No Fourth Wall: Difference between revisions

[[File:fourthwall 9025.jpg|link=Garfield (Comic Strip)|frame|And so, on June 19, 1978, a very long history of shattering the fourth wall began.]]

 

 

Some series can go their entire lives without breaking the [[Fourth Wall]] once. Some series will occasionally [[Breaking the Fourth Wall|break the Fourth Wall]] for a few moments of comedy, but outside of that the [[Fourth Wall]] is in full effect.

 

Contrast [[Willing Suspension of Disbelief]], this trope's sworn enemy. See also [[Sliding Scale of Fourth Wall Hardness]]. [[Lampshade Hanging]] is a less extreme form of this trope.

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* ''[[Gintama]]'' has the main characters complain about just about everyone at one point. The mangaka himself has appeared as a gorilla in several episodes.

** Shinpachi himself ends up breaking the fourth wall at least once per episode. Being the [[Only Sane Man]] and the [[Straight Man]] in a comedy manga can do that to someone.

{{quote|'''Kyouko''': She isn't trying very hard to become a memorable character.

'''Yui''': Oh, but... The author says that putting her in that role has actually made her more interesting and easier to incorporate. On the other hand, he thinks this has made Chinatsu-chan start to fade into the background instead... }}

 

== Comic Books ==

** Deadpool is ''so'' aware of being in a comic book, he even has knowledge of events that, in-book, shouldn't be known by anybody. For example, he's aware of ''One More Day'', and Spider-Man's deal with Mephisto.

** Deadpool is ''so aware'' of being in a comic book, he even wishes he knew about what he was informed about during the recap pages, which aren't part of the continuity.

** Deadpool is ''so aware'' of being in a comic book <ref>[[Match Game|how aware is he?]]</ref> he even speculates on whether pulling off something specifically awesome will get him a solo series or [[Funny Aneurysm Moment|movie]].

* Pretty much the entire point of [[Ambush Bug]], whose works usually serve as a satire of the comic book industry, and who can even see speech bubbles, and interact with his own writer and editor.

* ''[[Animal Man]]'' of [[The DCU]] became aware of the true nature of reality during [[Grant Morrison]]'s revival of the character. This even extended to a peyote trip where Buddy looked out of the page and declared "OH MY GOD! I CAN SEE YOU!" ''to the reader.'' Unlike most who share this knowledge, Buddy has a hard time dealing with it and is prone to mental breakdowns as a result.

* Most of the less serious comic strips in any of DC Thomson's [[Anthology Comic|AnthologyComics]]. For example in [[The Beano]] the characters often interact with the reader, the editor and the Beano artists. Which can often lead to insane things for example in one Beano annual Billy Whizz messed up the Beano Office resulting in all the comic strips being mixed up together resulting in composite strips with aspects of one strip combined with another. Also in [[The Beano]] and [[The Dandy (comics)|The Dandy]] the characters often read the comic in which their strips appear.

* Croatian children's comic ''Blueberry'' practically relishes in this. Every character is aware they're in a comic book, and after the 100th episode, the main heroine (the titular Blueberry) actually steps out of the comic. In the next episode we see her hiding behind the panels, listening to the others wondering where she is. Not to mention the episode where [[Creator Cameo|she meets the author]] and [[Rage Against the Author|berates him for not meeting up with his deadline]], or the several episodes where she answers fanmail.

 

== Fan Works ==

** Special mention to ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series|Yu-Gi-Oh the Abridged Series]]'', where season 2 ended with the fourth wall literally collapsing and the show being {{spoiler|cancelled.}} The episode following was titled "Beyond the Fourth Wall."

** Also the fourth episode of Friendship is Witchcraft, where Pinkie Pie bends space-time by... baking... the fourth wall.

** Opening Author's Notes for Chapter 9, after breaking the newest replacement fourth wall: "To the No Fourth Wall [[TV Tropes]] page! As you can clearly see, I used a hammer, not an axe!"

* The entirety of [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6818097/1/bAdventures_b_of_the_bWriter_b Adventures of the Writer] by [http://www.fanfiction.net/u/2044903/Der_Blaue_Wolf Der Blaue Wolf]. The basis of the story is that the writer has been kidnapped and his characters have to go and save him. It also includes laptops that can change the world around them, simply by writing something into the story. It later even mention the place 'where the fourth wall used to be.'

* ''[[Calvin and Hobbes: The Series|Calvin and Hobbes The Series]]'' has ''[[Calvin and Hobbes: The Series/Medium Awareness|a whole page]]'' of [[Medium Awareness]] moments.

