2.2 Humor

     Originally, humor meant liquid or fluid in Latin. The word is widely spread by English dramatist Ben Jonson.(Jonson 1958: 1) Humor is a linguistic form which through art and design, it is the art of social contact which remit the embarrassment between strangers, liberate burden and pressure of life. Humor always bring us joy, it conduces to disarm and ease disputes. Some people also think humor can inspire morale and increase productivity, hose with sense of humor are more popular in social intercourse. What’s more, humor can break the ice with strangers, and get rid of embarrassing situation. Humor is the tendency of particular cognitive experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement. 

     The research of humor has a long history. The humor research in the field of linguistics has come into people’s mind in the late 1970s. In the history, many scholars make the classification of humors. Some are based on the structure of humor, whereas others are based on the semantic content, from a stylistic or rhetorical view. Although scholars have their own emphasis towards superiority of humor, they have some similarity that humor is generated from making fun of others, and showing contempt for others misfortune and looking down upon others to satisfy superior feelings.文献综述

     The humor language research of domestic and overseas pays attention to its generative mechanism, the explicit expression of humor and research of national culture are still lacked. The applications of humor in the actual life are also lacked, especially the applications of humor in the network, it almost empty. So the thesis wants to choose this field to have a research. Whereby promote the understanding and interpersonal skill of the language learners. And people can apply it and add unparalleled excitement to their daily lives.

2.3 Brief introduction to sitcom and Friends

     As a television drama series, sitcoms attracts numerous faithful audiences, humor which is an essential part of situation comedy reflects the culture, way of thinking and customs of different countries. A situation comedy, often shortened to the portmanteau sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, with often humorous dialogue. Such programs originated in radio, but today, sitcoms are found mostly on television as one of its dominant narrative forms. David said that a situation comedy television program may be recorded in front of a studio audience, depending on the program’s production format. (David 1984: 50) The effect of a live studio audience can be imitated by the use of a laugh track. Sitcom humor is often character driven and by its nature running gags evolve during a series. Often the status quo of the situation is maintained from episode to episode. An episode may feature a disruption to the usual situation and the character interactions, but this will usually be settled by the episode’s end and the situation returned to how it was prior to the disruption. These episodes are then linked by the overarching storyline, driving the show forward.

     Friends is an American television sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which originally aired on NBC from September 22, 1994. It lasted ten seasons, 236 sets and is now in syndication. It revolves around a circle of friends living in Manhattan. Filming for the series took place at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California. The series finale, airing on May 6, 2004, was watched by around 52.5 million American viewers, making it the fourth most watched series finale in television history and the most watched episode of the decade. Friends received positive reviews throughout its run, becoming one of the most popular sitcoms of all time. The series was nominated for 62 Primetime Emmy Awards, winning the Outstanding Comedy Series award in 2002.The show ranked no.21 on TV Guide’s 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time and no.7 on Empire magazine’s The 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time. In short, the awards of Friends is too numerous to count. Season three takes on a significantly greater serialized format. 来!自~优尔论-文|网www.youerw.com