Mistakes that made the final edit

[lgpmachine]

My brother and I regularly used to debate whether Eddie struggling to serve mashed potato to Helen Lederer's character in the Bottom episode 'Digger' was a planned joke or not.  He was sure that it was a piece of deliberate shtick, whereas I maintain that it was simply a mistake that was left in the broadcast episode.

Another example I can think of is John Cleese making a complete hash of opening a wine bottle in 'The Hotel Inspectors' episode of Fawlty Towers, with the end result being far better than if they'd done another take for it.

Are there any other notable examples of this?

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

When Robert Gillespie fluffed a line about "fixed teeth" in an episode of popular 70s ITV sitcom " Keep It In The Family". It was very noticeable, and he made a reference to it afterwards. His tv wife, Pauline Whatserface, St. Helen's born lass, also played Reggie Perrin's wife, gave a knowing smile as herself rather as her character right after Bobby boy said it.

Bit obscure that one, but it fits the remit of this thread.

[zomgmouse]

The Big Bang Theory

[dead-ced-dead]

My brother and I regularly used to debate whether Eddie struggling to serve mashed potato to Helen Lederer's character in the Bottom episode 'Digger' was a planned joke or not.  He was sure that it was a piece of deliberate shtick, whereas I maintain that it was simply a mistake that was left in the broadcast episode.

Another example I can think of is John Cleese making a complete hash of opening a wine bottle in 'The Hotel Inspectors' episode of Fawlty Towers, with the end result being far better than if they'd done another take for it.

Are there any other notable examples of this?

I've wondered the same thing.

There are several moments in Fawlty Towers where the sets wobble and Cleese covers it by doing the "checking the walls" schtick where he'll tap the walls. He's very good at covering this.

[ajsmith2]

Also from Bottom, in 'Hole' when Eddie has to use his emergency bitter to put out a fire, and then says 'I will never, ever forget you for this!!!!'. Surely that was meant to be 'never forgive you'?

[Magnum Valentino]

Two tiny wee dialogue flubs in Alan Partridge - Michael saying "you don't know t...Bono" and Alan telling Glen Ponder he gave him his "brig break".

[BeardFaceMan]

My brother and I regularly used to debate whether Eddie struggling to serve mashed potato to Helen Lederer's character in the Bottom episode 'Digger' was a planned joke or not.  He was sure that it was a piece of deliberate shtick, whereas I maintain that it was simply a mistake that was left in the broadcast episode.

Do you mean the bit where he's got mashed potato on the ladel and he can't get it off on to the plate? That was planned, you can see him doing the same thing in the outtakes.

Lots of instances of Mac corpsing are left in It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia.

[Brundle-Fly]

The very end of this Monty Python sketch. Chapman and Jones get distracted by some knocking, both look down and Terry has to repeat his last line. Was this just a deliberate planned bit of wilful Python oddness or a minor glitch?

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4ukxcl

[Gurke and Hare]

The very end of this Monty Python sketch. Chapman and Jones get distracted by some knocking, both look down and Terry has to repeat his last line. Was this just a deliberate planned bit of wilful Python oddness or a minor glitch?

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4ukxcl

Wrong link, or a joke's flown way over my head.

[Echo Valley 2-6809]

Also Python, Cleese in the TV series version of the Cheese Shop sketch mentions Rogue Herries by Horace Walpole. In stage and LP versions it's correctly Hugh Walpole.

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

Eric Idle mistakenly says " they've got toy guns" in that sketch that introduces The Colonel in that episode of MPFC  , but quickly corrects himself.

Michael Palin has a wry smile and near- chuckle  to himself as Constable Pan- Am in that courtroom sketch in that " Njorl's Saga" episode of MPFC when that actual person all bandaged up is being off- camera- like replaced with a dummy figure.

Cleese and Chapman both dying to laugh in that MPFC Penguin on the telly sketch just after Chapman shouted " Burma!"

