The Hilarious Witcher Season 1 Moment That Was Totally Improvised
Despite the fact that Henry Cavill spent most of "The Witcher" Season 1 trying his hardest to show almost no emotion in his stoic performance as Geralt of Rivia, there were still plenty of comedic moments throughout those first few episodes. Geralt's dry wit and sarcastic sense of humor are the sources of many laugh-out-loud moments in the normally serious dark fantasy series: especially when he's bickering with the mischievous bard Jaskier (Joey Batey).
Jaskier serves as the perfect foil to the brooding Witcher, as his jubilant attitude and habit of breaking out into song remain a source of constant annoyance for Geralt throughout their journey across the Continent. Despite their bickering, the two eventually become fast friends -โ to the point that Jaskier even composes a theme song for Geralt, the fan-favorite song "Toss a Coin to Your Witcher." As it happens, one of the funniest scenes in the entire series actually involves Jaskier reciting that song in a wholly inappropriate setting -โ a scene that many might not know was completely improvised.
Jaskier changing the lyrics to his song was completely improvised
The scene in question comes in the episode "Bottled Appetites," wherein Jaskier becomes infected by a malevolent spirit known as a Djinn, and Geralt takes him to Yennefer (Anya Chalotra) for healing. However, Yennefer wants to capture the Djinn for herself, and ends up threatening Jaskier at knifepoint and groping him, resulting in the bard reciting the line "Toss a coin to your Witcher, oh Valley ofโ- Penis! Oh God!"
Batey and Chalotra revealed during an interview with BBC Radio 1 that the crude twist on the song's "Valley of Plenty" line was 100% improvised. "I bet you [Chalotra] 20 pounds, like we had a bet to see if it would make the cut," Batey recalled. "I was like: don't do it, don't do it... and you did it," said Chalotra. Obviously, the improvised scene did, in fact, make the final cut, and actually ended up being one of the more memorable comedic moments in the entire series. In any case, it seems that Batey has a talent for improvising scenes throughout the series, and we can't wait to see what he brings to the table in the show's 3rd season.