Chandler Bing barely appears in the 18th episode of “Friends” season 7, entitled “The One with Joey’s Award.” He doesn’t show up until the final third of the episode, where he and Monica discuss the perceived fears about knowing that they will be the spending the rest of their lives together. There’s really no story beats for him to play out in the episode. However, that was not the case when “The One with Joey’s Award” was first written. As spotted by a “Friends” fan on Reddit, the episode synopsis on Netflix describes a non-existent B-plot in which Ross spots Chandler leaving a male strip club.
Perry revealed the reason for this on “Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen” back in 2017 that there was a “Chandler” story he rejected and the writers agreed to get rid of. They had an idea that Chandler would be a patron of a male strip club for the simple fact that he loves the sandwiches they serve there. You can understand the comedic game behind this setup because, as you would expect, food is not the primary reason to go to an establishment where men take their clothes off. Plus, Chandler is a heterosexual man. Why would he be in there?
The actor did not give specifics as to why he was not a fan of the idea, just that he didn’t want to do it. One would like to believe he understood that it would make no sense for the anxiety-ridden, quite homophobic Chandler to make his way into a male strip club, let alone and stay to try out the sandwiches. However, it also would not be surprising if this massively famous person on a blockbuster sitcom wasn’t crazy about wading in murky sexuality waters that the early 2000s were not kind to in the slightest. It was probably a mixture of both.