Why are blooper reels so funny?

By Shane Rogers, Lecturer in Psychology, Edith Cowan University

Blooper reels are very popular, with some videos on YouTube racking up tens of millions of views. It’s a curious thing: why are videos of mistakes sometimes getting as much attention (or more!) as clips from the actual TV and movie productions?

From a psychological standpoint, the concept of “benign violation theory” can be applied to understand why bloopers are often found funny. This theory suggests that, for something to be found funny, it must violate some kind of norm or expectation while…

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