Blooper

For other uses, seeBlooper (disambiguation).

Ablooper,orgag reel,is short clip from a film or video production, usually adeleted scene,containing a mistake made by a member of the cast or crew. It also refers to an error made during a live radio or TV broadcast or news report, usually in terms of misspoken words or technical errors.

Bloopers from the filming ofThe Summer I Turned Pretty.

The word blooper comes from the early days of radio, from around 1926. Used in baseball by 1940, it meant "hit a ball in a high arc over the head of a fielder". It has been used as a noun from 1931.

The term blooper was popularized in the 1950s and 1960s in a series ofrecord albumsproduced byKermit SchaferentitledPardon My Blooper,in which the definition of a blooper is thus given by the record series' narrator: "Unintended indiscretions before microphone and camera."

Bloopers are often the subject of television programs and may be shown during theclosing creditsof comedic films or TV episodes. Prominent examples of films with bloopers includeThe Cannonball Run,Cheaper by the Dozen,andRush Hour.Jackie ChanandBurt Reynoldsare both famous for including such reels with theclosing creditsof their movies.

In recent years, many animated films have also incorporated bloopers, including a mix of faked bloopers, genuine voice-actor mistakes set to animation, and technical errors. Examples can be found inA Bug's Life(1998),Toy Story 2(1999), andMonsters, Inc.(2001). Humorous mistakes made by athletes are often referred to as bloopers as well, particularly inbaseball.The more provocative term "choke"may be used to describe such plays instead, especially if a blooper affects the outcome of a sports competition in a major way, such as a late-game event in a close game. This is especially true if the game was an important one in the outcome of a season such as aplayoffgame orchampionshipevent.

Origins

United States

The term "blooper" was popularized in the United States by television producerKermit Schaeferin the 1950s; the terms "boner" (meaning a boneheaded mistake) and "breakdown" had been in common usage previously. Schaefer produced a long-running series ofPardon My Blooper!record albums in the 1950s and 1960s which featured a mixture of actual recordings of errors from television and radio broadcasts and re-creations. Schaefer also transcribed many reported bloopers into a series of books that he published up until his death in 1979.

Schaefer was by no means the first to undertake serious study and collection of broadcast errata;NBC's short-lived "behind-the-scenes" seriesBehind the Mike(1940–42) occasionally featured reconstructions of announcers' gaffes and flubs as part of the "Oddities in Radio" segment, and movie studios such asWarner Brothershad been producing so-called "gag reels"of outtakes (usually for employee-only viewing) since the 1930s. As recently as 2003, the Warner Brothers Studio Tour included a screening of bloopers from classic films as part of the tour.

United Kingdom

Jonathan Hewat (1938–2014),who had a vast personal collection of taped broadcasting gaffes,was the first person in the UK to broadcast radio bloopers, on a bank holiday show onBBC Radio Bristolat the end of the 1980s.

He subsequently produced and presented a half-hour show on that station calledSo You Want to Run a Radio Station?.This was nominated for aSony Award.The transmission of humorous mistakes, previously considered private material only for the ears of industry insiders, came to the attention ofBBC Radio 2.They commissioned a series of six fifteen-minute programmes calledCan I Take That Again?,produced by Jonathan James Moore (then Head of BBC Light Entertainment, Radio). The success of this series led to a further five series on Radio 2 (the programme ran from 1985 to 1990),as well as a small number of programmes (calledBloopers) onBBC Radio 4.

Some of the earliest clips in Hewat's collection went back toRudy Vallee"corpsing"(giggling uncontrollably) during a recording of" There Is a Tavern in the Town "and one of the very earliest OBs (Outside Broadcasts) ofThe Illumination of the Fleet.

The comment made by newsreaders after making a mistake "I'm sorry I'll read that again" was the origin of the title ofthe radio showwhich ran on the BBC during the 1960s and 1970s.

