30 Rock uses these pretty frequently. An early example is in the season one episode "Tracy Does Conan", in which Tracy is suffering some strange side effects from his new medication, leading Liz to have to call his doctor for help while behind her, we see a raving Tracy trying to put his shoes in the fish tank and then being rocked like a baby, with thumb in mouth, by Dot-Com in an attempt to soothe him.
The Adventures of Pete & Pete episode "Yellow Fever", in which Big Pete's class gets lost on the way to a field trip, has Bus Driver Stu pull over in to ask for directions, only to find upon further inspection that the farmer he wanted help from was actually a scarecrow. Meanwhile, the main subplot continues on the bus, but look through the bus's windows and you see Stu beating the crap out of the scarecrow.
In the last scene of Alice, Alice and Hatter are reunited and make out. In the background, Alice's mother stares at them and is clearly thinking, "What the Hell is going on?"
Also arguably half the karaoke singers in Caritas.
Cordelia is ranting about how insensitive Angel is to her friends' needs, while in the background Doyle is being throttled by a demon tentacle.
In "Guise Will Be Guise", Magnus Bryce attempts to use his daughter Virginia as a Virgin Sacrifice to a demon, but it doesn't work because she is not a virgin. Virginia reveals she had been sleeping around for quite a while, including with some of Magnus' minions. When she says this, one of the minions tries to sneak away.
Eve and Gunn are arguing in Gunn's office, and through the window we see a literally Ax-Crazy employee stalking towards them holding a fire axe. Just as he's about to swing it at the window, a guard tackles him to the ground. Eve and Gunn turn and see no one there, so go back to their conversation.
One example happens after the show Mad Money moves the Bluth company up to "Risky". In the foreground Michael walks into the office talking on his phone, in the background though you can see a half fallen sign saying "risky business", a collapsed ladder, a man next to the ladder rubbing his head and a man limping dressed in his underwear, white t-shirt and sunglasses saying "I couldn't see through the glasses and I slid into the ladder" and someone else changing the number of days since accident. This all takes place in 3 seconds and is probably missed on first viewing.
During the episodes where Tobias tries to get into the Blue Man Group, blue handprints can be seen all over the walls.
In The A-Team season one episode "The Beast from the Belly of a Boeing", there is a scene where an airplane crashes into the terminal and a fleeing woman throws her baby (an out-of-tone gag for the series coming from careless use of Stock Footage from Airplane!, which has at least one of these in every shot).
While Barry is taking a phone call on the patio, Chechen goons barge into the room, beat the living hell out of Fuches, and capture him.
In the Bolivian stash house, a door has a sign printed on it saying to keep the door closed to keep out cats.
Goran's garage has a bunch of family brick-a-brack, which includes a life-sized cutout of smiling Goran dressed as a superhero, with a word bubble saying something.
Gene, running away from Barry, goes into the yard of a house. Nearby inside, two women are arguing about their relationship while we see around a dozen dogs of all sizes go after Gene. To top it off, one woman tells the other she's leaving her as she has way too many dogs (neither notices what's going on).
Inverted on the eighth season of American Big Brother with this funny foreground event happening as contestant Jameka cries and prays in the back.
When Andrew Zimmern went to Chile for Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern, he did his usual introductory bit with a crowd of Chilean city-dwellers walking behind him. A few people turn to look toward the camera to see what's going on, including a little girl in pigtails who becomes so fixated at the camera and excited about the possibility of being on TV that she energetically waves hello... before almost running into a young man in a wheelchair. Oops.
In the opening of the Broad City episode "2016," Abbi and Ilana brainstorm invention ideas in a park, completely oblivious to a woman behind them who falls down two flights of stairs and is rushed away on a gurney by paramdics.
One episode from an earlier season has a conversation between two characters while in the distant background Spike runs from shadow to shadow under a smoking blanket.
"Earshot" closes with an already funny moment in the foreground: Buffy loudly calling Giles out on sleeping with her mother back in an earlier episode, and Giles walking into a tree in shock. What you may not have noticed was a pair of students turning in shock in reaction to what Buffy said.
In the Season 4 episode "The Harsh Light of Day", the Greek letters on the Frat house Buffy are Gamma Alpha Pi (ΓΑΠ) which, from the angle the shot is taken, look a bit like FAIL. The house in the background across the street bears the letters ΤΩA. Perhaps it's a sorority house?
"Who Are You". Buffy is kidnapped by a Watchers Council wetwork team, but is able to grab one as a hostage. The other two tell her to just kill him and walk off. As the wetwork team discuss what they're going to do with their prisoner if she continues to be troublesome, the hostage goes flying out the back of the truck behind them.
In "The Yoko Factor", Buffy, Xander and Willow are having a vicious fight that may destroy their friendship for good. Meanwhile, Giles wanders through the background cheerfully drunk, giggling at "Fort Dix" and occasionally walking into things.
In the sixth-season Musical Episode "Once More, with Feeling", Anya, Giles, and Xander walk down a street discussing their inexplicable singing, while around them Sunnydale residents enact various Broadway cliches such as a romantic pas de deux and a trio of dancing chimney sweeps.
In the same episode, when Giles & co. sing the line "Let it Burn" there's firetrucks rushing off in the background. Though remembering the spate of spontaneous combustions going on around the town might make the event a little less funny.
Tara bumps into a pillar during the Summon Backup Dancers at the end. And in the next shot she's fixing her hair and trying to join back in.
In "Selfless", which had numerous flashbacks to Anya's past, there's a scene where she's conversing with D'Hoffryn while in the background the villagers chase around her ex, Olaf (whom she turned into a troll), eventually leading to a large pine tree falling down and crushing a building.
"Him" featured the female cast members under the unknowing thrall of a high school jock (he didn't know he was having any effect on people). At least one result of this is Buffy trying to kill the school principal who'd been giving said jock a hard time. While Principal Wood is working in his office, we see Buffy through his window about to blast him with a rocket launcher. Spike tackles her, then she tackles him, then he runs away with the launcher.
In Castle Season 2 Episode 18, while Beckett is having a rather serious phone call, in the background, Castle picks up a huge hunk of scrambled egg with his fingers, put the entire thing in his mouth, and then chokes on it because it's so hot.
