Best comedy TV deliberate mistakes of all time

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Season 6 generally

Deliberate mistake: Lily was an infant for all of season 5, but beginning with this season, she is around 5 years old. The show didn't jump forward in time, because JT states in a season 5 episode that he is 19, and in the episode this season where he and Rich go to Mexico, he states that he is almost 20, as well as Al and Mark are both still in high school.

Phaneron

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Fawlty Towers picture

The Builders - S1-E2

Deliberate mistake: When Basil is arguing with Polly and eventually decides to call O'Reilly, he trips over the gnome. However when we see Basil come out from behind the desk, he takes the gnome out of a side gap in the desk, perfectly out of reach of Basil tripping over it. (00:14:30)

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Mr. Monk Meets His Dad - S5-E9

Deliberate mistake: In the opening scene, Wood's tie is grabbed by an exposed fan belt located above the side of the engine. However, this belt/pulley assembly doesn't exist in a real truck's engine compartment - the fan belts are all in front of the engine, where the camera can't see them easily. The prop master must have added this dangerous device to the truck to allow the camera to see the strangulation.

nixiebunny

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Be True to Your Fool - S7-E19

Deliberate mistake: Hank only discovers the tattoo on the back of his head after having his hair shaved off. There is no way, however, he wouldn't have noticed it before this. The tattoo artist had to shave hair off the back of his head before putting on the tattoo. While he might have not realised right away, the pain the following day and the fact that he would have noticed a large part of his hair missing would make it unavoidable.

Lummie

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The Andy Griffith Show picture The Andy Griffith Show mistake picture

Barney's First Car - S3-E27

Deliberate mistake: After Barney buys the car from Mrs. Lesh, he and Andy are standing at the steps as he tells her not to look back at the car, and the next shot of Andy and Barney at the front door is the same shot from a few moments prior, but it's been flipped so they would be looking in the opposite direction. (00:09:30)

Super Grover

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The O.C. picture

The Dearly Beloved - S2-E24

Deliberate mistake: Lindsay is not at Caleb's funeral in the last episode of season 2, "The Dearly Beloved". It's unlikely that she would have missed it - she is still on good terms with him and he is her father, the only reason she left was to be with her mother, not because she didn't love Caleb.Obviously they didn't want to create another drama with having Lindsay there while they had to focus on the important story-lines - Caleb's death, Kirsten's drinking and Marissa shooting Trey.

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I Love Lucy picture

The Anniversary Present - S2-E1

Deliberate mistake: In this episode Lucy is trying to get Ricky to notice that their anniversary is on Monday the 19th by showing him a large calendar with the 19th circled. However, when they are in California and they celebrate their anniversary and Ricky asks for information to be wired to him, the telegram tells him that their anniversary is on the seventh.

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The Wedding - S4-E3

Deliberate mistake: In the scene where the tow truck guy crashes the car window, notice the glass goes in the car. Later the glass is there, but Josh sits in the car without being cut by it.

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Red Dwarf picture

Show generally

Deliberate mistake: In the first few series, it is suggested Lister and Kochanski barely know each other. In 'Balance of Power' Holly says that Lister has only ever spoken 173 words to her. However, by series 4 Kochanski is referred to as Lister's ex-girlfriend with whom he shared a relationship. In the series 4 documentary, Doug Naylor explains that Lister's attitude towards Kochanski was immature in the first series which is why they changed his back story from wanting to be with Kochanski to actually having been with her by series 4.

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Everybody Loves Raymond picture

The Nice Talk - S8-E19

Deliberate mistake: In this episode, Ray tells Amy's mother that Debra no longer reads his column, although she did when they were dating "and she was wooing me." But in an earlier episode, Ray proposed to Debra in his very first column - so when they were dating, he didn't have a column.

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The Hot Tub - S7-E5

Deliberate mistake: When Elaine comes home and doesn't find Sean Paul there, she runs to her neighbour across The Apartment. The neighbour opens the door and stands outside it then the door slowly closes behind him. Suddenly, the door opens again with a swoosh without anyone being there. Because the camera switches angle right after this, it is apparent it was opened to gain this shot or to at least permit it continuity wise. (00:16:40 - 00:17:10)

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