Internet Confused After Matthew Perry Appears To Wish Keanu Reeves Was Dead

The internet has made it very clear that after cats, the next thing you don't mess with is Keanu Reeves.

Former Friends actor Matthew Perry appears to be learning this lesson the hard way after Variety reported that in Perry's memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, he recalls two instances in which he wished Keanu Reeves had died over actors like River Phoenix, Heath Ledger and Chris Farley.

Perry has struggled with drug addiction throughout much of his career, and in his memoir, he discusses instances of other actors who died due to substances with seemingly random potshots at Reeves. Discussing River Phoenix, he wrote:

“River was a beautiful man, inside and out -- too beautiful for this world, it turned out. It always seems to be the really talented guys who go down. Why is it that the original thinkers like River Phoenix and Heath Ledger die, but Keanu Reeves still walks among us? River was a better actor than me; I was funnier. But I certainly held my own in our scenes -- no small feat, when I look back decades later.”

Writing of Chris Farley, Perry said:

“His disease had progressed faster than mine had. (Plus, I had a healthy fear of the word ‘heroin,’ a fear we did not share),” Perry writes. “I punched a hole through Jennifer Aniston’s dressing room wall when I found out. Keanu Reeves walks among us. I had to promote ‘Almost Heroes’ two weeks after he died; I found myself publicly discussing his death from drugs and alcohol. I was high the entire time.”

It seems Perry is no fan of the John Wick actor's ability, though it is unclear if Perry expands upon why he seemingly wished Reeves had died instead of other actors.

As Keanu Reeves is essentially sacred in the eyes of social media at large, Perry's comments were tweeted as blasphemy by many Twitter users.

In his new book, Matthew Perry brings up Keanu twice. TWICE. Both times were to say he was upset that someone else had died but Keanu was still alive. How horrible. How absolutely disgusting. https://t.co/p2myPHzzlh

— Candice Marie Benbow (@CandiceBenbow) October 26, 2022

The world teaming up to annihilate Matthew Perry in defense of Keanu Reeves pic.twitter.com/GkUcouWT8o

— Sven (@dogemanx) October 26, 2022

Matthew Perry: I’m going to bash Keanu Reeves.

Everyone: pic.twitter.com/s4zDMNjv8t

— human jordan (@Jordan_Smith27) October 27, 2022

At least one commenter gave Perry the benefit of the doubt by noting that his shots at Keanu were his feelings in the '90s, a time well before Reeves became the new epic bacon.

My gripe for today: Matthew Perry was describing his contemporaneous thoughts about Keanu Reeves as they happened during the 90s; a time which Keanu was widely considered a very bad actor. He is not describing his modern day thoughts.

— Katie Notopoulos (@katienotopoulos) October 27, 2022

Nevertheless, many noted that regardless of the context, Perry's jabs at Reeves were a poor look and a particularly bad way to sell a memoir, leading to hypotheses that Perry's editors simply didn't read Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing close enough to see if the memoir's author would inadvertently unleash the internet's hounds against him.