Breaking Character - On Television

On Television

Andy Kaufman had an infamous appearance on Fridays where he broke character in the middle of a sketch, prompting fellow cast member Michael Richards to grab the cue cards and throw them on a table in front of Andy. A fight also erupted on camera before the show cut to commercial. It was later revealed that this was a gag prearranged by Kaufman and the show's producers in collusion with Richards, although not everyone on set was aware it was a joke.

Harvey Korman was infamous for breaking character on The Carol Burnett Show when he would start laughing during sketches, usually due to the antics of Tim Conway, who would deliberately try to crack Korman up.

In Fawlty Towers, John Cleese's antics could cause others to break character. In particular, "The Wedding Party" features an exceptionally long tirade by Cleese as Basil Fawlty, during which several other actors and actresses can be seen breaking character as they laugh.

In the British version of The Office, Stacey Roca's character can be seen laughing at Ricky Gervais when he performs his charity dance.

A sketch on British sketch show A Bit of Fry & Laurie had an instance of breaking character. The sketch involved Stephen Fry playing a journalist who interviews a racecar driver played by Hugh Laurie and becomes increasingly infuriated by the whiny, self-pitying attitude he displays even though he has just won a race. The sketch ended, as was not unusual on A Bit of Fry & Laurie, with Fry's character punching Laurie's in the face. In this instance his fist actually connected, and although Laurie is knocked out of frame, Fry can be seen reacting with shock and then covering his face to hide a grin.

Many instances of breaking character occurred on Saturday Night Live, such as a sketch where Christina Applegate and David Spade could not stop laughing at Chris Farley's motivational speaker character, Matt Foley, as well as the band members in the "More Cowbell" sketch reacting to Will Ferrell's antics. Jimmy Fallon often broke character, which became one of his trademarks. Michael Jordan broke character by laughing during a Stuart Smalley (Al Franken) sketch as he attempted to say the line, "I don't have to be a great basketball player." Peyton Manning hosted an episode in which there was a sketch involving Will Forte playing a basketball coach who began to dance flamboyantly to "Casino Royale" by Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass in order to pump up the team. The team (who were played by Manning, Kenan Thompson, Bill Hader, Andy Samberg, Jason Sudeikis and Fred Armisen) all tried to hold in their laughter, but they all ended up cracking. Another SNL incident was on the first episode involving a sketch of the cast members in bee costumes. In the following episode, the cast members come out with their costumes on, only to have Paul Simon tell them that the sketch was cut. Bill Hader often breaks character while performing as his popular character, Stefon.

In Blackadder Goes Forth, Stephen Fry groaned whenever he sat down, to give the impression that General Melchett had piles. In the episode "General Hospital" Melchett sits next to Captain Blackadder and Nurse Mary and groans, forcing Rowan Atkinson (Blackadder) to hide a smile.

In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Symbiosis," as the cargo bay doors close on her last appearance in the episode, Denise Crosby breaks character and waves at the camera. This episode is her last appearance as a series regular (her character Tasha Yar dies in the next episode, "Skin of Evil"), so she wanted to "wave bye-bye" to her fans.

In the Doctor Who episode "The Feast of Steven," actor William Hartnell breaks character to wish the audience a merry Christmas, with actors Peter Purves and Jean Marsh also breaking character, erupting in laughter. The Christmas address was scripted, but the laughter was not. In episode 5 of the Doctor Who story Frontier In Space, there is a scene in which the Master (Roger Delgado) leads captive Jo Grant (Katy Manning) through a rocky terrain. Despite his typically soulless nature, the Master audibly tells Jo to "be careful down here" – an out-of-character statement from Delgado to aid Manning, who is very nearsighted.

The members of Monty Python's Flying Circus could occasionally be seen trying not to laugh during sketches, most noticeably during the "Burma" or "Exploding Penguin" sketch, where Graham Chapman suppresses laughter while listening to the "death of Mary, Queen of Scots" on the radio, and later almost causes John Cleese to crack up when he shouts the line, "Intercourse the penguin!" Cleese can also be seen reacting to Chapman shouting the famous "Burma" line, which was entirely unscripted, by looking around as if to ask what to do to the filming crew, before carrying on with the sketch. Self-referential character breaks were also often written into the sketches themselves, with characters suddenly deciding that a sketch had become "too silly" to continue.

On The Daily Show, there have been countless instances of Jon Stewart or one of the correspondents losing it during a segment. The most infamous example was a piece on an allegation of a homosexual relationship involving Prince Charles and the British tabloids' shameless use of innuendo and euphemisms to spread the rumor while avoiding libelous statements. The segment had Stephen Colbert "reporting" from Britain and explaining, in terms laden with homoerotic imagery, that it would be journalistically irresponsible to go into detail about the story. He then peeled a banana and took a huge bite of it in imitation of fellatio, causing himself to smile and Stewart to begin giggling off screen. By the end of the segment, Colbert—normally one of the most composed of the show's correspondents—was laughing so hard he could barely speak.

On Colbert's own show The Colbert Report, he has made numerous character breaks when performing alone, giggling over things such as his own suggestion of "Filliam H. Muffman" as a tabloid nickname for the relationship of William H. Macy and Felicity Huffman; a news story about a giant inflatable dog turd that escaped its moorings and wrought destruction in England; and various prop malfunctions, including a condom he blew up and then accidentally popped and a bottle of Manischewitz spilled behind his "news" desk.

Mila Kunis constantly broke character on That 70's Show as Jackie Burkhart. During humorous scenes where the characters are supposed to be concerned or upset, Kunis can constantly be seen giggling.

On the soap opera General Hospital, actor Steve Burton broke character once during the aftermath of Spinelli and Maxie's wedding. When the groom takes off his wife's garter, he makes a high-pitched, cheering sound as he waves the garter in the air. Burton can be seen turning his head away to avoid being seen laughing, as his character is supposed to be stoic. Actor Bradford Anderson broke character in 2010, when his character was throwing a welcome home party for Jason, and had put up letters that spelled Welcome Home. The "M" soon fell of the wall, and when Burton, as his character, pointed this out, Anderson can be seen slipping out of character for a moment, not knowing how to respond to Welcome Hoe.

During a scene in the 1999 comedy "Life", the characters Claude and Ray (played by Martin Lawrence and Eddie Murphy respectively) are forced to stand atop boxes of beer bottles. During the scene, Claude mentions to Ray that one of his toes slipped into one of the bottles. This actually happened during the take, and Eddie Murphy's laughter during the incident was genuine. But Lawrence remained in character and turned to Murphy and asked him (as Claude) what he was laughing at. Murphy can clearly be seen trying to compose himself.