Phoebe Buffay

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Phoebe Buffay-Hannigan
Information
First appearance	The Pilot
Last appearance	The Last One
Created by	David Crane Marta Kauffman
Portrayed by	Lisa Kudrow
Episode count	236
Information
Occupation	Masseuse

Phoebe Hannigan-Buffay (born February 16, 1967) is a fictional character from the popular US television sitcom Friends (1994-2004), played by Lisa Kudrow.^[1] Her claims to fame include her guitar playing in Central Perk and her elaborate improbable stories about her previous lives. Phoebe was known throughout the series as the eccentric, dippy street smart friend.

Background

Family

Phoebe's bizarre family history is revealed piece by piece by Phoebe throughout the television series. Her biological mother is Phoebe Abbott, a real-estate agent, who, after birthing Phoebe and her identical twin Ursula at age 18, gave them up to her best friend Lily.^[2] Lily's husband, a pharmacist named Frank Buffay, was the girls' biological father.^[3] Frank left when they were very young. Lily, the woman Phoebe believed to be her birth mother until the end of Season 3,^[4] worked on a barge^[5] during Phoebe and Ursula's childhood, whilst living in upstate New York^[6]. Lily committed suicide on Christmas day when the twins were 14 (or possibly 15; see Age and Birthdays below) by sticking her head in the oven.^[7] Their stepfather was imprisoned (for reasons unknown) shortly thereafter^[6] (and was still incarcerated as of Season 10),^[8] driving the twins to the streets of New York City.^[6] To hide Frank Buffay's real identity Phoebe's grandmother (Lily's mother, whom Phoebe lives with in New York) told her he was a tree surgeon in Burma where there are no phones. They also show Phoebe pictures of another man claiming that he was her father. This man was actually a model whose picture they acquired from buying picture frames, he was in the sample picture. In Phoebe's grandmother's apartment there is a framed picture of Albert Einstein, who Phoebe believes is her grandfather. Phoebe and her twin sister were thus left alone. Phoebe left their home town in upstate New York shortly thereafter and moved to New York City to earn a living. She did not succeed and spent several years homeless on the street before moving in with Monica, where she stayed until 1993, then moving in with her grandmother, Lily's mother (played by Audra Lindley). At some point during this time period she earned a license as a massage therapist and joined a practice. Her grandmother dies during season five, and at the memorial service, Phoebe finally meets her father Frank Buffay (played by Bob Balaban). During the running of the show, Phoebe lives in her grandmother's apartment, first with her grandmother, then with her friend Denise for an unknown amount of time, before Rachel moves into the apartment. In season six Rachel's hair straightener sets the apartment alight, prompting Phoebe to return to live temporarily with Chandler and Monica. When her own apartment was rebuilt, it only had one bedroom, and she lives there alone until she marries Mike in season ten. Phoebe eventually meets up with her biological mother, Phoebe Abbott, who was played by Teri Garr. Phoebe and Ursula became estranged and distant, though precisely when or why this happened is never fully explained. As adults they remain distant, only speaking when necessary. Ursula is shown to be callous toward Phoebe. Ursula was revealed to be the waitress from Mad About You, which is the show that Lisa Kudrow was appearing on when Friends began. Lisa Kudrow played both Phoebe and Ursula at the same time using the split screen effect. Phoebe also has a half-brother, Frank Buffay Jr., named after their father. Phoebe discovered Frank during one of her attempts to find her father and subsequently walked out on Frank Jr. and his family. After marrying his home economics teacher, Frank Jr. asked Phoebe if she would act as a surrogate mother for them, as they are desperate to have children but are not able to do so. Phoebe agrees and gives birth to triplets: a boy, Frank Jr. Jr. and two girls, Leslie and Chandler.

Early life

Phoebe becomes homeless soon after the departure of all her caregivers and by age 14 she was living on the streets of New York. She never attended college, but she ostensibly met behind a dumpster with a small group to learn French. She also displays the ability to speak Italian. She occasionally resorted to mugging to survive. At one point, when they were fourteen, she mugged Ross, though neither of them knew each other at the time. Phoebe also mentions that she lived in Prague. Her previous lifestyle and wild stories shocks her friends. When she tells the story of the time when she stabbed a cop, their obviously surprised looks caused her to retort, "What?! He stabbed me first!" Phoebe picked up an impressive talent for boxing at a YMCA, where, according to her, the guys "weren't being Christian enough". Phoebe later moves into her grandmother Frances' apartment, and inherits her yellow taxi after her death; since Frances was the mother of Lily and not of Phoebe's birth mother, she is not related to Phoebe at all, but this never became a sore point between the two after Phoebe learns of it. She moves in with Monica, apparently answering a roommate ad.

Musical talent

The guitar is Phoebe's instrument of choice and she regularly plays in Central Perk.