Television shows

ComedianDick Emeryshowcased his own out-takes as an epilogue entitled "A Comedy of Errors" to his BBC shows in the mid-1970s. The later ITV showIt'll Be Alright on the Night(originally hosted byDenis Norden) showed out-takes from film and TV. TheBBC's answer to the show,Auntie's Bloomersand its spin-off,Auntie's Sporting Bloomers,ran until 2001. It was replaced byOuttake TV,which began as a series of one-off specials in 2002, hosted byPaul O'Grady,before a series was commissioned forBBC Onein 2004, hosted byAnne Robinson.SpecialWeakest Link-themed editions were common during Robinson's tenure, which lasted until 2009.Rufus Houndtook over in 2010.Outtake TVnow appears as occasional one-off specials, much in the same way asIt'll Be Alright on the Night.

ITV has produced two other shows,TV Nightmares,andTV's Naughtiest Blunders.Both were presented bySteve Penk,before the latter show changed to show continuous clips with voice-over byNeil Morrissey.Nightmarespresented TV personalities relating some of their most hair-raising moments, andNaughtiest Blunderspresented more risqué mistakes. The latter has also been criticised for being used as a simple schedule filler, often with ridiculously titled editions (e.g.All New TV's Naughtiest Blunders 18).

During the 1982–83 season,TV producerDick Clarkrevived the bloopers concept in America for a series of specials onNBCcalledTV's Censored Bloopers.This led toa weekly serieswhich ran from 1984 through 1992 (co-hosted by Clark andEd McMahon) and was followed by more specials that appeared onABCirregularly until 2004, still hosted by Clark. These specials and a record album of radio bloopers produced by Clark in the mid-1980s were dedicated to the memory of Kermit Schaefer.

After Clark suffered astroke,the blooper shows went on hiatus until 2007, whenJohn O'Hurleyhosted a special for ABC that was packaged by Dick Clark Productions.

The success of both Clark's and Norden's efforts led to imitators on virtually all American and Australian TV networks, as well as scores ofhome videoreleases; many American productions are aired to fill gaps inprime timeschedules. The ABC Network airedFoul-Ups, Bleeps & Blundershosted bySteve LawrenceandDon Ricklesin direct competition with the Clark TV series. With the coming ofDVDin the 1990s, it became common for major film releases to include a "blooper reel" (also known as a "gag reel" or simply "outtakes" ) as bonus material on the disc.

In 1985,Steve Rotfeldbegan compilingstock footageof various sports-related errors and mistakes and compiled them into a program known asBob Uecker's Wacky World of Sports.In the early 1990s, that series eventually evolved intoThe Lighter Side of Sportsand continued in limited production through the early 2000s.

NFL Films,the official production arm of theNational Football League,has produced a line of blooper reels known as theFootball Folliesfor both television and direct-to-video consumption since 1968.

Causes

Bloopers are usually accidental and humorous. Where actors need to memorize large numbers of lines or perform a series of actions in quick succession, mistakes can be expected. Similarly,newsreadershave only a short time to deliver a large amount of information and are prone to mispronounce place names and people's names, or switch a name or word without realizing it, as in aslip-of-the-tongueorFreudian slip.

Some common examples include:

• Uncontrollable laughter (called, in television and acting circles,corpsing)
• Unanticipated incidents (e.g. apropfalling or breaking, or a child/animal failing to behave as expected)
• Forgotten lines
• Deliberate sabotage of an actor's performance by a fellow actor; a prank orpractical joke(to evoke laughter from cast and crew).

The famous old chestnut of show business "Never work with children or animals" demonstrates two other causes of out-takes: Children, especially those who have no acting experience, often miss cues, deliver the wrong lines or make comments which are particularly embarrassing. (TheKids Say the Darndest Thingsseries, conceived byArt Linkletter,deliberately sought these kinds of remarks.) Similarly, animals are very likely to do things not in the script, generally involving bodily functions.

