A blooper is a short sequence of a film or video
production, usually a deleted scene, containing a mistake made by a member of
the cast or crew. These bloopers, or outtakes as
they are also called, are often the subject of television shows or are
occasionally revealed during the credit
sequence at the end of comedy movies. (Jackie Chan and Burt
Reynolds are both famous for including such reels with the closing
credits of their movies.) Humorous mistakes made by athletes are often
referred to as bloopers as well, particularly in baseball.
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"Blooper" is ultimately derived from "blue," a
traditional euphemism for obscene or indecent material.
The collecting of bloopers (and the coining of the term; the word
"boner" had been the common term for such errors previously) was
popularized in America by television producer Kermit
Schaefer in the 1950s. Schaefer produced a long-running series of Pardon
My Blooper! record albums in the 50s and 60s which featured a mixture of
actual recordings of errors from television and radio broadcasts, coupled with
re-creations. Schaefer also transcribed many reported bloopers into a series of
books that he published up until his death in 1979.
