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The fourth wall is the imaginary invisible wall at the front of the stage in a proscenium theater, through which the audience sees the action in the world of the play. The concept has been around since before Shakespeare, ^[1] the phrase itself is generally presumed to have originated in nineteenth century theatre with the advent of theatrical realism. Critic Vincent Canby described it in 1987 as "that invisible screen that forever separates the audience from the stage."^[2]

Contents 1 Origin and meaning 2 Breaking the fourth wall 3 In video games 3.1 Tutorial method 3.2 Story driven 3.3 Physical interaction with the Player 3.4 Unusual player actions 3.5 Character awareness 3.6 Easter eggs 4 In cinema, video, and documentary 5 Controversy 6 Technical limitations 7 References 8 See also

The term "fourth wall" stems from the absence of a fourth wall on a three-walled set where the audience is viewing the production. The audience is supposed to assume there is a "fourth wall" present, even though it physically isn't there. This is widely noticeable on various television programs, such as situational comedies, but the term originated in theatre, where conventional three-walled stage sets provide a more literal "fourth wall".

The meaning of the term "fourth wall" has been adapted to refer to the boundary between the fiction and the audience. "Fourth wall" is part of the suspension of disbelief between a fictional work and an audience. The audience will usually passively accept the presence of the fourth wall without giving it any direct thought, allowing them to enjoy the fiction as if they were observing real events.

The presence of a fourth wall is one of the best established conventions of fiction and as such has led some artists to draw direct attention to it for dramatic effect. This is known as "breaking the fourth wall". For instance, in A.R. Gurney's The Fourth Wall, a quartet of characters deal with housewife Peggy's obsession with a blank wall in her house, slowly being drawn into a series of theatre clichés as the furniture and action on the stage become more and more directed to the supposed fourth wall.

Besides theatre and television, the term has been adopted by other media, such as cinema, comics, and more recently, video games.

The term "breaking the fourth wall" in theatre generally means when a character is showing his/her awareness of the audience. The term originated from Bertolt Brecht's theory of "epic theatre" that he developed from (and in contrast to) Konstantin Stanislavski's drama theory. Most often, the fourth wall is broken through a character directly addressing the audience, although the same effect can be achieved by breaking character, through dialogue, or by the characters interacting with objects outside the context of the work (e.g. a character is handed a prop by a stage hand).

Various artists have used this jarring effect to make a point, as it forces an audience to see the fiction in a new light and to watch it less passively. Bertolt Brecht was known for deliberately breaking the fourth wall to encourage his audience to think more critically about what they were watching, referred to as Verfremdungseffekt (often translated to "alienation effect").

The sudden breaking of the fourth wall is often employed for comical effect, as a sort of visual non-sequitur; the unexpected breaking from normal conventions of narrative fiction can surprise the audience and create humor. A very early example of this occurs in Francis Beaumont's The Knight of the Burning Pestle, which contains three characters who are purportedly part of the audience. They interrupt the prologue and demand to be consulted on the plot, ordering a number of sudden (and usually extremely awkward) changes throughout the play, with comic results.

Such exploitation of an audience's familiarity with the conventions of fiction is a key element in many works defined as post-modern, which dismantle established rules of fiction. Works which break or directly refer to the fourth wall often utilize other post-modern devices such as meta-reference or breaking character.

In the early days of "talkies", the Marx Brothers' stage-to-screen productions often broke this barrier. In their 1932 film Horse Feathers, for example, when Chico sits down at a piano to begin a musical interlude, Groucho turns to the camera and deadpans "I've got to stay here, but there's no reason why you folks shouldn't go out into the lobby until this thing blows over." ^[3]

By the 1940's, breaking the fourth wall was accepted in popular culture, as evident in the appealing "Road to..." movies with Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour. Hope or Crosby often addressed the audience with a wisecrack, letting them in on the joke or with an irreverent comment about the film's producers.

A compromise to the concept often occurs in improvisational theatre, in which the audience is asked to interact with the players to some extent, such as by voting on a resolution to a mystery. In that case, the audience members are treated as if they were witnesses to the action in the play, effectively becoming "actors" rather than being a true "fourth wall." This is a major tenet of Augusto Boal's Theater of the Oppressed.

