Forget about the revelation from the Friends reunion that Jennifer Aniston and David Schwimmer used to have feelings for one another because the real revelation is that Matt LeBlanc is an…Irish dad?
Following the release of the long-awaited HBO Max special that saw the cast of the beloved sitcom reunite for a one-off event, Irish Twitter latched onto a shot of LeBlanc aka Joey Tribbiani sitting with his arms crossed on a chair in Monica’s re-created apartment.
Social media positively lit up with Irish people drawing a parallel between the actor and their uncle, citing his striped shirt and jovial attitude as unmistakably “Irish.”
“Who wore it best, #mattleblanc or my Dad??!,” one Twitter user wrote with a side by side picture of the two men.
Would love if we could get @Matt_LeBlanc to see this!!!
— Triona Wynne (@TeeCunningham) May 30, 2021
Another wrote, “Never has a childhood of growing up in rural Ireland better prepared me for something more than it’s prepared me for this Matt LeBlanc being your uncle meme.”
Never has a childhood of growing up in rural Ireland better prepared me for something more than it’s prepared me for this Matt LeBlanc being your uncle meme
— spochadóir (@spochadoir) May 29, 2021
Speculation soon turned to what LeBlanc’s “Irish Uncle” might be saying or thinking in the shot, with one user suggesting it was something along the lines of: “And you paid for them jeans like that ya did, with all them holes already in them? [sic]”, while another theorised that he was actually saying: “Vegetarian are ya? jaysus i couldn’t do that to meself i’d bleedin starve without me sunday roast haha. sure i’ll pick up a nice bitta fish for you so [sic].”
‘And you paid for them jeans like that ya did, with all them holes already in them?’ pic.twitter.com/mpKFmuevfM
— spochadóir (@spochadoir) May 29, 2021
vegetarian are ya? jaysus i couldn't do that to meself i'd bleedin starve without me sunday roast haha. sure i'll pick up a nice bitta fish for you so pic.twitter.com/Sp0E4afwdW
— marysia // ***** *** (@stairgay2heaven) May 29, 2021
Even Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan got in on the action, joking, “Matt LeBlanc is Irish, I don’t want to see any other nation trying to claim him,” Coughlan claimed. “He’s from Tullamore, he drinks milk with his dinner.”
Matt LeBlanc is Irish, I don’t want to see any other nation trying to claim him, he’s from Tullamore, he drinks milk with his dinner
— Nicola Coughlan (@nicolacoughlan) May 30, 2021
So far LeBlanc, who was born in Massachusetts and is of French and Italian heritage, has not weighed in on the social media comedic gold, but we think it’s fairly safe to say he’ll never have to pay for a drink in Ireland again.
“How *you* gettin on?” pic.twitter.com/eUtpLAurl8
— Peter McGann (@peterjmcgann) May 29, 2021
Stream Friends: The Reunion on-demand on BINGE.
Friends stars Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry, and David Schwimmer return to the iconic comedy’s original soundstage, Stage 24, on the Warner Bros. Studio lot in Burbank for a real-life unscripted celebration of the beloved show.
The one-off special features appearances from some of the world’s biggest stars including David Beckham, Justin Bieber, BTS, James Corden, Cindy Crawford, Cara Delevingne, Lady Gaga, Elliott Gould, Kit Harington, Larry Hankin, Mindy Kaling, Thomas Lennon, Christina Pickles, Tom Selleck, James Michael Tyler, Maggie Wheeler, Reese Witherspoon and Malala Yousafzai.
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