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* The English sub of ''[[Night Watch]]'' does this with subtitles: various characters' subtitles are in different colors, and when a character shouts his subtitles get bigger.
** A particularly cool effect from ''[[Night Watch]]'' is the depiction of The Call, an ability that vampires have to call victims to themselves. This is rendered as a character getting a bloody nose in a swimming pool, and the floating blood forming the subtitles of the vampire calling her prey. When she finishes speaking, the bloody subtitles dissipate, then coalesce into her next line of dialogue.
* ''[[Grindhouse]]: Planet Terror'' has all sorts of old-fashioned movie theater effects within the normal footage: a missing reel, jumping scenes, burned film, and so on. Most of them are used as [[Relax -O -Vision]].
** ''Grindhouse: Death Proof'' had a few scratches and another missing reel, although it was "found" for the DVD release. To make up for this, the DVD had a scene (not included in the theatrical cut) that was entirely in black and white, before fading back.
** The theatrical release of ''Grindhouse'' as a double feature had, sandwiched between the two main films, ads for a fictitious Mexican restaurant and [[Real Trailer Fake Movie|mock movie trailers]] for "Coming Attractions".
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* During a very frantic and drug addled day in ''[[Goodfellas]]'' the editting and camera work shifts from the usual pacing to an equally frantic and excited style, mimicing the character's drug use.
* ''[[Monty Python and The Holy Grail]]'' ends with {{spoiler|the cops arresting everyone}}, and one of them covers the camera with his hand.
* In ''[[The EmperorsEmperor's New Groove (Disney)|The Emperors New Groove]]'', Kuzco-the-[[Narrator]] freezes the frame and literally paints on the screen to bring the story back to himself. He then continues to interrupt the story so it focuses on himself. Later on in the story, Kuzco-the-character yells at Kuzco-the-narrator to stop talking and leave him alone. From then on, the movie is un-narrated.
* In ''[[Robin Hood Men in Tights]]'', the opening scenes have the credits spelled out in flaming scenery lit by arrows. The villagers are understandably distressed by this and one remarks, "Every time they make a [[Robin Hood]] movie, they go and burn our village down!"
* In ''[[Metropolis]]'', on-screen text about an underground city of the poor scrolls down. Text about the skyscrapers of the rich scrolls up, and is shaped like a tower. In a story sequence, the text shines and bleeds.
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* The very ''title'' of a short story by F. Paul Wilson was written by placing the words "DAVID", "COPPE", and "RFIEL" over each other, creating an unpronounceable jumble. The word itself was capable of sounding like the correct answer of any question or proposal to anyone hearing it (though not to the person saying it).
* Alfred Bester:
** The novella ''Tiger! Tiger!'', later expanded into the full-length novel ''[[The Stars My Destination (Literature)|The Stars My Destination]]'', employs this excellently in the final two chapters. As the [[Anti -Hero]] protagonist Gully Foyle experiences synesthesia (a side effect of a nearby bomb blast), the text is written in an illustrative manner which reflects the confusion of his sensory apparatus.
** In ''[[The Demolished Man (Literature)|The Demolished Man]]'', telepathic communication is represented by creative typesetting, sentences that can be read up, down, left or right simultaneously, rebuses, fonts and other trickery. Bester seemed very fond of this sort of thing in general.
*** An example: Two of the characters in this book are named @kins (Atkins) and 1/4maine (Quartermaine).
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* In ''Gridlinked'' by Neal Asher, the main character has a computer-"augmented" brain, which allows him to wirelessly communicate with other people, AIs, and computers. These communications are written in a different font from the rest of the book.
* In [[The General]] series by David Drake, S.M. Stirling and Eric Flint, some of the characters mentally communicate with an artificially intelligent computer (The other "ghost" that appears later in the series is just a simulation run by that computer.) The strangeness of its manner of speaking is described in detail, and its statements are written in bold and without capital letters. Even more interesting, sometimes The Center _uses_ capitals. And characters comment on that.
* ''[[Nineteen Eighty -Four|1984]]'' consistently describes a certain radical book being said by characters either ''in italics'' or in a {{smallcaps|completely different font}}. It's even pointed out in the narrative text.
* As usual, William Gibson goes for broke; his poem "Agrippa -- A Book of the Dead" (about his dead father) was first released on an encrypted, uncopyable diskette ''that deleted itself as you read''. The book version was printed in photosensitive ink, disappearing after prolonged exposure to light.