[Ron Maels Moustache]

There's an odd one in the Sykes episode "Uncle", when John Le Mesurier pops up for his cameo right near the end. As he's stepping over an inebriated Roy Kinnear on his way out he inexplicably says "Shall I do that again, then? Thank-you very much, thank-you for that" like he'd thought they'd finished the take, but then he just carries on and finishes the scene in character.

Given that it's Le Mes in the early seventies, he was probably three sheets to the wind, but it is one of those peculiar things that you not notice when you've noticed it.

[St_Eddie]

Two tiny wee dialogue flubs in Alan Partridge - Michael saying "you don't know t...Bono" and Alan telling Glen Ponder he gave him his "brig break".

Also; in the scene where Alan is describing the opening to The Spy Who Loved Me in series 2 of I'm Alan Partridge, Coogan says "what, a whole sumbarine?!" (instead of 'submarine').

[dead-ced-dead]

Also from Bottom, in 'Hole' when Eddie has to use his emergency bitter to put out a fire, and then says 'I will never, ever forget you for this!!!!'. Surely that was meant to be 'never forgive you'?

That one's always bugged me.

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

Also; in the scene where Alan is describing the opening to The Spy Who Loved Me in series 2 of I'm Alan Partridge, Coogan says "what, a whole sumbarine?!" (instead of 'submarine').

Amelia Bulmore the actress is clearly enjoying herself in that scene, under smokescreen subterfuge- type thing of pretending to play Sonja admiring Alan, in comparison to the underrated Felicity Montagu pulling all the right Lynn- like strained expressions of not completely following Alan's commentary, but breaking out into approving smiles when she can see how enthused Alan is in his descriptions.

[lankyguy95]

Cassandra was meant to give birth.

[lankyguy95]

This scene from The Office US, the ball was meant to slowly deflate. John Krasinski pierced the seam and it burst. You can see Krasinski running out of shot quickly to not ruin the take by laughing.

https://youtu.be/drpNPMPqdtI

[Echo Valley 2-6809]

Also; in the scene where Alan is describing the opening to The Spy Who Loved Me in series 2 of I'm Alan Partridge, Coogan says "what, a whole sumbarine?!" (instead of 'submarine').

I've always thought that was deliberate on Coogan's part - like he's reverting to his inner child and saying chimbley instead of chimney; or that it's just along the lines of Alan's occasional Spoonerisms.

[fucking ponderous]

My fucking wife has an ass in her cock in the driveway

[Dusty Substance]

Mentioned this before on a similar thread but it's worth repeating and is one of my favourite go-to clips to make me laugh.

Richard Wilson* corpsing on Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dm4kxu_R7X4

(*This is what a 42 year old looked like in 1978)

[Dusty Substance]

Cleese and Chapman both dying to laugh in that MPFC Penguin on the telly sketch just after Chapman shouted " Burma!"

Is that the same sketch where one of them says "Intercourse the telly"?

[Autopsy Turvey]

The very end of this Monty Python sketch. Chapman and Jones get distracted by some knocking, both look down and Terry has to repeat his last line. Was this just a deliberate planned bit of wilful Python oddness or a minor glitch?

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4ukxcl

Is that link just a deliberate planned bit of wilful Python oddness or a minor glitch?! I presume it's going to be the end of Working Class Playwright, when Terry is saying "It could express a vital theme of our age"? We're meant to believe the knocking is coming from Palin's continuity announcer in the room downstairs (he interacts with them in the next scene). Surely it's just an early Palin/Jones attempt to cement the idea that these sketches are interconnected and share a physical space as well as a cerebral one. Unless it was another sketch entirely?

Chapman makes a few minor drunk flubs, "My Jove" is a favourite, but the most pleasing mistake that made the edit in Python is when Palin is commentating on the Picasso Bike Ride, he mentions a shortcut via "Gomslake and Peashall", while the map onscreen gives the correct names Peaslake and Gomshall.

