David Schwimmer says the world hasn’t quite pivoted away from shouting one particular Friends quote at him.
The native New Yorker will probably always be best known for his work on the award-winning US sitcom, which aired between 1994 and 2004 ― and while he’s proud of his turn as the socially awkward Ross Geller, it sounds like the fan enthusiasm can be a little much sometimes.
During an appearance on Tuesday’s edition of Good Morning America to promote his upcoming role in the Goosebumps series, David was asked which famous Friends line people still yell when they see him in public.
“Oh, you know,” he said, before trailing off to laughter from the audience. “It never gets old. But I get a lot of random people shouting ‘Pivot’ at me, which sometimes is startling.
“But also, it’s just a reminder that the series lives on, which is good.”
Friends reportedly became the most-watched comedy series on television during the pandemic in 2020 ― and The One with The Cop, the 1999 episode that people are still yelling at David about to this day, was arguably a classic from the moment it aired.
The episode painted Ross as a cheapskate who bought a new couch but refused to pay to have it delivered.
Instead, he, Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) and Chandler (Matthew Perry) tried to get it up the stairs themselves, leading to much discombobulation and prompting Ross to yell frantically at the others to... well, you know.
Filming the scene, which has since been immortalised in memes, GIFs and merchandise, prompted so much laughter from the cast that the outtakes were included in DVD releases, while unofficial YouTube uploads of the bloopers have garnered millions of views.
On Tuesday, Good Morning America co-host Robin Roberts thanked David for being willing to “talk about the past,” given that he’s done plenty of other work since 2004.
But the Emmy nominee was gracious, describing Friends as “the gift that keeps on giving”.
“When I meet people on the street from another country and they say, ‘I just have to say, I learned English watching your show,’ or a father stops me and says, ‘My kid was really, really ill and the one thing that kept them going in the hospital was watching Friends,’ you feel really grateful and blessed to have done something that people find fun,” he said.
