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Funny Background Event / Live-Action Films

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Creators:

  • Any movie by Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker. Their movies are practically made of this trope.
    • Airplane!: "The white zone is for immediate loading and unloading of passengers only." And that's just the first example.
    • Airplane II: The Sequel also had some, such as the drug deal gone bad in the flight control center.
    • In The Naked Gun, whenever Frank Drebin hits something with his car things will escalate in the background.
    • Hot Shots! and Hot Shots! Part Deux both do a ton of these. We have troop drills involving can-can dancing, four ex-presidents having the crap beat out of them, monks taking turns to impress the first girl they have seen in generations, and a reference to the governor of Nebraska making a public apology for his state being so flat. Just for a start.
    • Top Secret!:
      • Two characters are trying to have an exposition-filled conversation in a pizza place. The conversation quickly gets overtaken by two people struggling with an incredibly cheesy pizza in the background.
      • Nick, having been told a jacket and tie are required to enter the club, is led away. A foreground conversation then ensues between two minor characters; in the background Nick is seen being measured and fitted with a custom-made suit.
    • Ruthless People: When the two police detectives talk about what a Happily Married couple Sam and Barbara Stone are, the latter is beating the living shit out of the former, before kicking his ass off the dock.
  • Bong Joon-ho has an affinity for the Funny Background Event.
    • In The Host (2006), while the Park family is writhing on the floor and crying hysterically over Gang-du's daughter Hyun-seo's death, a man in the background chides a woman for not parking properly.
    • In Memories of Murder, the two detectives are arguing while a third makes out with a hostess in the background.

Movies:

  • In 10 Things I Hate About You, we see one of the main characters in the archery range. Just as she is firing her bow, someone else begins talking to her; she misses the target and instead hits the teacher in charge of the class.
  • Advance to the Rear: During the court-martial where Brackenbury and Heath are on trial for cowardice, there's a constant sound from the chickens that are wandering about outside. With each new piece of testimony that only makes the pair seem more cowardly, the chickens get louder.
  • Amélie: While Nino and Eva are discussing Amelie, they are sticking price labels on sex toys in their shop, as if this was the most ordinary thing in the world.
  • An American Carol features some, one involving zombie lawyers. Given the film's clear stance, it's actually not that surprising that they threw in a background scene with them chasing a couple ambulances.
  • All over the place in Abel Gance's Austerlitz. For instance, one scene has the Austrian and Russian generals discussing their strategy for the eponymous battle... while one of them is petting a kitten in the background.
  • An easy-to-miss one in Back to the Future because the camera goes slightly out of focus in the background: when Doc Brown is asked by a police officer for a permit for his "weather equipment", the camera pans downward to focus on Marty putting the letter in the Doc's coat pocket. Meanwhile, in the background, the Doc reaches into his wallet to grab the "permit". A deleted scene shows that the "permit" is actually a $50 bill, which in 1955 was worth quite a lot.
  • After Walter pulls the gun on Smokey in The Big Lebowski, The Dude notes that the bowling alley has called the cops. During the conversation in their car outside afterward, the police can be seen through the back windshield coming into the bowling alley with guns drawn.
  • Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure has sort of a Funny Foreground Event. In a scene where Napoléon Bonaparte is in the car next to Missy, he begins to sidle closer (likely intending to hit on her) while Bill and Ted make their way back to it. Napoleon promptly pulls back when they appear beside the passenger's side window.
  • Black Angel Vol. 1: When Nogi is on the phone to Chiaki, through the window of his car his henchmen can be seen struggling to bury the body of the underling he just executed.
  • In Blindsided: the Game, the paintings in the house of the blind protagonist, Walter, are all hung upside-down.
  • In the movie Bottle Rocket, there's a very touching scene outside of a bar between Anthony and Inez. The camera slowly pulls back, and through the massive window, we can see that inside the bar Anthony's friend Dignan getting completely owned in a bar fight after trying and failing to hustle some guys at pool.
  • In The Breakfast Club, when John Bender has a "bender moment", stabbing his knife into the table and giving a long-winded mean-spirited speech, Allison just barely leans into frame, pulls the knife out of the table, and makes off with it while he's talking.
  • The Cabin in the Woods: Inverted. During the celebration, we continually see Dana getting brutally savaged in the background on the monitors, while the operators carry on partying in the foreground.
    • When the army of monsters is unleashed on the facility, quite a few darkly comedic moments can be glimpsed on the monitors: along with a Monster Clown giggling into one of the cameras, we see a monster with a jack-o-lantern for a head breathing fire at fleeing technicians, a huge creature stealthily creeping up behind an oblivious victim, the Sugarplum Fairy dancing balletically across a blood-splattered room, a couple of goblins taking one of the facility golf carts for a joyride, one of the Dolls hurling a molotov cocktail at a tied-down victim... and of course, Ronald the Intern holding up a sign reading "Help me! A dragonbat has my scent."
  • In Catch-22, two officers are having a conversation near the airfield while a B-25 crash-lands behind them. Neither character notices.
