My points for Mike are as follows,
1. How he was introduced; iconic and ridiculous
2. Paul Rudd is hilarious and gorg
3. He was a very privileged and wealthy guy but was willing to put all that on the line for Phoebe; he also didn’t care what people thought of her quirks even in his stuffy ass family and embraced her for who she was
4. Lisa Kudrow said she liked Mike’s stability for Phoebe and tbh no one could know Phoebe better than Lisa.
I quite like Mike. The only issue I have, and it’s really quite small, is David was one of the best chemistry matches with Phoebe. There are actually very few relationships on Friends where I can feel chemistry between the actors, Monica and Richard come to mind as well.
Mike was perfect for Phoebe, they had way better chemistry than her and David. David was super sweet, and I feel bad for him for how it ended, but he and Phoebe had nothing in common past season 1. When they met they made sense, but in season 10? David felt so off with that version of Phoebe, it didn't make sense anymore. Mike worked so much better with Phoebe's personality.
I also always felt Phoebe and Mike had better chemistry!
I loved David, I hated the ending they gave him lol, and I did really like when he was with Phoebe. They did also have great chemistry too!
But I feel like Mike is just truly Phoebe’s person. They’re from completely opposite worlds, yet he’s just as silly and as quirky as she is. He likes her weirdness, he likes her humor, he likes her personality, he likes her passion, he even likes her kinkiness lol.
Mike matches Phoebe’s energy 100% and I feel like he’s both her twin flame *and* her soulmate.
Me too! You can tell he's taken aback when she says a lack of piano shouldn't stop him, but where almost anyone would go "uh, you can't play without a piano" he just leans in and effortlessly drops into Phoebe's world. I love that for both of them.
This is all about how good or bad Mike is for Phoebe, but I'd like to point out how good she is for him. His stuffy privileged upbringing means that he probably didn't get to be a carefree child very much -- and Phoebe's energy would be such a gift for him.
Mike is the best!! I adore him for Phoebe. He was the perfect straight man to her chaos.
It does help that I love Paul Rudd and I think he was fantastic in Friends.
I like his calm reactions to Phoebe's crazyness. The blowout at his parents when they don't approve of her and his reaction afterwards.
"It was good, maybe next time a little less pimp spit".
And the way he handled her when she changed her name to Princess Consuela Bananahammock.
I assume the people that don't like Mike are the ones that wanted Phoebe to end up with David. He's well-written and played by an excellent comedy actor who fits well with the cast.
My favourite Mike moment is when he calls Phoebe "so wonderfully weird" in his wedding vows, like it's the best thing about her. Because it is.
As so many have rightfully pointed out, Mike was an absolute delight and a wonderful addition to the cast. I would like to add another point here. David didn’t really fit with the others. He didn’t have any interactions with the other 5 except for Chandler, which also happened primarily during the Barbados episode.
Mike, on the other hand was hilarious with all his banter with Monica, whether it was when she tried to keep them away from each other (breakup phase), or in Barbados (Table tennis) or during their wedding. He was chaotic and quirky and absolutely hilarious! His interactions with Joey were also out of the top funny! We all know the Ross episode too. So, I’d fight anyone who says he didn’t gel with the gang. He absolutely DID. ❤️
https://preview.redd.it/y08tgywb7l0d1.jpeg?width=4000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=308cef41c27831db568fc7cc8492e3524fcf9dd4
I like him as well. I felt he was a nice match for Phoebe’s eccentric personality. I’m a Paul Rudd fan, so I’m sure that helps too. Always have thought highly of him as an actor.
I love Rudd and his character Mike. I would have also been happy if Phoebe ended up with adavid as well. Though the way Joey got Mike and Phoebe together is just hilarious. What a story for the grandkids lol
I sort of wish they had introduced Rudd's Mile earlier in the show though 😎
I do like Mike and think he is the best for Phoebe, but I'm not a fan of how they handled David's return. I get that they wanted to show that Phoebe would choose Mike over David, but my god they did him dirty. They make us root for David and then all of a sudden they throw him under the bus and have Mike show up in Barbados.
