Chandler Muriel Bing[1] is a fictional character on the popular U.S. television sitcom Friends, portrayed by Matthew Perry.
Chandler Muriel Bing was born on April 8, 1968, to an erotic novelist mother and a cross-dressing Las Vegas star and is of Scottish and Swedish ancestry. Chandler's parents announced their divorce to him over Thanksgiving dinner when he was nine years old, an event which causes him to refuse to celebrate the holiday in his adulthood. Chandler was Ross Geller's roommate in college. Chandler met Ross's sister, Monica Geller, and her friend, Rachel Green, while celebrating Thanksgiving with the Geller family during his first year at college. On a tip from Monica, Chandler later moved to Apartment #19 in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, across the hall from Monica and her roommate Phoebe Buffay.
At Ross and Emily's wedding in London, Monica and Chandler slept together and began dating. Monica and Chandler try keeping their relationship secret, not sure how the others will react but eventually they all find out.
Joey discovers minor details about their subsequent lies after their first weekend away together, Rachel overhears a phone conversation, Phoebe and Ross see them together from Ross's new apartment across the street. Joey kept the secret at first, after Rachel and Phoebe found out about it, the two girls tried provoking them to admit that they were in a relationship. Correspondingly, Monica and Chandler try getting them to admit that they knew and a battle broke out (with Joey as the go-between). This ended with Phoebe and Chandler supposedly intending to sleep together, but Chandler cracked and admitted his love for Monica, which she returned. The two move in together at the beginning of Season 6, Chandler proposes by the end of the season, and they get married at the end of Season 7. Their wedding is officiated by Joey, who is ordained over the Internet. In the final episode, Monica and Chandler (who are unable to conceive) watch as their adopted twins, Erica and Jack, are born.
Chandler also has problems with Monica's ex-boyfriend, Richard (portrayed by Tom Selleck), whom he and Joey had briefly idolized before Chandler and Monica started dating. The biggest problem with Richard occurs when Chandler wants to propose to Monica, and Richard confesses his love for her. Richard eventually lets Chandler marry her, realizing he missed his chance.
Monica also sometimes gets on Chandler's nerves because of her bossiness, neatness and overly competitive nature. This forces Chandler into several situations, such as Monica being unable to throw a game of tennis against Chandler's boss and Chandler's having to hide the fact that he is incredibly good at ping-pong to stop Monica entering them in doubles-tournaments. In the alternate reality episode of "The One that Could Have Been", Monica is still fat and Chandler does not show much interest in her. However, when Monica's current boyfriend gets called away during dinner, they sleep together and Chandler falls in love with her, so the two end up together anyway.
Twins Jack and Erica appear in the final episode, on May 6, 2004, when biological mother Erica (Anna Faris) gives birth. Everyone, except the doctor, is shocked as Erica has not realized she was expecting twins. Erica said, that at an antenatal appointment, the doctor had said "both heartbeats sound strong" and assumed he meant hers and the baby's. Chandler and Monica are a little shocked and discuss having the other baby adopted by someone else but adopt both when Monica says that they could not split them up. Jack is named after Monica's father and Erica after her biological mother. They are shown in Apartment 20, with the rest of the group before leaving for their new home.
Ross and Chandler have been best friends since college where they were roommates. They made pacts of girls they shouldn't sleep with, were in a band together, and Chandler went to Ross's house for Thanksgiving. Ross and Chandler frequently go out to play racquet ball and basketball. They also get bullied together and stand up to the bullies, who steal Chandler's hat. In "The One with the Football", Ross picks Chandler as his first player, despite Rachel being his girlfriend at the time. Ross sometimes describes Chandler as his best friend and Chandler vice versa. Chandler was the first person to know about Ross's secret love for Rachel.
