Fourth wall

Josef Forte breaks the fourth wall to warn viewers at the end of Reefer Madness, late 1930s.

One of the earliest recorded breakings of the fourth wall in serious cinema was in Mary MacLane's revolutionary 1918 silent film Men Who Have Made Love to Me, in which the enigmatic authoress - who portrays herself - interrupts the vignettes onscreen to address the audience directly.[8]

Oliver Hardy often broke the fourth wall in his films with Stan Laurel, when he would stare directly at the camera to seek sympathy from viewers. Groucho Marx spoke directly to the audience in Animal Crackers (1930), and Horse Feathers (1932), in the latter film advising them to "go out to the lobby" during Chico Marx's piano interlude. Comedy films by Mel Brooks, Monty Python, and Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker frequently broke the fourth wall, such that with these films "the fourth wall is so flimsy and so frequently shattered that it might as well not exist", according to The A.V. Club.[9]

Woody Allen broke the fourth wall repeatedly in his movie Annie Hall (1977), as he explained, "because I felt many of the people in the audience had the same feelings and the same problems. I wanted to talk to them directly and confront them."[10] His 1985 film The Purple Rose of Cairo features the breaking of the fourth wall as a central plot point.[11]

Jerry Lewis wrote in his 1971 book The Total Filmmaker, "Some film-makers believe you should never have an actor look directly into the camera. They maintain it makes the audience uneasy, and interrupts the screen story. I think that is nonsense, and usually I have my actors, in a single, look direct into the camera at least once in a film, if a point is to be served."[12] Martin and Lewis look directly at the audience in You're Never Too Young (1955), and Lewis and co-star Stella Stevens each look directly into the camera several times in The Nutty Professor (1963), and Lewis’ character holds a pantomime conversation with the audience in The Disorderly Orderly (1964). The final scene of The Patsy (1964) is famous for revealing to the audience the movie as a movie, and Lewis as actor/director.[13][14]

Mike Myers broke the fourth wall in The Love Guru when he looked directly at the camera for a split-second when a Queen song came on as a reference to the famous Wayne's World head-banging scene.[15] Eddie Murphy makes two brief, wordless glances at the camera in Trading Places.

In The Railway Children the entire cast break the fourth wall and perform a curtain call as the credits roll. The camera moves slowly along a railway track towards a train which is decked in flags, in front of which all of the cast are assembled, waving and cheering to the camera. At the start of the credit sequence, a voice can be heard shouting "Thank you, Mr Forbes" to acknowledge producer Bryan Forbes. At the end, Bobbie Waterbury (Jenny Agutter) holds up a small slate on which "The End" is written in chalk.

On television, breaking the fourth wall has been done throughout the history of the medium. George Burns regularly broke the fourth wall on The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show(1950). A television character who regularly breaks the fourth wall is Francis Urquhart in the British TV drama series House of Cards, To Play the King and The Final Cut. Urquhart addresses the audience several times during each episode, giving the viewer comments on his own actions on the show.[16] The same technique is also used, though less frequently, in the American adaptation of House of Cards by main character Frank Underwood[17] and by his wife Claire. In the 1980s and 1990s BBC television series Lovejoy, the main character Lovejoy played by Ian McShane regularly broke the fourth wall and addressed the audience.

Bernie Mac regularly would break the forth wall by addressing the audience as, “America” on The Bernie Mac Show(2001).

In the Doctor Who episode "The Caves of Androzani", the character of Morgus frequently breaks the fourth wall when he is alone in his office. This was due to actor John Normington misunderstanding a stage direction.[18] But the episode's director, Graeme Harper, felt that this helped increase dramatic tension, and decided not to reshoot the scenes.[19] This also happened in The Dalek's Master Plan, just near the end of Part 7, the Doctor says to the viewers, "And, incidentally, a happy Christmas to all of you at home!"

