The aim of this paper was to investigate sequences in which indirectness is used to increase utterance force for purposes of irony and humour. To this end, indirectness is considered in the light of Grice’s Cooperative Principle and Maxims. In addition, situations in which listeners interpret utterances as something opposed to what is actually being said will also be examined. By studying the interaction between the characters in the television sitcoms Friends and Full House such sequences have been identified, analysed, and explained. The results of the investigation show that there are a great many occasions in which listeners, deliberately or unconsciously, disregard the literal meaning in search of an underlying meaning. Most often, the characters in the two sitcoms force listeners to go beyond the expressed meaning by using irony and humour to convey an implied meaning, that is, they flout the Maxims. Furthermore, the Maxims of Relation and Quality are flouted the most in both shows, while the Maxims of Quantity and Manner are seldom flouted. Also, there are some occasions when the listeners fail to detect the underlying meaning in utterances due to various reasons. I hope to have highlighted that even though speakers and listeners fail to be cooperative on occasions, they are often able to communicate efficiently because they are by nature helpful to one another. Hence, even if speakers flout the Maxims, listeners interpret the utterance as if they were conforming to them.Nyckelord: Pragmatics, Paul Grice, Cooperative Principle, conversational implicature, flouting the Maxims.