then he tracked down which student said it and started dating her. Ross is the person in power in that situation. It was his responsibility to ignore her comment.

Then, to make matters worse, Ross acts surprised and judgmental when Elizabeth, who is barely an adult, acts immature. Of course, she’s immature. Stop dating a young college student, Ross! I’m just grateful that they scrapped the plan for Elizabeth to become pregnant.

6 Ross Was A Terrible Boyfriend

Even if he’s a great character, it’s kind of hard to argue with the fact that Ross was a terrible boyfriend. He became an insanely jealous, controlling boyfriend toward Rachel. His nonstop love-bombing and unannounced appearances at her job are huge red flags. He disrespects her job both when she’s a waitress and in the fashion industry.

The problems don’t stop with Rachel. He cheated on Julie and then made a list comparing her to Rachel. He mistreats Julie, which I will discuss in another section. He got upset when Bonnie shaved her head, even though he knew she liked to shave her head before they started dating. Then, he cheated on her.

Ross freaked out about Elizabeth going on spring break and tried to force her not to wear a bikini. Then, he showed up on her trip unannounced. He yanked Mona around. The only girlfriend he treats well is Charlie.

5 Ross Told Phoebe That The Cat Wasn’t Her Mother

Ross was repeatedly cruel to Phoebe about her spirituality in Friends, and it’s hard to watch. When Phoebe believes her mom has come back to her as a cat, Ross is mean to her about the situation before he even knows that the cat is lost.

He accuses her of taking her grandma’s medications when she even suggests the idea. At one point, he says she’s a “crazy lady” for her belief. Ross completely disrespects her belief in reincarnation. Then, later in the episode, he shouts at her, “Not mom, cat!”

Even if Ross wanted Phoebe to give the cat back, he could have been more sensitive in that situation. It feels less like he wanted the kid to have her cat back and more like he just wanted to be right. The only thing I will give him credit for is apologizing to Phoebe and the cat.

4 Ross Cheated On Rachel With Chloe

The most heated debate in the Friends fandom is whether Ross and Rachel were on a break. People can argue back and forth about that. To me, it’s a technicality that’s inconsequential. The way Ross reacted the day after tells me that, in his mind, he had done something wrong by sleeping with Chloe.

Ross tried to rush Chloe out of his apartment as soon as he thought Rachel was coming over, and then he hid her behind a door. He went to great lengths to ensure Rachel would never find out about them sleeping together. He agrees with Jasmine when she says that he did a “bad thing.”

If he truly thought he was in the right, he wouldn’t have tried so hard to keep the truth from her. Whenever people said he did something wrong or bad throughout the day, he would point out that they were on a break. His actions were those of a guilty man.

3 Ross Stops Seeing Ben

When the show started, Ross was an attentive and involved father who made time for his kid. He made some mistakes by trying to take the Barbie and devaluing the relationship of Bens' mothers. However, he was generally pretty good. The problem is that he becomes less and less a part of his child’s life.

Ross occasionally “babysits,” which is really just him doing his job as a father. He sees him during the holiday. However, Ben becomes increasingly absent until he disappears altogether. Ross even stops mentioning him.

His absentee parenting of Ben becomes particularly noteworthy when considering how he is in Emma’s life. Ross is constantly there with Emma, and he talks about her all the time when she’s not with him. It just makes me sad that he didn’t give Ben the same time and energy.

2 Ross Proposed To Emily While He Was In Love With Rachel

When discussing Ross’s bad moments, most people hone in on the fact that Ross said “Rachel” at his wedding to Emily. However, I think the problem started much earlier than that. Ross starts dating Emily to get over Rachel, which isn’t exactly fair to her. However, she knows this, and he does actually seem to try to be happy with her.

Unfortunately, he crosses the line from “sort of a bad boyfriend” to completely terrible when he proposes to Emily. He agreed to make a long-term, legal commitment to Emily, knowing he still had feelings for Rachel. He let Emily put together the wedding of her dreams, knowing he still had feelings for Rachel. He showed up to the wedding, knowing he still had feelings for Rachel.

At any point, he could have told Emily he needed more time to heal or broken up with her. Better yet, he could have been honest about his feelings for Rachel and let Emily decide if she still wanted to move forward. His saying Rachel’s name at the wedding was just the end result of a series of bad choices.

1 Ross Tried To Sabotage Rachel’s Dream Job In Paris

Ross did a lot of really terrible things to Rachel, but the one that sticks with me as unforgivable is that he actively tried to stop Rachel from taking her dream job in Paris. It's incredibly hard to get jobs in fashion. After years of hard work, Rachel got a high-level job that not only fulfilled her creatively and professionally but would also financially support her and her daughter.

However, Ross was so selfish that he put himself above Rachel's career aspirations and his daughter's well-being. First, he tried to sabotage this by making her take back her old job. Then, when that didn’t work, he tried to go to the airport to stop her from getting on the plane. His behavior was extremely manipulative. That being said, it was ultimately Rachel’s (really terrible) decision to get off the plane at the end of Friends.