9 Most Outrageous Friends Fan Theories
1. The Entire Cast Are All Patients In A Mental Asylum
This theory - which brings together elements of some of the others, suggests that every single one of the Friends is in a mental asylum, and have fabricated perfect lives as a delusion to hide from the harsh realities of their conditions.
For each of them, their "trigger incident" or underlying cause is explained narratively: Chandler was irreversibly scarred by his parents' dysfunctional relationship; Monica was bullied for being over-weight and Ross has crippling abandonment issues (seriously, even his monkey leaves him!)
Meanwhile Joey crumbled under the pressure of being the only boy in a family of girls, and over-compensates with his promiscuity and attention seeking; Rachel is a self-destructive sociopath with Daddy issues, and Phoebe failed to overcome the suicide of her mother, concocting increasingly odd fantasies.
They're lost from reality. How else would you explain the fact that each of them gets the perfect happy ending that suits their condition? Joey becomes famous, Phoebe gets her real family in Mike, Monica marries a man she's "cured" of his fat-phobia (and the ultimate fixer-upper to satiate her OCD), Ross gets the girl he's endlessly chased, Rachel defies her father by marrying Ross (who he hated) and learns how to live her own life and Chandler gets a perfect, stable relationship.
And then there's the fact that we're supposed to believe that they have the time to sit around drinking coffee during normal working hours (almost always in the same prime seats), they all have their dream jobs (eventually) and they live in dirt-cheap apartments in prime real estate locations.
It's all fantasy.