Who was the Ugly Naked Guy on 'Friends'? Monica's mysterious nudist neighbor's identity REVEALED
For 'Friends' superfans and even the casual re-run watchers, the main leads Monica, Rachel, Phoebe, Chandler, Joey, and Ross are not the only beloved personalities from the ten-season hit. In fact, the TV show wouldn't be the same without many of the minor characters like Gunther, Janice, David (Phoebe's scientist boyfriend) and the "mysterious" Ugly Naked Guy, whose identity remained a secret for a very long time.
After a year-long investigation, the Huffington Post revealed in 2016, that the man who played Monica's across-the-way neighbor is named Jon Haugen. The man who was addressed as the Ugly Naked Guy was a running joke on the popular TV show. He lived in a building opposite the one in which most of the characters lived, with a window that faced Monica's apartment, (which she at times shared with Rachel, Chandler, and Phoebe).
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But while the six leads of the show spotted the Ugly Naked Guy via Monica's window/balcony going around his house naked, he actually appeared just twice in the 10 season series. The first time was in a Season 3 episode named 'The One With The Giant Poking Device', in which the friends think he might be dead and construct a long stick out of chopsticks to poke him through his window.
The second time he was seen in Season 5's episode 'The One Where Everybody Finds Out', in which the Ugly Naked Guy is moving out of his apartment at a time when Ross was looking for one. In order to get the apartment the Ugly Naked Guy receives a lot of gifts from different people, trying to get that apartment.Ross tries to charm him over but only manages to do so after stripping down himself and eating muffins with the man of the hour on his couch.
Even though the Ugly Naked Guy is partially visible in both the episodes, the viewers were not able to see his entire face, which made his identity a secret. The actor wasn't credited on either of the episodes, and for years IMDb has included an incorrect credit, listing Michael Hagerty as the actor who played him.
"I never played the Ugly Naked Guy," Hagerty, who actually played the friends' super, Mr Treeger, said. "IMDb, the information is close, but a lot of times it’s very, very, very wrong. And that said, I’d rather be known as Mr. Treeger than the Ugly Naked Guy anyways." But in 2016, HuffPost's reporter Todd Van Luling, who contacted just about everyone he could from 'Friends' to figure to figure out the man's identity.
Unfortunately, no one he spoke to — including casting director Leslie Litt, the show's creator David Crane, producer Todd Stevens, and casting agency Central Casting — recalled the truth. Todd said that the character was played by an extra and since they didn't want a person to 'be' Ugly Naked Guy', so they kept no record of his real name. After about an year of digging and investigation, the reporter tracked down the illusive extra, Jon Haugen.
"There’s only one Ugly Naked Guy, man, and that was me," Haugen said. "The reason I never came forward was because I was just keeping it mellow because Warner Brothers was keeping it mellow. They wanted everybody to have a guess who I was."
Get a look at what Ugly Naked Guy actually looks like here.
'Friends: The Reunion' will be airing on May 27, 2021 and the guest list of the stars appearing on the episode is out, check it out here.