It is arguable that this technique was first employed in the modern sense (i.e., not in which an actor merely makes a clarifying aside to the audience, or clever implied self-references are made, but rather when the fourth wall is demolished to the point that there no longer remains any significant division between performance and audience, with drama joining reality or the exact opposite depending on one's perspective) in the sensational 1921 premiere of Pirandello's play Sei Personaggi in Cerca d'Autore (Six Characters in Search of an Author), wherein six ordinary people come to the rehearsal of a play to demand that their stories be told as part of the performance. This type of fourth wall breaking is also used in "The Aliens Are Coming! The Aliens Are Coming!" where at one point it is impossible to tell what is real and what is not in the play, as the aliens end up everywhere.

The fourth wall is sometimes included as part of the narrative, when a character discovers that they are part of a fiction and 'breaks the fourth wall' to make contact with their audience, as seen in films like Tom Jones, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1963, Woody Allen's Annie Hall (with Marshall McLuhan) and The Purple Rose of Cairo, and Jonathan Gash's Lovejoy novels. Also, it is broken twice by Peter Pan and Captain Hook in the 1954 musicial of Peter Pan. George Burns commonly broke the fourth wall and directly addressed the audience in his 1950's TV comedy show.^[4] In these situations however, the 'fourth wall' that the character breaks remains part of the overall narrative and the wall between the real audience and the fiction remains intact. These sorts of stories do not actually break the fourth wall in the strictest sense, but are more properly referred to as metafiction, or fiction that refers to the conventions of fiction. The television series Titus, which ran from 2000-2002, employed a similar technique; lead character Christopher Titus directly addressed the audience in a black-and-white "neutral space", which he used for narrating the events in the show's "Live Story".

A good example of this type of metafiction can be found in the film Stranger Than Fiction, in which Will Ferrell's character Harold is able to hear the voice of the film's narrator. His attempts to discover the identity of this woman, aware of every action he takes, becomes the plot of the film.

This technique is also used in comic strips; for example, Calvin and Hobbes "spoke" to the readers in a few strips. The Marvel Comics character Deadpool is also known to speak to the reader and even refer to his nature as a comic book character, much to the confusion of others around him. She-Hulk is another Marvel Comics character that is seen tearing through pages and advertisements, and even addressing the writer of the storyline. Characters in the comic strip Pearls Before Swine have discussed their own strip and other comic strips, and the author, Stephan Pastis, has appeared as a character.

The television series Moonlighting and Clarissa Explains It All make extensive use of breaking the fourth wall.

The fourth wall is also often broken in both the traditional Commedia Dell'arte style or modern reincarnations of such kinds of plays, such as Pippin. Usually, the cast of players is looking to the audience for advice or support. This device is also common in many popular television comedy series, such as Boston Legal, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, The Bernie Mac Show, Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide, Malcolm in the Middle, Oz, Drake & Josh and Saved by the Bell where characters use 'knowing' and comical looks toward the audience or sometimes even speak directly to camera.

The 1980's show entitled It's Garry Shandling's Show took it much further. The show would feature Garry Shandling and characters going into the audience to ask opinions and questions concerning the storyline during the show, or bring audience members into the show as participants.

In the final scene of the series finale of The Cosby Show, actors Bill Cosby and Phylicia Rashād broke the fourth wall and danced off the set, as hundreds of audience members gave a rousing standing ovation.

In the television series Weeds, the character Shane Botwin breaks the fourth wall when talking to his dead father.

Another really good example is in the Stephen Sondheim musical Into the Woods. About a third of the way into the second act, the characters pull the (on-stage) narrator into the story, telling him "some of us don't like the way you're telling it" (the story), and proceed to get rid of him. After this, they are confused as to what to do, as the narrator was "the only who knew it."

In the anime series Ninja Nonsense, some of the characters may address the viewers directly. For example "It may be a cable network show, but having a young girl take her clothes off may cause several lawsuits and maybe even a fine."

A notable fourth wall breaking of late occurred in a 30 Rock epsiode titled Somebody to Love in which the character Liz Lemon, turns to the camera and states "Can we have our money now?" after a her boss praises Verizon Wireless. ^[5]

Breaking the fourth wall in video games is very common, mostly due to the fact that the players play an active role within the game. It’s usually done as a comic relief, as a part of the game, or to increase the player’s awareness of the game’s fictional nature. Some game series are known to use this technique very often, such as Crash Bandicoot, Ape Escape 2, EarthBound, Final Fantasy V, Donkey Kong , Paper Mario, the Metal Gear series, Contact, Destroy All Humans 2, Arc The Lad III and Monkey Island among others. In The Simpsons Game the titular family finds out that they have been unwillingly thrown into another video game.