 

== Film ==

* In ''[[Attack of the Killer Tomatoes|Return of the Killer Tomatoes]]'', talking to the camera is the least of it. The film stops halfway through because it runs out of money, then continues full of [[Product Placement]]. When someone needs paper to write a message, he uses a copy of the script. The phone-in presenter from the framing device calls during the finale scene. When someone calls attention to the setup/payoff nature of the film, [[Brick Joke|a pizza tossed into the air in the first scene]] lands on his head. And so on.

* Paul Greenaway's ''[[The Baby Of Macon]]'' heavily blurs the line between what is fictional and what is "real" within the film. The plot of the film is sometimes a morality play performed before an audience, but sometimes it seems real. Sometimes members of the audience are just spectators, and sometimes they walk onstage and influence the plot. We're frequently shown the actors backstage, and sometimes the actors conspire to make what happens on stage real. When the performers all make a curtain call, the lead actors, whose characters have died, remain dead. The living actors bow to the theatrical audience, and then the audience stands up and they all bow to the camera.

 

== Literature ==

* The way ''[[House of Leaves]]'' is written plays up everything in it to have actually happened, with Johnny Truant directly addressing the reader several times. The problem comes up when other, supposedly fictional [[Literary Agent Hypothesis|agents]] begin to address the reader directly as well. There is a scene where {{spoiler|Navy reads and burns a copy of ''[[House of Leaves]]''}}.

* The main character in Chris Wooding's ''Poison'' learns that {{spoiler|she is a character in a story being written by the heirophant of the Fairy world. When she goes into a suicidal malaise after hearing this, she is snapped out of it when bluntly reminded that she isn't just a character in a story -- she is the main character in ''her'' story. She ends the book, beginning to write the Story which we have just been reading.}}

* In the novel ''The Great Good Thing'' and its sequel ''Into the Labyrinth'', the protagonist, Sylvie, and everyone surrounding her, are all characters in a book-within-the-book. They all have to run around in the book to perform their lines for Readers, and Sylvie even starts up a friendship with the Writer. In the second one, the book is moved online, and they have to run down the screen. They get their dresses caught on the words, etc. There's no fourth wall at all in the book-within-the-book.

* In the Martha Soukup short story ''The Story So Far'', the narrative character is a secondary character in someone else's story, and is only conscious while she's "on screen", and is forced to act like a puppet. But she learns tricks that let her remain aware and in control of herself while the main character and the readers can't see her.

* ''[[Captain Underpants]]'' is fraught with examples, including green gloop running through the classrooms of their school, through hallways, and even covering up the text on the page.

* The ''Samurai Cat'' series ''is'' this trope. It folds, spindles, mutilates, and slices sashimi out of the [[Fourth Wall]], so much so that the feline characters constantly deride the author for being such a spineless, unimaginative hack. Occasionally, this incurs direct in-story retaliation in the form of bad luck and/or nasty enemies' sudden and inexplicable appearance.

* In [[The Pale King]], [[David Foster Wallace]] addresses the reader directly whenever he narrates.

 

* One of the earliest TV series that regularly broke the [[Fourth Wall]] was ''[[The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show]]'', a [[Sitcom]] in the '50s. Not only would George (playing himself putting on a TV show) turn to the audience and comment on what the other characters were doing, but in later episodes he would often direct the audience's attention to a TV set in his private study. On the screen you would see the events that he was talking about, occurring in real time as if it were a security camera monitor. He would use this information to intentionally complicate things in order to ensure maximum [[Hilarity Ensues]].

** In one episode, George and Harry—his announcer—are in the living room when Harry says, "I understand you're about to rerun a few episodes, George." George says, "Yes, why tonight we're doing the one in which Gracie tries to get me to invest in the Ballet. In fact, it's coming on right now, let's go watch." They get up, and we fade into the first scene of said episode.

** In the original live broadcast, this is how the ''commercials'' were done. (George walks over to the "neighbor"'s "driveway" where he's waxing his car; "[[Enforced Plug|Say, Bob, that sure is a beautiful new Oldsmobile you got]]")

** There are some public domain episodes with Carnation Milk as a sponsor. These truly get inventive in working the product into the storyline.

* The ultimate example may well be the late-80s [[Showtime]] series ''[[It's Garry Shandling's Show]]''. From its [[Title Theme Tune|self-referential theme song]] to its numerous guest stars, it extensively parodied the conventions of the [[Sitcom]] while actively demolishing the fourth wall, starting right from its opening credits:

{{quote|''This is the theme to Garry's show, the opening theme to Garry's show.

