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If you\u2019ve been seeing <\/span>Lisa Kudrow\u2019s <\/span><\/a>name a lot in entertainment news headlines and on Twitter, make no mistake \u2013\u00a0<\/span>The Comeback\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/a>is back.<\/span><\/p>\n There\u2019s no questioning the fact that Kudrow is sitcom royalty. Between\u00a0her smash-hit, era-defining series <\/span>Friends\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/a>and her once-per-decade meta comedy\u00a0The Comeback<\/i>, Kudrow has enough cred to speak from a place of expertise on all matters situational comedy, especially since the latter show is, itself, a satire of the TV industry and the hilarious people who manage to hack it in show business.<\/span><\/p>\n The Comeback\u00a0<\/i>Season Three premiered late last month as Kudrow and her team began to tackle the complexities of modern comedy and the rise of artificial intelligence in the TV industry. This season, Kudrow’s character Valerie Cherish faces an unprecedented opportunity and a big decision after she’s offered the opportunity to star in the first fully AI-written sitcom in TV history.<\/span><\/p>\n But in case that synopsis for the final installment of The Comeback <\/i>wasn\u2019t attention-grabbing enough, Kudrow\u2019s press tour in support of the new season provided the necessary controversy to get all eyes on her and her show.<\/span><\/p>\n In talks with\u00a0<\/span>The Independent\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/a>and\u00a0<\/span>Interview Magazine\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/a>respectively, Kudrow got the clicks flowing by alleging that \u201cnobody cared about me\u201d when she was labeled as \u201cthe sixth friend\u201d during the original run of Friends<\/i>, then declaring that modern sitcom writers are \u201ctoo afraid\u201d of sensitivity issues to write jokes that are actually funny.<\/span><\/p>\n Now, Kudrow’s comments are the talk of the town and everyone in TV is taking note \u2013 look out for new episodes of The Comeback <\/i>every Sunday.<\/p>\n To be clear, Kudrow’s comments about being \u201cthe sixth friend\u201d during her interview with The Independent <\/i>don’t come off quite as self-pitying within the original context as they do in the celebrity.land <\/i>headline. Kudrow was specifically talking about how she felt she was treated by her talent agency during her run on Friends <\/i>when she labeled herself as the least important cast member on the show.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was no vision for me, and no expectations about the kind of career I could have,\u201d Kudrow said of her representation at the time. “There was just, like, \u2018Boy is she lucky she got on that show.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n As for her comments on the sitcom genre in 2026, Kudrow’s full words were just as critical and un-self-aware as they sounded on Twitter. During Kudrow’s talk with fellow comedy great Lily Tomlin for Interview Magazine<\/i>, the latter legend asked the former if she feels that sitcoms are evolving, or if she thinks they’re dying.<\/p>\n \u201cI wish they were evolving,\u201d Kudrow admitted, \u201c<\/span>30 Rock<\/i> and <\/span>Seinfeld<\/i> and <\/span>Friends<\/i> were really funny and really well written. But I\u2019m not drawn to new sitcoms that are multi-camera in front of an audience because I\u2019m not buying it. I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s just because I\u2019ve seen too many single-camera sitcoms\u2014I think we need to get back to being able to tell jokes. I feel like we\u2019ve been too afraid to make jokes that might make people uncomfortable.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Kudrow continued of the dearth of solid sitcom punchlines, \u201cThe really good ones, they\u2019re not tame jokes. They\u2019re jokes that are kind of, \u2018I can\u2019t believe you just said that.\u2019 Comedy is about surprise. You need things you didn\u2019t see coming.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The Comeback <\/i>certainly supports Kudrow’s credibility on the subject, as her character Valerie Cherish isn’t afraid to make people uncomfortable in her unscrupulous pursuit of her own self-interest. But Kudrow slipping Friends<\/i>, a famously tame, multi-camera sitcom, into a list of boundary-pushers like 30 Rock <\/i>and Seinfeld <\/i>absolutely deserves the entirely unsurprising roasting that fans of the other shows are now giving her on social media.<\/p>\n But ultimately, all of this is just good press for a good show that’s doing more to advance the sitcom genre than all the Friends<\/i>-haters on Twitter who jumped at the chance to give Kudrow some grade-A engagement. Just like Valerie Cherish, Kudrow knows exactly how to play the game in the modern era, and little incendiary interview nuggets like these are how shows stay relevant in the modern media landscape.<\/p>\n Basically, the \u201csixth friend\u201d is a lot smarter than the audience (and her agents) may have thought she was.<\/p>\n