Another relationship that was quite a shock to the fans, was that of Monica and Chandler, these two first got together at Ross’s second wedding when after one to many drinks ended up in bed together, however know one would believe that this relationship would last however it did and other than the first drunken wedding of Rachel and Ross which was annulled, this was the first wedding that lasted. The reason that these two were so compatible that they were both the ones that were always unlucky in love, that’s why at the end of the day these two are probably the most compatible and are really In love.
Then you have Joey, the man never managed to find someone who he fell in love with, although there were a few instances, he fell in love with Rachel however the feelings where not mutual. Joey may had been successful with the ladies, his acting career was not that smooth, it took him many years to become a successful actor after starring in the soap ‘Days of our lives’ Joey managed to get himself parts in some Hollywood movies, at the end of the series Joey was ready to continue his dream of acting in Hollywood by moving to Hollywood.
And finally we have Phoebe, the strangest one of them all, the trained masseuse but not the highly trained musician she thinks she is, however she was one of the most loveable characters, out of all the characters she had had the hardest life of her family she had her grandma and a twin sister she never spoke to, her mum had killed her self and she never knew her dad. However as the series went on Phoebe met her half brother and now her family was starting to grow again, then her brother Frank got married and then her family grew again but this was Phoebe in the end her family was still there but she became surrogate mother to her brothers kids.
In the end Phoebe found mister right in Mike, although at first he did not want to get married to her as he had been married before and Phoebe thought she had lost her perfect guy but in the end she got married and the girl who had no family ended up having a huge family.
Now I will be looking at what a situation comedy is, I will also be looking at the characteristics of what a sitcom and the rules that these sitcoms tend to follow.
Traditionally, situation comedies were largely self-contained, in that the characters themselves remained largely static and events in the sitcom resolved themselves by the conclusion of the show, also there was a tendency for the show to remain in one place. This was the example of Friends as the majority of the show took place in either one of two places, the Friends apartment or there favourite hangout Central Perk.
Other sitcoms, though, use greater or lesser elements of ongoing storylines: Friends, a hugely popular US sitcom of the 1990s, contains soap opera elements such as regularly resorting to an end-of-season cliff-hanger, and has gradually developed the relationships of the characters.
The situation comedy was designed to follow a certain set of rules these are:
- 30 minutes
- Regularly scheduled (same day, same slot)
- Continuity in characters and locations (domestic, workplace, or both)
- Circular narrative (problems resolved, characters resume their original position within the narrative)
- Episodes as both discrete units and intertextual references
- Entrapment as a central narrative theme and strategy
- Importance of stereotypes to narrative
These rules are set so that people can enjoy them and then the viewer knows when they are on also it means that if the viewer misses a show they would not have missed a crucial part of the story.
Sitcoms have been set so that the viewer knows what to expect that is why this genre has lasted a very long time.
The history of the sitcom stems from the early radio services which were broadcasted by and for the armed forces; this was to keep the forces happy. After the war the successfulness of the show lead to this being created in to its own public genre.
With the show technically being 30 minutes long the show was actually between 22-24 minutes long this was due to the commercial breaks.
People are able to identify with the show as the there are changes that reflects the locales of home. E.g. Rosanne, Friends and My Family.
People can see that there life is being identified with the people in the show and therefore they can relate. As I’m using the example of Friends, people can relate to the show as there is the fact that people have experienced things that have happened in the show, there have been times when they have experienced difficult relationships, marriage, babies etc. With that people will therefore watch the show to experience stuff that they have gone through and find that they can relate to each situation.
Now I will give a more detailed look at the characters of Friends and how the different theories apply to the show.
The show is which is based on the six friends from New York is based around there lives and there social interactions. The show which is a situation comedy, the show is 22 minutes long.
Each episode is based around the theme of ‘the one with….’ Each episode is filled with comedic value especially from one of the characters which is Chandler. The main source of the jokes in the show come from Chandler, however he is not a typical stand up comedian joker, he is a witty joker he notices stuff around and makes sarcastic jokes.
However, it has been mentioned several times that Chandler uses jokes as a defence mechanism.
The show evokes laughter from the smallest little thing this is because we are able to understand the joke.
Friends was such a successful series that groups of people would sit at home and watch the show altogether.
Bergson explains that ‘laughter is linked to the specific values and anxieties of various social groups’ what he means by this is that jokes in certain groups are easily accepted than other types of jokes.
If you are watching a comedian who makes a racists joke while you within a group that, that joke could be about, there would be a different reaction to it if you with a group that the joke was not about.
The jokes in the show are always based on the situation, however there have been some jokes that have lasted throughout the entire series of the show, these kind of jokes are few and far between however when these jokes reappear later in the running of the series the audience recognise this and remember how they felt when they first heard the joke and therefore laugh again.
The most oblivious joke that is laughed over and over again is ‘we were on a break’ joke, this joke first appeared in series three and was the subject of the reason why Ross and Rachel broke up, however this joke has been used on many occasions since then and still receives a good old chuckle from the viewer.
Other jokes and characters that are the subject of jokes still reappear and get a reaction from the audience, one such person is the character of Janice, Chandler’s ex-girlfriend who had the annoying voice and laugh that just gave you a headache but it was the situations that he was put in by his ex-girlfriend that made us laugh.
Each character in Friends fulfils a role, this role is not the character they play but it is the type of person that they are, you have Chandler the funny guy throughout the show he is trying to be funny that is his thing, then you have Joey, his laughter comes from the fact that he is not the smartest person in the world, and then we have Ross you is unlucky in love and finds himself in very awkward situations when it comes to women.
