Friends: The Reunion is generally a very light affair. For 100 minutes, the six core cast members — Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry, and David Schwimmer — wander the reconstructed sets from the series, read scripts from classic episodes, and answer questions about the show from fans and host James Corden. Personal problems, contracts disputes, the entire Joey spinoff series; they’re all left totally unmentioned.

The only time the reunion gets even a little bit darker is when a fan in the audience asks the cast a question: What did they not like about doing the show? While Corden made a joke about the audience member keeping the show positive, one of the Friends stars had an answer ready: David Schwimmer hated Marcel.

The primary issue was the fact that the monkey would miss its mark or flub whatever it was supposed to do in a scene. “Obviously it was trained,” Schwimmer said. “But what inevitably began to happen was we would all have choreographed bits timed out and it would get messed up because the monkey didn’t do its job right. So we’d have to reset, we’d have to go again, because the monkey didn’t get it right. This kept happening, over and over, where we’re about to something really funny but the monkey didn’t hit its mark so we have to start again.”

Plus, the monkey would sit on Schwimmer’s shoulder between takes, eating live grubs. Then he would touch Schwimmer’s hair with his dirty hands. Not cool. When Jennifer Aniston admitted she loved the monkey, Schwimmer responded “That’s because you didn’t have to touch it.” Eventually, Schwimmer added, it was time for Marcel to “f— off.”

Poor Marcel. He’s practically the only major guest star from the series who didn’t get to show up on Friends: The Reunion, which is available now on HBO Max.

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