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Lisa Kudrow Wants a Friends Reunion, Wrote Smelly Cat Melody Herself

Lisa Kudrow's Reddit AMA
Lisa Kudrow spoke about her time on Friends.

Phoebe forever! Lisa Kudrow looked back on her time playing Friends‘ resident kook Phoebe Buffay in an “Ask Me Anything” session on Reddit.

The actress, 51, participated in the question-and-answer chat on Tuesday, Nov. 4, in promotion of the return of her HBO show The Comeback. Unsurprisingly, much of Kudrow’s time was spent discussing Friends

“I loved doing FRIENDS,” Kudrow gushed. “I would have been fine if we did it 10 more years, and it was great that we finished when we did, because I’ve loved everything I’ve done since.”

The Emmy winner appeared alongside Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry, and David Schwimmer for ten seasons of Friends, as they played a beloved group of New York City-based pals. 

Related: PHOTOS: Friends Stars: Then & Now!

Kudrow touched on some of her favorite moments from the show in her AMA session, pinpointing the first season, which aired in 1994 and 1995, as her favorite, because “it was the first one.” As to her favorite episode, she named season eight’s sixth episode in November 2001, “The One with the Halloween Party.”

“[My favorite was] the Halloween party that Sean Penn appeared in,” she explained. “For a lot of reasons. Number one was it was the first show we shot after 9/11. And that whole week, while driving in LA, people would pull up, and give me a very sad look, and a quiet ‘thank you’ for making them laugh.”

Penn wasn’t her only celebrated costar, however, as Kudrow spoke about her time with her five Friends

Friends cast

Asked which star was the funniest off-set, Kudrow said, “See, now, 20 people would be insulted… but because I spent 10 years laughing hysterically at Matthew Perry. Off-set, it’s Matthew Perry. And not laughing at him, laughing with him, sorry!”

Related: PHOTOS: '90s TV Stars: Then & Now

Another hysterical moment she had involved Schwimmer’s character Ross Gellar, and an odd hobby he took up in preparation for Monica Gellar (Cox) and Chandler Bing’s (Perry) wedding. Asked about the moment on the show that made her laugh the most, Kudrow explained, “Oh, the bagpipes! Ross played ‘Celebration,’ the Kool & the Gang song, on bagpipes! And he was SO fully committed!”

Reflecting on her own character, Kudrow spoke about Phoebe’s musical talents and the stories behind the songs. Admitting that she hasn’t picked up a guitar since Friends‘ 2004 wrap, Kudrow discussed her role in the creation of Phoebe’s famous “Smelly Cat” song.

“The writers wrote it, I wrote the tune, and had a little help from [The Pretenders musician] Chrissie Hynde. She was amazing,” Kudrow said of her trademark song, adding that she never found out what the unnamed owners were feeding the cat to make it so smelly.

“They all actually make me laugh really hard,” she added of Phoebe’s songbook. “Somebody put them all together on YouTube, because I’d forgotten all the songs, and every time a new one came on, I laughed out loud. I really liked the one for the kids, that starts ‘Oh the cow in the meadow goes moo…'”

Related: PHOTOS: Jen and Court: BFFs Forever!

Kudrow, who said that her main similarity to her character is optimism, also envisioned Phoebe’s future self: a “super-competitive tiger mom,” parenting with her husband Mike Hannigan (Paul Rudd).

So would Kudrow be willing to continue Phoebe’s journey? 

“I’ll go for it,” she said of a reunion. “A whole season, because to spend that much time with those people again would be heaven!”

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