Phoebe's somewhat dubious musical skills were a popular source of entertainment. Her stunning array of songs include "The Double-Double-Double-Jointed Boy", "Sue, Sue, Suicide", "Sticky Shoes", "Ode to a Pubic Hair (Little Black Curly Hair)", and most famously "Smelly Cat", which became both a jingle for a kitty litter commercial and a serious commercial release. Other popular tunes include "The Grandma Song" and "The Cow in the Meadow goes Moo" which she sang to the children in the public library program, earning her the name "The Lady Who Sings About the Truth". Phoebe's musical influences and favourite bands are heterogeneous: she seems to know some tunes from Lionel Richie by heart, yet a taste for rock, heavy metal and hard rock can be clearly noticed. To name a few examples:

• In season 9, episode 03, she says she's "working on a couple Iron Maiden covers".
• In season 7, episode 17, she expresses her love for the grindcore band Carcass.
• In season 9, episode 13, she sings Queen's "We Are the Champions" at a piano bar.
• In season 4, episode 1, Phoebe and her mother both say that they like The Beatles.

She describes her musical style as "acoustic folksy stuff" (season 9, episode 03).[1] On the first seasons, she plays in open tuning, which requires only one finger to play major chords. In later seasons she plays in standard tuning. While attempting to teach Joey guitar, she professes to be "self-taught" and doesn't know the real names of chords. She refers to G-sharp as "Ice Berg" and A as "Bear Claw" because of her finger formations while playing them.

Smelly Cat

Smelly Cat first appeared in the second season episode "The One with the Baby on the Bus" where it was revealed to be Phoebe's most popular song. At the end of the episode she teaches a character played by guest star Chrissie Hynde to play the song. In "The One Where Eddie Moves In" Phoebe makes a professional recording of the song for possible commercial release, though her voice is replaced by an older singer. A short video for the song also appeared in this episode and is included in full as a bonus feature on the second season DVD set. In "The One with Phoebe's Ex-Partner" a character played by guest star Elizabeth Daily uses the song as a jingle for a cat litter commercial. In the fifth season episode "The One with Joey's Bag" Phoebe meets her estranged father, who reveals he sang a lullaby to her when she was a child, called "Sleepy Girl", which has the same melody as Smelly Cat. The "Smelly Cat Medley" track on the Friends Again soundtrack, credited to Phoebe Buffay & The Hairballs (featuring the Pretenders), features a recording of the scene, and then a new, more artistic recording of the duet between Hynde and Phoebe. Hynde then launches into a hard-rock version with new lyrics. The song became so famous that a group of Portuguese comedians had elected Gato Fedorento (Smelly Cat in Portuguese) for their show's name, claiming they were fans of Friends.

Animal rights and the environment

Phoebe has many principles, though she sometimes fails to stick to them. She is a vegetarian, and doesn't eat "food with a face", however she succumbs to her cravings for meat during her pregnancy, though only after Joey agrees to abstain from meat so that no extra animals would need to be killed. She frequently uses her vegeterianism to apologize for some behaviours, specially the ones which makes animals suffer; for example, when she punches Joey, making him bleed, she seems to be reasonably surprised and says: "Wow, and I'm a vegetarian!" She is against the wearing of fur coats, though decides she looks good in one that she inherits. Once, she became very upset upon witnessing trees being cut down and sold as Christmas trees, and when witnessing a woman stubbing out a cigarette on a tree forced her to apologize to it. She also cries when flowers die (and even arranges funerals for them), and feels sorry about sitting on a line of ants and accidentally killing them. She even once named a rat living in her apartment - "Bob" and a mouse "Susie". When Bob had babies and was killed, she tried to raise the babies herself. Although she is a vegetarian, in "The One In Vegas", after remarking about being handed a coupon for a 99-cent steak and lobster dinner, Monica says, "Phoebe, you don't eat meat", to which Phoebe responds, "For 99 cents, I'd eat you." Also in "The One with the Blackout" she says she 'stays away from dairy' which implies she is a vegan

