Specifically in a proscenium theater, the term fourth wall applies to the imaginary invisible wall at the front of the stage in a theater through which the audience sees the action in the world of the play. In an arena theater, or theater-in-the-round, all four walls are in effect "fourth walls." One also speaks of a fourth wall in fictional realms, in literature, movies, television, radio, comic books, and other forms of entertainment. A proscenium theater is a theater space whose primary feature is a large archway (the proscenium arch) at or near the front of the stage, through which the audience views the play. ... For other usages see Theatre (disambiguation) Theater (American English) or Theatre (British English and widespread usage among theatre professionals in the US) is that branch of the performing arts concerned with acting out stories in front of an audience using combinations of speech, gesture, music, dance, sound and spectacle — indeed... In an arena theater, also commonly referred to theater-in-the-round (especially in Britain), there is an audience on every side of the performers; in effect there are four fourth walls. ... A fictional universe is a cohesive fictional world that serves as the setting or backdrop for one or (more commonly) multiple works of fiction. ... Wikisource Every Author - Online books and writers forums A Bibliography of Literary Theory, Criticism, and Philology (José Ángel García Landa, University of Zaragoza, Spain) Open Directory Project: Literature World Literature Electronic Text Archives Magazines and E-zines Online Writing Writers Resources Libraries, Digital Cataloguing, Metadata Distance Learning T... Film refers to the celluloid media on which movies are printed Film is a term that encompasses motion pictures as individual projects, as well as the field in general. ... A comic book is a magazine or book containing the art form of comics. ...

The term signifies the suspension of disbelief by the audience, who are looking in on the action through the invisible wall. The audience thus pretends that the characters in the story are real "living" beings in their own world, and not merely actors performing on a stage or studio set, or written words on the pages of a book. In order for the fourth wall to remain intact, the actors must also, in effect, pretend that the audience does not exist, by staying in character at all times and by not addressing the audience members directly. Most such productions rely on the fourth wall. Suspension of disbelief is a willingness of a reader or viewer to suspend his critical faculties to the extent of ignoring minor inconsistencies so as to enjoy a work of fiction. ...

The term "breaking the fourth wall" is used in film, theater, television, and literary works; it refers to a character directly addressing an audience, or actively acknowledging (through breaking character or through dialogue) that the characters and action going on is not real. Specifically in a proscenium theater, the term fourth wall applies to the imaginary invisible wall at the front of the stage in a theater through which the audience sees the action in the world of the play. ... Breaking character, or to break character, is a theatrical term used to describe when an actor, while actively performing in character, slips out of character and behaves as his or her actual self. ...

The sudden breaking of the fourth wall is often employed for humorous effect, although opinions differ widely as to how "humorous" this is. Some regard breaking the fourth wall suddenly so jarring that it actually detracts from a story's humor. However, when employed consistently throughout a story for narrative effect, it is usually (and arguably, paradoxically) incorporated into the audience's normal suspension of disbelief.

Examples of breaking the fourth wall include:

