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Matt Le Blanc: Stephen Mangan reveals what Friends star thinks of Irish Da memes

Actor became the subject of a good-natured meme after joining his fellow ‘Friends’ stars for the reunion special

Roisin O'Connor
Saturday 12 June 2021 11:07 BST
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Matt LeBlanc found the “Irish Da” memes sparked by his appearance on the Friends reunion amusing, his friend Stephen Mangan has revealed.

The actor became the subject of a good-humoured joke after the HBO special aired, in which many of the show’s Irish fans compared him to a “typical Irish uncle”.

“The rest of the world should know that for the last 24 hours Irish Twitter has become OBSESSED with how much Matt Le Blanc looks like everyone’s uncle/cousin,” Irish comedian and actor Dara Ó Briain tweeted in May after the memes began to go viral.

“Some of the stuff people were coming up with was absolutely priceless,” Mangan told RTÉ via FM104.

The comedian, who starred with LeBlanc on the sitcom Episodes, added that he was unsure if LeBlanc quite understood the memes – “obviously, he is Italian” – but he “saw the funny side of it”.

“He’s got a good sense of humour,” he said.

You can find some of the best LeBlanc memes here.

In a four-star review of the Friends Reunion,The Independent’s Adam White wrote: “Friends: The Reunion doesn’t quite justify its existence, but it still goes down easy. We’re at a moment in pop culture where time seems to bend in on itself with regularity. Every bit of completely middlebrow entertainment from 20 years ago gets spoken about through rose-tinted glasses now, from the internet’s endless fixation on Shrek, to the bizarre craving for Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez to get back together.

“But Friends actually was a big deal. Hell, it still is. We speak like Friends characters, aspire to their lifestyles and deep bonds, and tune into it when we’re feeling blue. It has held us in its clutches since 1994, and has been passed down through the generations like a sacred text.”

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