Abstract: Friends is one of the most popular sitcoms in America and loved by many Chinese English learners. However, verbal humor in the American sitcom Friends is somewhat an obstacle to the appreciation of the TV play for English learners. Based on the cooperative principle, this paper first introduces the four maxims of the cooperative principle and conversational implicature, and then tries to analyze and explore the verbal humor from the perspective of violation of the cooperative principle in order to make the learners have a better understanding of the TV play. 

Key words: Friends, cooperative principle, violation, verbal humor, conversational implicature

摘要：《老友记》是美国最受欢迎的情景喜剧，深受广大学习英语的中国学生的热爱，但其中的言语幽默在一定程度上阻碍了英语学习者对该喜剧的欣赏。本文以格瑞斯的合作原则为基础，首先介绍了合作原则的四个准则以及会话含义，然后从违反合作原则的角度分析和探讨了《老友记》的言语幽默，以达到提高英语学习者对该剧的欣赏能力的目的。

关键词：《老友记》，合作原则, 违反, 言语幽默, 会话含义