Phoebe Buffay

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Phoebe Buffay <tr> <td align="center" colspan="2"> </td> </tr>
First appearance	The One Where Monica Gets a Roommate <tr> <th>Last appearance</th> <td>The Last One</td> </tr>
Statistics <tr> <th>Aliases</th> <td>• Regina Phalange • Princess Consuela Bananahammock</td> </tr><tr> <th>Gender</th> <td>Female</td> </tr><tr> <th>Age</th> <td>30s</td> </tr><tr> <th>Occupation</th> <td>Masseuse</td> </tr><tr> <th>Family</th> <td>Ursula Pamela Buffay (twin sister) Frank Buffay Jr. (half-brother) Frank Buffay (father) Phoebe Abbott (biological mother) Lily Buffay (mother, deceased)</td> </tr><tr> <th>Spouse</th> <td>Duncan (divorced) Anon. Las Vegas marriage (ongoing?) Mike Hannigan</td> </tr><tr> <th>Portrayed by</th> <td>Lisa Kudrow</td> </tr><tr> <th>Created by</th> <td>David Crane Marta Kauffman</td> </tr>

Phoebe Buffay (also Buffay-Hannigan) (b. February 16, 1967) is a fictional character on the popular US television sitcom Friends (1994-2004), played by Lisa Kudrow. Her twin sister Ursula Buffay, played by the same actress, was a recurring character in the sitcom Mad About You.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

1 Background
- 1.1 Family
- 1.2 Homelessness
2 Musical talent
3 Animal rights and the Environment
4 Personality
5 Friendships
6 Regina Philange
7 Age & Birthdays
8 Marriage
9 Trivia

[edit] Background

[edit] Family

Phoebe has a rather strange past, and an equally strange present existence. Her biological mother, a real estate agent named Phoebe Abbott, gave birth to her and her twin sister while still a teenager, then gave them up to be raised by the girls' father and his wife, her best friend. Her biological father, a pharmacist named Frank Buffay, left when she was very young. Lily, the woman she believed to be her birth mother, worked on a barge during Phoebe's childhood, but during Phoebe's early adolescence, Lily killed herself, leaving Phoebe and her twin sister Ursula in the care of their stepfather, who was imprisoned (for reasons unknown) shortly after.

Phoebe eventually met up with her biological mother, who was played by Teri Garr, firstly in the episode The One at the Beach.

At some point Phoebe and her twin sister Ursula apparently separated ways, though exactly when this happened is never fully explained. As adults they remained distant, only speaking when necessary. Ursula is shown to be callous toward Phoebe; for example, she sold Phoebe's birth certificate (which is why Phoebe doesn't know her middle name) and performed in pornography using her sister's name. Ursula was revealed to be the waitress from Mad About You, which is the show Lisa Kudrow was starring in when Friends began. Lisa Kudrow played both Phoebe and Ursula at the same time using the split screen effect.

She has a half-brother, Frank Buffay Jr., named after their father. Phoebe discovered Frank on one of her attempts to find her father, who, as noted, walked out on her when she was a child, and subsequently walked out on Frank Jr.

After marrying his (much older) home economics teacher, Frank Jr. asked Phoebe if she would act as a surrogate mother to them as they are desperate to have children but are not able to do so. Phoebe agrees and in The One Hundredth gave birth to triplets: a boy, Frank Jr. Jr. (Chandler asks if the name should be Frank the Third, and Alice says "Don't get me started"); and two girls, Leslie and Chandler. The baby Chandler was originally thought to be a boy.

Phoebe's beloved grandmother (played by Audra Lindley), later died in season five. At the memorial service, Phoebe finally meets her father Frank Buffay (played by Bob Balaban).

