27 Hilarious Moments Where Actors Made Other Actors Break Character On Set, And The Director Kept It In

1.In Wayne's World, at one point, Dana Carvey, as Garth, asks Mike Myers' Wayne if he's ever found Bugs Bunny as a girl attractive. This was an ad-lib, and Myers' guffawing laughter is real.

Watch the scene here:

2.One hilarious scene from That '70s Show sees the girls bring Kitty to a strip club. Mila Kunis cannot stop laughing during the scene. From the bloopers (at 0:25), it appears the laughter wasn't scripted — it was a blooper that was kept partly in. Kunis also appears to try to hide her face at the end.

Watch the scene here:

3.Ludacris once revealed that it was his suggestion for the Rock to say this line in Fast & Furious 6, but he didn't think Dwayne would do it. When he did, he spit out his drink and laughed in genuine surprise and glee.

Watch the moment here:

4.Similarly, in The Fate of the Furious, The Rock and Jason Stratham were not meant to laugh while trading insults in the scene below. But The Rock's line about a toothbrush was so funny that both broke character, with The Rock confirming over X (formerly Twitter) that Stratham "completely broke character. It's the fun of our real life chemistry."

Watch the scene here:

5.In this scene from The Vampire Diaries, where Caroline laughs at Nora's old-timey dress, Candice Accola's laugh is genuine. Showrunner Julie Plec revealed that first AD Tony Griffin was actually pulling a prank on Accola, walking out in the dress instead—Accola's response was to him.

Watch the scene (at 2:14) here:

6.Robin Williams was known for improvising, so it was no surprise that he did so during Good Will Hunting. In one of the most memorable scenes, Williams' character talks about his late wife and reveals she used to fart in her sleep. The dialogue was improvised, and Matt Damon's laughter was genuine. It even seems like the camera operator is laughing as the camera appears to wobble.

Watch the scene here:

7.This line was scripted, but Bob Odenkirk's delivery in this Better Call Saul scene was so funny that the actor playing Kim, Rhea Seehorn, burst out laughing. In Season 2, after Saul uses Kim's finger to brush his teeth, he says, "Wait till you see what I floss with," which causes Kim to laugh. Answering a fan on Twitter, Seehorn said her laugh was real and that she laughed at the line every single take.

I can't find the scene online, but it's around 31 minutes into Season 2, Episode 1. You can watch the show on Netflix.

8.It doesn't look like Seth Rogen ever confirmed this, but you can clearly see him trying not to laugh throughout this scene from This Is The End, where Danny McBride and James Franco argue about the magazine, but the most obvious moment is at the end when you can see Rogan's shoulders shaking.

Watch the clip here:

9.Ethan Hawke revealed that the scene where his character lectures his kids on sex education in Boyhood was genuinely awkward, given how long he'd known the actors playing his kids. Many of the lines were improvised, and the uncomfortable laughter was real.

I can't find the scene online, but it's about an hour and seven minutes into Boyhood, which you can watch on the Roku channel.

10.This is a small moment, but in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, you can see Charlie start to laugh as Dennis keeps refusing the papers he tries to give him. "Right at the very end, I hand one to you, and your reaction gets me, and I have to look down because I'm laughing," the actor who plays Charlie, Charlie Day, told costar Glenn Howerton on The Always Sunny Podcast. Day wasn't supposed to hand him papers — that was just something he decided to do while filming.

I can't find the scene online, but the moment happens at about 15:20 in Season 5, Episode 6. You can watch the show on Hulu.

11.In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the laughter after Hermione insults Ron for having the "emotional range" of a teaspoon is apparently real. Emma Watson, in particular, appears to lose it as Rupert Grint and Daniel Radcliffe chuckle.

Watch the scene here:

12.On their podcast Office Ladies, Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey revealed that John Krasinski would often break character and laugh on The Office. One of my favorite examples is when Michael accused Toby of being the man who flashed Phyllis and asked him to reveal his penis, leading to a VERY uncomfortable silence, and John Krasinski just about losing it.

Let's take a closer look:

I can't find the scene on YouTube, but it's near the beginning of Season 3, Episode 22.