A third type of blooper is caused by failure of inanimate objects. This can be as simple as a sound effect being mistimed or a microphone not working properly, but frequently involves doorknobs (and doors) not working or breaking, props and sets being improperly prepared, as well as props working in ways they should not work.

In recent years,mobile phoneshave been a new source of bloopers with them frequently going off. Many of them belong to actors, presenters, and contestants who may have forgotten to turn them off or put them in silent mode. The effect is especially pronounced when the film setting is before the modern era (e.g., ancient Greece or Rome). However, this blooper is rarely seen in recent films (most productions enforce "no cellphone" rules while on-set to reduce the risk of plot or production details beingleaked) but is commonly used in fake bloopers for animations.

The reaction to bloopers is often intensified in the stressful environment of a movie or television set, with some actors expressing extreme annoyance while others enjoy the stress relief brought on by the unexpected event.

Examples

One of the earliest known bloopers is attributed to 1930s radio broadcasterHarry Von Zell,who accidentally referred to then-US PresidentHerbert Hooveras "Hoobert Heever" during an introduction. Reportedly it was upon hearing of this mistake that Kermit Schafer was inspired to begin collecting bloopers, although the exact circumstances of the event have been debated.A similar situation occurred decades later when then-new presidentGerald Fordwas introduced as "Gerald Smith",the same name as an AmericanFascistleader from the 1930s.

On an episode ofThe Red Skelton Showin the 1950s, a skit involving Red's "country bumpkin" character "Clem Kadiddlehopper", had him leading a cow onto the stage. Several seconds into the skit, the cow defecated on-stage during the live broadcast. Whereupon the audience laughed uncontrollably, and Skelton resorted to the use of thead-lib,saying "Boy, she's a great cow! Not only does she give milk, {pause} she givesPet-RitzPies! "(Laughs for about ten seconds, then says some things to the cow by her ear). He followed up with," Why didn't you think of that earlier? "," On top of that, you have a bad breath, you know that? "and finally," Well sir, it's like they say in psychiatry. Get it out of your system. ".Then the network cut to a commercial.

A much-bootlegged recording ofBing Crosbyhas him singing to a recording of a band playing "Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams",when he realizes that the master tape had not been fully rewound, and ad-libbed vocals to the truncated music. He begins,"Castles may tumble, that's fate after all/ Life's really funny that way."Realizing the shortened music, he ad-libs,"Sang the wrong melody, we'll play it back/ See what it sounds like, hey hey/ They cut out eight bars, the dirty bastards/ And I didn't know which eight bars he was gonna cut/ Why don't somebody tell me these things around here/ Holy Christ, I'm going off my nut".This recording was first made available to the public by Kermit Schaefer in Volume 1 of hisPardon My Blooperalbum series forJubilee Recordsin the late 1950s.

On theWild Bill Hickokradio series in the early 1950s, anewsflashcaused an unexpected blooper when it broke into the show. With sound effects providing the sound ofhorses' hoofs galloping andgunsfiring,Guy Madisonspoke the line "Cut him off at the pass, Jingles!" Whereupon an announcer interrupted with, "We interrupt this program to bring you a bulletin from theMutualnewsroom inNew York!According to an announcement fromMoscowradio,Lavrenti Beria,former head of theSovietsecret police, has just been executed! We now return you toWild Bill Hickok."At this point,Andy Devine(as Jingles) was delivering the line "Well, that oughta hold him for a little while, Bill!"

In a similar vein, New York children's radio show host"Uncle Don" Carneysupposedly delivered the ad-libbed line "Are we off? Good...well, that oughta hold the little bastards" after signing off on his show one night, thinking his studio microphone was switched off. As a discredited urban legend has it, the remarks went to air, eventually leading to the show's cancellation and "Uncle Don"'s disgrace; apparently, Carney himself would tell the story of his blooper, especially once it became popular after the release of Schaefer's records. However, according to the debunking websiteSnopes.com,not only did the alleged incident never happen, the much distributed recording of the incident was a fabrication.(The alleged incident was even parodied in the 1993Simpsonsepisode "Krusty Gets Kancelled".)