[edit] Homelessness

Phoebe became homeless soon after the departure of all her caregivers (and sister, apparently) and by age 14 she was living on the streets of New York, residing in a Gremlin with a man called Cindy who talked to his hand; she spent her "Sweet Sixteen" being chased around a tire yard by an escaped mental patient who in his own words wanted to "kill her or whatever". She occasionally resorted to mugging to survive. At one point, she mugged Ross, when they were fourteen, though neither of them knew each other at the time. A pimp spat in her mouth when she lived on the street. This apparently resulted in her developing hepatitis, but she "got over it." Phoebe has also mentioned that she lived in Prague.

Her previous lifestyle shocks her friends, such as when she told the story of the time when she stabbed a cop. Their obviously surprised looks resulted in her retort, "But 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 moved into her grandmother Frances' apartment, and inherited her yellow taxi after her death; since Frances was the mother of Lily and not of Phoebe's birth mother, she was technically not related to Phoebe at all, but this evidently never became a sore point between the two after Phoebe learned of it.

Somewhere along this road, she 'found' aromatherapy as well as massage, which became her profession. She moved in with Monica after this, apparently answering a room-mate ad. Phoebe could have been a stockbroker upon a massage client's urging, but declined because at the time she believed everything that rhymed was true. Therefore, if she worked in stocks, she would have to live in a box, only eat lox, and have a pet fox.

[edit] Musical talent

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.

Phoebe's musical influences and favourite bands are heterogeneous: a taste for heavy metal and hard rock can be clearly noticed. To name a few examples:

On Season 9, episode 03, she says she's "working on a couple Iron Maiden covers".
On season 7, episode 17, she expresses her love for the grindcore band Carcass.
On season 9 episode 13 she sings Queen's "We Are the Champions" at a piano bar.

She describes her musical style as "acoustic folksy stuff" (Season 9, episode 03).

A collection of her songs can be found here [1].

Mostly, when she plays guitar, she is playing in Drop D tuning (low to high - DADGBE), which requires only one finger to play chords. This would suggest that she isn't a particularly talented guitarist - which, of course, is the point. In fact, 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 "Old Lady" and A as "Bear Claw" because of her finger formations while playing them.

[edit] Animal rights and the Environment

Phoebe is also somewhat of a champion of animal rights and the environment. She is a vegetarian, and eats "nothing with a face". One time, however, she was so depressed after her husband left her (the first time, not the divorce) that she ate a cheeseburger, which Monica saw and told the group about later. She also succumbed to her cravings for meat during her pregnancy, though only after Joey agreed that he would abstain from meat so that no extra animals would need to be killed. In The One With George Stephanopoulos Monica admits that she once tricked Phoebe into eating meat. While at dinner once with Rachel and Dr. Greene, she points out to him that she "doesn't eat meat", to which he eventually responds "I'll never understand you lesbians."

She defends her position against eating turkeys at Thanksgiving by claiming they are "beautiful, intelligent animals". She is against the wearing of fur coats (although she inherited a mink one, and later on even began to like wearing it). Once, she became very upset upon witnessing trees being cut down and sold as Christmas trees. 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 named the rat living in her apartment, then when the rat, Bob, had babies and was killed, she tried to raise the babies.

Although she is a vegetarian, in The One In Vegas , after suggesting to go to KFC to eat the 99-cent meat special and Monica says, "Phoebe, you don't eat meat", and Phoebe responds, "For 99 cents, I'd eat you!"

[edit] Personality

Having never had a normal, complete childhood, Phoebe is often quite naive and innocent, and is in some regards still a child at heart. She still believed Santa Claus existed (until Joey told her otherwise). She was also overjoyed when Ross got her a pink bicycle (with ribbons tied to the handles) after she told the gang she never had a bike as a child, let alone knew how to ride one, due to her family's hardships. Her goal by the time she was 30 was to have gone one mile while bouncing on a Hoppity Hop.