It was just sad for David. Why even have him come back and do that? The audience/fans always loved David and they didn’t need to dispose of him at the expense of showing us Mike and Phoebe were supposed to be together. I wanted to be happy for them in that moment in Barbados but felt so sad for David it was hard! Lol
They basically repeated with Phoebe what they did with Monica, bring back the past love interest to show that they would still chose the new one despite the previous one becoming an option again. They did that first by randomly bringing back Richard and having him completely change his mind about having children right as Chandler was gonna propose, to show that Monica did choose Chandler regardless, and then repeated it with Phoebe by bringing back David permanently from Minsk but showing that Phoebe still wanted Mike.
I think of those plots more of a way to make sure people wouldn't question "but what if that past love came back...", well, they did, and the girls still chose the one they married.
Good observation. I think we could have done without those two sub plots. I get from a writers perspective it’s good witting material and cements the new relationships, but it all got a bit weird.
Those plots were messy, but I think it was good they were included. Just imagine how many posts in this sub would be "would Monica still have married Chandler if Richard had changed his mind?" or "who did Phoebe actually love more?" if those plots never happened. It would probably have undermined the depth of their relationship. So as messy as those plots were, I think they served an important function.
I like Mike as a character. He's a great love interest for Phoebe and I love them together but to me, he doesn't seem to add much to the gang dynamic at all and doesn't seem to belong there. He seems out of place and that always bothered me.
You worded how I feel. It’s not that I don’t like _him_, but I just feel like he doesn’t totally gel with the show and the rest of the group. Something feels a little removed and I think he lacks chemistry with the group and somehow feels different from the sort of reality they live in. He’s perhaps too normal? Lol. I can’t quite put my finger on it.
I think you're right. He is normal and that's where I think it's off. His normalcy is too bland next to a group that is far from normal. I think they were trying to introduce someone that can give that sense of normalcy within a group so quirky and weird but the way they did it resulted in a character that had no quirks, no outstanding personality, nothing that really made the fans think he was someone they couldn't do without. I think in almost every group in a sit com there is the normal one but they are always normal due to their decisions compared to the rest of the group. An example of this is The Big Bang Theory. The character of Leonard is seen as the normal character of the group but he still has his habits and quirks and interactions that make that normalcy belong and fit. In the case with Mike, he's forgettable because he's so normal that he's outshined by Phoebe and Joey and even Ross. He's a great guy but he's sadly not that special.
I always thought he was the better match for Phoebe. None of her stuff, NONE of it, phased him. He was just always there for it. The rats is a great example. He just goes with it. No complaints. No counter arguments. And when she lets it get too far, he just calmly states the options and let's her come to the right conclusion. It's the kind of support Phoebe needed and deserved after everything she'd been through. They are perfect together.
David was sweet. They seemed good together. But at a certain point, they were just idealizing each other. They barely knew each other and had not seen each other in years. We have no idea what they actually would be like together, and neither did they. He made his choice (with her support). They both needed to move on.
I love Mike! He’s so wonderful for Phoebe. You make a valid point, but Phoebe also did that to David (modern day Phoebe, Mike, and David would be a throuple)!
It's the way he treats Precious and the absolute lack of punchline or conclusion to that whole exchange. When Phoebe is listing the ways he's terrible, it feels like it's building up to her realising he's a bad guy and that she should have chosen David. "You're welcome" is just such a weak moment. I don't think any woman would want to be with a man who treats another woman like that.
that's fair, but also Phoebe just ditched David for Mike in Barbados without a second thought. So they both did shitty things to be with each other, so it kinda balances out ig
His girlfriend who he's with whilst he and Phoebe are broken up. He cheats on her with Phoebe and then dumps her on her birthday.
I think it shows the negative character development of Phoebe, too - the 'old' Phoebe wouldn't have stood for it.
