Happy Birthday Matt LeBlanc: Revisiting Joey Tribbiani’s 10 Most Memorable Episodes As Actor Turns 57

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As a longtime fan of “Friends,” I can’t help but be utterly amused by the antics of Joey Tribbiani. His life is a rollercoaster ride filled with hilarious mishaps and unforgettable moments.

Today is Matt LeBlanc‘s birthday as he reaches the age of 57. He gained widespread recognition for his portrayal of Joey Tribbiani on “F.R.I.E.N.D.S.”, which debuted in 1994. Following the end of “Friends”, LeBlanc continued to grace our screens with a spin-off series called “Joey”. After taking a break for around five years, he made a comeback with the successful show “Episodes”. Subsequently, LeBlanc hosted the reality program “Top Gear” and featured in another sitcom titled “Man With a Plan”.

As someone who grew up watching Friends, I have to say that Joey’s character was always a fan favorite for me. His quick wit and iconic catchphrase, “How you doin’?” still make me laugh out loud every time I hear it. But Joey was more than just one-liners and pick-up lines. He had a heart of gold and some of his most memorable moments showcased his kindness in the most touching ways.

Joey’s fake Porsche and a house upstate

While Ross and Rachel were going through their marriage annulment process, and Phoebe, Chandler, and Monica were taking care of the triplets, Joey assumed a false identity. He acted as if he owned a Porsche and even fabricated an elaborate backstory about lucrative equity investments that allowed him this luxury car and a house in the countryside. However, Joey’s imaginative story came crashing down when the true owner of the Porsche appeared and reclaimed the vehicle.

To preserve his reputation, Joey made a Porsche replica using cardboard boxes and wrapped it in a car cover. However, his disguise was uncovered, resulting in just a fake car and an unsuccessful effort to hide the truth.

Joey gets a “new brain” 

I can’t help but be excited when I think about how Joey describes his upcoming change. In the seventh season opener of Days of Our Lives, Joey’s character Dr. Drake Ramoray wakes up from a coma and gets a new brain through a transplant operation. After the surgery, something remarkable happens—Joey’s identity shifts, turning him into Jessica Lockheart, occupying Drake Ramoray’s body instead. This unexpected twist leaves me, as Ross, feeling dismayed over the seemingly unbelievable scientific implications of it all.

Susan Sarandon, representing Cecile Monroe on screen, shares acting advice with Joey as her character, Jessica Lockheart. True to Joey’s nature, he develops feelings for her. Despite this distraction, Joey effectively internalizes the traits of Jessica by confidently taking charge, aka “owning the room.” Joey’s transformation into Jessica is an entertaining moment, especially with his head adorned with bandages during his dramatic entrances.

Joey appear on a reality show 

As an obsessed fan, I can’t help but rave about how amazing season ten has been so far! And let me tell you, Joey’s guest appearance on Pyramid took things to a whole new level of hilarity. I mean, we all knew that Joey on a game show would be a recipe for disaster, and boy, did he deliver!

Joey’s blunders are amusing, particularly when he has trouble identifying common household items such as those kept in a refrigerator. His offbeat guesses like “paper, snow, a ghost” reflect his bewilderment – it seems that people frequently store paper, snow, a ghost, a dog, a rock, and even the Earth in their fridges. His equally entertaining and perplexed explanations of items related to the U.S. Congress add fuel to the humor.

Joey doesn’t share food!

In the tenth season episode, Phoebe hesitantly arranges a date between one of her friends and Joey. Previously, Joey had some shining moments during the last season. However, his actions on this particular date left an indelible mark due to his failure to keep his promise to be respectful towards the woman, who only reached for his fries to save them from falling.

Joey’s displeasure is evident when the girl helps herself to some of his fries – Joey isn’t known for sharing food, not even with Emma. This quirky trait of his is amusingly emphasized by Phoebe’s teasing. However, in an unexpected turn of events, Joey ends up consuming the girl’s cake while she momentarily steps away from the table to answer a call, offering her another chance. When she comes back, finding Joey with chocolate smudges on his face, he simply grins and says, “I don’t have an apology.”

