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Medium Awareness: Difference between revisions
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Audiences are very good at figuring out which elements of a work are on which side of the [[Fourth Wall]]. No explanation is necessary for why our hero can hear a ringing telephone but not the movie's soundtrack—or why the space ship is menaced by the [[Negative Space Wedgie]], but not by the [[Opening Scroll|opening credits drifting by outside the ship]]—it's part of the audience's [[Willing Suspension of Disbelief]].
It's also a wonderful thing to play with
Generally, this awareness is brief: It's used for a joke or two, then never spoken of again. Used this way, it's [[Lampshade Hanging]] as applied to [[Paratext]].
See also [[End of Series Awareness]], another specific subtrope.
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== [[Advertising]] ==
* In a 2000s-vintage GEICO advertisement, Mrs. Butterworth is aware that her face is being obscured by the GEICO logo.
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80bBqPdjBAs This commercial] for ''[[Heroes of the Storm]]''. After Chromie and her team of alternate selves pull off a devestating magical attack, she notes, "Don't worry, that's going to be nerfed." Oh, and as players will attest, [[Game Breaker| she's lying]].
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
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** In fact, the Deadpool comics became so famous for this that the dual sublines for the comic were "The Merc with a Mouth" and "Breaking down the fourth wall one brick at a time!"
*** This gag has even extended to video games including Deadpool, e.g. in ''[[Marvel vs. Capcom 3]]'', where he can beat his opponent around the head with his own life bar, and his recent movie actor [[Ryan Reynolds]] is totally looking forward to the day he gets to do this in a Deadpool movie.
** As crazy as Deadpool is, it seems that knowing the truth is what keeps him from falling into the [[Despair Event Horizon]]. He once told a villain who was torturing him that if he did not know the Fourth Wall was there and that he is, in fact, a character in a work of fiction, he would have "put my gun in my mouth a long time ago."
* The [[Marvel Universe]] series ''The Sensational [[She Hulk]]'' is famous for its characters' acknowledgement of the comic medium, including climbing across panel borders, referencing captions, and other related awareness.
** When she gained her sidekick Weezi, Shulkie asked how Weezi was able to walk between comic panels, only to be told that it's similar to the way She-Hulk is able to talk to the reader.
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** Parodied in an issue of ''[[Damage Control]]'', which made She-Hulk ''look like a lunatic who thinks she's a comic book character''. Then again, she directly responded to the text captions pointing this out, so... Does that make it a subverted parody?
** And in Marvel's short-lived ''Heroes for Hire'' series, Shulkie regularly got into arguments with the third-person narrator... until she fired him.
** Played with in She-Hulk's third series, where the second series is regarded as a [[Mutually Fictional]] account of Jenn's adventures. In the final page of issue #3, a collector mentions the [[No Fourth Wall]] nature of the comic and asks Jenn if she can really do "stuff like that". Jenn simply says, "No. I can't", but [[Mind Screw|her sly smirk as she looks towards the reader]] and says it makes you wonder...
* In [[DC Comics]] [[The Joker]] from ''[[Batman]]'' can interact with speech and thought bubbles, grabbing hold of or leaning on them. This is most likely part of the idea - also used to partially explain Deadpool - that Joker is so insane that he has become aware of things other characters have not.
** There is a theory floating around that the Joker has become so aware of his role in a comic book that the reason he has yet to kill Batman is because he knows that, if the hero of the book dies, the story and everything in it - villain most definitely included - stops existing. Similarly, some have speculated that the reason he can be so casual about the gruesome crimes he commits is because he realizes the people he's hurting aren't real.
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* The [[Marvel Comics]] villainess called The Goddess once gained cosmic power in ''The Infinity Crusade''. One of the realities she planned to destroy was the real world, presented as a person reading one of the ''Crusade'' issues. Later, the "real" world is seen bursting into flames but it proves only to be a telepathic illusion.