The most common way to break the fourth wall in video games is in a tutorial fashion. A character in the game instructs the player’s avatar (or in some cases, directly instructs the player) how to perform a specific action within the game world.

The Metal Gear series is well known to use this kind of tutorial method: Solid Snake asks a Non-player character (ex: Naomi Hunter) for advice on how to perform an action. This NPC will then address the player (through Snake, the avatar), and inform them how to perform that specific action (ex. "press square to shoot, X to crawl"). Notable instances occur in Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake and Metal Gear Solid as the character must input a radio-frequency which is never given in-game, but instead printed on the video-game's manual (in Metal Gear 2) or back CD cover (in Metal Gear Solid). This particular kind of phenomenon was also seen in the NES game Startropics, where the user is asked to enter coordinates that are found in the game manual.

Ever since Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door was released, the rest of the Paper Mario games have been known for breaking the fourth wall in this fashion. For example, in the game Super Paper Mario when Mario is given the power to flip from 2-D to 3-D, the wizard Bestovious tells him that he needs to press the "A" button to use it. Mario asks what the "A" button is, and the wizard just says that "if we are being watched from another dimension, those beings will understand." The fourth wall is frequently broken in this fashion throughout the Paper Mario series.

The Tomb Raider series is known for having Lara address the character directly during the training levels (which take place in Croft Manor in the first three games), or in Tomb Raider IV, Von Croy will instruct the player.

In Pokemon Red, Blue, and Yellow, in the mansion in Celadon City, there are the "game creators." One says to you, "I'm the artist. I drew you!" This is repeated in the remakes of Red and Green.

The fourth wall can also be broken simply through story driven elements within the game. In the game Tak and the Power of Juju, the Shaman addresses the player directly as an omniscient being throughout the story. In Max Payne during dream sequences, you can sometimes see messages that say something like "Wake up! You are in a computer game!"

Perhaps one of the best examples of breaking the fourth wall is Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem for the Nintendo GameCube. In this psychological horror game, as the player's character loses their sanity (based upon experiences with monsters, ghosts, etc in the game), the game begins playing tricks on the player. Examples include showing a "MUTE" icon on the screen and disabling audio output, making the television appear to shut off (by showing a quick white flash and then making the screen dark), pretending to overwrite the player's memory card, disabling gamepad input, and showing bugs crawling across the screen. Many of these are followed by the character screaming "This can't be happening!"

Taken to the extreme, in Omikron: The Nomad Soul for PC and Dreamcast, the player’s soul is 'absorbed' into the protagonist's body at the beginning of the game, and then wanders from body to body, either voluntarily or to be able to make progress in the storyline. The computer thus becomes a medium to another dimension. Additionally, the whole storyline (and conclusion) is actually deeply tied to this fourth wall breaking, in order to bring an unusual and augmented involvement from the player.

In the console version of Teen Titans, Robin finds out who is the main villain which turns out to be the player. Beast Boy asks "Him? The one sitting on the couch?"

In Metal Gear Solid, during a boss fight with Psycho Mantis, the screen turns blue or black and says HIDEO to make it seem like the console has been turned off and you are back at the VCR screen. He also reads your memory card and comments on which games you play. During the battle, it is impossible to hit him because he knows what you are going to do. To get past him, you have to change controller ports so that he is 'reading' the wrong port. After you do this, he says things like 'I cant read!'.

The advent of force-feedback and controler vibration gave a new way for a game to reach out for the player. During the encouter with Psycho Mantis, in the first Metal Gear Solid the player is asked to place the console controler in the ground so Psyco Mantis himself might move it with the powers of his mind. Later, after the torture scene, the player is asked by Naomi Hunter to press the controler against the arm, then the controler vibrates as a kind of massage to compensate for the stress done on the arm during the torture. All this enhances the interaction with, not only the game but also, the story of the game.

