10 Funniest Moments on ‘The Graham Norton Show,’ Ranked

The Graham Norton Show is a staple of British late night television, where Irish comedian, actor, author and host Graham Norton welcomes actors, musicians, and celebrities alike to share their work and their most entertaining stories on his red couch. The show puts together exciting combinations of entertainers from all over the world, making for compelling interactions, hilarious anecdotes and a good time.

Known for his ability to pull great stories out of his guests, the best moments of The Graham Norton Show are when Norton gives a guest a slight nudge in the direction of a fun story and lets them tell it as they please. The format of the show allows for Norton’s guests to take the reins and show their personalities, which is always exciting to see. Fans of the show get a chance to join in on the fun too, as the show typically concludes with a round of the Big Red Chair, a game where anyone can volunteer to tell the best story that they know, and if it doesn’t live up to the hype, Norton, or one of his guests, can flip the chair over.

10 John Krasinski vs. English Customs Agent

Season 23, Episode 1

John Krasinski and his wife Emily Blunt were on the red couch during the season 23 premiere of The Graham Norton Show, sitting alongside Kylie Minogue and Tom Holland. While promoting A Quiet Place, John Krasinski shared a story about his experience in England as an American, and one story in particular about a grumpy customs agent made for a great laugh in the audience and on the couch.

Traveling back and forth to see his wife and kids while Blunt was shooting a project in England, Krasinski ran into a customs agent who was not very pleased with him. When asked what his occupation was, Krasinski told the man that he was an actor and that he was in the American version of The Office, to which the agent responded that he loves the British version. When asked what the reason for his visit was, Krasinski said to visit his wife, and when the agent asked if his wife was also an actor and would he know her, Krasinski told him that he was married to Emily Blunt. This was the last straw for the customs officer, who sent him away angrily, shocked that Emily Blunt would have married him.

9 Ryan Gosling, the Cellophane Salesman

Season 22, Episode 1

Graham Norton is great at connecting stories between his guests, so when he was on the topic of young entrepreneurship, he moved to Ryan Gosling who had some childhood experience in sales. Seated on the couch with Harrison Ford to promote their film Blade Runner 2049, his future Barbie co-star Margot Robbie, and Reese Witherspoon, Gosling tells the story of when he was asked to sell cellophane by his parents.

This odd story is made memorable by Gosling’s deadpan humor and Ford’s misunderstanding of cellophane and its uses. Gosling remarks that his parents stumbled upon a truck of cellophane one day and asked him to sell it to his teachers and friends at school, to which Ford asks “what are the uses of cellophane?” Gosling is caught off guard by the question, which elicits some laughs from the rest of the couch and the audience. By the end of the story, Ford knows what cellophane is used for, and Gosling announces that there’s still some merchandise left if anyone wants it.

8 Charlie Hunnam Gets Revenge on an Old Schoolmate

Season 21, Episode 6

Charlie Hunnam came on the show to promote King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, but was presented with the opportunity to get back at one of his old school peers instead. At the end of the episode, during the Big Red Chair segment of the show, a man popped up and told a story about how he managed to get one of the popular girls in his grade school to go to the dance with him, at the expense of the boy she already agreed to go with.

Sebastian from Newcastle set off on telling his story, which seemed normal enough, but it took a turn when he admitted that the boy he beat out to take the most popular girl in school to the dance was, in fact, Charlie Hunnam! Hunnam then realized that the story sounded so familiar because it happened to him! The moment was very organic and fun, especially because Hunnam was in good spirits about the old rivalry, and Sebastian played along. Hunnam got the last laugh though, as he flipped Sebastian in the red chair to exact his revenge.

7 Jamie Dornan’s Walk

Season 14, Episode 20

Aaron Paul, Declan Donnelly and Anthony McPartlin learned all about the history of Jamie Dornan’s walk during this moment from season 14 of the show. Dornan, while promoting his roles in The Fall as well as Fifty Shades of Grey, explains and demonstrates the genesis of his walk before describing how his dance instructor for Fifty Shades of Grey finally gave him the key to walking normally.

Walking did not come very easily to Jamie Dornan, as the way he walked was always a topic of conversation. It even impacted his professional life when a writer and producer on The Fall asked him on his first day if his bouncy walk was a character’s choice or his real walk. The audience and fellow couch members were eager to see Dornan stand up and show his walk, which he had tried to change with the help of his wife, but until his dance instructor told him to walk heel-to-toe, he could never get it right. The story of a man in his thirties finally learning how to walk properly made for a surprisingly funny moment on the show.

6 Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling’s Ill-Fated ‘Dirty Dancing’ Lift

Season 20, Episode 14

While promoting La La Land, Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling took a trip down memory lane to discuss the Dirty Dancing lift in another one of their films together, Crazy, Stupid, Love. Apparently, the lift did not go as planned and Emma Stone had to use a double because she realized, due to an internalized phobia that she didn’t know she had, that she couldn’t go through with the lift.

