Today's Evil Beet Gossip

Lisa Kudrow Did an Impromptu Performance of “Smelly Cat” at a Charity Event

Ahhhhhhhhhh ha ha ha ha! This news completely made my night. As we all know, an entire generation of 20-somethings was defined by Phoebe Buffay and “Smelly Cat.” It’s pretty much the greatest song ever. It conveys anger, sympathy, compassion, love, and malodorousness with such grace and eloquence. I’m frankly surprised that we’ve never seen Britney Spears or Pearl Jam cover it. (Seriously, Pearl Jam, get on that.)

So Lisa Kudrow was with Courteney Cox-Arquette at a fundraiser for Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief charity, at Club Nokia in Los Angeles Tuesday night. The two of them were doing a brief Q&A session to kill time before Sheryl Crow went on to perform:

“Play ‘Smelly Cat!’ ” an audience member called out, after Kudrow and Cox Arquette were pressed into a question-and-answer session while Crow and her bandmates set up backstage.

Kudrow looked to her friend for help, but Cox Arquette gleefully threw her pal under the Benefit bus, calling out to the stagehands: “Get her a guitar, people!”

After being fitted with an acoustic guitar, the momentarily bewildered actress warily asked, “Is this a set up?” before summoning her inner Phoebe and serenading the audience with her ballad about an odiferous feline.

PLEASE tell me someone has this shit on video? And that it will be on YouTube soon? In the meantime, the O.G. “Smelly Cat” can be viewed above.

Update: Thanks to Jelena for the clip below:

5 CommentsLeave a comment

  • Don’t forget the episode where Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders was on and Phoebe was showing her the proper way to sing “Smelly Cat”.

  • Awww, I miss Friends!! Me and my husband own all 10 seasons and we normally watch that when we are going to bed. We’ve gone those them all at LEAST 6 times. haha

    They were talking about doing a Friends Reunion movie…they so should!

  • I HEART BEET for the Pearl Jam reference!!! :)
    And Kudrow is totally awesome for going along with this.

  • I nominate Lily Allen to cover ‘smelly cat’, that would be all types of right with her voice!