I've always thought that was deliberate on Coogan's part - like he's reverting to his inner child and saying chimbley instead of chimney; or that it's just along the lines of Alan's occasional Spoonerisms.

There's no way sumbarine isn't deliberate. Might as well say Coogan accidentally mispronounced Dracula as 'Draclia', or Tony Robinson mispronounced 'hospital' as 'hostipal' but it got a laugh so they left it in.

Loads of Hancocks, especially the one where his furniture collapses 10 minutes too early, but the show had no scope for retakes so it's not as many as all that really.

[St_Eddie]

I've always thought that was deliberate on Coogan's part - like he's reverting to his inner child and saying chimbley instead of chimney; or that it's just along the lines of Alan's occasional Spoonerisms.

There's no way sumbarine isn't deliberate. Might as well say Coogan accidentally mispronounced Dracula as 'Draclia', or Tony Robinson mispronounced 'hospital' as 'hostipal' but it got a laugh so they left it in.

I don't agree.  I think it's a genuine flub.

Whereas, a purposeful and very much scripted mix up of words which I really like can be found in Fawlty Towers. "Look, it's perfectly Sybil. Simple's not well..."

[Noodle Lizard]

I remember this bit in Friends feeling a bit odd, so it didn't surprise me to learn it was a genuine flub they improvised around.

[Phoenix Lazarus]

Mentioned this before on a similar thread but it's worth repeating and is one of my favourite go-to clips to make me laugh.

Richard Wilson* corpsing on Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dm4kxu_R7X4

(*This is what a 42 year old looked like in 1978)

I swear I haven't checked on that link before typing this, but it's the one where he's the council inspector who partly falls through a chair he's sat on, isn't it?

[easytarget]

I remember this bit in Friends feeling a bit odd, so it didn't surprise me to learn it was a genuine flub they improvised around.

Yeah, that joke is a bit different from their usual stuff.
That *take* wasn't improv though? It's perfectly shot (on multiple cameras) and has 5 actors not talking over each other.

[Noodle Lizard]

Yeah, that joke is a bit different from their usual stuff.
That *take* wasn't improv though? It's perfectly shot (on multiple cameras) and has 5 actors not talking over each other.

Four-camera sitcoms like that are shot live in front of an audience with multiple cameras (four, usually), which would keep running even if the scene was completely blown and had to be reset. I imagine the actors tried to run with it so they wouldn't have to do a reset.

[Wet Blanket]

Four-camera sitcoms like that are shot live in front of an audience with multiple cameras (four, usually), which would keep running even if the scene was completely blown and had to be reset. I imagine the actors tried to run with it so they wouldn't have to do a reset.

There does seem something about it that seems rehearsed though. It doesn't feel like it has the same spontaneity of a genuine out take. I can believe that Perry flubbed his lines and the rest of the cast took the piss in a similar way, but then they filmed it again for a more polished result. There are blooper reels where cast members fuck up take after take (I'm thinking that clip of Elaine and George's dad in Seinfeld where she can't stop corpsing) so it can't be that much of a big deal 'resetting'.

Also I wonder what the original follow up was supposed to be.

[BeardFaceMan]

I don't agree.  I think it's a genuine flub.

Whereas, a purposeful and very much scripted mix up of words which I really like can be found in Fawlty Towers. "Look, it's perfectly Sybil. Simple's not well..."

It's a common Partridge quirk, recently he was calling From The Oasthouse a codpast, he quite often uses spoonerisms where you wouldn't expect them to be using words you wouldn't expect. This Time... had more than a few random spoonerisms thrown in.

[An tSaoi]

Village Idiot sketch. Cleese is in bed with two women. "I may be an idiot, but I'm no fool."
He pauses for a moment, then claps his hands together and says "Right!" as if to say "The take's over, let's get out".

At around 4 mins.

Surely a mistake?

As an aside, it's really hard to find Python clips now. They've really purged a lot from YouTube.