Unseen Audience

Most often, the narrator of a story is unseen, and may not even be a character within it. However, sometimes we do see the narrator, and he seems to be talking to us (the audience) breaking the Fourth Wall; but instead, he or she is actually talking to another character within the story, but we don't realize that until later. This is often done to surprise the audience with the listener's identity. It is, however, a tricky thing to do, as the author must be careful not to have the narrator mention something he couldn't know at any point, or say something that reveals too early whom he is addressing.

If this is employed by a character who is not the narrator, especially for comedic effect, then it is a Fourth Wall Psych.


 * The Godsof Arr Kelaan does this twice, first with Inti the Sun God (who narrates the first part of the series to and then later with Ronson, who narrates his escape from  to an.
 * In the Marvel Comics series What If?, the alien Uatu The Watcher seems to be telling the readers about the events he has observed in other alternate universes. It was later revealed, however, that he's actually recording his comments for the people who will exist after this universe is destroyed... whoever they might be.
 * Tends to happen with the Non Entity General in video games.
 * The Prince's voiceover in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. It is revealed near the end that he is recounting his adventures thus far to Farah.
 * Whoever the heck Kyon is talking to. This being that series, musing about it would create multiple Epileptic Trees.
 * One episode of Scrubs is narrated by Dr. Cox, speaking to an initially unknown person. Partway through the episode, Dr. Cox blames the listener for his going soft, and at the end of the episode it's revealed he's talking to his infant son.
 * A few years back, an episode of ER had Luca apparently narrating his thoughts throughout. It looked pretty cheesy, and as if he was justified in turning down offers to talk to a therapist. Until the reveal, where you see that he's paid a prostitute just to sit and listen.
 * The Just Shoot Me episode "My Dinner With Woody", which has a Whole Plot Reference to Annie Hall, starts with Maya talking to the camera, as Alvy does at the beginning of Annie. At the end, it is revealed that Maya had been talking to the water delivery guy.
 * The last case of Apollo Justice features Phoenix doing this. At first, it seems like he's addressing the player, then later, it sounds as if he's addressing Apollo and Trucy, but it is finally revealed that he has been addressing this whole time.
 * The Doctor Who episode "The End of Time, Part One" is narrated by an ominous voice
 * Done in Sluggy Freelance once in very random filler, in which Torg is at first clearly addressing the audience and talking about the filler (and about Breaking the Fourth Wall), but then is suddenly shown to be talking to Gwynn, who asks him why he calls her "you guys" and what the Fourth Wall is.
 * The Twilight Zone.
 * Inverted in Angel. Lorne seems to be talking to a literal audience (in a theatre), but is revealed to be talking to nobody but the TV audience (though he doesn't know he's talking to us, either).
 * The interrogators in Call of Duty Black Ops are.
 * In Bastion, the entire game is narrated by a character name Rucks, but who he's talking to is unclear
 * The Mockumentary Pirates Of Sillicon Valley starts off with what looks like a talking Head of Steve Jobs. The camera then revolves around to behind Steve, revealing that he's actually talking to someone across the table from him.