Corpsing / TV Shows #-G

Corpsing in live-action TV, titles #-G.

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• 8 Simple Rules:
  • Kerry does an impression of her sister - "Hi, I'm Bridget. I can't believe how much my head shakes when I talk" - and Paul tries to tell her she's "really mean" but he just laughs at how accurate the impression is.
  • Before Bridget starts the new job, Paul suggests she lay her clothes out for the morning like he does. Kerry snarks "this is what you look like with a head-start?" - and John Ritter can be seen chuckling as the scene fades out.
  • In-universe when Bridget is playing Anne Frank in the school play. Bridget is a Statuesque Stunner with beautiful blonde hair, who is one of the most popular girls in school. And when she has to say the line "I know I'm not very pretty", she can't help but burst out laughing.
• In this scene from 3rd Rock from the Sun, Tommy and Harry are trying (unsuccessfully) to feed Mrs. Dubcek's grandson. You can see Tommy start to crack after Harry spits food back at the baby/camera.
• On the 30 Rock Live Episode, Tracy tries to corpse on purpose to get a laugh. Tracy being Tracy, he does it badly.
  Tracy: Uh oh, I'm doing something called 'breaking' Blahahahaha. Snort. Heehee. Giggle giggle. The audience loves this!
  • Also a stealth Take That!; Tracy Morgan was one of the few SNL cast members who publicly called out Jimmy Fallon for his frequent corpsing.

A

• On All That, it was something of a tradition for Kenan and Kel to break out laughing at some point when they're playing off each other in the Good Burger sketches. They do it at least twice during the show itself, and when they came back for the Tenth Anniversary Special they did it again.
• 'Allo 'Allo!:
  • In "The Funeral", Herr Flick and Helga get sprayed by dirt from an explosion. Kim Hartman gets the giggles due to how ridiculous Richard Gibson looks and completely loses it because Gibson absolutely refuses to break character and reacts as Herr Flick would have.
  • Richard Marner is visibly trying not to laugh during Officer Crabtree's speech at the end of "Pretty Maids All in a Row" ("I was pissing by the door, when I heard two shats. You are holding in your hand a smoking goon; you are clearly the guilty potty."), even though his character believes he has just seen a double homicide.
  • In another episode, Edith and Michelle argue violently, ending with Michelle coldly noting that she could replace her as a waitress, and she also can sing. Kirsten Cooke ad-libbed the ending: "off the note!" Carmen Silvera managed to stay in character, but Gorden Kaye was clearly trying not to burst out laughing.
• A weird but amusing one from The Amanda Show has Drake Bell laughing at his own monologue.
• Occurred often on the original run of American Idol. During some particularly bad auditions, Simon and Randy would try their hardest to contain their laugher at the contestant's horrendous singing.
• In the pilot episode of Are You Being Served?, Miss Brahms says the line "Mrs. Slocombe didn't want to take down your trousers without asking you first.", and you can hear Wendy Richard's voice break at "asking".
• In the At Last the 1948 Show sketch "Plain Clothes Police Women", Tim Brooke-Taylor as the police sergeant tries (with only limited success) to suppress his laughter when PC Staveacre (Graham Chapman) announces his drag name as "Philippa". The laughter soon spreads to the other actors.^note  Tim later confirmed in an interview that he broke down laughing because they had been using different names during rehearsals, but Graham, Marty Feldman, and John Cleese decided to go off script as a prank on Tim.

