20. What About Joey?
No matter how many years have passed since the final episode of Friends was aired on our screen, we still love these guys! The lives of Monica, Chandler, Phoebe, Joey, Rachel, and Ross have made our days happier during the decade that emerged and still does it now when generations start watching the series, learning about their funny, complicated and sometimes weird lives of the six friends.
But as much as we love Friends, having watched it for gazillions of time has also made us aware some things are not so right – be it about a terrible character or a hole in the plot. However, the comedy and emotion are great at concealing all imperfections. Here are some of the most interesting things people would ignore in this show…
Nobody is perfect in Friends, which is why we all love them. But what about Joey? He’s such a player that he would be considered a sleazeball in real life. And would we find him funny if he was less attractive? For example, when he heated the apartment so that Janine would walk around in her undergarments… wasn’t he a creep?
19. How Come Is He So Simple?
We get it, Joey is not the intelligent guy in the show, but in the beginning, he was sarcastic and competent. How did he come to be just a simpleton with nothing in that brain of his? How can a real human not really get it when he tries to speak French that it sounds completely different from what he hears on the tape?
18. Chandler and Rachel
Let’s leave Joey for now and notice how many times have Rachel and Chandler “met” for the first time – too many times! According to all of the seasons, Rachel and Chandler have met for the first time for about four times: a flashback from season them shows them making out, they met in high school and college, and they’re again introduced when Rachel runs into Central Perk from her wedding!
17. Who Got Janice Pregnant?
How is it possible that when Rachel is about to give birth to Emma, Janice also goes into labor? The last time Janice appeared was when she had dinner with Monica and Chandler and invited herself to the wedding. She also told them she got stood up by her boyfriend. At the wedding, Rachel finds out she’s pregnant, and in the hospital, as she is in labor, Janice says she met Sid one year ago… This is confusing.
16. When Chandler Tells Monica “I Love You”
The first time Chandler says “I Love You” to Monica is when she dances with that huge turkey on her head on The One With All The Thanksgivings. The second one is in The One Where They All Find Out when Chandler tells the others that he loves Monica and she comes from the bathroom, stunned, as if she heard it for the first time.
15. Do They Even Have a Job?
We know they all have some sort of work, but do they really work? Rachel works at Ralph Lauren, Monica is a chef, Phoebe is a masseuse, Joey’s an actor, Ross is a paleontologist and Chandler works in statistical analysis. Seeing how Joey is struggling, he should be at every auditioning possible, and Monica being a chef, she’d have no free time! And still, they do spend a lot of time together.
Talking about jobs…
14. The Broke Friends
Have you noticed that Joey and Phoebe don’t really have great jobs? Both their jobs are inconsistent, so shouldn’t they be broke or at least seem poorer? We know Joey borrows money from Chandler, but how can they afford those New York apartments? And then there’s this weird fact at #8.
13. The Disappearing Permanent Ink
Remember that funny moment in Vegas when Rachel and Ross got married and had permanent ink on their faces? Rachel discovers that the permanent ink is not removable, but how come that the next day, the ink is gone? You’d say it might have come off during the night, but when they woke up in bed, it was still there.
12. Ross Likes Ice Cream!
Remember when Chandler said he doesn’t like dogs and then Ross says he doesn’t like ice cream because “it’s too cold”? Well, in other episodes he does eat ice cream and enjoys it as we all do. In an episode with Elizabeth and the monkey Marcel, he is seen eating ice cream and not complaining about his teeth!
11. The Birthdays…
These characters are supposed to be in their mid-twenties when they first appeared in the show. But over the seasons, the birthdays seem to change. For example, Rachel tells Gunther her birthday is in May, but a few seasons later, she says she an Aquarius – and that should be in January or February. The same goes for Ross when we know his birthday is in October, but he said in an episode he was “seven months” ago from October…
10. What About Phoebe?
How come Phoebe is friends with the gang? She doesn’t seem to fit at all with the others. She almost ruins Monica’s restaurant, Joey’s guitar lessons and even mugs Ross once. She is funny, but she ditches her friends for her boyfriend. Would we like her in real life? Not really!
9. The Age of the Friends
There are some weird ages in the gang, and we think that the purple apartment is a time machine. Bear with us: in season 7, Rachel is turning 30 – the last one to do so. However, Joey is in season 1 the youngest of them all at 25 years old. In seasons 3, 4 and 5 Ross appears to be 29, and in between these seasons, many Christmases and Thanksgivings happen…
8. Alone Time?
Let’s be a little realistic – we have friends, but we’re not always together… If these guys would be like us, we’d have no show to watch. They hang out way too much – even at the wee hours in the morning. They might be all extroverts, but in real life, we’d get sick of each other if we met that often.
7. Ross Is Not Boyfriend Material
The worst boyfriend of the year goes to Ross – yes, the one that said Rachel’s name at the altar as he was about to marry Emily. The one who left Mona at the movies and the possessive and jealous one that sent Rachel extravagant gifts at her workplace as if he was marking his territory to ward off other males. Bad Ross!
6. Is Phoebe Bilingual?
In the episode when Phoebe tries to teach Joey French, she sounds fluent. However, in the episode The One With Rachel’s Date, Phoebe doesn’t know what ‘sous chef’ means, which is a basic term. Seeing her talk so well in French and not know this basic word is weird…
5. Ross and His Gender Issues
Have you seen how many of Ross’ ideas on gender are old-fashioned? He cannot stand the fact that Ben is playing with dolls like a girl and he’s reluctant when he has to hire Sandy as a nanny for baby Emma although he is a man.
4. Rachel’s Famous Trifle
Oh, the traditional English trifle that tasted like feet, half made with shepherd’s pie! It’s a funny episode, we agree, but was Rachel that silly not to realize that all those excuses were so unrealistic? She had to tell from their faces that the trifle was a mess!
3. Ross and His Girlfriends
We find out in the first season that Ross has been with Carol, who is his ex-wife and then he is with Rachel, the second person he has ever been with. But in season 7 there’s a reveal that Chandler wasn’t the one having “bedroom time” with the cleaning lady in college. It was Ross the one fooling around!
2. The Cutest Baby on TV
Maybe Emma is the cutest baby ever on TV, but instead being part of the show, she is always left with a babysitter or a grandparent – and we know that babies are a full-time thing! Plus, can Rachel actually move to Paris and have her mom bring the baby without asking Ross?
1. Where’s Ben?
Talking about kids, what about Ben? He kind of disappeared after season 8 and we didn’t even hear about him meeting his half-sister or see them meeting on-screen. That is sad!
One thing is true in the end: No matter what series come out to try to revive this story, we’ll all remember how much we love Friends.