An episode of the radio dramaMr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Personswas presumably introduced as "Mr. Keen, Loser of Traced Persons." (Bob and Rayonce did their own parody of this program under the title "Mr. Trace, Keener Than Most Persons".)

A popular story among Texas broadcasting circles has it that a station manager's late change in programming fromLes Brown's orchestra to a religious programme marking the somber Jewish holiday ofYom Kippurled to the staff announcer's billboard urging his listeners to "Stay tuned for the dance music of Yom Kippur's Orchestra." (ManygentileDJs have urged their Jewish listeners to "Have a happy Yom Kippur!" )

A radio commercial forA&Pfood stores ended with the announcer excitedly blurting out "...and be sure to visit your nearby A & Food P Store!" In much the same vein was an ad for instant tea as came out in the end "Instant White Rose, hot or cold – Orange Tekoe Pee" and a bakery advertising itself as having "the breast bed and rolls you ever tasted; I knew that would happen one night, friends," all the while breaking out in fits of uncontrollable laughter trying to get the line right.

During theDavy Crockettmania of the mid-1950s, a radio ad for children's bedding cashing in on same had the line "...with scenes of Davy Crockett in action on the mattress," a clear example of how unintentionaldouble-entendrecan translate into blooper material.

Afrikaansnews anchorRiaan Cruywagenmade several live-bloopers during his long career, most notably: where the normally very composed and highly professional Cruywagen burst into uncontrollable laughter while covering story about a record-breaking frog;as well as when co-anchor Marïetta Kruger asked what the word "dysentery"meant while covering a story related to the topic, to which he responded with" spuitpoep "(it translated as" spray poo "), which resulted in Kruger going into a fit of uncontrollable laughter.

Apublic service announcementurging young women to volunteer asnursesduring a critical shortage thereof ended with the appeal "Volunteer to be one of America's white-clapped angels of mercy," confusing a slang term for infection withgonorrheawith "white-clad."

The announcer of a radio ad for the 1948Bob HopefilmThe Paleface,which costarred buxom actressJane Russell,enthusiastically promised: "Bob Hope, America's favorite comedian, and Jane Russell...what a pair!"

ACanadian Broadcasting Corporationradio announcer's station-identification message once allegedly came out "This is the Dominion Network of the Canadian Broadcorping Castration," in turn coining an oft-used sarcastic term for the public broadcaster. Like other blooper recordings distributed by Schaefer, a recreation was created as the original recording was not preserved, leading to debate over whether the event actually happened.

A radio adaptation ofDon Quixoteover theBBChad one episode ending with the announcer explaining where "I'm afraid we've run out of time, so here we leave Don Quixote, sitting on his ass until tomorrow at the same time." In US English,asscould refer either to the buttocks or to ajackass.However, this would not have been seen as a blooper in theUKin the period when it was transmitted, since the British slang word for buttocks isarse,pronounced quite differently. It is only since it has become permissible forassin the sense ofbuttocksto be used in US films and on television, and syndicated to the UK, that most Brits have become aware of thebuttocksusage. Indeed, since theKing James Bibletranslation is now rarely used, and since the wordjackassis very rare in the UK, much of British youth is now unaware thatasscan meandonkey.As with the wordgay,its usage has completely changed within a few years. The announcer was merely making a joke of the character being frozen in place for 24 hours waiting for us, rather like Elwood in the opening minutes ofBlues Brothers 2000,or like toys put back in the cupboard in several children's films.

Contemporary examples

TheAmericansitcomThe Fresh Prince of Bel-Airhad a tradition of airing outtakes over the closing credits, though blooper reels were not shown during the closing credits of the show during the first, fifth (except for one episode), and sixth seasons. Many of these involvedmalapropismson the part of the cast, often lampooned byWill Smith,who would chime in on the mistakes made by the rest of the cast. An example of this is when Uncle Phil (James Avery) comments, "Well, the silverware's obviously not in the house. It must been stolen", before realizing the line was "It musthavebeen stolen "and correcting himself. Smith appears in the shot and, in an exaggeratedaccent,responds, "It must been stolen. Feet, don't fail me now!"