While Cheers normally puts its humor in the foreground, the episode where the gang makes a video for Woody's parents pulls this twice. The first moment occurs during a backyard barbecue at Carla's house. While she struggles through her lines, two of her kids chase Sam with a garden hose through the background. Later, we see Frasier give a speech in his office. As he sits with his back to the window, he talks about how the building has the best psychiatric help in all of Boston. Just as he says that, a body falls past the window.
Community has Abed in a series of these during the 3rd episode of the 2nd season. It ends with Abed helping to deliver a baby in the parking lot. They do some Lampshade Hanging on it when Shirley asks what Abed got up to. "Nothing much" is the reply.
"Cooperative Calligraphy" has another example. The entire episode focuses on the group attempting to find Annie's missing pen. An early scene (Specifically, during Troy's "Aww, I wanna lick it!" line) shows Annie's Boobs the monkey taking it, but it's very difficult to spot.
There is a running background joke which involves 3 different characters saying the word "Beetlejuice" over each of the 3 seasons. Beetlejuice himself appears in the background as soon as the word is uttered for the third time (the episodes are Communication Studies, Cooperative Calligraphy and Horror Fiction in Seven Spooky Steps).
A staple of the show Crank Yankers. Sometimes the gags going on in the background were actually funnier than the contents of the calls themselves.
In the CSI episode "Rashomama", we have a flashback to Brass talking to the victim's son, who has literally just gotten married (his mother was killed at the wedding). In the background, one of the waiters cleaning up half-drunk wine glasses is sampling the wine.
CSI: Miami: In "Bone Yard", Walter interviews an unhelpful valet, and later complains that said valet is "dumb as a spoon" to Ryan and Natalia. The valet can be seen over Ryan's shoulder, giving Walter a dirty look at the insult.
Decoy: During one scene in "The Gentle Gun-Man," two men can be seen goofing around with a baby carriage. One of them climbs in, causing it to tip over backwards. Most street scenes were shot incognito, so this was probably unintentional.
Happens all the time in Degrassi: The Next Generation. That Sean is sitting with Ellie supporting Marco instead of with Jay and Alex is seen as proof of Sean/Ellie shipping, which is even more amazing when you consider that Marco sexually harassed Sean in the show's coming out party. The original Degrassi Junior High would often have you spotting your favorite extras.
"Robot" uses several of these to characterise the new Doctor:
Early on, the Brigadier and Harry are looking at a hole in a chain-link fence, talking about the mystery. Between them, and right at the back, the Doctor can be seen playing with the flowers in the grass.
Later, there's a part where Kettlewell is talking to the Brigadier and the Doctor can be seen sitting right at the back of the frame with a comically intense, sinister expression on his face, lurking in an exaggeratedly creepy manner.
In one scene the Doctor and Kettlewell are conversing seriously in the foreground. At the back of the frame, you can see Sarah Jane cracking up at the Doctor's ridiculous mannerisms, and the Brigadier nudging her to get her to stop.
At one point, Sarah and the Brigadier are discussing the plot while the Doctor is building a tower of random objects for some inexplicable reason, finishing by balancing a pipe on top. At the end of the scene, Sarah notices, gives him a forced smile and it collapses in his hands.
"Rose": Rose is briefly seen obliviously making tea while the Doctor is being strangled in the background. (Not that she gets much more concerned once she actually sees it...)
"The Idiot's Lantern": When asked by a policeman to tell them everything he knows, the Doctor replies, "Well, for starters, I know you can't wrap your hand 'round your elbow and make your fingers meet." In the background you can see an officer trying it out.
"The Eleventh Hour": The Doctor is able to take a low chain-link fence in stride as he stalks out onto the village green. Amy, following behind, has to hop over it and then stop to adjust her miniskirt.
"The Pandorica Opens": During the Doctor's trans-temporal phone call with River, the Romans are visible in the background taking turns posing with the Cyber-weapon, trying to look badass.
A foreground example in "The Doctor's Wife". When preparing to launch the ad hoc TARDIS console, the Doctor spouts some important plot dialogue, while in the foreground we see Idris!TARDIS examining her new face in a mirror and smooshing it about.
"Closing Time": When a lingerie department assistant calls security on Craig, having mistaken him for a pervert, a man in the background looks up alarmed.
"The Crimson Horror": After Clara has been revived, the Doctor is shown in the foreground having a conversation with Madame Vastra. In the background, slightly out of focus, her wife Jenny can be seen sizing up Clara, with Clara apparently returning the gaze. Funnier if one knows about the UK tabloid rumors that Clara was going to romance either Vastra or Jenny!
"Arachnids in the UK": As the Doctor talks with Jade McIntyre about her experiments with spiders, Ryan makes shadow puppets with a projector behind them.
In the final scene of "Heart on a Chain", The Grim Reaper is seen walking through the Eerie graveyard as Marshall, Simon and Melanie leave.
In "The Dead Letter", the headline of the November 9, 1929 edition of the Eerie Examiner is "Hoover to Nation: Don't Worry, Be Happy." This was less than three weeks after the Wall Street Crash.
In the second episode of Elementary, the foreground shows Watson talking on the phone while in the background, very much out of focus, Holmes sets his iconic violin on fire.
On an Ellen DeGeneres episode of the fall 2009 season, there is a segment on Kid Inventors. The first invention is by a third grader named Simon who invented a high chair bib for his baby brother Alan with a pully system that can dump whatever food he drops back onto his tray. Two inventions later is an air pump powered by pojo stick invented by fifth grader Ben. While he is setting up his invention and explaining how it works, the camera switches back to Alan who is in the process of dumping his chocolate pudding over his tray.
In "A Touch of Class": when Basil is outside the hotel pleading with Sir Richard and Lady Morris to stay, the "Fawlty Towers" sign is just above his desperate face.
In "Hotel Inspectors", one man continually gets the wrong meal, including the same Spanish omelette twice. When Basil takes it away, he crumples it up and slips it onto the Major's table, who then proceeds to eat it in the background while an argument goes on in the foreground.
In "The Kipper and the Corpse": while Mrs Chase's dog is yelping in the dining room, Basil is lurking in the background rubbing his hands, just after he has said "I'll go and hit some guests".