Another common method employed by video games is to address the player when he does something unusual while playing (e.g, clicking numerous times on a character in a Real-time strategy game, such as the Warcraft Universe, or waiting a long time without moving their avatar). An example of this would be in the video game Bubsy where, if left idle for some time, Bubsy will knock on the TV screen, trying to get the player's attention).

In many games created by Blizzard Entertainment (such as the Warcraft and Starcraft series), repeatedly clicking on characters will cause many humorous references, many of which break the fourth wall. In Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction, when the "fire" button is pressed while the current weapon is out of ammunition, the player’s character may make a remark such as "what do you want me to use, harsh language?" or "I could throw my shoe if you want." In Die Hard, for the NES, when the player reaches the roof and opens a locker using a C4, a rope falls out. The player can try to use the rope to scale down the building. John McClane will then respond by saying "I'd have to be desperate to tie that on and jump off! No, thanks!" In Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II, the drow character threatens to strangle the player with the Xbox controller cords if he does not resume play.

In the MLB Slugfest games when a player doesn't swing at a good pitch, one of the announcers Jim Shorts will say something like," It's not his fault, it's the guy with the controller not pressing the swing button." In "True Crime: Streets of LA", if the player kills a number of civilians and causes them to scream, the character may say, "Relax buddy, it's just a video game." In Halo 3, during multiplayer games, if a player manages to flip an Elephant (essentially a Huge mobile base), the normal command of "Press RB to flip over 'Vehicle Name'" is replaced by "Press RB to flip...Hey wait How did you do that?" In NBA Live 07, the commentators will poke fun at the player when he shoots from full court with plenty of time left or performs a layup from field goal range.

The fourth wall is broken by the game Pathologic in an interesting way: during the last day of events, the player can visit the Theater (which is somewhat a metafictional entity throughout the entire gameplay). In a dialog taking place there the player will be presented with a choice to answer the question "Who is saying this?" either as "It is me, Bachelor" (or another playable character) or as "It is me, the player". In the latter case the NPC will show the full awareness that he is "merely a bunch of triangles on your monitor".

In Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines Malkavian characters will break the fourth wall toward the end of the game with dialogue comments such as "Just let me get through this dialogue to beat the game already!" and "I get it, what long and tedious quest do you want my character to do now?".

In the MLB slugfest games, when the player completes a game, the announcer Tim will sometimes say, "We will see you tomorrow at 7 for another great game." After that the other announcer Jim will say, "Uh, Tim this is a video game."

At the end of level 6-4 in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, Kamek Magikoopa says "Your game ends here!"

Easter eggs are another way to break the fourth wall. Easter eggs in video games are objects, quotes, characters (either avatars or NPCs), levels, or any other element of the game that makes a reference to the exterior world. The references may be to a picture of the programmer, a reference to another game of the same or affiliated company, an element created by a rumor circulating about the game or a previous one in the same series, or any other entity which does not exist directly within the game world. This breaks the fourth wall by introducing an element that is superfluous to gameplay, reminding the player of the virtual nature of the game. One such example is in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords. After finishing the game as on both the light and dark sides, Atton Rand will say this quote when you find him:

"I'm Atton. I actually wasn't supposed to make it into the final game, but I was created at the last minute. Blame my agent. I was actually slated for a spin-off to Jedi Knight, but I don't want to talk about what happened there."

Another example is in GTA San Andreas. On top of the Gant Bridge the player can find a sign that says "There are NO Easter Eggs Up Here! Go Away!"

And another game that does this many times is World of Warcraft. ex: Linkin and Haris Pilton with her dog Tinkerbell.

"Breaking the fourth wall" is also used in numerous movies and documentaries, such as Walking with Dinosaurs. One such instance is when a Tyrannosaurus roars, some of its saliva flies onto the camera. This technique is also used in other Walking with... series, ranging from ants swarming over the camera to Dimetrodon flinging dung from another animal's intestines, which splatters onto the lens, to a Mastadon actually ramming the cameraman and cracking the lense.. It is also used to much humorous effect in the Walt Disney movie, George Of The Jungle, where the characters at many times follow instructions given by the Narrator, with the villain being lifted off-screen on shouting back at him. It's also used in The Lion King in a Safari when Timon says "Hey! You! Staring at me! Wondering why you can't see me! Choose something!"