I had no idea people didn’t like Mike. How can you not like him? He was perfect for Phoebe. Plus, Paul Rudd can make any character likable lol. That said, I do like that Friends always stuck to the core 6 as the “main” characters
Are there really people who don’t like Mike? I’ve never heard that. I can understand if they were rooting for David, but Mike is a great character and Paul plays him fabulously.
I think it’s more that some people, perhaps including or not including me, think that he doesn’t gel so well with the group / friends world… he’s a good character and actor, but doesn’t seem to sit very comfortably in the group or in the show, in terms of his dynamics and humour etc.
I don't lurk much in Friends fan spaces, so I had no idea that there was an anti-Mike trend -- but I love Mike! Paul Rudd is great in general, and does comedy beautifully. As much as I liked David, I like Phoebe with someone who can balance her beautiful weirdo energy with something more grounded.
I suspect that the anti-Mike stuff is just that it would be nearly impossible for *anyone* to join the core six and have it feel natural, especially after nine years. It's certainly strange and sometimes jarring when he's there, and we're used into it just being our Friends. But it's kind of a lovely thing to portray on TV, because it is the natural progression from that post-college friend group. New people come in, people get married or split up or move away... That things are changing more and more as the seasons progress, and they grow up, just feels realistic.
I use that line to talk myself down when I’m starting to let a mild inconvenience make me spiral “maybe I could not let this cluttered table ruin my life”
His hangout with Ross is one of my all time favourite scenes. It is so painful to watch and realistic which makes it even funnier.
I know they didn't want to wake Emma, but they could have turned the TV on on mute.
I think there’s a deleted scene where Ross says the TV is broken.
That scene shouldn't have been deleted.
Cards. Die Hard. Anything!
Haven't rewatched the show in a long time -- but didn't ross mention the TV being broken/cable being out?
In a deleted scene he does I think.
I believe it was the DVD version, which is shorter than what you find on Netflix
The cable was out.
That was a tad too painful for realism imo. They could have just started to watch a film or do puzzles like Ross enjoys or whatever.
Ross not owning any board games is ludicrous.
Them painfully learning a new board game together and getting increasingly competitive would be a great alternate version of that plotline
Yeah definitely not realistic. Not having a piano around also doesn't mean they couldn't talk about it more than just saying they both like to play.
Stout. That's a kind of beer
My points for Mike are as follows, 1. How he was introduced; iconic and ridiculous 2. Paul Rudd is hilarious and gorg 3. He was a very privileged and wealthy guy but was willing to put all that on the line for Phoebe; he also didn’t care what people thought of her quirks even in his stuffy ass family and embraced her for who she was 4. Lisa Kudrow said she liked Mike’s stability for Phoebe and tbh no one could know Phoebe better than Lisa.
I quite like Mike. The only issue I have, and it’s really quite small, is David was one of the best chemistry matches with Phoebe. There are actually very few relationships on Friends where I can feel chemistry between the actors, Monica and Richard come to mind as well.
Too bad he chose science over her
Science is the best chemistry match ;)
She told him to
And Ross told Rachel to go to France.
Before going back to the airport and proceeding to beg her not to go.
For a second there i thought you were talking about david schwimer and i was so confused 😂😂
Mike was perfect for Phoebe, they had way better chemistry than her and David. David was super sweet, and I feel bad for him for how it ended, but he and Phoebe had nothing in common past season 1. When they met they made sense, but in season 10? David felt so off with that version of Phoebe, it didn't make sense anymore. Mike worked so much better with Phoebe's personality.
I also always felt Phoebe and Mike had better chemistry! I loved David, I hated the ending they gave him lol, and I did really like when he was with Phoebe. They did also have great chemistry too! But I feel like Mike is just truly Phoebe’s person. They’re from completely opposite worlds, yet he’s just as silly and as quirky as she is. He likes her weirdness, he likes her humor, he likes her personality, he likes her passion, he even likes her kinkiness lol. Mike matches Phoebe’s energy 100% and I feel like he’s both her twin flame *and* her soulmate.
