We live in uncertain times.

我们生活在不确定的时代。

We don’t know when we’re going back to school or the office. We don’t know when we’ll be able to sit inside at a restaurant. We don’t even know when we’ll be able to mosh at a Korn concert again. But over the course of the last few weeks, there is one uncertainty that I’ve found less tolerable than all the rest:

我们不知道何时返回学校或办公室。 我们不知道什么时候可以坐在餐厅里。 我们甚至不知道什么时候才能再次参加Korn演唱会。 但是在过去几周的过程中，我发现有一个不确定性比所有其他不确定性更难以容忍：

We don’t know who the funniest friend in the hit 90’s sitcom “FRIENDS” is.

我们不知道谁是90年代热门情景喜剧“ FRIENDS”中最有趣的朋友。

Once you realize you’ve been living your life with such a gaping hole in your knowledge base, you can never go back.

一旦意识到自己在知识库中存在如此巨大的漏洞就可以过上自己的生活，就永远无法回头。

That’s why I decided to make it my mission to harness the cutting edge powers of artificial intelligence and find out if Phoebe’s quirky non-sequiturs are funnier than Ross’s dinosaur jokes.

这就是为什么我决定以利用人工智能的尖端力量为使命，并找出菲比的古怪的非修道士是否比罗斯的恐龙笑话更有趣的原因。

Fair warning: Prepare to be surprised!

合理警告：准备感到惊讶！

If you’re wondering how artificial intelligence can possibly figure out who says something funny, here’s my explanation of the technical aspects of the project.

如果您想知道人工智能如何找出谁在说些有趣的话， 这是我对项目技术方面的解释。

In case you were hoping to stay awake instead, here’s a quick demo video showing what it looks like:

如果您希望保持清醒，这是一个快速演示视频，显示它的外观：

There are two caveats to this approach that I explain at the end of the article.

我在本文结尾处解释了这种方法的两个注意事项。

Before we get to the main course, a couple appetizers:

在进入主菜之前，有几个开胃菜：

最长的连续笑声 (Longest Continuous Laughter)

This award goes to Joey. Joey made the audience laugh for a full 30 seconds when going through his fake resume skills with Phoebe in “The One Where Joey Speaks French” (S10E13). He wrote that he could chug a gallon of milk in under 10 seconds on his resume. Phoebe called him out. He immediately went to the fridge, grabbed a gallon of milk and proceeded to “chug” (i.e. spill down the front of his shirt) for 30 seconds straight. Peak Joey moment.

该奖项归乔伊所有。 乔伊(Joey)在“乔伊讲法语的那一处”(S10E13)中与菲比一起使用虚假的简历技巧时，让观众笑了整整30秒。 他写道，在履历表上，他可以在10秒内搅拌一加仑牛奶。 菲比叫他出去。 他立即去冰箱，抓住了一加仑牛奶，然后连续30秒“突突”掉(即从衬衫的前部溢出)。 乔伊峰顶时刻。

最有趣的情节 (Funniest Episode)

The award for the funniest episode goes to “The One Where the Stripper Cries” (S10E11). I immediately rewatched this episode when I discovered this and it definitely lives up to the hype. The episode is full of high school and college flashbacks starring “fat Monica”, Rachel’s “real” nose, and ridiculous hairstyles all around. Not to mention we find out Ross kissed Monica in college! Meanwhile Joey gets on a game show and gives a performance that only Joey would be capable of. But what puts this episode over the top is Danny DeVito’s outrageous guest appearance as the stripper at Phoebe’s bachelorette party.

最搞笑的一集获得了“脱衣舞娘哭泣的地方”(S10E11)。 当我发现此情节时，我立即重新观看了此情节，它肯定不辜负炒作。 这一集充满了由“胖莫妮卡”，雷切尔的“真实”鼻子和到处都是可笑的发型主演的高中和大学的倒叙。 更不用说我们发现罗斯在大学时吻了莫妮卡！ 同时，乔伊(Joey)参加了一场游戏节目，并提供了只有乔伊(Joey)才能做到的表演。 但是，将这一集放在首位的是丹尼·德维托(Danny DeVito)在菲比(Phoebe)的单身派对上脱衣舞娘时的无耻客串。

最严重的情节 (Most Serious Episode)

In contrast, the episode with the least amount of laughter turns out to be “The One with the Invitation” (S4E21). This was a heavier episode that flashed back through the highs and lows of Ross and Rachel’s entire relationship up to that point. Ross was about to marry Emily in England and Rachel had to wrestle with whether she wanted to attend the wedding or not (we all remember how that turns out).

