Line #157 Main/HarpoDoesSomethingFunny


1	%%
2	%% Mod adds statement of image approval by Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1606560271059760600
3	%% Mod also cites previous IP thread for record keeping: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1355853277012015000
4	%% Mod requests that image not be changed or removed without beginning a new thread.
5	%%
6	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/doessomethingfunny.png]]
7	[[caption-width-right:350:[[SelfDemonstratingArticle (Troper adds witty caption here.)]]]]
8	%%
9	%% Mod adds statement of caption approval by cited IP thread and directs further discussions to the Caption Repair thread:
10	%% https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1404492079030138900
11	%%
12	->''"You can always tell a lazy Creator/RobinWilliams movie by the unavoidable scene in which he does a lot of different voices and characters."''
13	-->-- '''Creator/RogerEbert''' reviews ''Film/FathersDay1997''
14
15	[[JustForFun/DescribeTopicHere (Troper describes Harpo Does Something Funny here.)]]
16
17	The script doesn't show the actor's lines, but instead tells the actor to just {{improv}}ise.
18
19	The trope is named after the Creator/MarxBrothers, whose scripts allegedly would frequently leave a note to this effect for Harpo to improvise something. The more formal term "retroscripting" is used to describe a script made up almost entirely of directions like these to allow a mostly improv performance.
20
21	The reason to do this is that some actors are just naturally funnier than anything a scriptwriter can come up with. As such, this is possibly the highest compliment that can ever be paid to a comedian. The only problem is that even if the comedian is hilarious, if such notes are [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools not used well enough]], the resulting scene can be [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment jarring or out of place]]. Sometimes the actor produces huge amounts of improvised material, which can be edited down to the best-fitting parts (with the rest becoming hilarious {{Deleted Scene}}s to add to the DVD BonusMaterial).
22
23	Compare TheCastShowOff, ThrowItIn, AudienceParticipation, and OfficialFanSubmittedContent. See also {{Corpsing}}, which is always a risk when the other actors need to be able to keep a straight face. Not to be confused with TropeName, which has some overlap with this in the scripting part.
24
25	----
26	!!Examples:
27	[[foldercontrol]]
28
29	[[folder:Anime]]
30	* ''Anime/GhostStories'' got a GagDub from Creator/ADVFilms very much like this; they threw out nearly all of the original script and largely improvised each scene. As they only had one recording booth, the voice actors were called in one at a time to record their scenes, and whoever got into the booth first got to set the tone and pace of the scene. The others then had to follow in their footsteps, taking as much creative liberty as they could.
31	* The anime adaptation of ''Literature/{{Konosuba}}'' owes many of its jokes (including the popular "Yes, I'm Kazuma" gag) to notes like this, when Creator/StudioDEEN realized how funny the voice actors were (Creator/JunFukushima in particular).
32	* In-universe: ''Anime/HighSchoolStarMusical'', the main characters get a script like this as a surprise challenge in their acting class. They turn the page and the rest is blank - they have to improv the rest of the story. The resulting scene, and how they play off of each other, establishes their characters while showing early on how clever and aware the writing is about the craft of acting.
33	* In ''Anime/SailorMoon'', Tuxedo Mask's LargeHam superhero persona - specifically his random appearances and convoluted introduction speeches - was not an aspect of the original manga. When asked whether the running gag originated from the scriptwriters or retroactively from the creator herself (Creator/NaokoTakeuchi had a good working relationship with the actors), [[Creator/ToruFuruya his voice actor]] merely stated: "I'm driving".
34	** Weirdly, this situation seems to have become a running theme ''even in other media'', as it lends itself to Mamoru's otherwise typically low-key role in some stories; the [[Theatre/SeraMyu live-action musical]] interpretations frequently hire an older, established actor to play Mamoru with a more noticeable degree of ad-lib in his shorter appearances, especially if he doubles as another minor character.
35	[[/folder]]
36
37	[[folder:Comic Books]]
38	* For the comic crossover ''ComicBook/DCOneMillion'', writer Creator/GrantMorrison sent other writers fairly detailed notes on what the world and plotting of the series were like, often pretty much doing the whole issue for them. For ''ComicBook/{{Hitman}}'', Morrison's sole direction to writer Creator/GarthEnnis was "Garth -- [[BizarroEpisode Do a pisstake.]]"
39	* This was usually what happened when creative teams were working with the "[[Creator/MarvelComics Marvel]] Method", which was born from Creator/StanLee being overworked with deadlines due to having writing duties on multiple titles. Artists are given descriptions of what the writers want the story to be, then given free rein to go nuts with the exact details of what happens. An infamous example was ''ComicBook/TheComingOfGalactus'', which was born from Creator/JackKirby supposedly being given the instruction of "The ComicBook/FantasticFour meet God."
40	* More often than not, comic scripts themselves can be devoid of details other than which characters are showing up in the panel and what they're doing. For example, ''ComicBook/{{Transmetropolitan}}'' artist Darick Robertson referred to an instruction from Creator/WarrenEllis in a script that simply read "Splash Page: Spider walks through the porn district."
41	* Comics from UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks, especially ones by DC, had their stories based on whatever wacky and ridiculous cover an editor came up with and left to the writers/artists to make sense of. This, of course, led to many instances of CoversAlwaysLie and {{Superdickery}}.
42	[[/folder]]
43
44	[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
45	* [[http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/South-Park.html An early script]] for ''WesternAnimation/SouthParkBiggerLongerAndUncut'' had Kenny's dialogue be written as [[TheUnintelligible nothing other than mumbled words]], mostly "rmph", "rm", and "mph", occasionally with other characters RepeatingSoTheAudienceCanHear. The closest we get to anything intelligible is when he gets startled by the flames shooting up from the grounds of Hell and he shouts, "MMLY MMMT!", which is clearly supposed to be "HOLY SHIT!"
46	* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsRainbowRocks'': The freestyling during Snips and Snails' rap was genuine freestyling courtesy of Creator/LeeTockar and Creator/RichardIanCox. It was also [[StylisticSuck supposed to be bad]], so without any kind of prior instruction, lines, or a beat, they came with something on the spot, and it was left in as a perfect example of CringeComedy.
47	* Disney's early full-length movies started out as vague ideas. "Story Men" were then responsible for thinking up sequences that would fit into the narrative and direct storyboard artists to map out their ideas, throwing in the occasional twist, in advance of pitch meetings where Creator/WaltDisney himself would make his own changes (often throwing out weeks' of work in an instant) or suggest putting in a song. It was only at this point that dialogue would start being mapped out, with changes occurring until the very last minute.
48	* ''WesternAnimation/FindingNemo'' had Creator/AlbertBrooks improvise [[DerailedForDetails poorly telling a joke.]] The filmmakers said on the DVD commentary they had a lot of unused audio from different takes, with one shown on the commentary going on for several minutes. Similarly, for the punchline at the end, he improvised several different jokes, which are shown one after the other. Creator/EllenDegeneres also improvised Dory's sleeptalking, with quite a bit also being left out. Brooks was initially annoyed that he had to do his lines in his booth by himself but got over it. Imagine trying to rein in Brooks and Ellen from improvising if they were in the room together?
49	* The Scottish actors in ''WesternAnimation/{{Brave}}'' were given a script, but told that if there was a "more Scottish" way of saying something, they should say that. Kelly Macdonald, the voice of Merida, managed to throw in a reference to ''ComicStrip/TheBroons'' with the line "Jings, crivvens, help ma boab!"
50	* ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory2'': For the scene of Woody walking around Al's collection, admiring all of TheMerch from his show, John Lasseter showed Creator/TomHanks drawings of all of the various items for Hanks to react to in-character.
51	[[/folder]]
52
53	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
54	* The Creator/MarxBrothers did this frequently in their scripts -- although not exactly as the trope name describes it (actual notes were more likely to just say "Business"). Harpo got this most commonly, with Groucho coming in a close second.
55	* According to a DVD commentary of the ''Franchise/{{Saw}}'' series, Creator/TobinBell wrote large parts of Jigsaw's dialogue while they filmed the movies, to the point that scripts from some of the movies would simply include "Insert Tobin Bell dialogue" in dialogue lines said by Jigsaw.
56	* Creator/LaurelAndHardy were masters of improvisation, to the point that their scripts would contain a few pages of notes outlining the general story with the expectation that most of the gags would be improvised on the set. For instance, a script might say, "Stan puts on his shoes," only for the comedy duo to turn it into a hilarious three-minute routine. Because of this, their films were largely shot in-sequence to maintain continuity, since they often had no idea exactly what was going to transpire from one scene to the next. This ensured that if Ollie got an unscripted bucket of water on the head in one scene, he would show up sopping wet in the following scene.