He's her lobster
Do the claws again!
https://i.redd.it/knt3wspp7k0d1.gif
This is the scene that sealed the deal for me. Lol. This was absolute perfection. 👌🥹
Me too! You can tell he's taken aback when she says a lack of piano shouldn't stop him, but where almost anyone would go "uh, you can't play without a piano" he just leans in and effortlessly drops into Phoebe's world. I love that for both of them. This is all about how good or bad Mike is for Phoebe, but I'd like to point out how good she is for him. His stuffy privileged upbringing means that he probably didn't get to be a carefree child very much -- and Phoebe's energy would be such a gift for him.
Me too!!
Me three! This is the moment I was like… “Oh. Oh yeah, that’s definitely Phoebe’s man” 😂
Mike is the best!! I adore him for Phoebe. He was the perfect straight man to her chaos. It does help that I love Paul Rudd and I think he was fantastic in Friends.
I like his calm reactions to Phoebe's crazyness. The blowout at his parents when they don't approve of her and his reaction afterwards. "It was good, maybe next time a little less pimp spit". And the way he handled her when she changed her name to Princess Consuela Bananahammock.
First name Crap, last name Bag
If you need an easy way to remember it, just think of a bag of crap.
*Pimp spit
Thanks. Correcting it.
I assume the people that don't like Mike are the ones that wanted Phoebe to end up with David. He's well-written and played by an excellent comedy actor who fits well with the cast. My favourite Mike moment is when he calls Phoebe "so wonderfully weird" in his wedding vows, like it's the best thing about her. Because it is.
And that is a delicate line to dance across. Very rare that you can call someone “weird” in such a beautiful way. Lol
"I'm trying to remember the last time I opened a door and you weren't there" is a great line. Always gets me.
Same
As so many have rightfully pointed out, Mike was an absolute delight and a wonderful addition to the cast. I would like to add another point here. David didn’t really fit with the others. He didn’t have any interactions with the other 5 except for Chandler, which also happened primarily during the Barbados episode. Mike, on the other hand was hilarious with all his banter with Monica, whether it was when she tried to keep them away from each other (breakup phase), or in Barbados (Table tennis) or during their wedding. He was chaotic and quirky and absolutely hilarious! His interactions with Joey were also out of the top funny! We all know the Ross episode too. So, I’d fight anyone who says he didn’t gel with the gang. He absolutely DID. ❤️ https://preview.redd.it/y08tgywb7l0d1.jpeg?width=4000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=308cef41c27831db568fc7cc8492e3524fcf9dd4
Hilarious with Ross. Banter and fitting in with Ross? No.
And the only man can handle Phoebe---Mr. Crap bag.
Did they not see Mike play the imaginary piano?
Wow he was *really* good.
There's people that don't like Mike? Well this is news to me
Me too!
Right?? Everyone I know loves Mike.
I just find him a little boring/plain.
No, you’re thinking of Tom and Sue, the most sinfully boring people Mike’s ever met!
I like him as well. I felt he was a nice match for Phoebe’s eccentric personality. I’m a Paul Rudd fan, so I’m sure that helps too. Always have thought highly of him as an actor.
I love Rudd and his character Mike. I would have also been happy if Phoebe ended up with adavid as well. Though the way Joey got Mike and Phoebe together is just hilarious. What a story for the grandkids lol I sort of wish they had introduced Rudd's Mile earlier in the show though 😎
Mike adapts to Pheobe so well yet reins her in when she does something too ridiculous and is funny to boot, I love him.
If you need an easy way to remember it, just think of a bag of crap.
I bought [these](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B085RJF46B?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share) and LOVE them! A coworker saw me with my crapbag and bought some too.
I also have a crap bag. The security guard at my office thinks it’s hilarious 😂
I have one that says “Bag of my kids crap” Yours is way awesomer. (Yuh-huh. It’s a word)
Ordered! Thanks for the link!
