Most of the top-earning actors throughout history are known for their action roles, making Jim Carrey a rather distinctive figure in this elite group. He achieved his impressive earnings almost exclusively through comedies — and not that many of them. Despite this, Carrey swiftly established himself as a legendary figure in comedy, thanks to his unparalleled ability to make audiences laugh.

From his early minor roles in films to his days on the innovative sketch show “In Living Color,” and even as the main antagonist in the “Sonic the Hedgehog” film series, Jim Carrey has been causing laughter for over five decades. In line with the greatest comedians, Carrey’s talent extends beyond just entertaining audiences. His fellow actors often struggle to maintain composure during scenes with him, sometimes due to his deliberate antics to make them laugh or simply because he is naturally hilarious.

Although Carrey attempted to join the “Saturday Night Live” cast three times without success, he eventually paved his way to success in the realm of sketch comedy through other means. In 1990, he became part of the original lineup of the Fox series “In Living Color,” where he quickly rose as one of the standout stars. This showcased that “SNL” overlooked his potential, confirming he was meant to be one of the leading comedians of his era.

It was also obvious even back then that Carrey loved to joke around on set and do things to make his co-stars laugh. In this outtake, Carrey decides to up the ante on the compliments he and his co-stars are giving to Tommy Davidson’s character, and his vulgar ad-lib causes Davidson to collapse to his knees in hysterics. 

As previously mentioned, Jim Carrey doesn’t always need to be specifically trying to get one of his co-stars to break character. Often times, that ends up happening as the result of Carrey’s mere presence and the way in which he delivers his lines. 

In this “In Living Color” outtake, Carrey doesn’t even seem to be saying or doing anything especially funny. But co-star David Alan Grier nonetheless can’t help but start smirking in the middle of Carrey talking — and apparently Carrey can see Grier’s face in the monitor, because Carrey then falls apart himself. At that point, Grier has the giggles, and in the next take he breaks almost immediately at Carrey tripping over his lines a bit. 

In 1994, Jim Carrey finally made his proper entrance into big screen stardom with “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective,” which he also co-wrote. Carrey played the tightly-wound titular character, who is investigating the disappearance of the Miami Dolphins’ mascot, and it served as the perfect vehicle for Carrey to prove just how capably he could lead a hit comedy movie. It co-starred Courteney Cox, who was just on the cusp of becoming a superstar herself a few months later with the debut of “Friends.”

Having to work with Carrey in so many of the scenes in “Ace Ventura” had to have been difficult for Cox in terms of trying not to break character. In fact, there is at least one scene where her breaking made it into the final movie — probably because it was the take in which she broke the least. When Carrey as Ace is pretending to be rewinding himself, Cox is seen just barely stifling a laugh at multiple points. Even when she turns away from the camera, you can see it in her shoulders.

Jim Carrey had his issues with “Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls,” and essentially only made it as the result of contractual obligations. It definitely isn’t held aloft as a classic in the same way that the first movie is, but there are still funny moments in it. And at least one of those moments came as the result of Carrey’s wild improvisation skills.

After having trouble remembering his lines in a particular scene, Carrey decides to just belt out the theme song to the 1968 film “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.” His co-star in the scene, Ian McNeice, just goes with it as Carrey sings the tune. For the grand finale, Carrey cranks up the volume and screams the final lyric. McNeice not only plugs his ears, but lets slip a huge smile. Everyone loved it, and that scene — including McNeice’s break — were used in the finished film. 

While two of Jim Carrey’s three 1994 breakout movies — “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective” and “The Mask” — were largely showcases for his ability to do the bulk of the comedic heavy lifting, the third established how good he could be as part of a buddy comedy duo. That movie was “Dumb and Dumber,” which paired Carrey with Jeff Daniels in what was at the time considered a surprising turn for the latter actor. 

Daniels held his own, proving that he could have had a future in slapstick comedy movies if he so chose. But he wasn’t immune to breaking at Carrey’s antics, which perhaps most famously occurred during one hilarious and totally improvised scene. When Lloyd (Carrey) asks Joe (Mike Starr) if he wants to hear the most annoying sound in the world, neither Starr nor Daniels knew what to expect. And when Carrey launches into that now-legendary shriek, Daniels can briefly be seen bursting into laughter just before the camera cuts away. Starr, to his credit, just flinches. 

It might be one of Jim Carrey’s worst movies, but based on the vibes displayed in the blooper reel for long-gestating sequel “Dumb and Dumber To,” it at least seemed like everyone had a good time making it. And that extended beyond the main duo.