** [[Science Marches On]]: Not only has Gibson published the text of the poem [http://www.williamgibsonbooks.com/source/agrippa.asp on his website], but those who wish to replicate the experience can watch [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1974268544563666797 the poem run in a Mac emulation]. Hi-res scans of the book pages and additional details [http://agrippa.english.ucsb.edu/ can be found here.]
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* In ''What My Mother Doesn't Know'' by Sonja Sonnes, a 15-year-old girl tells her story in verse, though it progresses like a normal novel. The poetry experiments with several textual plays like e.e. cumming's style.
* ''The Taking of Room 114: a Hostage Drama in Poems'' by Mel Glenn is [[Exactly What It Says On the Tin]], and has some great uses of typography and white spaces.
* Don Marquis' ''[[Archy and Mehitabel (Literature)]]'', and other books in the series, are written from the perspective of Archy the cockroach, entirely in lowercase letters... because Archy can operate an old-fashioned typewriter by painstakingly hopping on the keys, but he can't hit shift at the same time! (Marquis would later [[Hand Wave]] reader queries about how Archy handled the carriage return.) The shift key got locked down for (part of) one poem, titled "CAPITALS AT LAST."
* In ''Still Life With Woodpecker'' the author alternates between writing a story and writing about himself writing the story. In the final chapter his typewriter breaks down and he is forced to finish in longhand.
* Elizabeth Bear's ''Blood and Iron'' has a relatively subtle one. For the majority of the book, every character uses third person narration. After one character {{spoiler|sells her soul}} her narration switches to first person -- the implication being that {{spoiler|she was telling the story all along, but is no longer the same person}}.
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* In the original double-sided record version of Ray Charles' "What'd I Say", voices came on protesting at the end of the first side, and on the beginning of the second side Ray calls out "All right!" before launching into the second half of the song.
* In the vinyl album version of the ''[[Monty Python]]'' sketch ''The Piranha Brothers'', the voice-over announcer for the skit is being menaced by one of Dinsdale's thugs, and told that the sketch has gone on too long. When he protests, the thug "scratches the record", ending the bit. We fade out to: "Aw! Sorry, squire! I've scratched the record -- -orry, squire! I've scratched the record! --" over and over. ''Infinitely'', as this part ran on an actual loop on the LP.
* The first of [[Stan Freberg (Creator)]]'s ''Dragnet'' [[Affectionate Parody|affectionate parodies]], ''St. George and the Dragonet'', opens with this disclaimer: "The legend you are about to hear is true. Only the needle should be changed to protect the record."
* Firesign Theatre's ''How Can You Be In Two Places At Once When You're Not Anywhere At All?'' has Nick Danger listen to the other side of the record (which turns out to be a snippet of the other side, played backwards) to figure out where he is.
* Autotune was first used to correct errors in pitch. Many modern musicians use it to deliberately distort their voice so it's obvious that they're using Autotune, as well as for aesthetic effect, even when they're fully capable of singing themselves. [["Stop Having Fun!" Guys|Some people have expressed their distaste.]] It is also called a Vocoder when used to this effect.
 
 
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** So did ''Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga''. ...Except it was Bowser.
** The titular protagonist of the Danish-made ''Hugo'' TV game had a habit of knocking on the screen to get the viewer's attention.
** The fighting game based on ''[[Jo JosJo's Bizarre Adventure (Manga)|Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure]]'' features the character Hol Horse, whose partner has a Stand named The Hanged Man that can only materialize through reflections. In one of his super moves, Hol Horse shoots the screen so The Hanged Man can attack his opponent through the broken glass.
* ''[[Conkers Bad Fur Day (Video Game)|Conkers Bad Fur Day]]'', which ends with the main character winning solely because {{spoiler|the game crashes}}.
** In the remake, during the war chapter, the bullets litteraly break the fourth wall, as they make the screen as it was shot.
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* During the {{spoiler|Little Sister sequence}} in ''Bioshock 2'', the city of Rapture becomes significantly more serene and dream-like. White satin and roses adorn everything, and the bloom is cranked up to eleven. The game occasionally flashes back to the normal view to remind you how much of a hellhole Rapture really is. And that was the creepiest part of the entire game.
* If you kill an enemy [[Mook]] with the [[Chainsaw Good|chainsaw bayonet]] in ''[[Gears of War]]'' the 'camera' gets sprayed with ''lots'' of blood.
* In ''[[Pokémon]] FireRed and LeafGreen'', [[Pink Girl, Blue Boy|females speak in red text and males speak in blue.]]
