Friends season 2, episode 10 “The One with Russ” introduces Rachel’s new boyfriend, Russ, who is also played by David Schwimmer, yet the character is credited as “Snaro.”
For years, the Friends mystery character remained something for the audience to speculate about, from where the name “Snaro” came from to what it actually means. Friends had a particular focus on the romance between Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) and Ross (David Schwimmer), but before they officially got together, they dated different people. One of the guys Rachel went out with was Russ, a man eerily similar to Ross.
Russ is introduced during a difficult period in Ross and Rachel’s relationship timeline after Ross made a list of cons and pros of her and his girlfriend Julie (Lauren Tom), as he didn’t know who to pick. In the aftermath, Rachel started dating Russ. Of course, the joke was that Russ was just Schwimmer in a wig, but in the show, the similarities were enough to freak the group out — except for Rachel and Ross, who just didn’t see it. Hilariously, Russ wasn’t played by a Schwimmer lookalike, and it was, in fact, Schwimmer himself, though he was credited as “Snaro.”
With a little bit of makeup and TV set magic, Schwimmer played both Ross and Russ. The actor looked just different enough in the role of Russ for fans to have an inkling of doubt whether Schwimmer’s lookalike was really him. However, it is obvious looking back on the episode that Schwimmer plays both, as no one could be so similar to Ross as the man who knew him best.
It was later confirmed that Snaro and David Schwimmer are one and the same. Schwimmer was credited as Snaro as a tribute to one of his friends, and it’s also an alias he used from time to time.
The Snaro incident wasn’t the only time that Friends used the credits to make a joke. Friends season 6, episode 1, “The One After Vegas” saw everyone’s name in the Friends credits changed to say “Arquette” in the opening credits. This was because of Courteney Cox (Monica). Over the filming break, she had gotten married to her Scream co-star David Arquette, and had therefore changed her name to Courteney Cox-Arquette. So, the production team decided to celebrate the couple’s nuptials by changing all of the actors’ names in the opening credits to match hers.
It’s a fun bit of Friends trivia, like the answer to the question “Who played Russ on Friends?” that only superfans know. Friends was a landmark sitcom overall, and it’s only been made better over time with the number of in-universe jokes that have gone on, like Phoebe’s twin Ursula also being a waitress in Mad About You.
The mystery behind Snaro is not the only notable aspect of the episode “The One with Russ.” In fact, this is a fairly important episode in the series as it has some landmark Friends moments that fans might have missed. This includes the first mention of Days of Our Lives’ Dr. Drake Ramoray who Joey would go onto play for several years. It is also the first time Phoebe drops her catchphrase “Oh no.”
While the exacerbated line she utters whenever something doesn’t go her way is a lowkey catchphrase compared to Joey’s “How you doin’?” it has a lasting legacy on the show. Finally, it is the final appearance of Ross’ ex-girlfriend Julie — who appropriately finds a new man in Russ.
Snaro playing Russ but really being David Schwimmer isn’t the only time a TV show has had one of the main cast appear as a different character for a specific joke or gag (nor the only time they’ve been credited differently or not credited at all to lean further into the joker). For example, season 2 of the FX comedy drama Atlanta saw Donald Glover, who stars as musician Earn, play antagonist Teddy Perkins in an uncredited role. Unlike Russ being basically a clone of Ross in Friends, however, Teddy Perkins is a completely different character to Earnest “Earn” Marks.
Another example of a sitcom including dopplegangers similarly to Friends (though without the in-joke in the credits) is in How I Met Your Mother. Starting in the season 2 episode “Double Date”, it becomes a recurring gag that the core group of Marhshall, Lily, Ted, Barney, and Robin have all found doubles of themselves around NYC. While this apparent clones don’t play a specific role in the plot like Snaro’s appearance as Russ in Friends, they are likewise played by members of the core cast.
