Matt LeBlanc’s Crossed Arms Pose During ‘Friends’ Reunion Becomes Twitter Meme: ‘Irish Uncle Energy’

The actor appeared alongside his former Friends costars in a special that hit HBO Max last week.

Days after HBO Max debuted the long-awaited Friends reunion special, Matt LeBlanc has become a buzzed-about topic for an unexpected reason.

LeBlanc, 53, reunited with former costars Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer and Matthew Perry for the nearly two-hour special. While revelations such as off-screen crushes between cast members were made, certain fans on Twitter became captivated with something else entirely: the Joey alum’s crossed arms pose. Over the weekend, LeBlanc received the meme treatment from fans online who dubbed him an “Irish uncle.”

“Matt LeBlanc sits like a bloke that is at his nieces birthday while the cup final is on,” one person teased, while a second joked alongside a shot of the actor at the reunion, “Siri, please show me a picture of a Irish bachelor who says Minerals instead of soft drink, Eye Talian instead of Italian, has strong opinions about the hurling, won’t eat Lasagne without coleslaw and would be mighty craic at a wedding.”

A third user joked that LeBlanc “sat there like your dad watching your first boyfriend that he dislikes trying & failing to fix the home PC,” while a fourth person likened the actor to “your uncle at a wedding buying you too many beers and getting your name mixed up with your siblings while rolling his eyes lovingly at your aunt drunkenly flailing to ‘Dancing Queen.'”

Needless to say, the social media platform was delighted: One individual called Irish Twitter “adopting” LeBlanc “the best thing this week,” and another fan pointed out that “Twitter was not at all kidding when they said that Matt LeBlanc was giving off some serious Irish dad/uncle energy during the #FriendsReunion.”

LeBlanc played Joey Tribbiani on Friends during its 10-season run from 1994 to 2004. Recalling his time on the beloved NBC sitcom during the HBO Max reunion, he opened up about how he injured himself while filming a scene for the season 3 episode, “The One Where No One’s Ready.”

The moment in question occurred as Joey fought alongside roommate Chandler Bing (Perry) over a chair. As LeBlanc jumped into the chair for his fourth take, he wound up accidentally dislocating his arm.

“I went to jump over the coffee table and somehow tripped,” he said. “And my legs went up in the air and my shoulder came out of the socket.”

Paramedics arrived to take LeBlanc to the hospital and his injury was subsequently written into the next episode, titled “The One With the Jam.”