B

• In one Babylon 5 episode Garibaldi and Bester on a stakeout. Garibaldi's still irritated at having to work with the Psi-Cop (who was a villain in two previous episodes) and tells him to shut up or he'll string him up so they can play piñata. Bester turns the threat on its head by innocently asking if that means Garibaldi thinks he's colorful and full of gifts for small children. Jerry Doyle (Garibaldi) opens his mouth but then snaps it shut and is visibly struggling not to burst out laughing. The best part is, it completely fits because a sudden laughing fit would've ruined the stakeout!
• In the Bewitched episode "Double, Double, Toil and Trouble", Elizabeth Montgomery cracked up after Dick York gave her a Pie in the Face. She dubbed over the scene in post-production, but if you look closely, you can still see her laugh.
• Blake's 7. The eponymous Villain of the Week in "Moloch" was so Nightmare Retardant (a Little Green Man in a Can that actually looks like a one-eyed fried chicken) the cast kept bursting into laughter, eventually causing Deep Roy who was playing the part to do a Rage Quit, as he was still in pain from a broken collarbone he'd received during location filming.
• Occurred once or twice in the John Bird / John Fortune dialogues in Bremner, Bird and Fortune. One discussion centered around making the Queen Mother the centerpiece of the Millennium celebrations; this led to the thought of a gigantic hot-air balloon in the shape of the Queen Mother drifting across London, which reduced both of them to helpless laughter.
• The Brittas Empire:
  • Russell Porter and Tim Marriott (Tim and Gavin respectively) both are seen trying not to laugh at various points during the recital scene in "Mums and Dads" (involving Brittas play hilariously badly on the piano) and have to look away from the camera's view.
  • When Carole is taking too long fussing over the computer to give Mrs. Philips her ticket to the pool in "http://etc", one of the extras in the scene is seen visibly trying to hide her laugh when Carole shows off Mrs. Philip's greasy hair shampoo, despite the fact the extras are supposed to look annoyed.
• In one of the fan-favorite teasers of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, the one where the precinct attempts to guess why Santiago is late, when Holt begins to guess, you can clearly see Stephanie Beatriz (Diaz) covering her mouth to cover her laughter. After Holt shouts, "HOT DAMN!", it ends rather abruptly, because, according to Beatriz, the entire cast started laughing hysterically after he shouted that.
• An episode of Milton Berle's show (called The Buick-Berle Show at the time) had Jack Benny and Bob Hope doing a sketch where fighting over a woman has left Jack with no choice but to attempt to shoot Bob - but he faces the opposite direction because he can't stand the sight of blood. Holding Bob at gunpoint, Jack dramatically said, "I'm going to blow your brains out" - unaware that he was pointing the gun straight at Bob's crotch. There was a long take as Bob slowly looked down (the studio audience howling with laughter tipping off Jack that something was amiss), carefully took the gun and helped Jack aim it at his head. They almost kept it together, but then Bob ad-libbed, "Let's not do any jokes we weren't planning on, Jack", making them both break up laughing.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer was not immune to this:
  • Before Alyson Hannigan was dating now-husband Alexis Denisof, she already had a huge crush on him. In the scene in "Doppelgangland" with Wishverse Willow, Cordelia and Wesley in the bathroom, Wesley waves around a bottle of holy water to ward Willow off. While he was taking it out, he made a noise like "tuhh" that made Alyson crack up for multiple takes.
  • In "Enemies", Faith is moping that she wasn't able to turn Angel evil, and her parental figure Big Bad suggests miniature golf to cheer her up. Eliza Dushku wasn't supposed to laugh at the comment but couldn't help herself. The producers enjoyed the reaction, and the fond way she looked at Harry Groener, that they decided to keep it in.
  • Invoked in "Real Me", where Buffy is told Harmony has minions. Yep, that Harmony: Joss Whedon was behind the camera trying to make Sarah Michelle Gellar crack up.
  • In "Halloween", Angel was supposed to look bored when Cordelia attempts to flirt with him. But David Boreanaz kept laughing, and they decided to add it in.
  • In "Life Serial", after Jonathan (in demon guise) sets off the smoke bomb to escape, we can clearly see that James Marsters can't help but laugh at the situation.
  • In Season 6's musical episode "Once More, With Feeling!", Amber Benson and Emma Caulfield were dancing behind Sarah Michelle Gellar during the song "Something To Sing About" on The Bronze set. As the dance was ending, Amber made a misstep while turning and ran into one of the support pillars (you can see this near the end of the line "and every single verse"). Since the sequence was being filmed with a multi-camera setup, you can see her beginning to lose it in the next shot (the line "can make it that much worse") and she quickly ducks behind the pillar to get off-camera.
  • Something similar happens in "Grave". Willow has gone completely off the rails, as has the lives of Buffy and her friends. She details this to Giles, who reacts to the somber news by cracking up laughing. After a moment Buffy does as well.
  • "The Killer in Me" has a take that made it into the final version. Adam Busch, who played the Season 6 Big Bad Warren, here instead plays Willow, who has been transfigured in appearance to look like Warren. Near the end of the episode, "she" breaks down in anguish in front of Xander over her new feelings for Kennedy clashing with her not having fully accepted Tara's death. It seems Adam couldn't pull off anguish very well, and angle during the scene shows him with just the biggest laughing smile on his face that couldn't be mistaken for anything else.
  • Gellar would also corpse a little in the ending to "First Date", where Xander, clearly having enough of girlfriends who turn out to be demons, remarks, "What do you think happened?" when asked.
  • A famous series of bloopers happened in the Angel "Spin the Bottle", when the characters were mentally reversed back their obnoxious teenage selves and Angel, being a 250-year old vampire, was shocked by the appearance of things like cars. Going outside, freaking out and running back into the main room, whenever David Boreanaz (Angel) made eye contact with Alexis Denisof (Wesley) they could not keep a straight face. In the episode proper, you can see them avoid eye-contact very deliberately and even still Wesley glances towards the ceiling with a slight smirk before walking off camera.
  • Discussed in the DVD Commentary to "Underneath", where the writers ask Adam Baldwin how he manages to not corpse when he tells Angel, "You and I will not be making love on this couch anytime soon." It turns out Baldwin hates people who corpse.
• Burn Notice:
  • Happens in a season one episode, but is only revealed in the DVD commentary. Bruce Campbell, playing Sam Axe, says "It's only photoshop," causing Jeffrey Donovan, playing Michael Westen, to laugh for seven hours.
  • A blooper had Donovan and Gabrielle Anwar (Fiona) having a hard time keeping a straight face during a serious scene. Every time "action" is called they would start to giggle. Eventually, the actor playing a client of the week yelled out "You're laughing?! My mom was *bleeping* kidnapped!"