* ''[[Katy Keene]]'' covers would do this. One had Sis even trying to draw the rest of Katy's dress.
* The mysterious Phantom Stranger is a member of the ''[[Justice League]]'' who seems to be the only one in the DC Universe who knows that there were different versions of it in the past. (As in [[Pre Crisis]], [[Post-Crisis]], [[The New 52]], and [[DC Rebirth]]; he seems to be the only one who remembers those realities.) He also seems to know about the [[Marvel Universe]] too, as when he appears in an inter-company crossover, he seems to know at least some Marvel characters personally. Of course, he has ''always'' been the League's most mysterious member, nobody ever figuring out who or what he is, his own accounts of his past being contradictory.
** Downplayed with the Psycho Pirate; he survived the Crisis and remembers that it existed, but [[Go Mad From the Revelation|retaining those memories drove him insane.]]
* Before Deadpool, She-Hulk, ''or'' Squirrel Girl, [[Howard the Duck]] was the ''original'' fourth-wall-breaker in Marvel, as he points out to Deadpool in one story.
== [[Fan Works]] ==
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{{quote|-- But that works for my advantage. So I'll chalk it up to happening because the plot says so.}}
* Pinkie Pie of ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic]]'' often takes this role in fanfiction. Antics include but are not limited to directly referencing previous (or future!) chapters, taking shots at slow update schedules, responding directly to the omniscient narration, knowledge of scenes she wasn't present for, and every once in a whi{{color|magenta|HEY EVERYPONY! Oh wow, this troping wiki is so much more fun than that last one I went to! They were all grumpy-pants{{verify}} and they banned me when I was like wow you guys need to have a good party because parties always make people not robots unless they're actually robots which would be AWESOME except for all the clanking but I bet we could make some dance music out of that...}}
* [[Ferris Bueller's Day Off|Ferris Bueller]] retains his Medium Awareness in the [[Mega Crossover]] fic ''[[My Apartment Manager is not an Isekai Character]]'', sometimes merely acknowledging the readers with a wink, but at least once speaking directly to them and thanking them for reading as far as his scene in the story.
* In [http://www.accessdenied-rms.net/forums/showthread.php?tid=1707&pid=34279#pid34279 this vignette] from ''[[Drunkard's Walk]]'', Doug trusts [[Deadpool]]'s Medium Awareness enough to address the readership and invoke a flashback.
== [[Film]] ==
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::* Possibly the funniest one of all is the Swedish Chef's intro in the movie - as the cook for the island's natives. The cast justifies this by saying "Well? Where did you THINK we were going to put him?" Makes sense when one considers that the obvious job for him - chef on the ship - was filled by Long John Silver.
* [[Mel Brooks]] has a lot of fun with this trope:
** ''[[Spaceballs]]'': When Lone Starr talks about how they won't get too far with the blazing sun of the desert planet overhead, the screen dissolves into the fading sun...and Barf says, "Nice dissolve." Also, when searching for Lone Starr, the villains watch a video tape of the movie itself to find him. Even though (as Dark Helmet points out) the movie isn't finished yet. The entire movie has meta-references to itself being a commercial property, with the
{{quote|'''Dark Helmet''' ''(pointing at Lone Starr while talking to the filming crew)'': He did it!}}
** ''[[Robin Hood: Men in Tights]]'' has many examples of this trope, including the opening scene. A village is attacked with flaming arrows, and the flames on the buildings form the names of the actors, producers, etc. At the end of the scene, however, the irate villagers curse Mel Brooks (the director of the film) for including this scene. "Every time they make a Robin Hood movie they burn our village down!"
*** A difficult to interpret line from the end of the sequence. "LEAVE US ALONE, MEL BROOKS!"
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* Julie from ''[[Scott Pilgrim vs. the World]]'' has a black censor bar flash over her mouth whenever she swears. Scott blatantly asks her "How are you doing that with your mouth?"