Another sitcom,Home Improvement,also showcased outtakes over its closing credits; however, some episodes featured a tag scene over the credits in lieu of a blooper reel.

Star Trekproduced many famous out-takes, which were shown to the delight of fans at gatherings over the years and have been extensively bootlegged. One famous example shows actorLeonard Nimoy,who plays the supposedly emotionlessMr. Spock,breaking into laughter when, in the first-season episode "This Side of Paradise",instead of saying the line" The plants act as arepository",says" The plants act as asuppository".In another out-take, series starWilliam Shatnerbreaks character during a scene and starts complaining about the food served in the studio commissary. A third example begins with the third-season episode "Is There in Truth No Beauty?",in which guest actressDiana Muldaurrecited the line, "We've come to the end of an eventful... trip", to which Shatner replies, "I don't know what you've been taking..." – a reference to the then-topical issue ofdrug-induced hallucinationsor "trips". People bumping into supposedly automatic doors when the backstage personnel mistimed opening them was a common accident depicted. Similarly there were also mishaps while filming in exterior, with aircraft flying over supposedly alien planets.

Hee Hawoften showed bloopers in the show itself, usually with the actor or actors requiring several tries to get a line right, ending in most cases with the correctly delivered line.

Many theatrical motion pictures feature bloopers during the end credits. For example, manyJackie Chanmovies end with footage of failed stunts, blown dialogue, and other mishaps; Chan was inspired to do this byBurt Reynolds' films of the early 1980s (in particularSmokey and the Bandit IIandThe Cannonball Run) that also featured end-credits bloopers. As an homage to its inspiration, the closing-credits blooper reel forAnchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundyactually featured one outtake fromSmokey and the Bandit II.

Pixaralso has a tradition of including blooper-like material during the end credits of such films asA Bug's Life,Toy Story 2,andMonsters, Inc.;the latter was at one point reissued to theatres with a major selling feature being the addition of extra "bloopers". Since Pixar's films are painstakingly animated, making actual blunders of this sort is impossible, these scenes are in fact staged to provide additional audience enjoyment. The makers of another animated film,Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within,likewise also created a faux blooper reel showing the characters playing practical jokes and, in one case, bursting into laughter when one "sneezes" during a dramatic sequence. However, the movieShrekhas actual bloopers that were released on DVD. These bloopers are technical errors within the system, causing blurred characters or the characters bodies going through objects, such as a bush or the crown Lord Farquaad wears. Going back decades earlier, in 1939Warner Bros.cartoon directorBob Clampettproduced a short "blooper" film (for the studio's annual in-house gag reel) ofLooney TunescharacterPorky Pigsmashing his thumb with a hammer and cursing.

The television show,Full House,had various bloopers in television specials but unreleased bloopers were leaked containing cast members using profanity to express their mistakes in a family-friendly program.

Thefishing television seriesBill Dance Outdoorshas produced four videos (twoVHSand twoDVD) focusing entirely on bloopers occurring during production of the show and associated commercials, often showing various mishaps such as missed lines (which sometimes take several takes to finally deliver correctly), accidents during filming (including falling into the water, being impaled with afish hook,or equipment malfunctions), as well as practical jokes played on the host by his guests and film crew (and vice versa). Some of the outtakes shown on these videos would sometimes be shown over the end credits.

TheDiscovery ChannelseriesMythBusterswill often keep some bloopers included in the actual episodes, usually various mishaps that occur on the show, such as minor injuries suffered by the cast, or various other accidents and malfunctions, which are usually quite spectacular and/or embarrassing when they do occur.