  • In Close Encounters of the Third Kind, during the "communication" scene near the end, when the mothership finally, and quite forcibly, answers the human communication attempts in kind, you see some random guy suddenly deciding that it would be safer to be in the Porta-Potty.
  • In Crank: High Voltage, when an old lady is being interviewed about Chev Chelios' rampage, a goofy guy in the background smiles, waves, flaunts Eve's panties, and gives a thumb's-up.
  • In Dogma while Loki and Bartleby are discussing their plan to get back into heaven, a nun who was earlier taking collections is seen stumbling drunkenly out of a bar.
  • In Don Juan DeMarco, the opening scene shows Don Juan, wearing a mask, going up to a random woman in a hotel restaurant and romantically seducing her, then taking his leave just before her husband arrives. Later in the film, Don Juan goes into the restaurant without his mask. In the background is the woman, looking around longingly.
  • In the beginning of Dumb and Dumber when Lloyd chauffeurs Mary to the airport, he turns his head and tells Mary not to worry about anything while he runs a red light followed by an explosion behind the rear window.
    • When Harry and Lloyd run from the two criminals near the beginning a bum can be seen in the background pissing on a wall.
  • In Dumb and Dumber To, Harry's cat is seen swinging on a chandelier after eating off the roommate's meth tray.
  • Enchanted:
    • Giselle is staring at fish in an aquarium, and Little Mermaid's "Part of Your World" is playing. (Incidentally, Robert's secretary is played by Jodi Benson, the voice of Ariel)
    • In another scene, the poster for Broadway has Wicked on it, while Edward is riding on a bus.
  • In EuroTrip, when Scott it talking to Mieke's father in their home in Berlin, her little brother is seen goose-stepping back and forth with a drawn-on Hitler mustache.
  • Fatal Instinct: At a murder scene the cops in the background keep falling over each other due to the amount of blood on the floor.
  • The Fault in Our Stars: Isaac beating the crap out of Gus' trophies and egging Monica's car, both of which happen during Gus and Hazel's heart-to-hearts.
  • In Fight Club, the Narrator is talking to Marla on the phone as Tyler dicks around with nunchucks in the back ground.
    • The unforgettable "Lovemaking Scenes" between Marla and Tyler, which are not on camera but HIGHLY audible when The Narrator is going about his daily life.
  • In The Flintstones, while Wilma and Betty are chatting in the foreground, Bamm-Bamm pushes Pebbles on the swings so hard she goes a full 360-degree around the bar. Twice.
  • During the finale of the Elvis Presley film Fun in Acapulco, Raoul can be seen dancing on a hat!
  • After the Ghostbusters (1984) blast an unwitting hotel maid's cart with their proton packs, she can be seen in the background feebly attempting to put out a flaming toilet paper roll with a spray bottle of what looks like glass cleaner while our protagonists have a conversation in the foreground.
  • Godzilla (2014): After the soldiers managed to successfully steal the live nuke away from MUTO's nest, the next scene shows them running like hell, carrying the ticking-down nuke like it's a sofa they stole, while the titular monsters are kicking the crap out of each other in the background.
  • In Gremlins, when Billy's dad in on the phone at his inventor's convention, in the background is a time machine (like the one used in the 1960 film, The Time Machine, also seen on The Big Bang Theory). The time machine disappears (having gone back in time) and people start feeling the air around where it was, looking for it.
  • George also does it in A Hard Day's Night during "If I Fell", when he accidentally knocks over an amp. Most likely a case of Throw It In!.
  • Harry Potter
    • In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Harry and Draco are stuck wandering through the Forbidden Forest together and they stumble upon Professor Quirrell drinking unicorn blood, who menacingly advances on Harry. The scene's rather terrifying... except for the part where you see Draco running across the background screaming like a pansy.
      • Even better when you consider that they're told Fang is a coward, and he's the one who brings help.
    • The young, inexperienced leads can be seen at times mouthing each other's lines during stretches of dialogue. You can clearly see Emma Watson doing it as the trio heads to Hagrid's in the daytime towards the end of the movie. Watson revealed years later on Jimmy Kimmel Live! that she was particularly bad at this and frequently ruined takes.
    • In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, when kids are attending the Dueling Club, Snape sets Draco against Harry. As Snape is walking away past him, he gives Malfoy the "slit throat" gesture.
    • In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban:
      • As Harry stalks off furiously after blowing up Aunt Marge, you can see her floating away in the distance.
      • When Buckbeak is introduced at Care of Magical Creatures, most of the class backs off as Hagrid asks for a volunteer, except for Harry. Neville, still something of a Lovable Coward at this point in his character development, abruptly ducks out of sight behind a boulder.
      • At the end of the film, just as Harry is running out of the castle to try out the Firebolt that Sirius gifted to him, the crowd of students in his wake obviously include Malfoy and his cronies, who only distanced themselves from the rest of the crowd out of pride.
    • Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire has something of a Triumphal Background Event that plays off the humor of a Funny Foreground Event: in the second task, after Neville exclaims "I've killed Harry Potter!" while facing the area of the camera, Harry leaps out of the water in the distance, receiving cheers from his peers. He disappears by the time Neville turns around.