** Taken to the extreme in one episode, where he uses it to dodge an incoming punch and escapes. Nobody seemed too bothered that he just vanished into thin air...

** In an episode of ''Jimmy Fallon''', Mark-Paul Gosselaar showed up as a guest, ''as Zack Morris'', in character and all, and used the "time out" trick at one point to explain something without Fallon interrupting him. When he timed back in, Fallon stopped for a second, then asked, "Did you just time me out?"

** This was a trademark of the radio show as well.

* ''[[Sean's Show]]'' was a UK sitcom with a similar premise to ''[[It's Garry Shandling's Show]]''; the main actor/character (Irish comedian Sean Hughes) knew he was starring in a sitcom and what sort of plots he could expect as a result.

{{quote|I wrote this song two hours before we met

I didn't know your name or what you looked like yet }}

 

== Newspaper Comics ==

* [[Bloom County|Berkeley Breathed's]] various strips had not only jokes but entire story arcs built around the fact that the characters knew they were in a comic strip—although the characters treated it more like a TV series. Opus, after delivering a particularly stupid line, occasionally [[Who Writes This Crap?|pulls out his script to make sure he didn't botch it]]; characters argue frequently with the narrator, demand that boring scenes be re-written, and complain to the show's "producer" (who essentially personified comics-page [[Executive Meddling]]).

* [[Beetle Bailey]] has been known to comment on Sarge's [[Symbol Swearing]], saying things along the lines of "Hang on, that's not how you use *storm cloud* in a sentence." He's also pointed at things in the previous panel.

 

== Professional Wrestling ==

* [[Professional Wrestling]], in its various forms, has no fourth wall (or first through third, for that matter) by design; characters frequently directly address the audience (either the audience in attendance at the arena, the viewers at home, or both), and the production crew often find themselves employed as characters in the story. As well, characters often directly address the camera in order to talk to characters not appearing in the episode, saying, "I know you're somewhere watching this right now..."

** [[D Generation X]] would often use this to comedic effect by lampshading it into oblivion including a time [[Triple H]] covered up a flub with "Gimme a break, it's live TV." and once acknowledging he hadn't anything funny to add to the DX mantra that week because coming up with new ones every week was hard.

* Pro wrestling's version of this is called breaking [[Kayfabe]]: the performers acknowledge for once that what they're doing ''isn't'' real, [[Viewers are Morons|as if we didn't already know that]]. Most notably, whenever a wrestler dies or makes a memorable exit from the company, the other wrestlers will temporarily put aside the fact that they "hate" each others' guts and come out to the ring together for a [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming]].

 

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* The brilliant ''[[Over the Edge]]'' includes a metaplot in which {{spoiler|1=the PCs encounter odd things, and start to notice clues, and finally discover that they are actually characters in a role-playing game!}}

** {{spoiler|The adventure in question eventually has the characters meet the players playing them.}} (The rule book specifically advises that the players not play that adventure under the influence of psychedelic drugs.)

 

== Theatre ==

* Before the Realism movement, the fourth wall didn't exist. Asides and soliloquies were common and expected; actors weren't subtle about speaking to the audience. Elizabethan actors had to deal with overzealous audience members trying to join in with the action.

** Hecklers were common and expected. Retorts could fly from the stage back into the crowds, characters would direct their lines at certain members of the audience or mug for the crowd, particularly well-done or well-thought-of scenes could be encored (although not as often as in [[Opera]]). Every good actor could improvise and react to the goings-on. They weren't helped by lines being added up [[Throw It In|right up to showtime]].

* A play based on [[Ramona Quimbly]] began with Beezus talking to the audience, until Ramona interrupts her by talking to the audience herself. During dinner, Ramona complains to their parents that Beezus won't let her talk to the audience, to which her parents reply that Beezus gets to talk to the audience because she's older.

* [[The Drowsy Chaperone]] Lights dim. Theater goes dark. Waiting. Disembodied voice "I hate the theater" 2mins Soliloquy later... lights come up and the narrator directly addresses the audience for the remainder of the show.

 

== Video Games ==

* In ''[[The Bard's Tale]]'' the player character and the narrator interact regularly. This usually involves them insulting one another, with the narrator taking almost sadistic glee in the acerbic protagonist's misfortunes.

* The ''[[Discworld]]'' games do stuff like this ''a lot'', particularly the second game. Constant references to "obvious plot devices" and "the game's budget can't afford a better action sequence". The games protagonist, Rincewind, also identifies many typical fantasy clichés and character stereotypes and meets the man who built all the [[Moon Logic Puzzle|crazed-logic problems]] of the game. He has a cathartic time shouting at him.