In "The Anniversary", Manuel and Terry have quarrelling about Manuel making a paella throughout the episode. In the final scene when Basil leads Sybil through the kitchen, Manuel and Terry are fighting on the floor, completely ignored by Basil and Sybil.
In "Basil the Rat", Basil tries to get his namesake out of Quentina's handbag while Polly distracts her. Basil gets bitten for his trouble but keeps his agony silent.
More subtly: in many Frasier episodes, there are groups scenes where something plot-relevant is happening in the foreground, while Niles can be seen gazing at or sighing over Daphne in the background. The actor (or director's) commitment to detail is impressive.
In "Martin Does It His Way", Frasier and Martin are having a serious discussion in the car, while just outside it, Niles is flailing around as he tries and fails to open up an urn to spread his aunt's ashes.
In "Docu.Drama", Frasier and Roz are having a fight on one side of the recording studio, while on the other, the documentary's narrator John Glenn starts rambling about the existence of aliens, and eventually devolves into silently making bizarre hand gestures. Frasier and Roz never notice.
In an episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Phil and Will are fighting in the sound room while Ashley and Carlton are fighting in the control room as to whether or not to listen in. The segments where Ashley turns off the sound definitely fit into this with Will's extremely active motions of anger.
Carlton: Oh great! Now we'll never know how Will took the news!
During the telethon, Joey tries to switch places with someone that's been on camera. A fight erupts, as Gary Collins talks about the telethon's cause.
When Joey and Phoebe are having a philosophical argument in the apartment Chandler looks incredibly annoyed and clearly wishes he'd rather be anywhere else.
In "The One with Ross's Library Book", Janice, Chandler's very annoying ex-girlfriend, invites herself over. As she's standing in the doorway we see Joey appear behind her. His eyes grow wide as saucers when he sees her before he silently legs it as fast as he can.
Australian sketch comedy show Full Frontal had what ended up being the crew's favorite from the second season. A weather report begins with a time lapse from a building rooftop. As the weatherman begins his spiel we see various things happening, including a repairman falling off the roof trying to repair an antenna... five times.
In "A Golden Crown", Ser Barristan Selmy's silent reaction during Lord Renly Baratheon's "The Reason You Suck" Speech to King Robert during their hunting trip shows that he completely agrees with the younger brother.
In "Garden of Bones", Ser Loras Tyrell laughs merrily after King Renly Baratheon makes fun of Melisandre's prophecy ("Born amidst salt and smoke? Is he a ham?"), but as soon as Lady Catelyn Stark starts talking, the Knight of Flowers becomes annoyed and sighs heavily.
Loras appears to be flirting with a young nobleman in "Second Sons" while Queen Cersei recounts the story of the Rains of Castemere.
After King Joffrey gets up from his seat to inspect his new Valyrian sword, Lord Mace Tyrell raises his eyebrow at Lord Tywin Lannister, and his wordless query is, "Are you sure it's wise to give that maniac a deadly weapon?"
When the guests at the Sept of Baelor are clapping for King Joffrey and Queen Margaery, Prince Oberyn Martell turns his head slightly to the left so that he can catch a glimpse of Loras. Oberyn is bisexual, and Margaery is a gorgeous woman, yet he clearly thinks that her brother is more attractive. This doubles as a Mythology Gag, as some of the characters in the novels consider the Adonis-like Loras to be prettier than his classically beautiful sister.
In "Fire and Blood", Joffrey orders Sansa to accompany him; he wants to show her something. What's going on in the background (and mercifully out of focus)? A minstrel who insulted the late King Robert having his tongue ripped out.
In "Valar Morghulis", it turns out that the Dothraki can lift the peacock statue from Daxos' palace after all.
In "Two Swords", Janos Slynt's derisive laugh when Jon mentions that Mance's army includes giants peters out hilariously when all the experienced officers take the claim seriously.
Varys expressing his opinion of various scenes, particularly council meetings with only Facial Dialogue such as eye rolls become a Running Gag.
Ser Barristan gets even more awkward moments in "The Laws of Gods and Men" when Hizdahr zo Loraq calls out Daenerys' hasty actions in crucifying the slavers, which Barristan explicitly counselled against. Barristan' body language essentially says, "I hate to say I told you so".
A staple on Glee. Viewers would do well to pay attention to what happens in the background of group numbers.
In the punch episode of Good Eats, Alton is at a dry wedding at some church hall, where the "punch" consists of ginger ale and sherbet. While he's explaining the history of punch, and how he feels it hasn't been given the respect it deserves, a little old lady sneaks in and pours in a whole bottle of some kind of liquor into the punch bowl, then starts handing it out to the other guests.
Used by British-Indian comedy sketch show Goodness Gracious Me in a parody of Indian cinema, with a retrospective of the career of director "Ranjit Say", who keeps claiming that the important themes of his films are present "in the background." The interviewer thinks he means the subtext, but he means the background: All his films consist of the same black and white shot of two men playing draughts, whilst two people passing in the background stop to perform some action appropriate to the supposed genre of the film; comedy slapstick, fighting, a dance routine, etc.
An episode of Gossip Girl has Dan trying to cook a delicious meal for his movie star girlfriend Olivia. While Olivia is on the phone, Dan can be seen running around in slight panic in the background as smoke begins to rise from the kitchen.
The Great British Bake Off: At one point during the Showstopper round for caramel week in series 8, Julia covers the back of a ladle with caramel. A few shots later, Paul can be seen inspecting the caramel-covered ladle while Julia is busy cooking in the foreground of the shot.
In the first full moon episode of H₂O: Just Add Water, Cleo tries to hold a speech for Emma's father because Emma was stuck in mermaid form and was acting like a Cloud Cuckoo Lander due to the influence of the full moon. While Cleo is trying to hold the speech, Zane and Miriam (whom Emma had earlier frozen together by the lips while they were making out) are seen in the background.
An accidental and very easy to miss variant in one episode of Hannah Montana. When the school's resident Alpha Bitch proves to be an impressive singer by belting it out in the school cafeteria, you can see an extra begin to cheer, but then stop and cover her mouth, embarrassed. That wasn't intentional, and the editors must have either missed it or thought that it didn't warrant another run-through of the scene.
