Bloopers That Were Funnier Than The Actual Movie

A comedy's whole thing is that it's, well, a comedy. It's funny. But for all the creative genius and careful planning that goes into crafting a comedy classic for the ages, filmmakers simply can't deny the happy, silly little accidents that get caught on film during the shooting of a movie. (The nature of comedy is, after all, surprise.) Fortunately, those moments have been preserved as part of gag, blooper, or outtake reals. And the good ones are almost as funny (or even funnier) than the movies that spawned them.

With Superbad, Seth Rogen, along with writing partner Evan Goldberg, proved himself a formidable screenwriting talent. The movie deftly mixed teen movie shenanigans (on par with something John Hughes might have turned out in the mid-'80s) with an exploration of male friendship rarely seen on screen. It also gave a whole new generation its very own Steve Urkel, in the form of McLovin (Christopher Mintz-Plasse). While he holds his own with Jonah Hill and Michael Cera, Mintz-Plasse is arguably at his funniest in an outtake. While filming the scene in which his character is about to try to use his obviously fake ID at a liquor store, a bee won't leave the actor alone, and he can't leave the bee alone. Nor will Mintz-Plasse's costars quit busting his chops.

With a ten-year span between 2002's Men in Black II and 2012's Men in Black 3, filmmakers found a unique way to bring Agents J and K back to the big screen. Agent J (Will Smith) has to go back in time to prevent an alien from killing Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones). Younger Agent K is then portrayed, in an act of perfect casting, by Jones' lookalike, soundalike, No Country for Old Men costar, Josh Brolin. The actor, usually known for serious roles and mega-budget superhero movies (he played Thanos in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, after all), clearly had a fun time making the movie, as evidenced by the blooper reel footage of him trying out different voices and testing out his comedy scream.

Guardians of the Galaxy is one of the funniest entries in the MCU, in large part because director James Gunn cast hilarious Parks & Recreation scene-stealer Chris Pratt as Peter "Star-Lord" Quill. Pratt was known to improv on set, and some of his on-the-fly bits stayed in the final cut of Guardians. And yet despite all the comedy that wound up on screen, it's the blooper of the infectious, maniacal fake laughter of the likable Pratt that's possibly funnier than anything else.

Anchorman is an endlessly quotable, completely bonkers comedy classic, following the absurd exploits of a 1970s San Diego news team kicking and scratching in reaction to a changing world. The 2004 movie became such a beloved cult classic that the cast returned in 2013 for a sequel, which finds the Channel 4 News Team joining an upstart cable news network in 1980. Little else has changed, particularly Brian Fantana, the sex-obsessed ladies' man portrayed by Paul Rudd. In the first movie, he showed off his collection of toxic colognes; in the sequel, he unveils his condom collection. That gave Rudd plenty of opportunities to come up with as many crude and absurd sex jokes he could think of.

Like many film franchises,The Hangover franchise suffered from diminishing returns. The first film from 2009 captured lightning in a bottle, and filmmakers went back to the "guys who get into crazy/dangerous situations" two more times. In the first movie they went to Las Vegas, in the second one they hit Bangkok, and in The Hangover Part III the Wolfpack heads back to Sin City. But none of that is really important because this was a movie that had the great Zach Galifianakis as part of its cast, and he's a one-man, snack-demanding Wolfpack on the gag reel.

Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly proved they were among the best comedy duos of all time in Step Brothers (and, of course, Talladega Nights), playing stunted adult man-children forced to get along when their coddling parents marry each other. Putting two agile comic minds on the set together day after day was bound to lead to some improvisation... and cracking up. Things nearly got out of hand when Ferrell and Reilly decided to wrestle.

Deadpool/Wade Wilson was the role Ryan Reynolds was born to play: an action hero, but one whose lines oozed with sarcasm and self-deprecating humor. Perhaps an even better casting choice was T.J. Miller as Wilson's best friend and bartender, Weasel. Miller is a veteran stand-up comic and was a highlight of HBO's Silicon Valley, so it shouldn't surprise anyone that Miller played fast and loose with a script that was already fast and loose. He has some wildly absurd (and often profane) descriptions for what a scarred Wade looks like that are also shockingly accurate.

It seems like whenever a big-time pro wrestler moves into acting in big-time movies, people are genuinely shocked by their abilities—but years and years performing in character for crowds certainly trains them for the silver screen. Case in point: John Cena, who had to act alongside comedy stalwart Amy Schumer in Trainwreck. Cena plays an enthusiastic romantic partner to Schumer's character, and he's obviously quite committed to the part. He's also very funny, so funny that he makes a pro comic like Amy Schumer crack up during a sex scene.

Malin Akerman is an accomplished actor, but when she filmed the 2009 ensemble comedy Couples Retreat, she hadn't racked up as much comedy experience as her costars, particularly Vince Vaughn and Peter Serafinowicz. She was trying to film a reaction shot for a scene in which Vaughn, playing her character's husband, has to insultingly call Serafinowicz's character "Mr. Belvedere." Akerman simply could not stop laughing at this joke.

Early in Beyoncé's rise to world domination, she mixed some acting in with her movie career, including playing '70s undercover spy Foxxy Cleopatra in Mike Myers' third Austin Powers outing. In a pivotal scene, Austin comments on the whereabouts of a target, and Beyoncé tosses off the line "tell me something I don't know." That's all Myers-as-Austin needed to just let loose with all the weird, embarrassing secrets Foxxy Cleopatra didn't know about him.