The collecting of bloopers (and the coining of the term; the word "boner" had been the common term for such errors previously) was popularized in America by television producer Kermit Schaefer in the 1950s.

Schaefer produced a long-running series of Pardon My Blooper! record albums in the 50s and 60s which featured a mixture of actual recordings of errors from television and radio broadcasts, coupled with recreations. Schaefer also transcribed many reported bloopers into a series of books that he published up until his death in 1979.