Happy Endings: In "Grinches be Crazy", we get two. First, after Santa!Max has rescued Penny from being mugged, the two talk about how he's actually doing good for a change. While this is happening, the mugger is stealing another woman's purse, while Max says it'll be easy for him to find more chances to do good. The mugger and victim eventually run right past them, but Max and Penny just yell at them for being loud.
Later, while Dave and Penny are talking, Alex falls into a giant glass box for charity toys.
There is an episode of House in which House is doing his usual walking down the hall while talking to Foreman, Chase and Cameron when he suddenly has to go to the bathroom. He insists that Cameron come into the men's room with the rest of them so he can continue the conversation and keeps talking to her while he uses the urinal. He doesn't look directly at her but she glances down and deliberately looks in the area of his crotch.
In House of Anubis, while Jason is describing the acting exercise of using subtext to make the words "I love you" have different meanings, and Jerome and Mara are talking, Fabian and Mick can be seen in the background quickly backing away, and then later awkwardly doing the exercise.
In another episode, while Patricia and Eddie are having a small argument, Sibuna's shocked faces in the scene make it hilarious. The fact that they all react in perfect unison sells it.
When Robin's morning talk show was about to start, Ted mutes the TV and confronts Lily for her actions on sabotaging his past relationships. Because the group are too busy arguing about the issue, they forgot to watch the antics of Robin's show where the chef gets his sleeves on fire, the weatherman collapses on the floor while reporting and Robin helps her pregnant guest deliver her baby in front of the camera.
In another episode, Robin has an altercation with a woman outside the restaurant where Barney and Nora are having a date, the whole thing seen outside the window while an oblivious Barney and Nora dine on without noticing it.
In another episode, while Barney is in the office of the laser tag owner discussing his misconduct as a player, they talk about how Barney is one of the best laser tag players the owner has ever seen. If you look in the background you can see a dry erase board for the all time time records for the laser tag arena. Every single one of the records has Barney's name on it.
In Season 9, while the gang are in McLaren's, Robin says it might be nice to get married in Canada. The gang immediately starts making Canada jokes. Robin says "Get it over with, get it out of your system," and then sits there, stone-faced, while they fire off Canada jokes for the next fifteen seconds. However, it's implied that they go on much longer, because in the background, a guy goes down on one knee and proposes to his girlfriend; then we see them as a married couple with her very pregnant; then we see them about to see their grown son off to college; and finally we see the wife as a grieving elderly widow with her husband's ashes as a jar on the table. An elderly man even introduces himself to her and then quietly moves the jar to another table before sitting down with her, evidently trying to hit on her.
iCarly occasionally does these. One example is in a crowd scene, Sam mentions something about hurting Freddie, and a couple of extras give each other a look of shock and horror in the background.
Each episode of The InBESTigators has one or more of the crew recapping their latest case for their vlog while multitasking on something unrelated, such as cleaning a refrigerator, fixing a printer, or practicing first aid.
In “The Case of the Wrecked Rehearsal,” Ava loses it during the rehearsal because Pixie hadn't finished painting the sets. For the rest of the episode, Pixie can be seen frantically painting in the background, even during the actual play.
In Living Color! had a whole series of skits based on this concept. A news report takes place in the foreground of a setting (crime scene, beach, etc.) and an unnamed bystander (Jim Carrey), having noticed the camera, goofs around in the background in increasingly silly ways while the reporter and interviewee are unawares.
JAG: Harm gets quick-and-harsh training in "Force Recon" so he can go undercover as a Marine gunnery sergeant. This training takes place in his salty trainer's yard, and in the background throughout you can see the neighbors looking over the fence and reacting incredulously.
In the Jonathan Creek episode "No Trace Of Tracy", Maddie goes to interview a has-been rock star at a recording studio. It's soon discovered that he replaced his previous session musicians with a new crew while the old ones were out getting pizza. The rock star retreats to the mixing booth and leaves his manager to sort out the mess, and the interview is conducted while both Maddie and the rock star, thanks to the soundproof glass, are blissfully unaware that the two bands have started kicking the crap out of each other in the studio behind them.
In Episode 5 of Kamen Rider Fourze, while two of the teachers are talking about something, there is a teacher in the back who gets punked by a student. The teacher responds with a Necklock.
The opening credits has a quick montage of Fourze using various Astro Switches, which go by so fast it can be hard to pick out individual ones, but sharp-eyed individuals can see Shield!Fourze flashing a peace sign, and Flash!Fourze blinding himself.
The newest version of the opening adds in more Switches and more gags. Hand!Fourze can be seen playing Rock–Paper–Scissors with the mechanical hand (and LOSING), while Stealth!Fourze, does a Naruto-style hand seal as he disappears, then starts tip-toeing.
Later opening of Kamen Rider Build shows Kazumi Sawatari checking out a bass left by Nascita's door while the rest of the team playfully bicker in the foreground. It's an Actor Allusion to Kouhei Takeda's role in earlier Kamen Rider series as violinist OtoyaKurenai.
Sougo trails off while explaining his situation and being the loopy Cloud Cuckoolander he is, completely fails to notice anything going on around. Ryuga turns to Nascita's opening door and suddenly puts his hands up before getting knocked out. Sento pnly turns around and moves towards him before also getting knocked out. Then a very bewildered Tsukuyomi uses the stun function of FaizPhone gun on Sougo himself and drags him off to cover their tracks in the past.
When Sougo, Geiz and Woz fail at countering Kamen Rider Ginga to an increasingly ridiculous extent, Tsukuyomi can be seen face palming on the sidelines. As the team's beleguered sidekick, she does this a lot.
An extended one was improvised by Patton Oswalt in the opening to The King of Queens episode "Emotional Rollercoaster": There's a party scene where the whole cast is present but he has no lines or anything else to do, so rather than do any sort of Artificial Atmospheric Actions, he opted to stand perfectly still with a blank expression on his face for the entire three minute scene. It gets particularly funny when the action moves into the kitchen, and you can see through a window to the living room that he's still doing it.