The convention of breaking the fourth wall is often seen on mockumentary sitcoms, including The Office. Mockumentary shows which break the fourth wall poke fun at the documentary genre with the intention of increasing the satiric tone of the show. Characters in The Office directly speak to the audience during interview sequences. Characters are removed from the rest of the group to speak and reflect on their experiences. The person behind the camera, the interviewer, is also referenced when the characters gaze and speak straight to the camera. The interviewer, however, is only indirectly spoken to and remains hidden. This technique, when used in shows with complex genres, serves to heighten the comic tone of the show while also proving that the camera itself is far from a passive onlooker.[20]

The Netflix series A Series of Unfortunate Events, based on Daniel Handler's book series of the same name, incorporates some of the narrative elements from the books by having Lemony Snicket as a narrator character (played by Patrick Warburton) speaking directly to the television viewer that frequently breaks the fourth wall to explain various literary wordplay that was included in the books.[21]

The Japanese animated series, Gin Tama derives a huge chunk of its humor, and even plot, through breaking the fourth wall. An entire recurring segment, Ginpachi Sensei, even featured the main character, Gintoki, answering fan questions. In addition, the characters consistently reference production issues, audience opinion, and occasionally direct 'character to camera' dialogue. An entire arc, 'the popularity poll arc', was driven completely on the results of a fan survey. In it, the characters were made aware of their audience rankings and created strategies to try to reach the top ranking.

Given their interactive nature, nearly all video games break the fourth wall by asking for the player's participation. But beyond the obvious ways in which video games break the fourth wall (for example, by having UI elements on the screen, teaching the player controls, teaching the player how to save, etc.), there are several other ways that games have done this. These can include having the character face the direction of the player/screen, having a self-aware character that recognizes that they are in a video game, or having secret or bonus content set outside the game's narrative that can either extend the game world (such as with the use of false documents) or provide "behind the scenes" type content. For example, in Doki Doki Literature Club, one of the characters is aware she is part of a video game, and at times, asks the player to delete game files that are the other in-game characters via their computer's operating system (an action they take outside of the game) to progress the story.[22]

But since video games are inherently much more interactive than traditional films and literature, defining what truly breaks the fourth wall in the video game medium becomes difficult.[23] Steven Conway, writing for Gamasutra, suggests that in video games, many purported examples of breaking the fourth wall are actually better understood as relocations of the fourth wall or expansions of the "magic circle" (the fictional game world) to encompass the player.[23] This is in contrast to traditional fourth wall breaks, which break the audience's illusion or suspension of disbelief, by acknowledging them directly.[23] Conway argues that this expansion of the magic circle in video games actually serves to more fully immerse a player into the fictional world rather than take the viewer out of the fictional world, as is more common in traditional fourth wall breaks. An example of this expansion of the magic circle can be found in the game Evidence: The Last Ritual, in which the player receives an in-game email at their real-life email address and must visit out-of-game websites to solve some of the puzzles in the game. Other games may expand the magic circle to include the game's hardware. For example, X-Men for the Mega Drive/Genesis required players to reset their game console at a certain point to reset the X-Men's in-game Hazard Room, while Metal Gear Solid asked the player to put the DualShock controller on their neck to simulate a back massage being given in-game.[23]

Other examples include the idle animation of Sonic the Hedgehog in his games where the on-screen character would look to the player and tap his foot impatiently if left alone for a while, and one level of Max Payne has the eponymous character come to the realization he and other characters are in a video game and narrates what the player sees as part of the UI.[24] Eternal Darkness, which included a sanity meter, would simulate various common computer glitches to the player as the sanity meter drained, including the Blue Screen of Death.[24] The Stanley Parable is also a well-known example of this, as the narrator from the game constantly tries to reason with the player, even going so far as to beg the player to switch off the game at one point.[25]

In Yo-Kai Watch 3, there is a chance on Hazy Lane that an unseen entity will call on a phone booth asking you to exit to the title screen.

Flip, Nemo and Impie breaking the fourth wall by breaking apart the panel's outlines and eating the letters of the title within their comicbook Little Nemo.

The method of breaking the fourth wall in literature is metafiction. Metafiction genre occurs when a character within a literary work acknowledges the reality that they are in fact a fictitious being.[26] The use of the fourth wall in literature can be traced back as far as The Canterbury Tales and Don Quixote. However, it was popularized in the early 20th century during the Post-Modern literary movement.[27] Artists like Virginia Woolf in To the Lighthouse and Kurt Vonnegut in Breakfast of Champions used the genre to question the accepted knowledge and sources of the culture.[28] The use of metafiction or breaking the fourth wall in literature varies from that on stage in that the experience is not communal but personal to the reader and develops a self-consciousness within the character/reader relationship that works to build trust and expand thought. This does not involve acknowledgment of a character's fictive nature.[29] Breaking the fourth wall in literature is not always metafiction. Modern examples of breaking the fourth wall include Ada Palmer's Terra Ignota,[30] and William Goldman's The Princess Bride.[31]