    • In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Ron is under the effects of a Love Potion. Harry takes him to Slughorn, and while the latter two are talking to each other about Ron's condition, Ron, who was sitting on the sofa, falls on his back.
    • In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, after the battle is over and Harry, Ron and Hermione enter the Great Hall, Filch is in the background contemplating the enormous pile of rubble before him and then ineffectually sweeping the bit of floor at the bottom of it.
  • Hellboy II: The Golden Army has an early scene where the main characters are just strolling past BPRD agents wrestling with some kind of tentacle monster.
  • In Help!, when the other Beatles are talking to a jeweller to try and get Ringo's ring removed, George is quietly sneaking items into his pockets. In fact, George does quite a lot of this throughout the entire film.
    • John and George do funny things in the background alternately in the "Another Girl" sequence. Usually it's George throwing rocks at the camera or Ringo.
    • In the restaurant scene, a couple of diners are casually talking while a waiter is being strangled behind them. When they look, they scoff it off saying that "this is a lively place!". Most of the scene consists of the Kaili cult replacing the restaurant staff in the background while nobody seems to question why the music band, the waiters, cooks and manager are getting beaten up.
  • The Hobbit:
    • Óin's Ear Trumpet is stomped on and crushed flat when the Company are captured by goblins. After they escaped, Óin is seen using it, anyways.
    • Plenty moments in Bag End during the unexpected party. One involved Fíli and Kíli trying to figure out how to operate a tap on a beer barrel, apparently giving up and just bringing the entire barrel out.
    • When Bilbo suggests that the trolls skin the dwarves (to buy them time), Thorin is seen yelling and uselessly flailing in anger, along with the other dwarves (who are all on their backs except for Fíli who is desperately trying to turn over and failing).
  • Hot Fuzz:
    • After the sea-mine fails to detonate, when Angel is reporting Mr. Webley's weapons stash back to the station Webley and Danny can be seen cheerfully kicking and whacking it about behind him.
    • Skinner's smile after telling Nicholas to look through the security footage perfectly mirrors the photo of himself directly behind him, and later one of security cameras shows him holding a newspaper.
    • Any time Nicholas is doing his "top cop" schtick and Danny's in the shot, he's shown reacting and learning from it.
    • In the climax, as Nick rides into Sandford, strapped to the neck on a horse, determined to take care of business, he's just under the banner for Sandford's Village of the Year banner. Which says "Good Luck, Sandford!"
    • An audio version. During Angel's fight in the supermarket with Lurch, Doris can be heard in the background shooting at the butchers and screaming "DIE YOU BASTARD TWINS".
  • Subverted in The Hudsucker Proxy. Norville breaks the window in Mussburger's office, causing the pages of "the Bumstead Contract" to fly away. Trying to save them, Mussburger accidentally chases one out the window, in an apparent Ironic Echo of his boss's suicide earlier that day. Then it cuts to Bumstead himself downstairs, papers flapping past the window behind him, demanding to see Mussburger. "Or did he fall out a window too?" Instead of Mussburger falling past the window, we cut back upstairs and see that Norville has caught him by the legs. The scene then turns into an Overly Long Gag as to whether he'll fall or not (he doesn't).
  • In Idiocracy, when Joe goes to the hospital, the "doctor" insults him for his low intelligence, then tells him that "There's lots of tards out there livin' really kick-ass lives. My first wife was tarded — she's a pilot now." Not ten minutes later, while Joe and Co are being chased by the police, a plane simply drops out of the air and crashes. Later in the movie, in Costco, the crashed plane is seen still stuck in Costco, where it crashed. Even better, when in later viewings you realize the plane didn't just crash, but one of the cops fired their rocket launcher backwards and shot the plane down...
  • In the beginning of Independence Day, there's a scene where Will Smith's character and his buddy have a conversation in a locker room about the former's desire to propose to his girlfriend. The other fellow is like, it's easy, man, and even proceeds to kneel to half-jokingly "demonstrate" how to do it. At that moment, some other soldier shows up in the background, notices the scene, raises his hands in a "didn't mean to interrupt" gesture and backs out without a word.
  • James Bond:
    • In GoldenEye as Q gives James Bond his latest gadgets, we see a hapless lab assistant try to make a call from a phone booth situated in the lab, only to get squashed against the glass by an airbag that explodes from within the booth. For bonus points, we briefly see the phone booth being wheeled off a minute later, with the whimpering assistant still trapped inside.
    • Q scenes were rife with this trope.
    • You Only Live Twice has an unintentional case of this: as Tanaka's ninjas are attacking the base, Blofeld talks to Bond... and his Right-Hand Cat is dead scared and trying to escape.
  • Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back:
    • Jay and Silent Bob attempt to leave the film shoot, as Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are filming Goodwill Hunting 2. A crew member is then seen escorting them back to their spot.
    • In the same film, Jay notices an attractive reporter doing a story about the two of them and makes crude gestures and body movements behind her on camera without her even noticing.
  • In Jekyll And Hyde Together Again, Dr. Lanyon hooks his patient Mrs. Simpson to a device that would enlarge her breasts. Lanyon then leaves her unattended as Dr. Jekyll comes in to tell him about his transformation into Mr. Hyde, in fact transforming again while explaining the situation. Meanwhile...
