When speaking with FoundationInterviews, Vicki Lawrence documented how the hilarious “Elephant Story” blooper on “The Carol Burnett Show” came to be. After the dress rehearsal, Carol Burnett took Lawrence aside and asked her to keep it together during the scene. She did not want the cast to break the fourth wall in the sketch because she felt strongly about the characters.
Lawrence agreed but later, the director told her that Tim Conway was going to change up his elephant story and he wished her luck in getting through it. Lawrence vented to Al Schultz, her makeup artist and husband, about Conway always getting to go off the rails. Schultz simply told her, “get him,” as a way to handle the situation.
When it came to the scene, Burnett — who was the one who demanded that Lawrence and the rest keep it together — was the first to break character. She was crying and laughing, as she tried to get Lawrence to say her line. So, Lawrence decided to “get him” and said the thing that made this one of Dick Clark’s favorite bloopers of all time.
The cast came unglued and even the camera people were shaking with laughter. Lawrence remembered that it was the first time she really cut loose on the show because prior to that, “I just didn’t feel like I had really earned the privilege to do that so … I would keep it together because I didn’t feel it was my place.” She continued, “It was really the first time that [her character] Mama spoke out, I believe, and it unleashed a monster.”
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