Why we love bloopers (who doesn’t?)

Ever found yourself deep in a YouTube wormhole at 2am watching bloopers from Friends, Schitt’s Creek or Modern Family? Don't pretend you haven't.

You start with “just one clip,” and suddenly you're emotionally invested in whether David from Schitt’s Creek can get through one line without exploding into giggles.

Bloopers aren’t just funny — they remind us that even the so-called professionals can’t get it right all the time. They mess up, trip over props, snort-laugh mid-scene, and somehow, it makes them even more lovable. Humans being humans — it’s chaos, but charming chaos.

The Beauty of imperfect art

Art is meant to be imperfect. For example, some of the greatest music ever made didn’t come from following the rules — it came from mistakes, happy accidents, and bold experimentation.

Take the legendary guitar solo in Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven”. Jimmy Page famously improvised a lot of it in the studio, stumbling into notes that ended up iconic.

Even Sting couldn’t resist a good laugh during The Police’s “Roxanne” sessions when he accidentally sat on a piano while recording. You can still hear his 'bum' note and laughter on the song. Even The Police were up for keeping their mistakes in.

Sometimes the best creative moments happen when you go

 “Well, that didn’t work… but actually, that’s brilliant.”

Perfection kills curiosity. Mistakes can spark it.

Keep the chaos (it’s more fun that way)

That’s exactly why I leave mistakes in my videos. If something ridiculous happens, I’m keeping it.

Recently I've been producing a bunch of videos with Nate James and let me tell you there’s plenty of glorious chaos in there.

The thing is, we have a lot of fun making those videos. We're often laughing at ourselves or each other and that stuff deserves to be seen.

Case in point:

I was walking backwards down Brick Lane, filming Nate, and walked straight into a sunglasses display outside some poor bloke's shop.

Did we cut it out?

Of course not.

Bloody comedy gold.

I think you can even hear the shopkeeper shouting in the distance.

That's the sort of thing I mean.

It wasn't planned. It wasn't particularly clever. It certainly wasn't cinematic. But it told you something about what was actually happening while we were making the video. And that's often much more interesting than another perfectly framed shot of somebody staring moodily into the middle distance.

Bloopers: the secret ingredient

It's now a bit of a trademark that I include bloopers in the end credits of every music video I produce.

Watching a musician miss a cue, trip over a mic cable, or blow a line never fails to crack everyone up on set.

It's a reminder that behind the slick production and cinematic shots, there are actual human beings making the thing.

And honestly, that's part of the fun.

There's also something useful about giving people a glimpse of what happened behind the finished video.

They don't just see the polished version.

They see the people who made it.

Perfection is boring (seriously)

We're living in an age where almost everything can be polished.

Every frame can be cleaned up. Every mistake can be removed. Every sentence can be rewritten until it sounds like nobody actually said it.

But here’s the thing — perfection is dull. Deadly dull. Humans are messy. We mess up. We stammer. We spill tea on the keyboard. And we learn from it.

Strip away the mistakes, and you lose the charm. And sometimes those little imperfections are exactly what make people want to stick around.

So next time you're filming a reel, a talking-head video, a behind-the-scenes clip or anything else, and you mess it up, don't automatically reach for the delete button.

Leave it in.

Laugh at it.

Not every mistake needs to be published, obviously. If you've just forgotten your own name and spent 30 seconds staring at the wall, maybe that's one for the cutting room floor.

But if something is funny, revealing or shows a bit of your personality, why remove it?

Your audience doesn't need to see a perfect version of you every time.

They need to see you.

Mistakes aren’t failures — they’re free entertainment, relationship-builders, and sometimes even the best part of the video. So go on, be human. Mess up spectacularly. Walk into sunglasses displays. Flub your lines. Post it anyway.

Nothing says “relatable legend” like a proper arse-over-tit moment caught on camera.

Mistakes aren't necessarily failures.

Sometimes they're just the bit that makes the finished video feel alive.

So leave the occasional stumble in.

Keep the laugh.

Show the bit where it went wrong.



You might find it's the part people remember.