Created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, NBC's Friends is perhaps the most influential sitcom of all time. Despite ending more than a decade ago, it still remains as watched and loved as ever, with an HBO special reunion in the works. Lisa Kudrow became famous for playing the eccentric Phoebe Buffay and even bagged an Emmy for Best Supporting Actress for the role.
She is one of the funniest characters in the show, having some of the most hilarious lines. Although Phoebe is in some ways a mysterious character, the one thing about her everyone knows is that she loved her friends, but sometimes she does things that suggest otherwise. Here are 5 times Phoebe was a great friend, and 5 times she was a terrible one.
WORST: Gave Rachel Grief For Buying From Pottery Barn
After Rachel moves out of Monica and Ross's apartments, she starts living with Phoebe, and in "The One with the Apothecary Table," she learns from Monica after purchasing a table from Pottery Barn that Phoebe hates the company, since they mass produce products, and Phoebe believes a product should have a history behind it.
She gives Rachel a hard time for buying an apothecary table from the store and Rachel has to lie about it, but later when walking by a Pottery Barn store, she sees a lamp that she likes and instantly wants to buy it. Phoebe is quite a hypocrite about hating the company because she came to love the table, even after finding out from where it came.
BEST: Gave Monica Money To Start A Catering Business
After Monica loses her job in season 2, she thinks of starting a catering business for funerals and other events. She gets an opportunity to cater for 60 people but has to refuse since she doesn't have the equipment and it would cost a lot to purchase it. Phoebe tells her that she would gladly loan Monica the money to start a business.
The gesture was incredibly sweet, as Phoebe had to work hard and do many odd jobs such as singing and being a masseuse in order to earn a livelihood, and she was willing to help her friend nonetheless.
WORST: Played Music Outside Monica's Fancy Restaurant
Phoebe's songs are far from the best, but she is often so sweet and passionate about her singing that everyone finds them endearing. However, in the season 9 episode, "The One with Rachel's Dream," Phoebe sings her less-than-fancy songs outside Monica's posh restaurant.
Even when Monica is polite and pleasant with her, and asks her to stop, she doesn't, and when they have an argument, Phoebe starts singing about how terrible the restaurant is.
BEST: Said She Was Pregnant To Keep Rachel's Secret
At the very beginning of season 8, at Monica and Chandler's wedding, Phoebe finds a positive pregnancy test, which she later finds out to be Rachel's. Not wanting to steal Monica's thunder, Rachel had hidden it, but when Monica asks about it, Phoebe helps her out and covers for Rachel.
Phoebe tells everyone that the pregnancy test was her's, and she keeps Rachel's secret. She also helps Rachel realize that she wants to be a mother, even though she understands how hard it was going to be as a single mother.
WORST: Got Mad At Joey For "Learning Guitar Wrong"
Phoebe is known to be quirky and eccentric, which is fine, but it's a problem when it's at the expense of others. After Joey makes a resolution to learn the guitar, he asks Phoebe to be his teacher, but he quickly realizes he made the wrong move.
Phoebe refuses to teach him in the "conventional" way, and won't even let him hold a guitar. Worse still, when Joey secretly learns the names of the chords and signs up for an actual class, she gets mad at him, even though she was a terrible teacher.
BEST: Helps Chandler Pick Out A Wedding Ring
After Chandler gets freaked out about a message from a wedding planner, Monica convinces him that she's not expecting a proposal anytime soon. However, in a surprise reveal at the end of "The One Where Paul's the Man," it is revealed that Chandler is, in fact, planning to propose to Monica, and only Phoebe knows about it.
Not only does Phoebe helps Chandler pick out an engagement ring, but also convinces someone to give the ring to them when he buys it first (admittedly because Phoebe dropped the ball, but she clearly made up for it). Chandler and Phoebe didn't really have that many close friendship moments in the series so this was a pleasant surprise.
WORST: Gets Mad At Ross For Something He Didn't Even Do
Phoebe gets so weird and loopy that sometimes it gets hard to sympathize with her. In "The One with Joey's Big Break," she gets mad at Ross but can't figure out why. However, she remembers the setting.
She recalls that Ross called her boring... while they were playing chess on a frozen lake. Oh, and also Ross turned into Cameron Diaz. Turns out, she had dreamed the whole thing. She was upset at Ross for something he didn't even do, and treats him like trash because of it!
BEST: Helps Joey Learn French
When Joey gets offered a play because his resume says he can speak French, he's excited about it. The only problem is, Joey had lied on his resume, and he can't actually speak French. However, he realizes Phoebe does, and so he asks Phoebe to teach him his lines for the audition.
Phoebe agrees, and she quickly finds out he's a terrible student. He keeps speaking gibberish and thinks he's doing a great job, and even though she quits, she comes back and explains to the director of the play about Joey being her mentally challenged brother, and he turns down Joey very gently.
WORST: Mocks Chandler When He Gets Her A Job
After Phoebe looks for a job to make some extra money, in "The One with the Ick Factor," Chandler gets her a job as his assistant. Rather than being thankful, she makes fun of him and tells him how every one of his colleagues hates him.
She tells him how they imitate him and call him "Bossman Bing," and although Chandler manages to turn it around by using this to cut some work off his shoulders, it was a terrible way to thank someone for getting them a job.
BEST: Drives Ross To The Airport
In the series finale of the show, Ross decides to tell Rachel how he really feels about her and says he's going to meet her at the airport. Phoebe tells him she'll drive him in her grandmother's cab. When they reach the wrong airport, she calls Rachel and tells her something is wrong with the "left phalange," which causes the flight to be delayed.
There was something sweet about Phoebe literally yelling at people in the streets and almost hitting people on the bridge to get Ross to Rachel in time, and at the end of the day, it was her phone call that got them to the airport in time.