Theater

• In Murder in the Cathedral, by T. S. Eliot, the knights break the Fourth Wall by addressing the audience with reasons justifying their murder of Thomas Becket.
• In ancient Greek comedy, the chorus would sometimes address the audience and give them reasons to give the play first prize. An example is Aristophanes' The Birds, in which the chorus of birds threaten to defecate on the heads of audience members if they vote for another play.
• In Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, the character Puck addresses the audience, asking for forgiveness if the story was offensive. Shakespeare's Richard III has asides to the audience also. The conspiring senators of Julius Caesar, after having killed the title character, discuss how many times their actions will be performed in plays. In addition, Shakespeare ended The Tempest with Prospero asking the audience to set him free with their approving applause.
• In Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher's The Knight of the Burning Pestle, a grocer and his wife in the audience interrupt the play and insist that their apprentice, Ralph, be allowed to be in the play. He is then made the character of Ralph the Grocer Errant.
• In William Gillette's Sherlock Holmes, the character Holmes is supposed to be sealed in a box. He taps the walls of the "box", including the fourth wall, where sound effects are supplied offstage to indicate the solidity of this imaginary wall.
• Bertolt Brecht's alienation, or Verfremdungseffekt, was intended to constantly remind the audience that they were watching a show, with the idea that their response would be more thoughtful.
• Thornton Wilder's stage play Our Town includes the character of the Stage Manager, who stands at the side of the stage and addresses the audience directly. The other characters in the play cannot see or acknowledge the narrator's existence. The play is presented on a bare stage with rudimentary props, such as a balcony scene played on a stepladder.
• In Luigi Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author, the fourth wall is not even there to be broken down. Some actors are getting ready for rehearsal when six characters whose author has died, leaving them incomplete, enter the room. The director decides to include the characters in the play they are rehearsing and soon all the lines between fiction and reality have disappeared.
• In Tom Stoppard's The Real Inspector Hound, two actors who play critics sitting in the audience and reviewing the play as it progresses ultimately become involved in the plot.
• At the end of Branislav Nusic's The Cabinet Minister's Wife, the protagonist orders the audience to get out so that they would not watch her misery.
• In pantomime, characters frequently address remarks to the audience, and sometimes encourage the audience to become directly involved in the unfolding of the story, as in the rescue of Tinker Bell (see below).
• There is a style of comedy in which comedians act out a play but "ham it up" pretending to make mistakes, have out-of-character arguments, have accidents and interact with the audience. The audience is left uncertain as to what is really accidental and what is real.
• 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 theater clichés as the furniture and action on the stage become more and more directed to the supposed fourth wall.