57	** The four-and-a-half-page script for ''Our Wife'' included a line that simply read, "Go for some ad-libbed business about getting Babe [Oliver Hardy] and the girl into the car." This ended up being the longest scene in the entire film.
58	** ''Laurel and Hardy: The Magic Behind the Movies'' by Randy Skretvedt relates the following told by actor Henry Brandon:
59	--->"I said, 'Aren't we going to rehearse?' And Stannie [Stan Laurel] turned to me and said, 'Do you want to ''spoil'' it?' The only things they rehearsed were physical stunts. They never rehearsed dialogue. They would sort of say what they were going to do, but they wouldn't get up and do it physically until the camera was rolling; they wanted to capture the magic for the first time."
60	* Creator/RobinWilliams comedies frequently offered him this leeway, such as in ''Film/GoodMorningVietnam'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}}''. It was a nightmare for some works because Williams was so funny that actors would laugh at ''anything'' he did, which [[{{Corpsing}} they weren't always supposed to]]. Writers of his later films would be very careful writing his stage directions to prevent that sort of thing from happening because this trope gave him the opportunity.
61	** Parts of ''Aladdin'''s script would just say "Robin says something like this:" to allow Williams to improvise. This led to over ten hours of Williams riffing as Genie, much of which couldn't make it into the finished film. Some of it ended up on Blu-ray.
62	** In ''Series/MorkAndMindy'', most scripts after the first few episodes would end up studded with "Robin goes off here". When Creator/JonathanWinters joined the cast, it was often adjusted to "Robin and Jonathan go off here".
63	** The worst was ''Film/TheBirdcage'', where he starred with Creator/NathanLane. Director Creator/MikeNichols realized he had to find a way to rein them in, as they were so funny and so thoroughly into riffing off of each other that they were interfering with the shooting. Nichols eventually had Williams and Lane agree that they could say whatever they wanted in takes, as long as they did one take exactly as written in the script first in every scene.
64	* Creator/JimCarrey:
65	** In an interview during the making of ''Film/MeMyselfAndIrene'', he said, "It's amazing how blank a script will be. It just says 'Jim does something funny.'"
66	** ''Film/{{Sonic the Hedgehog\|2020}}'' was similar, with Carrey remarking that his directions at times were "Here's the room and this is the music, just do something to go with it." This led to some truly hilarious interactions between [[BigBad Dr. Robotnik]] and [[MookLieutenant Agent Stone]], as ''Lee Majdoub'' was able to keep up with Carrey's outbursts with spontaneous acts of ColdHam even when having to react to things like ''Carrey putting his fingers in the man's mouth with zero warning''.
67	* Creator/StanleyKubrick almost ''never'' allowed this, but he did make a few rare exceptions for the exceptional improvisers:
68	** Creator/PeterSellers was allowed to improvise in ''Film/DrStrangelove'', largely because you never tried to pin down Peter Sellers.
69	** Creator/JackNicholson in ''Film/TheShining'' was given only the note, "Jack is not working," from which he derived the scene where he throws a tennis ball around.
70	** Creator/RLeeErmey was originally hired as an advisor to Kubrick for ''Film/FullMetalJacket'', as the film featured a DrillSergeantNasty and Ermey was one in RealLife. But Ermey was so creative in his vitriolic profanity -- which he could keep up for fifteen minutes while being pelted with tennis balls without flinching or repeating a single insult -- that Kubrick cast him as Sgt. Hartman and let him improvise his dialogue. The only thing Kubrick told him to do was keep the phrase "reach-around" (partly because he had never heard it before and was very impressed).
71	** In ''Film/AClockworkOrange'', Kubrick told Creator/MalcolmMcDowell to just sing whatever song he knew, leading him to choose "Singing in the Rain".
72	* A fair amount of the Creator/BobHope[=/=]Music/BingCrosby ''Film/RoadTo'' pictures consisted of this, despite the fact that a script theoretically existed. Dorothy Lamour later described her contribution to the films as "like I was watching a game of tennis."
73	* For his role as Johnny in ''Film/{{Airplane}}'', Stephen Stucker was given the straight lines of the characters around him and was allowed to write his own responses, as discussed in the DVDCommentary.
74	* By the time Film/TheThreeStooges' "schtick" was well-established, scriptwriters found it easier to just write in generic stage instructions such as "Moe punishes Curly" and let the boys work it out on their own. If nothing else, it was easier than trying to describe their chaos in words. Directors varied in their approach; Jules White tended to stick more to the script (but still allowed the Stooges considerable leeway), while Edward Bernds encouraged ad-libbing and got the best performances out of Shemp, who was an excellent ad-libber. As a result, many of the best Shemp shorts ("Brideless Groom", "Who Done It?") were directed by Bernds.
75	* Creator/ChristopherGuest's {{mockumentary}} scripts have been said to contain little more than a description of the setting of the scenes. Guest considers the actors' improvising to be essentially writing the film. He and the creators of ''Film/ThisIsSpinalTap'' unsuccessfully argued to the Writer's Guild that his actors should receive screenwriting credits. Improvising is SeriousBusiness for Christopher Guest.
76	* ''Film/AmericanPie'' writer Adam Herz has said that he likes to simply sketch out what he wants Creator/EugeneLevy to say rather than writing actual dialogue and such.
77	* Much of ''Film/{{Caddyshack}}'' was ad-libbed, most famously Creator/BillMurray's "Cinderella story" scene, which was only in the script as: "Carl hits flowers with a grass whip." Director Creator/HaroldRamis told him to just pretend he was a kid, acting out his sports fantasy. In fact, none of Murray's scenes were scripted; they just let the camera roll on him.
78	* Creator/BillMurray does this a lot. His cameo as Arthur Denton, the masochistic dental patient in ''Film/LittleShopOfHorrors'', was entirely improvised by him. Director Creator/FrankOz noted that with each take, Creator/SteveMartin would always act out all his scripted lines and Murray would always come up with something new. This is why Orin doesn't really engage with anything that Arthur is saying in the scene, because Murray is just making it all up as he goes along and Martin is holding on for dear life.
79	* ''Film/DrinkingBuddies'' didn't have a script. Instead, the actors were told what needed to happen in the scene and just allowed to choose their own words.
80	* The scene in the Czech film ''Císařův Pekař'' where the alchemist explains to the emperor his procedure for making "gold out of plums" (''i.e.'' plum brandy) was ad-libbed; the actor's script only read "speaks in a foreign language."
81	* Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse
82	** In ''Film/IronMan'', a good deal of the script was written like this; not just Tony's lines, but everybody's. The script was just a brief summary of what they needed to say, with the details improvised. This is why the dialogue feels more natural (and also how Creator/RobertDowneyJr was able to retool his character into a DeadpanSnarker). Creator/JeffBridges described the experience as a $200 million college film.
83	** During the filming of ''Film/ThorRagnarok'', Creator/TaikaWaititi encouraged Creator/JeffGoldblum to improvise and have fun with the latter's role as the Grandmaster, resulting in one of the [[PerfectlyCromulentWord Goldblumiest]] characters in recent history.
84	** Creator/TomHolland and Creator/RobertDowneyJr improvised the former's [[spoiler:dusting scene]] in ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar''.
85	* In Creator/RobertAltman's film version of ''Film/{{MASH}}'', the actors read the script once or twice, at the start of filming, and improvised almost all the dialogue, which led to a very naturalistic, documentary feel to the film. Amusingly, the film won an Oscar for Best Screenplay; Altman said in the director's commentary that the tone of the screenplay contributed heavily to the tone of the movie, and praised the screenplay for the quality it brought to the movie, even though the actual lines weren't used in it.
86	* In ''Film/{{UHF}}'', several of Creator/MichaelRichards' scenes are ad-libbed, especially when his character Stanley appears on TV and says and does ridiculous things. The film's star and co-writer Music/WeirdAlYankovic encouraged this by just outlining his scenes and had this to say in the DVD commentary:
87	-->'''Weird Al:''' The great thing about Michael is that you can turn on the camera and tell him to just go nuts for two minutes. Well, here he is, doing just that.
88	* Much of ''Film/TaxiDriver'' was written this way, as director Creator/MartinScorsese wanted to give some of his actors room to improvise. Creator/AlbertBrooks and Creator/HarveyKeitel greatly expanded their roles this way (Keitel only had five lines in the original script before he got working), and Creator/RobertDeNiro's famous "YouTalkinToMe" scene was rendered in the script as, "Travis talks in the mirror."
