
First things first, Ross Geller absolutely, unequivocally sucks. He’s a whingey pissbaby who thinks it’s okay to be incredibly possessive of others, make moves on his cousin, made a move on (who he believed to be) a completely legless Rachel (which turns out to be his sister), and did that little thing where he just “forgot” to get an annulment with Rachel – pretty sure that one’s like, extremely illegal but ya know.
ANYWAY.
A theory posited by US comedian Emily Heller has set Friends fans ablaze – what if Ross is only Monica‘s brother as a method to keep him in the show instead of Carol, his ex-wife (and noted good person) after their divorce?
Just realized they HAD to make Monica & Ross brother and sister otherwise all the F•R•I•E•N•D•S would have stuck with Carol in the divorce
— Emily Heller (@MrEmilyHeller) May 12, 2018
Ok let’s break it down, because it’s 4.30pm on a Monday and this needs to be done.
In the beginning, there was Ross, Monica, Chandler and Phoebe. We can assume that Ross and Carol were married at this point, before Ben was born, and before Carol realised her sexual identity.
Now, when Joey and Rachel enter the group, Ross is on the brink of his divorce. Rachel and Monica are old friends, so Rachel at this point has no loyalty to Ross – because friends’ brothers can be total dipshits. Joey has no loyalty to anyone, really, so he’s entering the group with fresh eyes. And though Ross and Chandler are old friends from college, looking at the relationship that Chandler forms with Joey – he’d probably choose Joey every time.
If Ross were not Monica’s sister, it’s pretty easy to see that he would have been lost in the divorce, and the five ~friends~ would have kept Carol as their sixth mate.

Understandably, fans of the show have not taken this observation lightly, and hell hath no fury like agitated Ross stans (yep, they exist).
It’s idotic to think that Everyone would have stuck to Carol just cuz of her sexuality.She cheated on Ross.&Ross& Monica were written as Siblings.Did you even watch the show. even if they weren’t why the hell do you think Everyone would have stuck to Carol.Ross got heartbroken..
— Shu ho (@Mrs_Shu_kwon) May 13, 2018
DID YOU EVEN WATCH THE SHOW, EMILY???? DID YOU????
when the internet attacks ross and you realize you’re the only one who likes him pic.twitter.com/tPVMzq5b7W
— april (@heynotrachel) May 13, 2018
https://twitter.com/NickFong98/status/995552893162827777
Honestly, this whole thing put me into a weird Friends hole where I think I’d prefer Marcel the monkey over everyone and I also ended up over here at this weird Riverdale cross-over, which is…a whole time.
theory: ross is the og father of jughead (whose real name is “ben”) and FP kidnapped jughead and gave him amnesia making jughead lose his memories of his real father, ross geller. #Riverdale #Friends pic.twitter.com/NGebF1L6lA
— b (@biancsms) May 7, 2018