This Friends star explains why today’s sitcoms aren’t working

“30 Rock, Seinfeld and Friends were really funny and very well written…” According to the legendary Phoebe Buffay of Central Perk, no one dares anymore.

Have sitcoms lost their bite? For Lisa Kudrow, the answer is quite clear.

The unforgettable Phoebe from Friends believes that current comedies play it too safe to the point of becoming bland. In an interview with Interview Magazine, the actress explains that she is simply “not attracted” to the new multi-camera sitcoms. According to her, “they are too afraid to say things.”

Lisa Kudrow expands on her thoughts:

“I would like them to evolve. 30 Rock, Seinfeld and Friends were really funny and very well written. But I’m not attracted by the new multi-camera sitcoms shot in front of an audience, I don’t believe in them. I don’t know if it’s because I’ve seen too many single-camera sitcoms… but I think we need to go back to a real ability to make jokes. Dare to joke. I have the impression that we were too afraid to make jokes that might make people uncomfortable.”

A rather scathing observation. Because for Lisa Kudrow, comedy must flirt with embarrassment, surprise, destabilize.

“The best ones aren’t wise-cracking jokes. They’re jokes that make you say, ‘I can’t believe you just said that.’ Comedy relies on surprise. We need things that we don’t see coming.”

It’s hard not to hear, implicitly, a criticism of an industry that has become more cautious, not to say cautious. Lisa Kudrow knows what she’s talking about. For ten seasons, she played Phoebe Buffay on Friends, one of the most iconic multi-camera sitcoms of all time, alongside Jennifer Aniston, David Schwimmer, Matthew Perry, Courteney Cox and Matt LeBlanc. A role that earned him an Emmy in 1998.

And yet, even this cult character has long been misunderstood. At the time, many fans saw Phoebe as just a simpleton. A reading that the actress has never shared:

“At the time, people said to me, ‘She’s so stupid. Why do you always play stupid?’ And I was like, ‘Is she really stupid?’ For me, no. That’s what an idiot was to us: someone who didn’t fit the mold… But Phoebe wasn’t stupid…”