89	* ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' film trilogy has several examples of these, as revealed in the DVD extras:
90	** Screenwriters Fran Walsh and Phillipa Boyens describe how, for every fight scene, they would simply write something to the effect of "They fight like men," then hand the script over to Creator/PeterJackson to fully block out the scene. The prologue in Mordor at the start of ''[[Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheFellowshipOfTheRing The Fellowship of the Ring]]'' is an example of this. The inversion is with the romance scenes between Aragorn and Arwen; Pete would be very vague and let Fran and Phillipa flesh it out themselves.
91	** Part of the script for ''[[Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheFellowshipOfTheRing The Fellowship of the Ring]]'' in the Mines of Moria read something along the lines of, "The Fellowship run down some stairs." Then Peter Jackson saw a piece of concept art of said stairs with NoOSHACompliance by John Howe and started envisioning an entire action sequence around it. The final result is a five-minute extravaganza with falling rocks, falling chunks of stairs, Orcs firing arrows, Legolas being a badass with his bow, and a line created from whole cloth ("Nobody tosses a dwarf!").
92	* Creator/JackieChan hardly ever scripts his fight scenes, preferring to turn up to the location and see what he can use. This makes his fight scenes famous for their interesting and engaging style -- and also for being incredibly dangerous for Chan, who did his own stunts because when you improvise a fight scene, you can't take many more safety measures than "Try not to kill him."
93	* ''Film/District9'' was almost entirely improvised. Director Creator/NeillBlomkamp had specific ideas for each scene and directed the actors with timing cues for when and where certain actions were to take place, but the actual dialogue and performance for the scene was entirely improvised. They would do several takes, usually without the cameras rolling and often with several different variations on the scene until Neill and the rest of the cast decided that they had a good approach to how the scene should specifically play out; they would then film it with that direction in mind. Neill and the rest of the actors commented in the DVD extras that Sharlto Copley (Wikus) was the undisputed master of this trope.
94	* In a ''Behind the Scenes'' video of ''Film/NightAtTheMuseumBattleOfTheSmithsonian'', it was mentioned that pretty much all of the dialogue in the final battle was improvised, with Creator/BenStiller and Creator/HankAzaria randomly yelling stuff at each other.
95	* In the book ''Gracie: A Love Story'', Creator/GeorgeBurns notes that scripts for movies where he and Creator/GracieAllen played bit parts frequently featured scenes that simply said, "Burns and Allen do four minutes here."
96	* Creator/JamesWoods was often allowed to improvise this way:
97	** When Creator/JohnCarpenter was filming ''[[Film/JohnCarpentersVampires Vampires]]'', he asked Woods to do a take of each scene as it was scripted and allowed him to improvise after that. According to the DVD commentary, a lot of the improvised material (like his speech to Padre about [[OurVampiresAreDifferent the strengths and weaknesses of vampires]]) made it into the final cut.
98	** When Woods was cast as Hades in ''WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}}'', the writers basically threw the script into the air and said, "Screw it." They wrote most of his dialogue this way.
99	* Stunt coordinator for the ''Franchise/StarWars'' prequels Nick Gillard says that the screenplays will often say "and an epic swordfight ensues" for the lightsaber battles that he choreographs. George Lucas himself joked about the same thing: one documentary shows him triumphantly coming out of his office with the finished script for ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'', but admitting, "There's a lot of cheating. There's a lot of 'They fight'."
100	* Averted in ''Film/{{PCU}}'': Jeremy Piven ad-libbed in his audition and assumed he would do the same for the film, but was immediately shut down by the director.
101	* In ''Film/FromDuskTillDawn'', the first scene where the vampires reveal themselves and a massive battle ensues was simply marked in the script as, "All Hell breaks loose." Also, Creator/SalmaHayek's dance as Satanico Pandemonium had no choreographer; Creator/RobertRodriguez just brought her in and let the music move her as it would.
102	* In ''Film/SinCity'', Creator/JessicaAlba requested a choreographer, but Robert Rodriguez did the same thing he did in ''From Dusk Till Dawn'' and told her to just make it up as she went. Strangely enough, a different song was later dubbed over the scene.
103	* While Creator/KevinSmith is notoriously against improvisation, he sometimes jokes about writing "Jay and Silent Bob say something remotely witty" in his earlier scripts. He particularly expressed his annoyance with Creator/BenAffleck and Creator/MattDamon doing a lot of ad-libbing on the set of ''Film/{{Dogma}}'', after having just won the Best Screenplay Oscar for ''Film/GoodWillHunting''. He loosened up with ''Film/ZackAndMiriMakeAPorno'', as much of the cast were experienced improv actors.
104	* In ''Film/{{Hitch}}'', Creator/KevinJames was asked to improvise all of his silly dance moves, and did accordingly ("Q-tip! Q-tip! Throw it away! Throw it away!").
105	* Creator/PeterLorre had a background in improvisational theater and comedy (though he seldom got to play comic roles in Hollywood), and a scene in the 1963 film ''Film/{{The Raven\|1963}}'' seems to be "Creator/VincentPrice and Peter Lorre Do Something Funny with a Box of Hats."
106	* Creator/FrankWelker would often make up noises and dialogue for the creatures he voiced in live-action films such as ''Film/{{Gremlins}}'' and ''Film/MarsAttacks'' where no specific dialogue was written in the scripts.
107	* ''Film/{{Serenity}}'' features an entire conversation between Mal and Inara over video communication that was left unscripted. Creator/JossWhedon couldn't come up with lines he was satisfied with, so he just put in the gist of the conversation and wrote "Something Mal/Inara would say" for the two actors to improvise. He also did this for Mal's famous "Faster would be better!" during the chase scene, which is noteworthy for Creator/NathanFillion improvising a line that was so like what Whedon would write that fans were convinced it had to have been scripted.
108	* The infamous "How am I funny?" confrontation from ''Film/{{Goodfellas}}'' was mostly ad-libbed by Creator/JoePesci, to marvelous effect.
109	* Creator/TommyLeeJones reportedly hated the original script of ''Film/MenInBlack'' and largely made up most of his dialogue on the fly. Will Smith did not know any of the lines beforehand and was often caught off guard by what Jones was saying. The fact that Smith as Agent J couldn't keep up with Jones as Agent K worked well in helping to create the character dynamic between the green newbie MIB agent and the seasoned, hardened veteran agent.
110	* Creator/RebelWilson's character in ''Film/PitchPerfect'' wasn't even in the script. She showed up, auditioned, and the crew said that there was no role that she could fit but they really, really wanted her in the movie. So just about every single line and action she does is made up by her.
111	* Almost all of the voice actors for alien characters in ''Film/UltramanOrbTheMovieLendMeThePowerOfBonds'' improvised their lines.
112	* The doll scene in ''Film/{{Spaceballs}}'' was made like this. Creator/RickMoranis (Dark Helmet) was given the dolls and told to "do something funny." Needless to say, [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments it worked]].
113	* There was no script whatsoever during production on ''Film/TheBlairWitchProject''. The actors were all cast for their improv experience, and instead of a script, they got an outline of the backstory of the titular Blair Witch and were then sent on an eight-day scavenger hunt in Seneca Creek State Park in Maryland. Their directions for the day's shooting would be contained in 35 mm film cans, along with clues to the next location, all while they grew increasingly cranky in real time over the course of the eight days spent alone in the woods, deprived of food during the day, and harassed and spooked by the directors at night -- a dynamic that [[EnforcedMethodActing was fully captured on camera]].
114	* ''Film/WhatWeDidOnOurHoliday'' was made by the creators of ''Series/{{Outnumbered}}'' and used the same trick of getting the kids to ad-lib their own dialogue.
115	* ''Film/GorillaInterrupted'': Due to time constraints, the director wrote a loose, 50-page outline for a film to shoot in seven days. This led to many scenes that relied on the actors simply improvising their lines and finding a way to get to the next scene because they didn't have time to rehearse and deliver extended dialogue. However, one of the four main actors felt uncomfortable improvising and wrote his own version of the script filling all the blank spaces with gags largely inspired by Monty Python. The director ultimately had to reassert his control of the film.
116	* ''Film/TheKingOfComedy'' had Martin Scorsese giving Sandra Bernhard freedom of improvisation given she lacked formal acting training. And given she plays a deranged LoonyFan, it's more like "Harpo Does Something Terrifying".
