John Mulaney Reminder and Corpsing

Hey again, it's Matt.

Just wanted to remind everyone that tomorrow night John Mulaney of SNL and stand-up fame will be in the HUB at 8PM. It's free and ticketless (first come, first served), so you have no excuse not to check out a great comedian... unless of course you're worried about finals next week or something. Another fun fact I found out about John Mulaney and his SNL creation, Stefon, is that Mulaney purposely tried to make Bill Hader break character and laugh. I personally think that when an actor or comedian breaks character on occasion, it's one of the funniest things ever. Who doesn't get a kick out of seeing Stephen Colbert or Michael Palin laughing hysterically? It takes a lot of skill to make a good actor/comedian laugh.

Stephen Colbert corpsing. Also, check out the clip here (around the 2:20 mark).

This little fact is actually a terrific setup for what I will be talking about next. In fact, the situation I described above, when a comedian/actor breaks character and can't stop laughing, it is called corpsing. As Wikipedia defines it, corpsing is a British slang term when a character breaks out laughing or makes another cast member laugh. (Wikipedia). Obviously, a lot of this doesn't make it into the movies or previously recorded tv shows. Mostly you will find this happening on live shows or in the blooper reels of your favorite film or show.

The thing about corpsing is that it is not always due to something hilarious being said. Anything can set an actor/comedian off and can potentially ruin an important shot. Sometimes, it will even get to the point where after numerous mess-ups of the takes it really is not funny anymore and starts to get annoying. However, this isn't always enough to get the person to stop corpsing. It becomes something of a self fulfilling prophecy in that they are so worried about laughing and ruining the take, it makes it all the harder to stop laughing.

Surely some of us have felt something similar to this, even if we aren't actors or comedians. I remember my freshman year in the dorms when I was watching a funny video. My roommate was sleeping not even 10 feet away and I was laughing so hard I could barely breathe. The fact that I was trying to be quiet and considerate made the video all the more funny and my reaction all the more loud. I eventually had to take a 5 minute break to calm down and stop laughing...

A lot of the information I have on corpsing comes from none other than one of England's best comedians, Ricky Gervais. Gervais and his friends working on the tv show Extras made a mini documentary (more of a blooper reel than anything) about the phenomenon. Check it out below.