Joining the cast for the sequel was Kathleen Turner as a former lover of both Lloyd (Carrey) and Harry (Daniels). In this scene, Turner is just trying to deliver a seemingly non-comedic line. But Carrey takes the opportunity to goof off and start swaying back and forth in exaggerated fashion, which causes Turner to double over with laughter. It probably didn’t help that Daniels picked up on what Carrey was doing and decided to join him.  

Largely underappreciated in its day, and a rare flop for Jim Carrey at a time when he seemingly couldn’t miss, “The Cable Guy” would eventually be reappraised as a dark comedy classic. Perhaps audiences weren’t prepared to see Carrey play such a menacing character, especially one who was essentially the film’s de facto villain. 

Though Steven (Matthew Broderick) quickly grows tired — and ultimately scared — of Chip (Carrey) and his clingy friendship, the two do share a few light, fun moments. And one of those moments came as the result of a Carrey improv. It turns out that Chip putting turkey skin all over his face and doing his “Silence of the Lambs” bit was ad-libbed by Carrey in the moment, and Broderick’s laughter at the bit is completely genuine. 

After building up his film stardom by playing exaggerated characters, Jim Carrey took his first big swing at playing a relatively normal person with “Liar Liar.” Of course, as Fletcher Reede (Carrey) struggles against his inability to lie, he grows increasingly manic in that very Carrey-esque way, but Carrey still spends more of the movie being low-key and grounded than in any of his other starring roles up to that point.

Even so, Carrey was still just as big a goofball as ever on the set if the blooper reel shown during the end credits is to be believed. In this outtake, Carrey is making ridiculous faces and noises, at which point co-star Richard Cole immediately loses it and never recovers. Admirably, Jennifer Tilly and Swoosie Kurtz keep it together, only breaking when Carrey himself finally does so. 

Speaking of “Liar Liar” and Jennifer Tilly, the latter seemed to be a frequent target of Carrey’s attempts to mess with his co-stars. Carrey plays the lawyer of Tilly’s character, which means that most of their scenes together are in courtrooms — not really an environment conducive to silliness. Well, except for the courtroom in “Liar Liar,” that is.

Here, Carrey initially startles Tilly when he unexpectedly picks up a carafe and points it at her face. She at first seems like she’s going to try and keep it together and go with whatever Carrey might have in mind in terms of ad libs, but when Carrey starts flapping the carafe’s lid and giving it a silly voice, Tilly falls apart — as do a number of crew members, who can be heard loudly laughing in the background. 

While there were funny moments in the film, and he still had plenty of opportunities for his signature manic freak-outs, “The Truman Show” was seen as Jim Carrey’s first dramatic role. And though his serious movie output would be all over the place in terms of quality, it definitely started off strong with this prescient look at a man unwittingly turned into a reality show star. 

That doesn’t mean Carrey wasn’t given room to improvise in the film, and he actually gave the movie one of its defining moments in doing so. The scene where Truman (Carrey) draws on his mirror with a bar of soap and pretends to be an astronaut, which comprised almost the entirety of the movie’s first trailer, was ad libbed by the actor. With that in mind, the laughter of co-stars Adam Tomei and Paul Giamatti at the moment was very likely real. The fact that Tomei snorts only further suggests a genuine, unscripted laugh reaction. 

Jim Carrey underwent 92 grueling transformations while filming “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” The actor has made no secret about how much of a struggle it was to physically embody the iconic Dr. Seuss character. But Carrey didn’t seem to be constantly miserable on the set of what has since become an enduring holiday classic. Indeed, the movie’s various blooper reels suggest that he was actually enjoying himself a fair amount.

Here, Carrey decides to take out his frustrations on the movie’s extensive prosthetics by biting the rubber nose of co-star Jeffrey Tambor, ripping it clear off Tambor’s face before spitting it out. Tambor initially seems almost too shocked to react, but even before he processes what happened enough to laugh, basically every single person on the set is in stitches at the ridiculousness of what Carrey did.

A mainstream, major studio comedy that focuses on religion and even has an actor playing God himself can be a risky proposition. But with Jim Carrey as the star, and Morgan Freeman playing God, “Bruce Almighty” had no trouble becoming a hit. Its end credits blooper reel also suggests it was an incredibly fun set.

In this outtake, Carrey unleashes an over-the-top impression of Sammy Davis Jr. on character actor Christopher Darga. Darga does his best to remain stone-faced for several seconds, but soon has to put his head down to hide the fact that he is cracking up. Carrey sees this and keeps picking at Darga, until finally they are both laughing. 