117	* The entire character of Jesus Quintana in ''Film/TheBigLebowski''. Creator/JohnTurturro agreed to be in the film under the impression that his role was much bigger than the one-scene SpearCarrier it actually was. He was really disappointed to learn otherwise, so Creator/TheCoenBrothers (who are normally very meticulous with their scripts, to the point that things that seem like ad-libs frequently ''aren't'') made it up to him by basically telling him go crazy with the character. The result? A [[CampStraight flamboyant]], [[LargeHam scenery-chewing]], and [[SmallNameBigEgo hyper-arrogant]] bowling player/[[PaedoHunt pederast]] who did six months in Chino for exposing himself to eight-year-olds, dresses in bright neon purple, and seems to be constantly dancing for no reason. Talk about a OneSceneWonder.
118	* In ''Film/TheCrocodileHunterCollisionCourse'', Creator/{{Steve\|Irwin}} and Terri Irwin had no script for their "documentary" sections; instead, their dialogue was completely improvised.
119	* ''Film/CarryOnGirls'': While William's twitching was scripted, Creator/JackDouglas reveals on the DVDCommentary that he was given free rein to do whatever he wanted with it and go as far as possible.
120	* ''Film/KindergartenCop'': In the scene where Kimble (Arnold) asks the kids "Who is your daddy and what does he do?", many of the young actors weren't given lines. Instead they speak about their real parents.
121	[[/folder]]
122
123	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
124	* ''Series/TheDukesOfHazzard'': Much of the physical comedy involving Boss Hogg and Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane was improvised and/or ad-libbed between Sorrell Booke and James Best. The producers had realized the duo's comedic chemistry and Best -- as he once recalled in various interviews -- said that many of their own ideas were better than what was originally written in the script.
125	* In ''Series/{{Cheers}}'', most of Cliff's "little known facts" were improvised by Creator/JohnRatzenberger, with the scripts simply cueing him into his lines. Cliff is also notable because Ratzenberger didn't just improvise his lines, he improvised the ''part'': after unsuccessfully auditioning for the part of Norm, Ratzenberger asked the producers if they had a "know-it-all" character, and made up Cliff on the spot.
126	* ''Series/MorkAndMindy'', as noted above.
127	* In ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'', the [[AlmightyJanitor Janitor's]] dialogue was sometimes left blank (or the script says something along the lines of "Whatever Neil Says") so that Creator/NeilFlynn can just improvise. Most of the outtake reel shows the other actors {{Corpsing}} at Flynn throwing out wildly different dialogue every take.
128	* The scripts of ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'' usually didn't specify the content of Creator/TerryGilliam's linking animations. They'd simply say stuff like "Terry takes over here". The skits, however, were very heavily scripted.
129	* When interviewed about the process of writing ''[[Series/YesMinister Yes (Prime) Minister]]'', Jonathan Lynn reports putting "Paul doesn't have to say this line if he doesn't want to" in the margin of scripts, in recognition of Creator/PaulEddington (who played the title character)'s ability to "[[FacialDialogue act a line with his face]]". See [[http://youtu.be/I9NifqJyDMI this video]] from about 1:18 for a celebrated example.
130	* On ''Series/TheOddCouple1970'' some scripts were like this, allowing Creator/TonyRandall and Creator/JackKlugman to improvise. For example, a script might say "Oscar teaches Felix how to play football."
131	* This is how ''Series/CurbYourEnthusiasm'' is made. The scripts are outlines; they direct the flow of the conversation in fairly specific detail, but the actual lines are left up to the actors, [[RealisticDictionIsUnrealistic to make them sound more like real conversations]], and they're not supposed to think of things to say ahead of time. (Apparently, Richard Lewis was doing this, and Creator/LarryDavid could tell, and now he's not even allowed to work from a script.)
132	* In ''Series/GreenWing'', Stephen Mangan and Creator/MichelleGomez were never given scripts for their scenes together as both were professional improv actors. If a plot point needed to occur, that was all the "script" said, and so for the scenes where Guy walks into Sue's office and nothing plot-relevant happens there was no script at all, such as when Guy tries to talk about love or complains about Jelly.
133	* In the first season of ''Series/TheGoodPlace'', the scenes with Jason talking about his vanity licence plate, his guess about how he died, and Janet's inability to identify a basketball are all improvised - in the bloopers, the two actors say completely different lines every take.
134	* On ''Series/TheCarolBurnettShow'', each week's show was taped twice, once as a dress rehearsal and then again as a "final" performance, both times before a studio audience. Very often the dress rehearsal take of a sketch, which frequently involved adlibbing from cast members such as Tim Conway, was edited in for the actual broadcast. ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qqE_WmagjY Here's]] one good example.)
135	* Original airings of ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' are always live, but sometimes they'll use rehearsal takes for rebroadcasts. However, Creator/LorneMichaels severely discourages improvisation in most cases because the timing on the show is so tight, to the extent of banning guests from the show for doing so. That being said, the writers have often found they can spice up a dicey sketch by adding "[[Creator/KenanThompson KENAN]] reacts" to a page or two.
136	* Creator/DwightSchultz has said one of the scariest things during the filming of ''Series/TheATeam'' is how blank the scripts would often be. This is because Dwight usually came up with the crazy Murdock stuff on his own since the writers sucked at portraying him right until the later seasons.
137	* Creator/ChevyChase, Creator/JoelMcHale, and Creator/DonaldGlover were generally given free rein to improvise on ''Series/{{Community}}''.
138	* Creator/ArtCarney did a lot of [[Series/TheHoneymooners Ed Norton]]-style improvisation in ''Film/TheStarWarsHolidaySpecial''. {{Lampshaded}} by Podcast/RiffTrax.
139	-->'''Bill Corbett:''' [[SarcasmMode Art Carney does something funny... for the next ten minutes.]]
140	* ''Series/{{Reno 911}}'' is all done improvisationally. Scripts set up scenes and indicate plot points; the actors come up with their own dialogue.
141	* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
142	** Some of the Fourth Doctor's stuff was written like this in two particular periods. (Creator/TomBaker was even nicknamed 'Harpo', though this was more for his hairstyle than for this trope.) The first period was during the later Fourth Doctor/Sarah Jane years, where the actors were encouraged to go off script as they were witty and creative people who got on like a house on fire [[MetaCasting playing themselves to some extent]]. Virtually all of their dialogue in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E4TheAndroidInvasion The Android Invasion]]" was written by Baker and Creator/ElisabethSladen, and they also both rewrote her ending scene in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E2TheHandOfFear The Hand of Fear]]" together because Sladen hated the scripted departure so much she'd actually defaced her copy of it (which she eventually gave to Creator/RussellTDavies as a gift). During the apex of WagTheDirector period, Tom would also get free reign to mess about, which was noted in the afterword to the 2012 novelisation of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E6Shada Shada]]" - the shooting script it was worked from was Tom's copy, blank spots in which he'd penciled in descriptions of the physical comedy bits he wanted to do. This meant that several gags 'written' by Tom made their way to the book adaptation, like the sequence where the Doctor [[BigEntrance bursts into a room]], doesn't see what he expects, leaves, and, after a short hesitation, enters again in the exact same way he entered the first time.
143	** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E1TerrorOfTheZygons Terror of the Zygons]]" has a scene where Sarah and the Doctor are [[LockedInAFreezer locked in a vacuum container]]. The scripted version of the screen required a practical special effect that was too expensive, so it was discarded and Baker and Sladen were allowed to devise their own scene.
144	** The script editor on "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E2CityOfDeath City of Death]]" was aware that the script for Part Four was significantly under-running, and the stage directions for a chase sequence expressly ask the director to pad the sequence out for as long as possible with shots of Parisian scenery.
145	** For Donna Noble's reintroduction episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E1PartnersInCrime Partners in Crime]]", with the scene where the Doctor and Donna are reunited on either side of soundproof glass and thus have to mime their conversation, the script gave the lines they wanted Donna to mime and then the director let Creator/CatherineTate and Creator/DavidTennant go to town. The result is one of the most gut-bustingly funny scenes ever to hit television.
146	** The script for "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E13TheBigBang The Big Bang]]" had no description for the Doctor's dancing at Amy's wedding beyond Amy's spoken comments that it's "terrible" and "embarrassing". All that hand waving and head bopping (terrible, embarrassing, and ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8T0y-j70Rk wonderful]]'') is pure Creator/MattSmith.
147	** Remember the Twelfth Doctor's first moments in "[[Recap/DoctorWho2013CSTheTimeOfTheDoctor The Time of the Doctor]]"? Those were all improvised. So yes, the whole ordeal with miscolored kidneys was pure Creator/PeterCapaldi.
