Ben Platt Serenades Lisa Kudrow With Melodramatic ‘Smelly Cat’ at Culture Awards

To celebrate Lisa Kudrow‘s win of the Lifetime of Culture award at Bravo’s Las Culturistas Culture Awards, Ben Platt sang a popular song from Friends, and since it was Kudrow’s day, month, and even her year, it fortuitously was not the theme song. Instead, it was Taylor Swift fave, “Smelly Cat.” Plus, he got a little help from Bob Baker Marionettes. Malin Akerman, who appears on The Comeback with Kudrow, introduced the performance at the event, which was filmed in Los Angeles on May 30 but aired on Bravo and Peacock Wednesday night.

Performing in front of dumpsters, Platt first intonated his voice in an operatic fashion. He then leaned into his mic for a melodramatic rendition of, “Smelly cat, smelly cat, what are they feeding you?” Kudrow looked on, beaming with pride, as he said, “It’s not your fault.” Then the marionette cats came out, emerging from trash cans like the elderly parents in Samuel Beckett’s Endgame, to sing the gospel backup vocals in the super slick version of “Smelly Cat” that wowed Kudrow’s character, Phoebe, on an episode of Friends. One of the cats even came down the aisle to poke Kudrow.

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The song erupted into a full-theater sing-along with everyone in the audience clapping and singing along as Platt said, “We love you, Lisa.” Kudrow simply did one of those scrunch-nose smiles she made famous as Phoebe, and joined in a standing ovation for Platt. When she accepted the award, Kudrow said she earned the award by spending her career trying to impress Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, who co-host the Las Culturistas podcast. The reason she did Friends was to impress “four-year-old Matt and not-yet-born Bowen.”

Rogers and Yang co-hosted the 2026 edition of Las Culturistas Culture Awards, which is now available to stream on Peacock. As with previous installments, the awards show “celebrates culture’s most iconic and consequential moments,” according to its producers. It includes more than 100 categories, as well as music performances and celebrity cameos. Will Ferrell received the Titan of Culture award, and Brittany Snow and Akerman, who star together on The Hunting Wives, made appearances earlier in the show.