A recent quote card posted in about 500 Facebook groups has yet another fictional character praising the Philippines for the way it is handling the COVID-19 crisis: American neurosurgeon Drake Ramoray.
Ramoray is the fictional Days of Our Lives doctor satirized by Matt LeBlanc’s character Joey Tribbiani in the hit NBC sitcom Friends.
Friends, which propelled LeBlanc, Jennifer Aniston and their co-stars to fame, premiered in 1994 and aired its final episode in 2004, a good 15 years before the novel coronavirus outbreak.
Days of Our Lives, a daytime soap opera also on NBC, debuted in 1965 and was renewed for its 56th season in January.
In the quote card, “US top neurosurgeon” Dr. Drake Ramoray quips:
Well to tell you frankly, no one handled NCov-19 better than the Philippines. I'm a little bit envy because here in our country, the toll keeps on rising and we can't do anything about it. How I wish I'm in the Philippines right now.
Ramoray was first mentioned in the episode “The One with Russ” in Friends’ second season. Joey made his first appearance as the neurosurgeon in “The One with the Lesbian Wedding” shortly after.
Filming of the reunion special of Friends for the upstart streaming service HBO Max has been delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Like a number of manipulated cards, the Ramoray card is fashioned after Inquirer.net’s quote cards. (Related fact checks: Celebrity quotes hailing Duterte leadership during pandemic fake and Yet another fake quote: Queen Elizabeth didn’t praise Duterte)
Ramoray’s quote card began circulating around April 7 and rapidly spread to 500 Facebook pages that have followers and members numbering 46.4 million, according to social media monitoring tool Crowdtangle. Nearly a million interactions were generated.
References
Briecker, T. (2019, May 10). Surprising secrets of Friends' final season revealed: Lots of tears, personal drama and the one storyline the cast hated. Retrieved from https://www.eonline.com/ap/news/1040196/surprising-secrets-of-friends-final-season-revealed-lots-of-tears-personal-drama-and-the-one-storyline-the-cast-hated
Goldberg, L. (2020, March 18). 'Friends' reunion special delayed at HBO Max. Retrieved from https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/friends-reunion-special-delayed-at-hbo-max-1285276
Jensen, E. (2020, January 29). 'Days of our Lives' renewed: Long-running soap will return for Season 56. Retrieved from https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2020/01/29/days-our-lives-renewed-soap-opera-returning-season-56/4614211002/
The One with the Lesbian Wedding. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0583624/
The One with Russ. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0583567/trivia