10 Times Actors Broke Character In TV Shows
6. Patton Oswalt - The King Of Queens
Here's a really fun one, because Patton Oswalt didn't break character on sitcom King of Queens by merely laughing out of turn - he straight up decided to stop acting altogether.
In the opening scene of season eight's "Emotional Rollercoaster," note that Oswalt's character Spence Olchin doesn't do anything, like, at all.
While Kevin James, Leah Remini, and company are chatting in the foreground, Oswalt is not only standing completely still, he's literally frozen like a statue, not reacting to the scene in any way.
In a 2022 interview with Howard Stern, Oswalt revealed that, because he didn't have any lines in the scene, the show's writers dared him to stand still and remain "immobile" throughout, to see if audience members would notice.
Given that the character-breaking prank was scarcely talked about until years after the 2006 episode aired, it's safe to say that he got away with it.