Best comedy TV deliberate mistakes of all time

Please vote as you browse around to help the best rise to the top.

South Park picture

Volcano - S1-E3

Deliberate mistake: When the boys are hunting in the forest, then they start to crawl after the rabbit, however, the background behind them is static as if they were crawling in place.

Moose

More South Park deliberate mistakes
Absolutely Fabulous picture

Death - S2-E2

Deliberate mistake: When Patsy falls into the open grave the whole shot freezes, this may be because the green cloth covering the pile of dirt began to fall into the hole when Patsy fell in.

DJKostya

More Absolutely Fabulous deliberate mistakes
Futurama picture

Space Pilot 3000 - S1-E1

Deliberate mistake: When the world is counting down to the new year, we see people in various countries, Egypt, the USA etc all counting down together. Because of time zone differences this isn't possible. [It is a little joke.] (00:01:35)

David Mercier

More Futurama deliberate mistakes
Desperate Housewives picture

Show generally

Deliberate mistake: In the episode where Mary-Alice Young's house is open for buyer's inspection, the phone number on the "For Sale" sign has been digitally blurred.

More Desperate Housewives deliberate mistakes
Frasier picture

Frasier Loves Roz - S3-E22

Deliberate mistake: About halfway through the show, Roz and Daphne are in the kitchen talking. Daphne pours water into the teapot - but there is no steam coming from the kettle, nor any sound of a boiling/just boiled kettle. No self-respecting Brit would make tea with water that wasn't boiling.

More Frasier deliberate mistakes
Here Come the Brides picture

Show generally

Deliberate mistake: Robert Brown wears a gold turtleneck sweater with his leather outfit throughout the series. Though it's more than 100 years beyond the show's 19th Century setting, he and the producers decided that he looked good in it, so allowed the anachronism to stand.

Jean G

More Here Come the Brides deliberate mistakes
More Reno 911! deliberate mistakes
M*A*S*H picture

Show generally

Deliberate mistake: These errors I assume were caused by the show running 3 times longer than the real war. Col. Potter arrived at MASH in September 1952 a year before the war ended, then a few months passed by Margaret got engaged for 8 months, then Frank Burns left and Charles took his place. In this time the war would have ended. In the final episode Margaret mentions Charles has been there for 2 years. Which means he would have arrived in 1951 a year before Trapper and Henry left and Col. Potter arrived. It's a lot to take in.

More M*A*S*H deliberate mistakes
Scrubs picture

Season 2 generally

Deliberate mistake: In one of the later episodes of season 2 Turk is seen being bored in surgery and checking the patient's wristwatch to see how long they have been operating. Patients are not allowed to wear jewelry or watches during surgery as there is a VERY high risk of infection and it might kill them.

More Scrubs deliberate mistakes
More Batman deliberate mistakes
More Phoenix Nights deliberate mistakes
More My Family deliberate mistakes
The Cosby Show picture

Pilot - S1-E1

Deliberate mistake: In the very first episode, the kids are fighting and arguing all throughout the house. Claire then asks Cliff, "Why did we have 4 kids?", referring to Denise, Theo, Rudy, and Vanessa. In all of the following episodes, they actually have 5 kids. I guess they decided to add Sandra (the oldest Huxtable) later down the road.

More The Cosby Show deliberate mistakes
Little Britain picture

Season 1 Episode 4 - S1-E4

Deliberate mistake: In the scene where Peter Andre and his producer watch the footage of the royal family, in the background you can see princess Diana and the queen mother who had both unfortunately passed away before Little Britain was made. They had to use the old footage but it is still a mistake.

More Little Britain deliberate mistakes
More Only Fools and Horses deliberate mistakes
One Foot in the Grave picture

The Beast in the Cage - S3-E4

Deliberate mistake: In the shot where we see the cars in front of Victor's (shortly after Victor gets out of the car and gets back in when the traffic starts moving) you can see that after the white car on the right that there are no more cars even though the episode takes place in a traffic queue! If you listen to the commentary on the DVD, writer David Renwick points out the mistake and informs us that they had a limited number of cars for the shot. (00:11:25)

James Ransford

More One Foot in the Grave deliberate mistakes
Full House picture

Lust in the Dust - S3-E15

Deliberate mistake: Jesse is looking for his keys and thinks Michelle took them. Near the end, Joey comes home and finds the keys in the door, hands them to Jesse, who puts them in his pocket. A few seconds later Danny comes home, takes Michelle into the kitchen. Joey and Jesse exchange a couple lines and go into the kitchen, where Michelle is sitting in a booster chair at the table. The 3 guys chat for a few minutes, then Jesse is going to leave, but can't find his keys again. It turns out Michelle has them. But how did Michelle get them? She was in the booster seat the entire time Jesse was in the kitchen and Jesse never went to that end of the room, so there's no way she could have gotten them.

Bowling255

More Full House deliberate mistakes
More Home Improvement deliberate mistakes
The Bob Newhart Show picture

Show generally

Deliberate mistake: The circular desk where Carol sits should be rotated 180 degrees so she is facing the elevators. How many times have you gotten off an elevator in a fancy office building only to see the back of the receptionist's head?

William Bergquist

More The Bob Newhart Show deliberate mistakes
Monty Python's Flying Circus picture

Njorl's Saga - S3-E1

Deliberate mistake: Eric Idle's 'Stock Exchange Report' (in Series 3, Show 1) has a very obvious edit in the middle. This is a monologue delivered without cutaways, so the jump in the video tape is very easy to spot. Whether this edit indicates material removed or a simple joining together of two takes is unclear. However, since Idle gets drenched with water at the close of the routine (and given that, under BBC constraints, there was no time for drying out), we can assume that he must have made his fluff quite early on in the piece.

More Monty Python's Flying Circus deliberate mistakes

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.