  • In the MTV cult classic Joe's Apartment:
    • When the insane artist Walter Shit talks with Joe about his avant-garde experiment to create a new race of "periwinkle" (which involves dumping cans of paint on random passer-by in front of Joe's apartment building), a guy in a three-piece suit and briefcase is seen walking away in the background, his entire head and shoulders dripping in pink paint.
    • Later on, Joe gathers some manure from horse-drawn carriages and puts it in a plastic shopping bag, intending to give it to his love interest, Lily, to use to fertilize her public garden. On his bus trip there, he's disappointed to see her through the window, embracing a man in a suit. In the background of his reaction shot, his fellow passengers, including a few nuns, are all holding their nose from the stench of the bag.
  • Jurassic Park:
    • Jurassic Park: In his scene with Dennis, Dodgson exits his car he's being driven around in, and neglects to shut his car door. His driver has to get out and shut it for him, throwing him a dirty look and gesture from behind him.
    • Jurassic World: As Zach and Gray are about to enter the Restricted Area of the titular park in the Gyrosphere, a pair of Parasaurolophus get into a brief fight in the background.
    • Jurassic World Dominion: In the underbelly of Malta, when Owen and Delacourt fall into the pit and start fighting each other, you can see several of the gamblers pulling out money, clearly betting on the victor just like they do with dinosaur cock-fights. This, despite the fact there are already a few freed carnosaurs roaming around.
  • Kick-Ass: When Red Mist is trying to load the video from the "nanny-cam", take a look at the other videos saved on it...
  • In Larger than Life, one scene shows Jack Corcoran (Bill Murray) talking to the elephant while Tip Tucker (Matthew McConaughey) is on the phone with his boss and he discovers that Jack betrayed him. Watching Tip's exaggerated poses with the juxtaposition of the heartfelt speech from Jack is but one of the funny moments of this film.
  • The Steve Martin movie L.A. Story is full of hilarious background moments: During the opening monologue, Harris K. Telemacher is riding an exercise bike in an outdoor park (which has signs clearly stating "No Running"). While the camera is zoomed in on him, in the background a guy on a stationary rowing machine has a heart attack. An ambulance shows up, he's carted off, and another eager exerciser eagerly claims the now-vacant rowing machine. All in the space of 10 seconds, silently in the background.
  • The Last Samurai has an unintentional example: in a scene where Nathan Algren meets up with his troops, a horse can be seeing kicking one of the soldiers in the nuts.
  • Reversed and Played for Laughs in Loaded Weapon 1, when in the background of one scene a woman is seen being asked by the cops to describe a suspect. She gives a description, and the police sketch artist is assembling a Mr. Potato Head based on the woman's description. In a later scene, a person looking like Mr. Potato Head is arrested by the police. (And protests that he's innocent.)
  • Local Hero: After talking with Reverend McPherson, Mac and Danny discuss their opinions of the reverend and how the deal is going so far; as they do, half the village's population is sneaking out of the church hall where they were eavesdropping.
  • There are quite a few of these in Looney Tunes: Back in Action:
    • While Bugs and Kate are talking in the studio commissary, Ralph Wolf is seen about eat a sheep before inevitably getting beaten up by Sam Sheepdog. Later in that same scene, the man from "One Froggy Evening" steals Michigan J. Frog and dashes away.
    • While the main characters wandering the desert, Wile E. Coyote tries to blow them up with an Acme missile, only for it to misfire and land right next to him. The scene then cuts to an unrelated scene of the gang while a huge explosion can be seen in the background.
    • Bugs and Daffy usually make a couple visual gags when the live-action humans are talking.
  • Several in The Lord of the Rings movies.
    • In The Fellowship of the Ring, Merry and Pippin can often be seen goofing off in the backgrounds of otherwise serious scenes.
    • In The Two Towers, after the big flood we can see an Ent extinguishing his burning head in the water. Unusual in that he's actually in the foreground, but it's still easy to miss.
    • In The Return of the King, Gandalf wryly laments the tragic end of Denethor, the Steward of Gondor, while directly behind him, a maddened Denethor (who has gone mad from grief and guilt) — who is on fire — runs screaming in slow-motion for a long distance before finally leaping straight off the edge of a high cliff. Doubles as Narm (especially Narm Charm) and Meaningful Background Event. The supposed solemnity of the moment is very much not helped by the fact that Gandalf says "So passes Denethor, son of Ecthelion" just as the burning Denethor, well, passes Gandalf and a gaggle of guards as he runs out screaming, making it seem like Gandalf's tribute is an archaic way of saying "heads up, guy on fire coming through!"
    • Also from the Return, as Aragorn is taking a breather at the end of the battle near Minas Tirith, we see one of the giant elephant creatures still running around behind him, looking like it might get a little too close to Aragorn if he's not careful... and then the ghost army that Aragorn enlisted the help of earlier in the film overruns and overwhelms it until it falls over.
    • Legolas got his own montage of weird background faces.