** In the newest installment, ''[[Pokémon Black and White]]'', the character, N, is chastised by Cheren for [[Motor Mouth|speaking too fast.]] This fact is highlighted by the fact that the text appear in the dialogue box much more quickly than they do for other characters, even though one has their text speed set on fast.
* In ''[[In Famous (Video Game)|In Famous]]'', the game opens to a simple "Press Start" screen, with a busy street visible. When the player finally presses the start button, a huge explosion occurs, killing thousands and leaving a large chunk of an island a smoking crater - The explosion is actually caused by the main character using the device that gives him superpowers. ''Way to go, hero''.
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* At one point in ''[[A Profile (Visual Novel)|A Profile]]'', Masayuki questions his mother's use of a tilde in her sentence.
* In ''[[Ever 17 (Visual Novel)|Ever 17]]'', the text box changes color depending on the current POV character -- green for Takeshi, blue for the Kid, and gray for {{spoiler|Blickwinkel himself}}.
** ''[[Remember 11 (Visual Novel)|Remember 11]]'' has the same effect -- the text box is [[Red Oni, Blue Oni|red for Kokoro, blue for Satoru]], and gray for {{spoiler|the single POV-less scene}}.
 
 
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** [http://www.insecticons.com/insecticomics/v5/458.html And the narrator's one of the Vok.]
* ''[[Books Don't Work Here (Webcomic)|Books Don't Work Here]]'' does this often. [http://booksdontworkhere.thecomicseries.com/comics/4/ here] is an example of [[Odd Shaped Panel]], and here is where they play around with [[Flashback Effects]] [http://booksdontworkhere.thecomicseries.com/comics/69/ twice]
* In ''[[Eight 8-Bit Theater (Webcomic)|Eight Bit Theater]]'', after Thief's [[Class Change]], he's seen in a red outfit for a few strips, then changes to black. When Black Mage asks him about it, he replies that his outfit was always black -- and the red outfit in the archived strips was changed to match the "new" black one.
** ''[[Eight 8-Bit Theater (Webcomic)|Eight Bit Theater]]'' once represented the Light Warriors experience in distorted time by having a strip where [http://www.nuklearpower.com/2005/03/24/episode-531-time-for-a-new-space/ the characters could see themselves in the past and future by looking around].
** In addition, one of the many, many omnipotent abilities of Sarda includes being able to rearrange the speech bubbles of people he doesn't like, particularly [[Butt Monkey|Black Mage]].
* In ''Lick My Jesus'' (which is, unfortunately, no longer accessible), one strip was based around the idea that different fonts were different languages. One character admitted, "I'm sorry... I don't speak Garamond."
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* Apropos 404 not found: ''[[Loserz]]'' once used this as a gag. See [http://bukucomics.com/loserz/index.php?comicID=57 this strip].
* The lizard man Draak in ''[[Irregular Webcomic (Webcomic)|Irregular Webcomic]]'' speaks his native tongue in an unreadable symbol font, rotated 90 degrees so that it runs in vertical columns. He also speaks English in a larger, more messy font than all the other characters. ([[Hulk Speak|Entirely monosyllabically]], though this is unrelated to his intelligence level, which is [[Genius Bruiser|actually quite high]].) [http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/470.html Exemplified here].
* In ''[[Antihero for Hire (Webcomic)|Antihero for Hire]]'', the titular [[Anti -Hero]] was kidnapped, resulting in an [[All Up to You]] situation. As a result, the comic's panel borders changed to white and pink, the rescuer's colors. Taken even further with green panels matching a comic relief character's scenes.
* ''[[Shortpacked (Webcomic)|Shortpacked]]'' paints the fourth wall pretty effectively in [http://www.shortpacked.com/d/20050518.html this strip].
* ''[[Schlock Mercenary (Webcomic)|Schlock Mercenary]]'' used to use different fonts for the (English) speech of different races of beings in the galaxy. Humans "spoke" in a Courier-like font, the AI entity Petey spoke in a font that filled empty space inside of letters with a dot, and the F'sherl-Ganni aliens spoke in a very "pointy" font. The author phased out this practice due to the difficulty that fans had with reading these exotic fonts, but not without a [http://www2.schlockmercenary.com/d/20020421.html fourth-wall-breaking strip to explain it].
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* ''[[Pibgorn]]'' [http://www.gocomics.com/pibgorn/2003/06/12/ Colored fonts]
* ''[[The Phoenix Requiem]]'' [http://requiem.seraph-inn.com/viewcomic.php?page=60 Colored speech bubbles]
* In ''[[Memoria (Webcomic)|Memoria]]'' dialog balloons [http://memoria.valice.net/?p=326 such as here]; note [[Pink Girl, Blue Boy]] to tell Harriet and Matty apart.
