Breaking the Fourth Wall/Western Animation: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

* In too many children's cartoons to name, dialogue, violence, or risque material gets [[Relax-O-Vision|censored]] or nixed before it starts, either by the characters or the narrator. The reason? "We can't show that on a kid's program!"

* ''[[The Weekenders]]'' LOVES doing this.

** Tino often talks to the audience by having the background turn grey.

** There's also an incident during the first season in which Mike the TV is being particularly annoying, and Enzo asks "You want to live to see another season, right?" in an attempt to shut him up.

*** Since Mike ''is'' a TV and speaks often in TV-related lingo, Enzo might simply have been putting the threat into words Mike will be more likely to understand.

** In one episode an ancient Japanese sorcerer gets summoned and starts threatening the Turtles in English. One turtle says, "If he's from ancient Japan, why is he speaking English?" Another replies, "Because we can't afford subtitles."

** In another episode one turtle constantly suggests that the strange things happening are a work of Krang and Shredder (the usual villains). The other disagrees each time until saying "In fact they don't appear in this episode at all."

* Subverted in ''[[The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron|Jimmy]] [[The Fairly Odd Parents|Timmy]] [[Crossover|Power Hour]] 2''. Multiple times in the movie, ****** appears to be asking the viewers a question before the camera cuts to behind him, revealing that he's actually talking to Libby.

* In the [[Superhero Episode]] of ''[[The Fairly Odd Parents]], Timmy and the Crimson Chin explain to the Nega-Chin his existence is controlled by the comic book writer. The villain decides to confront him.

{{quote| "I'm your powers, magnified. Haven't you heard the song? 'Captain Planet, he's a hero...'"}}

** In an early episode, there is a normal & reverse Fourth Wall smash from the other side. This episode was the first time the Planeteers faced Zarm. After Zarm is sent away, the Planeteers talk about aliens and that people had to share the Earth. Wheeler states, "We get the hint. Your turn." A mystery voice says Captain Planet's catchphrase, "The Power is Yours" ending the show.

* ''[[Family Guy]]'' toyed with this in "Fifteen Minutes of Shame", where they broke the fourth wall in a reality-TV [[Show Within a Show]]. Chris hung a lampshade on it with "Fourth wall! You're breaking the Fourth wall!"

** What's especially funny about the example above is that it's a reality show, which acknowledges the fact that there's a camera there, so even though Peter is talking to the camera, it's not actually breaking the fourth wall any more than a TV news show would be because there's no pretense of not having a camera there.

* In the ''[[Futurama]]'' episode "Fear of a Bot Planet", Fry and Leela are attempting to work out how to rescue Bender from a planet full of human-hating robots. Leela remarks, "If only I had two or three minutes to think about it," at which point it immediately cuts to a commercial break. When the show returns from commercial, Fry and Leela have worked out a plan and are enacting it.

* An episode of ''[[Johnny Test]]'' did this as well. Johnny and his talking dog Dukey are trapped in an action movie (through the use of VR helmets created by his genius sisters), and when they realize how the movie's supposed to end (think ''Thelma & Louise'') Dukey screams at Johnny "You couldn't have just stayed home and watched cartoons like normal kids!". Johnny and Dukey then pause and look at the audience before continuing to panic about getting out of the movie.

* ''[[Rocky and Bullwinkle]]'''s characters do this a lot. Particularly, the lead characters. When they reference things that happened in previous episodes, they actually say they happened in a previous episode. They talk to the narrator from time to time. And they also mention the conditions of the show.

** At one point, the narrator was kidnapped, then shown tied up and gagged alongside Rocky and Bullwinkle (who were in the same fix). That's not just breaking the fourth wall, that's blowing it to smithereens!

** One episode has (Sideshow) Mel narrating. Just before the first commercial break, he says "And so Lisa entered the world of show business, and it is indeed a business, as you'll find in 3... 2... 1..."

** Done in a (faux) [[Nightmare Fuel]]-inducing way in [[Attack of the 50 Foot Whatever|"Attack of the 50-Foot Eyesores"]], a segment of one of their Halloween specials in which giant mock-ups of famous advertising characters come to life and almost succeed in destroying Springfield. At the end of the story, after the creatures have been vanquished, [[Kent Brockman News|Kent Brockman]] turns to his TV audience (and thus, to us) and warns that "the next ad you see could kill you and all of your loved ones!" Homer then casually steps in front of Kent and says: [[Oh Crap|"We'll be right back."]]

