Analysis of Friends Humour - please feel free to contribute!

I was reading a book on Marketing today, and my mind *unaccountably* wandered to the subject of Friends ...

I was thinking about how the attraction of Friends for me at the very beginning was how it changed the rules of sitcoms. The characters seemed real, talked the way real people of that age might talk (newspaper article on how yung people the world over now speak using the cadences of the characters), behaved realistically as opposed to in a sitcom style ... They were cool, living their lives as they wanted, choosing their own "tribe" rather than relatives (newspaper article: "Friends are what families used to be")

(IMO, that's all disappeared now - I can't believe how these cool people now seem to see marriage as the be-all and end-all of any romantic coupling - but that's a whole other thread ...)

Anyhoo, what I started thinking about was the humour in Friends - how original it was at the beginning (how it took me a while to "get") and how that's changed the humour in sitcoms in general (IMO, most new sitcoms now "sound" like Friends).

And then I started collecting examples of how the jokes are structured ... (this is an unfinished analysis and I haven't resorted to the scripts, so don't expect anything comprehensive).

1. The jokes which are based around repetition and familiarity: Ross: "we were on a break" Joey: "how you doin'?" and "Yeah, ______!" (as in: "Yeah, you do!" or "Yeah, the Knicks rule!") Monica: "Nooooo!" Chandler: "Could this _____ BE any _____?"

2. The jokes where something is said twice, each time with a different inflection and meaning: Phoebe: "Now you have two! Now you have two ..." <a few others but I can't remember them offhand> "I can't believe we live here!" (not technically the same type of joke)

3. The jokes where someone takes up an unfinished sentence and goes off in a completely different direction: "... little playthings with yarn?" "... Dee, the sarcastic sister from 'What's Happening?'?" "... in the kitchen with Dinah?"

• Chandler finishes a sentence with someting unintelligible

5. Alternate universes explored: "In crazyworld, that means you're married" "It is, in Bizarroworld!" ""That's how they do it! In prison!"

6. Weird names for supporting characters Fun Bobby, Hums While He Pees etc.

... and that's as far as I got. Any one care to continue?

"CleV" wrote in message news:[email]...

[Rachel has her version of this, too--like when she accidentally erases Ross's answering machine (with Emily's message) and say, "Noooooo!"]

Monica: "I KNOWWWWW!!!!"

Phoebe: "Ohhhh." (Like when she's caught in a lie)

Cilantro Larry.

Belphoebe

"Belphoebe" wrote in message news:...

The way they imitate Janice's "Oh my gawd".

Actually, Phoebe says "oh, no" :)

"p r i y a" wrote in message news:[email]...

news:...

Nooooo! Hee hee. ;)

I think Phoebe does both, though. I was thinking of the scene in TOW Joey's Brain where Phoebe and Rachel are at Pheebs' apartment arguing about who gets to return the cell phone left behind by the cute guy in Central Perk. After Phoebe receives a call on the phone from its owner and arranges for him to pick up the phone:

Rachel: You do know that I will be here when he comes over.

Phoebe: Oh? And how will you know what time to come over?

Rachel: You just said it!

Phoebe: Oh. Okay, well I-I was kinda hoping that I would just.be alone y' know to think about my mom and her suicide.

Though the transcript doesn't show it, as I remember it, this was a guilty, drawn-out "Ohhhhh," as in "Whoops, you caught me."

Belphoebe

What about humor in hand mannerisms, from Ross? (two fists knocking each other - almost as if to say f*** you and "lowering noise level") Where did this come from? Did the writers make this up or did David Schwimmer?