Until Chandler moves in with Monica, he shares an apartment with his joint best friend Joey Tribbiani. Chandler and Joey's apartment is an important focal point for the series as one of the few meeting areas of the gang. The two form a close and enduring friendship, and get into many humorous situations. Their adventures include: losing Ross's infant son (Ben) on a bus; Chandler's dismay at Joey building an "entertainment unit" which is so big, it partially covers their bedroom doors; buying a chick and a duck (affectionately named "The Chick and The Duck"); and replacing their dining table with a foosball table. A famous running gag suggests they are like an old married couple when they argue, with Chandler usually assuming the wife's role. Although in one episode when Joey's new roommate, Janine, has redecorated - Joey takes the more woman-like role of their argument with comments such as "Why would you say that? It's just mean!" and "It's not what you said; it was the way you said it", due to Janine's feminine qualities rubbing off on Joey.
The two start off on the wrong foot when Chandler is looking for a roommate when Joey said that he "was cool with the gay thing" (Joey assuming Chandler was gay). Joey comes to fill the slot, only Chandler had already chosen a roommate – a fashion photographer with a porn-star sister. But after Mr Heckles (the grumpy old man in the apartment below Monica and Rachel) tells the photographer that he is Chandler's new roommate, the photographer leaves disappointed. This forces Chandler to give the keys to Joey and they find out they had a lot in common, including sports and beer. Joey also introduces Chandler to watching the women of Baywatch (especially Yasmine Bleeth and Nicole Eggert).
Chandler often supports Joey throughout the show, paying the rent, paying for Joey's headshots, and buying most of the food. Joey tries to repay Chandler by giving him the only ticket to the première of his new movie. Unfortunately, Chandler falls asleep. Later that episode, Joey insists on paying back every penny that he owes Chandler until he realises exactly how much he owes him. He then dismisses it saying "So what, you fell asleep during my première." However, in the alternate reality of "The One that Could Have Been" these roles are reversed as Chandler struggles with finances while Joey rakes in the money. At one point in this episode, Joey helps out Chandler by allowing Chandler to be his assistant.
Before his relationship with Monica, Chandler has an on-and-off relationship with Janice Hosenstein (Maggie Wheeler). She is a regular feature in his life, even though he regretted dating her and kept ending their relationship in season 1. In season 2, Chandler spends a lot of time, chatting to a woman online who reveals that her husband is having an affair. When they agree to meet, it is revealed that the woman is Janice. They passionately kiss and their relationship continues into Season 3. Joey admits to hating Janice but decides to try to get along with her since Chandler really falls for her this time. Unfortunately Joey sees her kissing her ex-husband/father of her baby and tells Chandler, who confronts Janice. She admits that she doesn't know what to do so Chandler ends things, feeling that she should give her marriage another chance as they had a child. They reunite later in the series and Chandler wants to end things again and unsure how to do it, tells her that he is moving to Yemen. Janice tells Chandler she wants to see him off at the airport so he actually has to go to Yemen.
However, Janice makes further appearances in the sitcom. She briefly dates Ross and invites herself to Chandler's and Monica's wedding. In order to prevent this, Chandler claims he still loves her and they should pick up where they left off. Janice, not wanting to ruin Chandler and Monica's marriage, decides to leave but asks him to call her when his marriage breaks up. He uses the same excuse in Season 10 when purchasing a house and realizing that Janice was attempting to buy the house next door. In season 8, when Rachel is giving birth to Ross's baby, Janice is wheeled in to her room to give birth to her own baby.
Chandler works as an IT procurement manager with the specialization "Statistical analysis and data reconfiguration," a job which he thoroughly loathes. It remains a running joke through most of the seasons that no one is exactly sure of what he does. His friends, in a trivia game, could not guess his job in one instance, with Rachel calling him a "transponster". The other friends admit that they have no idea what he really does for a living. Monica admits repeatedly that she doesn't pay attention when he talks about his work, but finally learns when he quits in Season 9, although he mentions his job title in "The One with the Cooking Class," a job which inspired Chandler's oft-referenced office slang word "WENUS" (Weekly Estimated Net Usage Statistics), as well as the "ANUS" (Annual Net Usage Statistics). Because of this job, Chandler, with Ross, is the most financially well-off. He reveals in one episode to have a considerably large (the exact number is unknown) sum of money which he has saved for six years. He is also shown to hold a position of authority in his company. However, Chandler was unable to simply quit his job as it was his nature to avoid ending anything forcefully, be it his job, a relationship, or even his membership with a gym.