Murder in the Cathedral is a drama in verse by T. S. Eliot, first performed in 1935. ... T.S. Eliot (by E.O. Hoppe, 1919) Thomas Stearns Eliot (September 26, 1888 – January 4, 1965), Anglo-American poet, dramatist, and critic. ... Ancient Greece is the term used to describe the Greek-speaking world in ancient times. ... Comedy is the use of humour in the performing arts. ... In tragic plays of Ancient Greece, the chorus was originally made of 12 singing and dancing members. ... A bust of Aristophanes Aristophanes (c. ... The Birds (Ornithes) is a comedy written by the Ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes in 414 BC, and performed that year for the Festival of Dionysus. ... William Shakespeare—born April 1564; baptised April 26, 1564; died April 23, 1616 (O.S.), May 3, 1616 (N.S.)—has a reputation as the greatest of all writers in English. ... A Midsummer Nights Dream is a romantic comedy by William Shakespeare written in the mid-1590s. ... Puck, also known as Robin Goodfellow, is a character in William Shakespeares play A Midsummer Nights Dream. ... The Tragedy of Richard III is a play by William Shakespeare, in which the monarch Richard III of England is unflatteringly depicted. ... Julius Caesar is a tragedy by William Shakespeare probably written in 1599. ... Gaius Julius Caesar (Latin: IMP·C·IVLIVS·CAESAR·DIVVS¹) (July 13, 100 BC – March 15, 44 BC) was a Roman military and political leader. ... The Tempest is the title of: A play by William Shakespeare A painting by Giorgione A Star Trek: Deep Space Nine novel It is also the nickname often attached to the Sonata No. ... Francis Beaumont (1584 – 1616), was an English dramatist most famous for his collaborations with John Fletcher. ... John Fletcher (playwright) (1579-1625) John Fletcher (Methodist) (1729-1785) ... The Knight of the Burning Pestle is a play by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher (likely almost entirely by Beaumont) first published in 1613 which is notable as the first parody play in English. ... William Hooker Gillette (July 24, 1853 - April 29, 1937) was an American actor and dramatist. ... Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective of the late 19th and early 20th century, created by British author and physician Arthur Conan Doyle. ... Bertolt Brecht (February 10, 1898 – August 14, 1956) was an influential German dramatist, stage director, and poet of the 20th century. ... Bertolt Brecht (February 10, 1898 - August 14, 1956) was an influential German dramatist, stage director, and poet of the 20th century. ... Thornton Wilder (April 17, 1897 - December 7, 1975) was an American writer. ... Our Town is a play by Thornton Wilder that is set in the fictional community of Grovers Corners, New Hampshire. ... Luigi Pirandello (June 28, 1867 – December 10, 1936) was an Italian dramatist and novelist, awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1934. ... Six Characters in Search of an Author (Sei personaggi in cerca dautore) is the most famous work of Italian playwright Luigi Pirandello, first published in 1925. ... The Three Graces, here in a painting by Sandro Botticelli, were the goddesses of charm, beauty, nature, human creativity and fertility in Greek mythology. ... Reality in everyday usage means everything that exists. ... Sir Tom Stoppard OM (born July 3, 1937) is a Czech-born British playwright, famous for plays such as The Real Thing and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, and for the screenplay for Shakespeare in Love. ... The Real Inspector Hound is one of Tom Stoppards best-known short plays. ... Branislav Nusic Branislav Nušić (Бранислав Нушић) was Serbian novelist, playwright, comediographer, story writer and essayist of Tzintzar (Aromanian Vlach) origin. ... The protagonist is the central figure of a story, and is often referred to as a storys main character. ... Pantomime may refer to two different types of performing arts. ... Tinkerbell or Tinker Bell is a fictional character in J.M. Barries play and subsequent novel Peter Pan. ... A comedian (also comedienne, female) is a person who attempts to make people laugh through a variety of methods, normally through joke telling, or a stream of funny banter. ... A.R. Gurney (1930- ) is an American playwright and novelist. ...