  • In one scene in Love and Death, while one of Napoleon's advisers plots treachery, in the background, Napoleon is teaching his Body Double how to walk like him, and the two of them get in an argument that ends with a fistfight.
  • In Maleficent, when Maleficent and Diaval are about to storm King Stefan's castle, they begin arguing over who goes in (she wants him to stay out, he wants to go in with her), and Diaval lets go of the unconscious Prince Phillip to gesture with his hands. As he's speaking, you can see Phillip (who is magically enhanced to float like a balloon) start to drift away in the background.
  • The Man from U.N.C.L.E.:
    • Napoleon Solo casually enjoyis a purloined snack with wine while Ilya engages on a mayhem filled boat chase.
    • Solo and Kuryakin discuss what to do with Uncle Rudi, blissfully oblivious to the man burning up in his faulty electric torture device.
  • An unintentional example in Manos: The Hands of Fate, which was shot on location, on an ultra-low budget, so the filmmakers had very little control over what ended up making it into the film: namely, the swarms of moths that fly into the night scenes, attracted by the lamps. Some of these edge into Funny Foreground Event territory, as the moths get way too close to the camera.
  • Marvel Cinematic Universe:
    • Guardians of the Galaxy (2014): Rocket is explaining the tools he needs for his escape plan and they momentarily argue over the difficulty of obtaining the quarnex battery before Rocket continues his explanation. Meanwhile, Groot in the background casually walks up to the battery and starts tearing it out of the wall, inadvertently knocking out another inmate in the process. Drax also wanders into the background and watches Groot, then glances around, clearly wondering why no-one is stopping him.
      Rocket: Now, this is important. Once the battery is removed, everything is gonna slam into emergency mode. Once we have it, we gotta move quickly, so you definitely need to get that last.
      [Groot removes the battery and the alarms go off]
      Rocket: Or we could just get it first and improvise!
    • Inverted near the beginning of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, when Baby Groot's antics happen in the foreground while the battle against the giant monster goes on in the background.
    • Avengers: Age of Ultron: While Tony is in Norway searching the internet for answers, two techs can be seen in the background taking a selfie with him.
    • Avengers: Infinity War: Mantis is seen doing a number of background events throughout the film, like putting on a "mean" face when the Guardians were answering a distress call, or when she was jumping on the low-gravity surface of Titan.
    • Avengers: Endgame: During the final battle, just before Captain America and Thor swap hammers, Mantis can be seen using her powers to put one of Thanos's mooks to sleep.
  • The Mask has a few funny background events.
    • During the scene where Stanley arrives late at work after the bank had been robbed and is verbally bullied by his boss. Stanley lets loose on his boss, warning him to back off or he'll tell his boss' father that he's using the bank as his own piggy bank or maybe he'll call the IRS and arrange a trip for his Boss to Club Fed. His boss is shaken and backs off. In the background, two police officers are clearly laughing at the scene unfolding.
    • During The Mask's faux Oscar speech, the villains do their best to look presentable for the camera.
    • When the criminals begin to take hostages in the Coco Bongo, Stanley's cranky landlady scolds the thugs for talking back to the mayor as they're being rounded up.
  • Mean Girls:
    • During Cady's phone call with Regina, you can see Regina's little sister watching Girls Gone Wild and lifting up her shirt while cheering.
    • The two girls making out at the Halloween party. Tina Fey points this out in the commentary, and says she has no idea how they got away with it.
  • Men in Black:
    • The scene with the Human Alien couple where K talks to Reggie while J struggles to deliver the woman's baby in the car ("Did anything about that seem unusual to you?").
    • Zed neuralyzing the rejected recruits as J and K walk by.
    • While K and J look at the screen showing the disguised aliens, some MIB office workers talk in the background, with one of them standing on the ceiling.
  • An odd, possibly unintentional one occurs in Hulk Hogan vehicle Mr. Nanny. During a short montage of Hogan's character riding his motorcycle, he passes by the ocean - behind him, a man can be seen throwing a dog in the water.
  • Nope:
    • When the Haywoods and Angel are in a fast-food joint after narrowly escaping the UFO with their lives, two rival sports team fans can be seen getting into a fight through the diner window.
    • When Jean Jacket appears at the Star Lasso Experience, while the rest of the audience is eagerly looking up at it an employee in a red hat can be seen quickly grabbing her backpack as if she's decided "Nope!" and is getting out of there. And sure enough, she got out just in time.
  • In the Alfred Hitchcock classic North By Northwest, during the scene in the Mount Rushmore cafe, a precognitive boy in the background puts his fingers in his ears right before Eve "shoots" Roger... because Hitchcock shot eleven takes on that one scene, and the boy was apparently getting bothered by the noise.
  • An otherwise dour conversation scene in the (rather insular) Finnish film On the Road to Emmaus (Emmauksen Tiellä) shows two unnamed men in the distance behind the actors, taking turns jumping on an anti-tank mine. The result is predictable.
  • In Pacific Rim, as Gottlieb rattles off his predictions to Pentecost and Herc, Geiszler can be seen making "blah blah blah" motions with his hand. Likewise, in an earlier scene, when Geiszler gushes about how much he loves Kaiju to Raleigh, Gottlieb is shaking his head.