Chandler tried quitting in Season 1, but was lured back by a huge raise on top of the yearly bonus structure. During one meeting, Chandler falls asleep and on waking, realizes that his boss has chosen him to head the new division in Tulsa, Oklahoma. On Christmas Day, Chandler quits his job so that he can fly home to New York to be with Monica. Monica helps Chandler secure a job in advertising through an old college friend of hers. Much to Chandler's dismay, the job is as an intern, which leaves him in the awkward position of working alongside people who are significantly younger than him. However, his more mature approach eventually pays off for him compared to the other interns, and he secures a full-time job in the business as a junior copywriter when he only expected to receive an assistant position. The company concluded that he would be better suited for a more senior role.
In an alternate reality storyline during the show ("The One that Could Have Been"), Chandler did quit his job and works as a freelance writer, specializing in comics.
Chandler is noted for his wise-cracks and sardonic attitude, which provides a defence mechanism. His most famous phrase is the rhetorical question "Could I be any more...?" and is used on the show as a source of humour repeatedly, primarily mocking from the other friends.
Some of Chandler's humour includes him describing Rachel's attempts to stop him smoking by throwing away every cigarette he puts into his mouth as "the least fun game ever", quoting A.A. Milne as having said "Get out of my chair, dillhole!" in an attempt to persuade Joey to vacate the chair he had been sitting in, and his insistence that his surname (Bing) is Gaelic for "thy turkey's done". His humorous conversations with Phoebe ranged from why Donald Duck wears a towel when getting out of the shower, to why there isn't a superhero called "Goldman" (inspired by Spider-Man). When he and Ross are trying to pick up women, he would be referred to as 'The Funny One'.
Throughout the show, Chandler claims he started using humour as a defence mechanism when his parents broke up which causes Monica to remark "So if your parents hadn't got divorced, you'd be able to answer a question like a normal person?" referring to his constant joke making. He also tends to make jokes when he is nervous. In fact, when Phoebe dates a psychologist named Roger, he states that Chandler's behaviour is textbook of someone whose parents split up while he was still a young child. At one point, the friends challenge him to not make fun of them for an entire week as his New Year's Resolution; this proves difficult when, among other things, Ross starts dating a woman named Elizabeth Hornswoggle. He breaks his resolution by sarcastically saying, "And, Ross, Hornswoggle? What, are you dating a character from Fraggle Rock?"
When Chandler is going for a job interview which he is nervous about, he is told by Phoebe that he does not make a good first impression as he makes too many jokes. He asks for her help in preparation for the interview, and Phoebe tests him by saying, "Instead of talking about what you don't do, let's talk about what you do do." When Chandler avoids joking about it, Phoebe responds by saying "Nice side step on the doo doo thing" and Chandler replies, "Hardest thing I've ever done in my life." Later, at the actual interview, the boss mentions "duties" (which, with his accent sounds like "doodies") and makes several innocuous references to excretion, which Chandler nervously sidesteps. After the interview, he explains to the boss that it "was hard to sidestep that doo doo thing" much to the boss's confusion. Chandler explains to him that "duties" are "poo" which offends the boss, thus ruining the first impression.
Chandler often finds himself in difficult situations or making statements that make him sound gay in accordance with a common stereotype of popular culture that gay men are behaviourally and emotionally 'effeminate'. His friends and colleagues describe him as having a certain "quality" that make people think he could be gay. He also often has long "gay" hugs with Joey. At one point, he enters a room full of the friends and declared, "Well, don't we look nice all dressed up? ... It's stuff like that, isn't it?". In the Season 4 episode "The One Where Chandler Crosses the Line", Chandler invites Kathy to sit in the canoe with him, and asks her whether she would rather sit in the bow or the stern of the boat. Kathy replies saying she does not have a preference and asks Chandler which he prefers, to which he replies, "I like it in the stern... (long pause) ...of the boat!". In another episode, when Phoebe is wondering whether to propose to Mike, Chandler says, "If I were a guy... did I just say 'if I were a guy?'" The show's creators were actually considering making him gay at the beginning of the series, but ultimately decided not to. The creators had Chandler reveal that he is, in fact, straight in the eighth episode of the first season, in "The One Where Nana Dies Twice", when a colleague of his offers to arrange a date with a man for him, thinking he is homosexual. He tells his friends about this, but he soon realizes that they also thought he was gay when they initially met him. However, when telling a gay colleague of his that he is not gay, the colleague replies, "I know," and tells him that all gays have some kind of "radar".