Radio and television

• The Pirandello play was parodied in a Goon Show episode entitled "Six Charlies in Search of an Author", in which the characters seize the typewriter from one another to write in miraculous escapes, suddenly acquired weapons, descriptions of their own bravery, and the like. All of the Goon Show plots alternated between honoring the fourth wall and breaking it.
• In Nickelodeon's Dora the Explorer, when Swiper the Fox steals something, he sometimes tells the audience where he hid the particular item he swiped/stole.
• During the episode 'In the Pale Moonlight' of Deep Space Nine, the audience is faced with more than just the fourth wall concept of television. Rather, the audience becomes interactive while Captain Sisko is recording a personal log regarding the events of persuading the Romulans - a process which involves Sisko looking into the camera and speaking to the audience.
• In the beginning scenes of Mary Poppins, Bert recognizes the audience and shows the audience Cherry Tree Lane. He later addresses the audience as "art lovers" when he is a screever.
• In the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode Once More With Feeling, during a scene where both Xander and Anya are describing singing a song the night before, Anya can be heard describing feeling as though she were being watched, "like there were three walls and not a fourth wall..."
• The character of Lorne in the series Angel would play the part of a narrator, taken to an extreme in the episode Spin The Bottle when the whole episode was told from his point of view to a bar (complete with hecklers). At one point his character, supposed to be unconscious, wakes to address the bar and complain about other characters arguing; he also jumps around to correct errors in the narrative, and returns from an advert break in the show to suggest that "those were some exciting products". At the end the camera zooms out to reveal that the bar is in fact empty.
• The Jack Benny Show on radio and television often broke the fourth wall, as did The Ernie Kovacs Show, Burns and Allen, Monty Python, the Monkees, Moonlighting, It's Garry Shandling's Show, The Bernie Mac Show, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Hustle, Lovejoy, Life as We Know It, and The Simpsons. It has also been used in countless children's shows such as Taz-mania, Dangermouse and Microsoap.
• The final episode of The Cosby Show ended with the major characters dancing away from the standing sets and out toward the studio audience, which the camera angle then revealed.
• A variant on "breaking the fourth wall" that does not involve speaking to the audience appeared in an comedy sketch on the HBO series Mr. Show. In the sketch, David Cross plays an actor auditioning for a role by performing a scene from a play about an actor auditioning for a role. The auditioners are unsure when the prospective actor is "in character" and when he is actually talking to them.
• In the television show French & Saunders, actresses Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders would frequently break character to address each other within the context of an actual scene. In one example, the two are spoofing the film Thelma & Louise, when out of the blue they slip into their natural British accents and begin questioning whether or not their Southern accents are believable.
• In the television show Clueless, characters would often inexplicably make references to the fact that they were on a T.V. program without actually breaking character. In a murder mystery episode, for example, character Dionne exclaims: "I know what the murderer's plan is! He's killing off all of the semi-regulars!" And later on: "Moesha? {offs weird looks} Well, it might have been a crossover episode."
• In the television show It's Garry Shandling's Show, the fourth wall was virtually nonexistent. The sets were unabashedly artificial. The show included a theme song that referred to itself ("This is the theme to the Garry's show, the opening theme to Garry's show, Garry called me up and asked if I would write his theme song"), and Garry Shandling repeatedly addressed the audience.
• A number of police and detective series broke the fourth wall briefly in order to better involve the audience in the episodes. Examples include early seasons of the 1962-1969 series, The Saint, Decoy and the mid-1970s series, Ellery Queen. In the case of Ellery Queen, the fourth wall was broken to allow the titular character to directly invite the audience to help solve the mystery (a gimmick held over from the radio version of the series).
• The breaking of the fourth wall can cause problems with series continuity and canon. An example is the 1965 Doctor Who episode "The Feast Of Steven", which was Episode 7 of the 12-episode serial "The Daleks' Master Plan" (now one of the infamous missing episodes). At the end of this episode - which takes place in AD 1965, while the rest of the serial takes place in AD 4000 - lead actor William Hartnell breaks the fourth wall to wish viewers a Merry Christmas. This break was apparently scripted this way because the BBC directorate believed few people would be watching (the episode was telecast on Christmas Day 1965); the producer and the editor of that serial were greatly dismayed by its inclusion.
• On Whose Line is it Anyway?, when the actors play 'Film Noir' they often stop randomly and break the fourth wall to make a funny remark (or not say anything) about what just happened.
• On the early 1990s Nickelodeon show Clarissa Explains It All, the fourth wall was broken very frequently, with the main character Clarissa frequently speaking to the audience in segments about her current situation in the plot.
• On Sister Sister, as of 2004 seen in reruns on the Disney Channel, the episodes usually begin with lead characters Tia and Tamera addressing the audience.
• On the teen show Saved by the Bell, Zack Morris frequently addressed the camera, especially during the beginning of the episode. He also had the ability to freeze the action of a scene by yelling "time out!", where only he talked and moved as he explained to the audience his current predicament. Action is "unfrozen" once he yelled "time in!"