Another example of Breaking the Fourth Wall occurs in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, when Jay (Jason Mewes) and Holden McNeil (Ben Affleck) are discussing the need (or lack thereof) to stop production of a movie based on the characters of Bluntman & Chronic - the main characters of a comic book based on the characters of Jay & Silent Bob - Holden asks "A 'Jay and Silent Bob' movie? Who would pay to see that?", just before they look directly at the camera as to question the intelligence of the audience, as Silent Bob (director Kevin Smith) gives the camera a big smile, and a double thumbs-up. Smith also uses the device in Mallrats when Willam Black kicks a stage support in frustration, causing a videocassette to drop into Silent Bob's hand and making Silent Bob falsely believe he has successfully used the Jedi mind trick, and again in the captions before the end credits, we are informed that Willam finally sees the Magic Eye picture, whereupon Willam is relieved (he can also see the caption). William also calls Renee (played by Shannen Doherty) "Brenda," a reference to the character she played in Beverly Hills, 90210.

In Blazing Saddles, an old lady is getting beat up by thugs, when she turns to the camera as it zooms in on her (and the thugs pause momentarily) and says, "Have you ever seen such cruelty?" The film literally breaks the fourth wall near the end of the film, as the climactic fight scene breaks out onto the Warner Bros. studio lot and into the streets of Hollywood.

In the film adaptation of Virginia Woolf's novel Orlando, the eponymous and sexually ambiguous protagonist occasionally breaks the fourth wall.

In Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Ferris breaks the fourth wall on several occasions, including: when explaining how to fake illness to get a day off of school, when discussing his frustration with Cameron's anxiety, when expressing surprise that his sister Jeanie has saved him from Principal Ed Rooney, and in telling everyone to leave after the end credits. In fact, Ferris' "narration" of the movie to the audience is an integral part of the movie, further emphasizing Ferris' "smart aleck-y" persona and helping to tell the story in the film.

In a second season episode of the television series Sex and the City ("the Freak Show"), Carrie breaks the fourth wall to address the audience directly. The role is played by the wife of the actor who played Ferris Bueller, Sarah Jessica Parker. Sarah Jessica Parker later stated that the only one who can successfully pull off this technique is her husband. The fourth wall was not broken in this television series again.

In The Simpsons Movie, the family are watching the Itchy and Scratchy movie in the cinema then Homer stands up and remarks "Why pay for something you could see on TV for free?" He then turns to the audience or viewers and says, pointing at people in the film and the Audience "You're stupid, and you're stupid, and you're stupid!" as he points at the audience.

The character Paul from Funny Games looks at the camera and actively engages the audience on several occasions. He is the only character to do so in the movie. It is somewhat jarring but is used to a disturbing effect.

In Wayne's World, Wayne and Garth frequently talk to the camera. In a scene in Stan Mikita's Doughnuts, an employee played by Ed O'Neill begins a monologue with the camera. Wayne intrudes and admonishes O'Neill, stating that only he and Garth get to talk to the camera.

In the opening credits for Sledge Hammer!, Sledge utters his catchphrase, "Trust me, I know what I'm doing," and fires his gun at the camera. Glass is heard shattering and a bullet hole can be seen in the "glass" television screen, while the picture, including Sledge, is blurred. In some cartoons, such as Tex Avery's Magical Maestro, a hair appears in the frame (as can happen when photographic films are projected in movie theaters) and a character in the cartoon leans forward to pluck the hair from the gate.

In the television show That's so Raven, Raven Baxter, a teen psychic, overhears someones comment on the fact that her psychic friend should get his own T.V. show, Raven says "that's absurd, who would watch a show about a teenage psychic?" while staring mischievously at the audience and the viewers at home. Also in the Drake and Josh episode Drew and Jerry, Drew and Jerry get to be on a TV show about two brothers, to which Drake and Josh comment that no one would watch it. Also, every episode of Drake and Josh begins with Drake and Josh telling a story to the audience.

On the Kids WB cartoon "Johnny Test", Johnny and his talking dog, Dukey, are trapped inside the movie "The Quickest and the Monkiest"(a parody of "The Fast and the Furious"), Dukey remarks "You had to watch your Dad's movies. You couldn't watch cartoons like normal kids." Johnny and Dukey look at the audience.

