Best comedy TV factual errors of all time

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The Middle picture

Leap Year - S3-E18

Factual error: Sue's birthday isn't actually on Leap Day as this birthday is her 15th (in season 4 she celebrates her Sweet 16) and Leap Day birthdays are multiples of 4. The closest leap day birthday in this sense would be her 16th.

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I Love Lucy picture

Home Movies - S3-E19

Factual error: In the film Lucy and the others make, there is a long sequence of footage played forwards, then "mistakenly" repeated backwards. With the equipment and techniques they were using, this would have required not only making a complete copy of the segment, but also reversing the order of individual frames. Just feeding the film in backwards would have also flipped the image vertically. The result seen would be nearly impossible to produce accidentally.

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The Dukes of Hazzard picture

Road Pirates - S2-E5

Factual error: When Roscoe tries the same jump the Dukes did, his car goes nose first into the wall of the ravine. Upon a close up, Roscoe is fine, but not wearing a seatbelt. According to physics, he should go through the windshield or get cut up.

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Roseanne picture

No Talking - S2-E12

Factual error: When Becky locks Roseanne out of her bedroom, Roseanne heads to the garage for a screwdriver to take the door off the hinges - an impossibility since the hinges are on Becky's side of the door. In the next scene, the door is off the hinges.

mirtom

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: Roseanne could have waited until Becky opened the door at a later time. She would have to come out at some point. Dan could also have ordered her to open it, and Roseanne then took it off the hinges. It was also Darlene's room, so Becky would have to let her in. Roseanne was making a point and to make sure Becky didn't do it again.

raywest

This is the most ridiculously convoluted "correction" ever. It was a monumental mistake, or at the very least, they hoped viewers wouldn't notice.

Yeah, not an impossibility whatsoever considering even if the door had to be forced open, it was going to be taken off the hinges. Classic 80's/90's parenting.

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The Rookie picture

Greenlight - S1-E16

Factual error: Captain Anderson pulls a suspect underwater and shoots him. There's a bright, yellow flash under the water. In reality, this wouldn't happen, only a large amount of bubbles would appear, but no flash.

Matdan97

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The Venture Bros. picture

The Invisible Hand of Fate - S3-E3

Factual error: When Billy is in his first Underground Quiz Match, the host says at the start of the match "Jeopardy Rules apply," then starts with the first answer. Billy buzzes in with the correct question and wins it, however, Jeopardy Rules state that contestants may not buzz in before the host finishes reading. If they do, they lose their chance to buzz in first. (00:07:20)

Captain Defenestrator

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Recess picture

Randall's Reform - S1-E18

Factual error: At the end when Ms. Finster tells Randall to give her the names of the kids involved with the ball incident, she says to list them in alphabetical order. The first name Randall says is "Dettweiler, T.J." But "Blumberg, Mikey" would actually come before that, and given what we know of Randall, this isn't the kind of mistake he is likely to make.

shorty30490

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The Nanny picture

Shopaholic - S3-E6

Factual error: In the last scene, Fran has a soda cup from In-N-Out, which at the time, of the show, only had one restaurant out of the state of California, in the state of Nevada. Even today (2020), they don't have any stores east of Texas.

wb6vpm

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Gavin & Stacey picture

Episode Six - S3-E6

Factual error: Dave and Nessa's wedding is meant to be on 13th June and at the end supposedly 6 months later Nessa, Gavin and Stacey are sat on the sea wall in beautiful sunshine in summery clothes when it should be middle of December.

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Suggested correction: Didn't they get married on 6th April, Stacey's dad's 50th birthday?

That was Gavin and Stacey's wedding. Not Nessa and Dave.

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2 Broke Girls picture

And the Sophie Doll - S6-E7

Factual error: Caroline says to Max, "You've had rabies once," implying that she was infected with rabies and recovered. Rabies, once you get infected, is lethal and untreatable. (00:00:10 - 00:10:15)

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: Rabies is curable if you are infected, as long as you don't show symptoms. You can get treatment - the sooner, the better. Also, the further away the wound that infected you is from your brain, the longer time you have until symptoms show.

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The Wonder Years picture

Country Dean - S1-E14

Factual error: Bessie says she was going to study veterinary medicine at Texas A and M. That would have been approximately 1940. Neither women nor people of colour were admitted to TAMU until 1963 so she could not have even been able to apply.

Leicaman

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New Girl picture

All In - S3-E1

Factual error: This episode reveals that Winston is colorblind, seeing green as brown. But later in the series, Winston becomes a cop, working for the LAPD. This wouldn't have happened because candidates for the LAPD are put through a color blindness test where they are required to quickly and accurately identify colors. Winston would have failed and would not have been allowed to join the LAPD.

immortal eskimo

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Barney Miller picture

Uniform Day - S6-E17

Factual error: It is Uniform Day where they all have to wear their uniforms. The badges they all wear are those of patrolmen. The problem is that they are detectives and the NYPD has detective badges, which are distinctly different looking.

terry s

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Space Force picture

It's Good to Be Back on the Moon - S1-E9

Factual error: The Apollo 11 flag gets knocked over by the Chinese rover...but the flag was blown over by the Eagle's takeoff thrust, witnessed by Buzz Aldrin. This was confirmed years later by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which showed shadows of the flags planted at all six Apollo landing sites, bar Apollo 11's. The other 5 were all planted further from their landing craft precisely for that reason. It's also widely assumed that the flags on the moon would have been bleached white by decades of unfiltered sunlight, not in good condition like the one shown.

Jon Sandys

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Rush Hour picture

Assault on Precinct 7 - S1-E5

Factual error: When the trucker reaches into the bag that's suppose to have his cash with his "bonus", he's bitten by a venomous snake. However, we see the snake and it's a non-venomous king snake.

Bishop73

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Scrubs picture

My Common Enemy - S4-E7

Factual error: In the scene where J.D goes to Elliot's apartment and finds Dan there he sings along to "Thank you" by Dido. However that song is from the album "No Angel". The album cover shown in the episode is "Life for rent" which doesn't feature the song.

y2mac69

More Scrubs factual errors
Lizzie McGuire picture

Sibling Bonds - S1-E17

Factual error: During the montage of Lizzie and Matt at the charity drive golf tournament, there is one part where Lizzie is standing outside the Men's toilet as Matt uses it. However they are handcuffed together with cuffs that have a chain which is about an inch long, so there is no way Matt could use the toilet with Lizzie standing outside the door. (00:16:40)

Hamster

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