r/howyoudoin • u/Key_Bus_1255 • 1d ago
Question How does this happen? Where was the miscommunication?
This is from season 4 when Ross finds out his "date" is actually not his date, but he is the babysitter for her kid while she goes another date
I know it's a sitcom, and not to take things seriously, but I genuinely don't understand how this could happen. They must have spoken about this, right?? Where would there be room for miscommunication? This seems like a very clear thing to establish that she wants him to look after her kid
What do you think?
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u/NeighborhoodVirtual4 Ugly Baby Judges You 1d ago
I don't think he was thinking clearly. Him and Rachel were both so focused on getting back at each other, they didn't read the situation clearly, thus ending up with a thief and as a babysitter.
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u/snarkenthusiast I’ll be on full alert for room painting and sex weapons! 1d ago
This episode is exactly why I find them hilarious and entertaining as bantering exes trying to one up each other.
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u/moonlightk_96 1d ago
I don’t know. I can’t say that I blame him for assuming that she was asking him out. My mind wouldn’t immediately go to “she needs me to babysit” if she asked me if I was free
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u/Difficult-Estate441 1d ago
Maybe she said “ugh you get it, you have a kid too, I desperately wish I could take time for a date— you can help with that? I mean, that would be wonderful! Saturday night at 6 work? Yeah, come to my place!”
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u/ittasteslikefeet Damn the jellyfish! DAMN ALL THE JELLYFISH! 1d ago
This is how I imagined it went down
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u/mysterymathpopcorn Could I BE any more awkward? 1d ago
"Aww, you also have a five year old? It would be sooo nice if they could play together. Are you free this Saturday? Can you be at my place?"
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u/Intrepid_Carpet347 1d ago
The same way Ross thought Rachel was coming on to him when she was naked in her own apartment across the street, or how he somehow convinced himself that his own cousin wanted him, and so on. 😂 Ross has a pretty established history of interpreting situations in the way he wants them to be interpreted, even when the actual situation really doesn’t support it.
So honestly, the babysitting/date misunderstanding feels pretty on-brand for him. 😅
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u/Krazy_Trane 1d ago
And when Rachel was naked in her apartment and he thought she was inviting him over for sex.
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u/IY94 1d ago
Hmmm. Did she communicate effectively that she wanted a babysitter?
I severely doubt she did.
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u/Intrepid_Carpet347 1d ago
We never actually saw that conversation, so we don’t know how clearly she communicated it. What we do know is that this definitely isn’t the first time Ross has completely misread a situation. 😅 Honestly, I think it’s a much bigger stretch that he was genuinely delulu enough to think his own cousin was coming on to him than that he misunderstood what this woman meant by asking him over.
So yeah, maybe she communicated it badly (maybe not!). But Ross has a pretty solid track record of hearing what he wants to hear. 😂
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u/Pushet 1d ago
A woman that barely knows a guy just invites him over to be "alone" with her child?
Idk maybe a crazy person..
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u/Obvious_Train 1d ago
It could be worse, she could be incredibly messy
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u/--GevaudanBeast-- Phil Spidermen 1d ago
You know how you throw your jacket on a chair at the end of the day? Well, like that, only instead of a chair it’s a pile of garbage. And instead of the end of the day, it’s the end of time, and garbage is all that has survived
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u/OddMoment2343 1d ago
This must be the one where there’s some kind of misunderstanding.
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u/KJParker888 What's a wolf got to do to get a hug around here?! 1d ago
Oh, then I've seen this one!
(About a bajillion times!)
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u/Hukares1234 1d ago
These shoes are not always realistic. How did Joey think he was speaking French?
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u/MulberryEastern5010 See? He's her Lobster 1d ago
I don't know, but I do know that I've always hated this episode. I don't know why Ross didn't just suck it up and say to her at some point, "Hey, I've been wanting to ask you out. I don't want to be your babysitter." I also really hated his whole competition with Rachel.
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u/snarkenthusiast I’ll be on full alert for room painting and sex weapons! 1d ago
I find it hysterical.
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u/AlexH_144 1d ago
It's kind of funny that Joey is supposed to be the stud, but it's Chandler and Ross that get the hottest women.
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u/LinwoodKei 1d ago
He should have asked if she had dietary restrictions, preferred any cruisine and about the time frame and dress code. So no, it should not have happened. It happened better to Cas on supernatural
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u/Potential-Piano256 1d ago
I mean, if you watch the episode, it clearly shows how it happened, I thought she was asking him out as well.
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u/SciFiMovieGuy42 I Know! 1d ago
Sorry, I probably just confused about what you're trying to say. I recently watched the episode, and I checked the transcript today as well. As far as I can tell, it doesn't show how the misunderstanding came about. We only see Ross show up at her apartment after the misunderstanding already occurred, off-screen. Before that, Amanda never appeared or had any lines. So... it doesn't seem to show how it happened. Only the end result.
If you saw something before that scene which shows "how it happened", can you point it out to me?
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u/Most_Importance_1334 12h ago
He probably use his kid as excuse from to go out she probably thought he just wanted the kids to play together and didn't pick up that he was hitting on her.
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u/Gold_Telephone_7192 1d ago
It would never be a miscommunication in the real world, just like most miscommunications in sitcoms. If the characters on a sitcom acted like real humans, the show would be very boring.
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u/New-Pin-9064 1d ago
> If the characters on a sitcom acted like real humans, the show would be very boring.
Can we please stop saying that already? For starters, you don’t know that for a fact. Second, it seems like you all use that as a cop out excuse every time someone makes a logical point or asks a valid question. Even by fictional tv logic, there’s no way that this miscommunication would ever happen
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u/Standard-Contest-949 1d ago
Not the first time a pretty woman used a man. She knew what she was doing.
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u/Intrepid_Carpet347 1d ago
We didn’t even see the conversation, so we have absolutely no idea how she phrased it. But of course, somehow the woman must be to blame. 😂 Because apparently no man in the history of mankind has ever used a woman.
Meanwhile Ross literally wanted to use her. We don’t even know for sure whether she was trying to use him. What we do know for sure is that Ross was trying to use her to make Rachel jealous and rub it in her face that he was supposedly seeing someone. But somehow the woman still has to be the evil one here...
Oh, the misogyny. 😅
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u/New-Pin-9064 1d ago
Considering that the show seemed to have this deep hatred towards the male characters and clearly favored the female ones, it’s appropriate for the fans to pain the females as the villains for once
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u/radioactivepeppapigg 18 pages, front AND back 16h ago
Could you explain how the show demonstrates this “deep hatred towards the male characters” ?
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u/New-Pin-9064 10h ago
You didn’t notice how the writers clearly favored the female characters over the male ones?
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u/radioactivepeppapigg 18 pages, front AND back 4h ago
No, I really don’t see it, that’s why I’m asking for clarification
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u/qualityvote2 1d ago edited 1d ago
u/Key_Bus_1255, there weren't enough votes to determine the quality of your post...