| When the one-hour finale of the long-running sitcom "Friends" was aired on NBC on Tuesday, May 6th, 2004, more than 65 million Americans tuned in to bid farewell to those six amiable friends who "had been there" for them for ten years. Memory of "Friends" will stay in their hearts forever not only because of their decade-long loyal company, but also of the laughs they offered, friendship they shared, love they treasured and dreams they pursued, representing the permanent concern of any classic art or literature.The thesis can be basically divided into four parts: part one introduces the current trend of American pop culture by exploring the interrelationship between the refined and popular culture; part two, with an analysis of the unique personalities of the six comic figures, the study discusses the mental status and life style of American WASPs reflected by the sitcom; part three reveals the comic nature of "Friends" by displaying the function mode of American sitcom and aesthetic characteristics of comedy itself, and further provides categorized extracted lines to illustrate its outstanding art of linguistic humor; part four investigates the causes of winter of American sitcom in recent years, as well as the inspiration of "Friends" to present and future Chinese sitcom development. |
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