Your Job's a Joke, You're Broke, Your Love Life's DOA...

As most of us have,  I grew up watching Friends, a sitcom about the life of six ordinary friends living in New York. Even from the first episode there is clearly a rise in fortune of a sympathetic central character, Rachel. When Rachel abandons her fiancee at the alter and leaves the life of wealth and privilege she has grown up with for a waitress job, the audience begins to cheer for her and continues cheering for Rachel until season 10 when she has a job with Ralph Lauren.

 Friends' comedy ranges from finding, and failing to find, new boyfriends and girlfriends, saying the wrong name at the alter, carrying a couch up the stairs, climbing down a fire escape, getting fired, finding new jobs, and simply sitting in a coffee shop. It is able to use satirical, romantic, farce, and on occasion even black comedy (when a Friends member has mortified them self beyond belief) to made the audience laugh. By the end of the episode everything is (usually) resolved and the friends are back on the familiar couch. The audience feels a satisfaction that Joey and Chandler finally chose a new kitchen table, the gang has finally sat down for thanksgiving dinner, or that Rachel got off the plane. Simple everyday tasks are made funny by everyday people.

Friends is a perfect example of Aristotle's idea of comedy because this comedy does involve a celebration of human sexuality, love, and has a rise in fortune of all the characters, not just Rachel. Joey becomes a successful actor, Ross finally lands his dream girl, Monica and Chandler finally have children, and Phoebe finally finds a family.