** The episode "One Plus One Equals Ed" was largely devoted to breaking the fourth wall, with the Eds making observations about the things they could do that broke the laws of physics (Stealing Jimmy's outline, going from the foreground to behind the background and crushing stuff), taking notes, and eventually warping all of reality, until the balloon they were using to fly pops on the animator's pencil.

** "Every Which Way But Ed" has them parodying the [[Flash Back]] technique in a way that has to be seen to be believed. For instance, they manage to get caught in a flashback that's in a flashback that's in a flashback that Eddy's having.

{{quote| '''Kevin:''' This show needs subtitles.}}

** In "Run, Ed, Run" the fourth wall is literally smashed to pieces when the Eds are thrown into the sky - and hit it. The "sky" then breaks and falls away to reveal television static.

* One [[Bugs Bunny]] short had Yosemite Sam hunting Bugs. We see a shadowy figure in front start to sneak out (remember the shorts used to be shown in theaters) and Sam points his gun at him and orders him to sit back down. Then says to the audience, "Anybody else try to get out to warn that rabbit gets his hide blown off!" Pause. "And I'll do it, too."

** Along the same lines, another short has Bugs as a concert pianist. Who shoots an audience member for continually coughing. Audience interaction was a pretty common gag in those days.

* [[Chuck Jones]] is infamous for this, but in his movie ''The White Seal'', the fourth wall is broken constantly by characters looking straight into the camera. At certain points, it happens repeatedly with only seconds between them.

* Staying with Jones, the entirety of his Daffy Duck short ''[[Duck Amuck]]'' is devoted to this very idea, with Daffy being tormented throughout by a mystery director. Daffy spends the entire short talking to the director who is constantly changing the scenery, props, and even Daffy himself with the use of a paintbrush. And in the end, the director turns out to be Bugs Bunny!

{{quote| '''Slappy:''' I wrestled with Walto Wolf, Sid the Squid and Beanie the Brain-dead Bison. This Doug-guy here's nothin'!<br />

'''Skippy:''' Yeah, but those were cartoons and this is real life!<br />

'''Santa:''' ...and happy holiday! }}

* In a first-season episode of ''[[The Spectacular Spider-Man]]'', Dr. Octopus, enraged by one of Spider-Man's signature glib quips, asks Spider-Man if he ever shuts up. Spider-Man responds by saying that the fans require a certain amount of quippage. Since hardly anyone ever sees him fight or hears these quips besides his adversaries, it's clear he means the audience watching the show.

{{quote| '''Patrick''': Hi Spongeboob... uh Spongeboob?! I said-- haha, who's Spongeboob?! Haha I said Spongeboob! Ahahaha again, okay, '''sorry people.'''}}

** Also in the episode 'Wet Painters', SpongeBob is going to start painting the wall. The next scene shows a time card, with the narrator mentioning "One Hour Later". Cut back to SpongeBob, who is still not starting to paint the wall. Another time card is shown, the narrator says "Two Hours Later", and yet again SpongeBob is still not starting to paint. Another time card, the narrator says "Three Hours Later", and then Patrick is shown to be the one handling the time cards and he tells SpongeBob to move along because he's all out of time cards.

** In an episode that [[No Fourth Wall|practically centered on fourth wall breakage]], Patrick broke the fourth wall ''again'' in the episode 'Krusty Krab Training Video'. He acknowledges the Narrator several times throughout the episode, believing that the Narrator is the Krusty Krab's ceiling or a ghost. SpongeBob also addresses the Narrator a lot, asking if he can make a Krabby Patty multiple times.

** Also happens in the episode "Drive Thru". When one of Pearl's friends shouts through the cheap, tin-cans-on-a-string "microphone" with a megaphone [causing huge ear pain for Squidward], he turns to the camera and says "I'm not faking it, you know. That really hurt."

** Another time, the HIVE Five appeared over the theme song and spray-painted their logo on the screen. The leader, Jinx, steps forward and says "We're the HIVE Five and this is ''our'' show now." (If you look closely, you can see Gizmo in the background, using some device to hijack the broadcast.)

