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Janice from Friends finally reveals the inspiration behind THAT laugh

Photo credit: Barcroft Media - Getty Images
Photo credit: Barcroft Media - Getty Images

From Cosmopolitan

Janice's hair-raising laugh chilled Chandler Bing to his very core in Friends – and now the actress who played memorable sitcom character, Maggie Wheeler, has revealed the inspiration behind it.

Speaking to Emma Barnett on BBC Radio 5 Live, the 57-year-old star said Flipper and Woody the Woodpecker played big parts in its creation.

"There was a character called Arnold Horshack and he used to laugh and he would say [laughs]," Maggie explained.

Photo credit: NBC / Warner Bros.
Photo credit: NBC / Warner Bros.

"Then I grew up watching Flipper which was a fantastic show about a dolphin, and I was in love with that dolphin and of course the dolphin sounds like a dolphin...

"So I sort of say she's a combination of Arnold Horshack and Flipper and Woody the Woodpecker."

Photo credit: Barcroft Media - Getty Images
Photo credit: Barcroft Media - Getty Images

Arnold Horshack – played by the late actor Ron Palillo – was described as an "endearingly dim-witted character" in the 1975 sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter, about a sardonic high school teacher in charge of a racially and ethnically diverse remedial class called the Sweathogs.

It aired on ABC until 1979, while Flipper aired on NBC from 1964 to 1967 before being rebooted for the 1996 film.

Maggie continued: "So I don't know, I think Janice was some kind of conglomeration that I invented on the day.

"That laugh was a really organic life-saver because Matthew Perry was so funny and I had to work with him and I knew how as going to crack me up, and I knew that if Janice couldn't laugh on set or laugh at that moment, I knew I was going to be in big trouble and that is why that laugh exists."

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