In one episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Eames and Goren go to interview a music producer who knew the murder victim. At the beginning of the scene, Eames is talking with the producer while Goren is wearing headphones and dancing in the sound booth behind them.
In "Lazy Scouts" on LazyTown, during a good portion of the "Lazy Scouts" song, Stephanie is standing in the background, doing a double facepalm, rolling her eyes, putting her hands on her hips, shaking her head, or otherwise expressing disgust.
The employees of SCDP wheeling aroundMiss Blankenship's body around on a wheeled chair through the window behind the clients that Don, Faye, and Ken are trying to impress in "The Beautiful Girls" (4.09).
Four episodes earlier in "The Rejected", there's not only Bert Cooper lurking in his own lobby eavesdropping on people's conversations, but when Alison confronts Don over his sleeping with her and then dumping her, throws a glass at his head, and quits, you can see Peggy's head rising over the partition between her and Don's office.
In the second episode of the series there is a scene where Don, Roger, and Cooper stand outside of Don's office and discuss creating a campaign for Nixon while inside the office Ken, Sal, and Kinsey goof around with aerosol cans of Gillette deoderant and create fireballs.
In the first season episode "Shoot", Ken insults Peggy and Pete responds by slugging him. As that goes on, Don and Roger walk by in the foreground, apparently unconcerned.
A sketch on MadTV featured Debra Wilson appearing out of character on a talk show talking about the show. Outside, people are fighting a giant ant.
In the episode "Traffic Jam", when Malcolm is belly-aching to Jessica about her being Canadian, Reese is shown in the background being chased by a vicious dog who eats the ice cream he drops.
Another has the Krelboynes discussing what to do about Malcolm now that his new relationship is messing with their group dynamic. Behind them, Malcolm is seen tackling and beating the hell out of some poor kid who made the mistake of talking to his girlfriend, and even punching out a teacher who tried to break it up.
Married... with Children: The Bundys are having a holiday cookout and invite the Darcys. Marcy's bummed about her dead aunt, whose cremated remains she keeps in their house. Said remains end up in Al's grill after Peg spilled the ashes out of the grill. Once Kelly figures out she dumped Marcy's aunt on the grill, Hilarity Ensues in the background as Al consoles Marcy, both completely oblivious to what's going on behind them.
Daredevil (2015): When Matt and Foggy are checking out the future home of their law firm. Matt effortlessly charms the realtor, while in the background, Foggy does a disgusted look of 'damn it, he's doing it again!' It's funnier once you've re-watched the series, and have heard all of Foggy's comments and wisecracks about Matt's prowess with the ladies.
The Defenders (2017): During the signature Hallway Fight in Midland Circle, there's a point where Matt slams one guy into a wall, and then he and Danny then simultaneously punch the unfortunate schmuck in the face. Then in perfect tandem, Luke and Jessica punch another pair of men across the corridor, and then Danny bounces off the wall to deliver a right hook to the third one, while Matt continues to beat up the unfortunate guy in the background.
In the very first scene of the pilot, Wendy is talking to her mother on the phone - as a terrifying mutant breaks out of containment behind her. She stays on the phone for quite a while before it breaks through the glass wall of its pen and attacks her. It tells you something about the show.
In "The Flying Fish Zombification", the titular hero is on the phone with Ida, who is explaining to him the giant deadly flying fish is causing their current problem. And that in order to reverse the effects, the fish must be captured alive. In the background, while this discussion is going on, Wendy Watson is alternately fleeing from and fighting against said fish. She defeats it a second after the Middleman hears it must be captured alive, and looks pleased with herself for not needing his help.
Wendy also works out her anger on an interrogation droid after Ben puts their video breakup online and it becomes an internet sensation. We see the video of her going medieval on the droid's ass in the background while the Middleman is obliviously talking to Ida.
In the first episode, during the flashback of Alan first arriving in Jakarta, Alan phones his mom to assure her that Jakarta is a safe place. Meanwhile in the background during the phone call, a guy parks his motorcycle and it is immediately stolen the moment he leaves.
In episode 51, while Melani texts Bambang to talk about him no longer working in The Proposal, Alan, Juna and Mami Bibir can be seen squabbling about the furniture Juna tip over in the background.
At the beginning of the episode “Monkees Marooned", during a close-up of Peter talking with the salesman, there is a random guy in the background with his arms out like an Egyptian, standing on the bumper of a moving car. The same thing happens again in the tag sequence, but only after the guy and his friends are confronted by the policeman (also in the background). Hilarious and completely unrelated to the episode! Blink and you’ll miss it.
In the music video for “Randy Scouse Git”, while the camera is centered on Micky singing the song, Michael is seen in the background making several goofy expressions, and yawning while playing guitar during the song!
Monty Python's Flying Circus was known for this. One memorable sketch was the "Dirty Vicar" sketch. The sketch is about a lecherous vicar. In one part, he is groping a female parishioner, and suddenly Michael Palin dressed as a mountain climber (complete with lederhosen) and two butlers run into the room, look around like they suddenly realize that they are not supposed to be there, and run off.
In one episode of Morecambe and Wise Ernie and a woman are singing Somewhere My Love as a homage/parody of Doctor Zhivago all the while Eric was controlling the carriage. Every once in a while he'd tell the horses to giddy-up and gently hit them with the reins, only to be pulled forward off and have to climb up from the back. He changes his position throughout the entire song.
Mr Selfridge has an unintentional one. In the third episode, the drunken Reg Towler gets on a trolley just as it lurches to a start. The trolley's sudden movement is so violent that one of the extras, a woman in a white dress, is slammed against the side of her seat. She rubs her arm and mutters to herself until the scene changes.
In Mac Davis's episode of The Muppet Show, an army of Beaker clones ambush the Swedish Chef, hunting for Dr. Honeydew. While the Chef distracts them, one particularly nosey clone plays with the soup ingredients and pulls on the Chef's sleeve. The second Chef turns his back, this clone opens the pot where Dr. Honeydew is hiding, grabs it, and makes a run for it.
Occurs semi-frequently on My Name Is Earl; I believe they call them "bee moments" or something, based on a time Randy was trying to swat a bee in the background of a scene.
