SOME ‘FRIEND’ HE WAS

Marcel’s Trainer to David Schwimmer: How Dare You Speak Ill of Dead Monkey Co-Star on ‘Friends’

Mike Morris, the “Friends” co-star’s handler, says “despicable” David Schwimmer lashed out during the HBO reunion purely out of professional “jealousy” over who got laughs.

The trainer of Marcel the monkey, the animal who appeared on the first season of Friends, has some choice words for actor David Schwimmer: How dare you speak ill of the dead. In the Friends: The Reunion special on HBO, Schwimmer aired his complaints—two decades later—about his on-air pet, played by two Capuchin monkeys, Katie and Mankey. “What inevitably began to happen was we would all have choreographed bits kind of timed out, and it would get messed up because the monkey didn’t do its job right,” Schwimmer said, also complaining about the animal eating on his shoulder. The actor ended his tirade by saying it was time for Marcel to “fuck off.” Marcel’s trainer, Mike Morris, said in an interview that it was “despicable for [Schwimmer] to still be speaking ill of [Marcel],” especially after Mankey, one of the Capuchins, met his maker last year. Morris said he believes Schwimmer got jealous when people would laugh at the monkeys and not him. Now, 25 years later, Morris is upset that Schwimmer is still talking about the monkeys. “It’s almost like he’s still got a monkey on his back. Katie can’t speak for herself so that’s why I’m talking out for her.”