* ''[[Derelict (Webcomic)|Derelict]]'' [http://derelictcomic.com/?strip_id=20 Symbols, or an alien alphabet, in dialog]
* ''[[Bird Boy]]'': [http://bird-boy.com/volume-1-page-5 Runic dialog]
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* ''[[Harry Potter Comics]]'' has the Necromancer speak in gray speech bubbles, and souls in the afterlife speak with partially transparent bubbles.
* Every character in ''[[The Last Days of Foxhound]]'' speaks with a differently-coloured speech bubble.
* The [[Fanfic|fan]][[Web Comic|comic]] ''[[Roommates 2007 (Webcomic)|Roommates]]'' and its [[Spin -Off]] ''[[Girls Next Door (Webcomic)|Girls Next Door]]'' does this a lot. Different characters' speech is written in different fonts, and various kinds of speech bubbles are used depending on character mood.
* ''[[Girls With Slingshots]]'' isn't usually [[Medium Awareness|Medium Aware]], but in [http://www.girlswithslingshots.com/comic/gws-1315 this strip] Thea corrects the spelling in Hazel's [[Speech Bubble]].
* In ''[[The Mansion of E (Webcomic)|The Mansion of E]]'', each species has its own dialogue-font, and a few feature colored speech-balloons as well.
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** In ''[[The Simpsons Movie (Animation)|The Simpsons Movie]]'': Homer calls everyone watching The Itchy and Scratchy movie a "giant sucker" for "paying to see somthing they can watch at home for free" and starts pointing at a random theater audience member...only for the camera to swivel around so that Homer's finger is pointed directly at the fourth wall while he says "Especially YOU!"
* ''[[Family Guy (Animation)|Family Guy]]'' [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LqiC6LSPlQ once] had the usual promo for the Simpsons (8/7c) come on over the top of the regular cartoon, with Marge Simpson walking into frame. Suddenly, Quagmire walks into view and tackles her, ostensibly for sex. She fights him off, and he chases her around with his pants around his ankles. Eventually, she gives in, offscreen, and they both return to view and decide to head back to the Simpsons' for round two. The characters in the body of the cartoon ''actually stop talking'' to watch what's going on. The next scene is an exterior shot of the Simpson house. The audio indicates that Homer walks in on them, and gets shot by Quagmire in self-defense. Then he shoots Marge to keep her from calling the police. Then Bart walks in and gets shot. Then Lisa. He hesitates with Maggie. Then the show cuts right back to ''Family Guy'' like nothing ever happened.
** In a more recent episode, an [[Commercial Pop -Up|intrusive ad]] for ''[[Twenty Four (TV)|Twenty Four]]''(Mondays on Fox) appeared at the bottom of the screen, and Stewie stopped the action for quite a while to notice and complain about it.
{{quote| '''Stewie:''' Oh- oh, I'm sorry, is my wedding interrupting your- your promotion? We're right in the middle of ''our'' show. Okay? Right now. You have a timeslot. Go there. Maybe finish ''this'' candy bar before you open another one.}}
** Which kicked off a running joke in the same episode as fake live-action sitcom ads periodically showed up at the bottom of the screen, including "Shovin' Buddies" and "Slowly Rotating Black Man". The characters reacted to them each time.
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* ''[[Aladdin (Disney)|Aladdin]]'' begins with a narrator telling the viewer to come closer, prompting the camera to come in and hit him in the nose. "Too close, a little too close!"
** In ''[[Tangled]]'', [[Rapunzel (Literature)|Rapunzel]] ''literally'' paints the fourth wall.
** in ''[[The EmperorsEmperor's New Groove (Disney)|The Emperor's New Groove]]'', Kuzco ''stops the film'' to draw on the fourth wall and whine about how the movie isn't focusing on him.
* As the world falls into chaos in the ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' episode "The Return of Harmony: Part 2", a pony is shown running along the top and left edges of the screen.
 
 
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== Repeatedly used in this very wiki ==
* Several [[Self -Demonstrating Article|Self Demonstrating Articles]]:
** [[All Blue Entry]]
** [[All Red Entry (Darth Wiki)|All Red Entry]]
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[[Category:index]]
[[Category:Painting The Medium]]
[[Category:Trope]][[Category:Pages with comment tags]]
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Special:MobileDiff/487496"