148	* ''Series/TheMonkees'': The group was not only allowed, but encouraged to improvise, and gaps were often left in the script to facilitate this, especially where Micky Dolenz was concerned.
149	* ''Series/{{Glee}}'''s Heather Morris is said to do this during table readings, often playing on the previous dialog of characters. Brittany's one-liners are sometimes penciled in after the initial readings.
150	* The Muppet and kid segments in ''Series/SesameStreet'' are usually handled this way. The Muppeters just have their character enter into a dialogue with a child about a certain topic, and the production team keeps what they can use.
151	* Each scene in ''Series/TheThickOfIt'' was filmed twice, once as scripted followed by an improvised version. The finished programme used material from both takes.
152	* On Rory Bremner's programmes, John Bird & John Fortune's sections would often just be scripted as 'John and John talk about ''subject''.
153	* ''[[Series/NightyNight Human]]'' ''[[Creator/RobBrydon Remains]]'' was written via its two creator-performers improvising around characters and ideas while recording. They then transcribed the best parts and honed it into the final recorded version.
154	* The [[GermanMedia German TV show]] ''Schillerstraße'' is basically a whole TV show made of this. Various German comedians are bound to a loose story, and the whole script is a ThrowItIn by the director too because the actors got earplugs to listen to his directions (and even only the one/s who should do something will hear it, much to the confusion of the rest of the cast).
155	* [[BritCom British sitcom]] ''Series/{{Outnumbered}}'' has taken this premise to its limits. Focusing on the lives of the Brockmans, the kids are only given a basic outline, almost all their dialogue is improvised, and the adults' role is to keep everything following the basic direction of the story. Whilst the adults are heavily scripted they do a significant amount of reacting to all of the amazing things the kids say. The result is the kids' dialogue is probably the most authentic on TV (ignoring anything that's nonfiction) and far more imaginative than anything the writers could come up with.
156	* Creator/JMichaelStraczynski did this at least once with a ''director'' in ''Series/BabylonFive''. With some directors, JMS blocked his scripts relatively tightly. With others, including Mike Vejar, he tended to write more loosely, knowing they worked better that way. In "The Face of the Enemy", he wrote for one specific scene: "They pull down Sheridan like a pack of wolves bringing down a lion." Vejar took that scene and made it something special, as JMS had hoped. [[spoiler: It was the scene where Garibaldi betrayed Sheridan if you hadn't guessed.]] In another case, his instructions allegedly consisted of: "Break our hearts."
157	** For the scene where Garibaldi [[spoiler:breaks out of his brainwashing and realises what he has done]], the script direction was simply "Garibaldi reacts" - how he reacted was entirely ad-libbed.
158	* Many of the scenes with Gage and [=DeSoto=] working on a victim on ''Series/{{Emergency}}'' clearly involved the director and writers setting up the situation and having Mantooth and Tighe, the two actors who had trained as paramedics, just do what paramedics would really do in that situation.
159	* German comedian Piet Klocke's trademark style is his somewhat confused rants which are more often than not improvised. Whenever he was a guest at "7 Tage, 7 Köpfe", a weekly comedy format running from 1996-2005 where 7 comedians comment the last 7 days, discussion occasionally was brought to a halt and Piet was asked his thoughts about a topic two or three times an episode, and given the opportunity to rant for several minutes.
160	* ''Franchise/StarTrek'':
161	** ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'', just like ''Series/TheATeam'' example above, was surprisingly blank in most parts of the script due to time constraints, forcing the actors to fill in the blanks on their own. The now-famous Vulcan salute was actually Creator/LeonardNimoy's idea since he had to come up with the salute on his own, so he used an actual Jewish hand gesture. Creator/WilliamShatner had the hardest time improvising, which was the source of Captain Kirk's signature pause in between words.
162	** In ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', the scriptwriters often wouldn't bother scripting out the {{technobabble}}, instead just jotting the shorthand "[tech]", and letting the science advisers to the show - Rick Sternbach and Michael Okuda - fill in something that sounded good.
163	* ''Series/YouBetYourLife'' was a [[GameShow Quiz Show]] that depended on this with Creator/GrouchoMarx, although he was also fed lines prepared by the show's gag writers in case he needed something pre-prepared from the guests' preliminary interviews.
164	* Paul Schrier and Jason Narvy in ''Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers'' were allowed to improvise quite often under certain directors. Paul even said at a Power Morphicon panel, name-dropping the trope, that a lot of times their lines and directions consisted just of the phrase "Bulk and Skull do something funny."
165	* In ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'', whenever scientific facts are needed in the script the writers simply leave an "insert science here" in the script, then it is up to the scientific consultant Prof. David Saltzburg, his colleagues, or Dr. Creator/MayimBialik to fill in the blanks, usually using cutting-edge, state-of-the-art science fresh off papers in recent journals, or in some occasions the scientists' own research.
166	* A non-comedy and non-improvised example occurred in ''Series/GameOfThrones'', where a line in the script for the episode "Spoils of War" instructed the series' horse master Camilla Naprous to "do her tricks" during a battle involving hordes of Dothraki horsemen. Camilla decided on having the Dothraki ''stand on their saddles mid-gallop'' (with the aid of a special stirrup) and [[HorseArcher start shooting arrows]]. The episode's director loved the idea but dismissed it as impossible. Camilla's horsemen proved him wrong.
167	* ''Series/ParksAndRecreation'':
168	** According to the creators, scripts often included the line "[[Creator/ChrisPratt Chris]] does something funny."
169	** Also, Garth Blundin doing his infamous filibuster in season 5 episode 19 was essentially letting Creator/PattonOswalt ramble about every bit of ''Franchise/StarWars'' he had in his head.
170	* The comedic dialogue on ''Series/SchittsCreek'' is tightly scripted, but a rare non-comic moment was not. Creator/DanLevy simply wrote that Patrick serenades an acoustic cover of Tina Turner's "Simply the Best" and it is surprisingly beautiful. Creator/NoahReid arranged and performed the song himself, giving the show an iconic moment. On the funny side, Moira's Christmas medley was arranged by Creator/CatherineOHara. Additionally, Annie Murphy wrote Alexis's socialite single "A Little Bit Alexis" and did the choreography herself.
171	* One of the running gags in the ''Series/{{Leverage}}'' episode "The Rashomon Job" involves Sophie's British accent getting more and more exaggerated with each retelling of the episode's plot. According to WordOfGod, her dialogue for [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Parker's]] version of the story simply read "Sophie: Absolutely incomprehensible British-sounding gibberish", with her actress (Gina Bellman) making it up herself.
172	* Most of the off-the-cuff comedy from ''Series/MatchGame'' (CBS) came from Gene Rayburn, Brett Somers, Charles Nelson Reilly, Richard Dawson, and some of their semi-regulars like Betty White and Dick Gautier. But once in a while, a celebrity not renowned for cutting up does something unexpectedly funny. Case in point: A question was "The loan shark said to Cleopatra, "I can give you the loan but we'll have to hold your ______ for collateral." Each celebrity panelist said "asp" and prefaced it with a differing adjective like "big" and "half" to make it sound like "ass." Trish Stewart, an actress from the soap opera ''The Young & The Restless'' said "''dumb'' asp," prompting panelist Jack Carter to belt out "She's one of us! She's in trouble!"
173	* ''Series/{{Friends}}'': "The One With The Ultimate Fighting Champion" starts with an appearance by Creator/RobinWilliams and Creator/BillyCrystal as a pair of patrons at Central Perk (Williams and Crystal just happened to be at the studio were the show was shot, and the writers asked if they wanted to make a guest appearance), and they ad-libbed all their dialogue during their scene, which genuinely befuddled the main cast.
174	* In the special features of the ''Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'' Season 1 DVD, the producers say that after hiring Creator/VincentDOnofrio as Detective Robert Goren, they basically allowed him to do whatever he wanted, leading to many [[Funny/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent funny moments]] and one of the most distinctive characters in the crime genre.
175	[[/folder]]
176
177	[[folder:Music]]
178	* Reportedly, one section of Music/GeorgeGershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" simply states "piano solo, wait for nod."
179	* Motown Studio's in-house bassist until the early '70s, James Jamerson, was such a master of improvisation that producers would simply hand him a chord chart, knowing that whatever he came up with would fit the song far better than anything they could write.
180	** Session musicians in Nashville typically just get the key of a song and a chart with a special numbered system to denote chord changes, which with the ThreeChordsAndTheTruth nature of CountryMusic, makes it easy to record a whole bunch of songs in a single session while giving the players room to add some spontaneous embellishments.