* ''[[Farce of the Penguins]]'' implies that all of the characters are aware that they're in a documentary, featuring scenes such as Marcus telling the sound track director to change from stock music to hip-hop because if he's gonna be walking 70 miles, "the track best be bumpin'," and a few characters talking to or full-blown arguing with Samuel L. Jackson, the narrator.
* The whole plot of ''[[Barbie (film)|Barbie]]'' is about the iconic character realizing she isn't real, leaving her fantasy [[Sugar Bowl]] to learn the truth about what she is. Unfortunately for her, there's a lot of folks who want her to stay in her "box"...
* Ferris Bueller of ''[[Ferris Bueller's Day Off]]'' is aware he's in a movie, and frequently addresses the audience to discuss his motivations and methods. At one point he makes a text list appear on the screen to highlight the topic he's discussing. And of course, there's the famous [[The Stinger|Stinger]] where he is surprised to find the audience is still in the theatre, then tells them that the movie is over and to go home.
* [[Deadpool]] has ''always'' been medium-aware, and in [[Deadpool (film)|his film appearances]] is no different, commenting on everything from common storytelling devices to the production budget.
== [[Literature
* The ''[[Thursday Next]]'' books have the books footnotes heard by characters, and used as a contact network. The characters from the BookWorld are very impressed by Thursday's ability to know who's talking even when there's no character tags. This is merely the tip of a iceberg of metatextual fun.
* The [[Terry Pratchett]] book ''[[Only You Can Save Mankind]]'' has aliens in a computer game who seek safety from ruthless humans (the players, blasting them away with careless abandon) beyond "the barrier". The barrier turns out to be {{spoiler|an enormous "Game Over" sign}}. Their environment itself was effected by how aware of the genre trappings the person was. Johnny, whose imagination tends to towards friendly aliens sees them and their ships as non-hostile. Kirsty, who's seen movies and "[[Genre Savvy|knows how these things should go]]" sees the ship's corridors as slime-covered dungeons and the aliens and slavering, razor-toothed monsters. When they hear an alien coming and discover that instead of an armed guard, it's a small and friendly tea-lady, Kirsty complains that Johnny's doing it wrong.
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** As with the Buffy example above, the Doctor asks a passing milkman in "The Stolen Earth" what day it is. The Doctor responds with "Saturday. Good. Good, I like Saturdays," which is a nod to the show's main broadcast night on BBC One.
*** Similarly, "If you change over to ITV, there's a slight chance it could cause the world to explode"
* ''[[Boston Legal]]'' plays with this trope at least once or twice per episode. An interesting thought experiment is to watch the fourth wall breaks and try to work out whether anyone other than Denny can actually see the credits/hear the theme music/etc, or if they're just humoring him. Jerry certainly can. He's [[
* The characters of ''[[The Basil Brush Show]]'' seem to be well aware that they are in a television programme and often reference this.
* ''[[The Monkees]]'' did this frequently. Many episodes contain references to the fact that they are characters in a TV show.
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* Episodes of ''[[The Saint (TV series)|The Saint]]'' typically had someone speak Simon Templar's name in [[The Teaser]]'s final seconds. Then a stylized halo appeared above Simon's head, and the opening theme and credits played. In several episodes, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWr_1uLjqic he glanced upward just before his halo appeared, evidently expecting it].
* Wanda has almost complete control over the [[Show Within a Show]] being broadcast out of Westview in ''[[WandaVision]]'' -- she edits out things she doesn't want "seen" and at one point actually starts the end-of-episode credits rolling in an attempt to short-circuit an incipient argument with Vision (although it doesn't work).
* Another [[Marvel Cinematic Universe]] series, ''[[She-Hulk: Attorney at Law]]'', translates the Byrne-era She-Hulk's Medium Awareness to TV, with Jen frequently talking to the camera or making [[Aside Glance]]s to the audience. In one of the first of these moments she frankly explains to the audience that the show they're getting is a [[Law Procedural]], not the [[Superhero]] program they're expecting. Interestingly, the Medium-Aware version of Jen frequently seems to possess knowledge or insights that the "in-story" version lacks, almost as if she is narrating her story after the fact.
