Phoebe Buffay

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Phoebe Buffay
First appearance	The Pilot
Last appearance	The Last One
Information
Aliases	• Regina Phalange • Princess Consuela Bananahammock
Gender	Female
Age	37 (by end of series)
Occupation	Masseuse
Family	• Ursula Pamela Buffay (twin sister) • Frank Buffay Jr. (half-brother) • Frank Buffay (father) • Phoebe Abbott (biological mother) • Lily Buffay (mother, deceased)
Relationships	• Mike Hannigan • (husband) Duncan (Ex-husband) • David (Ex- boyfriend)
Portrayed by	Lisa Kudrow
Created by	David Crane Marta Kauffman

Phoebe Buffay (Buffay-Hannigan by the end of the series) (born February 16, 1967) is a fictional character on the popular US television sitcom Friends (1994-2004), played by Lisa Kudrow. She is well known for a number of reasons, including her guitar playing in Central Perk, and elaborate improbable stories about her previous life.

Contents 1 Background 1.1 Family 1.2 Homelessness 2 Musical talent 3 Animal rights and the Environment 4 Personality 5 Friendships 5.1 Chandler 5.2 Joey 5.3 Ross 5.4 Monica 5.5 Rachel 6 Regina Phalange 7 Age and birthdays 8 Marriage 9 Relationships 10 Trivia

[edit] Background

[edit] Family

Phoebe's bizarre family history is reflected in her current chaotic existence. Her biological mother Phoebe Abbott, now a real-estate agent, gave birth to Phoebe and her twin sister Ursula while still a teenager, then gave them up to her best friend Lily to bring up. Lily's husband, a pharmacist named Frank Buffay, was the girls' biological father. Frank left when they were very young. Lily, the woman Phoebe believed to be her birth mother, worked on a barge during Phoebe and Ursula's childhood, but Lily committed suicide when the twins were adolescent, leaving them in the care of their stepfather, who was imprisoned (for reasons unknown) shortly after.

Phoebe and her twin sister were thus left alone, and at 12 years old Phoebe left their home town in upstate New York, and moved to New York City to earn a living. She did not succeed, spending 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 earnt 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 (Denise is never depicted), before Rachel moves into the apartment. In season six Rachel's hair straightener malfunctions and the apartment is destroyed by fire, prompting Phoebe to return to live temporarily with Chandler and Monica. Upon returning to her own apartment, she chooses to stay alone until she marries Mike in season ten.

Phoebe eventually meets up with her biological mother, Phoebe Abbott, who was played by Teri Garr. Abbott's first appearance was in the episode The One at the Beach.

Apparently Phoebe and her twin sister Ursula separated ways at some point, though precisely when this happened is never fully explained (Phoebe once states, "It's just stupid sister stuff" and cites various incidents, including Ursula stealing her possessions). As adults they remain distant, only speaking when necessary. Ursula is shown to be callous toward Phoebe, or at least exceptionally thoughtless with no concept of what people might or might not find upsetting. For example, she sold Phoebe's birth certificate (which is why Phoebe doesn't know her middle name), forgot to tell her that their mother had left a suicide note (which Ursula subsequently misplaced), and performed in pornography using her sister's name. Ursula was revealed to be the waitress from Mad About You (Phoebe once described her as "career-driven"), 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, who, as noted, walked out on her when she was a child, and subsequently walked out on Frank Jr. and his family. After marrying his (much older) 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 in The One Hundredth gave birth to triplets: a boy, Frank Jr. Jr. (prompting Chandler to quip "Shouldn't he be Frank the Third?") and two girls, Leslie and Chandler. The baby Chandler was originally thought to be a boy, alluding to the ongoing question of Phoebe's friend Chandler (whom the baby was named for) sexuality (see Chandler Bing).

[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 an AMC Gremlin with a man called Sidney who talked to his hand; she spent her "Sweet Sixteenth" being chased around a tyre yard by an escaped mental patient who in his own words wanted to "kill her or whatever". Another of her temporary homes was a burned out Buick LeSabre, which she shared with an albino who killed himself. At one point during her homelessness, she wrote a letter to Sesame Street, but was disappointed when they sent her back a keyring (she was living in a box at the time, and therefore "didn't have keys").

