Fourth Wall Psych/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: [A one sentence summary of the trope]

  • Straight: A character appears to break the fourth wall, but has an in-universe explanation.
  • Exaggerated: Bob looks directly into the camera and addresses the audience, then Alice replies from behind the camera.
  • Downplayed: Bob says something at the camera that might apply to the audience, and is quickly replied to by Alice.
  • Justified: ???
  • Inverted: Bob says something completely reasonable in-universe while looking in the general direction of the camera, then says something along the lines of "EY! You behind the screen. Yeah, I'm talkin' to you."
  • Subverted: Bob appears to Fourth Wall Psyche, and gets a Hand Wave, but then reassures the audience he was in-fact addressing them.
  • Double Subverted: The camera then pans-around to a room full of his adoring in-universe fans.???
  • Parodied: Bob does a scene in which he does a Screen Tap, addresses the audience, complains to the crew, plays with the subtitles, hides Behind the Black, and any other Fourth Wall trope you can think of, and some contrived explanation crops-up every time to prove each action was in-universe.
  • Zig Zagged: Bob does something that may or may not involve the fourth wall. It is never explained whether or not he just involved the audience.
  • Averted: ???
  • Enforced: ???
  • Lampshaded: ???
  • Invoked: ???
  • Exploited: ???
  • Defied: ???
  • Discussed: Fourth Wall Observer Alice, "For a second, I thought you saw them, too." Fourth Wall Psych Bob, "Saw who?"
  • Conversed: "For a second there, I thought he was talking to us."