The Hilarious Friends Pancake Theory That Makes Too Much Sense
The sitcom "Friends" may not be a twisting thriller with intentional fodder written in to inspire fan theories, but that doesn't stop fans from coming up with their own ideas about what's between the lines of the six friends. Take the Season 7 episode "The One with Ross's Library Book," as an example. Something seems off about the Joey (Matt LeBlanc) subplot, but one fan has a theory that explains it completely.
At this point in the series, Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) and Joey are roommates, so when Joey has a one-night stand, he asks Rachel to do Chandler's (Matthew Perry) old job: Tell the girl he doesn't want a relationship and make her some pancakes to soften the blow — but leave some leftovers for Joey. Rachel can't bring herself to do the first thing and instead becomes friends with Erin, who's played by "Sex and the City" star Kristin Davis (evidently, Charlotte had plenty of fun that she never mentioned at brunch with the other "Sex and the City" girls).
Despite the fact that Joey insists Erin isn't the one, Rachel and Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow) make him go on a second date with her. Afterward, he does a complete 180, singing Erin's praises, but then Erin asks Rachel to let Joey down for her ... leaving Joey to be the sad one, with Rachel making him pancakes. But Joey's change of mind seems a little fishy, so what if there's more to this story than Joey getting rejected?
Joey pretended to be heartbroken for pancakes
Reddit user u/ojcoolj posted to r/FanTheories with the bold statement: "The entire subplot was manipulated by Joey as an attempt to get pancakes."
It's clear that Joey is used to getting pancakes after his one-night stands, since Chandler was in the habit of making them, so when Rachel doesn't make extra pancakes for him ... maybe he goes to extreme measures. By this theory, his sudden interest in Erin is merely acting to manipulate Rachel into feeling sorry for him — and to turn that sympathy into pancakes.
User u/ojcoolj backed their claim up with several pieces of evidence, the first being: "Joey loves food. I mean, seriously, he loves it. He shouts at dates for taking a single fry from his plate. Joey doesn't share food — and he is practically in love with food." Also, they pointed out that Erin uses the same words Joey does when asking Rachel to deliver the final blow, saying she's not interested in a serious relationship. "If this isn't a sign that she's in on it, I may as well burn my box-sets," user u/ojcoolj wrote.
Lastly, when Rachel offers to make Joey pancakes, he exclaims, "Finally!" — as if this whole time, that's all he wanted. "Isn't it just a tiny bit possible that he had been orchestrating the entire thing, and he just couldn't contain his excitement when it came to fruition?" user u/ojcoolj proposed. It definitely seems possible, given Joey's personality — and besides, who wouldn't get a little crafty for some pancakes?