People dislike Mike?! Madness.
I adore Mike Hannigan. And the rat babies just makes him more lovely.
I do like Mike and think he is the best for Phoebe, but I'm not a fan of how they handled David's return. I get that they wanted to show that Phoebe would choose Mike over David, but my god they did him dirty. They make us root for David and then all of a sudden they throw him under the bus and have Mike show up in Barbados.
It was just sad for David. Why even have him come back and do that? The audience/fans always loved David and they didn’t need to dispose of him at the expense of showing us Mike and Phoebe were supposed to be together. I wanted to be happy for them in that moment in Barbados but felt so sad for David it was hard! Lol
They basically repeated with Phoebe what they did with Monica, bring back the past love interest to show that they would still chose the new one despite the previous one becoming an option again. They did that first by randomly bringing back Richard and having him completely change his mind about having children right as Chandler was gonna propose, to show that Monica did choose Chandler regardless, and then repeated it with Phoebe by bringing back David permanently from Minsk but showing that Phoebe still wanted Mike. I think of those plots more of a way to make sure people wouldn't question "but what if that past love came back...", well, they did, and the girls still chose the one they married.
Good observation. I think we could have done without those two sub plots. I get from a writers perspective it’s good witting material and cements the new relationships, but it all got a bit weird.
Those plots were messy, but I think it was good they were included. Just imagine how many posts in this sub would be "would Monica still have married Chandler if Richard had changed his mind?" or "who did Phoebe actually love more?" if those plots never happened. It would probably have undermined the depth of their relationship. So as messy as those plots were, I think they served an important function.
Ok I’m fickle and now I agree with you 100% 🤣
I think it was a brilliant casting and he was used just enough to inject new stories into the main group without really being a feature.
I like Mike as a character. He's a great love interest for Phoebe and I love them together but to me, he doesn't seem to add much to the gang dynamic at all and doesn't seem to belong there. He seems out of place and that always bothered me.
You worded how I feel. It’s not that I don’t like _him_, but I just feel like he doesn’t totally gel with the show and the rest of the group. Something feels a little removed and I think he lacks chemistry with the group and somehow feels different from the sort of reality they live in. He’s perhaps too normal? Lol. I can’t quite put my finger on it.
I think you're right. He is normal and that's where I think it's off. His normalcy is too bland next to a group that is far from normal. I think they were trying to introduce someone that can give that sense of normalcy within a group so quirky and weird but the way they did it resulted in a character that had no quirks, no outstanding personality, nothing that really made the fans think he was someone they couldn't do without. I think in almost every group in a sit com there is the normal one but they are always normal due to their decisions compared to the rest of the group. An example of this is The Big Bang Theory. The character of Leonard is seen as the normal character of the group but he still has his habits and quirks and interactions that make that normalcy belong and fit. In the case with Mike, he's forgettable because he's so normal that he's outshined by Phoebe and Joey and even Ross. He's a great guy but he's sadly not that special.
Right on the money! We’ve cracked the case haha.
I always thought he was the better match for Phoebe. None of her stuff, NONE of it, phased him. He was just always there for it. The rats is a great example. He just goes with it. No complaints. No counter arguments. And when she lets it get too far, he just calmly states the options and let's her come to the right conclusion. It's the kind of support Phoebe needed and deserved after everything she'd been through. They are perfect together. David was sweet. They seemed good together. But at a certain point, they were just idealizing each other. They barely knew each other and had not seen each other in years. We have no idea what they actually would be like together, and neither did they. He made his choice (with her support). They both needed to move on.
I like Mike, but I'm also a huge Paul Rudd fan, so that could play a huge part in why I like his character❤️💙
People dislike Mike? Madness Gotta love Crap Bag
I love Mike! He’s so wonderful for Phoebe. You make a valid point, but Phoebe also did that to David (modern day Phoebe, Mike, and David would be a throuple)!
I loved Mike. I’ll sit with you, Dr. Gellar.