C

• Tim Conway was the master and archetype of sending his cast members into bouts of unscripted laughter on The Carol Burnett Show. He was so good at it, they didn't even try to hide that they were laughing. Whether it be some ridiculous last minute costume change, a funny voice, or improvising something that wasn't remotely in the script, he seemed to have a knack for breaking his co-stars.
  • Harvey Korman was particularly a victim whenever he did a skit with Tim Conway. Conway may well be the Crown Prince of causing other people to corpse. Note that Conway rarely actively tried to make it happen. The other cast members reportedly placed bets to see how long it would take Korman to bust out laughing.
  • The best example of this is one sketch in which he played a dentist. Conway's character accidentally shoots himself (multiple times) with an anesthetic. Poor Harvey Korman was literally stuck in the dentist chair and had to watch the entire thing.
  • Other times, the other members, especially Carol, would get even with Tim. Like in "The Flasher" skit, which (judging by the nature of what it was that cracked him up) was more of a conspiratorial plot to break Tim than an actual sketch.
  • Vicki Lawrence was very good at resisting corpsing, but could even make Tim fall out laughing, as at the very end of the Elephant story. Of course, up to that point, it was all Tim; Carol doesn't even make it to the ten-second mark before making an Oh, Crap! face. Vicki was also fond (while playing Mama) of coming up with ad-libbed insults to crack up Carol.
    • On the other hand, there was one skit with her, Lyle Waggoner, and Harvey Korman where she breaks down laughing after her character dies. Harvey eventually solves the situation by burying Vicki's head with hay.
  • Conway was so good at this he could even do it by doing nothing at all. An anniversary special had Carol Burnett show us the unused footage from a skit where Tim is supposed to keep interrupting Harvey Korman's speech at a political dinner by loudly crunching potato chips. In the aired sketch he continues to do this forcing Harvey to repeatedly stop his speech to ever more angrily demand he stop, but in the outtake scene, we see that Tim stops the first time Harvey asks him to and simply spends the rest of the scene paying rapt attention to Harvey's speech. Watching Harvey being forced to improvise dialogue for getting way farther into the speech than he was ever supposed to, visibly waiting for Tim to crunch chips and trying not to crack up as he has to improvise, and occasionally giving Tim an "I'm going to kill you for this" Death Glare while Tim just contentedly smiles at him is absolutely priceless.
  • Conway kept it up on the short-lived WB improv/sitcom On the Spot, regularly doing ad-libs that had the other actors cracking up constantly. It was even lampshaded with an actor asked what his character was doing and replying "it was terrible, he didn't do one line from the script..."
• This was a common ocurrence in almost every work by Chespirito, especially in El Chavo del ocho and El Chapulín Colorado. The cast would often either lower their faces or hide behind something to cover it up, as seen here.
• Community:
  • Look very closely at Jeff's face in "Virtual Systems Analysis" when Dean Pelton approaches as the "Duali-Dean of Man". A couple of camera angles hide the fact that Joel McHale's about three seconds away from losing it.
  • In "VCR Maintenance and Educational Publishing", the dean enters dressed as a peanut bar and performs a freestyle rap. It quickly goes off the rails before he runs out of the room crying. When he exits, Gillian Jacobs has a smile on her face that is clearly hiding laughter.
  • At the "Cooperative Polygraphy" virtual table read, Pedro Pascal caught a nasty case of the giggles while handing out Pierce's hyper-verile sperm, which made the rest of the cast laugh as well.
• Marg Helgenberger's scene with William Petersen at the end of the CSI episode "Inside The Box" likely counts. Petersen did the pre-surgery scene with Grissom in his hospital gown without wearing anything underneath. Marg/Catherine is seen smirking at the end and you can probably guess why.
  • In the episode "Loco Motives," she cracks up completely at the guy who got himself trapped in wet cement and doesn't try to hide it at all.
• The Cosby Show: When Sandra and Elvin announce that they're both skipping grad school to open a wilderness store, Cliff and Claire are naturally pissed as they had paid for their daughter's Princeton education. When Claire tells her "You owe us $79,648.22, and I. Want. My. Money. Now.", you can see Elvin's actor struggling to keep a straight face.
• Colgate Comedy Hour: In a routine featuring Abbott and Costello, Abbot knocks Costello into the set dressing behind them. After briefly getting distracted, they realize they broke off a piece of the scenery and burst out laughing.
• The Cry of Mann: As a live show, this was inevitable.
  • Looking closely, Lorelei can be seen trying not to laugh in one scene when doing Berry's funny walk.
  • As a literal example, Ben can be seen struggling to keep his straight face when playing a corpse, outright grinning when Jack hugs Jouglat.
• Curb Your Enthusiasm had a few instances of this, but its nature as an improvised show often meant that it was kept in or even had attention drawn to it. In fact, the very first episode includes a scene with Richard Lewis actually telling Larry David that he’s trying to be serious in the face of something amusing.
  • In a later episode that showed another argument between the two, the camera actually cuts to Richard letting a laugh slip.
  • An argument in a restaurant between Larry and Ted Danson visibly shows an extra at the next table listening to the conversation and hiding their face in laughter.

