Ross claimed that he was 29 in three different seasons of Friends, but the age plothole makes sense with this notoriously problematic character.

One of the biggest plot holes regarding Ross Gellar in Friends actually fits perfectly with his character. Like many other sitcoms, the series struggled with its timeline continuity, resulting in a few problems along the way. This was especially true for the characters' ages and birthdays, which were inconsistent from season to season. Though this can be chalked up to the writers in most cases, it makes a lot of sense for Ross, whose personality perfectly supports why he didn't age for three Friends seasons in a row.

At the start of Friends, Rachel and Monica were confirmed to be 24 years old. This means that Ross, who was a couple of years ahead of his sister and life-long crush, was 26. For a couple of seasons, the writers remained consistent with this. In Friends season 3, Ross stated that he was 29—precisely as old as he should have been. The only problem is that Ross said this same age in both season 4 and season 5. This is assumed to be a mistake on the writers' part, but since he was a known liar, this could be just another of the falsehoods that made Ross Gellar the most hated Friends character.

Ross Lying About His Age Makes Sense

Plenty of people lie about their age, but the problem with Ross is that he was lying to people who knew the truth—but he didn't seem to care. Of course, his sister, college best friend, and the girl he had been in love with his whole life knew his actual age, but that didn't stop him from saying that he was several years younger than he was. This was the work of a compulsive liar, and Friends revealed that that's precisely who Ross was.

Especially in Ross' famous relationship with Rachel in Friends, Ross had a major problem with telling little white lies. He fibbed about the pros and cons lists he had constructed about Rachel, lied about Chloe the copy girl, and twisted the truth about reading Rachel's letter (which he knew was important to her). Still, he never saw these lies as bad, especially since he believed himself to be such a good and terribly misunderstood person. Ultimately, since Ross was willing to blatantly lie so much about everything else, it's no big surprise that he would lie about his age.

How Old Ross SHOULD Have Been During Friends

Since Ross was 26 in the pilot episode of Friends, he would have actually turned 29 in season 3. Therefore, the first year he lied, season 4, was when he should have turned 30. This is a fairly typical time to start lying about age—and since Friends was all about this transitionary stage of life, it all fits right in. By the time Rachel turned 30 in season 7 (which may have been a season later than it should have been), Ross was no longer pretending to be younger than 30. Still, he didn't share his age, which should have been around 32 or 33. By Friends season 10, Ross should have been about 36—though who knows what age he chose to tell people.