* ''[[No More Heroes]]''. Right off the bat in the intro. "Just push the 'A' Button!" Then slowly chipped them away one by one until the last mission and then completely destroyed at the end ("I would expect you and your players would expect a twist or some kind!").

** The second game doesn't even bother repairing the damage. "Players don't want to know about your fall from grace, it's BORING!"

* In ''[[Rayman]] 3'', Murfy spends much of his time in the game bickering with his copy of the game's instruction manual (which replies via on-screen captions.) To heighten the effect, the ''real'' instruction manual is very uncomplimentary of Murfy in the character profiles section. Additionally, Murfy farewells the player with the words "See you in ''Rayman 4''!" and Globox can be bullied into saying, "You were nicer in ''Rayman 2''!"

* ''The Simpsons Game'' is definitely a good example of "There Is No Fourth Wall". After the first level (which is a direct reference to the "Land of Chocolate" daydream from the German episode) Bart finds a videogame user's manual for the very game we're playing right now, and through that manual, discovers that each member of his immediate family has some kind of videogame superpower.

* In ''[[Distorted Travesty]]'', there ''is'' a fourth wall... but [[Mission Control|Jeremy]] is sitting on top of it, so it might as well not exist. The characters are fully aware they are in a video game and are constantly discussing game tropes as the story progresses. {{spoiler|Later it turns out that [[This Is Reality]]... sort of. The real world and the fictional world of games have been joined together in a big [[Reality Warper|Reality Warping]] mess.}}

 

* ''[[1/0]]'' takes the concept fairly seriously; the cartoonist is a disembodied voice who talks with the characters often. Incidents such as the characters going on strike (refusing to talk, move or ''think'', to drive down readership and force the cartoonist to give in) or developing "personal fourth walls" were common, and the end of the series was largely concerned with the question of how to let the characters survive past the strip's end.

* [[Deviant ART]] based comic ''The Grind'' takes place in the game [[RuneScape]], and the characters are players in the game. As such, all of the characters know they are in a game...except for the main character, who is the only one who doesn't know what he is actually doing, sort of an anti-[[Fourth Wall Observer]].

* ''[http://www.damonk.com/ Framed!]'' is based on the premise that the characters ''really are'' the real people they are based on, whom the cartoonist, DaMonk, has trapped in a [[Pocket Universe]]; unfortunately for DaMonk, being real people, he has no control over them, and at one point they turn the tables on him, trapping ''him'' in the comic.

* ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]'' does this quite often; for instance, the mercenary captain asking the narrator why he's not allowed to swear.

* The Insecticons are the most frequent offenders in the ''[[Insecticomics]]'', but to some degree or another the characters are aware of their status. Some of the hand-drawn comics feature the author herself talking to the characters—and one rather odd one in the usual [[Photo Comic]] format with the Insecticons (who are only about two inches high, as toys) talking to the author's giant head.

* The [[Stick Figure Comic]] ''[[Stickman and Cube]]''. The two titular characters are fully aware of their status as comic characters and are constantly making meta-jokes and talking to the readers.

* ''Real Life'' does this on an almost daily basis, with the author talking to characters of the strip. This interaction works both ways, with the strip's characters sometimes talking to the author, the characters or the author talking to the readers, and even, at one point, an instance where the comic's main character ''vandalised the comic's website''.

* ''[[Checkerboard Nightmare]]''—the story of Checkerboard Nightmare's attempt to create a wildly popular webcomic, starring himself—smashed the fourth wall to bits and danced across the rubble from day one.

* The characters of ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' frequently complain when they are forced to participate in lame filler strips, especially when illness, laziness or holidays mean they're drawn as stick figures. The cartoonist, Pete, occasionally speaks to the cast (appearing as a godlike figure whose features are not visible due to golden light), and Shirt Guy Tom (represented by a stick figure) frequently tries to take the comic over, which everybody hates because he is a terrible artist. There's an entire mini-arc drawn by a guest author, featuring the guest author coming up with a guest comic and then being chased by angry fans because she messed with canon.

** However, the plot proper firmly requires a fourth wall. Even when it's broken within the normal comics (as opposed to filler), it's always in throwaway lines, and the characters go back to being unaware of being in a comic for most of the time and at all important points.

** {{spoiler|And when he is sent back to kill himself, he refuses and are now on the run from death it(?)self. }}

* ''[http://www.jaydenandcrusader.com Jayden and Crusader]'' used to use this trope heavily, and was indeed a pivotal plot point in one storyline, but since March 2008 has been desperately been trying to put up a flimsy fourth wall.