Personality

Having experienced nothing like a normal, complete childhood, Phoebe is often quite naïve and innocent, and is in some regards still a child at heart. She still believes Santa Claus exists, until Joey says otherwise. Phoebe is the most promiscuous of the three girls, being the one most often referred to as having casual sex. During the episode "The One with Rachel's Phone Number", Rachel attempts to convince Mike to do her a favor by promising that Phoebe will do anything he wants: "Seriously, I'm talking dirty stuff." Mike is surprised that it could "get any dirtier". In an episode where she wants to know more about a man and sends Joey to ask him questions, she is disappointed to learn that he "isn't into weird stuff - sexually". Phoebe kisses Rachel in one episode to experience Rachel's claim to be a fantastic kisser. Phoebe says that if she had to select Monica or Rachel to have a lesbian relationship with, she would select Rachel because she is "not as high-maintenance" as Monica. An example of this occurs in the "The One with Ross and Monica's Cousin"; after Ross & Monica's gorgeous female cousin is shuffled from Monica's apartment to Ross's, and finally to Phoebe's (because Chandler and Ross are uncontrollably attracted to her). Phoebe experiences the same sexual desire for her that the men did. (In voiceover we hear Phoebe's thought: "Ask her out, she isn't YOUR cousin!"). Phoebe often uses her chaotic childhood and traumatic past as sympathy ploys to her friends. References to her mother's death were usually to get her own way. However, as the series progressed, the other friends indulge her less frequently. Phoebe believes in reincarnation and refers to multiple gods; however, not all of Phoebe's beliefs seem internally connected. She is very open to the existence of paranormal phenomena and willing to consider the most bizarre scientific theories, much to Ross' confusion and despair. She, however, does not believe the theory of evolution or even that of gravity, claiming she feels more pushed down than pulled. At one point, Phoebe is even possessed by the spirit of an 82 year-old woman who had unfinished business. Phoebe also claims to hear voices in her head, and at one point, even heard what Joey was singing in his head. Phoebe's uses the alter ego of Regina Phalange. The first reference to Phalange is when she contacts Emily Waltham's family, pretending she is Dr. Regina Phalange diagnosing a disease for Ross.

Friendships

Chandler

Chandler acts as something of a little brother to Phoebe, demanding on several occasions, "Pheebs! Play with me!" After Phoebe learns that Chandler is seeing Monica, she makes sexual advances towards him to test the strength of his devotion, despite having a platonic relationship. Chandler asks Phoebe to help him select an engagement ring for Monica. Eventually Chandler is called upon to walk Phoebe down the aisle when she marries Mike, although originally it was to be Joey. Although the characters were established as being close friends (the two are often seen hanging out as a pair), the nature of their storylines often meant limited interaction.

Joey

Phoebe and Joey had a similar relationship and appear to be "on the same wavelength" quite often, perhaps partially due to their being the only members of the group who lack a college education. Joey is Phoebe's best male friend and vicer-versa, they have dinner together once a month to talk about the rest of the group. Both characters show a fondness and softness for each other, even when joking or being upset towards the others. She once casually explained that "when the revolution comes, I will have to destroy you all...except you, Joey." Joey was also angered when Monica and Chandler did not show support for his "identical hand twin" idea and said that none of them are allowed to live in his hand-shaped mansion "except for you, Pheebs, you can live in the thumb." Joey is in awe of Phoebe's knowledge of such things as reincarnation and openly wishes that he could remember his past lives, to which Phoebe replies that Joey has never had any past lives because he is "brand new". Phoebe tries to teach Joey how to speak French, at his request - he claims fluency on his resumé. Much to Phoebe's annoyance though, Joey has no aptitude for foreign language and just reels off gibberish (ironically both Kudrow and LeBlanc speak fluent French, as does Matthew Perry). She also tries to teach him the guitar, but forbids him to touch one, and they have a brief falling out when he seeks out a qualified teacher. Phoebe reportedly had a crush on Joey, and was very jealous of his relationship with her twin sister, Ursula. As Phoebe and Joey's relationship never goes past a kiss, Joey cannot be considered as one of Phoebe's significant others. In "The One Where They All Turn Thirty", Phoebe is lamenting all the things she has failed to do before turning 31, including having "the perfect kiss", so Joey gives her one. Kudrow later revealed in an interview that she and LeBlanc had pitched an idea to the writers involving Joey and Phoebe having casual sex all along, but the pitch was rejected.

Ross

Though Phoebe and Ross are firm friends, their relationship sometimes leads to conflict between Phoebe's "New Age" beliefs and Ross's scientific ones, such as their debates over the theories of evolution and gravity, and whether or not Phoebe's dead mother had been reincarnated as a cat. Phoebe even suggests that, at some point in the future, she and Ross will have a disagreement that ends with her killing him. In "The One With Joey's Big Break", Phoebe claims to be mad at Ross, but "can't remember" why. She remembers that he called her boring, but this turned out to be merely a dream. It is revealed that the mugger who attacked a teenage Ross outside St. Mark's Comics, stealing his backpack and the only existing copy of his cartoon "Science Boy", had been a teenage, homeless Phoebe. To show how sorry she was for mugging Ross, Phoebe returns "Science Boy", which she has stored ever since. She claims that she had kept it only because it was too good to sell for food money, as she apparently learnt a lot from science boy when she was growing up on the street. When Ross comes to know that Phoebe had never ever ridden a bike in her entire life and that as a kid, she saw her neighbor with a bike, he gifts her a bike exactly as described by Phoebe. Also, when Ross realizes that he is in love with Rachel, Phoebe pushes him to tell Rachel how he feels. In a flashback episode it is revealed that after Ross and Carol's relationship broke up, in a moment of weakness, she and Ross almost had sex on the pool table inside the bar that would become Central Perk. In the last episode of Friends, Phoebe drives Ross to the airport in her Taxi, and delays Rachel's flight so that Ross can admit his love to Rachel.