Emma Stone explains that the fear she didn’t realize she had internalized had stemmed from when she was 7 years old in gymnastics class on the day before the last day of school. Young Emma Stone was standing on top of the parallel bars when her teacher let go of her ankles and she fell forward, breaking both of her arms. This memory was triggered when Ryan Gosling lifted her for Crazy, Stupid, Love, and she, in the words of Gosling, “tried to scratch [his] eyes out.” This once-scary, now-hysterical memory for Stone makes for a great and memorable story on the couch.

5 Jodie Whittaker is Mistaken for Begging on The Tube

Season 26, Episode 10

Kevin Hart, Dwayne Johnson and Jodie Whittaker are on the couch discussing what it’s like being recognized out in the world when Whittaker shares an embarrassing story about when she assumed that an older gentleman had recognized her on the Tube platform, when he was actually trying to catch her attention for an entirely different reason.

Jodie Whittaker’s humor paired wonderfully with Kevin Hart in this episode, particularly when she shared a recent story of when she was standing on the Tube platform holding a reusable glass coffee cup when a man approached her with his arm out. Thinking he recognized her from her role on Doctor Who, she got a little frustrated with him for invading her personal space. It was then that the man told her that he thought she needed money, and that he was trying to put some money in her cup. Kevin Hart circles back on the story when it’s his turn, remarking that “for somebody to put money in your cup, it’s gotta be a lot worse than” dressing like a teenage boy in a baseball cap.

4 Miriam Margolyes’s Drug House

Season 26, Episode 15

Miriam Margolyes is always a pleasure on The Graham Norton Show, but when she appeared on the show to promote the newest season of Call the Midwife, she shared an unbelievable story about the property she rents out in Dover, England, and how it became the focus of a high-caliber drug bust, which prompted some people online to deem her “Miriam Escobar.”

The town of Dover is very close to and acts as a major port for France, an important fact to know when Margolyes tells the story of how a gang from Liverpool rented out her house and used it as a base to drop drugs. She was completely unaware of this until the police called her and asked if she knew that her house was being used in the transportation and dumping of 13 million pounds worth of cocaine. The shock of the story and the hilarious way that Margolyes told it, while also trying to sell the house and its amenities to the audience, made for a very funny and memorable moment.

3 Mark Ruffalo Insults Josh Widdicombe

Season 17, Episode 3

The cast of Avengers: Age of Ultron is on the couch with British comedian Josh Widdicombe when Norton asks Mark Ruffalo, Elizabeth Olsen, Jeremy Renner and Widdicombe what their fears are, as one of Olsen’s character’s powers is conjuring up other people’s fears. The fears get personal when Ruffalo fills in what he thinks Widdicombe’s fear is before he can answer.

During the episode, one of Josh Widdicombe’s previous jobs as a writer for Dora the Explorer magazine became the topic of conversation. Widdicombe had also been remarking about how the Avengers is a little hard to believe. It seems that Mark Ruffalo saw the opportunity to retort Widdicombe’s earlier criticisms of the franchise when Norton asked Widdicombe what his biggest fear was, and Ruffalo jumped in to say “girls over 12.” The jab took the whole room by surprise, even Ruffalo, who tried to shake Widdicombe’s hand before saying goodnight and almost leaving the stage. While viewers can debate if that joke was too harsh, it certainly was a moment to remember.

2 The O’Donovan Brothers

Season 20, Episode 13

This 2016 New Year’s Eve episode featured a packed guest list from actors like Marion Cotillard, Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy and Frank Skinner, to Olympic Irish rowing brothers Paul and Gary O’Donovan, who had won the silver medal in rowing at the 2016 Summer Olympics. As the duo shared their experiences at the Olympics and upon returning home to Ireland, their laid back nature and thick accents made for some very organic comedic moments.

Several layers of this episode made the O’Donovan brothers’ appearance so enjoyable to watch, from the fact that they carried their Olympic medals casually in their back pockets, to the fact that Marion Cotillard could not understand a word that they said due to their accents, and the very straightforward way that they spoke about their sport. These Olympians clearly do not take themselves too seriously, and their personalities, humor and comedic timing made for a wonderfully funny segment on the show.

1 Greg Davies’s Rough Day at School

Season 19, Episode 9

Welsh comedian, writer and actor Greg Davies has been on The Graham Norton Show several times, and he is always great at getting a laugh out of the couch and audience, but the standout story he has told was the story of when he was a teacher, and he showed up to school one Monday after going out for a drink and a curry the night before. Seated on the couch with Jodie Foster, Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling, Davies had the whole couch in stitches by the end of this story.

Davies recounts the story of when he was a teacher at a school with a brilliant hearing impaired department, and one weekend he went to visit his mother, who also did his laundry for him, despite him being in his thirties at the time. On Monday morning, he showed up to school hungover and feeling uncomfortable, so he went to the bathroom, where he realized that he was wearing his mother’s underwear. This was only half of the battle for Davies, as the food and drinks he had the night before caused him to do a “fecal Jackson Pollock.” And finally, when he left the bathroom and returned to his students, who looked shocked, he realized that he was wearing a microphone on his shirt the entire time. Davies’s excellent storytelling hooked Jodie Foster and Ryan Gosling right away, but by the end, even Russell Crowe could not help but double over at the insanely funny story.

The Graham Norton Show is available to stream on Freevee in the US.

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