D

• In a 1965 episode of The Dean Martin Show, Dean plays a shop assistant dealing with a customer, played by Bob Newhart, who is returning a toupee. While Newhart is his usual deadpan self (for the most part), Dean cannot stop giggling.
  Dean: (trying not to laugh) Now, do you want a... full exchange? (starts laughing again)
  Bob: Well, I... I'd like a straight man who didn't laugh!
  Bob: (Dean has a huge grin) You're sure you worked with Jerry?
  Dean: Yeahaha! (cracks up again, wiping tears from his eyes) But our stuff wasn't this funny, I'll tell you that!
  Bob: Can I use your phone to...
  Dean: (Looking forward to this) Ooooh, for heaven's sake, yeah!
  • There's also this sketch with Foster Brooks as a drunken airline pilot. Martin's giggles break out at about 1:30, and by 2:20 he's lost all control.
  • This bit, featuring Dom DeLuise, Peter Sellers, and Nipsey Russell as barbers and their patrons, basically abandons all pretense of keeping a straight face before Dean even comes in. By the time Russell ad-libs that he's "the token straight in this bit" (considering how over-the-top effeminate the other actors are), they've all doubled over with laughter.
• Whether on their podcast, Viceland, or Showtime, Desus and Mero (particularly Mero) very freely burst into laughter either at the content they're watching or their quips (and they're just as likely to crack themselves up as each other). Mero has been known to laugh so hard he falls out of his chair on multiple occasions. The most spectacular example comes from them seeing a blatant thirst-trap picture Lizzo posted on her Instagram...which Desus notices was liked by their producer, Michael Pielocik. This discovery and Michael's attempt to explain himself make Mero wheeze laughing, fall out of his chair, and briefly lose his trademark hat.
• Dick & Dom in da Bungalow would feature certainly Dick, and often Dom, cracking up at least once an episode. Brilliantly infectious. In this clip they seriously disturb the peace in a library.
  • There's also the infamous moment where a child rang in, apparently not realizing who they were phoning. The phone is quickly transferred to the child's grandmother...who is equally clueless. By the time the grandmother explains that they "only have channels 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6" (the show was on the digital channel CBBC), the presenters are collapsed on the floor in absolute hysterics.
• Doctor Who:
  • During "The Feast of Steven" segment of "The Daleks' Master Plan", it sounds as though Peter Purves is laughing in the background as William Hartnell has to do a really silly and uncharacteristic line where the Doctor addresses the at-home audience and wishes them a "Happy Christmas".
  • In "The Mind Robber" at one point the Doctor and Zoe are attempting to get through a door. Watch Zoe as the Doctor hides her under his cloak and you can just about tell that Wendy Padbury is laughing underneath it.
  • In "The Seeds of Death", the Doctor is pushed through a door by a gigantic wave of fungus (foam), then accidentally slips and lands on his arse (which was not supposed to happen). Zoe's actress Wendy Padbury is obviously laughing for about a minute while running around trying to fight the foam off — she even keeps laughing despite having lines to say. "That's terror," Padbury explained on the DVD commentary later.
  • In "Spearhead from Space", when the Doctor turns up the charm and swaggers across the room to Liz, Caroline John gives a rather helpless little giggle.
  • In "The Dæmons", in the long shot just after the Doctor gets caught up in the middle of the Morris dance when they all round on him and begin hitting him with their sticks and bladders, you can see Jon Pertwee is cracking up. (Despite the ludicrous description, this is supposed to be a scary scene.)
  • "Revenge of the Cybermen" contains a scene where the Doctor has to tell Sarah, "We're headed for the biggest bang in history." (The writers had missed the Double Entendre, and intended it as a completely straight Wham Line.) It apparently took tens of takes before Tom Baker was able to deliver this line without Elisabeth Sladen — and most of the floor crew — disintegrating into hysterics. In reference to this incident, Robert Holmes added a line to the next serial ("Terror of the Zygons") where the Doctor had to say in a completely serious voice, "was that bang big enough for you, Brigadier?"
