I am going to try to take a break from binging all of these Friends episodes. It’ll be hard, but I think I can get through this blog post. Maybe I could watch more of the show. It might help me with my topic for this week. The topic of Ross and Rachel’s on again off again relationship spans the whole show, so maybe I should keep watching until I finish, right?

I’ll get right into it, so I can quickly return to the watching.

Across all 10 seasons of the show, Friends, we see one major plot development that always has brought viewers closer to the show. It is the complicated, baffling, and lovable relationship between Ross and Rachel. For those who don’t know, Friends is a sitcom that focuses on the lives of six close friends. The show focuses on all sorts of elements like their relationships, careers, and lifestyles. This main element of Ross and Rachel’s relationship is highlighted by the writers heavily, and the viewers are able to pick up on the recurrence of it too. It starts right from the first episode where Ross drools over Rachel, and it spans to the last episode where they end up together.

The first connection actually stretches to a backstory from the character’s high school days. However, at this time, the relationship only flowed in one direction. Ross had a big crush on Rachel, but Rachel didn’t know much about it. It wasn’t until a later time where they met as adults with independent lives, that the true love story began unfolding. Ross tried kindling the romance at first, but Rachel was taken. Then, when Rachel heard of Ross’ feelings, she tried to garner Ross’ attention, but he was in another relationship. Eventually, in the second season, they both have an understanding of the full situation. Sounds complicated, right? Well, it gets worse.

After dating for a while, the relationship began to pick up pace. Both of the characters began to get more and more involved in their respective lives. Work and other lifestyle elements made it difficult for the two to have the best relationship, especially with Ross becoming more jealous of someone at Rachel’s work. (I’m sure you can see where this is leading.) As a result, they spend a few nights apart. This leads to Ross cheating on Rachel while at a party; more-so, it leads to the most famous line of the whole show: “We were on a break!”

This style of relationship continues throughout the show, and it continues in its ups and downs. Some iconic moments include when Ross says Rachel’s name at the altar despite marrying someone else and when Rachel gets pregnant. All of this leads to the final stage of them ending up together in the season finale. This leaves the viewers with a happy ending and a happy answer on what would happen to them.

Now that you have heard the exhausting story of the two, you must be wondering, what made the writers include this for so long? Also, why did the viewers want to watch this with all of the twists and turns? Look no further.

In general, we love to hear love stories. It is what drives our society into the gossiping and dramatic world it is. We also get very attached to stories as a whole. Since the show did not include many other elements that transcended across all seasons, it was easy for the audience to become attached to this one plot development. Furthermore, sitcoms are not necessarily thought of as having plots, but with this unique element, the writers could make it seem as if one existed in this show. This was also strengthened with the employment of comedy to lighten the mood. Since comedy makes people feel better, the writers included it so the attachment to the characters was not very serious. The comedy allows for easier connections to be made to characters on the show. Most people will watch the show and relate themselves and their friends to the characters on the show. These connections people feel allow them to understand that they are not alone. It also highlights realistic life events like the awkwardness of having a crush or going on the first date with that crush. To relate it to the Roschel relationship, we like to see crazy and twisty events because it makes us feel more normal. It shows that no matter the extremes of the relationship on TV, we too can handle it and that it is not out of our scope. The writers were able to understand this psychological idea behind their audience, and as a result, they wrote one of the greatest sitcoms in the world. Their execution as a whole allowed people to get hooked to comedy, personal connections, and lifestyle connections.

Now that you see the real complexities of Roschel and the reasons we like it, you can start appreciating it more as you watch. Speaking of, what are you doing right now? The correct answer is watching Friends!

Things are going to take a “darker” turn in this blog, but don’t turn away just yet. There may not be as much comedy in this blog, but there is a funny reference coming up.

In this post, I am going to discuss The Office, and how it offers a subtle way of understanding the comedy in the show. This is a sitcom that revolves around the lives of office workers for a paper company called Dunder Mifflin. It is a “mockumentary” which means it is set-up to look like a camera crew is recording the lives of these people. However, this is not a real documentary that is being released to the real world. The show has many characters that vary with the kinds of characteristics they exhibit, and there are many other complexities involved in the show which I will address in this post.

People who have seen this show will talk about how great it is and how they love it, but they will also most likely point out the struggle it was to watch certain scenes across all season. Certain scenes have elicited a “cringy” feeling in the audience, yet there was still loyal viewership for the show. This was because the laughter that is elicited is not direct, but more subtle. When faced in difficult situation, that may be cringy, we tend face a moment of cognitive dissonance. This is the mental discomfort we feel as a result of inconsistent/contradictory thoughts. As a result of cognitive dissonance, our outcomes/feelings may not be in line with the situation. This can be seen through scenes of the office. We observe awkward moments in the show, and we don’t know how to react which results in us turning to laughter.

Michael Scott is the perfect example of how we divert our dissonance towards laughter. He is the boss of the regional office in Scranton, PA. He is a quirky person with, what many of us would say is, behavioral oddities. Many would agree that he is not competent to manage the office, and that he often gets the characters into deeper trouble than what they would be like without him. This is the kind of character he is. To put a general word to it, he is seen as a narcissist. He is very self-centered and wants all of the success in the world with little work to do. With this, why is it funny to watch the show? We attain our laughter because of the contradictions he has in his internal personality. Because of his incompetence, we view him as a child. As with children, we often view their slip-ups as humorous. This same ideology can be applied to Michael Scott. He has the external view of being a self-centered person, but we can observe through the show that he also plays it off as a child. He is not fully aware of how he acts and the kind of effects it has, which allows us to be forgiving to him. These two contradictory personality styles actually work in unison, and it leaves with a feeling of laughter.

We can observe this scenes throughout all seasons of the show, and I will pick a couple to demonstrate this:

• In the episode, Money, Michael is going through financial trouble. His girlfriend and himself have been spending lots of money on unnecessary items which leaves him in a state of confusion and worry. One coworker advises him to “declare bankruptcy” , and he takes it quite literally. He walks into the office and does just that. He literally says (declares) the words “I. Declare. Bankruptcy!” Afterwards, he walks in to his office and thinks everything has been resolved:

Hahahahaha. This scene makes me laugh so much. I had trouble writing this without laughing. On the surface, this would be seen as a very immature and unprofessional way to handle the situation. However, with the context of his character, we understand and can see the humor in everything.

• There are also many scenes in which he will use his iconic catchphrase “Thats what she said”. On its own, we can interpret it as an inappropriate, awkward phrase. It can be cringy as well. However, considering the repetition of the phrase throughout the seasons and the characteristics of Michael Scott, the writers implemented this as a source of comedy for the audience.

Everything I discussed is only a part of the show. I focused primarily on Michael Scott’s character and broke that down into what the true source of comedy is. There are many other components of the show that make it funny, so definitely check it out. Get on Netflix quick before they take it down!