Chilling Friends theory explains why the gang went to Central Perk coffee house so much

For many of us, Friends has been apart of our lives ever since it first hit our screens back in 1995.

Whether you watched it at the time or you're like me and grew up binging re-runs of the TV show on Channel 5 back in the day before it got added to Netflix - it's clear that the lives of Rachel, Monica, Phoebe, Joey, Chandler and Ross have made a pretty big impact on us.

So, it's no wonder than many fans have rushed in over the years to share their theories over the programme.

There are a bunch of fan theories surrounding Friends. (Gary Null/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images)

And it's clear that some fan theories are darker than others as one chilling theory has sought out to explain why the gang went to Central Perk so much.

One fan took to Reddit to share their particularly dark theory that the main six characters were actually in a 'psychiatric ward'.

Discussing the speculation, they wrote: "I think someone said something about them all really being treated at a psychiatric ward for their varying personality disorders.

"The reasoning went that they spent most of their time in two places, either the coffee shop (which caters to their every need) or somebody's apartment."

According to this fan, the two locations represent both their respective rooms and the cafeteria/food hall of the psychiatric ward.

"In addition, every time an outside love interest would come into the group, they would immediately try to squash the romance if it threatened to tear one of them away," the Redditer continued.

"This was supposed to be symbolic for an outside source trying to take one of the patients (i.e. one of the 'friends') out of the mental hospital."

Could Central Perk symbolise a psychiatric ward cafeteria? (Alice S. Hall/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images)

Some pretty outside-the-box thinking there, I'll give you that!

In other Friends news, there was one episode which was actually banned from airing in the UK for a pretty controversial reason.

Episode 17 of the fourth season featured a 'lighthearted' story about Chandler and Joey stumbling across a television channel which gives them access to 24 hour free pornography.

Whilst the notion of adult movies isn't frowned upon in other episodes - including when Phoebe discovers her twin sister Ursula is performing porn under her name - the nature of this particular episode was seen as pretty harmful to viewers.

'The One With The Free Porn' became a subject of a censorship ban across the United Kingdom due to its frequent innuendos and sexually explicit content.

This particular episode also originally aired in a later-night airtime compared to usual, and was subsequently barely ever syndicated in the UK moving forward.

The television screen content was also censored, and nowadays, you'll still be lucky to catch it on UK free-view television.

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