  • In "Terror of the Zygons", in the scene where the Doctor is coming round from his anaerobic trance and is supposed to be acting in a spacey sort of way, you can see Tom Baker's upper lip twitch◊ as he almost cracks before regaining his composure.
  • During filming of "The Masque of Mandragora", Tom Baker apparently made himself a nuisance by messing around off-camera in order to make Tim Piggot-Smith (as Marco) crack up during his torture scene.
  • In "The Hand of Fear", Eldrad starts having a Villainous Breakdown and begins Milking the Giant Cow, Chewing the Scenery, and generally foaming at the mouth to extents that are aesthetically indefensible, and when he suddenly raises his voice Tom Baker giggles before turning it into an in-character Grin of Audacity.
  • WhatCulture pointed out that during the scene in "The Creature from the Pit" where the Doctor has to approach a monster that looks like a giant green penis and scrotum and "communicate" with it, Tom Baker, normally very good at keeping a straight face during such things, is clearly about to crack up and even has to hide his smile with his hand at one point.
  • In "Nightmare of Eden", Tom Baker is obviously in intense pain trying not to crack up at the ridiculous, completely made up accent used by the character Tryst.
  • Graham Crowden, who plays Soldeed in "The Horns of Nimon" did this during his death scene. However, it actually comes across as being perfectly in character as Evil Is Hammy, so he gets away with it by turning it into some kind of crazy chortle.
  • Janet Fielding (Tegan) and Sarah Sutton (Nyssa) suffered an attack of the giggles during the making of "Earthshock". To make matters worse, it happened while they were filming the final scene, in which their characters were supposed to be grieving for Adric. Fortunately, they eventually managed to regain their composure, enabling the scene to be filmed; the incident is recounted in the "making of" documentary on the DVD.
  • In "Dragonfire", when Mel and Ace first see the dragon, Mel lets loose with a characteristic scream. Sophie Aldred, inches away, grimaces for real.
  • In "The Christmas Invasion", watch Mickey's face from the point that the Doctor staggers out of the TARDIS to the point that he collapses at Mickey and Jackie's feet. Noel Clarke could barely keep a straight face.
  • "New Earth": As Lady Cassandra takes over the Doctor's body and David Tennant turns up the camp, you can see Billie Piper trying not to crack.
  • In "School Reunion", corpsing was used as Enforced Method Acting. During one scene, Sarah Jane and Rose make fun of the Doctor's mannerisms (namely, his Motor Mouth and his habit of petting the TARDIS). When the Doctor walks in, they both burst out laughing. To get authentic laughter from Billie Piper and Elisabeth Sladen, David Tennant scribbled on his face with a marker when he entered. The laughter from Rose and Sarah Jane is them corpsing over how ridiculous Tennant looked.
  • "The Idiot's Lantern": When the Doctor discovers that Rose's face has been stolen by the Wire, the outtake footage shows David Tennant and Billie Piper being unable to keep character due in large part to Piper having motion dots all over her face for the post-production CGI removal of her face.
  • The outtakes from "The Impossible Astronaut" feature Matt Smith completely losing it over the fact that he had to refer to River Song as Mrs. Robinson.
  • In-Universe:
    • In "Robot", Sarah has to stand still and look serious while the Doctor interrogates Kettlewell about the robot he thinks is killing people. Their conversation is serious but the Doctor is pulling ridiculously intense, bulging-eyed faces in order to make Sarah laugh, which she can't resist, and which he clearly gets a lot of pleasure out of.
    • Strax's Field Report played in cinema releases of "Deep Breath" has him, while sending a video message to the Sontaran battle fleet, make a comment about the Ninth Doctor being "all ears" and subsequently crack up. He then mentions the Eleventh Doctor having "learned to take it on the chin", which causes him to suddenly crack up when he realizes what he's said. Then the more images of the Eleventh Doctor's chin that appear on the screen, the worse his composure gets until he's screaming "CHINS ARE NOT FUNNY" while barely able to stand upright from laughter.

