Game Of Thrones Bloopers That'll Have You Laughing

Despite the presence of flying dragons, Game of Thrones is one of the most serious shows in TV history. Deadly serious—characters both evil and beloved are routinely killed off in brutal, unflinchingly violent detail. Which is to say nothing of the political intrigue, incestuous siblings, war, and general inhumanity and misanthropy. The show's top-rate cast of classically trained award-winning actors from all over the world simply has to break the tension from time to time, resulting in some very charming if jarring bloopers and outtakes from the set of Game of Thrones.

Peter Dinklage has won two Emmys and a Golden Globe for his complex portrayal of Tyrion Lannister, the witty bon vivant and less-loved child of one of the most powerful clans in Westeros. Dinklage has excellent diction, honed in part over a long career on the stage, and yet certain words on certain days can still escape him. In this blooper, Dinklage can deliver a mouthful of George R.R. Martin's moderately difficult to pronounce invented names, but he can't get a handle on a common English word, no matter how hard he tries.

Once left for dead, the Hound (Rory McCann) has been taken under the wing of the kind Brother Ray (Ian McShane) in the sixth season of Game of Thrones. He is hard at work chopping wood while Brother Ray approaches and delivers some dialogue. That bit of stage business just does not go smoothly for McCann, who gets his ax stuck in one of those logs he's supposed to be effortlessly slicing. He just can't get it out, and nothing seems to dislodge it. This ax is so powerful it may one day rule over all of Westeros.

Esteemed British actor Charles Dance was well cast as the mighty and imposing patriarch Tywin Lannister. As one of the finest actors of his generation, he gives line reads that add a little something extra to what's on the page. This is maybe what people on the set thought when instead of immediately delivering his line, Dance took a long, thoughtful pause, gently nodding his head. Was he acting? Nope, he just completely forgot what he was supposed to say.

Maybe forgetting a line and making it look like really good acting runs in the fictional family? While acting one-on-one with Charles Dance, Lena Headey — playing Tywin's daughter, Cersei Lannister — is asked "when would the wedding take place?" Headey pauses, not for dramatic effect, but because, as she says, she "can't remember." Not the date—but the line.

On the other side of the coin, actors are just as liable to say too many words at one time and deliver a bunch of gibberish as they are to draw a complete blank. In this blooper, it happened to Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. When called out on violating a "sacred vow," Jaime Lannister owns up with a line that isn't even a bunch of made-up Dothraki words or tricky exposition. It's just straight nonsense.

Somebody almost got fired for this mistake—literally. While filming a scene as Oberyn Martell, actor Pedro Pascal leaned against a wall ... a little too close to where a torch was burning. Unlike a lot of other things on Game of Thrones, that torch was not CGI—it was real fire, and, as Pascal is reminded, fire is hot.

While offscreen and awaiting his fate for being arrested for the murder of King Joffrey, Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) asks his brother Jaime Lannister, "what's the punishment for regicide?" Jaime (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) solemnly responds, "beheading." The decidedly not-solemn response: a quick sound of water hitting a surface—which definitely sounds like Dinklage is getting some relief.

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau just couldn't help himself. As his character, Jaime Lannister, leads his brother, Tyrion Lannister, into a courtroom for his trial in the murder of King Joffrey, the sounds of prisoner chains hitting the ground did so in such a rhythmic way that Coster-Waldau starts singing to the tune of "Good King Wenceslas." The levity culminates in a final image of Dinklage dancing with his hands bound, and two helmeted guards framed just like backup dancers. Unsurprisingly, that went viral, both as a GIF and with the scene "remixed" with new music dubbed in.

Even animal actors can get be a part of the blooper real. The cat that played fan favorite Ser Pounce on Game of Thrones made too sudden of an entrance into a bedroom scene with Natalie Dormer (as Margaery Tyrell) and Dean-Charles Chapman (as Tommen Baratheon). Ruining a moment in the bedroom? Classic cat move—and a pretty funny one to Dormer. The cat even improvised a line. (Spoiler: It's "meow.")

In what's supposed to be a fairly serious conversation between Jaime Lannister and Brienne of Tarth, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau is delivering his lines normally up to the point he realizes he's saying totally the wrong thing. That flub doesn't make co-star Gwendoline Christie break out into laughter. What does is Coster-Waldau's genuine, heartfelt apology for messing up the scene, and then the affectionate touch of her arm.