One of the untold truths of “Bruce Almighty” is Morgan Freeman admitting that comedy isn’t his thing. He said his job in the movie was to be Jim Carrey’s straight man, and that he just had to try not to laugh whenever they did a scene together. Not surprisingly, Freeman didn’t always succeed in that goal.

Here, Freeman initially does his job and keeps it together through an extended period of Carrey going full Carrey, complete with exaggerated gesturing and facial expressions. But even God is powerless against Carrey’s buffoonery, and Freeman eventually breaks into a chuckle.

When playing the despicable Count Olaf in the film adaptation of “Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events,” Jim Carrey was able to really let loose and go as over the top as possible. Sometimes it was for the good of the film, while other times, it seemed to be aimed entirely at trying to break his co-stars. And in this clip, that co-star is Craig Ferguson. 

For an extended period, the camera is trained squarely at Ferguson’s face as Carrey’s Olaf says ridiculous things for Ferguson to both repeat as well as act out. Again, it all feels like it’s only for the purpose of making Ferguson break. Ferguson gets close when Carrey makes him do a little dance, but he holds it together for a bit longer before finally erupting into laughter. 

“Fun with Dick and Jane” is certainly one of Jim Carrey’s lesser comedies, but it’s far from a bad movie and contains a fair amount of laughs. As usual, those laughs included the ones from his co-stars that were entirely unplanned. And even someone like Jeff Garlin, a veteran of improv comedy who’s used to going with unexpected moments, was susceptible to being broken by Carrey.

In this scene, Carrey is pretending to be a robot as he and Téa Leoni’s character are robbing the house of Garlin’s character. It’s subtle, but there is a moment when Garlin clearly allows a smile to dance across his face when he isn’t supposed to.

Jim Carrey spends a large chunk of time in “Mr. Popper’s Penguins” interacting with, well, penguins. Like any live animals on movie sets, the penguins didn’t always do what they’re supposed to — so they technically break character, as it were. But it’s never the direct result of Carrey being a goofball.

Actually, this moment — where his two young co-stars break — also didn’t come from Carrey goofing off. Carrey delivers a perfectly normal line in a perfectly normal way, but both of the kids he’s talking to burst into laughter anyway. Again, Carrey can sometimes break co-stars without even trying. 

There aren’t a lot of positive things to say about “The Incredible Burt Wonderstone,” other than the fact that its impressive cast includes Jim Carrey, Steve Carell, and Steve Buscemi. But no matter how the movie itself turned out, the three of them — who play competing Las Vegas magicians — obviously had a lot of fun together on set.

In this series of outtakes, Carrey is hellbent on making Carell and Buscemi break, and succeeds in doing so multiple times. Unfortunately, it’s one of those movies where the bloopers are funnier than the movie itself, but the bloopers are still a treat to watch.

When Jim Carrey played classic video game villain Dr. Robotnik in the first “Sonic the Hedgehog” movie, it was hailed as a return to the classic Carrey of the ’90s, when he excelled at portraying over-the-top comedic characters. And based on the blooper reels, it was also a return to the kind of co-star breaking antics he was famous for during those early days. 

There is a lot of footage of Carrey and co-star James Marsden cracking each other up in equal measure. But in this clip, it’s all Carrey, who breaks Marsden by doing a ridiculous and unprompted dance on the front porch of Marsden’s character’s house. 

The normally sequel-averse Jim Carrey didn’t seem to need much convincing to reprise the role of Robotnik for “Sonic the Hedgehog 2,” nor do the outtakes from the movie suggest that he didn’t want to be there.

In this one, Carrey didn’t spend as much time with the easily-breakable Marsden. Instead, he had to rely on getting co-star Lee Majdoub to crack, which he does when he chooses not to ignore a coffee bean falling out of Majdoub’s hair and has to stop the scene to address it with a hilariously quizzical look.

Jim Carrey’s return in “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” was a huge first in his Hollywood career – doing a third film within a single franchise. It was all the more impressive and headline-grabbing given that Carrey had suggested he was retiring from acting after “Sonic 2,” but the allure of playing Robotnik again just proved too strong.

Once again, Carrey shares a funny moment with co-star Lee Majdoub, forcing Majdoub to break character as he’s shaving Carrey’s head and Carrey is giving ridiculous commentary in the process. Carrey may have joked that he only did “Sonic 3” because he needed the money, but surely it had a lot to do with how much fun he’s had with his co-stars while making those films.