There's a fair number during the course of Mythbusters; often one of the five will be talking about their build or the experiment in the foreground, while one of the others has things happening in the back.
For instance, in "Bull in a China Shop", Kari comments that she wants to test the foam mock-up shelves she's made to ensure that the bulls won't get hurt if they crash into them. Cue Tory taking a flying leap onto one of the shelves right behind her, crunching it into the crash mat, right as she finishes her sentence. She pauses mid-word, but doesn't even look behind her. Tory just lays on the mat and seems to be trying very hard not to burst out laughing.
In "Escape Slide Parachute", Jamie is talking about the airplane slide raft's potential as an improvised parachute. In the background, Adam and Grant are trying to piece Buster back together. Again. For the second time that day.
In "Titanic Survival", Jamie and James Cameron are discussing the atmospheric conditions and temperature of the night of the sinking to allow the Mythbusters to accurately recreate conditions. In the background, a trash can fire burns out of control until Adam appears on the scene and puts it out noisily with a fire extinguisher, much to the bemusement of both James and Jamie.
In "What the Butler Sang", Maxwell and C.C. are entertaining backers, while in the background Fran is chasing her sister and husband through the mansion. The three of them eventually realize what they are interrupting and start dancing to the music.
Northern Exposure: during the wedding in episode four, they are not playing the traditional wedding song, but rather it seems to be an organ version of "(I Did It) My Way" by Sinatra.
Whenever the agents in Precinct 13579 are walking in the Hall of Doors, numerous rooms can be seen in the background marked by some pretty odd doors. Just two examples out of many include the Potato/Sandwich/Deviled Egg/Donut Room (which rotates frequently), the Piano Room, and the Giant Light Switch Room.
In "My Better Half", a conga line of agents is shown passing by Oprah's office when explaining how much Symmetric Al loves symmetry.
In "The Odd Antidote", when Olive and Otto are taking loganberry juice to Dr. O and find that Oprah's sickness has progressed far enough to make her develop an enlarged ear and antennae, they scream in horror and an agent walking by turns his head to avoid looking at her and goes the other way. The scream also manages to attract the attention of Dr. O herself, who is in her office and watches the entire interaction between Olive, Otto and Oprah go down.
In "Rise of the Hydraclops", Oprah calls Oscar to ask him about the "secret weapon" that he plans on fighting the titular creature with. As he tells her that he's run into a problem, Olive and Otto, standing in the background, are silently venting their frustration to each other about the hole where the weapon should be not having the weapon at all, with Otto pointing at Oscar and giving an inaudible "I mean, what?" while Olive does her trademark Face Palm.
In "6:00 to 6:05", Otto is shown in the background giving a smirk and a fist-bump as he casually walks away in the midst of his and Olive's race to the Cookie Room after the latter bumps into Octavia's wagon full of dinosaur food. A blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment later on shows him giving Olive an "are you serious" reaction when she bumps into Octavia's wagon for the second time.
A similar gag to "My Better Half" above occurs in "New Jacket Required". In response to Otis referring to his ripped and battered jacket as "just a little worn-in", Oprah bluntly tells him that Odd Squad is a professional workplace and that his attire will not be tolerated. The camera then cuts to Otis and Olympia, and as the former tries to protest once more, a couple agents are shown passing by Oprah's office riding tricycles.
In "Odd Beginnings: Part 1", Arctic Mr. O is shown in the background leaned back in his chair and deathly still while Opal and Omar go to the bullpen and lament about their laptops being frozen. It's never specified if he's sleeping or if he's actually dead (since he works in the Arctic and his Headquarters has no working heat) but considering he's shown to be alive later on and this is a kids' show, it's quite obviously the former.
In "Portalandia", as Omar, Oswald and Opal attempt to put together a portal to the 17th Dimension and deliver the episode's mathematical Aesop, Orla can be seen in the background doing front handsprings and handstands as training to be prepared for if (or in her mind, when) danger crops up.
At the end of "Overdue!", when the X's Xuxa and Xeno give Orla her job at Odd Squad back and transform her canvas dress into a Mobile Unit outfit, she and the other Mobile Unit agents cheer. However, so does Octavius, who quickly catches himself and uses his new shushing stick to silence the room.
The Office episode "Beach Games" features Dwight trying and failing to successfully tell "The Aristocrats". Though the event gets a few shots devoted to it, the primary focus is on Pam's efforts to do the coal walk, meaning only the attentive or returning viewer is likely to absorb the joke.
On Once Upon a Time, Snow and Emma find themselves talking to Lancelot, the leader of a group of refugees living in exile from the Dark Curse. While the camera focuses on Snow and Lancelot when they discuss their plans of action and other matters, Emma is in between them and out of camera shot making faces at the food offered before deciding that she likes the food.
Our Miss Brooks: In "The Pet Shop", Walter Denton and Miss Brooks playact the scene that Teacher's Pet Walter thinks will occur when Miss Brooks meets Mr. Boynton that day. The scene continues as Walter, pretending to be Mr. Boynton, proposes marriage to Miss Brooks. In the background, Miss Brooks' landlady Mrs. Davis walks into the room. Not knowing the two are acting, she looks aghast. Mrs. Davis then sniffs the old grape juice she had given them to drink, to see if it had fermented into wine! Finally, the playacting ends and Miss Brooks and Walter return to the breakfast table. They're about to have some more grape juice, but Mrs. Davis intervenes . . . .
Mrs. Davis: Not another drop!
Pushing Daisies: One episode had the gang investigating murders at a circus. They visit the scene of a car accident where a Clown Car crashed into the water. Throughout their whole conversation, coroners keep walking past with clown bodies. First it's funny. Then it's not. Then it is. Again.
Reaper uses this a few times, although the level of subtlety varies; in one example, the main characters lock the door to the big box store they work at in the middle of the day, leaving a huge crowd to mill around like zombies on the other side of the glass, in another, while one character crashes a funeral, the other three can be seen chasing someone around in a slightly slapstick manner behind him.
The Rise of Phoenixes: When Zhi Wei mistakes Ning Yi for an intruder, Zhu Yin in the background is visibly trying not to laugh.
Rookie Blue's episode "Class Dismissed" has a bunch of teens stealing an umbrella the characters had been previously watching over while said characters kiss.
