The Men of Friends

Has anyone else watched Friends and said, “I know those people, they’re my friends!” I’ve done that. In fact, I’ve watched episodes of the sitcom thinking, “Gosh, has someone peeked into my past to document my life in a comical way?” The television show, which was a hot commodity in the late 90’s, early 2000’s, is now a syndication gold mine. What better way to celebrate Wednesday Warriors than to include the men of Friends?

Each male character in the Friends universe has his quirks. Ross (David Schwimmer), for instance, is never quite sure where he stands in a relationship. Chandler (Matthew Perry) is the wisecracking joker of the group. Who doesn’t have a sarcastic buddy in their group of friends? Then there’s Joey (Matt LeBlanc), the struggling actor who doesn’t seem to have much luck landing a job in his profession. Together, they make up the men of Friends.

Let’s go deeper.

Ross Geller—He works with dinosaur bones. He knows a lot about science. Ask him about carbon dating and he will tell you everything there is to know about the subject. Unfortunately, Ross’ problem is not his job but the women with whom he falls in love. His first wife left him after becoming a lesbian. Divorce soon followed. To make matters worse, at the time of the split, she was pregnant with his child, which she carried to term with her new wife by her side. His second marriage lasted a day. She was English and the sweetest thing, but also a control freak he luckily shook from his life with a second set of divorce papers. His third marriage was with Rachel Green (Jennifer Aniston), the love of his life, but we won’t count that since they hooked up in Vegas and were drunk to high heaven while doing it.

In spite of Ross’ affinity to falter in his relationships with women, he really is a nice guy. Rachel once fixed him up with the pizza delivery chick and said that once she got to know him, she’d find he was kind, considerate and gentle. She would realize what a good heart he had.

Chandler Bing—Crazy Chandler. Nothing but sarcasm spews from his mouth, but in a good way. Quick-witted, funny and wise beyond his years, Chandler rules every scene. His problem? He uses humor to hide his insecurities about his present state. The more awkward the scenario, the funnier he gets as the humor rolls from his lips in buckets. Chandler also has one other slight problem that gets in the way. He’s been dating Janice (Maggie Wheeler) since, like, forever. Janice is, what you would call, annoying. Her laugh can cause any man to drive an icepick through his skull.

Yet, Chandler’s good qualities are his tolerance for his goofy friends and his perpetual willingness to help those in need. Can anyone forget the $1,500 he wanted to give Joey as a way to help him ride out a glut in his acting career? Generous is what makes Chandler special.

Joey Tribiani—He’s Italian. He loves food. And it’s a guarantee he also has forgotten how many sisters he actually has. His issue is that he’s been looking for work in acting for such a long time that he’s numb with the silly jobs he’s held in the meantime. Wait, Joey did have one job as a doctor in Days of our Lives, but it blew his head so big that he trashed the writers. The writers did one better. They threw his character down an elevator shaft. It was a dark day in soap opera history.

Joey’s biggest attribute is his big heart. He’s the traditional naive character with the generous eyes. He loves the women, but he’ll drop them in a second if it meant helping a friend.

And those are the men of Friends, folks. In some strange and wonderful way, each character in that show reminds me of my very own friends. How about you?

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Have you seen the show Friends? What do you enjoy most about the show?