E

• On ER, Kerry Weaver storms into the lounge to chew out Carter, startling him into knocking several things over. Laura Innes promptly did a rapid 360° turn that had most viewers speculating that she was trying to hide her laughter and not ruin the take.
• It is frankly a miracle that any filming got done for Extras, seeing as corpsing came as easy as breathing to most of the cast, particularly Ricky Gervais. These compilations alone don't hold every moment, to a degree where an entire DVD documentary was made about how Gervais made his co-stars crack (and, in turn, how incredibly easy it was to make Gervais crack). The only notable subversion is his in-character duet (as Andy Stokes) of "Fix You" with Chris Martin, which found both able to do the take perfectly, then promptly finish, turn to each other, and burst into laughter.
• During an episode of The Ellen De Generes Show where guests are blindfolded and have to describe the food they're eating to their partners, Dax Shepard and his wife Kristen Bell have an memorable exchange that leaves Ellen in stiches.
  Dax: Chimpanzees eat it. It grows on a tree, it's yellow.
  Kristen: Eucalyptus!

F

• Fast Forward:
  • Cast corpsing was often left in the final product to beautiful comic effect, as in the Kung Fu parody sketch.
    Steve Vizard: [corpsing so hard he can't speak]
    Peter Moon: [also corpsing] It's your line.
  • Just when you thought the Brides of Satan sketch couldn't get any funnier, Magda Szubanski launches into a singong summoning of the devil that has Jane Turner losing it briefly, but completely.
  • This series also has this trope being subverted with Gina Riley's absolutely deadpan delivery as the SBS anchor announcing a late-night line-up that should have had the most seasoned anchor in stitches.
• Father Ted:
  • "And God Created Women" has one instance of this, where Mrs. Doyle lists off vulgar turns of phrase in a certain author's books. After Ted escorts her out, she calls through the door "'Ride me sideways', was another one!" This was unscripted, and Dermot Morgan is evidently trying his hardest not to lose it.
  • Morgan can be seen trying not to laugh when Frank Kelly cries "A pair of feckin' womens knickers!" in "A Christmassy Ted".
  • Dougal's line "...and instead of a mouth, he's got four arses" in "Chirpy Burpy Cheap Sheep" (while describing the mythical Beast of Craggy Island) was improvised by Ardal O'Hanlon. In the episode proper, it appears to go by without breaking anybody up, save for a brief roar of laughter from the audience and no breaking whatsoever from either actor. However, this was apparently edited down from a good long stretch where both Morgan and the audience absolutely pissed themselves laughing.
• In the final episode of Fawlty Towers, Basil attempts to retrieve a rat from a guest's bag, and the husband of said guest is visibly trying to keep a straight face when he confronts Basil over it.
  • The pilot episode of the series has Polly visibly smirking when Basil examines the "valuables" in a guest's suitcase.
• Firefly Gag Reels ([1]):
  • Adam Baldwin continues to show just how seriously he takes his job. When Nathan Fillion screws around, the entire cast laughs at his antics, but Baldwin simply stays in character and even ad-libs lines occasionally. On the other hand, there's "Dammit, Mal, I forgot my line!"
  • One blooper has Fillion spontaneously burst out laughing for no apparent reason then stop. Then he goes, "Okay. (Beat, turns his head) What's my line?" and sets off Gina Torres.
  • One episode actually has an in-universe example. In "Trash", while the crew is manipulating Yolande/Saffron/Bridget, some of their performances are a little...off. At a couple of points during the exaggerated routine, Kaylee gets the giggles.
  • "The Message" has an intentional one where Nathan Fillon ran counter to the rotating camera during an outtake of the funeral scene for Tracey, inserting himself next to each of the characters. A couple are struggling to keep it together by the end as is he. Nathan was trying to raise spirits in his own way after the cancellation news.
  • Also, in 'Trash', Wash is laughing while looking slightly downward at Mal's lower body and unable to speak when Mal is walking around on the ship naked at the end. Nathan Fillon got hold of a picture of Joss Whedon and stuck it on the coverlet he was wearing over his private parts, so that anyone who looked at it would laugh. It's quite possible Alan Tudyk was one of the ones who did just that.
