Joey Tribianni and Monica Geller share some of the show’s biggest differences. While Monica is obsessed with keeping everything neat and tight, Joey is fine with stains on the carpet and some messy areas around the apartment. Given their differences, Joey and Monica get along well and are there for each other when they need to be.
While Joey and Monica have their moments together, the amount of scenes between the two of them alone lacks in comparison with the amount of time each of them spends with their other mutual friends. Not all of their actions toward each other were positive, and they had ways of writing each other off or acting awfully toward the other person.
JOEY THOUGHT MONICA CHEATED
When Chandler and Monica try to lie to Joey about Chandler being back in New York, it backfires when Joey overhears a man’s voice coming from Monica’s apartment. Not wanting Joey to know Chandler was back, Monica lies to Joey about what is going on. Once the door shuts, Joey calls Chandler, informing him that he thinks Monica is cheating.
While things did not look good from Joey’s perspective, he had known Monica for a long time as well and could have given her the benefit of the doubt rather than believe the worst of her immediately.
MONICA DIDN’T LIKE JOEY’S APPEARANCE AT HER WEDDING
Monica had been excited for her wedding day before she even had a boyfriend. Her excitement never falters after her engagement to Chandler, and right from the jump, Monica is thrilled to begin planning. By the time the wedding rolls around, drama is hitting from multiple different angles. Starting with the mystery pregnancy and ending with the lack of the groom and marriage officiant missing, Rachel, Phoebe, and Ross bustle around to ensure Monica has nothing to worry about.
Although Joey is the last to arrive at the ceremony, still in his costume for a war movie, he had still tried hard and succeeded at reaching the wedding. Unfortunately, Monica doesn’t appreciate Joey’s triumph and instead comments on his clothing.
MONICA MADE FUN OF JOEY GETTING HURT
Joey’s new girlfriend, Katie, is energetic and to the outside perspective, hitting Joey in a way where it does not appear to hurt him. Joey tries to grin off the pain, but once Katie walks away, Joey admits to his friends that Katie’s punches are hurting him.
Rather than be supportive, everyone takes a turn at making jokes at his expense. Although Joey has proven he can take a joke, this is different as Katie is putting Joey in physical pain, but no one listens. Monica continues to make a joke about Joey using Ben as a bodyguard.
JOEY USED MONICA
Early in the series, Joey uses Monica to make his ex-girlfriend, Angela, jealous. However, rather than inform Monica of his plan, he lies to her about his ex-girlfriend’s relationship with her boyfriend, Bob, telling Monica that the two are siblings. However, Joey leaves out that he told Angela that Monica was his girlfriend.
Joey lucks out when Monica is attracted to Bob. As they have their double date, Monica is confused about how Bob and Angela are acting toward each other. After learning the truth, Monica joins his plan to break the couple up and have Angela and Bob for themselves.
MONICA DIDN’T WANT JOEY TO WRITE A RECOMMENDATION LETTER
Monica and Chandler deciding to adopt a child requires them to include recommendation letters with their application. The couple doesn’t ask Joey to participate even though he is sitting right beside them when they ask Rachel. Joey attempts to write a letter anyway, and if he had not been trying to sound too smart, it would have looked like a genuine, well-written letter.
But, because Monica and Chandler had not asked him due to worry about how Joey would write, Joey writes his letter using only words he found in a thesaurus.
JOEY DIDN’T INVITE HER TO CO-STAR PARTIES
When Joey’s acting career was looking pretty solid, he had invited his cast-mates to parties on the roof of his building. To convince his friends to get out while he threw them, Joey created activities for them all to do that he would find a way to get out of.
It is not until Rachel discovers his parties on the roof that the rest of his friends learn of them as well. Joey’s reasoning for not inviting his friends was that he did not want to be embarrassed by them all falling all over the actors.
MONICA DIDN’T RESPECT JOEY’S BOUNDARIES
Joey wasn’t thrilled about the prospect of keeping Monica and Chandler’s relationship a secret in the first place. However, knowing how important it was to his friends, he tried hard to cover for them when he could and keep his mouth shut about their relationship status. With Joey knowing the truth, Chandler and Monica could relax and act as a full-blown couple in Joey and Chandler’s apartment.
But, there were moments when Joey was uncomfortable about having a front-row seat to their relationship. At one point, Joey tells Monica and Chandler that if he has to keep their secret, then they have to pretend there is nothing for him to know about.
MONICA FORCED JOEY TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR HER ACTIONS
It was difficult enough for Joey to keep Monica and Chandler’s secret relationship to himself, but the couple made it worse when they got sloppy. The more comfortable Monica and Chandler got, the more uncomfortable they made Joey. Desperate to justify the hints of their actions, Chandler and Monica would always blame Joey for their activities, letting him take the fall for everything from underwear to sex tapes.
When Joey is caught with a picture of Monica naked, that had been meant for Chandler, they push Joey too far, claiming he is a sex addict. Joey gets his revenge here also, letting the group believe that Monica had been the one behind everything the group had accused him of. Turning the table on Monica, Joey made it seem that Monica was obsessed with him.
JOEY FORGOT MONICA’S THANKSGIVING
As someone so obsessed with food as Joey, this was nearly unthinkable. After Monica had declared that she would not be going through the tiring ordeal of making specific Thanksgiving dishes that year, everyone encourages Monica to continue tradition.
They all would’ve had a good Thanksgiving, had any of them actually shown up. Joey and Ross are out at a game and return late to Monica’s apartment. Instead of just walking through the door and apologizing, Joey and Ross argue with Phoebe and Rachel over which excuse to give.
THEY HARDLY HAD STORYLINES ALONE
While the six of them as a whole had plenty of storylines together, in individual episodes, they would often break off in smaller groups for multiple storylines per episode. While various dynamics get a lot of screen time together, few pairings get less. Joey and Monica have significantly fewer storylines with each other alone than they do with any other character on the show.
It is rare to see Joey and Monica alone in a storyline together if at least one other character is not present. While this does not suggest that Joey and Monica did not enjoy each other’s company, it is odd that for people who live across the hall, they hardly spent any time hanging out by themselves.
