I always wondered why, through the whole run of the show, Phoebe never hooked up with Joey. I mean, they seemed to be made for each other. Both dumb, both ditzy, both artists.
Gracie Allen, mentioned in the post you quoted, predates Curly by several years, both in film and in vaudeville, and was a much bigger name during her career.
I agree. See her in The Opposite of Sex, for instance.
Which episode? I t would be knda fun to see Phoebe outsmart the arrogant Ross.
As this thread points out, Phoebe was not dumb. My take was that her childhood was so hideous that she just decided she didn’t want to live in this world, and created her own persona to work with in this world.
Tori Amos has visited SDMB!!!
Rachel wasn’t dumb - just hugely inexperienced and embarrassingly naive. Certainly she was smarter than Joey. And she got smarter over the years.
My take on smartest to least smart
Chandler
Ross
Monica
Phoebe
Rachel
Joey
The One Where Phoebe Outsmarts The Arrogant Ross
My point made too. If you think she’s a lightweight at all, that movie will change your view of Lisa Kudrow forever. She’s incredible in it.
She’s also quite good as Sharon Holmes in Wonderland. (It’s one of the unreliable Val Kilmer’s better efforts, too.)
Stranger
the other thing about Phoebe is the whole Phoebe/Ursula thing. Whenever she plays the twins, it’s obvious that Phoebe is the smarter of the two by a wide margin
Actually… from what I remember of Ursula, it’s possible that she’s also quite smart, just even more oblivious/detatched than Phoebe is, to the extent that it represents a severe social disability. Also, she usually seems much less compassionate/empathetic, which makes her a much less endearing character and her obliviousness stands out more as annoying.
Heheh. It’s listed on epguides.com as “The One Where Heckles dies”. Season two, episode three.
I agree. She could often be both wise and cunning.
Curly was never portrayed this way. All the Stooges were idiots, just of different types. They were never innocent or wise about the world.
The Phoebe vs. Ross battle wasn’t a fair fight. If she made those arguments on this board she would have been pounded into dust particles. Ross had to be more polite because he couldn’t call her an idiot to her face.
Teri Garr is less than 14 years older than Lisa Kudrow. No wonder she had to abandon her twins!
[Curly] Oh, a wise guy! [/Curly]
Actually, in the context of the show, Ross was not just being polite - he tucked his tail between his legs, defeated. Then Phobe chastised him for backing down so easily. As noted earlier, a real life paleontologist would have creamed her.
It took me three readings to realize you probably meant actual coconuts, like from a tree. I don’t think I’ve seen that episode.
But when I’m done posting here, I’m going back to thinking about my first impression. 
Do I remember correctly an early episode where Joey and Phoebe try to make out on a pool table? Someone gets a hand or a foot caught in one of the pockets.
Well, they were actual coconuts, but they were wearing them as bras while they made out, so as you were, son!
Actually, it was Ross and Phoebe. …things got a bit out of hand when she was consoling him over his wife being a lesbian, but the ridiculousness of the pool table accidents kept them from going all the way.
Well, they are each other’s “back up” So if the TV show **Joey ** lasts a few more years, maybe Phoebes will make a cameo appearance…
As the series wound down with couples pairing off neatly – Ross/Rachel, Chandler/Monica – this would’ve seemed a natural. And I bet the producers had that as their first choice, but were stymied when Joey got a spin-off. No way to hook up Joey & Phoebe, but then send just Joey off to LA.