During an episode of Hannah Montana, Hannah is about to be kissed by Jesse McCartney, when she looks towards to the audience and says, "Eep!". In a couple of episodes of Brandy and Mr. Whiskers, they interact with the audience at the end, like when at the end of an episode, Mr. Whiskers states that he realizes that people shouldn't waste their lives staring at a screen since living real life is much better, but Brandy then questions as to if TV is the same thing, in which they both begin to nervously laugh and look at the viewers, then a hand appears with a remote, it clicks a button, and the TV goes blank.

In Kim Possible, Ron is lecturing the audience about eating mysterious substances from chemical vats, while everyone is looking at him weirdly asking each other who he's talking to. He also looks at the screen in another episode after reacting to an echoing voiceover. Kim also breaks the fourth wall when she stops the show's opening into halfway through. In Phil of the Future, Phil stops the theme song saying he wasn't done lecturing Pim, then says, "Okay, now I'm done." Canadian cartoon Jacob Two Two has occasions when the fourth wall is broken, such as characters reacting to background music or start taking photographs of the audience. Whilst in the British cartoon Horrid Henry both the central character and his brother Perfect Peter are aware of the viewers at home watching them.

In the anime Fruits Basket there are several instances of characters speaking to the audience. One such time Hatsuharu Sohma, after tripping his racing cousin Kyo with a string, looks back at the audience and tells them to not try it at home, for if it were anyone other than Kyo they could be seriously injured. After which Kyo asks, "Would you shut up? And who are you talking to anyway?"

In the anime Excel Saga the show continuously opens with what the episode will be a parody of, with the various episodes making fun of genres such as romance, horror, sports, survival, and science fiction. One noticeable scene in the first episode has two characters falling from a construction site and surviving the fall. The two characters then face the screen and shout "Helmets save lives!" in a parody of a Public Service Announcement (PSA).

In the TV show Family Guy the fourth wall is broken on repeated occasions, such as when Peter Griffin complains about Fox Network; he retorts to a warning, "What are they going to do? Cut our budget?", then leaves in a poorly animated walk. After coming back from their cancellation they broke the fourth wall by listing all the shows that were canceled after their own cancellation.

A reporter character in the film Colour Me Kubrick addresses the camera, and thus the audience, on two occasions in the film about a con man who impersonates Stanley Kubrick.

In the movie Spaceballs, Dark Helmet says that they must get through Druidia's Air Shield. Colonel Sandurz proceeds to outline their scheme to kidnap the princess and use her to force her father to give them the combination to the air shield. Dark Helmet looks at the camera and talks to the audience saying, "Everybody got that?" Also, during a "schwartz-fighting" scene, Dark Helmet accidentally slices a boom operator's chest with his schwartz, and immediately points at Lone Starr, saying "he did it!" A similar scene occurs when the heroes are captured only for the soldiers to find they've caught the stunt doubles instead. At one point Dark Helmet finds himself watching himself watching a movie leading to a comical situation. On another occasion one of his cronies press the wrong button on a remote causing the screen to plunge into darkness, with Dark Helmet ranting that he "...turned the movie off!", with the cameras coming back on to show background cast members behaving out of character.

In an episode of I Dream of Jeannie, a painter as the episode ends paints over the screen, as a substitute for the usual fade to black ending.

In the Charmed episode The Bare Witch Project, Piper suggests a barely dressed Lady Godiva should not undress, saying "Woman. Keep your clothes on, this is a family show. Really"

In the video Men In Black, at the end Will Smith says to the viewing audience, "Sorry", before he presses a button on the Neuralizer.

The long running Cartoon Network show Ed, Edd n' Eddy has many occasions when one of the characters breaks the fourth wall. In one episode, Double D reminds Eddy of the time he taught Jimmy to be like him, in which Eddy replies, "Oh yeah! Didn't we win an Emmy for that episode?" In another episode, when Edd and the gang tie Kevin to a tree, he retaliates with "You guys have reached a new low in dork history!" Eddy says "Jealous? Hasta la vista!" ands runs off with Double D trailing behind saying "I do apologize for the abrupt accommodations, Kevin... C'est la vie!" Kevin breaks the fourth wall and says "This show needs subtitles."

In a few episodes of Muppet Babies, one of the babies would speak to the viewing audience on occasion.

[A tomato hits the screen in front of Baby Fozzie.]