* Some characters in ''[[Magical Misfits]]'' know they are fictional.

* Applies to some series in ''[[The KAMics]].''

* ''[[Jerkcity]]'' contains what is probably the first, and perhaps the only, occurrence of a fictional character [http://www.jerkcity.com/jerkcity1110.html reporting a real bug in OpenBSD].

* ''[[Darkmoon's Silly Web Comic]]''. Lampshaded, even.

* ''[[The Way of the Metagamer]]''. Extremely so. The [[Author Avatar|author]] appears as a major character, the other characters repeatedly talk about the audience and possess [[Medium Awareness]], and literal [[Plot Hole|plot holes]] allow the characters to travel to other works.

* Instead of a fourth wall, ''[[Voices]]'' has a window, through which the forumgoers can see, hear and speak to the main protagonists.

* The webcomic ''[[Order of the Stick]]'' has the distinction of having two fourth walls to break: the fourth wall of being a comic (which in one instance is hilariously broken by {{spoiler|Haley Starshine climbing onto the character introduction page to steal a diamond to be used for a Resurrection spell}}), and the fourth wall of being in a game (characters often directly reference feats, having skill points, and gaining levels, which technically aren't supposed to be in-character knowledge).

{{quote|'''Elan:''' Good evening, innkeeper! I require a room [...]

'''Innkeeper:''' Of course, sir. What kind of room did you have in mind?

'''Innkeeper:''' Are you certain, sir? Because rooms without fourth walls are very popular in this comic strip.

''[[Beat Panel]] while both smile and wink at the reader.'' }}

** Not to be outdone, during the crossover wars, the author is forced into an interaction with one of the evil army's main bad guys. No 4th wall? The author is talking about the comic to another character from another comic, and Fesworks has said that this was never his plan for his comic.

* The ''[[Metroid]]'' [[Sprite Comic]] ''[[Planet Zebeth]]'' is an interesting case. Although nobody (except [[Author Avatar]] Kabutroid) knows that they exist in a comic strip, the characters are aware that they are fictional, and that the entirety of the planet actually exists on Kabutroid's server (which still uploads with a 33.6k modem and has a lot of glitches). This even drives the plot at some points, like when they were [http://www.zebeth.com/planetzebeth/archives/z448.html stuck mid-transfer in an FTP client when Kabutroid had computer problems], and directly afterward when he had to [http://www.zebeth.com/planetzebeth/archives/z456.html install Linux, leaving Samus and Kraid stuck wondering what was going on.]

* [[Magic and Physics]] plays with this trope, as the creators desperately want to maintain the fourth wall, while the characters make sure it doesn't exist.

* [[Bob and George]] uses this for nearly the entire running time, with the author ultimately becoming a main character.

 

== Web Original ==

* Long before ''Dora'', though, there was ''[[Winky Dink]]'', who not only interacted with the kids watching, but actively needed their help—as provided via crayons and a clear plastic overlay for the TV screen (conveniently available for sale at your local store).

* ''[[Blue's Clues]]'' is usually credited as the genesis of modern interactive children's shows. [[Roger Rabbit Effect|Live-action host Steve]] (or [[Replacement Scrappy|Joe]]) talks directly to the audience and, like [[Dora the Explorer|Dora]], waits for appropriate responses to his questions. Unlike Dora however, there is audio of children answering him after a short pause, probably to make the children at home feel more comfortable with participating.

** [[Chowder]] also does this, which is no surprise, considering it was created by one of the writers from ''Grim adventures of Billy and Mandy''. The most memorable instance of this was when Mung-Daal, Schnitzel and Chowder spend the entire budget, meaning there isn't enough for the show's animation. Cut to the voice actors wondering what to do to get the money back and subsequently organising a car-wash fundraiser.

* The ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' [[Crossover]] movie ''[[Turtles Forever]]'' had an absolutely beautiful moment where the goofy 1980 cartoon version of Raphael speaks to the audience, causing the Hun (a villain from the more serious 2003 cartoon) to look at the "camera" in total confusion.

'''Major Monogram:''' "What did I tell you about breaking the fourth wall, Carl?"

'''Carl:''' "Sorry sir." }}

{{quote|'''Pinkie Pie:''' "Hey! That's what ''I'' said!"}}

** When repairs of the fourth wall got too expensive, they installed a door.

** Spike has apparently been taking lessons from Pinkie Pie, as evidenced in the episode "Lesson Zero".

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Comedy Tropes]]

[[Category:Metafiction Demanded This Index]]

[[Category:Post Modern Tropes]]