Roman Comedy Research Paper

Words: 941
Pages: 4

Friends is an American sitcom about a group of friends who go about their daily lives in the city of New York. It is also one of the most popular sitcoms the world has ever seen, and my personal favorite. In this paper we shall look at the show and look upon similar elements it has to Roman Comedy.
There are many parallels to Roman Comedy and the show in its entirety. One of the major similarities is that the whole show focuses on the daily life of our 6 characters: Chandler, Joey, Ross, Monica, Rachel, and Phoebe.
These characters (though well written and developed) could easily be seen as stereotypes of certain groups, which is an aspect of Roman comedy. Phoebe is the superstitious one, Joey is the ladies’ man, Ross is the nerdy one, Rachel is the pretty one, Monica is the perfectionist, and Chandler is the sarcastic one.
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Another exaggerated situation is from “The One with the Routine”. In this episode Ross and Monica get onto their favorite New Year’s celebration TV show and try to get on camera in order to show their parents. As a last resort they use an old dance routine that they used in high school, and it turns out to be hilarious. The Brothers Menaechmus also uses this where the two twin brother never come across each other even though they are almost directly affecting