== Music ==
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'''Flandre:''' No, it means that you can't continue! }}
:* In ''Perfect Cherry Blossom'', the game's second stage boss ([[Cute Monster Girl|Chen]]) reappears in the Extra Stage as a midboss. After Reimu defeats her and reaches the Extra Stage boss ([[Cute Monster Girl|Ran Yakumo]]), Ran learns of Chen's second defeat, as Reimu refers to her as being still a Stage 2 Boss.
{{quote|'''Sanae''': Secret treasure ... ? Are you talking about those charms with "P" and "point" written on them?}}
::* And of course, Kogasa {{spoiler|shows up as the EX-Midboss}} with a huge "SURPRISE!" because she's surprising ''us'' this time!
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** Riff also has some Medium Awareness going on in the early strips, like when he comments that "[http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=970922 This strip needs women]" or [http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=971201 complains about the poor choice of sound effects].
* In the ''[[Insecticomics]]'', the panel lines seem to be akin to dimensional barriers. Sideways (by virtue of being a sentient chaos virus), can just walk out of the panel onto the rest of the webpage, Kickback fishes for Vok with a fishing line extending past the bottom panel, and Override's cannon is so powerful that it blasts Dreadmoon and Thrust out of the comic entirely.
* On [https://web.archive.org/web/20130729053518/http://www.rice-boy.com/see/index.php?c=034 this page] of ''[[Rice Boy]]'', Golgo's robot eye was able to see the speech bubbles from Rice Boy and T-O-E's conversation. One ''could'' interpret this as a way to show that the robot eye made an audio recording, but [[Word of God]] confirms the Medium Awareness interpretation.
* ''[[1/0]]'' [[No Fourth Wall|never really had a fourth wall to begin with]] (except when certain characters were given a fourth wall), but one moment that stands out as Medium Awareness is when they're messing with the camera angles due to the rule about not showing the jar and Marcus complains that nobody even knows he's there because of how short he is. Ghanny replies that they would if they've memorized the characters' text [[Useful Notes/Fonts|fonts]] by now.
* ''[[Dungeons and Denizens]]'' did this a fair number of times, but my favorite has got to be [https://web.archive.org/web/20100419132758/http://dungeonsanddenizens.com/d/20090115.html this strip], in which Zerelda complains that Seidistika has planned out her [[Training Montage]] in advance.
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* In ''[[The Way of the Metagamer]]'', the characters can [http://wayofthemetagamer.thecomicseries.com/comics/pl/18673 read each other's] [http://wayofthemetagamer.thecomicseries.com/comics/pl/21467 speech bubbles.]
* The Fey in ''[[Keychain of Creation]]'' are explicitly aware that they live in a webcomic based around the rules of ''[[Exalted]]''. This befuddles most of the other characters, who 'know' that they live directly in ''[[Exalted]]''. In this case, it is because the Fey in the aforementioned game have an utterly alien mindset, and this was an easy way to represent that. The Sidereals seem to have a little bit of this too, with moves that rely upon breaking perspective and knocking people through the box boundaries - which is kind of what Sidereal Martial Arts normally do.
* ''[[Girls with Slingshots]]'': Hazel reaches up, [https://web.archive.org/web/20140705015858/http://www.daniellecorsetto.com/GWS471.html grabs her own speech bubble, and eats it] to suppress a comment she didn't want to say.
* [http://www.viruscomix.com/thugs.html This] ''[[Subnormality]]'' strip somehow manages to go even more [[Meta Fiction|meta]] with this concept than usual.
* At least one ''[[xkcd]]'' comic references this. One or two of the early ones do it a way that could be seen as [[Nightmare Fuel]] - the comic panels (and thus their whole world) begins to crumble and fall apart.