After Chandler plays a prank on Ross by posting on their college website that Ross had sex with dinosaurs, Ross creates a page for Chandler and puts on it that Chandler is "as gay as the day is long" with digitally edited images of Chandler and a policeman. Many of the alumni congratulate Chandler on revealing this fact. As a retort, Chandler posts on Ross's page that he has died. Another instance which insinuates Chandler's homosexuality is when Ross exposed Chandler's kiss with a man to Monica. Ross states "Now, Chandler isn't the type of guy who goes to bars and makes out with girls," which causes Monica to scream, "You kissed a guy?!" to which Chandler replies, "In my defense, it was very dark, and he was a very pretty guy!"
Much of Chandler's sexual ambiguity stems from his childhood, as do other personality traits such as smoking and resorting to humor. The oldest is his middle name, Muriel, revealed in "The One with Rachel's Date". On Thanksgiving when Chandler was nine, his father announced that he was gay and that he intended to divorce his wife, because he would "rather sleep with the house-boy than [her]." The house-boy says, "More turkey, Mr Chandler?" in a very feminine voice just after this announcement. Charles Bing later moved to Las Vegas where he opened up an all-male burlesque called 'Viva Las Gaygas', featuring such musical numbers as "It's Raining Men", where he became a drag queen named Helena Handbasket (played by Kathleen Turner). While seeing the show in Las Vegas, Chandler tells Monica that when he was growing up, he "played the one on the far left," referring to the line of men on the stage. As a result, Chandler hates Thanksgiving and refuses to eat traditional Thanksgiving food. Chandler also highlights this as the point where he began to use humor as a defense mechanism and started smoking (despite his young age).
Further amusement emerges when listening to a self-help hypnosis tape designed to prevent him from smoking. Unfortunately the tape was designed for females and Chandler comes under the suggestion of being a 'strong confident woman'. This manifests itself in Chandler applying ChapStick like a woman applying lipstick and blotting with a tissue, and emerging from the shower with a towel around his chest and a turban on his head. He also tells Rachel that she is wearing a "stunning blouse". Eventually Joey overhears the tape and tampers with it, recording a message within it suggesting that Chandler should make him "...a cheese sandwich every day..." and buy him "...hundreds of dollars' worth of pants".
Another instance of Chandler seeming gay is in an episode in the ninth season. Joey (who is unable to stand the pain of eyebrow waxing) asks Chandler to help fix his eyebrows having only been able to withstand the pain of one eyebrow waxing. Chandler decides to help Joey, but only if he doesn't tell anyone that he is an expert at fixing eyebrows, having fixed his Dad's and his Dad's friends eyebrows instead of doing regular chores. When Chandler is done, Joey says that he is extremely good at fixing eyebrows and that they should "do something manly" to make up for the girly hour they just spent. After an awkward silence, Joey asks Chandler to curl his eyelashes and Chandler excitedly says "Yeah!".
The quantity of Chandler's quips and jokes decreases significantly as the series progresses. In fact, during the later seasons, he's actually shown to be the straightman of the group in many instances.
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| Seasons |
- Season One (101)
- Season Two (211, 212–213, 214, 218)
- Season Three (302)
- Season Four (412, 423–424)
- Season Five (503, 508, 518, 519, 520)
- Season Six (601, 611, 624–625)
- Season Seven (723–724)
- Season Eight (805, 809)
- Season Nine
- Season Ten (1015, 1017–1018)
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