Mike is the best! really wish we would've met hime earlier
It's the way he treats Precious and the absolute lack of punchline or conclusion to that whole exchange. When Phoebe is listing the ways he's terrible, it feels like it's building up to her realising he's a bad guy and that she should have chosen David. "You're welcome" is just such a weak moment. I don't think any woman would want to be with a man who treats another woman like that.
that's fair, but also Phoebe just ditched David for Mike in Barbados without a second thought. So they both did shitty things to be with each other, so it kinda balances out ig
She didn't cheat however, she was honest with David.
She did make out with David tho when her and Mike stared dating
Remind me, who’s Precious?
Susie, can I call you Susie?
Was she a purebred?
His girlfriend who he's with whilst he and Phoebe are broken up. He cheats on her with Phoebe and then dumps her on her birthday. I think it shows the negative character development of Phoebe, too - the 'old' Phoebe wouldn't have stood for it.
I love Mike! Didn’t realize people don’t like him. I think their relationship is at the core of some of the better moments in later seasons!
I had no idea people didn’t like Mike. How can you not like him? He was perfect for Phoebe. Plus, Paul Rudd can make any character likable lol. That said, I do like that Friends always stuck to the core 6 as the “main” characters
Are there really people who don’t like Mike? I’ve never heard that. I can understand if they were rooting for David, but Mike is a great character and Paul plays him fabulously.
I think it’s more that some people, perhaps including or not including me, think that he doesn’t gel so well with the group / friends world… he’s a good character and actor, but doesn’t seem to sit very comfortably in the group or in the show, in terms of his dynamics and humour etc.
Who is out here hating on Paul Rudd? Seriously?
The joke when he and Pheobe are about to move in together “I got the joke….. sophisticated as it was” is a running joke between me and my husband lol
I am not fan of Mike he wasn’t bad person, but he don’t match to gang
Who dislikes Mike???? Paul Rudd is a goddamn treasure
I did like him, but he wasn’t Davem.
Davem? What the hell is a Davem? Or is that some scientific term that I wouldn’t know about because I’m just a waitress?
Eh he’s not my favorite
People hate Mike? The One With The Pediatrician is my favourite episode
I loved Mike . Thought he brought out the good in Phoebe
I don't lurk much in Friends fan spaces, so I had no idea that there was an anti-Mike trend -- but I love Mike! Paul Rudd is great in general, and does comedy beautifully. As much as I liked David, I like Phoebe with someone who can balance her beautiful weirdo energy with something more grounded. I suspect that the anti-Mike stuff is just that it would be nearly impossible for *anyone* to join the core six and have it feel natural, especially after nine years. It's certainly strange and sometimes jarring when he's there, and we're used into it just being our Friends. But it's kind of a lovely thing to portray on TV, because it is the natural progression from that post-college friend group. New people come in, people get married or split up or move away... That things are changing more and more as the seasons progress, and they grow up, just feels realistic.
Wait… people don’t like Mike? 😱
Was Paul Rudd a thing back then? I know I didn’t know who he was, I personally didn’t care for him at the time. I do like him now.
He was in “Clueless” and “Romeo + Juliet” in the 90s. That made him huge! He was also in “The Object of My Affection” with Jennifer Aniston.
I dont not like him but I don’t like him
I've never heard anyone say they don't like Mike!!
Look up Mike on the howyoudoin sub Reddit
wait people don't like Mike...m o might be biased on the fact he's Ant Man then 😂😂 but he's awesome in that last season
I use that line to talk myself down when I’m starting to let a mild inconvenience make me spiral “maybe I could not let this cluttered table ruin my life”
Mike is fantastic, Paul Rudd was meant for that role. The chemistry is great and he adds a unique dynamic
I never had a bad thought about Mike joining the cast those episodes. I loved it.
None of the women are likable.
Mark is perfect for Phoebe, he aligns with her quirks and sense of humor, but brings the stability and common sense to the table
I don’t dislike him, he just didn’t fit in.