"Dude, you've been friendzoned!" Say what?

People who get too close to being in a relationship with someone they like sometimes find themselves in the dreaded "friend zone." Generally, a person gets to be "in the zone" when friendship is just too sweet, but romance is one-way.

What exactly is the friend zone? It is not complicated. In fact, it is pretty simple: the other person is in-love, while the object of affection sees him or her as just a friend. Familiar scenario?

On 9GAG.com, funny friend zone memes emerge every now and then. This happens often enough, that social network users have already came up with a new verb: friendzoned. Facebook could very well add "friendzoned" to its relationship status choices.

On the 90s TV series Friends, Ross was friendzoned by Rachel because he never got to tell her how he really felt for her. Joey told Ross, "You're in the zone."

Here are the scenarios that can lead someone to the friend zone:

1. Boy likes girl, girl is madly in-love with someone else. Sometimes it works the other way around.

2. After a couple of dates, boy or girl makes a deal to be "just friends" despite having feelings for each other. One of them is in-love, but is also too proud or too scared to make the move.

3. Attraction happens one-way. (But the friendship is too good to walk away from it even when romance is a hopeless possibility.)

4. In silly attempts at making the other person happy, a girl helps the love of her life to reconcile with his ex. Sometimes it works the other way around.

5. Guy and girl are both confused about their feelings for each other.

Have you or someone you know been friendzoned? Take a look at the 9GAG memes in the accompanying slideshow. Some memes are spot on and touché in illustrating how someone gets friendzoned. Click 'Start.'

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