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. A pimp spat in her mouth when she lived on the street, which apparently resulted in her developing hepatitis, but she "got over it." Phoebe has also mentioned that she lived in Prague. At the age of 19 Phoebe became the don of a powerful New York Mafia family.

She often alludes to having once been in prison; for example, she proclaims, "No, no! I won't go back to that hellhole!" when she misunderstands a security guard when he says that he has to escort her out of a casino ([[The One In Vegas, Part Two]]). She also suggests mailing a carton of cigarettes as a gift "so he can trade it for protection," but soon casually corrects herself: "Oh no, that's in prison." She often refers to prison as part of a joke, such as when she once separated Monica and Rachel from fistfighting; holding them up by the earlobes, she comments, "You know, if this were prison, you two would be like my bitches."

Her previous lifestyle and wild stories shocs her friends. When she tells the story of the time when she stabbed a cop, their obviously surprised looks caused her to 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 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 was technically not related to Phoebe at all, but this evidently never became a sore point between the two after Phoebe learns of it. The taxi appears many times during the series, and Joey discovers that Phoebe stores her grandmother's cremated ashes under the front seat.

Somewhere along this road, she 'found' aromatherapy as well as massage, which became her profession. She moves in with Monica after this, apparently answering a roommate ad. Phoebe could have been a stockbroker upon a massage client's urging, but declines because at the time she believes everything that rhymes is true. Therefore, if she worked in stocks, she would have to live in a box, only eat lox, and have a pet fox. In [[The One That Could Have Been]], Phoebe sees herself as a high-powered, chain-smoking stock broker who is eventually fired because she "loses" thirteen million dollars. She also experiences more than one heart attack from the overwhelming amount of stress.

[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:

• 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.

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

A collection of her songs can be found here.

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 "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 doesn't eat "food with a face". At one stage, however, she becomes so depressed when her husband leaves her (the first time, not the divorce) that she eats a cheeseburger, which Monica sees and tells the group about later. She also 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. In The One With George Stephanopoulos Monica admits that she once tricked Phoebe into eating meat.

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 tries to raise the babies.

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, annoyed, "For 99 cents, I'd eat you."

[edit] Personality

Having experienced nothing like a normal, complete childhood, Phoebe is often quite naive and innocent, and is in some regards still a child at heart. She still believes Santa Claus existed (until Joey tells her otherwise). She is also overjoyed when Ross gets her a pink bicycle (with ribbons tied to the handles) after she tells the gang she never had a bike as a child, let alone knew how to ride one, due to her family's hardships. One of her goals by the time she was 30 was to have gone one mile while bouncing on a Hippity Hop.

Phoebe appears to be the most "promiscuous" of the three girls, being the one most often referred to as having casual sex. It was hinted at several times during the show that Phoebe enjoyed 'kinky' sex, involving, for example, handcuffs. At one point, she suggests 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 is apparently trying to convince Mike to do something very weird and/or kinky, and whispers her wish to Joey, he is clearly disturbed and leaves, yelling "I'm not helping you do that!". 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". In Season 3 Episode 11 (The One Where Chandler Can't Remember Which Sister), she is sent to yell at the noisy man that lives upstairs from Rachel and Monica, but starts dating him, and Monica and Rachel hear sexual noises through the ceiling a couple of days later.

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. The irony is that both Phoebe's biological parents are still alive and well, so she actually does have 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 referes to 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, apparently prompting her belief 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 Ross' confusion and despair. 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 is even possessed by the spirit of an 82 year-old woman who had unfinished business ("she wanted to see everything"), who departs when Phoebe attends a lesbian wedding. Phoebe also claims to hear voices in her head, and at one point, even heard Joey singing in his head.

[edit] Friendships

[edit] Chandler

Phoebe's relationship with Chandler seems to be one based on Chandler humoring Phoebe, somebody whom he genuinely loves as a friend. Chandler acts as something of a little brother to Phoebe, demanding on several occasions, "Pheebs! Play with me!" Conversations between the pair, ranging 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 a highlight of the show.

After Phoebe learns that Chandler is seeing Monica, she makes sexual advances towards him to test the strength of his devotion, despite having their platonic relationship. Eventually Chandler is called upon to walk Phoebe down the aisle. 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.