Phoebe appears to have been the most "promiscuous" of the three girls, being the one most often referred to having engaged in casual sex. It was hinted at several times during the show that Phoebe enjoyed 'kinky' sex, involving, for example, handcuffs. (She once suggested Mike's absence was due to her having handcuffed him to a drainpipe). She also alludes to having had sex in an elevator and in a public restroom. In a later episode, she was apparently trying to convince Mike to do something very weird and/or kinky. When Phoebe whispers what it is in Joey's ear he flips-out and leaves while yelling "I'm not helping you do that!". Also in an episode where she wants to know more about a man and so sends Joey to him to ask questions, she is disappointed to learn that he "isn't into weird stuff - sexually". Once in season three, she is sent up to the noisy man that lives upstairs to Rachel and Monica, and, minutes later, sexual noises can be heard through the ceiling.

Phoebe often uses her chaotic childhood and traumatic past as sympathy ploys to her friends. She most often would refer to her mother's death to get what she wanted. However as the series progressed the other friends acknowledged it less. The irony is that both Phoebe's biological parents are still alive and well after all, so she indeed has a complete family (albeit a broken one).

Although regarded by many as a stereotypically flaky "New Age" type, Phoebe's actual religious faith is somewhat vague. She deeply believes in reincarnation and has spoken of multiple gods (including Lucifer and the Norse gods Thor and Odin), which would seem to make her a Pagan; however, not all of Phoebe's beliefs seem internally connected, and it is probable that she has picked up tidbits from a number of religions and simply woven them into her own unique faith. It seems to be because of this that she has accepted and believes her Grandmother is in hell. She is very open to the existence of paranormal phenomena and willing to consider the most bizarre scientific theories, much to the befuddlement of Ross. It has been revealed that she, however, does not believe the theory of evolution ( The One Where Heckles Dies ) or even that of gravity, claiming she feels more pushed down than pulled. At one point, Phoebe was even possessed by the spirit of an 82 year-old woman who had unfinished business ("she wanted to see everything"). The old lady's spirit departed when Phoebe attended a lesbian wedding. Phoebe also claims to hear voices in her head, and at one point, even heard Joey singing in his head, implying Phoebe may have telepathic abilities of some sort.

[edit] Friendships

[edit] Chandler

Phoebe had somewhat peculiar relationships with the three male Friends. Chandler acted as something of a little brother, on several occasions he demands: "Pheebs! Play with me!" The conversations between the two, which ranged from why Donald Duck wears a towel when getting out of the shower, to why there isn't a superhero called Goldman (which Phoebe herself asked), were another highlight of the show. This relationship seems to be one based on Chandler humoring Phoebe, somebody who he genuinely loves as a friend. After she learns that Chandler is seeing Monica, she makes sexual advances towards him to test the strength of his devotion, despite having a rather platonic relationship with him before.

[edit] Joey

Phoebe and Joey had a similar relationship and were actually on the same wavelength quite often, perhaps partially because they were the only members of the group who lacked a college education (Joey having hinted in season 9 that he never finished high school). He frequently found acceptance from Phoebe, who was in many respects more intelligent than he but also more open to alternative ideas, including whatever ideas Joey had developed through his imperfect knowledge. (she is the only Friend impressed that Joey has found his "Identical Hand Twin", she's also the only one who's seen Joey 'drink' a gallon of milk in ten seconds, she's probably the only one who'd believe him. They've also played many unorthodox games together including a twisted game of chess and betting whether the chick or the duck would find the hidden nutter-butter.) Phoebe never had a crush on Joey, but was very jealous of his relationship with her twin sister, Ursula, because her sister had been taking things from her ever since they were kids. Joey is in awe of Phoebe's knowledge of such things as reincarnation and openly wished that he could remember his past lives, to which Phoebe replied that Joey HAD no past lives because he was "brand new." Phoebe once tried to teach Joey how to speak French, at his request because it was on his resume. Much to her annoyance though, Joey has no aptitude for foreign language and just spoke a string of jibberish (ironically both Kudrow and LeBlanc speak fluent French, as does Matthew Perry). Joey is Phoebe's best male friend, and they have dinner together occasionally to talk about the rest of the gang. She once casually explained that "when the revolution comes, I will have to destroy you all...except you, Joey." She and Joey once sat at a chessboard together, making moves and punching a clock, but after Phoebe made a checkers-like move with a queen, she told Joey, "We really need to learn how to play this." In The One Where They All Turn Thirty, Phoebe is distraught about all the things she planned to do before turning 31 which she discovers she has missed out on (as she thought she was 30). She laments, "I haven't had the perfect kiss!" Joey gives her one. Kudrow later told in an interview and she and LeBlanc had pitched an idea to the writers that Joey and Phoebe had been having casual sex all along, but the pitch was rejected.

