Top 20 Hilarious Unscripted TV Moments

“Brooklyn Nine-Nine” (2013-21)

This show is famous for its hilariously creative—and creatively hilarious—cold opens. This popular cold open moment was not even scripted. When Amy gets to work late for the first time, the squad speculates increasingly ridiculous theories of how she got late. Captain Holt suggests she got held up at the bank. Sure enough, he was right. Holt’s exclamation was in fact completely improvised by Andre Braugher and was even enough to send the entire cast into convulsions. Notice the very close and even abrupt editing. Holt’s “damn” adventures don’t stop there, returning in Season Five. What a damn good gag.

“The White Lotus” (2021-)

This black comedy anthology about a fictional resort gets one of the guests tickled pink. In one episode, Jennifer Coolidge as the rich and spoiled heiress Tanya shows up at the resort in salmon pink. Tanya claims she is dressed as Monica Vitti, but the Italian manager confuses her with another character altogether. Not only was this reply improvised by Sabrina Impacciatore, but she wasn’t sure it even made it into the show. Right afterward, the whole cast burst out laughing and they had to cut. Thank goodness it wasn’t, or else we would have missed out on some comedy gold.

“It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” (2005-)

Everyone’s favorite gang of narcissist sociopaths is at it again. When the gang finds out M. Night Shyamalan is in town, Mac and Charlie decide to write a movie, specifically, a prequel to “The Sixth Sense” called—you guessed it—“The Fifth Sense.” But they are missing, as Dennis points out, a female love interest. Mac responds accordingly. This casually misogynistic comment not only became a meme, but was totally improvised. This improvisation was also the moment the creators decided to develop Mac’s character as a repressed gay man who hates women. A great tribute to the Greek and Roman tradition, to be sure.

“Game of Thrones” (2011-19)

Tormund Giantsbane’s infatuation with Brienne of Tarth is as cute as it is, surprisingly enough, mostly improvised by Kristofer Hivju. From Tormund’s first sight of Brienne arriving at Castle Black on horseback, this Wildling raider can’t keep his eyes off her. When they leave Castle Black, Tormund gives Brienne a smile that has her looking away in disbelief. Is this the smile that launched a thousand fanfics? Yes, but it was an unscripted moment improvised by Hivju. It was so consequential, though, that fans were taken aback when Brienne went with Jaime instead. The course of true love never does run smooth.

“Veep” (2012-19)

This series about a frazzled Vice President and her team can be really bumbling at times. In this hilarious scene from Season Three, Gary and Mike are watching Selina deliver a speech when they back up and accidentally break a china tea set. Scrambling to hide their crime, they brush it under a curtain. It turned out that actor Tony Hale accidentally broke the china set, but the showrunners insisted he and Matt Walsh keep going with the film rolling. Most of this scene, then, is improvised. Talk about spilling the tea.

“New Girl” (2011-18)

What happens when you give your roommate a cookie? Comedy gold, it seems. In this Season Two scene, Nick gives Schmidt a cookie, insensitively shaped like the Star of David to celebrate Schmidt’s Jewish heritage. When Schmidt calls him out for his insensitivity, Nick descends into an increasingly incoherent defense. Cookies are indeed serious business, but Jake Johnson was only supposed to repeat the line once. Instead, he repeated it five times, in a perfectly frazzled delivery. Johnson later posted a part of the script on his Instagram page as proof of his comic improvisation.

“Stranger Things” (2016-)

Great actors can make awkward moments even more awkward. And hilarious. Nancy and Jonathan have finally consummated their will-they-won’t-they romance in conspiracy theorist Murray’s basement. It’s about time. At breakfast the following morning, Murray is wise to these kids’ shenanigans, as proven by his suggestive comment. The pull-out innuendo was scripted—what was not scripted was Murray dropping his scrambled egg and his answering, flirtatious “Oops.” Not only does this improvisation save and improve the scene, but it fits Murray’s character. The pull-out may have been good, but Brett Gelman’s improv game is even better.

“Friends” (1994-2004)

It’s a tale as old as time. Chandler needs help with something, and Joey is unhelpful. But this funny exchange in particular had a lot of actor input. In this scene, Chandler needs to have his clothes tailored. Joey suggests his family tailor, claiming that the tailor did his first suit when he was fifteen… or was it sixteen? Joey’s leaky memory has Chandler delivering one of the best one-liners ever involving Q-tips. Incredibly enough, this witty line was completely improvised by Matthew Perry. The Q-tip joke has since become a meme, which goes to show the power of letting actors do their thing.

“Schitt’s Creek” (2015-20)

This running gag initially started as a pure accident on actress Catherine O’Hara’s part. O’Hara plays former soap actress star Moira Rose, suitably theatrical, adopting affectations. This extends to unusual pronunciations, such as the simple word “baby.” Too English for the French or Spanish word and too European for the regular English word, Moira’s affected “bébé” is a delightful verbal Frankenstein that grows worse (and better) upon repetition. O’Hara’s first time saying the word in Season 2 was pure accident, but upon seeing her team’s laughter, she decided to keep it. Either way, it’s great progress for bébé.

“Seinfeld” (1989-98)

It’s the little kicks that make life worthwhile. Or at least a grand old comedy. During a company party hosted by Elaine, she opens the floor with what is presumably a dance. It looks, however, more like a spasm. Elaine’s bad dancing was not scripted, of course, but was carefully conceived by her actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus, even practicing the moves in front of her mirror. To ensure Elaine’s moves did not go with the rhythm of the music, the scene was shot without music. To make matters even worse (and better), the whole scene was inspired by real-life “SNL” creator Lorne Michaels, who danced similarly at a party. The lore of this full-body dry heave set to music is deep.