181	* Standard practice in Baroque opera and Classical concerti - sections of music were set aside as a ''cadenza'', during which the soloist is given a chance to improvise (usually on the musical ideas already presented). For those performers less interested in flying by the seats of their pants, many composers and performers have written out cadenzas for the more well-known concerti; opera has only rarely used this convention since 1750 or so.
182	** It was also expected in Baroque opera and concerti that the soloist would ornament their part in the repeats, adding turns and trills all over the place. More akin to Harpo Does Something Virtuosic.
183	* The Strawbs live number entitled "Temperament of Mind", performed on solo piano during the Wakeman era, could accurately have been called "Rick does something awesome".
184	** This appears to be standard practice with Rick Wakeman. When he played on Music/DavidBowie's 'Hunky Dory' album, Bowie told him to play each song exactly how he liked and built the arrangements around what Wakeman played.
185	* This is how most small jazz combos do everything, whether as a jam session or while recording. Musicians are given a chart with a brief melody (the head) and the chord changes, and soloists are expected to improvise during the solo sections. Bassists, pianists, and guitarists may not have specific rhythms to the changes, and drummers may be completely on their own. Often the head will only take a minute or so to play twice, once at the beginning and once at the end, and the intervening time is improvised, though often based on a preexisting vocabulary of licks and scales. The run time of most jazz tunes is, at minimum, 50% improvised soloing, and often 80-90% depending on the number of soloists.
186	* In Music/TomLehrer's "Lobachevsky," the GratuitousRussian reviews of the plagiarist's first book are supposed to be ad-libbed, according to this footnote to the published lyrics:
187	-->At each of these two junctures, one should insert some phrase in Russian (if the audience does not speak Russian) or some Russian double-talk (if it does). The author's own choices varied from performance to performance, ranging from the merely inappropriate to the distinctly obscene.
188	* BT's "Never Gonna Come Back Down" features [[Music/SoulCoughing Mike Doughty]] both singing and doing some [[WordSaladLyrics spoken word salad]] between verses. After recording the main sung vocals, he was given two takes to do whatever he wanted: He spent one reading passages from the Book Of Revelation and another saying things off the top of his head and making various in-jokes, and the best bits of both were edited together into the final product.
189	[[/folder]]
190
191	[[folder:Podcasts]]
192	* At some point, the script for ''Podcast/WelcomeToNightVale's'' second-anniversary episode apparently read, "CECIL: (honest opinion about the impression)", referring to Steve Carlsberg's squeaky-voiced imitation of Cecil's boyfriend. The result:
193	-->'''Cecil:''' I am not dating a Munchkin from ''Film/TheWizardOfOz''.
194	[[/folder]]
195
196	[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
197	* Many promos are done this way, with the wrestler given a basic outline of what to emphasize in his/her promo and then filling in the rest. Wrestlers who are particularly adept at this are given even more freedom and are usually more popular with the fans, often getting pushes based on their skills at cutting promos. Wrestling/{{WWE}} has been moving away from this in recent years, scripting promos word for word and insisting wrestlers stick to that since the formatting for the television shows has gotten so tight. Results have been mixed, as improvising a promo and "making" a scripted one are very different sets of skills.
198	* Japanese professional wrestling, due to the sport-like way it presents itself, tends to be especially liberal in the promo field. Unless they are rookies, deep in a storyline, or playing a very specific gimmick, wrestlers are often left to do the promo entirely by themselves as long as they don't break kayfabe nor say anything compromising. This occasionally backfires when real heat comes up in the talk, but promoters often see it as new chances to get the press's attention or even [[RealLifeWritesThePlot create entire angles from real life.]]
199	* The only thing that kept Wrestling/ScottSteiner in WWE near the end of his run was his mic ability. The guy combines a freakish steroid physique with a HairTriggerTemper and a {{Cloudcuckoolander}} persona to create some truly entertaining, though often nonsensical, promos.
200	* This is largely true of matches themselves. While most of the action is predetermined and carefully rehearsed in the gym before coming to the ring, minor parts like taunting, brawling, and setting up an important moment (known in the business as a "spot") are left to be made up by the wrestlers themselves as they go along.
201	** Again, the Japanese take it to the extreme. In the old shoot-style (a classic style of puroresu that works its matches with martial arts moves in order to resemble real fights), wrestlers used to come to the ring only knowing who, when, and how would win, and maybe having learned a couple of spots to structure the match. The rest was composed basically of sparring full force, just playing along in takedowns and submissions exchanges, and generally trying to make it look good. To show how much of a SeriousBusiness it was, accidental knockouts weren't really rare and were seen as okay to happen; the wrestlers were instructed to protect themselves at all times, and if they didn't, the price was simply a match ended before it was planned.
202	** Wrestling/KiyoshiTamura and Wrestling/YoshihisaYamamoto featured an example best described as "Tamura and Yamamoto fight for real" in their match at RINGS's 1996 Mega Battle Tournament. As both wrestlers were in midst of a push at the time, the bookers could not decide who should win the bout, so they eventually took the shocking decision to send the wrestlers to work the planned match and, when they reached the ending, just go shoot (that is, fight for real). Naturally, as both Yamamoto and Tamura wanted to win, they struck each other for real even during the worked segments in order to have the other worn when the real stuff came. In the end, Tamura won the match with a legitimate flying armbar that almost broke Yamamoto's arm.
203	** Individual wrestlers are frequently given pretty much free rein over their matches. In the old Wrestling/{{ECW}}, Wrestling/PaulHeyman gave Wrestling/LanceStorm enough leeway that Lance was occasionally allowed to change the ending to the match, and some other wrestlers, such as Wrestling/ChrisBenoit and Wrestling/ShaneDouglas, were known for not needing much in the way of guidelines. Conversely, giving wrestlers ''no'' leeway is sometimes used to make sure a decent match happens - see Wrestling/HulkHogan vs. the Wrestling/UltimateWarrior at ''Wrestling/{{WrestleMania}} VI'', and a Wrestling/TrishStratus vs. Wrestling/StephanieMcMahon match on Raw. Like promos, TV and PPV wrestling matches have become more and more scripted, with agents such as Wrestling/ArnAnderson or Wrestling/DLoBrown laying the entire match out beforehand with the wrestlers.
204	* Wrestling/JimCornette wrote an opinion column once about how this is the proper way to have a wrestler (or his manager) cut a promo: give him a few points that he needs to hit during the promo and have him ad-lib the rest of it.
205	* Wrestling/MickFoley was given carte blanche to do this in vignettes with Wrestling/VinceMcMahon.
206	[[/folder]]
207
208	[[folder:Puppet Shows]]
209	* Parodied on ''Series/TheMuppetShow'':
210	-->'''Kermit:''' Fozzie, what are you doing with this typewriter on my table?\
211	'''Fozzie:''' Kermit, I am writing the script for this week's show!\
212	'''Kermit:''' What makes you think the show needs a script?\
213	'''Fozzie:''' Oh, come on Kermit! Every show has a script! Yeah, that way you leave nothing to chance! ''[Rowlf and Lew Zealand enter, about to go on stage for the Musical Moment]'' Hey guys! Guys! This is the Musical Moment for this week.\
214	'''Rowlf:''' ''[reading]'' "Curtains open. Rowlf and Lew Zealand do something funny. Curtains close." ''[Rowlf and Lew Zealand exit for the stage]''\
215	'''Fozzie:''' ''[shouting offstage]'' Go get 'em!\
216	'''Kermit:''' You leave nothing to chance, huh?\
217	'''Fozzie:''' Trust me.
218	* Many actual {{Muppet}} skits are heavy on ad-libbing, as the performers (Creator/FrankOz in particular) often excelled at it. One ''Series/SesameStreet'' skit, about [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PIdSGsIz1Q Ernie becoming enamored about Bert's fishing tank]], was completely unscripted. In the episode-by-episode podcasts discussing ''Series/FraggleRockBackToTheRock'' and ''Series/TheMuppetsMayhem'', the hosts often ask the puppeteers if a certain line was scripted, and it sometimes turns out they're not entirely sure because it was ''such'' a mix of scripted gags and improv.
219	* This was almost the entire point of The Swedish Chef, as Frank Oz would perform the hands, while Jim Henson controlled the Chef's body and voice, and the two would improv in order to force each other to deal with whatever happened. HilarityEnsues.