13.The scene from The Office where Kevin sits on Michael's lap (when he's dressed as Santa) was so funny that multiple cast members lost it. You can see Mindy Kaling get the giggles here.

Let's take a closer look:

You can also see Ed Helms ducking out of frame to hide his laughter. You can see him start to smile, and then, in the next wide shot, he's not there anymore. This was apparently the 30th take because the cast kept laughing.

Watch the scene here:

14.In the scene where Ross plays bagpipes for everyone in Friends, you can actually see Jennifer Aniston breaking character as Phoebe starts singing. In the bloopers, you can see it wasn't just Jen — they all burst out laughing and then struggled to keep it together, but Rachel's laughter was the only one kept in.

Watch the scene here:

15.The same thing happened when Ross played the keyboard, and again, Aniston's reaction was kept in.

You can watch the scene here:

16.Murderville — as an improv comedy — saw plenty of guests breaking character and laughing. But it was rare to see Will Arnett, the main character in every episode, do the same, which is why it was especially funny to see Kumail Nanjiani get him to laugh in the below scene. When Nanjiani started squawking, Will Arnett lost it.

I can't find the scene on YouTube, but it's near the beginning of Season 3, Episode 22.

17.Adam Scott similarly couldn't keep it together in this Parks and Recreation moment when the Eagleton people unveiled their fake park idea, and Leslie told them to leave in a demonic voice. You can see him struggling not to laugh, and the camera quickly zooms in to get him out of the frame.

I can't find the scene on YouTube, but you can watch the episode (Season 5, Episode 8 — the moment is near the end) on Peacock or check out a snippet of the moment here.

18.In the live episode of Will and Grace, the cast broke quite a few times. At one point, Debra Messing and Sean Hayes couldn't stop laughing when talking about Jack being a "woman of quality."

19.They also cracked up onscreen when Jack unveiled his missing eyebrow to Grace.

Watch the scene here:

20.In Pretty Woman, Richard Gere slamming the necklace case on Julia Roberts' hand was not in the script. Director Garry Marshall said it was his suggestion. "I said, 'Richard, hit her with the box! Bang the box on her finger.' And [Roberts] laughed so honestly that we left it in the picture."

You can watch the scene here:

21.On Supernatural, after Bela stole from Dean and Sam again, Jensen Ackles improvised yelling "SON OF A BITCH!" Just before the camera cuts, you can see Jared Padalecki start to crack up.

Watch the scene here:

22.Mark Curry was absolutely hilarious when he guest-starred on The Jamie Foxx Show as a traffic school instructor. He caused the actors to break multiple times. In one example, he slid and almost tripped as he ran toward the front of the room, and a bunch of the actors started laughing. The shot was kept in.

Watch the moment here:

23.Curry even references the laughter in this scene where he trips while walking in, saying, "If one of y'all laugh, you ain't gonna graduate," while Foxx and another actor are clearly losing it.

Watch the moment here.

24.Speaking of Foxx — he flubbed his lines on Live in Front of a Studio Audience, making the whole cast (and the audience) crack up. While this wasn't intentional, Foxx went with it and made the moment funny.

Watch the moment here:

25.While this certainly isn't a comedy, this scene where Ernest clearly misunderstands Mollie insulting him (she calls him a coyote) in Killers of the Flower Moon was a funny improvisation that Scorcese kept in the film. Lily Gladstone's laugh at Ernest's attempt at flirting was real.

Watch the scene here:

26.In an old example, Don Knotts kept laughing during this scene on The Andy Griffith Show — they had to reshoot it 20 times because he couldn't keep a straight face. In the final cut, he keeps it together, but you can see Andy Griffith laughing.

Watch the scene here:

27.And finally, I have to end with my absolute favorite example, which comes from Saturday Night Live. Ryan Gosling could NOT contain himself at Kate McKinnon's lines during this skit about an alien encounter that feels a little ~off~ to McKinnon's character.

It only gets worse as the skit goes on, and Aidy Bryant and Bobby Moynihan struggle not to laugh, too — at this point, Gosling is shaking in his seat.

Watch the skit here:

What's your favorite moment where an actor breaks character and laughs? Let us know in the comments!