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
    • In the climactic fight scene between the Black Pearl and the Interceptor, while Barbossa is looking all dramatic and shouting orders, a pirate can be seen behind him dangling in mid-air from a bunch of ropes while his shipmates try to get him down.
    • When Murtogg and Mullroy begin arguing about how just because a ship has black sails doesn't make it the Black Pearl, we see Jack slowly slide out of frame, then appear in the background walking across the gangplank to the Interceptor and happily positioning himself behind the wheel. It's only then they realise he's no longer standing next to them.
  • There are many in Pitch Perfect.
    • In one scene, Donald is riding a unicycle and gets hit in the back of the head with a flying object. This causes him to fall off his unicycle and head face-first towards the concrete.
    • When the Treble-Makers are all in the hot-tub, the TV is showing a porn movie, with two women in their underwear, one of them is using a feather-duster to dust a lamp.
  • Done by accident in Plan 9 from Outer Space when the police investigating the graveyard are knocked off their feet by the exhaust from a Flying Saucer overhead. As one of the cops stands up again, he accidentally kicks over a prop tombstone. Director Ed Wood was famous for his "one take is enough" ethos.
  • Jaques Tati's Playtime is entirely built on Funny Background Events. Tati wanted to make a comedy without a central character to focus on, so all of the humor comes from stuff in the background. And there are so many of them that you have to watch the movie over to catch all the visual humor.
  • Prom Wars: In one scene where Diana and the other prefects talk about the next step of the competition, two girls standing just beyond the doorway to the next room get into an inaudible argument and start slapping each other.
  • Raiders of the Lost Ark: After Indy shoots the Cairo swordsman, one person in the background is seen stealing the sword immediately afterwards.
  • The second Revenge of the Nerds movie combines this with an Overly Long Gag. In one scene, the Alpha Betas are meeting at their local frat house, discussing their scheme to get rid of the Tri-Lambs, and during the whole meeting (which takes about five or so minutes), Ogre, the big, muscular member of the group, is in the bathroom behind them, peeing the entire time, only stopping at the end of the scene.
  • In R.O.T.O.R., the climactic battle between R.O.T.O.R. and Steele takes place in the background while Coldyron helps Sonya to safety in the foreground.
    Jay: This is like a Zucker Brothers gag!
  • Ruthless People:
    • When cops come to ask Sam to identify a body they believe to be Barbara's, some plainclothes detectives are playing on his tennis court.
    • When Carol and Earl finally get around to watching the tape they think is of Sam killing Barbara, but really is of Police Chief Benton cheating on his wife with a hooker, in the middle of a department store, they end up outing the thing to Benton's wife, as a woman is heard yelling "That's my husband!"
    • Speaking of Chief Benton, as Sam is getting ready to actually pay the ransom, Benton can be seen packing up his money and ticket to get out of town.
    • After Sam and Barbara reunite, two cops are walking away, talking about how great they must feel — all the while Barbara, who'd gotten wise to Sam's true feelings, is beating the shit out of him.
  • Scary Movie 3:
    • The news channel where the heroine works only cares about showing sexy, risque, or obscene things, so they intentionally shoot serious news with provocative things going on in the background.
    • As George is breaking the news to Sue that her teacher Brenda died in the most brutal way possible, Tom is standing in the background wincing, making stop motions with his arms and cringing, then walks out of the room.
  • Scott Pilgrim vs. The World features several of these.
    • Two of the best being Scott diving through the window of his apartment to escape when Knives comes ringing (and then reaching back in to get his jacket), and the other being the Vegan Police doing a jumping high-five and shouting "YEAH!" when they leave after depowering Todd.
    • In the climax, one of the side characters remarks, "The comic is always better than the movie." In the pre-climax, the line was "Yeah, their first album was definitely better than their first album."
    • At various times, Young Neil will do small, but weird things in the background. His very last moment is probably the strangest. In fact, in the cast commentary on the DVD, the cast basically tell the viewers to watch Young Neil every time he's in the background of a scene, because he's always doing something really weird and funny. Most of these "moments" were just Johnny Simmons messing around while remaining (semi) in character.
  • The wrestling match in Sixteen Candles when Jake is talking to his friend about Sam.
  • In Woody Allen's Sleeper, while Woody's character is disguised as a robot butler, he attempts to deal with an out of control, sentient gelatin mold while Luna and one of her party guests have an obliviously-mundane conversation.
  • Someone Great: While Erin and Leah are having a serious conversation about their relationship, Blair (who is on drugs and listening to music) is in the background watering Leah's plants and dancing.
  • In the very first scene of Spartacus, an extra can be seen slowly sliding backwards down the mountain behind the actors.
  • The Amazing Spider-Man Series:
    • A delightfully aloof librarian carries out his business with noise-cancelling headphones playing classical music in his ear. He walks out of the Midtown High library, never realizing that Spider-Man and the Lizard have demolished the place mid-brawl, with Spidey even webbing a Lizard-flung desk away from the elderly man, very likely saving his life. This scene will likely go down as Stan Lee's best Creator Cameo ever.