[edit] Ross

With Phoebe's "New Age" beliefs and Ross's scientific ones, their relationship sometimes led to conflict over the theories of evolution and gravity, and whether or not Phoebe's dead mother had been reincarnated as a cat. Despite this, however, the two always remained firm friends and it later emerged that they had almost slept together during Ross' first divorce. In one of the most amusing twists of the entire series, it came out that the mugger that had attacked a teenage Ross, stealing his backpack and the only existing copy of his cartoon "Science Boy" (who had a superhuman thirst for knowledge), had been a teenage, homeless Phoebe. Up until this became known, Ross had claimed that his attacker was a huge, beastly man. (To show how sorry she is for mugging Ross, Phoebe returns "Science Boy", which she had kept in a box labelled "crap from the street" ever since.)

[edit] Monica

Although Phoebe and Monica were close, Phoebe often found the other woman's competitive, obsessive-compulsive behavior off-putting. She moved out of Monica's apartment surreptitiously, taking out one possession at a time (a lamp, a rug, etc.) to avoid discovery, and at one point, some time before the first episode, she attempted to "cut Monica out" of her life (something that was discovered later when she and Monica re-connected with their friend Amanda who used to live in their building). They also clashed when Monica became Phoebe's wedding planner and Monica became agressive, bossy and demanding.

[edit] Rachel

Her relationship with Rachel was a bit more even-keeled and they were even roommates for a time in season five (although that led some minor clashes such as Phoebe's hatred of Pottery Barn and Rachel's embarrassment at Phoebe's strange jogging style during their morning runs). Phoebe once admitted that, if she had to choose which her two girlfriends to have a relationship with, she would pick Rachel because she was not as high-maintenance as Monica and Rachel was a pushover, "I'm flaky,I'll say anything." Phoebe might be considered the dominant figure in the three-way friendship between the three girls: once, when Monica and Rachel were fighting, Phoebe, who stood head and shoulders above both of them, easily overcame both of them by pinching their ears so hard both were forced to kneel; once Monica and Rachel agreed to stop fighting, Phoebe commented, "If we were in prison, you guys would be like my bitches." In one episode, Phoebe calls herself, "The Puppetmaster of the group."

[edit] Regina Philange

Phoebe's famous pseudonym/alter ego was Dr. Regina Philange, a pun on the phalanges, small bones in the fingers and toes.

The first references to Dr. Philange (pronounced "Filanjee") were used in the episodes set in England, in the run up to Ross's marriage to Emily; Phoebe was at home because she couldn't fly overseas pregnant, and she persisted in calling Emily's family in an attempt to warn Ross that Rachel was coming to break up the wedding. When Emily's family became weary of calls from "Ross' friend Phoebe", she invented Dr. Philange and a disease for Ross to explain his odd behavior.
Dr. Philange later re-surfaced when the group traveled to Las Vegas, and Phoebe was kicked out of a casino for stealing an old lady's jackpot. She tried to convince the security guard that he kicked out Phoebe and that she was Dr. Philange.
Phoebe uses the alias a third time in order to teach Joey how to distinguish if someone is acting or just lying very well. She once again uses the name to demonstrate to Monica and Chandler how people can easily give fake names after they got "fake-numbered" on their honeymoon.
In Season 10, Phoebe uses a variation of the name when Joey butchers an audition in which he is asked to speak French. Phoebe comes out of the audience and introduces herself to the director as Régine Philange (this time pronounced in a thick French accent) and explains to the director, in French, that Joey is her retarded little brother.
There is also an occasion when Phoebe refers to Regina Philange as a different person not actually herself. It happens when special guest Winona Ryder's character asks her about ever being part of a sorority. Feeling a little out of the loop for never having attended college, Phoebe comes up with a fake story involving a sorority named "Thigh-Mega-Tampon, which was shut down after Regina Philange died of alcohol poisoning".
Also when helping with Chandler's interviewing skills she refers to herself as Regina Philange (thus being the persona of the interviewer).
There is a reference in the last episodes of Season 10 when Phoebe is trying to convince Rachel to get off the plane that was sending her to Paris (and her new job) and says that "there's something wrong with the left philange." Consequently, a man sitting next to Rachel, who hears of the left philange incident, is persuaded to leave the plane in lieu of Rachel, who tries to tell him that it isn't true. Ultimately, all the passengers on the plane are driven by panic and the gossip of something wrong with the plane's left philange that the plane lands at the airport again and does extra mechanic repair. The stalling is enough for Phoebe and Ross to see Rachel again before she disembarks, until she rejects Ross for her job in Paris. She returns to Ross afterwards. This gives credence to the fact that Phoebe uses the word "philange" whenever she needs to lie or create a fictional object or character.