InAsia,variety shows, which is broadcast in a live-like format, would sometimes air bloopers titledNG's,which stands forno good/not good.TheseNG'swould usually feature hosts forgetting their words by mistake and admit they make mistakes on occasion.

TheDisney ChannelOriginal SeriesSonny with a Chanceseason 1 episode "Sonny So Far" included bloopers where actressDemi Lovatohad uncontrollable laughter while suffering fromhiccupsduring a supposedly "serious" scene, and several other scenes where the cast-members either humorously messed-up their lines, or props were forgotten.

A recent example of a well-publicized live blooper occurred during the March 2, 2014 telecast of the86th Academy Awards.In introducing the singerIdina Menzel's performance of one of the Best Song nominees, actorJohn Travoltaaccidentally announced her as "Adele Dazeem".

Acceptance of out-takes

The proliferation of out-takes/gag reels/blooper reels, especially on recent DVD releases, has received mixed response by actors and directors. While many do not mind the extra publicity offered by such material being shown to the public and others simply enjoy seeing the mistakes, other actors complain that out-takes are demeaning to themselves and/or the craft and refuse to allow them to be made public.

DirectorHal Ashby's decision to include a blooper reel of starPeter Sellersin his 1979 filmBeing There,for example, is sometimes blamed for Sellers' failure to win that year'sAcademy Award for Best Actor(for which he was nominated). Sellers had reportedly urged Ashby not to include the outtakes in the final edit of the film, to no avail.

Among his other issues withStar Trek'sproducerGene Roddenberry,Leonard Nimoywas not happy that Roddenberry showed the show's blooper reels to fans at conventions in the early 1970s. He felt actors needed to be free to make mistakes without expecting that they would be shown to the public, and wrote a letter to Roddenberry asking him to stop. Roddenberry's answer was to send Nimoy a blooper reel of his own should he have wished to show it at conventions.

Conversely, actors and crew on many productions treat the creation of gag reels as part of the filmmaking process, with innumerable examples of commercially released outtakes in which an actor can be heard remarking that a failed take was likely destined for a gag or blooper reel. Film producerSam Raimiwent so far as to commission veteran composerVic Mizzyto create unique scores for the gag/blooper reel special features for the DVD releases of the filmsSpider-Man 2andSpider-Man 3.

ComedianGreg Giraldoflubbed a joke about sex withkoalasduring a performance of hisComedy CentralspecialMidlife Vices.Giraldo then made several self-deprecating jokes, suggesting the flub would be included with the "DVD extras", before repeating the joke correctly. The entire bit made the final cut.

Alternative definitions

The term "blooper" or "flub," is often applied to describe continuity errors and other mistakes that have escaped the notice of film editors and directors and have made it into a final, televised or released product, where these errors are subsequently identified by viewers. For example, in a film taking place in the Old West, a viewer might spot a twentieth century vehicle driving in the distance of one shot, or in a film taking place in ancient Greece, an actor may have forgotten to remove his wristwatch and it was caught on film. Or it might be a piece of clothing, such as shoes, that change for one shot then change back with no explanation. Strictly speaking, however, these are film errors, and not "bloopers" since they did not occur in outtake footage or a live broadcast. TheInternet Movie Databasewebsite uses the termgoofsinstead. In the mid-1990s, authorPhil Farrandpublished a series ofNit-Picker's Guidesbooks in which he collected continuity errors and other on-screen "bloopers" from variousStar Trekseries that had been identified by either himself or fans; the listing of such information is commonplace onwiki-style websites devoted to TV and film production.

Inbaseball,the term is used to describe aTexas Leaguer,or a short fly ball that lands just past the infield, eluding both infielders and outfielders alike.

The Vietnam-eraM79 grenade launcheralso has the nickname "Blooper" due to its distinctive firing noise.Gustav Hasfordrefers to this in his novel,The Phantom Blooper: A Novel of Vietnam(1990).

See also

• B-roll
• Corpsing
• Outtake