• The Flip Wilson Show: Episode 1.11 featured a corpsing in the classic sense, in a Sherlock Holmes parody sketch with John Byner playing a murder victim who breaks into giggles when the Sherlock Homage played by Flip Wilson examines the body.
• Forever Knight: "False Witness" had a scene at the end with Nick and Natalie watching King Kong (1933) in Nick's loft. Nick startles Nat near the end of the scene by showing his fangs and she responds by throwing popcorn at him. This was actually a prank by Geraint Wyn Davies, rather than a planned part of the scene. The giveaway is that any other time Nick vamps, his eyes go golden, but the actor wasn't wearing the contacts that time, leaving his eyes their usual color. Also, the fangs are slightly crooked. The popcorn throw was probably, rather naturally, Catherine Disher's own reaction.
• The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air:
  • Phil and Will prepare to board an elevator at the hospital. A hot girl walks out of it before they walk on and Will, of course, flirts with her and barks like a dog while doing it before Phil drags him into the elevator. Although he's not seen, you can definitely hear Alfonso Ribeiro (Carlton) laughing like crazy.
  • Will Smith lost it backstage in "Father of the Year" after Geoffrey (Joseph Marcell) quipped about seeing Uncle Phil & Aunt Viv naked.
  • Ribeiro, Karyn Parsons and Tatiana Ali (Hilary & Ashley respectively) played this trope on screen in "Asses to Ashes" when they make Will cry and he starts whining at them. However, they were able to regain control and not break character. Nevertheless, it made the blooper reel during the credits.
  • In "Geoffrey Clean Up" as Uncle Phil is trying on toupees and he quips that one makes him look like Little Richard, Attorney-at-law, when Geoffrey comes in to announce dinner is ready, he then deadpan says, "Ah-wop-bop-ba-loo-bop, ba-lop-bam-boom!" and then quickly turns around as Joseph Marcell smiles in reaction.
  • In "A Night At The Oprah" after Vivian yells at an arguing Carlton and Hilary, she breaks down as another guest consoles her while her loud "cries" were Karyn Parsons' laughter.
  • A reverse example occurs when Will delivered his famous "How come he don't want me, man?" line. Karyn Parsons could be heard crying from offstage.
• Friends:
  • The cast were pretty well known for this. For instance, while Ross plays the keyboard, it's clear Courteney Cox is struggling not to laugh, while Jennifer Aniston is really cracking up while hiding her face.
  • Also, take a look at guest Brad Pitt in this.
  • It even became a Running Gag during the filming. Whenever someone slipped up and corpsed during the scene, in the next take Matthew Perry would make the same mistake, making everyone laugh again.
  • Perry was known for pulling other pranks, like the scene where Richard is declaring his love for Monica (Matthew's character's girlfriend) and Matthew storms onto the set yelling "What the fuck are you doing?" The audience went crazy and none of the actors could keep a straight face for the redo.
  • One episode has Ross playing the bagpipes really badly while the rest of the friends watch with looks of horror on their faces while Phoebe is awestruck in amazement. Phoebe then joins in by singing along, which consists of nothing but her screaming "EEEE!!!" for every note Ross plays. Jennifer Aniston (Rachel) cracks at the hilarity of the scene and you can see her trying to conceal her laughter by hiding her mouth with her hand. In one of the takes via blooper reel, she can't contain the laughter, and everyone laughs along (including Ross!).
  • In another episode, the three guys track down and confront a stripper when they believe she has stolen an engagement ring. David Schwimmer shrieks at her and Matt Le Blanc can clearly be seen with his hands pressed to his mouth to keep from laughing out loud.
  • One more case proving Ross (and possibly Schwimmer himself) was just great for this: as Ross does a dramatic pause regarding a "Geller cup" ("So he took the trophy... and threw it in the lake!"), when it cuts away from him, Jennifer Aniston and Lisa Kudrow don't even attempt to hide that they're laughing. Kudrow also visibly smiles at Perry's snarky response ("And the curse was lifted?").
• In the Frasier episode "Roz and the Schnoz," the characters struggle hilariously to keep it together to avoid offending their guests by laughing at their Gag Noses. The episode's director Ken Levine has admitted some Enforced Method Acting was in play: He instructed the camera crew to keep their shots rolling on any actor who started losing it.

