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Performances and shows that were infinitely improved by something going wrong

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J

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Pretty much the foundation of every blooper reel, some of the best tv events were caused by something going wrong. The bigger and more serious the show, the funnier it was. And you got the sense you were witnessing a 1-in-a-million version of the show that only got to exist by chance.

My personal favourite is from the live theatre version of Bottom (UK slapstick tv show). The setup is that Richie and Eddie have been stranded on a desert island for a year, though the shortage of food and drink doesn't seem to be affecting Eddie. Now Richie has been poisoned and Eddie magics up an antidote from a mystery stash.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eFDHByz4m0&t=35m18s

The way the entire thing is given away in one simple visual gag, the undeniability that Rik Mayall has seen it and how he corpses for about 6 minutes.
 
Depending on who you talk to...

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I went to see Fifty Shades Of Grey with my girlfriend on Valentines Day. The whole time there was noise from the front of the theater like someone was talking on their cell phone. Like, it wasn't yelling, just clearly not trying to be quiet. We couldn't make out what was being said, just a man's voice going on and on. About 20 minutes into the movie, I figured it out. There was someone with a visual impairment watching a movie, so they had the recording playing that tells you what's happening on screen. So everytime the guy in the movie took of his shirt, you'd hear "Christian takes off his shirt." Thing is, I was the only one who figured this out. The people sitting near me did not, scoffed a lot, got angry, yelled "hang up the phone", went to the ushers, and finally went down to confront the guy. More than one woman did it, and each returned very sheepishly. I spent the rest of the movie laughing along as this recording dictated the sex scenes and a bunch of moms felt bad for accosting in a blind guy. It's the only thing that made watching that movie bearable.

Also, the chairs were recliners, so I guess there were two good things.
 
There were some great moments of this in Seinfeld.

I specifically remember from the end of The Parking Garage, that when they finally get the air conditioning unit into the back of the car, first of all, because Michael Richards insisted on carrying a real AC for authenticity, he banged his head on the trunk roof when he puts it in. It fits exactly how you think Kramer would have done it.

Secondly, when they try to start the car to pull away, the car won't start. That was an accident - the intention really was to have them drive off the set. If you look closely you can see Julia Louis-Dreyfus laughing her head off in the car. Again, it makes the scene far funnier.
 
backflip10019 said:
A classic.
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Yeah I was gonna post that as well (Ashlee Simpson getting busted lip syncing on SNL, for anyone who hates non-descriptive YouTube links).

It was such a great clusterfuck; Ashlee looking confused before finally realizing she was busted, then panicking and having no idea what to do so she dances like an idiot for a few seconds before leaving the stage, while the band keeps playing for the hell of it. Then at the end of the show she tries to play it off by blaming the band for playing the wrong song, as if she intended to sing the same song twice (they already did Pieces of Me earlier in the show)
 
One of the best shows I've ever seen was Ween in Edmonton, Alberta in 2004. Gene Ween was so fucked up. He would leave the stage at least once per song and come back more and more fucked up. They just destroyed, but you could tell he was just brinking on OD'ing. They came out for the encore and Gene could barely walk up to the mic. They started the encore with Poopship Destroyer, which I don't need to tell the Ween fans here is a pretty big deal, and Gene could not get it together enough to start that song, at which point Dean starts playing LMLYP, which again, Poopship > LMLYP :D....that song lasted about 60 seconds before Gener knocked over Glen's (keyboardists) entire rig and the show was over and I had experienced one of the greatest rock shows I could ever imagine.

The next night was slightly better, but that was only because I was somehow making out with three different chicks all in the front row and Ween was playing my requests, and yeah, I totally fingered a chick right in front of Gene Ween.
 
Alavard said:
There were some great moments of this in Seinfeld.

I specifically remember from the end of The Parking Garage, that when they finally get the air conditioning unit into the back of the car, first of all, because Michael Richards insisted on carrying a real AC for authenticity, he banged his head on the trunk roof when he puts it in. It fits exactly how you think Kramer would have done it.

Secondly, when they try to start the car to pull away, the car won't start. That was an accident - the intention really was to have them drive off the set. If you look closely you can see Julia Louis-Dreyfus laughing her head off in the car. Again, it makes the scene far funnier.
Click to expand...

These things were exactly what I was thinking of when I came into the thread, they talk some about it in some extra material right? I often wonder how much of Kramer's crazy movements such as falls etc are improvised, went "wrong" and such.
 
bchamba said:
The hospital explosion in Dark Knight was supposed to have gone off as soon as Joker hit the button
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This is untrue. Very common misinformation. It was planned to the second.

Edit: I can't find the timecode where they discuss it right now, but here are some quotes.

We rehearsed endlessly with Heath that morning. We walked him out, got him to do exactly what he was going to do, Chris Corbould [special effects supervisor] calling the explosions, where they would take place. We rehearsed it, I think, about twelve times.
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"Chris [Caldwell] and his guys working very closely with the demolition team - they were able to come up with a scanario in which Heath could actually be walking out of the building. Because, what Chris worked out is if we put in a little beat where the first set of explosions stops as if something's gone wrong and the Joker just takes a second to look around, surprised like the audience is surprised, then the major demolition comes in and he jumps straight into the school bus. In that way he was able to come up with a practical scenario in which we could actually take a principal actor, walk him out of a building that's about to be destroyed, and literally drop the building to the ground."
Click to expand...
 
Goldenroad said:
One of the best shows I've ever seen was Ween in Edmonton, Alberta in 2004. Gene Ween was so fucked up. He would leave the stage at least once per song and come back more and more fucked up. They just destroyed, but you could tell he was just brinking on OD'ing. They came out for the encore and Gene could barely walk up to the mic. They started the encore with Poopship Destroyer, which I don't need to tell the Ween fans here is a pretty big deal, and Gene could not get it together enough to start that song, at which point Dean starts playing LMLYP, which again, Poopship > LMLYP :D....that song lasted about 60 seconds before Gener knocked over Glen's (keyboardists) entire rig and the show was over and I had experienced one of the greatest rock shows I could ever imagine.

The next night was slightly better, but that was only because I was somehow making out with three different chicks all in the front row and Ween was playing my requests, and yeah, I totally fingered a chick right in front of Gene Ween.
Click to expand...

This is easily the best thing I've read on Gaf in years.
 
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