In season 6 of Friends, Joey drew attention to the most glaring plot hole in the whole series with one brilliant, scene-ending line. In the 30 years since Friends first premiered in 1994, the beloved sitcom’s legacy has managed to maintain longevity by continuing to entertain new and longtime viewers to this day. It is still the standard for sitcoms in many ways, due to the main Friends cast’s inimitable chemistry and impeccable comedic timing and delivery. Despite its reputation as one of the best sitcoms of all time, Friends was ridden with plot holes throughout its 10-season run.
The plot holes in Friends ranged from character inconsistencies, like Rachel never wearing glasses and Ross supposedly not liking ice cream, to continuity errors like Rachel and Chandler having multiple first-time meetings. However, one plot hole could be detected in almost every episode of Friends. This near-everpresent plot hole was so glaring that the show even cleverly acknowledged it when Joey made a very valid point about the gang’s collective leisure habits in one season 6 episode.
Joey Mentioned The Central Perk Plot Hole In Friends Season 6
Joey Pointed Out How The Group Is Always At the Coffee House In The Middle Of The Workday
In season 6, episode 8, “The One with Ross’s Teeth,” the friends were sitting in their usual spot at Central Perk when Rachel mentioned in conversation that her boss didn’t like her very much. Monica and Chandler agreed that they didn’t think their bosses like them either, to which Ross speculated that it might just be “a universal thing.” Joey then made the valid point that “maybe…it’s because you’re all hanging around here at 11:30 on a Wednesday!” A moment of realization fell over the group as they all got up to head to work, promptly ending the scene.
It is simply implausible that a group of six 20-to-30-somethings would be able to comfortably lounge at a coffee shop in the middle of the day on a regular basis.
Joey’s point would still stand even if this was a one-time thing, but the comedy of acknowledging it comes from the fact that hanging out at Central Perk on a workday was a frequent occurrence on Friends. It was unrealistic enough that their group of friends always sat on the same couch at Central Perk (although this was proven to not actually be a plot hole in Friends), but it was simply implausible that a group of six 20-to-30-something-year-olds would be able to comfortably lounge at a coffee shop in the middle of the day on a regular basis.
Rather than attempt to reconcile this plot hole, Friends merely winked at it with this observation from Joey.
Although their occupations and job statuses changed over the course of the show, there was never an instance where they were all unemployed. At any given point, more than half of the group had day jobs, some of which would’ve taken place during regular office hours. This scene even clarified Rachel’s job in this season of Friends to set up the borderline meta joke, drawing even more attention to how bizarre it is that none of them were at work at that very moment. Rather than attempt to reconcile this plot hole, Friends merely winked at it with this observation from Joey.
Why The Central Perk Plot Hole Was Necessary For Friends
The Friend Group Needed To Frequent A Central Hangout Spot For The Sitcom To WorkAs the title suggests, Friends was about the core friend group and their relationships with each other. For the premise to work, the show needed a central meeting location for them to frequent so they could catch up on the events of each other’s lives, even if that meant they could somehow afford to hang out daily when they would realistically be at work. Of course, they also hung out at Monica’s a lot, and Central Perk was on the ground floor of their building, so the element of convenience made a little more sense for those who lived there.
Friends had to sacrifice a degree of believability to put the gang in the same room in almost every episode.
Still, even in the ’90s, it was unrealistic for a group of adults to spend that much time together in the first place, let alone on workdays at a secondary location. Had the show focused more on the individual characters’ day-to-day lives, it might’ve been more rooted in reality, but that also would’ve made it a different show that might not have been as successful. Ultimately, Friends had to sacrifice a degree of believability to put the gang in the same room in almost every episode. Besides, the theme song did establish from the get-go that their “job’s a joke.”
Friends Was Self-Aware About Many Of Its Plot Holes
Friends Wasn’t Afraid To Poke Fun At The Mysteries That Riddled The Show
Mathew Perry As Chandler And Matt LeBlanc As Joey play with a chick and duck in Friends season 10
This Central Perk detail wasn’t the only mysterious plot hole Friends poked fun at. One of the best examples of this began in season 3, episode 21, “The One With A Chick And A Duck,” when Chandler and Joey acquired the titular birds and kept them as pets for three seasons. After season 6, episode 20, “The One With Mac and C.H.E.E.S.E.,” the chick and the duck were never seen again, and the only other mention of either bird was in season 7, episode 2, “The One with Rachel’s Book,” when the duck got sick after eating Rachel’s hand cream.
This last-minute reveal felt more like a nod to this plot hole that went unacknowledged for four seasons, rather than a genuine attempt to retroactively fill the plot hole.
Friends never explained what happened to the chick and the duck until the series finale, when it was revealed that the chick and the duck both died a while back (although Joey still believed the common lie parents often tell their kids: the dead pets actually just went to live on a farm). Because the show didn’t even remotely address the birds’ deaths until the final episode, this last-minute reveal felt more like a nod to this plot hole that went unacknowledged for four seasons, rather than a genuine attempt to retroactively fill the plot hole.
Collage of Phoebe with the Chick and the Duck and Joey & Chandler with the Chick & the Duck in Friends
A Lot Of Friends’ Plot Holes Don’t Matter In The Long Run
Chandler and Rachel kiss at a college party in a flashback sequence in Friends
Many plot holes throughout Friends are difficult for an avid fan not to notice, but most of them are so minor that they don’t actually interfere with the plot of any given episode. Certain inconsistencies, like Monica’s apartment number changing from “5” to “20,” are so inconsequential in the grand scheme of things that they’re easy to ignore, especially because the characters ignore them too.
There are more widespread plot holes, like nearly all the main Friends characters’ ages (both independently and in relation to each other) and birthdays changing from season to season. Some of these changes were just unnecessary continuity errors on the writers’ part that could have been avoided had they kept track of the characters’ birthdates and years. Other age discrepancies, however, were the (perhaps still unintentional) result of a new episode’s central plot.
Even if these timelines don’t track with how old they all should’ve been at that point, they were a collective sacrifice made for the sake of the storyline, which viewers can overlook.
For instance, season 7, episode 14, “The One Where They All Turn Thirty,” includes flashbacks to all the friends’ thirtieth birthdays as Rachel becomes the last to reach this milestone. Season 1 had already established Joey as the youngest of the group, but this episode implies that he’s older than almost everyone besides Phoebe. Even if these timelines don’t track with how old all the characters should’ve been at that point, because it worked for the sake of the episode at hand, viewers can overlook the lack of cohesion with past seasons.
Had Friends never retconned Rachel and Chandler first meeting at Thanksgiving and even sharing a drunken kiss at Ross and Chandler’s college party, the iconic ’80s flashback episodes never would have existed.
Other plot holes are forgivable because they allowed for some unforgettable moments that fans wouldn’t trade in for any amount of continuity. Had Friends never retconned Rachel and Chandler first meeting at Thanksgiving and even sharing a drunken kiss at Ross and Chandler’s college party, the iconic ’80s flashback episodes never would have existed. Friends created a lot of plot holes for the sake of delivering priceless jokes and bits, making the canonical contradictions worth it in the end.
