A lot of people know “Friends” inside and out; between knowing exactly how many times Ross got divorced, always wanting to be friends with Regina Phalange and understanding that they were not on a break, the sitcom put its viewers through a lot during its 10-season tenure.
It’s that show you pop on Netflix when you need a little background noise while you do your nails or the binge session you subject yourself to when you’re home sick. Recently, I re-watched a bit of season 3 and had a minor epiphany during one of the episodes.
<p><i><b>Hear me out: Monica and Chandler’s marriage was foreshadowed four seasons ahead of time.</b></i></p>
Let me explain. During the eighth episode of season 3, Monica and Rachel insisted on babysitting Ross’s son, Ben. While Monica was playing “airplane” with Ben, zooming him around the apartment like a plane, she accidentally whacked his head on a support beam in the kitchen.
This was before Dylan and Cole Sprouse played Ben, BTW.
Naturally, Monica was terrified that Ross was going to notice the giant bump on Ben’s head and not trust her to watch her nephew in the future. Monica and Rachel went about their antics to hide the bump, of course, and thought they were in the clear until Ben started chanting, “Monica bang!”
Now, there are lots of things Ben could have said here. “Monica slam,” maybe? “Monica hurt,” perhaps? But writers chose “bang,” which sounded suspiciously like Ben was saying, “Monica Bing.” Which, as we all should be aware, was Chandler’s last name.
If you’ll recall, season 3 began with Monica coming off a rough break-up with her childhood eye doctor Richard, and Monica and Chandler ended up dating at the end of season 4. This is also the episode where Chandler found out his girlfriend, Janice, was still in love with her almost-ex-husband, and they broke up. So, it’d be the perfect time to throw in a bit of a will-they-won’t-they scenario.
Case in point: The show used Ben's baby voice to hint that Monica would one day become a Bing. I will not be swayed from this position.
There are a few Reddit threads about this theory, but nothing has been actually decided on the issue. Maybe I’m reading too far into it, but I’d personally like to press NBC for answers.