相反，笑声最少的情节被证明是“有邀请的人”(S4E21)。 这是一个沉重的情节，闪过罗斯和瑞秋整个恋情的高潮和低谷。 罗斯即将在英国嫁给艾米莉，而蕾切尔则不得不为她是否想参加婚礼而战(我们都记得结果如何)。

最有趣的季节 (Funniest Season)

In terms of the funniest season, the results are quite interesting (some might even say incriminating). As you can see in the chart below, the amount of laughter per season tended to keep going up as the show progressed. Were seasons 9 and 10 really THAT much funnier than seasons 1 and 2? I’ll let you decide for yourself. But this could point to the producers becoming more liberal with the laughter editing as the show went on. Let’s look at the glass half-full and say the writing and the chemistry simply got better as the show went on!

就最有趣的季节而言，结果是非常有趣的(有些人甚至会说是罪魁祸首)。 从下面的图表中可以看出，随着节目的进行，每个季节的笑声趋于上升。 第9和10季真的比第1和第2季有趣吗？ 我让你自己决定。 但这可能意味着随着节目的进行，制作人在笑声中变得更加自由。 让我们看一眼半满的玻璃杯，然后说随着表演的进行，书写和化学React变得更好了！

Now, what you’ve all been waiting for:

现在，您一直在等待什么：

朋友中最有趣的朋友 (The Funniest Friend in FRIENDS)

The natural thing to do would be to see which character generated the most laughter throughout all 10 seasons and declare them the funniest. But I think this is unfair. Some characters (ahem Rachel and Ross) speak WAY more lines than other characters (poor Phoebe).

很自然的事情就是看哪个角色在整个10个季节中引起最多的笑声，并宣布它们是最有趣的。 但是我认为这是不公平的。 某些角色(阿姨雷切尔和罗斯)说的话比其他角色(可怜的菲比)讲得多。

To level the playing field, we will look at the average laughter generated per line by each character.

为了平整比赛环境，我们将研究每个角色每行产生的平均笑声。

Here we go:

开始了：

第六名：莫妮卡 (6th place: Monica)

Is anyone surprised here? Monica tends to be the “responsible” one who keeps things on track. She usually has her hands full correcting the foibles of her more hapless friends and keeping her nice china from breaking. To her credit, everyone realizes this and Ross and Rachel even admit they would ONLY allow Chandler and Monica to raise their child if Monica is in the picture (S6E13). Every friend group needs a Monica.

有人惊讶吗？ 莫妮卡往往是“负责任”的人，可以使事情保持正轨。 她通常会全力以赴地纠正更不幸的朋友的缺点，并防止她的瓷器破损。 值得称赞的是，每个人都意识到了这一点，罗斯和瑞秋甚至承认，如果照片中有莫妮卡(S6E13)，他们只会允许钱德勒和莫妮卡抚养自己的孩子。 每个朋友组都需要一个莫妮卡。

第五名：瑞秋 (5th place: Rachel)

This one surprised me. Early in the series, it seemed like Rachel was behind so many punch lines. She was introduced to us as a runaway “daddy’s girl” and watching her deal with realities like making coffee and getting “one of those job things” was immensely entertaining. But I guess as things became more serious with Ross, she became more serious too.

这使我感到惊讶。 在该系列的早期，似乎Rachel落后很多。 她是作为一个失控的“爸爸的女孩”被介绍给我们的，看着她处理诸如煮咖啡和获得“其中一件工作”之类的现实的经历非常有趣。 但是我想随着罗斯的事情变得越来越严重，她也变得越来越认真。

第四名：罗斯 (4th place: Ross)

It turns out the two characters with the most lines (Ross and Rachel) aren’t that funny! Granted Ross does tend to take things pretty literally most of the time and he is a paleontology professor after all. He definitely has a goofy side and loves his nerdy jokes but he and Rachel were involved in a lot of the serious storylines over the course of the show. So it makes sense that they weren’t always joking around.

事实证明，行数最多的两个字符(罗斯和瑞秋)并不那么有趣！ 格randint·罗斯(Grant Ross)确实在大多数时间确实倾向于采取一切措施，毕竟他是古生物学教授。 他肯定有一个愚蠢的一面，并且喜欢他的书呆子笑话，但他和Rachel参与了整个演出过程中的许多严肃故事。 因此，他们并非总是开玩笑是有道理的。

第三名：菲比 (3rd place: Phoebe)

Phoebe missed getting 2nd place by a hair! There’s actually a very big gap between Phoebe and Ross so I officially declare Phoebe to be a really funny character. It’s unfortunate that she didn’t get as many lines as the other characters but it’s true that she often lived far away from the group. That said, she was a constant source of comedic relief with her alternative remedies and “street-smart” upbringing.

