Joey Tribbiani is a struggling actor best known for playing Dr. Drake Ramoray on Days of Our Lives. He's Chandler's roommate and best friend, famous for his love of food, womanizing ways, catchphrase "How you doin'?", and his lack of intelligence that's balanced by a heart of gold.
About Joey Tribbiani
Joseph Francis "Joey" Tribbiani Jr., played by Matt LeBlanc, is the lovable Italian-American struggling actor of NBC's Friends (1994–2004). LeBlanc appeared in all 236 episodes and reprised the role on the short-lived Joey spin-off (NBC, 2004–2006). Joey provides the show's enthusiastic naïveté: warm-hearted, food-obsessed, and famously bad at picking up on subtext.
Origin and family
Joey is from Queens, New York, the only son in a large Italian-American family with seven sisters. His father Joseph Sr. is the source of one of the show's earlier-season storylines about infidelity. Throughout the show Joey lives across the hall from Monica's apartment for most of the run, sharing the apartment with Chandler (and later with Rachel for a season).
Career: the working actor
Joey is the show's depiction of a New York actor on the grind. His most famous role is Dr. Drake Ramoray, the brain-surgeon character he plays on the in-show soap opera Days of Our Lives. Drake Ramoray gets killed off mid-series — pushed down an elevator shaft — and Joey hits unemployment until the character is later resurrected via the "different body, same brain" trope.
Other Joey roles referenced in trivia: aftershave model with the "Hombre Man" campaign, an off-Broadway play called Freud!, a stage production where he plays a man with a wooden leg, and the failed sci-fi pilot "Mac and C.H.E.E.S.E."
Best-friend dynamic with Chandler
The Joey-and-Chandler roommate relationship is one of the show's emotional anchors. The big-recliner-chairs apartment is theirs from season 1 through Chandler's marriage to Monica. Notable beats: Joey's chick and duck, the foosball table, the dramatic moment Chandler moves out, and the running gag of Joey not understanding any of Chandler's jokes.
"How you doin'?" and pop culture
Joey's catchphrase — "How you doin'?" — became one of the most-quoted lines in 1990s/2000s sitcom history. The phrase entered general use as a flirtatious greeting and is still a frequent Friends-trivia answer.
Why Joey trivia is its own category
Joey-specific trivia tends to focus on four areas: (1) his acting career and the in-show roles he's played, especially Drake Ramoray; (2) food — pizza, sandwiches, the "Joey doesn't share food" running gag; (3) his romantic life, including his crush on Rachel in seasons 8–10; and (4) the famous catchphrase. The spin-off series Joey, which aired 2004–2006, is rarely covered in trivia packs because it didn't achieve the cultural footprint of the original show.
Sources: Wikipedia: Joey Tribbiani; Friends Wiki: Joey Tribbiani; IMDb: Friends.
Joey Tribbiani Trivia Questions
Reveal Answer
Actor
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Dr. Drake Ramoray on Days of Our Lives
Reveal Answer
'How you doin'?'
Reveal Answer
Food
Reveal Answer
Hugsy
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Seven sisters
Reveal Answer
Estelle Leonard
Reveal Answer
'It's like a cow's opinion. It doesn't matter. It's moo.'
Reveal Answer
Two pizzas
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He falls down an elevator shaft and later gets a new brain from a character named Jessica Lockhart
Joey's Acting Career
- Various small roles — Commercials, plays, and minor TV appearances
- Dr. Drake Ramoray — His breakout role on Days of Our Lives
- Mac and C.H.E.E.S.E. — A short-lived cop show with a robot partner
- Box office movies — Brief film career including a World War I movie
- Days of Our Lives return — Comes back as Dr. Drake Ramoray with a new brain