[edit] 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 (in fact, Joey hints in season 9 that he never finished high school, and Phoebe mentions in season five that she never even went to high school). Joey is Phoebe's best male friend, and they have dinner together occasionally to talk about the rest of the group. She once casually explained that "when the revolution comes, I will have to destroy you all...except you, Joey." Joey frequently finds acceptance from Phoebe, who is in many respects more intelligent than him but also more open to alternative ideas, including whatever ideas Joey develops through his imperfect knowledge. She is the only friend impressed when Joey finds his "identical hand twin", she's also the only one who's seen Joey 'drink' a gallon of milk in ten seconds. At one point, Phoebe and Joey sit at a chessboard together, making moves and punching a clock, but after Phoebe makes a checkers-like move with a queen, Joey says, "We really need to learn how to play this the real way", although Phoebe claims she preferred their way. They play several other unorthodox games, such as betting whether the chick or the duck would find the hidden Nutter Butter.

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, but was very jealous of his relationship with her twin sister, Ursula, who has been taking things from her ever since they were kids. As Phoebe and Joey's relationship never goes past a single 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.

[edit] 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 later emerged that they had almost slept together during Ross' first divorce.

In one of the most amusing twists of the entire series, it is revealed that the mugger who 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 becomes known, Ross claims that his attacker was a huge, beastly man. To show how sorry she was for mugging Ross, Phoebe returns "Science Boy", which she has kept in a box labelled "crap from the street" ever since. She claims that she had kept it only because it was too good to sell for food money. Ross also buys Phoebe a pink bike, because she never had a bike as a child.

[edit] Monica

Although Phoebe and Monica are close, Phoebe often finds her competitive, obsessive-compulsive behavior off-putting. 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 (a lamp, a rug, etc.) 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 (which is discovered later when she and Monica re-connect with their friend Amanda who used to live in their building). They also clash when Monica becomes Phoebe's wedding planner and becomes bossy and demanding. Phoebe responds to Monica's bossing with a very military "Sir! Yes sir!" Perhaps their biggest clash is 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 about Phoebe's music.

[edit] Rachel

Her relationship with Rachel is a bit more even-keeled; they are even roommates for a time in season six, from Episode 606: The One Where Phoebe Runs to Episode 618: The One Where Ross Dates a Student (although that 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). Once, 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.

Phoebe might be considered the dominant figure in the three-way friendship between the three girls: once, when Monica and Rachel are fighting, Phoebe, who stood head and shoulders above both of them, easily overcomes both of them by pinching their ears so hard both are forced to kneel; once they agree to stop fighting, Phoebe comments, "If we were in prison, you guys would be like my bitches." In one episode, Phoebe calls herself, "The Puppetmaster of the group." However in most other episodes, we see Monica being shown as the strongest of the three and often bossing Phoebe and Rachel around.

[edit] Regina Phalange

Phoebe's famous alter ego was Dr. Regina Phalange (pronounced "Filanjee") The first references to Dr. Phalange are in the episodes set in England, in the run up to Ross's marriage to Emily; Phoebe is at home because she can't fly overseas while pregnant. She persists in calling Emily's family in an attempt to warn Ross that Rachel is coming to break up the wedding. When Emily's family become weary of calls from "Ross' friend Phoebe", she invents Dr. Phalange and a disease for Ross, to explain his odd behavior. Dr. Phalange later re-surfaces when the group travel to Las Vegas, and Phoebe is kicked out of a casino for stealing an old lady's jackpot. She tries to convince the security guard that he kicked out Phoebe, and that she is Regina Phalange.

Phoebe also uses the alias in order to teach Joey how to tell whether someone is acting or just lying very well, and again to demonstrate to Monica and Chandler how people can easily give fake names after they get "fake-numbered" on their honeymoon. In this episode, Joey introduces himself as Kent Adams (his own alter-ego), and Phoebe as Regina Phalange. 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 Phalange (this time pronounced in a thick French accent) and explains to the director, in French, that Joey is her retarded little brother. She also refers to herself as Regina Phalange when helping with Chandler's interviewing skills (thus being the persona of the interviewer).

Phoebe refers to Regina Phalange as a different person when special guest Winona Ryder's character asks her about 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 Phalange died of alcohol poisoning".

