The Hilarious Eric And Laurie Moment That '70s Show Fans Love To Watch

If you've ever had a friend lob a good-natured diss at you, then follow up by shouting "BURN!" then chances are this friend is a fan of the classic Fox sitcom That '70s Show. Burns aplenty were lobbed back and forth between the show's main cast of characters: geeky, acerbic Eric Forman (Topher Grace), his main squeeze Donna Pinciotti (Laura Prepon), good-looking doofus Michael Kelso (Ashton Kutcher), his spoiled, abrasive girlfriend Jackie Burkhart (Mila Kunis), cynical reefer enthusiast Steven Hyde (Danny Masterson), and awkward foreign exchange student Fez (Wilmer Valderrama). But the most vicious burns were often exchanged between Eric and his ambition-free, unapologetically promiscuous sister Laurie (Lisa Robin Kelly), with whom Eric shared a love-hate relationship that often came down heavily on the "hate" side of the equation.

She might have often appeared vacuous, but Eric had a way of bringing out Laurie's sharp wit; in one season 2 episode, for example, she responded to her brother's request "Give me the remote," by deadpanning, "Give me a reason why I shouldn't set you on fire." Eric, of course, could be equally merciless with his dear sister. In one season 3 episode, Laurie admonishes Eric, "Daddy works hard, and nothing here is cheap." Eric responds, "Except you," which is hardcore enough — but then, Laurie sets him up for the slam dunk. "Believe me, I'm not cheap," she says, to which Eric replies "Fine — free, whatever."

The ongoing diss war between Laurie and Eric was a reliable source of laughs on That '70s Show — but a couple of the pair's funniest moments had nothing to do with burns, instead drawing laughs with the complete subversion of the audience's expectations of how they normally interact.

The most awesomely unexpected of these moments came in the season 1 episode "Water Tower," which opens with Kelso taking a spill from the top of the titular tower for the very first time (but certainly not the last). The gang returns to the Forman home, and Eric offers to wake up his mother Kitty (Debra Jo Rupp), a nurse, to see if she can "fix" Kelso. Unbeknownst to him, his father Red (Kurtwood Smith) is in bed with Kitty as well, and... well, they're not napping.

Eric's look of mortified shock as he barges into their bedroom tells us all we need to know — well, that and the sound of Red and Kitty's passionate vocalizations, which Eric hears in his head on a loop for an entire sleepless night. In the kitchen the next morning, Laurie asks Eric what his problem is, saying he's been "extra loser-y lately." In no mood for verbal sparring, Eric simply blurts out, "I saw Mom and Dad having sex." But rather than bursting into laughter, Laurie registers the exact same look of shock on her face, then promptly sweeps Eric into her arms, cooing, "Oh, you poor thing! It's alright, it's okay! Baby's fine!"

After a brief but hilarious cutaway sequence done in the style of a National Geographic documentary, we return to the kitchen, where Laurie is continuing to attempt to console Eric. "I learned in psychology class that what you went through is traumatic," she says. "But don't worry. Many people have had this same experience." When Eric asks if they turned out okay, Laurie admits that "some of them turned out to be serial killers." Eric marvels that, despite that last bit, Laurie is actually trying to be nice — to which she responds, "Yeah, it's just not my strong suit. Sorry."

This instance wasn't the only time an uncharacteristic flash of kindness on Laurie's part was used for humorous effect. The character was absent for the entirety of season 4 (she was said to have moved to Chicago), but she briefly returns in season 5, just as Eric and Donna are dealing with the reverse-psychology machinations of Red. The two have recently come clean about their engagement, and Red's plan to put a stop to the wedding is actually quite clever — he feigns throwing his wholehearted support behind it, and insists it take place as soon as possible, which has the intended effect of freaking the couple right the heck out.

Laurie sees exactly what's happening, and after a back-and-forth with Red about the matter, she approaches Eric and Donna to say she's been thinking of ways to try to help them, to which Eric responds by grabbing her by the  shoulders and shaking her, shouting, "Where's Laurie?!" Laurie's solution is actually rather elegant in its simplicity. "If you two love each other, but Red is making you miserable, there's only one answer," she says. "Get out. Leave town. Because love is precious." Eric is suspicious, until Donna spots a single tear rolling down Laurie's cheek. "Oh my God, Eric, I think she's being sincere," she says.  Donna then goes so far as to taste the tear, and proclaims it to be genuine — at which point Eric joyfully exclaims, "I have a sister!" and hugs Laurie.

Shockingly, not only did Eric and Donna take Laurie's advice, it worked — Eric's announcement that the pair were moving out to get their own apartment in Madison forced Red to rethink his approach, and he ended up declaring that Eric was now a man, capable of making his own decisions. All thanks to Laurie — who, in a subsequent act of kindness, married Fez so he could avoid deportation, causing Red to have a heart attack. Laurie might have truly been trying to turn over a new leaf — but in the immortal words of Huey Lewis, sometimes, bad is bad.