Abstract:

As a sauce of life, humor is an important and artful way of communication. Firstly the thesis puts forward the definition of humor, as well as the function and cause of it. Then it takes some humorous lines in Friends as samples to analyze people’s words and deeds in this sitcom. The analysis is combined with speech sounds, semantic meanings, figures of speech as well as the reasons for the character’s humor. It aims at promoting people’s understanding of humor, through systematic analysis of humor in Friends, helping the audience of Friends gain some insight into the sitcom and appreciation of the beauty of American humor. In the meantime, it helps them find the function of humor in daily life and communications, through which they may improve their social skills as well as change their attitude towards life.

Keywords: Friends；humor；communication；attitude toward life

摘  要：

幽默是生活的调料，是一种重要而巧妙的交际方式。本文首先提出幽默的定义、功能，和成因，然后再以《老友记》中部分台词举例分析该剧中的幽默言行，延伸到语音、语义、修辞,以及幽默言行的原因。通过全面系统的分析，本文旨在提升人们对幽默的认识，帮助观众更深入全面的解读美剧《老友记》，在体味美式幽默的美妙的同时，能了解到幽默言行在生活交际中的作用，从而提升自己的交际能力，改变以往的生活态度。

关键词：老友记；幽默；交际；生活态度

1 Introduction
1.1 Background information
Friends, an American sitcom, is so popular in China, and humor is no doubt one of the most important and attractive elements of it. Actually, humor helps a lot in human’s life. With sense of humor, people can release the mental pressure easily, as well as improve the relationship with others. In addition, people with a sense of humor can usually deal with psychological injury better. And naturally, most of us admire the one who has a sense of humor. That’s one of the important reasons of why Friends is so popular all around the world although it has telecasted 10 years. It is worth making a systematic analysis, which may throw a light on learning English and its culture.