Insane Friends Theory: What If Joey Was Never Part of the Group?

Even though Friends ended almost 20 years ago, fans are still riled up by any theories, facts, or details they come across. One of the more recent theories focuses on Joey's character.

We know that Joey Tribbiani is an aspiring actor trying to make it in Hollywood (and sometimes even succeeding).

In season 2, he meets Erika, a mentally unstable woman who thinks that he is actually Dr. Drake Ramoray from Days of Our Lives and that the show is real life.

What if she wasn't the mentally unstable one, but instead it was Joey, and he was just projecting his own trauma?

Some fans believe that Joey played a character on a show called Friends, and it was just a job for him.

Believe it or not, they do have some backing: the sets rarely changed (well, duh) and some actors appeared in different roles (Phoebe and Ursula, for instance?).

The fans think that Joey was so traumatized that he imagined that this was his reality.

We don't know about you, but these fan theories make us wish we had never read them in the first place. Why do they have to be so sad? We digress.

The Phoebe theory is even more heartbreaking, but at least it is more believable. In a gist, some people say that Phoebe was just a homeless musician who watched the rest of the group on their way in and out of Central Perk.

Apparently, she got to know the friends so well that she started fantasizing about being a part of their group.

This (somehow) seems in character for Phoebe, but still, we are not buying it!

If the series finale had had a plot twist involving one of these theories, our hearts would have just been broken beyond repair.

Fortunately, theories remain just that for the people who want them, and the rest of us can continue to enjoy Friends the way it was meant to be enjoyed – watching the main six together, and no one is losing their marbles!