It must be hard to be a comedy actor. Not only is it arguably the most difficult art form to perform (especially in front of a live studio audience, where you find out fairly quickly if you've succeeded or failed at your job) you have to maintain a straight face when witnessing some of the funniest TV moments of all time, live and in person.
Most times when actors break, corpse or collapse into giggles are reserved for blooper reels, but sometimes editors have no choice but to include them in the final cut.
Sometimes it's because they had no option, other times it's because the accidental laughter improves the scene.
What follows are examples of both.
1. Seinfeld - Merv Griffin
As any casual search on YouTube will tell you, making Seinfeld was a tough job full of near-constant corpsing.
Just look at this, for example:
And that's just one lead cast member!
So, it should probably come as no surprise that some corpsing made it onto the show, though you'll have to be eagle-eyed to spot it.
The moment comes during 'The Merv Griffin Show' episode, where Kramer sets up his own talk show. Pay close attention to George when Kramer eats / burps in the above video. It's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment, but he definitely breaks.
Michael Richards was apparently frequently annoyed by his castmates chuckling, feeling it ruined his (sometimes very difficult) takes. You can see some evidence below.
2. The Daily Show - Prince Charles
So, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are discussing a (stupid) scandal involving Prince Charles (about a – perfectly normal – gay experience he allegedly once had), in a bit that tonally feels a bit weird in 2017.
The joke starts off being about not being able to report honestly, but the punchline seems to be 'Being gay is super funny, you guys!'
Still, something about the concept seems to tickle Stewart and Colbert, as they both collapse into uncontrollable giggles. Possibly it's the level of innuendo, possibly the lameness of the bit required them to make it appealing by laughing at their own jokes, but whatever it is, it made it to broadcast.
3. Friends - Ross' keyboard
Ross plays the keyboard impossibly badly, his pals pretend it's good (well, except Phoebe, who actually thinks it's good) – even Rachel, who's just been openly laughing at him.
The show played it off like it was Rachel's actual reaction to Ross' keyboard playing, but this moment was all Jennifer Aniston. It doesn't make sense for the scene for her to be laughing, especially as she goes on to say "You should play in public!" (to which Ross' logical reaction should be "Oh yeah? Then why were you laughing at me? This isn't a comedy act, this is MY ART.")
Nope, Aniston definitely corpsed – but it adds to the atmosphere of the moment so much, we're not surprised the editors included it.
4. Whose Line Is It Anyway - Meow
Now, we're going to be honest with you, we don't really get this one. The setup of Whose Line Is It Anyway often leads to corpsing – it's a show based around improvised comedy, after all.
But this moment is different mainly because it's apparently so infectious even the (usually pretty stoic) piano player laughs. And what's so funny? Colin Mochrie saying "Meow" as a punchline (repeatedly).
We're pretty sure you had to be there. Probably.
5. Supernatural - "Son of a bitch!"
Supernatural is beloved by its fans, partly because of the leads' chemistry. Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles clearly like each other, which is part of what made this moment happen.
Pay close attention to the end of the above video – when Jensen bellows "Son of a bitch!" Jared breaks.
It must be one of many moments of corpsing during the filming of this scene, because (despite cutting quickly away from it) they had no choice but to leave it in the edit, which clearly means the two friends couldn't get through the moment without laughing.
6. Monty Python - trial
The Pythons were known for corpsing. In fact, they actively tried to make each other laugh as much as possible, but it didn't often make it to the show itself.
In the above example, Michael Palin slightly loses it when something clearly goes wrong off-camera (listen out for a crash). In the background Terry Gilliam more openly laughs, before we quickly cut to a shot of a dummy to cover what's happened.
When we come back, everyone's miraculously composed themselves.
7. Yes Minister - Who reads the papers?
Literally one of the greatest sitcom scenes in British telly history (if a bit of an in-joke for anyone who doesn't live here) the sequence in which Prime Minister Jim Hacker lists every paper in the UK (at that time), before describing their target audience, is so brilliantly written it's still applicable today.
So, it's probably no wonder Nigel Hawthorne clearly loses it after the speech is delivered, even if he does cover it well. Then, after the Sun punchline, Derek Fowlds clearly dips his head to avoid cracking up. Oh, how we'd love to see every single take of this sequence.