[edit] Age & Birthdays

Phoebe's birthday is probably February 16th. In The One With Frank Jr. (Season Three: October 17, 1996) Phoebe tells her half-brother that her birthday is on February 16th. In The One With Two Parts, Part Two (Season One: February 23, 1995) Phoebe has a birthday party in February. As is typical for the Friends, however, there is some confusion. Rachel's observation to Chandler in The One Where Nana Dies Twice (Season One: November 10, 1994) that she realized Chandler was not gay because he was "talking to my breasts" at Phoebe's birthday party, implies that the party must have occurred since September, when Rachel first joined the group. In The One With Phoebe's Birthday Dinner (Season Nine: October 31, 2002), Phoebe's birthday is in the Fall, close to Halloween, consistent with Rachel's allusion. A fall birthday is also suggested in The One Where They All Turn Thirty (Season Eight: February 8, 2001), in which Phoebe is outdoors on her 30th (actually her 31st--see below) birthday and is dressed for fall in New York, not winter.

Phoebe is probably the oldest of the friends, though we are not told the year of her birth. In The Pilot (Season One: September 22, 1994) she says she was 14 when she first began living on the street in New York. This was shortly after her mother committed suicide. In 1994, however, Phoebe is probably underestimating her age by one year (see next paragraph). In The One with the Cat (Season Four: October 2, 1997) Phoebe says she hasn't seen her deceased mother's smile for 17 years. Adding 15 to 17 suggests that Phoebe is 32 in the fall of 1997. If so, and if February 16 is her birthday, she was born on February 16, 1965. That would make the party mentioned above, depicted in The One With Two Parts, Part Two, Phoebe's actual 30th birthday party, although at the time she would have thought it her 29th (see next pararaph).

In the course of her unusual upbringing Phoebe herself loses track of her year of birth. Her error is corrected in The One Where They All Turn Thirty when Phoebe's twin sister Ursula shows Phoebe Ursula's birth certificate, which discloses that Phoebe is actually 31 on what she had thought was her thirtieth birthday. Unfortunately the viewer is not told in what year this takes place, and does not see the birth certificate.

[edit] Marriage

In Season 9, Joey - somewhat inadvertently - introduced Phoebe to Mike Hannigan (played by Paul Rudd). Phoebe and Mike had a long relationship which temporarily ended when Phoebe learned Mike didn't want to ever marry again, having already been through a failed marriage. In a later episode, Mike learned that her first serious boyfriend, David, was going to propose to her and changed his mind about marriage and they got engaged. In one of the final episodes, the two were married in the street outside of Central Perk after a blizzard. Monica and Rachel were bridesmaids, Joey officiated the wedding (he had been ordained over the internet for Monica and Chandler's wedding), Chandler gave Phoebe away and Ross held Mike's childhood dog.

