is unarguably one of the most iconic sitcoms ever, but even then it isn't perfect. Throughout 10 seasons, the show put its six main characters -- Ross, Rachel, Monica, Chandler, Phoebe, and Joey -- in the middle of some of the funniest circumstances -- many of which have become staples in popular culture. However, sometimes the writers missed the mark regarding these storylines and things got simply weird.
From paranormal unexplained stuff and strange fetishes to very dubious age gap relationships and even soft incest, has some of the weirdest storylines ever. These arcs were already strange in the '90s and early '00s, but fans and critics would argue they have only gotten weirder with time.
In the 11th episode of the second season, while the gang is getting ready to attend Carol and Susan's wedding, Phoebe is convinced that she has been possessed by the spirit of a recently deceased client of hers, Rose Adelman. This set the ground for great jokes about old women, but it also made little sense when it came to actual explanations.
Among the six main characters, Phoebe was always the one that ended in the weirdest circumstances -- between her estranged twin sister and her time as a homeless woman. In the end, Rose abandoned her body following Susan and Carol's wedding since it was proof that "she had seen everything," but the episode never clarified if the whole bit was real or just in Phoebe's overactive imagination.
In the 10 episodes of the series overall, they gave Ross a capuchin monkey, Marcel. This monkey was only on the series less than 10 episodes. By the beginning of the second season, Ross had to give him to a zoo when he discovered he had reached sexual maturity and needed professional care.
By the end of , the series had established each character's memorable personality, but in the first season, writers were obviously still experimenting. Marcel was an obvious attempt to give Ross a quirky trait as he was always the geek of the gang, but soon it became obvious David Schwimmer didn't need it to make the character memorable.
Marcel remains one of the weirdest plots on the show, especially for earlier seasons.
, Monica hurts her eye. Since Richard isn't available, she gets Timothy, a younger, handsome, single doctor who happens to be Richard's son. Trying to ignore this, Monica invites Timothy to her Thanksgiving celebration, and by the end of it, they even kiss. In the end, Timothy reminds Monica of Richard too much, so their relationship dies out.
Monica's relationship with Richard was weird enough -- with him knowing her since she was a kid and being a friend of her father.
Monica dating his son adds to the weirdness since they would become in-laws who were lovers and practically family first.
The main romantic relationship in is the overarching will they, won't they between Ross and Rachel. However, for the 10th season, the show tried and gave another couple a try. Joey and Rachel's relationship had a very natural progression, with Joey falling first and Rachel giving him a chance eventually.
The couple even asked Ross for his blessing, and he was fine. However, once they became official, it didn't really work out
. The Joey/Rachel relationship storyline is still one of the worst things in the show, even if LeBlanc and Anniston are as beloved as ever.
When a cat crawls into Phoebe's guitar case, the woman becomes convinced that the animal is her adoptive mother, Lily, who has reincarnated as a feline. Although the rest of the group tries to convince her this isn't the case, even showing her fliers for a missing pet named Julio. In the end, Phoebe agrees to return the cat to its owner, but she never changes her mind regarding its nature.
Lily was a drug dealer, and she eventually killed herself using carbon monoxide poisoning when Phoebe was a teenager. The cat may have been just Phoebe dealing with the loss in her own way. Phoebe's past is quite tragic, which makes this storyline very weird and sad.
With Chandler working in Tulsa, Monica decides to surprise him at his hotel room. Chandler, who has been watching porn, switches the channel to a shark documentary, but this leads Monica to believe that he has a shark fetish.
Although she finds it weird, she tries to arouse him with more shark films so he has to come clean about the truth.
Chandler and Monica have some of , but the shark fetish misunderstanding isn't one of them. It's way too random to be funny, and Monica's reaction is way too submissive. Although it only lasts a couple of minutes, this is very out of character for her, so the storyline isn't as beloved as others from this couple.
In "The One with Mrs.
Bing," Phoebe and Monica catcall a guy in the street, causing him to get hit by a car. The mysterious man ends up in a coma in the hospital, so the two friends take care of him in the hopes that he will pick one of them as a lover once he wakes up. Of course, this doesn't happen. Instead, they are disenchanted with his attitude toward them.
The coma guy storyline makes Phoebe and Monica seem incredibly creepy. From the very beginning, when they catcall the man, and then when they decide to exchange favors for his love. Considering the man was in a vulnerable position, they were really disgusting towards him.
Ross does plenty of questionable things throughout the 10 seasons, but trying to sleep with his cousin is definitely among the top five. This casual incestuous desire is obviously played for laughs, but when thinking it through, Ross was incredibly creepy with his own blood.
When Chandler confesses that he kissed Rachel during a college party, Ross reveals that he also kissed her that night.
This revelation leads the gang to discover that Ross didn't kiss Rachel. Instead, since it was dark, he kissed Monica -- to make matters worse, this was Monica's first kiss ever. They all discover this during a chaotic conversation at the end of the episode.
This decades-long misunderstanding is supposed to be hilarious -- and it is, considering the physical comedy in the scene. However, in the end, it's very weird to know that Monica and Ross have such a fond memory of their shared kiss, even if it wasn't what they thought it was. Generally speaking, the show abuses incest jokes. There's Monica and Ross, Ross and his cousin, and then Frank Jr.
thinking Phoebe will have sex with him at the massage parlor, just to name a few.
One of the weirdest supporting characters in is Frank Buffay Jr., Phoebe's little brother. Throughout the series, his most important storyline is his relationship and eventual marriage to Alice, a woman who is at least three decades older than him, solidifying why this is the weirdest storyline in the series.
Frank Jr. and Alice's relationship . Not only it had a huge age gap -- which is a constant on the show with Monica and Richard, Ross and Elizabeth, and Rachel and Tag -- but Alice was Frank's high school teacher.
This combined with the fact that they're often lusting after each other makes things very creepy. Anyone who doesn't think so only has to reverse their gender.