The Saturday Night Live sketch "Waffle House" has Jenna Ortega and Marcello Hernández in an emotional break-up scene from a teen drama in the foreground while lurid chaos of the kind Waffle House is famed for breaks out in the background.
Scrubs has done on an irregular basis. Particularly in the earlier episodes.
One episode had JD having a conversation with Elliot, as the Janitor is dressed up like a ghost and is "haunting" the pediatric ward to prevent the children from making messes.
Seinfeld has Jerry and Elaine in a mundane discussion on a couch while Kramer is having a violent seizure from hearing Mary Hart's voice.
Kramer was good for this kind of thing in general, particularly since the other three characters were used to hisconstant flailing and tended to completely overlook it. A good example is Jerry approaching a sidewalk umbrella salesman in "The Checks," while over his shoulder Kramer backs up to take a photograph of some businessmen on the sidewalk and falls off the curb.
In The Sing-Off, after the first elimination in the first episode of Season 3, while the host (Nick Lachey) is introducing the next four musicians, Shawn Stockman and Ben Folds start waving and posing for the camera behind him.
Stargate SG-1 had its fair share of background funny events, especially through Jack O'Neill, the leader of SG-1. In one episode, as Daniel Jackson explained something extremely plot-relevant and science-ey, O'Neill stood behind him, apparently oblivious, making faces while playing with a magnifying lens, the joke here is that Jackson is describing someone as having the mind of a child, and being very easily distracted, traits that O'Neill is so ably demonstrating. Jackson finally turned around when he realized everyone was looking behind him, but then just rolled his eyes and continued.
Anytime Siler walks past in the background with his absurdly oversized wrench.
That one time where, in the middle of Jonas expressing his fascination with the idea of the Replicators while he and Teal'c are eating ice cream, O'Neill tries taking a spoonful of Teal'c ice cream... only for Teal'c to pull the jar away protectively, blindly reach into the crate behind him to retrieve another jar and drop it into O'Neill's hands in a silent "this is mine, get your own" glare, not taking his eyes off of O'Neill for even a second as if expecting him to try stealing again. All the while Jonas is casually monologuing away in the foreground. And another half a minute later, Teal'c silently swaps his empty jar with O'Neill's full jar after seeing that O'Neill isn't going to eat his. And when the others stand up to leave, Teal'c hastily eats one more spoonful before following them.
Star Trek: The Next Generation: There's an episode where a transporter accident creates a duplicate of Riker. In one scene, the two Rikers confront each other during a poker game. However, the scene is stolen by Worf, who has clearly just been dealt the worst hand in the history of poker.
Star Trek: Voyager had a few of these. Once with the engineers discussing the latest technobabble problem while Janeway hunts for coffee in the background (apparently an ad lib on the part of either Mulgrew or the director to liven up boring exposition). Later we have the doctor fuming in mute frustration at having his audio feed cut while the other Voyager crew members discuss their next action.
In "Tinker Tenor Doctor Spy", at one point an Engineering scene is hijacked by the Doctor daydreaming about a warp-core breach. When the problem is initially detected, there's a dramatic shot of the warp-core smoking. It's faint, but if one listens closely, one can hear someone saying "Forget the children, save yourselves!" — hilariously out-of-character for Starfleet officers.
In "Stardust City Rag", when Picard speaks with a Maurice Chevalier Accent for the first time, Elnor, who's standing behind him, has a "What the heck is my father figure doing?" expression.
In "The Impossible Box", as Picard and Hugh race through the Artifact to find Soji, one of the ex-Borg they run past spots Picard and very confusedly asks, "...Locutus?
In "Nepenthe", at the Troi-Rikers' dinner table, the adults are all stumped about the location of the planet with two red moons that Soji identifies from her dream as her homeworld. Kestra appears to be "playing" on her 24th century version of a smartphone, uninvolved in the conversation, hiding the phone below the table like a typical kid. Then she surprises everyone with the location of the planet, which she determined using social media contacts.
There was a part of Still Standing where the mother and father were going over their plan to snag some The Who tickets from their friends. While the mother is plotting, we see Tina walk into the kitchen, pick up a cutting knife, then leaves. Her older sister then runs in looking scared.
Dustin disgustedly wiping his hand on his shirt after Lucas demonstrates a spit swear to Eleven.
Dustin and Lucas's expressions when Mike blurts out that Eleven looks pretty.
When Mike instructs his friends to "look sad" if anyone at school sees them, Lucas and Dustin make exaggerated crying expressions to show Eleven what he means. She immediately mimics them.
In the episode "Hollywood Babylon" of Supernatural, when Sam and Dean are walking to Stage 9, two cowboys and a horse and three Roman Centurions walk behind them. In addition, the head of a golden idol is being pulled behind a truck, and an astronaut's suit is being pushed on a dolly.
In Mission 21 of Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters while Gorisaki Banana and Jin Masato are having a conversation about Ryuji at a park, Beet J Stag rides a zip-line on the playground then starts running around the playground with a bug net conversing with a large piece of equipment that has a grasshopper head. He continues this while waving the bug net in the air and eventually falling on his face.
Ressha Sentai ToQger: In episode 34, after Mio tells the group that she's dating Akira, Tokatti passes out, and while Mio, her "boyfriend" and the other guy she fancies are having a discussion, we can see the rest of the cast trying to wake Tokatti, before carrying him off.
Happens in the British comedy series Teachers (2001), the plots of which are all about the titular teachers rather than the children they teach. The latter are, however, often seen doing funny and/or bizarre things in the background. There are also animals, such as sheep and donkeys and at one point a lion in the toilets that passed without comment.
In one reward challenge from Survivor South Pacific, the winning Upolu tribe gets to see a screening of Jack and Jill. Most of them are laughing uproariously...other than Sophie, who can be seen sitting in the back with an expression clearly showing she would rather be anywhere else.
In the Season 2 Christmas episode. Higgins and his family have invited the football players over for Christmas dinner, and several of them play a NERF gun war game with Higgins's four sons. Dani Rojas and Zoreaux have an exchange about not surviving the battle. A scene later, Higgins and his wife are talking about where to seat all the players for dinner, and you can see their sons parading Dani and Zoreaux as prisoners of war behind them, complete with bandanas over their eyes.