菲比错过了获得第二名的机会！ 菲比和罗斯之间实际上有很大的距离，所以我正式宣布菲比是一个非常有趣的角色。 不幸的是，她没有得到比其他角色更多的台词，但的确，她经常生活在远离小组的地方。 话虽如此，她通过替代疗法和“街头聪明”的养育方式一直是喜剧救济的源泉。

第二名：钱德勒 (2nd place: Chandler)

Chandler strikes me as a bit cynical sometimes so I wasn’t sure where he would fall. But looking back it does seem like Chandler is always waiting to find the comedy in a conversation. While his humor can often be self-deprecating and sometimes pessimistic, he seems to have the ability to bring levity to even the most serious moments on the show. Maybe that’s why he and Monica were such a good match!

钱德勒有时对我有点愤世嫉俗，所以我不确定他会跌倒在哪里。 但是回想起来，钱德勒似乎总是在等待对话中寻找喜剧。 尽管他的幽默常常会自嘲，有时甚至会感到悲观，但他似乎有能力使节目中最重要的时刻都充满活力。 也许这就是为什么他和莫妮卡如此之好！

第一名：Joey (1st place: Joey)

Ok, show of hands — who guessed this from the start? The best part about Joey being the funniest character is that he’s not even trying to be funny most of the time. A lot of his humor isn’t really intentional. Yes we all know that maybe Joey is a little “slower” than the rest. But he has an innocent naiveté that makes his comments both hilarious and genuine at the same time. It’s actually hard to remember Joey lines that aren’t funny.

好吧，举手-谁从一开始就猜到了？ 关于乔伊(Joey)是最有趣的角色，最好的部分是，他大部分时间甚至都不想变得有趣。 他的很多幽默并不是真的故意的。 是的，我们都知道乔伊也许比其他人“慢一点”。 但是他的天真无邪，使他的评论既有趣又真实。 实际上很难记住不好笑的乔伊台词。

No matter how you slice the data, these rankings pretty much hold.

无论您如何分割数据，这些排名几乎都成立。

One thing to note is that Ross actually generates more laughter than Phoebe throughout the entire show. But he also gets way more lines throughout the show, so it wouldn’t seem right to say he’s funnier than Phoebe. On a per-line basis, Phoebe is much funnier.

需要注意的一件事是，在整个演出中，罗斯实际上比菲比产生更多的笑声。 但是他在整个演出中也获得了更多的台词，所以说他比菲比更有趣似乎是不对的。 在每行基础上，Phoebe更有趣。

It’s also interesting that Chandler has more lines that are followed by laughter than Joey. It’s just that when Joey says something funny, the audience laughs longer than they do for Chandler’s lines (by 6% on average!).

有趣的是，钱德勒比乔伊有更多的台词，后面是笑声。 只是，当乔伊(Joey)说些有趣的话时，听众的笑声比他们对钱德勒的台词的笑声更长(平均6％！)。

So there you have it. Go ahead and check one more uncertainty off your list. Progress! Now for that Korn concert…

所以你有它。 继续检查清单中的另一个不确定性。 进展！ 现在参加那场Korn音乐会……

奖金表 (Bonus chart)

See who has gotten funnier over time. Joey wasn’t the funniest character until Season 5! And Monica has been on an absolute tear since her very serious Season 1 performance!

看看谁随着时间的流逝变得更有趣。 直到第5季，乔伊才是最有趣的角色！ 自从她非常认真的第1季表演以来，莫妮卡就已全力以赴！

附录 (Appendix)

警告＃1 (Caveat #1)

Humor is relative. What I find funny you may not and vice versa. Humor is also hard to measure. Luckily, most FRIENDS scenes were filmed in front of a live audience of 300 people. Naturally, when a lot of these people laugh, I assume something is funny. Now of course, laughter can be edited. But for the sake of this article, we’re going to assume something is funny when the audience laughs.

幽默是相对的。 我觉得很有趣，但您可能没有，反之亦然。 幽默也很难衡量。 幸运的是，大多数FRIENDS场景都是在300人的现场观众面前拍摄的。 自然，当这些人中的很多人笑时，我认为有些事情很有趣。 当然，现在可以编辑笑声了。 但是为了本文的目的，我们将假定观众笑时有些有趣。

警告＃2 (Caveat #2)

I only captured spoken lines in this analysis. That means characters don’t always get credit for their non-verbal humor. Fortunately, less than 3% of the laughter in the show is purely non-verbal.

在此分析中，我仅记录了口头表达。 这意味着角色并非总是以非语言幽默获得称赞。 幸运的是，演出中只有不到3％的笑声是纯粹非语言的。

Originally published at https://jacksanford.me.

最初发布在 https://jacksanford.me 。