Monica

Although Phoebe and Monica are close, Phoebe often finds her competitive, obsessive-compulsive behavior off-putting. During one of Monica's obsessive outbreaks Phoebe jokes about having "woke the beast." Also, when explaining why she has to move out, Phoebe says, "I need to live in a world where I can spill!" She moves out of Monica's apartment surreptitiously, taking out one possession at a time to avoid discovery. However, once she is discovered, she states that she still wishes to be Monica's friend. At one point, some time before the first episode, she attempted to "cut Monica out" of her life. They also clash when Monica becomes Phoebe's wedding planner and becomes bossy and demanding. They also clash when Phoebe starts singing outside Monica's restaurant, much to Monica's annoyance and embarrassment. Phoebe takes this harshly and insults Monica's cooking and restaurant while Monica retaliates by insulting Phoebe's music. There have been occasions when Phoebe would think about Monica in a sexual way. In example in Season 9 The One with Phoebe's Birthday Dinner, Phoebe comes by Monica's apartment and sees Monica waiting for Chandler so they can try for a baby before her birthday dinner. When Chandler comes back, he and Phoebe bump in the hallway and after Chandler asking her if she thinks Monica can smell the smoke on him, Phoebe replies 'Hello? That woman has the nose of a bloodhound!...and the breasts of a Greek goddess.', referring to when Monica was wearing lingerie in anticipation of Chandler's arrival.Phoebe would also sometimes make references to Monica and Chandler's marriage and their sexual life.

Rachel

Her relationship with Rachel is a bit more even-keeled; they are even roommates for a time in season six, though this leads to some minor clashes, including Phoebe's hatred of Pottery Barn and Rachel's embarrassment at Phoebe's strange jogging style during their morning runs. Phoebe admits that, if she had to choose which of her two girlfriends to have a lesbian relationship with, she would pick Rachel because she is not as high-maintenance as Monica. One time during the early season Phoebe also insulted Rachel's waitressing, saying to her: 'Then maybe someone will get what they ordered, for once.' sparking a huge row between all the friends.

Marriage

In Season 9, Joey—somewhat inadvertently—introduces Phoebe to Mike Hannigan (played by Paul Rudd). Phoebe and Mike begin a long relationship which temporarily ends when Phoebe learns Mike, having already been through one disastrous marriage, never wants to remarry. Mike then learns that Phoebe's first boyfriend, David, is planning to propose to her; he then changes his mind about marriage and proposes to Phoebe before David can. This proposal was rejected, as Phoebe only wanted to know that marriage was a possibility, but she and Mike become a couple again. They become officially engaged in "The One Where Rachel's Sister Baby-Sits". In the final season, the two are married in the street outside Central Perk, with Monica as maid of honor, Rachel as a bridesmaid, Joey officiating (he was ordained over the internet for Monica and Chandler's wedding), Chandler giving Phoebe away and Ross holding Mike's beloved but smelly childhood dog as a groomsman. When she changes her name after the wedding, Phoebe learns she can change it to anything, and briefly becomes "Princess Consuela Bananahammock". Her husband Mike retaliates by changing his name to "Crap Bag". Phoebe reconsiders after learning that banana hammock is slang for a Speedo, and changes her name again to Phoebe Buffay-Hannigan. However, Phoebe and Mike's marriage may not be legitimate, because Phoebe may have been married in Las Vegas years before. As she is under the impression that people married in Vegas are only married within Vegas city limits, Phoebe is surprised when Monica informs her that it is legal all over the world. Phoebe does indeed get married at least twice; in Season 2 ("The One With Phoebe's Husband"), Duncan (an apparently gay ice dancer, an old friend and someone Phoebe was in love with) comes to Monica's house, where he thinks Phoebe is living, and asks to see his wife. Her husband of six years, Duncan comes out as straight but divorces Phoebe anyway, and we learn that they only got married so Duncan could stay in the country. However, there is another theory, that as Phoebe was married to Duncan before, her marriage in Las Vegas may be illegitimate and since she divorced Duncan, her marriage with Mike is legitimate. Phoebe is also briefly engaged to Joey. In the episode entitled "The One With The Red Sweater", Joey believes that Phoebe is pregnant and proposes to her. Phoebe says yes and accepts his ring, but Monica tells Joey that it is Rachel who is pregnant, so Joey proposes to Rachel and must retrieve the ring from a reluctant Phoebe.

Production

• When Phoebe became pregnant during Season 4, it was to account for Lisa Kudrow's actual pregnancy. Kudrow gave birth to a boy before the start of Season 5.

References