220	[[/folder]]
221
222	[[folder:Theatre]]
223	* ''Theatre/TheTwentyFifthAnnualPutnamCountySpellingBee'' originated as an improv show and often casts improv comedians. The script encourages the actors for Rona and Panch in particular to improvise when describing the spellers and using the spelling bee words in a sentence, respectively. Logainne's speech in Act 2 is also left open for the actress to improvise, though a few example speeches from previous performances are included.
224	* Pearl Bailey's first song in the 1954 musical ''House of Flowers'' had a spot where she could ad-lib a different line of dialogue every night. On the cast recording, she says: "I'm supposed to have an ad-lib filled in here for the record date, but we've been so terribly busy over at the theatre we haven't had time."
225	* ''Theatre/TheCompleteWorksOfWilliamShakespeareAbridged'' mixes this with AudienceParticipation. Which means the correct response to GetTheeToANunnery is "[[PrecisionFStrike FUCK YAS ALL!]]"
226	** In particular, the entire second act is a re-do of ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' in about a quarter of the time. When they get to this point, they bring in an audience member (usually the one the "Adam" role vomits on) to play the part, encouraging the other audience members to recite a mantra for part of Ophelia's psyche.
227	** A better example of this might even be the fact that that same night had an audience member named Hercules...cuing off-the-cuff jokes about Olympus. Eventually, the proper reproduction of the play ended with the "Daniel" part ''picking up a local mountain'' to squash Claudius (the "Adam" role), with a joke about how much strength that would need.
228	** The published version of the script includes several footnotes along the lines of "At this point Adam very often rambles for a minute or more about current events, weaving a conspiratorial tale of nuclear fallout, corrupt politicians, debauched evangelists and/or whatever bug he has up his butt at the time", or noting a punchline as the default joke if the performers can't pull anything better from recent headlines.
229	** The most direct example of this trope, however, is just before the intermission, when one cast member has fled the theatre and another has chased off after him, leaving the third alone to entertain the audience for a few minutes. The stage directions simply read "Daniel stalls"; this can cover anything from playing the accordion to fire-eating.
230	* Despite adhering to normal theatrical convention, Creator/AlexanderPushkin used this in two of his ''Little Tragedies'':
231	** ''The Stone Guest'' has two instances where Laura merely has the line "she sings," so Aleksandr Dargomyzhsky inserted two songs of his set to Pushkin's text. The 1979 miniseries features "The Poor Knight" instead.
232	** ''Mozart and Salieri'' has a blind fiddler whose only raison d'être is to play a piece from ''Don Giovanni''. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov quoted "Batti, batti o bel Masetto" in his 1897 opera, while the miniseries uses "Là ci darem la mano."
233	* ''Theatre/TheMiser'': When Jacques lists the countless meals he intends to serve at the dinner held by Harpagon, the actor is supposed to come up with his own list of exotic, expensive dishes. (If your edition of the play doesn't include the relevant footnote, then it looks as if [[TheScrooge Harpagon]] is freaking out over the very possibility of giving food to other people.)
234	* This is actually OlderThanSteam: CommediaDellArte basically ran on this trope. Only the general outline of the plot and few lines were scripted; most of the jokes were supposed to be improvised by the actors. The tradition survives in {{Pantomime}} - there is usually at least one scene left aside for the Villain and the Dame (traditionally played by comedic actors) to improvise some business.
235	* In ''Theatre/{{Seussical}}'', much of the Cat in the Hat's dialogue has "ad lib." written all over it.
236	* In one draft of ''Theatre/{{Oklahoma}}'', Oscar Hammerstein II cued the DreamBallet this way: "Take it away, Agnes!"
237	* In ''Theatre/{{Salome}}'', the stage directions for the [[YouCanLeaveYourHatOn Dance of the Seven Veils]] read, in their entirety, "Salome does the dance of the seven veils." This has the added practical value of allowing the individual production to decide how far they want to push things, as it can get pretty racy. Richard Strauss's opera adds a few more cues here, but the dance is still not described in detail.
238	* ''Music/{{Tsukiuta}}'''s stage plays almost always feature an improv scene. Usually, this features Hajime's alter-ego, Mutsuki-kun, in a sort of BokeAndTsukkomiRoutine with Kakeru, though other cast members often feature as well. The spinoff series SQS features a similar segment, with Shiki going to a coffee house, and the members of Quell doing an improv scene, with Shu and Issei in different costumes in each performance.
239	* The Takarazuka productions of ''Theatre/{{Elisabeth}}'' have Lucheni adlib at the start of act 2, before "Kitsch".
240	* This is one of the hypotheses why (where more than one version survives) the printed versions of the theatrical works of Creator/WilliamShakespeare differ so much from each other -- in one case the same play is so different in two versions published around the time of its writing that ''some scholarly editions print both versions'' instead of trying to reconcile their differences. Generally scholars assume that if scripts were written down for performances at all, each actor (even the female roles were played by males in those days) only got ''his'' lines and perhaps the last line before his cluing him in as to when to speak. Add to that that theater in those days was done with natural light on an afternoon and heckling (especially by the "Groundlings" who paid the least for tickets and had to stand for performances) was common, so some scholars analyze certain scenes as particularly fourth-wall breaking and perhaps they were even tweaked for audience reaction.
241	* ''Theatre/{{Hamilton}}'' famously has one segment, "The Reynolds Pamphlet", that has the company improvise crazy moves.
242	[[/folder]]
243
244	[[folder:Video Games]]
245	* ''VideoGame/LikeADragonInfiniteWealth'' features Kson of WebVideo/KsonOnAir as Kei as a hostess at the Revolve Bar. According to Kson, she was given a ton of freedom to go off-script and just generally act like herself, which is most obvious when Kei is [[{{Squee}} gushing at being in the presence of Kazuma Kiryu]] (Kson being [[PromotedFanboy a noted longtime fan of the franchise]] and ''especially'' Kiryu).
246	* ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'''s [[http://youtu.be/PlwpQY-Tbls Meet the Sandvich trailer]] was created this way, as was documented on the [[http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=1889 game's development blog]]. The writers came up with the basic scenario before letting the voice actors loose, their improv making up the entirety of the video. That being said, a large majority of the lines didn’t make it to the video, most of them coming from the Soldier.
247	* ''You'', potentially. The more interactive video games -- say, ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' -- tell you to go from point A to point B, but leave it up to you to decide how to get there. Want to fuck around and build a castle out of oil drums, spray rude pictures on the walls with bullet holes, or get an [=NPC=] to glitch out and ragdoll in the middle of a dramatic speech? Go wild. There's a whole cottage industry of people on the internet sharing funny clips (of varying quality) about the shenanigans they get up to in video games. The ''Elder Scrolls'' and ''Grand Theft Auto'' series are rich with these scenarios (a lot of GTA missions can be completed in 1/10 the intended amount of time by using a DiscOneNuke, for example). It was a major selling point of the ''DeusEx'' series, where you were supposed to find creative ways to complete a mission with minimal bloodshed, but you still had the freedom to do things any which way. (See also EmergentGameplay)
248	** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'' has a [[MemeticMutation memetic take on this]]. The main goal is to defeat Calamity Ganon before he breaks out of Hyrule Castle and finishes what he started, and also hopefully cleanse the Divine Beasts to help you...but given that the entire game runs on TakeYourTime, you can pretty much do whatever the hell you want with no rush. Hell, you can even rush straight to the final boss in little more than your ratty clothes and sticks as soon as you leave the Great Plateau. Granted, actually defeating the final boss in this state is... [[SelfImposedChallenge a task.]]
249	*** On another note, there's all the other silly shenanigans Link can get up to while steadily working to save Hyrule. He can help put a town together with a requirement that only people with "-son" in their name maybe live there; gather korok seeds that [[spoiler:turn out to be pieces of [[ToiletHumor korok poop]]]]; [[TheJoysOfTorturingMooks screw around with various enemies]] and make their lives miserable; and a whole lot more. However you slice it, Link will defeat Ganon... [[AttentionDeficitOohShiny eventually.]]
250	[[/folder]]
251
252	[[folder:Web Animation]]
253	* Because of his ability to choreograph and animate absolutely ''[[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome breathtaking]]'' action scenes that simply cannot be put into words, all of Creator/MontyOum's fight scenes in ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'' and ''WebAnimation/RedVsBlue'' are described simply as: "Monty action ensues." Even Rooster Tooths, a fan site dedicated to transcribing all of ''Red vs. Blue'' sticks to this method.
254	-->The Meta attacks her and the epic fight scene begins; I can't do it justice, so I won't try.
255	* Still with ''WebAnimation/RedVsBlue'', Miles Luna revealed during a talk with Monty that Caboose is the most difficult character to write for on the show. On at least one occasion he left a note in the script simply telling Joel to do whatever he wanted.