Joey becomes a game host 

At first, the game Bamboozled might appear confusing or even far-fetched. However, with some practice, its rules will become clearer. Joey Tribbiani, the game’s host, explains it in a simple way: “You turn the Wheel of Chaos to land on the Letter of Risk, then move through the Rainbow Archway and reach the Golden Monkey. Once you pull his tail, you’ll be transported to the Paradise Pool.” In essence, it’s not as complex as it seems.

On Bamboozled, Chandler and Ross acted as stand-ins for Joey during filming, having a great experience despite the fact that Joey wasn’t fully acquainted with all the show’s regulations. He still needed to figure out what a Google Card was and how the Wheel of Mayhem functioned. Nevertheless, Joey’s performance using a fake host voice added humor to his blunders, making lines like “I really should know that” and “this is quite humiliating” even more amusing.

Joey loses his fridge 

In the sixth episode of Season 6, Joey’s fridge, which is almost 30 years old, stops working. Desperate to get it fixed or replaced without paying for it himself, Joey first asks Rachel for money. When she refuses, he approaches Chandler for help.

Upon entering the apartment, Chandler finds Joey sitting there, visibly ill, with a spoon in hand and a mountain of empty ice cream containers surrounding him on the table. It seemed that Joey had consumed all of the refrigerated treats before it stopped working – a typical impulsive move from our friend Joey.

To persuade Chandler into buying a new fridge for them, Joey creates an elaborate story: they’re no longer together, Joey has sole custody of their child, tragically the child passed away, and now he urgently needs $400 to purchase a new one for his household. When this approach fails, and Joey’s attempt to manipulate Ross by shoving him into the fridge doesn’t work out, he escalates the situation by falsely accusing Ross of having caused the fridge to break.

Joey turns nineteen

In the episode where Monica feels overshadowed by Ross and Rachel, it is actually Joey who becomes the center of attention. He shockingly announces that he will be playing a 19-year-old the following day, right as the group plans to celebrate Monica and Chandler’s engagement. To further prove his point, Joey puts on an absurd outfit, including Chandler’s underwear, and exclaims the humorous line, “What’s up with the crazy PlayStation, what’s up?”

Although larger concerns consume everyone else, Joey persists in behaving like an adolescent. According to Chandler’s straightforward evaluation, Joey ranks as “not very smart” on a scale of intelligence, placing him close to being twenty years old.

Joey writes a letter of recommendation

In the last series of Friends, Monica and Chandler requested Joey to pen a recommendation letter for their adoption agency, originally intending for Rachel to do it. However, Joey objected and ended up being assigned the task, which almost led them to regret their decision. Following Ross’ suggestion, Joey resorted to using a thesaurus for every word in his letter to sound more erudite. The outcome was an eloquent opus from “the depths of his oversized heart-lung machine,” with his name playfully rechristened as “Baby Kangaroo” Tribbiani.

In his second try, Joey gives up using a thesaurus and instead writes a heartfelt, handcrafted letter with illustrations. To Monica and Chandler’s surprise, the agency found Joey’s unique approach endearing and mistakenly believed he was a child, leading to a successful unconventional recommendation letter.

Joey learns French

In the tenth season’s latest episode, Joey puts forward his French fluency on his resume for an acting role that demands it. However, he finds himself in need of assistance as he struggles with the language. Luckily, Phoebe, who is proficient in French, steps in to guide him through the audition process. For the character named Claude, Phoebe instructs Joey on introducing himself fluently in French.

Despite Phoebe’s coaching, Joey comically stumbles over the phrase “je m’appelle Claude.” He frequently replaces it with gibberish instead. Some of the most humorous scenes in the episode come from Joey’s failed attempts, such as his garbled “blay de la blay de blue blah blay” during the audition and his triumphant but incorrect “tout de la fruit.”

Joey wears all of Chandler’s clothes 

In the humorous third season episode from the first half, Ross grows more and more uneasy as he anticipates his friends’ readiness for his significant event. A lighthearted argument between Chandler and Joey over Monica’s chair adds to the delay in preparations.

In that episode, Joey’s confrontation with Chandler steals the show. After Chandler concealed his underwear, Joey responds by putting on all of Chandler’s clothes as a form of payback. With his extravagant attire and the iconic line, “Is it possible I’m wearing any more clothes?”, they delivered an hilarious scene in Friends.

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2024-07-25 12:08