“The Defenders” (2017)

Marvel shows and movies are full of hilarious quips and banter, and “The Defenders” is no exception. In this scene, Matt and Jessica work together to take down a bad guy. Once he is seemingly defeated, Jessica compliments Matt’s mask ears, and an annoyed Matt responds that “they’re horns.” According to Krysten Ritter, who was responding to a fan on Twitter, this brief exchange was completely improvised by her and Charlie Cox. We think they should be allowed to improvise more, because they clearly have this quip thing down.

“Sherlock” (2010-)

Is there anything more comfy than a drunk Sherlock Holmes and John Watson? Tell us you wouldn’t want to hang out with these guys. In the third season episode The Sign of Three, Sherlock and John go out and get hammered. When a boring client tells some silly story about a ghost, Sherlock and John fall asleep on her, and when Sherlock wakes up, he apologizes on behalf of his sleeping “thing.” This little exchange showing Sherlock’s sense of superiority seems too good to be improvised, but it was. According to Steven Moffat, Benedict Cumberbatch forgot the actual line, resulting in Sherlock’s stumbling of words and calling John a “thing.”

“Battlestar Galactica” (2004-09)

For those unaware, “frak” is “Battlestar Galactica’s” signature replacement for the f-word, and the word reared its hilarious head during a showdown between Felix Gaeta and Starbuck. Once Starbuck storms out on Gaeta, Gaeta hilariously responds with the line, “So, I guess a pity frak is out of the question, then?” The show’s creator, Ronald D. Moore, revealed on a commentary podcast that this line was completely improvised by actor Alessandro Juliani, who showed surprise when Moore decided to keep his improv in the finished product.

“Supernatural” (2005-)

In the third season episode “Bad Day at Black Rock”, a woman by the name of Bela Talbot shoots Sam in the shoulder to get her hands on a lucky rabbit’s foot. And while she doesn’t walk away with the foot, she steals Dean’s winning lottery tickets, forcing him to blurt out an extremely exaggerated “Son of a bitch!” This line was improvised by Jensen Ackles, and while the line itself isn’t very funny, the over-the-top delivery certainly is. Jared Padalecki apparently found it quite funny as well, as he can be seen turning his head away from the camera to avoid ruining the take with laughter.

“Bob’s Burgers” (2011-)

We wonder how much improvisation goes on behind the scenes of animated shows that don’t make it into the final product. The “Bob’s Burgers” voice cast is full of talented people, including John Roberts, who voices the character of Linda. Roberts apparently loves to freestyle songs in the recording booth, and one of his on-the-spot creations was The Thanksgiving Song, which was later covered by the acclaimed band The National. The show’s writers later called The Thanksgiving Song the show’s fourth-best song, and we can’t blame them. It takes a lot of talent to create a song on the spot, and even more talent to make it funny.

“Buffy the Vampire Slayer” (1997-2003)

The scripts of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” are undoubtedly brilliant, but as this moment proved, the cast can be just as funny and work just as compatibly without one. In this scene, Seth Green’s Oz goes on a mini rant about clothing on animal crackers and how all monkeys are French. The episode’s writer, Marti Noxon, later revealed on the DVD commentary that everything following Oz’s compliment to Willow was improvised by Seth Green and Alyson Hannigan. It’s both a tender and hilarious moment between the two characters, and it all came from the minds of the actors involved. Who needs writers, anyway? Just kidding, we love our writers.

“Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” (2013-)

Fitz has a great sense of humor, and that is on full display in this scene. Once Fitz disables Gordon’s teleportation powers, Gordon asks Fitz what he has done, to which he brilliantly responds, “Science, biatch.” As fellow actor Clark Gregg explains, the line was simply written as “science,” but Iain De Caestecker added the “biatch” as a nod to “Breaking Bad.” Gregg also called it “the best ad-lib in the history of television” on Twitter, and while we wouldn’t go that far, it is certainly a hilarious quip, and we will never pass up a reference to one of the greatest shows of all time.

“The Walking Dead” (2010-)

“The Walking Dead” isn’t exactly full of humor. It concerns the end of civilization, and its characters are usually more concerned with surviving than sharing quippy banter. Daryl is perhaps the most stoic character of all, as he doesn’t seem to have a single funny bone in his body. Which makes this improvised line all the more hilarious. Once the group assimilates into Alexandria, the usually hardened and dirty Carol begins dressing like a grandma, prompting the equally tough Daryl to call her appearance ridiculous. The line is funny, but it also adds a further dimension to the relationship between Daryl and Carol. It’s simply an all-around great ad-lib.

“Parks and Recreation” (2009-15)

You can’t write jokes like this. In the season three episode “Flu Season,” Leslie gets sick, prompting Andy to Google her symptoms and find that she has “network connectivity problems.” It’s one of the funniest lines of the entire show, and it was all completely improvised by the master, Chris Pratt. The show’s creator, Michael Schur, later showed respect for Pratt’s ad-lib, calling it “the funniest joke that’s ever been on our show.” The cast of “Parks and Recreation” weren’t given much room to improvise (aside from Patton Oswalt’s rambling “Star Wars” speech), but Pratt clearly saw his opportunity and took it, resulting in a joke that was completely unexpected and gut-bustingly hilarious.

“The Office” (2005-13)

When Steve Carell sees a joke, he takes it. In the season three premiere Gay Witch Hunt, Michael accidentally outs Oscar, and to show his support, he kisses him on the lips. It’s an incredibly inappropriate thing to do, and it proves that Steve Carell knew his character perfectly, because the entire sequence was improvised by Carell and Oscar Nunez. Nunez simply rolled with Carell’s improv, but the other cast members were laughing behind the camera. Luckily, the camera was planted firmly on Carell and Nunez, which allowed this now-classic footage to make it into the episode.

What other unscripted TV moment had you full body dry heaving to music? Let us know in the comments down below!