Gone but not forgotten NBC sitcom Friends is famous for many, many things. Its New York setting, its "friends in real-life too" cast of six, its oft-repeated catchphrases, its quirky set design and much more.
Ten years is a very long time for a television show, especially one as consistently successful as Friends. Along the way, they racked up dozens of running gags, like Monica's O.C.D. tendencies, Phoebe's frequent use of her made up name, "Regina Phalange," Ross' indignant insistence that "we were on a break!" and that annoyingly catchy theme song.
One recurring joke on the show was how out-of-work-actor Joey (Matt LeBlanc) was constantly asking roommate Chandler (Matthew Perry) for money. Even after Chandler moved out to live with girlfriend Monica, Joey continued borrowing from his best friend — at least until Joey finally found success in the show's final seasons as a cast member of Days of Our Lives.
When someone on Reddit wondered aloud just how much of a tab Joey had run up over the years, a group of Redditors came to the rescue. Specifically, the instigator was watching the Season 8 episode, "The One Where Rachel Was Late," in which a newly successful Joey attempts to add up all of the borrowing he'd done over the years, begging money off of Chandler for things like rent, acting lessons, head shots and more.
Repliers in that same Reddit thread crunched the numbers and adjusted them for inflation, and came up with the humongous total of $119,760. That's a huge sum of money for today, much less when the episode first aired.
There are a few suspect numbers in the Redditors' math. Inflation was adjusted to the year 1997, but "The One Where Rachel Was Late" actually aired in 2002. And the numbers assume that Chandler paid for Joey's hernia surgery in Season 6, when Joey's entire storyline in that episode was focused on him trying to acquire enough acting work (despite his hernia) to get his health insurance back. He appears to succeed in the end, so Chandler wouldn't have paid for that.
But those qualms aside, it's an impressive bit of mathematics work. It really doesn't matter that Joey never paid Chandler back the $119,760. In the episode in question, Joey invites Chandler to the premiere of his big movie and Chandler falls asleep in the theater. The two later agree to "call it even," canceling Joey's entire debt.
