Could This Friends Scrapped Romance BE Any More Cringeworthy?

Remember that weird time on Friends when Joey got together with Rachel? Well, as bad as that was, it could have been worse. Because believe it or not, there was a time when the idea of Joey and Monica as a couple was something that was seriously considered.

'When we were originally conceiving the show, we actually thought that Monica and Joey might become a thing,' David Crane told Today. 'And then we cast it, and just went 'that's not the right energy' because now they're faces and they're people.'

Of course, we're judging this decision with the benefit of hindsight, but it certainly feels like we all dodged a bullet here.

And many Redditors agree:

'I know they say opposites attract,' wrote one, 'but that might be too far on the opposite sides of the spectrum'.

Another made the whole thing even more uncomfortable by writing, 'Matt Leblanc told the writers Joey should consider the women as his sisters'. Uuurggh!!'

And if that wasn't weird enough, another thread included a user who wrote: ''there is no doubt the sex would be great though, hearing the stories from Kathy and Monica teaching Chandler the art of 'SEVEN!'

Now, everyone will have their own opinion on this particular topic. But given that Monica is so high-strung and Joey is not only laid back, but also gets more and more stupid as the show goes on, this is so obviously a relationship that just wouldn't have worked.

Joey is also a womaniser. So would he have gotten the same audience reaction as Chandler if Monica had popped out from under the covers next to him? Of course not. It would have been a gasp that said, 'Monica, no! You've properly let yourself down.'

It may have been part of the original thinking for the show's creators, but a relationship between Joey and Monica would have been so creepy that it might have ruined the series. I mean, how was Ross ever going to come around? And Chandler wouldn't have been as sweetly optimistic about the couple as Joey was about his best friend's relationship with Monica. So the whole dynamic would have been very different – and not for the better.

No. A changed Chandler dating Monica worked. Joey and Monica are a couple that simply wouldn't have.

Source: Today, Reddit, Reddit.