There is a final reference in the last episodes of Season 10: Phoebe tries to convince Rachel to get off the plane which is taking her to Paris (and her new job), by saying that "there's something wrong with the left phalange." Consequently, a man sitting next to Rachel, who overhears this, is persuaded to leave the plane despite Rachel's efforts to reassure him. Ultimately, all the passengers on the plane are frightened by the rumor that something is wrong with the plane's left phalange, so the plane is delayed for extra mechanical repair. The delay is enough for Phoebe and Ross to see Rachel again before she departs, and she rejects Ross for her job in Paris, although she returns to Ross afterwards

Phoebe also changed her name to Princess Consuela Banana Hammock in the season ten episode The One with Princess Consuela when she is told she can change her name to anything.

[edit] Age and birthdays

Phoebe's birthday is probably February 16, and she is one minute younger than her twin sister Ursula. In The One With Frank Jr. (season three) Phoebe tells her half-brother that her birthday is on February 16. In The One With Two Parts, Part Two (season one) 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) that she realized Chandler was not gay because he was "talking to [her] breasts" at Phoebe's birthday party, implies that the party must have occurred since September, when Rachel first joined the group. We also know though, that Ross brought Chandler home for Thanksgiving when Rachel and Monica were still in high school - (this being the first time Rachel ever met Chandler) - so Rachel could have been talking about a much earlier birthday party when he and Ross were at college (where Rachel and Monica would have visited him). In The One with Phoebe's Birthday Dinner, Phoebe's birthday is in the northern hemisphere's autumn, close to Halloween, consistent with Rachel's allusion. A birthday late in the year is also suggested in The One Where They All Turn Thirty, in which Phoebe is outdoors on her 30th (actually her 31st--see below) birthday and is dressed for fall in New York, not winter.

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 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.

Phoebe is probably the oldest of the friends, though we are not told the year of her birth. In The Pilot, 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 The One with the Cat Phoebe says she hasn't seen her deceased mother's smile for 17 years. Adding 14 to 17 suggests that Phoebe is 31 in late 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.

[edit] 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 doesn't plan to marry because he has already been through a divorce. 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. In one of the final episodes, 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 twice: in Season 2 (The One With Phoebe's Husband), Duncan (the 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. Phoebe divorces him, 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.

[edit] Relationships

• Husband: Mike Hannigan
• Ex-husband: Duncan Lipper
• Ex-Boyfriends: David, Sergei,Ryan, Roger, Gary, Eric, Vince, Rob
• Phoebe also hints that she has dated the entire rock group Jethro Tull when Rachel finds the name of the band in Phoebe's little black book.

[edit] Trivia

• The name "Phoebe" was inspired by Phoebe Caulfeld, sister of Catcher in the Rye's protagonist Holden Caulfeld^{[citation needed]}.

• Other than "Regina Phalange", Phoebe's trademark is an agonized "OH no" when faced with a bad situation.

• Phoebe is at least trilingual: she has been shown speaking English, Italian and French.

• 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.

• When Phoebe is surrogate mother to her brother's triplets, Friends is alluding to the mythical Greek goddess Phoebe who bore children with her brother Coeus. This is a recurring joke, as Phoebe will say she is having/has had her brother's children without explaining the surrogacy.

• The other Friends affectionately call Phoebe "Pheebs". Once while trying to comfort her, Phoebe calls Rachel "Pheebs". Rachel corrects her, saying "Sweetie, that's your name," to which Phoebe replies "That's short for Phoebe? I just thought that's what we called each other."

• Although she plays guitar as if she is right-handed, Phoebe is left-handed (as shown in Season 7's Episode 13 when she works as a telemarketer).

• Interestingly, considering her personality, Phoebe has been seen naked by few other characters. The only known time is when she flashes her breasts at Chandler in the episode "The One With the Football". There is another episode in which Phoebe offers to cheer Joey up by letting him look down her top, which hints that he may have done so in the past. If so, it remained offscreen.

Friends

Cast: Jennifer Aniston • Courteney Cox • Lisa Kudrow • Matt LeBlanc • Matthew Perry • David Schwimmer Characters (respective to Cast): Rachel Green • Monica Geller • Phoebe Buffay • Joey Tribbiani • Chandler Bing • Ross Geller Other characters: Gunther • Janice • Ben • Guest stars • Recurring characters • Significant others Settings: Central Perk • Joey's apartment • Monica's apartment Music: "I'll Be There for You"  • "Smelly Cat"  • Friends soundtrack  • Friends Again  See also: DVD releases • Awards and nominations • Episode list • Running gags • Director list • Video game • Joey