Lisa Kudrow is not exactly sold on where sitcoms are heading. The ‘Friends’ star has taken aim at modern multi-camera comedies, saying the format feels too safe and too nervous to go for the kind of jokes that actually catch people off guard.
That is a pretty blunt take from someone who helped define one of TV’s biggest studio-audience sitcoms. But Kudrow’s point is not that the genre is dead. It is that too many current shows feel like they are pulling their punches.
Lisa Kudrow Thinks Sitcoms Have Gotten Too Careful
In a recent interview, Kudrow said she is “not drawn” to newer multi-camera sitcoms because she does not fully buy what they are doing. For her, the problem is not the format itself. It is the lack of edge.
She pointed to classics like ‘30 Rock’, ‘Seinfeld’, and ‘Friends’ as examples of shows that were sharp, funny, and tightly written. What made them work, in her view, was that they were willing to push toward surprise. “I think we need to get back to being able to tell jokes,” she said, adding that comedy has become too afraid of making audiences uncomfortable.
That discomfort, for Kudrow, is part of the point. She argued that the best jokes are often the ones that make you think, ‘I can’t believe you just said that.’ Not because they are reckless, but because they catch you off guard. That is where the laugh lives.
Why Kudrow’s Take Hits Harder Coming From Phoebe
Kudrow knows the multi-camera world better than most. She spent 10 seasons playing Phoebe Buffay on ‘Friends’, the NBC hit that ran from 1994 to 2004 and remains one of the defining sitcoms of its era. Her performance even earned her an Emmy in 1998.
She also pushed back on the way Phoebe was often described at the time. Kudrow said fans used to call the character “such a ditz,” but she never saw her that way. To her, Phoebe was never stupid. She was just offbeat, unpredictable, and not especially interested in following the line everyone else was expected to follow.
That view lines up neatly with her broader complaint about sitcoms now. Kudrow seems less interested in broad comfort and more interested in comedy that feels a little risky, a little unexpected, and actually alive.
Kudrow is currently back on screen in the third and final season of ‘The Comeback’ on HBO, where her character Valerie ends up starring in a sitcom secretly written by an AI program. With Hollywood still arguing over what artificial intelligence could mean for writers and performers, the premise feels uncomfortably relevant.
Kudrow’s message is pretty clear – Sitcoms need to be sharper.