    • Later in the movie, when Spidey is talking to Gwen on the phone, three girls in the background can be seen spotting him, pointing to him, and then taking a selfie.
  • Star Trek Into Darkness:
    • When the experimental torpedoes are delivered to the Enterprise, Keenser is seen in the background sitting on one and looking rather taken with it while Scotty is pitching a fit at Kirk.
      Scotty: Get down!
    • At the end of the Cold Open, the native casually dropping the sacred scroll as they start worshipping the Enterprise instead.
    • When Kirk and Scotty meet up with McCoy in sickbay after Spock detonates the torpedoes, Scotty glances down at McCoy's arm and goes wide-eyed. The doctor rearmed all the torpedoes the same way he armed the first one, getting his arm repeatedly caught by the sliding panels.
  • Lots of them in Star Wars.
    • Attack of the Clones: During the scene where Anakin and Padme first arrive on Naboo and Padme is telling him about how she wasn't the youngest Queen ever elected, R2-D2 can be seen falling behind as he struggles to climb the stairs.
    • Revenge of the Sith:
      • When Obi-Wan is about to duel General Grievous, there are two droids in the background. One of them is looking away, and then the other droid pokes him in a "Check this out, it's gonna be good" kind of way. The other droid turns to look at what is happening.
      • Then, later in the Battle of Utapau, as Obi-Wan rides past on Boga, a clone trooper can be seen punching a battle droid.
    • A New Hope:
      • A stormtrooper in the back (unintentionally) bangs his head on the scenery after they cut their way into the control room where 3PO and R2 are hiding (the DVD even adds a "THUD!" to ensure viewers don't miss it). This also happens when the stormtroopers are shooting at Luke and Leia over the big chasm.
      • Obi-Wan rolling his eyes at Han Solo's obvious BS about his Kessel Run performance.
    • The Empire Strikes Back:
      • Luke rolling his eyes after Han says to Leia: "I just think you can't bear to let a gorgeous guy like me out of your sight."
      • Admiral Ozzel getting strangled while Vader talks to Captain Piett, who is officially promoted to Admiral once Ozzel drops dead. Behind him the various other staff members can be seen desperately trying to focus on their work, and Piett is also obviously trying not to look at Ozzel. Once Ozzel drops dead, one guy finally does turn and look at his corpse, before going back to work.
      • An IG unit in the Cloud City furnace.
    • Return of the Jedi:
      • The creature in the corner of the Tatooine Scenery Porn shot snagging some prey with its tongue, eating it then belching.
      • When Luke Force Kicks one of the guards during the fight at Jabba's Sail Barge, you can see an out of control Boba Fett fly through the air.
      • When Luke is being escorted back to the turbolift after his talk with Vader on Endor, a stormtrooper, who apparently overheard the conversation, can be seen turning to stare at him.
      • When Threepio explains that the Ewoks think he is a god, Luke is seen trying not to laugh. Especially during the following exchange, where either Mark Hamill is Corpsing terribly, or Luke finds the whole situation hilarious.
    • The Last Jedi: BB-8 fighting a squad of stormtroopers in the background while Finn and Phasma are fighting.
  • Shaun of the Dead: Tons, but the topper has to be the lovers necking in the alley by the bar. The second time we see them, the man's head is bitten off. Talk about "necking".
  • In Super 8, while Charles is filming Alice and Martin at the train depot, Preston walks up to a pay-phone in the background and silently pretends to be speaking into it, but he's obviously just opening and closing his mouth.
  • In Super Mario Bros. (1993), after Koopa's defeat, Mario, Luigi, and Daisy can be seen dancing with Bertha and the old lady that stole the rock earlier.
  • Sympathy for Lady Vengeance: When the Witch is forcing her newest slave to pleasure her in the bathroom, Geum-ja can be seen over her shoulder, soaping the floor. This receives a payoff later.
  • In Ted 2, John and Ted are fighting in the background while Samantha is on the phone.
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:
    • When Splinter is explaining how April is their hogosha (guardian spirit), Donatello lowers his goggles and scans April as if he was trying to verify Splinter's claim.
    • When Splinter is lamenting April's involvement during the Turtles' hashi punishment, Mikey's hand can be seen reaching for the pizza slice Splinter used to break his concentration. At the end of the scene he can be seen happily munching away on it.
  • In Teen Wolf, one of the extras in the basketball game scene exposed himself. This was part of the reason this movie was rented so much. According to the IMDB's trivia page: "Immediately behind actors Michael J. Fox and James Hampton, an extra (in a red sweater) can be seen with an unzipped fly. This incident later resulted in an Internet rumor that the extra is a man exposing himself. However, the unmatted full frame version of the film reveals that the extra is actually a woman."
  • That Thing You Do! makes a parking meter-jumping scene both funny and pivotal in the film.
  • The Three Musketeers becomes much funnier when you watch the facial expressions of the random extras reacting to King Louis' latest bit of loony behavior.
  • The World's End: When Andy first initiates the pub brawl with the Blanks in The Beehive, Gary is calmly attempting to finish his pint.
  • Even documentaries aren't immune. One of the Up movies has the now-famous scene where one of the subjects' dog kills a rabbit in the bushes behind her during the interview.