G

• Gaki no Tsukai ya Arahende has a yearly "No Laughing" special that thrives in this trope. The premise is that a group of actors/comedians are placed in a situation (as inmates, spies in training, news reporters, etc.) for 24 hours and are pelted by traps, jokes and sketches to get them to "Corpse", with painful results to the ones that can't keep it together.
  • Also, in one of said specials, several actors were playing dead in a morgue. The investigator examining the bodies went through lengthy measures to prove the bodies were, indeed, dead, causing the actors to flinch or giggle.
  • Maki Horikita, playing as a psychic detective, was caught smirking when her assistant revealed Hamada's "true" identity as a gorilla.
  • In a deleted scene, Jimmy Onishi plays a character that has a difficult time pronouncing Massachusetts. His costar couldn't handle it and starts laughing uncontrollably every time someone says Massachusetts. Keep in mind nobody but the main five stars were supposed to laugh.
• Game of Thrones:
  • Since the Red Wedding was deliberately scheduled as the last scene to be filmed for all the characters who got killed in it, it was very emotional for their actors. This trope became very literal for Oona Chaplin, since she had to be reminded more than once that corpses don't cry while she was lying on the floor after having been gutted.
  • According to the commentary, the biggest spate of corpsing occurred during Joffrey's wedding, in response to the line "This pie is dry." It was late in the day, the cast was tired, and for whatever reason, that line sent them all into a hysterical laughing fit. Especially strange considering what happens immediately after that line.
  • Look carefully at Jon Snow when Ygritte teasingly says, "Ruined! Now I'll never be able to marry a perfumed lord! What will me poor savage father say?" He's valiantly choking back a laugh against all his instincts.
  • During Cersei's walk of shame in "Mother's Mercy", after a prostitute calls out "I've only had half as many cocks as the Queen", Septa Unella can be seen trying not to grin and covering it up by calling out "shame!" - which wouldn't be completely out of character.
  • In-universe; Varys—a former actor—prides himself on his acting ability but frequently struggles or fails to keep a straight face when Tyrion mocks Joffrey. In addition, during the Small Council scenes, Varys has a variety of amusing facial expressions as he reacts to what's going on. Especially when Littlefinger starts talking about his plan to wed Lysa Arryn, Varys does this excellent, bitchy "Oh my god" eye roll. Thanks to Conleth Hill's terrific acting, Varys commenting on a scene purely with his facial expressions becomes a Funny Background Event and a Running Gag.
• The Golden Girls:
  • There's a scene in one episode where Blanche gives the other girls calendars with erotic pictures. There really were some nude pics in the calendar, and you can tell by the reactions.
  • When Rose tells the story about The Great Herring War, they all burst out laughing.
  • One episode featured an event which said that Miami Vice star Don Johnson was unable to host, but he had sent his suit along. In a commentary, screen veteran Bea Arthur recalled she was unable to make it through the scene without bursting into laughter.
• In the case of Green Wing, the threat of corpsing ultimately shaped the whole series, in a strange case of Real Life Writes the Plot. Tamsin Greig (who played the main character Caroline Todd) was totally unable to keep her composure around Mark Heap (who played Alan Statham). They have a couple of awkward scenes together in early episodes, but after that their characters rarely interact.

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