Ehsan laughs out loud at Ross and Joey's attempts to hook up with a "hot girl" who rejects them both in the popular American television sitcom "Friends".
The 23-year-old student, who hails from a conservative religious family, is one of many Iranians who in recent years have acquired a taste for US TV series.
"I never took television seriously and first started watching these to improve my English," Ehsan said.
"But they are so funny and show the everyday life of young people in a way that you don't see in movies.
"Some of my friends follow them on satellite TV, which is not allowed in our home, but the DVDs are easy to get and I watch them on my computer," he said.
As the government bans most American entertainment, Ehsan is enjoying "Friends" -- the story of a group of twenty-somethings in New York -- on a contraband DVD delivered to his home by an illicit dealer.
Since the 1979 religious revolution in Iran that toppled the US-backed shah, America has been the "Great Satan" for the Islamic republic which allows a small number of censored US films to be screened in cinemas or on state television.
But the hardliners face a challenge from a wave of Iranians like Ehsan who are lapping up Hollywood movies and American sitcoms daily.
The trend is compounded by the fact that more than 60 percent of Iran's population is under 30 years old and providing "correct entertainment" to them is becoming a tough task for the state.
Moreover, the Internet and illegal satellite television viewing have given Iranians easier access to American entertainment in recent years via channels like Foxmovies and MBC 2 beaming Hollywood blockbusters round-the-clock.
On DVD, the entire 10 seasons of "Friends" are just a phone call away for only 40 dollars as Iran is also a copyright violators' haven.
"Lost" is another popular series among customers of DVD dealer Morteza G., who is snowed under with orders for new episodes that he downloads onto DVD from the Internet a day after they are aired in the United States.
Iranians, like millions of enthusiasts around the world, are anxious to find out what happens to the mysterious island and Oceanic flight 815 survivors.
In total, Morteza sells more than 50 drama and sitcom collections every month.
"I offer 'his and hers' collections: 'Prison Break' and '24' for men, 'Desperate Housewives' and 'Sex and the City' for women, as well as crowd pleasers such as 'Lost' and 'Friends'."
"The series have become very popular in the past two years," Morteza said, explaining that the emergence of Persian subtitled DVDs has greatly boosted his clientele who are mostly educated English-speaking urbanites.
Television writer Alireza Kazemipour is not surprised by the new trend and openly admires American TV productions for providing "great entertainment by beautifully-crafted but easily-understood characters and plots".
"Iranians love television and a continued story like that of the 'One Thousand and One Nights'," he said referring to the collection of folk tales and other stories.
"Many people, especially women, see a reflection of their own life and hang-ups in these stories.
"A key attraction is also the prevalent optimism," said Kazemipour, who has written one of the most popular dramas on Iranian television, "The Forbidden Fruit".
The series, about a pious elderly businessman falling in love with a young woman, grabbed high ratings during Ramadan last year.
All Iranian movies are vetted before screening in order not to violate Islamic values. One of the musts in the movies is that women should appear veiled in all scenes and men and women are banned from touching.
Television is under closer scrutiny and observes stricter guidelines to an extent that some Iranian movies produced under the Islamic republic have been censored before being shown on TV.
The slightest controversy on state-controlled television draws protests from conservatives and other groups, sometimes even forcing producers to change the script.
Lovers hardly say "I love you" on Iranian series and meetings between unmarried men and women are chaperoned in most scenes on the small screen.
"Our red lines and taboos make it very hard to create real, flesh-and-blood characters. Many a time you have to resort to metaphors but that does not go down well with ordinary TV viewers," Kazemipour said.
Apart from easy entertainment, American series have also helped some Iranians to take a closer look at the demonized US culture.
"The generally-held view in Iran that American culture is all about indecent relations... is simplistic and in fact a misunderstanding," wrote journalist Kowsar Avini in the popular moderate weekly Shahrvand Emrouz, shortly before it was shut down.
"These series which... deal with (American) people's contemporary problems could be a good medium for learning about their culture," she wrote, adding that she had learned all about proms, Thanksgiving and US youth culture with "Friends".