  • Tommy Boy: Inside a gas station, Richard asks the clerk how far they are from Davenport, Iowa; meanwhile, Tommy accidentally unhinges the driver's side door trying to pump gas, and is seen from inside the station struggling to force it back in place.
  • Vamps: A man on a hospital gurney checking his cell phone when Goody runs into her old boyfriend from the sixties.
  • WarCraft has a few:
    • When the dwarf in Ironforge reads a message brought to him, Lothar can be seen in the background examining the "boomstick", including looking into the muzzle and pulling the bullet out and smelling it.
    • When Medivh confronts Khadgar and starts throwing him around by magic for intruding into his library, Lothar can be seen wincing and leaning back with most hilarious facial expression.
    • When Medivh absentmindedly gives his staff to Khadgar and starts casting teleportation, Khadgar can be seen in the back looking at it with something approaching religious reverence. The same happens again when Medivh plants his staff in the ground and Khadgar picks it up and looks at it in awe.
    • When Llane and Lothar are having war council, Khadgar can be seen in the back stumbling around the armory.
    • After he charges the Horde at the Dark Portal and leaps off to fight, Lothar's gryphon can be seen right behind him beating anything that comes at it.
  • In The Waterboy, while Vicki is talking to a field reporter about her predictions on the outcome of the game, Bobby's mama walks behind them, notices she's on camera, and starts dancing to the marching band music.
  • In Who Framed Roger Rabbit, at the end, just after the wall into Toontown is broken, a train zooms across the field of view. If you pause and go frame by frame, you'll find a different crime being committed in each car (murder, etc.).
  • In The Wild World of Batwoman, one long scene of exposition is punctuated by a couple of girls in the background, wrestling over a horseshoe.
  • Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory has quite a few, some of which are in the foreground.
    • During the opening number "The Candy Man," Bill opens the counter top to let the kids in. One of them gets smacked in the head.
    • During Mike Teevee's interview, Slugworth has infiltrated the scene disguised as a reporter, and tries to blend in by swishing his microphone to and from Mike every time he speaks.
    • During "Pure Imagination", Veruca and Violet elbow and claw at each other as they descend the stairs into the Chocolate Room. This was actually thrown in by Julie Dawn Cole and Denise Nickerson, as the cast's only direction was that they could not stand in front of Gene Wilder.
    • In addition, Mr. Salt gets increasingly annoyed when Wonka keeps stopping them.
    • Violet has an absolutely exasperated expression when Veruca starts demanding an Oompa-Loompa.
    • After Mike gets shrunk and placed in his mothers purse, his muffled voice can be heard protesting his confinement and demanding to be let out for the rest of the scene while the other characters ignore him.
  • Wonder Woman (2017):
    • In London scenes where Diana struggles with her Fish out of Water experiences, you can see many British citizens giving her weird looks in the background.
    • When the inhabitants of Veld celebrate their village's liberation with Diana and her team, the German tank Diana smashed into a building during the fighting is repeatedly shown to be still lying where it fell, with the Belgians simply having set up their tables around the wreck without a care in the world.
  • X-Men Film Series
    • X-Men:
      • Magneto is giving out orders in his barren cave-office as a Newton's Cradle clicks back and forth on his desk. As he turns to leave, the little metal balls clatter to the floor, revealing that there were no wires and it was just him mentally fidgeting.
      • The audio of the news broadcast at the end of the movie is quite amusing in a dark way.
      "In a related story, the body of Senator Kelly's longtime aide, Henry Guyrich, was found today. Preliminary coroner reports seem to indicate that Guyrich was mauled by a bear."
    • X-Men: First Class: Combined with a Brick Joke, Amy (the first woman that Charles tries to pick up at the beginning of the movie) shows up at his graduation party and smiles at him — then Moira MacTaggert cuts in front to talk with Charles. Behind them, Amy leaves in a huff because she's annoyed that Xavier would rather chat with Moira than with her.
    • Deadpool: When Colossus and Deadpool are on the bridge arguing about Deadpool's recklessness, a dead mook falls off an overhead sign onto a car.
    • X-Men: Apocalypse:
      • When the scantily-clad lady who holds up the "Kampf 11" sign passes by the cage, Angel wolf-whistles at her.
      • After Jean Grey dismisses Scott Summers as an airhead when he's rude to her for reading his mind ("Don't worry, Scott, there's not much to see"), Alex can be seen laughing at her joke.
  • In the film version of You Can't Take It With You, as the family is packing up to move away, Rheba and Donald are having a conversation in the kitchen. Behind them, Kolenkhov is stuffing his pockets with sandwiches.
  • Young Doctors in Love, a 1982 Garry Marshall comedy has quite a few. The best one: A midget attempting to hang up a wall phone placed very high. Also the announcements like "Dr. Pepper, Dr. Pepper, please report to the diabetes ward" deserve mention.
  • In Zombieland, when Tallahassee is smashing up the minivan the building behind him has several posters in the window related to the plague including one showing a grenade and the phrase "Solve It". It's even funnier when you see it's a bridal store.

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