When going to officially change her last name, Phoebe learned she could change it to anything, and briefly changed her name to Princess Consuela Bananahammock, which Mike disliked and retaliated by changing his name to Crap Bag. She later relented after learning that banana hammock was slang for a Speedo, and changed her name to Phoebe Buffay-Hannigan.

This marriage may not be legal since it was revealed that Phoebe may have been married in Las Vegas years ago. Phoebe thought that if you are married in Vegas, you are just married within the Las Vegas city limits. But when Monica lets her know that it's legal in all of the world she said: "oh well", so it's possibly nothing.

Also, the gang have always given Ross grief about his 3 marriages ending, but Phoebe has had 3 marriages as well. Once to Duncan the Ice Dancer, once to a mystery man in Las Vegas and finally to Mike Hannigan.

[edit] Trivia

Other than Regina Philange, her other trademark is an agonized-sounding "oh no" when faced with a bad situation.

When she was pregnant during season 4, it was actually to cover up for Lisa Kudrow's actual pregnancy. She gave birth to a boy before the start of season 5.

Once lived with an Albino, who killed himself.

She once entered into a marriage of convenience with a gay Canadian ice-dancer named Duncan who later "came out" as straight.

At one point she wrote a letter to Sesame Street, but was disappointed when they sent her back a keyring, as she was homeless at the time and therefore had no keys.

Phoebe giving birth to her brother Frank Buffay Jr.'s children as a surrogate mother may be an allusion to the Greek goddess Phoebe, who bears children with her brother, Coeus. This is also a recurring joke on Friends, as Phoebe will say she is having/had her brother's triplets but doesn't explain it's as a surrogate mother, leading people to assume that her brother impregnated her.

It has been hinted throughout the series that Phoebe might have been bisexual. One notable episode which gives evidence for this is The One With Phoebe's Birthday Dinner, in which Chandler asks Phoebe if she thinks Monica will notice he has been smoking. She replies that Monica 'has the nose of a blood hound' and then (having just seen Monica in a very revealing dress a moment ago) adds: 'and the breasts of a Greek goddess'. She then zones out for a moment until her thoughts are interrupted by Chandler. Also, in The One With Ross and Monica's Cousin, she is clearly attracted to Cassie, the aforementioned cousin, played by Denise Richards. In another episode she states that she has seen Monica naked before and when she asks when, Phoebe states she is "curious about the human body". Also, in the episode The One With The Nap Partners, Phoebe states that she and Rachel spoke of Monica and Chandler's wedding in the shower together, which, in turn, puts her back in the running for Maid of Honor (although this was a ruse to curry favour with Joey and Chandler). Once more, in the episode The One With Rachel's Big Kiss, Phoebe catches Rachel off guard with a kiss. After being questioned with a, "What the hell was that?", she claimed that she "Just wanted to know what the big fuss was all about.".

The other Friends affectionately call her 'Pheebs'. In one episode, while trying to comfort Rachel, Phoebe calls Rachel Pheebs. Rachel states "Sweety, that's your name.", to which Phoebe replies "That's short for Phoebe?! I just thought that's what we called each other."

Claims that she had a roomate named Denise that the other friends never met or knew about for most of the series. Denise never had a speaking role.

It has been hinted that Pheobe has been married three times. When the group explain to her that a marriage in Las Vegas isn't just applicable in Las Vegas, she shrugs as if she had married someone.

Prior to her wedding to Mike Hannigan, Phoebe ponders whether to have a fancy wedding reception, or whether to give the money to charity. She gives the money to charity before taking it back and having the wedding she really wanted.

In an alternate reality storyline during the show (The One That Could Have Been), Phoebe had taken the stockbroking job and now worked for a major firm, where she constantly gabbed on her cell phone, chain smoked, and ordered her subordinates around (while kept in check by her superiors). However, Phoebe suffers a heart attack when she loses millions of dollars in bad stock and is subsequently fired by her employers, causing her to have yet another cardiac episode. After Phoebe recovered she began playing at Central Perk.

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