Fozzie Bear: Nobody's FORCING you to watch, you know!

John Belushi in Animal House looks back at the audience while peeping in a sorority house.

Occasionally, similar incidents happened in cartoon shows like the animated series like Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, Pound Puppies, and in episodes of the TV show Popples. In the episode, "Popples Play Pee Wee Golf", Party Popple tees off using the pom-pom of her tail. The ball ricochets off the sides of the screen, then hits it dead-on, shattering it.

Party Popple: Oops!

As the glass falls away, Party Popple pulls a replacement TV screen out of her pouch, replaces it over the old screen's spot, then waves hello.

In Doctor Who, Season 1, "The Dalek's Master Plan", Episode 7 - "The Feast of Stephen", which aired on December 25, 1965, the Doctor and his companions wish each other a happy Christmas. The Doctor turns to the camera and says, "Incidentally, a happy Christmas to all of you at home."

The first episode of the long-running Tales from the Crypt series, The Man Who Was Death, is narrated by the protagonist, Niles Talbot (played by series alum William Sadler), almost entirely via "dialogues" or discourses with the viewer.

The comedy Robin Hood: Men In Tights purposefully includes bloopers in the film itself for comedic effect, such as a scene with a zooming shot that ends with the cameraman crashing the camera through a window, one where a priest accidentally slams his staff loudly against the camera ("Sorry!"), a remote-controlled gate, and a modern electrically lit "Exit" sign prominently displayed in what is supposed to be a castle in the Middle Ages.

In the BBC comedy series Victoria Wood As Seen On TV, the Acorn Antiques segments (which spoof badly-made soap operas) frequently have members of the cast accidentally hitting the camera, or unprofessionally glancing directly at it. A Bit of Fry and Laurie, also a BBC comedy series commonly had Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry interacting with the studio audience and home viewers and camera pans showing the limitations of the set, to great comedic effect.

In the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the knights argue over the script, King Arthur's manservant Patsy comments that the castle Camelot, seen in the distance, is "only a model", cross the Bridge of Death that is guarded by "the old man from Scene 24". The film abruptly ends when the cast and crew are arrested by modern-day police.

In Spy Kids 3: Game Over, presented in 3-D, Carmen breaks the fourth wall by pointing her hand toward the audience saying, "You have to go through me first...Game Boy."

The fourth wall is also broken on the podcast channel for the Homestar Runner website, Podstar Runner. At the end of each segment Strong Bad panics over being 'stuck' in a tiny box (the iPod screen), and knocks frantically at the screen until it 'cracks'. As glass shards come down from the screen, he hopes that the iPod's owner 'got the extended warranty'.

The famous Marvel Comics character Deadpool (Wade Wilson) commonly breaks the fourth wall, one example being when he talked to Loki, the Norse god of mischief, both showing knowledge that they are characters. In DC Comics the villain Joker is similarly aware, even to a greater level, of actually being able to remember non-canon and even Marvel-DC comics crossover events. On one occasion, during the Emperor Joker arc of Superman, he comments to the audience that, since he has gained the powers of God, he can disregard any word, or even reinvent the entire alphabet, if he sees fit, at which point the text changes to an illegible and meaningless series of symbols, but realizing that this makes the comic completely unreadable to the audience, he changes it back, commenting "okay... bad idea."

In the Spongebob Squarepants episode "No Free Rides", the narrator says that this is Spongebob's last boating test and if Spongebob doesn't pass this test, he would have to take boating school for one more year. After the narrator is done explaining, Spongebob crashes into the camera and then shows the broken parts. Spongebob is shocked, but Mrs. Puff mentions it as a pedestrian.

Often in episodes of My Friends Tigger & Pooh, Darby often talks to the audience.

In the Japanese Anime, Hoshi no Kaabii/Kirby of the Stars, in Episode 63, Escargoon tells King Dedede about a saying for people who can't catch colds, but he tells him that he cannot say it on TV. Then, Escargoon says idi-Beep. Bleeping it out himself with his voice.

In the film Gremlins 2: The New Batch, there are two scenes which break the fourth wall.

In the theatrical version, the Gremlins escape the film and invade the viewer's theater. In the end, the theater manager calls Hulk Hogan from the audience, who scares the Gremlins into going back to the film.