* [[Tex Avery]] was the master of this. His characters would often do things like running off the edge of the film. One of his best involved a wiggling hair stuck on the film (which often happened in old projectors). After being there for a while, one of the characters stops the action and plucks the hair off the film and tosses it away before resuming the scene.

* On ''[[Jimmy Two-Shoes]]'', Jimmy does this after {{spoiler|an [[Accidental Kiss]] between Beezy and Heloise}} to show it again ''in slow motion!''

* Done all the time on ''[[Duckman]]'', with asides to the audience, and [[Biting the Hand Humor|slams against the show's home]], the [[USA Network]].

* A planned but [[What Could Have Been|unproduced]] finale episode of ''[[The Angry Beavers]]'' had Norbert explain to Daggett that they were really cartoon characters who were now facing cancellation. Although the episode was never animated, parts of the audio recording can be found floating around online.

{{quote| '''Wendy:''' Marvin, we've got to reach the Super Friends!<br />

'''Marvin:''' Sure. Any idea how?<br />

'''Wendy:''' Uh uh. [Looks at the camera and the audience] Do you? }}

** Another episode had Gotham City being rampaged by a Godzilla sized cow. Robin reacts to the destruction by saying "Holy cow!" Batgirl turns to the audience and says "He had to say it."

** This gag was used very early in the show's history, in 1992's "Christmas With the Joker." The Joker is airing a pirated TV broadcast from some unknown location, and the viewer often sees him via a TV screen. About two-thirds of the way through the show, he tells all the Gothamites who are watching that his Christmas special will return after "a word from our sponsor." Both the fictional program and the episode itself then cut to a commercial break in our own world. (Of course, the gag is ruined on DVD, where there are no commercial interruptions.)

'''Piggy:''' It's OK. }}

* "[[Little Bill]], who are you talking to?"

{{quote| '''Witch:''' Thanks to that commercial break, I had plenty of time to round up some friends of mine!<br />

'''Witch:''' Curse that Lion's character design! Why couldn't he have been drawn with some eyes?! }}

* ''[[Perfect Hair Forever]]'' has a moment when Cat Man is forcibly pulled by Coiffio into a boat. When it is forcibly rocked he turns to the camera and insists with increasing anxiety that they go to commercials.

{{quote| "Let's go to a commercial. Let's go to a commercial! COMMERCIAL!"}}

* ''[[Garfield and Friends]]'' indulged in this a number of times. One episode had Garfield waking up in the wrong cartoon, a ''[[Mazinger Z]]''-esque action cartoon. A U.S. Acres short had Wade, freaking out over a cryptic message warning that "The bunny rabbits is coming", turn to the audience and shout "Why are you just sitting there, watching TV? Don't you know that the bunny rabbits is coming!"

* ''[[The New Adventures of Superman]]''. At the end of every episode Clark Kent would make some kind of lame pun based on the events in the episode and wink while looking at the audience.

** Done in the episode "A Dog And Pony Show". Rarity starts crying after one of the Diamond Dogs calls her a mule, and in the middle of her rant she grabs the "camera".

** Spike also indulges in this occasionally, like in "Bridle Gossip" with his [[Aside Glance]], or in "Lesson Zero" with his interrupting of Twilight Sparkle's [[Imagine Spot|Imagine Spots]]. He rolls one up like a window shade and pops another like a balloon.

* Another example of the cartoon series ''Taz-Mania''. As mentioned before, it sometimes does this; for example, in ''Here, Kitty, Kitty, Kitty,'' Kitty breaks the fourth wall by pulling down a poster that reads, "I'll Be Back", which is set to take place in ''Here Kitty, Kitty, Kitty Part II''.

** Speaking of which, the LONGEST FOURTH WALL BREAKING was Axel in "Sidekicked", when he does his speech about that he is a sidekick (cue to rapid falls of the boulder crushing Taz.)

{{quote| '''Huckeleberry Hound:''' If it weren't for that there commercial interruption, you folks would've seen a real exciting escape!<br />

'''Snooper:''' Yeah, take Huck's word for it - it was a doozy! }}

* The end of the animated [[Punky Brewster]] episode "The Bermuda Tangle" has Punky winking to us.

* [[Popples]]: "Hey kids, come here! I've got something to show you!" (cue a [[Hammerspace]] world.)