256	[[/folder]]
257
258	[[folder:Web Videos]]
259	* Creator/ChannelAwesome:
260	** According to commentaries, when Creator/DougWalker wrote and directed the anniversary specials ''WebVideo/{{Kickassia}}'' and ''WebVideo/SuburbanKnights'', he left room for the other cast members to make stuff up and ad lib, knowing they would know their personas better than he would. In particular, he claims that any time [[WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall Linkara]] made a recommendation, they went with it because his ideas were always funnier. Three examples came up in ''WebVideo/SuburbanKnights'':
261	*** The first was Linkara's idea that he gets pissed at the Critic for claiming that magic was not real (Linkara's reasoning was that he had to do ''something'' to acknowledge the statement, because, at the very least, it was ridiculous for the Critic to talk about Linkara's Magic Gun and then say that magic did not exist).
262	*** The second was that most British-related insults [[WebVideo/BadMovieBeatdown Film Brain]] used ("wanker", "bloody", etc.) was thrown in by him.
263	*** The third was when Spoony gave his ''D&D'' rant to the Cloaks. The Critic wrote a very basic rant but admitted that he knew nothing of the details of [=LARPing=] and asked that Spoony improvise to make it more authentic.
264	** In the commentary for WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic and WebVideo/{{Phelous}}' joint review of ''Film/ChildsPlay'', the part where [[spoiler:Phelous transfers his soul into a pencil sharpener]] was largely unscripted. Doug Walker essentially wrote "Improvise, make it up, I don't care," and ended up using all of Phelan Porteous' ad-libs.
265	* ''WebVideo/DreamSMP'': Most of the major events are at least partially planned, while the dialogue within them is improvised, leaving the participants with much more room to fill in the blanks. Eret the content creator has given more details on how exactly the scripts are made and planned [[https://theeretblr.tumblr.com/post/678770557202923520/hey-eret-im-curious-about-the-scripting-method on Tumblr]].
266	-->'''cant-see-sam:''' Hey Eret! I'm curious about the scripting method of the Dream SMP. Could you possibly show us a few of the past scripts so we could have a sneak peek? I'm just wondering because I know a lot of the famous lines were unscripted.\
267	'''theeretblr:''' The way scripting is done on the DMSP is different depending who's organising it. Generally it consists of someone writing their big overarching ideas in a Google doc and other people giving suggestions and making changes as a group until we're all happy with it.\
268	I will say though, the number of times I've seen "[Name] says something cool" in the middle of the plan is more than I'd like to count LOL
269	* ''WebVideo/MarbleHornets'' is largely improvised. Scripts are often only one page with important information on it. Also due to them shooting in abandoned buildings, they often find things to throw in, including one character wearing a blanket they found there.
270	* Any scene featuring Creator/TommyWiseau in his Hulu original series ''The Neighbors'' features a gratuitous amount of improv hoping to get a funny reaction from Wiseau.
271	* A common feature in ''WebVideo/ShinyObjectsVideos'' is allowing for bits and pieces of improv. Even more often, a variant--scripts are changed just moments before they are filmed.
272	* ''WebVideo/UltraFastPony'': Wacarb explained in the "Behind the Scenes" video that every episode has some degree of planning, whether he writes a script out or just keeps a plan in his head. The one exception is Rainbow Dash's dialogue. For her lines, he just turns the mic on and says the first thing that pops into his head. He explains it's a sort of MethodActing; he doesn't know what Rainbow Dash will say, because [[TheDitz Rainbow Dash has no idea what she's saying, either]].
273	* ''WebVideo/WorldsGreatestAdventures'' is planned more than scripted, with most of Talltales's actual lines ad-libbed.
274	[[/folder]]
275
276	[[folder:Western Animation]]
277	* An early example of this was Creator/PaulFrees as Ludwig Von Drake in ''Series/WaltDisneyPresents''. Since his main shtick was being an AbsentMindedProfessor, a lot of his lines were ad-libbed, especially whenever the Professor makes a contradicting statement and then does a VerbalBackspace with the phrase "What am I saying?".
278	* In the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode "Equestria Games", actor Cathy Weseluck wasn't given any lines for when Spike the Dragon has to sing Cloudsdale's national anthem. She also wasn't told how long the song would be or given any of the music beforehand, making Spike's incredibly desperate, awkward fumbling through the song seem more genuine.
279	* This was pretty much the premise of ''WesternAnimation/HomeMovies''. The actors were given outlines of what would happen in the episodes and the dialogue was mostly made up. An infamous scene in the first season about [=McGuirk=] and his tattoos was completely improvised by H. Jon Benjamin and Brendan Small. Also, the basis for Lynch's appearance was based on a description that Benjamin ad-libbed as [=McGuirk=].
280	* Katie Crown improvises most of her dialogue for Izzy in ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama'', as [[http://www.newsarama.com/tv/090617-total-action-drama.html this]] interview reveals.
281	* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
282	** Homer's "D'oh!" was originally scripted as "(annoyed grunt)", which Creator/DanCastellaneta originally read as an elongated "d'owwwh" before truncating it to the iconic shorter form. The scripts still use "(annoyed grunt)", even when it renders episode titles (like "E-I-E-I-(Annoyed Grunt)") nonsensical.
283	** The writers mention on the [=DVDs=] that recurring guest Creator/AlbertBrooks (Hank Scorpio, Russ Cargill of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsonsMovie'', among others) likes to improv, so they tend to write his scripts with only the basic story details, and then just let him go off. This is most obvious in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E2YouOnlyMoveTwice You Only Move Twice]]", in a scene where Scorpio [[TheLongList rattles off all the places in town that sell hammocks]], punctuated only by Homer going "Uh-huh. Yes... Uh-huh..." because Dan Castellaneta has no real reply ready and he's just following along. Though he does pick up on it to add "Oh, in the hammock district," at just the right time.
284	** Professor Frink's dialogue is often punctuated with "(Frink noise)", where Creator/HankAzaria will occasionally insert "glavin" or "m'hey"
285	* Most of ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' is retroscripted, but it's taken to an extreme with "Rixty Minutes", in which nearly all of the [[ItMakesSenseInContext interdimensional TV shows and commercials]] are clearly the voice actors improvising for comedic effect.
286	* [[WordOfGod Alex Hirsch]] has described ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' scripts as applying this trope to animation rather than acting, deliberating leaving things for the storyboard artists and directors to come up with themselves. For example, he summarizes the script for the scene of [[spoiler:Grunkle Stan escaping from government agents]] in "Not What He Seems" as "He escapes in some really cool way! Figure it out, artists!" This is similar to how cartoons with [[QuarterHourShort quarter-hour episodes]] (rather than half-hour ones like ''Gravity Falls'') usually don't even ''have'' scripts, instead of having at most a story outline before going straight to the storyboarding stage.
287	* While making ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'', Creator/{{Jim Cummings\|VoiceActor}} quickly developed a habit of ad-libbing the middle part of the title character's MadLibsCatchPhrase to the point that the scripts often read "I am the terror that flaps in the night! [It doesn't matter what I write here, Jim is going to say something funnier]!"
288	** The same thing happened in ''WesternAnimation/OKKOLetsBeHeroes'', where the scripts would often have some of Lord Boxman's lines listed as simply "Jim sputters" since he can improvise a lot of funny-sounding vocalizations.
289	* While ''WesternAnimation/TheAngryBeavers'' was scripted, Nick Bakey and Richard Horivitz were often encouraged to improvise, resulting in some of the show's more stream-of-consciousness jokes.
290	* Most of Jonathan Winters' dialogue in ''WesternAnimation/TheNewScoobyDooMovies'' episode "The Frickert Fracas" sounded improvised (he was known for improvisational comedy and had his own syndicated show at the time), but it has since been noted that it was scripted so it can pass muster with CBS standards and practices.
291	* A lot of Doofenshmirtz's ramblings in ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' were ad-libbed by Dan Povenmire.
292	* During the pre-voice acting script recordings for the ''WesternAnimation/{{Freakazoid}}'' episode "Dance of Doom", writer Paul Rugg was told to [[https://twitter.com/pkrugg/status/1642943951979134993 "do something weird"]] as the title character, and improvised a bizarre, furious rant against the episode's villain. This was one of several moments that [[PermanentPlaceholder led Rugg to be Freakazoid's permanent voice actor rather than just a scratch track]].
293	[[/folder]]
294	----

Context Main / HarpoDoesSomethingFunny