Then with the girls you have got Phoebe who is not all there if you know what I mean she is weird and wonderful, she has a unique outlook on life and her perception of life is what makes people laugh.
Then there’s Rachel she is the rich girl who came to the city to make it on her own, but is a bit ditzy and cannot remember simple stuff and gets things wrong, and finally you have Monica, the neat freak who likes everything in a particular way and the fact that the smallest disturbance in her world can cause her to go a bit crazy that is why we laugh at them.
Now that I have looked at who the characters are and why they make us laugh, I will now look at the show its self and how that manages to make us laugh.
The show which I have said before is about these six friends and what happens in the city, now I will analyse a single episode and how people laugh at the characters from the show.
The episode I have chosen to look at is ‘The One with the Ick factor’ which was an episode in the first series.
The basic outline for this episode is, Monica is seeing a man who is a bit younger than herself, Monica is 26 and the guy she is seeing is 21 and a senior in college, however Monica has told Ethan that she is 22 and also at college, straight away the jokes are being made about this situation with jokes about him needing to be home as he has class in the morning, however Monica liking this guy just laughs these jokes off.
While this is going on, Phoebe a trained masseuse is having trouble finding work due to the fact that she taught a how to massage your self course and now they are. So Chandler offers her a job as his receptionist, however things start to turn sour as Chandler soon learns that the friends that he once worked with now do not like him and start to take the Mickey out of him. Chandler who also has a tendency to want to be liked by people finds this hard to grasp and straight away wants to find out why they don’t like him, Phoebe tells him is because he is now the boss man, or in her words “Boss man bing” and the fact that they even do him, impressions of him nothing else.
When they get to the coffee house they meet Joey and Ross, who here the story and are quickly pulled in to the joke. With this particular joke there has been a setup which has taken place to get to the part where the main part of the joke is about to take place.
Chandler has a habit of over pronouncing words especially the word ‘not’ and when the friends pick up on this there is a role reversal, Chandler the witty one the one with all the jokes is the now the butt of the jokes and there does not appreciate it and storms of while the other three friends sit there and laugh at his expense.
The original joke was set up with the people that chandler works with however the joke manages to be transferred to another set of people who can relate to this joke.
Later on Monica is getting ready for a dinner with Ethan she has cooked the food, got the wine and shaved her legs, so Monica is hoping for something special tonight.
When Ethan arrives they have dinner and start to get comfortable, Ethan then says he has something to tell Monica, now the audiences is already picking up on that Ethan may be a bit younger than he says he is however, he tells Monica that he is a virgin, Monica says its ok and they go have sex. Afterwards Monica tells Ethan her real age of being 26, then Ethan drops a bombshell, the feeling the audience picked up on that he is younger than what he said he was is about to be realised, Ethan announces that he is a senior in High school and not college therefore making him 17. Monica straight away feels a bit disgusted with herself as she has slept with some almost ten years younger than her, although there was some comedy when Ethan’s bombshell was announced there is little comedy now.
Later on all the friends find out about Ethan being seventeen and the jokes start to pour in, the friends turn into comedians with quick one liners, even chandler who was the butt of the jokes manages to get out of being the joke to telling the joke.
After all this the situations are resolved Chandler finds out that it is easier to be the boss than there friend at work and therefore acts more like a boss and gives more work to those you have been laughing at him, while Monica sorts everything out with Ethan, therefore rounding up the show in the typical way of being a situation comedy.
Now I will look at the theories that can be explored by looking at friends.
When looking at the show you see similarities to our own life things that we recognise and those we can relate to;
“Comedy is about difference, but it is also about sameness a sense of common experience”
What this quote means is that the reason we can laugh at such jokes on Friends is because we can relate to the jokes and the experiences that this group is going through.
“Laughter is a social activity” (Bergson)
What does he mean by this quote, what I believe that when you are in a group with your friends there is a sense of ease in the air, you are relaxed and can enjoy yourself even more, when we are in a group you can tell a joke and you all laugh together, however hearing that joke on its own it does not have quite the same affect, this is why friends works so well as all the jokes that are told are always in the confines of the group that the laughter produced by the show is done within a social activity.
Because of the success of Friends, there has been worldwide interest in the show, it has been beamed to countries all over the world and there is not one person in the world who does not know the theme tune to the show and claps there hands when they hear it. This show unites people it unities them through the stories and the laughter, it has created a worldwide community and people are able to react to the show.
Looking at the question I first asked is why is Friends do successful in Britain, I believe it has a lot to do with culture and globalization, America is a super power in the world today and especially in the media business, so therefore it is able to export most of its products with out any problems. But how come we so easily received it in our country, I believe it is because our culture is starting to be like Americas we are able to get there culture and there sense of humour more easily than there are able to get ours.
In conclusion, I believe that the show of Friends has been successful because of it ability to recreate experiences that we all have well, experienced it has created characters that we can relate to and we find them funny.
Friends is a typical situation comedy it follows all the rules of a sitcom and only sometime bends the rules.
Over the years Friends has provided people worldwide with entertain, although an American show with American humour, it is quite unique that many countries have managed to understand the shows witty humour however America does not seem to receive British shows that same way.
The humour In Friends is that of experience being able to relate to the cast and there characters, the show gives us a sense of relief and as Freud put it:
“Jokes allow us to consciously satisfy our desires” (Freud)