In the VHS version, the Gremlins similarly escape the film and invade the viewer's television. They begin surfing through channels, until they land in a channel showing a John Wayne movie. John Wayne tries to scare the Gremlins into going back to the film like Hogan, but the Gremlins won't budge. Thus, he kills them all with his six-shooter. The film then resumes. In shows made from Filmation, characters from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, She-Ra: Princess of Power, Bravestarr, and Ghostbusters (the animated spinoff of The Ghost Busters) all broke the fourth wall by occasionally looking at the camera, but they all gave a moral lesson to the viewers at the end of every episode.

In the Japanese Anime Legendz: Tale of the Dragon Kings, The characters at points break the fourth wall by indicating what episode they are on (Episode 11, 15 (referencing episode 1), 17) or asking what kind of show it is to the audience. (Episode 1)

As can be seen from the numerous examples above, breaking the fourth wall has become quite common in modern visual arts, but it is not without its critics. Used sparingly and appropriately it can be quite startling to an audience immersed in the suspension of disbelief. But by over-use it is in danger of becoming almost conventional, especially in TV and film comedy; such that no-one is remotely surprised when an actor or actress turns to camera to deliver a slick aside to the audience.

Unless being used for comic effect, breaking the fourth wall can be annoying and distracting to the audience, and create plot holes by interrupting the natural flow of the dramatic narrative. For example, in a video game (or film), narrative continuity could be broken if a character begins talking to the player/viewer without contributing to the theme of the game. However, it can work if the character is giving "catch-up" information about previous episodes; and such techniques can be used to build atmosphere and tension, or fill in the characters' backstory. This is most commonly used in episodic genres, especially anime.

Commentary by characters can occasionally be effective even in straight drama, such as when a first-person narrator frames the main dramatic presentation with an introduction and conclusion delivered direct to camera, and perhaps interjects commentary at key points in the storyline (for instance, American Beauty). In this context it could almost be seen as a return to earlier theatrical conventions of prologue and epilogue. This technique needs to be used very selectively, since it tends to slow the pace, and can be seen as somewhat ponderous if not done for good reasons. And since such pieces are often delivered "front of curtain" (in the studio, or in the narrator's oak-panelled study, or as a disembodied voice-over) and hence separated from the world inhabited by the drama, it is arguable whether or not they constitute breaking the fourth wall at all.

Although breaking of the fourth wall is usually deliberate, the technical constraints of filmmaking, or the impracticality of refilming a complicated scene, can sometimes inadvertently break the wall by "reminding" the audience that they are watching a film:

• Lens Flare.
• Something splashing on the lens, such as water or mud, such as the effects used in Saving Private Ryan
• A hand or other object appearing distorted due to being too close to the camera (if not done purposely for visual effect).
• The apparent backwards-motion of rotating wheels on a fast-moving car or carriage, due to the stroboscopic effect.
• An object or a person bumping into the lens.
• Shadows and reflections of the camera or cameraman.
• The boom microphone appearing at the top of the picture.
• A reflection of the camera or cameraman appearing in a mirror.

The above kinds of anomalies, if blatantly obvious and distracting, are sometimes considered "bloopers". However, in some cases they are inserted deliberately to add "realism" because audiences have come to expect to see them. A shot that lacks these flaws can call attention to itself as not being rooted in the physical world, making it look even more false than a physical-world shot with a flaw. Babylon 5, Firefly and the re-imagined series of Battlestar Galactica contain many examples in CGI sequences, such as lens flares, cameras shaking when a starship passes close, or the camera being hit by debris after a ship blows up, even though neither the camera nor the spaceships actually exist. Such fourth wall shenanigans can also be used for comic effect, such as an episode of Arrested Development where the families' lawyer suggests that a mole might be listening in on the Bluth Company, the boom microphone is clearly visible at the top of the screen.

Most modern computer and video games featuring advanced graphics also feature lens flares when the camera is facing the sun.

• Audience participation
• Breaking character
• Corpsing
• Gaze
• Heckling
• Kayfabe, a similar concept in professional wrestling
• Meta-reference
• Metafiction
• Self-reference
• The Fourth Wall, play by A.R. Gurney
• Suspension of disbelief
• Descartes' philosophy - The concept of reality itself being illusory.
• Alternate reality game