Breaking the Fourth Wall/Web Original

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Kate Modern comes dangerously close to breaking the fourth wall on a number of occasions, always with some in-universe justification (however flimsy). They finally break it directly in "The Last Work", when Tez, after talking to an off-screen Meryl, turns to the camera and says, "She should get her own show, that one." This was also a direct Shout-Out to the fanbase, as the concept of a Spin-Off called "MerylModern" was a popular fan in-joke.
  • Park Bench, sometimes.
  • Homestar Runner does this, particularly in the "Virus" Strong Bad e-mail where the format of the web page gets tampered with. Also, "My mouth was a broken JPEG!"
    • Happens literally in some of the iTunes openings, where Strong Bad will either press his face against the screen, leaving a print, or literally try to break your screen!
  • The League of Intergalactic Cosmic Champions did this frequently.
  • Certain characters in Star Harbor Nights are "meta-aware", notably the Hex Kittens and the inhabitants of the Sands of Time, the local Inn Between the Worlds. Most often used for Lampshade Hanging.
    • The chapter Super Vision lampshades this when Johnny Dark cautions Maria not to Fridge Logic the nature of the Sands, due to the fact that it makes the author irritable. Tigerlily Bender later seems to fall afoul of this same phenomenon.
  • Many an abridged series will do this on a regular basis.
    • This is an actual plot point in Yu-Gi-Oh the Abridged Series. According to Ishizu, if the fourth wall collapses completely, then Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged will be cancelled. Sure enough, Melvin defeating Florence is enough to bring the fourth wall down (for some reason), and 4kids (as run by Noah and the Big Five) cancel the show... And then Little Kuriboh announces Season 3. Yeah. Trippy, much?
      • And now we have season 3. First off Serenity tries to talk to Joey about the fact that she's frightened she'll get written out of the show because her character doesn't serve any significant point... And then all the main characters are told their show has been cancelled. Their reaction? "What the fuck?!" Just... There's no fourth wall anymore. There's a fifth wall, but the fourth wall is just broken. And no, it is not going to be revived from the shadow realm.
    • In Avatar the Abridged Series, Iroh actually teaches Zuko how to break the Fourth Wall. He ends up using it to re-write the episode to make Sokka's life hell.
  • I'm a Marvel And Im ADC has everyone break the normal fourth wall at one point or another. However Deadpool takes it one step further.

Deadpool: I always wanted my own action figure, and now I am my own action figure.
Nite Owl: Um, What?

    • Heck, Darkseid's notable for being the only one not aware of the Fourth Wall. Until The Joker explains it to him, and he takes a level in Dangerously Genre Savvy.
  • At one point in a Happy Tree Friends interactive minigame, a character is killed when they're crushed against the fourth wall.
  • In the Anti Cliche and Mary Sue Elimination Society's base of operations, there is an actual fourth wall that makes a tremor when broken. Also notable is the fact that Tyler will frequently have arguments with the narrator.
  • In Bioshock Above the Sea Zero does this twice, once, when a roleplayer states her upset at being dumped Zero "kills" her ex in the actual roleplay, and another time when he spends a few seconds speaking with the roleplayer that made him.
  • In The Guild, Codex breaks the fourth wall at the start of every episode, talking to the audience about what's bothering her.
  • In the Whateley Universe, the Monkey King is a godlike being who apparently has this as a power. In his own point of view short story, he repeatedly addresses the readers and even makes comments about some of the forum posters.
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