The One Where Lisa Kudrow's The Comeback Got Meta With A Friends Reference (Or Two)

It’s inevitable that Lisa Kudrow will always be known for her role as Phoebe Buffay on Friends, but that doesn’t take away from “enormous magic” she’s creating as Valerie Cherish on the third and final season of The Comeback. Kudrow’s two worlds combined in the most recent episode “Valerie Faces Reality” (which can be streamed with an HBO Max subscription), with that meta moment following another almost-reference in Episode 2 that left me speechless.

The Comeback confirmed in the episode that aired April 5 on the 2026 TV schedule that Friends does exist in Valerie Cherish’s world. Valerie arrived at Warner Bros.’ Stage 24 — where Friends was famously shot — for her new show How’s That?! She gets excited looking at the plaque outside the stage, saying:

As Valerie walks away, the camera zooms in on the plaque where Friends is listed.

Lisa Kudrow said at a Los Angeles press conference (via UPI) that they couldn’t pass up the opportunity to make a Friends joke there, saying:

I can’t quite put into words why this acknowledgement was so exciting for me, but I’m sure it was, at least in part, because Valerie has teased a Friends reference in the previous episode, “Valerie Has a Secret.” Upon hearing that James Burrows had passed on How’s That?!, Valerie said:

At that point the writer she’s talking to (Abbi Jacobson) interrupts her to say they have to go. How brilliant is that?

Valerie definitely had my attention when she started naming shows created by Jimmy Burrows — who famously took the Friends stars to Las Vegas for one last hurrah of anonymity ahead of the 1994 premiere. When she said “Frasier,” I thought she was going for “Friends,” and then she got cut off when she actually went to say it. Series co-creator Michael Patrick King seemed to confirm the joke was, indeed, meant to drive Friends fans like me crazy. He said:

It’s pretty meta to have Valerie Cherish and Lisa Kudrow existing in the same universe. Do we think James Burrows has noticed their resemblance to each other? Now I’m really going to be on the lookout for more little easter eggs in The Comeback’s remaining episodes, which is likely to make me read way too far into things.

For example, I’d already quietly wondered if Ella Stiller’s involvement as Valerie’s social media manager Patience was a Friends nod, since both her parents, Ben Stiller and Christine Taylor, guest-starred. There’s also the How’s That?! actor (Man with a Plan’s Matt Cook) playing triplets while having his own tragic twin story — possible references to Phoebe and Ursula, and Phoebe giving birth to triplets?

I better quit while I’m ahead. Tune in to see the rest of Valerie Cherish’s story, with new episodes at 10:30 p.m. ET Sundays on HBO and HBO Max.