Matthew Perry‘s Chandler Bing — the most sarcastic of the “Friends” sextet — is the No. 1 favorite character of the sitcom’s fans, according to votes on ranking site Ranker.
Based on 169,000 total votes, Bing tops the list of the best characters on “Friends,” per Ranker. He’s followed by Joey Tribbiani (played by Matt LeBlanc); Rachel Green (Jennifer Aniston); Phoebe Buffay (Lisa Kudrow); Ross Gellar (David Schwimmer); and Monica Gellar (Courteney Cox).
Chandler Bing also is considered the second funniest TV character ever, according to another Ranker poll, coming in second only to Steve Carell’s Michael Scott from “The Office.” In addition, Bing tops Ranker’s lists of “Unexpected TV Couples No One Predicted” (Monica and Chandler) and “The Best TV Characters of the 1990s.”
Perry died on Saturday, Oct. 28, at his home in Los Angeles. He was 54.
All 10 seasons of “Friends” are currently available to stream on Max. Over the weekend, the streaming service added a tribute card that appears at the start of each season in honor of Perry. “Friends” was created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, who executive produced the sitcom with Kevin Bright through Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television.
In the world of “Friends,” Bing works in “statistical analysis and data reconfiguration” for an unspecified company — which is a well-paying job that he hates, per a 2019 article in the Atlantic.
“I read the words in an unexpected fashion, hitting emphases that no one else had hit,” Perry wrote in his 2022 book “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir,” about his turn as Chandler Bing. “I didn’t know it yet, but my way of speaking would filter into the culture across the next few decades. For now, though, I was just trying to find interesting ways into lines that were already funny, but that I thought I could truly make dance.”
Bing’s one-liners on “Friends” included classics like “I’m not great at advice. Can I interest you in a sarcastic comment?” and “Hi, I’m Chandler, I make jokes when I’m uncomfortable.” In 2017, he told ABC’s “Good Morning America” his favorite Chandler crack was a response to a rambling monologue by Joey: “OK, you have to stop the Q-Tip when there’s resistance!”