Turner fuels Friends reunion talk

I don't think that Monica is supposed to read as unintelligent. Crazy, controlling and nightmarish, but not unintelligent. Rachel isn't a rocket scientist but she's not supposed to be stupid, either. You could make a very strong argument that even though Ross and Chandler have all of the signposts/accolades that people associate with intelligence, they aren't really any smarter than Monica and Rachel; in fact, Monica's career doesn't have the same type of academic path, so she can't really be compared on the same scale, and Rachel spent too much time self-absorbedly looking a husband to be a trophy wife towards to build up academic credentials.

Also I'm not sure why we're talking about academic achievement. When the writers sit down and say "Ross/Rachel/Monica does something dumb", they don't mean "fails to conjugate a latin verb".