15 TV Bloopers That Were Too Good To Cut

TV bloopers are usually removed from episodes before they air, but sometimes these unscripted moments create impromptu reactions from characters that are just too golden to leave on the cutting-room floor.

In season eight episode four of Game of Thrones, eagled-eyed viewers spotted a Starbucks coffee cup resting on a table in front of Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke). There is no way to make Starbucks make sense in a fantasy series about dragons that doesn’t take place in modern times, so the cup was digitally removed after the episode aired. However, bloopers that happened on shows such as The X-Files, Seinfeld, Schitt’s Creek, and Modern Family were just too fun to lose.

How many of the following TV bloopers did you catch the first time you watched?

1. The Car Won’t Start — Seinfeld

In the season three episode six episode of Seinfeld titled “The Parking Garage,” Jerry and the gang collectively spin their wheels trying to find their car in a large parking structure. Elaine worries that her goldfish will die in the bag before they can find the car and get back home.

At the end of the episode when the group finds the car, Kramer keeps cranking the ignition and shaking the wheel but the car won’t start. They were all supposed to drive off, but the actors sat in the car dumbfounded that it failed to turn over. Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David decided that this ending had more comedic mileage than the scripted one and kept the blooper in the final cut.

2. The Random Wedding Ring — The X-Files

The X-Files focuses primarily on government conspiracies, aliens, and paranormal activity, but that doesn’t mean that fans aren’t curious about the romantic lives of FBI agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson).

When a recently married Duchovny forgot to remove his wedding band before filming a scene in season 5 episode 15, fans wondered if the supposedly single character Mulder secretly got married on the show. It turns out the truth is indeed out there, but it’s just a blooper that sparked some fan theories and speculation about Mulder’s private life.

3. Elephant Story — The Carol Burnett Show

Some of the funniest moments on The Carol Burnett Show are when one of the actors, usually Tim Conway, goes off script in an attempt to make the other actors laugh and break character.

In one episode featuring “Mama’s family” playing a game of Password, Conway hijacks the scene and starts rambling about a rumor going around a circus that a “dwarf and an elephant were lovers.” Burnett tries her best to stay in character as Eunice but the longer Conway babbles about the ludicrous story, the more she and the other cast members erupt into uncontrollable laughter.

4. Bébé — Schitt’s Creek

On Schitt’s Creek, Catherine O’Hara plays family matriarch Moira Rose — an actress forced due to financial problems to move with her family to the titular run-down town and live in a motel that they previously bought as a joke.

O’Hara pokes fun at the mid-Atlantic accent popular in Old Hollywood by playing Moira as a woman with an inexplicable, affected accent from an indeterminate geographical region. Showrunners decided to run with her ridiculous-yet-hilarious pronunciation of baby (“bébé“) because she makes it sound like an alien, unfamiliar word even though she has two adult children of her own.

5. Kelso Makes a Not-So-Grand Entrance — That ’70s Show

On a holiday episode of That ’70s Show, Kelso (Ashton Kutcher) leaps over a couch to make a grand entrance. However, Kutcher doesn’t stick the landing and ends up ramming his shins into a coffee table, nearly knocking over a punch bowl.

In Kutcher’s defense, he tried to regain his composure and continue with the scene even as other cast members and the studio audience laughed at the clumsy landing. Kutcher revealed that he actually hurt himself in the scene, but reportedly said, “I like making people laugh, and if that helps to make people happy, I’ll hurt myself a little bit.”

6. The One With the Filing Cabinet — Friends

With all 10 seasons of Friends available to stream on Max, a new generation has discovered the NBC sitcom about a group of friends enjoying an unrealistic lifestyle in New York City. The late Matthew Perry plays Chandler Bing, often the voice of reason on the show.

In season four episode three, Chandler finds himself without pants and handcuffed to a filing cabinet in a scene opposite Rachel Green (Jennifer Aniston). When Perry yanks on the filing cabinet drawer and it smacks him in the head, the look of surprise is genuine on his face because he didn’t expect it to happen. Even though Aniston breaks character and laughs, the showrunners kept the unexpected little moment.

7. Dwight’s Exercise Ball — The Office

The mockumentary sitcom The Office follows the employees at the Scranton, Pennsylvania branch of the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company. The show ran for nine seasons between 2005 and 2013.