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* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvy6MjiNgl0 "You see how they condescend to us with their subtitles!"]
* The Monkey King has godlike powers in the ''[[Whateley Universe]]'', and this is apparently one of them. In the only story in which he narrates, he not only demonstrates medium awareness, he stops and makes comments at a couple regular posters on the website forums.
* ''[[SCP Foundation]]'':
*
** A more lighthearted example is SCP-732, a computer virus that vandalizes fanfictions - including SCP profiles. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goHsy_LJDJ0 Including it's own SCP profile!]
== [[Western Animation]] ==
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'''Red Guy''': "Yes, that was Part 2 of our show! This is Part 3 of the show, which is Part 2 of The Ugliest Weenie!" }}
* Frequently in ''[[Animaniacs]]'' - The Warners and Slappy were the most frequent to indulge in this, though it was hardly exclusive to them.
* A particularly notable use of the subtitle variant of this trope is used in ''[[The Grim Adventures of Billy
{{quote|'''Mandy:''' Ugh, this isn't working.
'''Grim:''' He said, 'If you're talking about the new interns, you can find them in the cafeteria.'
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* The British series ''[[Danger Mouse]]'' is built on this trope: characters get into arguments with the Narrator, the hero knows what 'C.H.M.F.F.G.' stands for because "I read the script", a villain plans to cripple the heroes by depriving them of their ubiquitous background music, and so on.
* ''Scary Godmother: The Revenge of Jimmy'' has the Scary Godmother commenting about dramatic music whenever it comes on.
* In a lot of the old theatrical shorts it wasn't uncommon for the cartoon characters to interact with a silhouetted member of the audience, perhaps to ask them for help or tell them to be quiet. Bugs Bunny once pulled out a gun and shot an audience member who wouldn't stop coughing. Another time he frantically asked [[Is There a Doctor In the House?|"Is there a doctor in the house?"]] simply so he could deliver his [[
* Naturally this happens all the time to [[Bugs Bunny]] and his fellow ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' characters. Example; in the cartoon ''Rabbit Punch'', a lengthy bout between Bugs and a dimwitted boxer ends with the boxer tying Bugs to a railroad track. We see the train barrelling down on Bugs, then the image flickers, then the film breaks, leaving a white screen. Bugs then walks onto the screen and announces, "Ladies and gentlemen, due to circumstances beyond our control we are unable to finish this picture." Leaning toward the camera and holding up a pair of scissors, he whispers, "And, uh, confidentially, the film didn't exactly break."
** Perhaps the ultimate ''Looney Toons'' example would be the famous short "[[Duck Amuck]]" in which Daffy has a continued conversation and interaction with his animator.
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* Team Rocket in ''[[Pokémon]]'' occasionaly broke it, usually while blasting off, and often by Meowth.
* A [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBBvIyGqQYI trailer] for DC Universe's then-upcoming ''[[Harley Quinn (2019)|Harley Quinn]]'' animated series, released at the 2018 NY Comic-Con, starts with Harley banging on the TV screen to get the viewers' attention. It ends with her commenting on the logo, which she apparently hadn't yet seen.
* Discord, from ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic]]''. Being a godlike embodiment of Chaos, having Medium Awareness is something of a [[Required Secondary Power]] for him. Not only does he know he's in a cartoon, his potent [[Reality Warping]] abilities extend to the fourth wall, letting him ''manipulate'' the cartoon. Not only can he address the viewers as easily as he does the Mane Cast, he can change the art style (to say, anime or CG-animation), change the genre, rewind or fast-forward the story, or (in comic book adaptations) rewrite captions. Also, much like the Genie in Disney's ''[[Aladdin (1992 Disney film)|Aladdin]]'', he tends to make jokes with pop culture references that, by all logic, should be unknown in Equestria, like [[Bob Ross]] and ''[[Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas]]''. But hey, such are the ways of Chaos.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Abridged Series Tropes]]
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