Telly 5th February 2019 by Cara Croke

Janice From Friends Just Revealed The Inspiration Behind Her Iconic Laugh

OH.MY.GOD

Whether you think Phoebe is a gas bitch or that Ross is #relatable, we all know that, deep down, the best character in Friends is by far Janice.

Janice’s piercing laugh is something most people will never forget about the show, and now the actress who played her, Maggie Wheeler, has revealed the inspiration behind it.

Speaking to Emma Barnett on BBC Radio 5 Live, the 57-year-old star said Flipper the dolphin and Woody the Woodpecker played big parts in the laugh’s creation.

“There was a character called Arnold Horshack and he used to laugh and he would say [laughs],” Maggie explained.

“Then I grew up watching Flipper, which was a fantastic show about a dolphin, and I was in love with that dolphin and of course the dolphin sounds like a dolphin…

“So I sort of say she’s a combination of Arnold Horshack and Flipper and Woody the Woodpecker.”

Maggie continued: “So I don’t know, I think Janice was some kind of conglomeration that I invented on the day.

“That laugh was a really organic life-saver, because Matthew Perry was so funny and I had to work with him and I knew he was going to crack me up. I knew that if Janice couldn’t laugh on set or laugh at that moment, I was going to be in big trouble and that is why that laugh exists.”

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