Medium Awareness: Difference between revisions

== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==

* Played straight for one character and subverted for another in an early [[Bloom County]] [http://www.gocomics.com/bloomcounty/1983/02/27/ strip], Opus runs into Pac-Man in a bar, who is complaining about the pointlessness of all this eatin' and runnin' while being chased by one's ghosts in this crazy maze-like world. At the end, he violently shakes Opus, asking for him to put it in context as a metaphor; when Opus says, "A video game?", Pac-Man stops, thinks about it, then says, "Naw, it's not that."

* In [http://www.comicstriplibrary.org/display.php?id=417&full=1 one installment] of ''[[Little Nemo]] in Slumberland'', Nemo, Flip and Imp are so hungry that they begin tearing off lines from their comic panels and knocking down letters from the ''Little Nemo In Slumberland'' logo, eating them. Nemo worries that this will upset the artist but Flip maintains that it will teach the person who draws them a lesson. When Flip asks what's in the letters they're eating nemo replies that it's printer's ink as far as he knows.

* The characters in ''[[Pearls Before Swine]]'' frequently make reference to the fact that they're in a comic strip, often interacting with creator Stephen Pastis's [[Author Avatar|cartoon self]], and other "visiting" comic strip characters.

 

== [[Radio]] ==

{{quote|'''Ruby (narrating):''' ". . . Who ''really'' wanted him dead? . . . Yeah, the Author. Authors—they create characters just so they can blow them away. Writing is a dirty business." }}

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* While characters in ''[[A Moment of Peace]]'' mostly exist in their own universe, they occasionally acknowledge the 4th wall in a casual way, going so far as to use it as a slide at one point.

* ''[[Narbonic]]'' did this a few times.

* In [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20070831 this] non-canon intermission page of ''[[Girl Genius]]'', Othar Tryggvassen, [[Gentleman Adventurer]]! reacts to the narrator's foreshadowing.

* Scene changes are commented on in [http://missmab.com/Comics/Vol_457.php this strip] of ''[[Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures]]''.

* [http://galactanet.com/comic/view.php?strip=6 This strip] of ''[[Casey and Andy]]'' has the titular characters treat the borders of the comic panels as visible edges of the space-time continuum, with disastrous results.

* Played hilariously in one strip of ''[[8-Bit Theater|Eight Bit Theater]]'', where Sarda demonstrates his omnipotent powers by rewriting Black Mage's speech bubbles.

** In an [http://www.nuklearpower.com/2005/03/24/episode-531-time-for-a-new-space/ earlier strip], the Light Warriors were trapped in a place where causality and space-time were twisted in on themselves, and could actually see alternate-time versions of themselves above, below, and to either side in other comic panels, and were commenting on each other's comments.

* On [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.

* The first book of ''[[Erfworld]]'' was built around this trope in a sense. The main character Parson was pulled in from reality and is aware that it's a wargame, though while everyone else is aware of the rules, they don't get the context.

** And even if Parson understands that Erfworld has game-like rules, he still hasn't gotten the fact that {{spoiler|he's in a ''webcomic''}}.

* [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.

* In ''[[Problem Sleuth]]'', Sleuth ends up attacking and destroying DMK's [[Life Meter|health bars]] directly, after he starts regenerating any damage taken instantly.

** Also, his health-bars are shown as [http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=4&p=001744 crashing through the ground and eventually reaching hell.]

* In ''[[The Non-Adventures of Wonderella|The Non Adventures of Wonderella]]'', [[God]] [http://nonadventures.com/2011/01/29/heaven-can-grate/ exhibits this].

* Woo [http://www.sandraandwoo.com/2008/11/20/the-moment-of-dawning-comprehension/ apparently] knows ''[[Sandra and Woo]]'''s update schedule.

* In ''[[Rusty and Co.|Rusty and Co]]'', [http://rustyandco.com/comic/3/ Mimac, being a D&D adventurer, knows tetanus is not a danger because it's not in the source books.]