Grampa! Did you forget to take your pills?
You're crazy! How did you get out of the hospital?
You're just drunk, you don't mean any of that!
Maaaan we're so high! I think those were special brownies!
This is one weird dream....
Is there a time for these kind of things in scenes? Sure. Sometimes a person is acting unhinged and it needs to be called out. But I often see this when one improviser is panicking. And they out-of-nowhere endow their partner with unreliability: a really difficult, stakes-lowering attribute. Watch as the scene suddenly becomes a game of how crazy/demented/drunk/high the person can get, and watch how everything before is pretty much thrown out.
And I know the excuses. Reality got denied! They said something that's impossible to justify! They weren't listening to what I just said and it got weird!
Or
What I wanted the scene to be wasn't happening!
I've definitely seen this move done with a real annoyance from the player, not the character, and that's the real trouble. I know that feeling when a scene's not going the way you think it should, it can be really frustrating, and the temptation to blow it up can be strong. But doing it can erase all that's come before, and lead to a scene that's just a game of heightening a quirk. You've basically cut out everything that was interesting in one quick jab.
If you're the one made mentally unstable,stay grounded in what's been established. Going to, heh, crazytown and putting the needle to 11 can be fun but you've lit the fuse on the scene. Be crazy, drunk, whatever, but keep the same investment you had before you were labeled that way. As always, play it real. A crazy but human and relatable character can be terribly interesting.
PS
And please, for me, if you get called high, do not immediately grab a bong out of nowhere.
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