In the next episode, "Rainbow", Rebecca and Keeley have a conversation about branding in the hallway while the players grab complimentary Nespresso machines behind them. Each player's reaction is funnier than the last, with Jamie Tartt looking particularly mystified by the Nespresso box.
Eric from That '70s Show once left "The Circle" to get something from the kitchen. While upstairs, he ran into his father and they had a talk. During the conversation, in which Eric is likely stoned, the wallpaper behind his father is visibly moving.
In Episode 4 of The Thick of It, Olly is brought to Number 10 so that Malcolm and Jamie can coerce him into exploiting his new relationship for information on the Opposition. At one point, a staffer behind Olly makes kissy faces at him while he tries awkwardly to arrange a date with the girl. Jamie then rushes over, grabs the guy by the head, and gives him a near-silent bollocking. There are also a couple of instances where Olly is trying to talk on the phone to different people while Malcolm or Jamie loudly berates one of their employees in the background.
Malcolm's Atomic Cluster F-Bomb bollocking of Hugh, only slightly muffled by the transparent office, while Terri fusses over Angela Heaney's tea in the foreground.
And then there's the time Jamie decided to amuse himself and Malcolm by fellating a pen behind Julius Nicholson's back.
The most notable example is during the "typical seventeen year-old's car" segment, where, while the Power Trio discuss the difficulty in getting their cars insured, the Stig walks in and begins photocopying his head, helmet and all. For no apparent reason (then again, he isthe Stig).
In another episode, while Jeremy is signing off on the homemade motor-home challenge , his motor-home is falling off the cliff behind him. It's amazing.
Earlier, Richard Hammond's motor home catching fire was this until Jeremy finally notices the smell.
Then on The One Show remote control cars (that stick to vertical surfaces) can be seen in one episode driving up the back window, being controlled by mischievous presenters down below as they played with them (Top Gear's offices are directly below the studio where The One Show is broadcast).
Then there is when Clarkson took a Peel P50 around the BBC Television Centre driving around the offices...and then into the background of the BBC News 24 live broadcast..
During the tractor challenge, as Clarkson and May explain the plan to grow their own petrol, Hammond and Top Gear Dog flail around in the background, trying to chase a flock of sheep off of their plot of land.
Tosh.0 had a segment called "What's In The Background?"
Why did this family bring a swimming pool to the beach?
The Twilight Zone (1985): Not quite the background, but a lot of the humor in "I of Newton" comes from the demon's ever-changing Fun T-Shirt: "Hell is a Summer Festival," "Hell is a City Much Like Newark," "Over 2,000,000,000 Served," "Gehenna: More Than a Place, a Way of Life" and "Let's Do Damnation."
Waktu Rehat: The background scene which showed Wai Chong over-reacting after trying a curry puff in season 1, episode 5.
Wellington Paranormal: All over the place while O'Leary and Minogue talk to the camera and remain blissfully oblivious. Includes their alien doubles exiting the shed, a cow being dragged up by a tractor beam, and Raymond St John's ghost phasing through the cop car and sneaking away.
One of The West Wing's CMOF is this: Charlie and Zoe are arguing outside Josh's office, Josh can be seen in the background. Charlie says: "I work in a building with the smartest people in the world." Cue Josh sitting down on a non-existent chair.
DONNA!
In the first episode of the fourth season, Toby, Josh and Donna end up being left behind after an event in Indiana and on their way to catch their flight they find out that they've already missed it because it went out of an airport in a different timezone. While Donna starts coming up with a new plan with the volunteer who's been helping them out, Josh and Toby storm off to do helpful stuff in the background like shout about the lack of civilisation and hit things with sticks.
In the second season episode "Somebody's Going to Emergency, Somebody's Going to Jail", it's Big Block of Cheese Day, and when the staff is discussing whether to trade assignments with each other, Leo snaps they're meeting with whomever they've been assigned to, and adds how sure he is that Margaret worked long and hard on assigning each meeting to each staffer. Margaret, who's standing behind Leo, immediately shakes her head "no". When Leo turns around and gives her a Death Glare, she starts shaking her head "yes".
In the 2nd episode of the Whose Line Is It Anyway? reboot, during the game "Song Styles", Colin is in the background doing a dance that looks like a mix between a gospel-type dance and jazzhands.
The game "News Flash" is made of this trope, with the field reporter (usually Colin) trying to use clues from the other players to guess what the background event is. The best one is when clips of Colin himself are used.
While it's not always better than the scene in the foreground, watching the improvers who aren't in a game can be comedy gold. Just watch Greg in the legendary Richard Simmons episode.
There is an episode where at the end of a "Scene to Rap" segment, a woman from the staff comes behind Drew Carey and serves him a beverage, which was obviously not something that had to be done on camera. It provoked a lot of laughs from everybody present in the studio.
In The X-Files episode "Hollywood A.D.", Mulder and Scully's work is used as the inspiration for a movie starring Gary Shandling and Tea Leoni. At one point Leoni asks Scully to demonstrate how she runs in high heels. Later, while Mulder and Shandling are talking in the foreground, Scully can be seen running back and forth across the sound stage, while Leoni observes.
Kim talks to Christine in the kitchen about how great it is that the men in the family are working together and getting along. From the kitchen window, Greg, Jimmy, and the wives' dad Don are in a fight in the backyard.
Greg's dad locks himself in a room full of monkeys in a rain forest themed casino. Greg and Jimmy are talking about trying to find him. The entire time, the monkeys are jumping all over Greg's dad, which can be seen from the window.
The episode "Sorority Girl" ends with Christine and Jimmy walking down a street block after a night of partying and alcohol drinking inside a sorority house that led to them sleeping inside someone else's car by mistake, with Christine remarking that they can't do this anymore, passing a yard where, unnoticed by Christine and Jimmy, Greg is Bound and Gagged to a tree in said yardnote , the victim of sorority girls' retribution against Greg after Greg's attempt at getting Jimmy and Christine back home from the sorority house goes wrong for him and leads to a failed confrontation against the sorority girls.
happening as contestant Jameka cries and prays in the back.
