Nick Miller fromNew Girlsaying " Gave me cooky , mystify you cookie , man ! " stand for even more to me now that I know it was an makeshift moment .
All the shows we know and love have writers who expertly pull the strings behind the scenes, but sometimes the actor gets so in character while reading their written lines that they can’t help but to break into a little improv. When it works, itreallyworks, and the sprinkled in bits of ad-libs can end up being the most hilarious. Here are 13 of the funniest TV show moments that weren’t scripted:
1.Sabrina Impacciatore improvised this zinger fromWhite Lotus:
2.Matt Berry, who plays Laszlo Cravensworth in the satirical vampire show,What We Do in the Shadows,improvised this quotethat ended up becoming a staple of the show:
3.Sheryl Lee Ralphblessed me with my new favorite exclamation whenshe improvised this quotefromAbbott Elementary:
4.In this scene from the finale ofNew Girl, Schmidt (played byMax Greenfield) describing Nick (played by Jake Johnson) was unscripted. It was genuinely just Max Greenfield describing Jake Johnson in the moment, and somehow, they both managed not to break character by bursting into laughter:
5.In another scene fromNew Girl, Nick gives Schmidt a cookie andimprovises the quote, “Got me cookie, gave you cookie” which has been cemented in the hall of fame as one of the most popular lines from the entire show:
6.I had no idea this scene fromIt’s Always Sunny in Philadelphiawhere Dennis is reading a speech that Charlie “wrote"was improvised:
7.Catherine O’Haraimprovisedone of the funniest running bits on the show. She wasn’t directed to pronounce the word “baby” like “bebe,” but I am soooo glad she did (for the culture):
8.Another improvisational momentthat was 100% the choice of the actorhas a great example in Will Friedle’s “Feeny call” fromBoy Meets World:
9.This scene fromModern Familywhere Mitchell and Cam accidentally lock Lily in the car waswritten to be cut offright after Mitchell says, “Did you lock the baby in the car?” but of course, Cam ad-libbing “I’M BREAKING THE WINDOW!” and sprinting toward the car made the final cut:
10.OnModern Family, the “gotta fix that step!” bit made its way from the first season to the lastthanks to the improvisation of Ty Burrellwho plays Phil Dunphy:
Well, there is an episode in the final season where Philtriesto fix it, but only makes it worse, and Claire ends up falling through the step entirely:
11.There’s an unscripted moment in the episode ofSeinfeldwhere Jerry is dating a woman whose name he can’t recall. He tries to find creative ways for her to tell him, like by making conversation about how kids sometimes make fun of other kids because of their names:
When the girlfriend catches Jerry going through her purse to find her ID with her name on it, she storms out. Only then does Jerry remember her name, and he yells it out the window:
12.Patton Oswalt appeared in a cameo onParks and Recreationfor one of their classically chaotic town hall scenes and was given the go-ahead toperform an improvised rantaboutStar Warsfor a fulleight minute monologue:
13.And finally, this list simply wouldn’t be complete without Chris Pratt’simprovised"network connectivity” joke onParks and Recreation:
