Oh, my God!

After a recent binge of the iconic ‘90s TV show Friends, I theorized that the phrase “Oh my God” was uttered an absurd amount — And now I have the data to prove it.

“‘Oh my God!’ is commonly used as an exclamation to emphasize surprise, anger or shock.”

— Quora

Compiling the Data

Using transcripts of the Friends television show, I scoured the dialogue from all 236 episodes to determine how frequently each character was saying “Oh my God”.

WHAT IS INCLUDED?

The words “oh”, “my”, and “God” must be spoken (in that order) to be included in the tally. Characters are permitted to pause or add additional words to the phrase. Some acceptable examples can be found below:

WHAT IS NOT INCLUDED?

Other phrases that mention God, but do not meet the requirements listed above will not be counted in the tally. Examples are listed below:

Season 3, Episode 5: Sorry Ross — Mouthing the words “Oh my God” will not be tallied.

The Results

Friends enjoyed a successful 10 season run on NBC (1992–2003). During that time, the phrase “Oh my God” was spoken 1,069 times*. Let’s take a look at the detailed results below:

Season 9 represents the peak of the “Oh my God” frenzy with 126.

Some fans may assume that Maggie Wheeler, the actress who portrayed Janice, will be our “Oh my God” champion (as it was her signature line of dialogue).

Maggie Wheeler portrayed Janice in 19 episodes of Friends.

However, Ms Wheeler only appears in 19 episodes of Friends and doesn’t stand a chance against our over-dramatic protagonists.

Monica and Rachel account for nearly 50% of the total “Oh my God” utterances.

Ross was so excited during the series finale that he said “Oh my God” 9 times.

FASCINATING FINDINGS

• The average running time for an episode of Friends is 20–22 minutes. Therefore, “Oh my God” is spoken approximately once every 5 minutes!
• There are only 8 episodes in which “Oh my God” is not spoken.
• The series finale episode contains the most mentions of “Oh my God” in a single episode with 23 total. To be fair, this episode is considered to be a two part episode.
• Monica owns the record for the most “Oh my God” exclamations in a single season with 38 during season 10.
• Rachel is the individual character with the most mentions of “Oh my God” overall with 269. For 6 of the 10 seasons, Rachel was the individual who said “Oh my God” the most. She is also the character with the most mentions of “Oh my God” in a single episode with 10. 👇

Season 2, Episode 4: Rachel encounters a pigeon and shouts “Oh my God” (at least) 10 times.

Important comparisons

Ok, so the young and fabulous pals of Friends said “Oh my God” over 1,050 times — Is that a lot? Let’s compare the occurrences of “Oh my God” with some other popular American English words/phrases that were articulated on Friends.

A search of the Friends transcripts indicates that “Oh my God” was said much more frequently than these other common words, phrases, and Friends-specific catch phrases.

“The expression, ‘Oh my god!‘ … [was] part of the rise of San Fernando ’Valley Speak‘ pop culture of the 1980s.”

— Quora

Because the expression “Oh my God” had become more popular during the end of the 20th century, perhaps it was also spoken frequently in other popular sitcoms of the era?

Nope. Friends appears to be in a class of its own.

The estimated average amount of times “Oh my God” is spoken per script in popular ’90s sitcoms.**

Conclusion

After becoming annoyed that “Oh my God” seemed to be spoken almost constantly on Friends, I conducted an internet search to see if some fool had counted exactly how many times that phrase had been said on the show. When the search returned no definitive answer, I realized that I could be that fool! After completing the task, I began to look for deeper meaning in the metrics.

Is it a coincidence that mentions of “Oh my God” in text have tripled since the first episode of Friends aired?

Google Ngram measures the frequency of an phrase in text sources printed between 1500 and 2008.

There are many that believe saying “Oh my God” breaks the 10th Commandment and trivializes the name of God. Is Friends partially responsible for a sharp turn away from conservative values?

1951: Married couple Lucy and Ricky sleep in separate beds (left). 1996: Roommates Monica and Rachel argue over who will use the last condom (right) to engage in premarital sex. An argument that is ultimately settled with a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors.

Did Friends portray an unrealistic lifestyle that was too casual and progressive? Thereby leading the pendulum to swing in the opposite direction in the USA during recent years?

🤔 I think that these are questions that are best answered another day, in another post, likely by bloggers much wiser than I.

*Data assumes that transcripts are complete and accurate. I did my best to get an accurate manual tally.

**Estimate is based on analysis of one season of each sitcom. Fraiser (Season 2), Seinfeld (Season 4), and The Nanny (Season 2). Seasons were chosen at random, but featured 20+ episodes in order to ensure a comparable sample size.