In the season two episode titled “Performance Review,” Dwight’s (Rainn Wilson) constant yammering about his new “fitness orb” pushes Jim (John Krasinski) to the breaking point. Jim gets up and stabs the exercise ball with scissors after asking Dwight how much it cost. Although the ball was supposed to deflate slowly, Krasinski stabbed the fitness orb along a seam, causing it to burst and deflate immediately. This hilariously jarring, borderline-violent moment and Wilson’s subsequent laughing fit remained in the episode.

8. Leslie Pours Milkshake in Her Sugar — Parks and Recreation

Improv goddess Amy Poehler plays a mid-level bureaucrat named Leslie Knope on Parks and Recreation. In addition to her hometown of Pawnee, Leslie also seems to love sugar.

In one episode opposite Aubrey Plaza, Poehler pours her milkshake into a sugar container instead of vice versa, which would also be unnecessary but less weird. Whether intentional or unintentional, the silly milkshake mix-up adds a little improv ingenuity to the scene and it remained in the episode.

9. The Starbucks Cup — Game of Thrones

Game of Thrones‘ Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) has many names: the Dragon Queen, Bride of Fire, Slayer of Lies, Breaker of Chains, and… Keeper of the Sacred Starbucks Cup?

Before season eight episode four first aired, no one working in production noticed the Starbucks coffee cup sitting in front of Daenerys in Winterfell’s main hall. Fans were quick to make Internet memes and poke fun at the forgotten disposable cup that looked laughably out of place in the otherwise medieval setting.

Although the stealthy Starbucks cup made it to air and millions saw the blooper, it was later digitally removed. The final season of Game of Thrones already disappointed fans, so there was no need to preserve “Coffeegate” to add insult to injury.

10. The One With the Bagpipes — Friends

Friends was on the air for 10 seasons between 1994 and 2004, so there were several episodes during which unexpected things happened that remained in the final cut.

In season 7 episode 15, Ross (David Schwimmer) tries to play the bagpipes, which sounds like animals dying. Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) is so caught off guard by the agonizing sound of strained bagpipes that she can barely hold in her laughter, but she really loses it when Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow) is invited by Ross to “sing along” and she starts screeching.

11. Greg Brady Stoned — The Brady Bunch

The Brady Bunch were a wholesome family, but they were played by actors very different from the characters that they portrayed.

In one episode, Barry Williams — who plays the eldest son, Greg — got an unscheduled call to set after getting stoned. In the scene, you can see Williams’ bloodshot eyes as he struggles to remember his lines and infamously blurts, “far… out.” Although Williams later said that he was “having a ball,” he admits that he “just stays sober” on sets now because his acting is better.

12. Charlie’s Uncle Jack Meets the Lawyer — It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia is known for its off-script moments when real comedy magic happens.

In one scene in which Uncle Jack (Andrew Friedman) meets the lawyer, Friedman’s deadpan portrayal of Uncle Jack is so awkward that it’s difficult to discern scripted lines from improv. The rest of the cast, especially Glenn Howerton as Dennis, struggle to keep straight faces as the scene unfolds like a slow-moving train wreck.

13. The Couch Incident — The Haunting of Hill House

Mike Flanagan’s supernatural drama series The Haunting of Hill House is loosely based on the 1959 novel of the same name.

The horror series is known for its long, single-take sequences and scary scenes. In one episode, Theodora (Kate Siegel) falls to the floor after attempting to sit on the arm of the couch. Instead of cutting the blooper and reshooting the entire sequence, Siegel remains in character and continues with the single take. That’s scary-good acting on the fly right there.

14. Haley’s Upside-down Phone — Modern Family

The sitcom Modern Family follows three families interconnected by Jay Pritchett (Ed O’Neill), his son Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson), and Jay’s daughter Claire (Julie Bowen).

In an unforgettable moment, Haley Dunphy (Sarah Hyland) tries to have an emotional conversation on her cell phone in a car but is seen holding the phone upside down. Since the character is portrayed as a scatterbrain anyway, the blooper worked and remained in the final cut.

15. Thor and Dr. Jones — The Big Bang Theory

One of the geekiest moments ever on the geeky show The Big Bang Theory is when Howard (Simon Helberg) prepared for his big comic book store musical debut with the song “Thor and Dr. Jones” about the Marvel character and Indiana Jones.

As Howard earnestly belts out the goofy lyrics, Penny (Kaley Cuoco) let out a little giggle while sitting on the couch. Helberg really sold the nerd anthem, which sticks in your head longer than you might want.