• In the Simpsons cliffhanger episode Who Shot Mr. Burns, part one, Dr. Hibbert seemed to address the audience when he faced the camera and stated, "Well, I couldn't possibly solve this mystery. Can you?" However, when the camera backed up, the doctor was actually addressing police chief Clancy Wiggum. Since Hibbert's line was a reference to the "Who Shot Mr. Burns?" contest, it was considered breaking the fourth wall.
• On the sitcom comedy series Dinosaurs, there was an anti-drug episode in which the characters got high by munching on a narcotic plant. While in this altered state of consciousness, one character begins to rave that they are really characters in a television show, watched by "hidden cameras implanted in the walls". He then proceeds to point directly to the camera.
• The HBO prison drama Oz is narrated by the character Augustus Hill, a disabled inmate who uses a wheelchair, in surrealistic segments that usually relate to an overall theme of the episode. The narrations by Hill are thus a form of breaking the fourth wall, although he did not address the camera during scenes where he was interacting with the other characters in the story.
• The CBS sitcom Green Acres regularly featured fourth wall elements, including characters seeing the opening credits floating in the air, on the backs of clothing, or on hotcakes. The characters would also hear Yankee Doodle playing while another gave a patriotic, inspirational speech.
• Many episodes of the television show Pokémon feature Team Rocket making puns which show they know of the fourth wall.
• One episode of Family Guy exhibits multiple characteristics of breaking the fourth wall: Peter Griffin, after exclaiming that there would be "nothing to watch on TV every Wednesday night" if the cast of Dawson's Creek were murdered, turns to the audience and follows up his statement with "...except for the fine programs on FOX," alluding to the fact that the show is (was) aired on the FOX network.
• In another episode of Family Guy, entitled "Fifteen Minutes of Shame", the character Meg address a reality television camera crew that is filming the family, yelling at them to go away, followed by her brother Chris exclaiming in horror that she is breaking the fourth wall.
• Yet another Family Guy example of breaking the fourth wall occurred in the episode "Road to Rhode Island" as Stewie and Brian were singing a song of the same title. Brian sings the line, "Whatever dangers we may face, we'll never fear or cry," to which Stewie responds, "That's right, until we're syndicated FOX will never let us die, please!" Stewie once again breaks the fourth wall in that same song with the line, "We'd tell you more but then we'd have the censors on our ass!"
• The Family Guy episode "A Very Special Family Guy Freakin' Christmas" broke the fourth wall at the conclusion of the episode with the Griffen family wishing the viewers Happy Holidays.
• When Family Guy returned after being cancelled and eventually brought back by FOX, the new season opened with the family breaking the fourth wall in particularly biting fashion. Peter walks into the living room to inform the family, "bad news: we've been cancelled by FOX!" The family is dismayed, and Peter explains that "FOX has to make room for fantastic shows such as" and then proceeds to list through twenty-nine shows FOX cancelled in the three years Family Guy was off the air. Lois asks, "is there really no hope?," to which Peter responds, "well, I suppose if ALL those shows go down the tubes, we might have a shot." The opening sequence was then shown and the episode continued without any further fourth wall incidents until the end, when the deaf character from a previous episode returned in the last scene and said, "Good to be back, America."
• In the episode South Park episode It Hits the Fan, Mr. Garrison says that, being a homosexual, it is acceptable for him to say "fag" while others who say it will get "bleeped." The characters in fact are able to hear the "bleeps" done when they say "fag," and mock Jimbo as a closet homosexual when he says "fag" without being censored.
• The PBS show Arthur breaks the Fourth wall on a regular basis. Before each episode, there is an opening segment in which Arthur or other characters speak to the audience, usually hinting to the problem in the episode or addressing someone in the off-screen production crew.
• The series finale of NYPD Blue broke the fourth wall in its final scene by revealing the squadroom to be a set.
• The theme song to Jimmy Neutron contains the line "This is the theme song/For Jimmy Neutron."
• The unaired Angry Beavers finale's plot was that the beavers got a letter from Nickelodeon telling them that the show was going to be cancelled. This episode made Nick mad, as it lampooned many of its practices (including re-re-rerunning their shows). A sound clip that explains it all. (http://www.micahwright.com/downloads/networkslam.mp3)
• Frankie Muniz's character, Malcolm, on the FOX show Malcolm in the Middle routinely addresses the audience to explain his point-of-view. The actions of the other characters continue in the background, but they are not aware of the breaking of the fourth wall.
• BBC sitcom The Young Ones often broke the fourth wall. In the episode "Sick", Mike responds to Vyvyan's attack on The Good Life by saying "That was a very emotional outburst, Vyvyan. I only hope they're not watching". In the same episode, Neil's mother smashes a chair to demonstrate how tatty the boys' home is. Mike replies: "I think you'll find that chair was specially designed to fall apart like that. Rik was going to get hit over the head with it in the next scene". (Rik is then hit over the head with a different chair in the next scene, which surprises the policeman who hit him, as the chair was supposed to break into pieces.)
• In Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex Episode 5:The Copycats, Motoko 'Major' Kusanagi breaks the fourth wall by speaking directly to the viewer about "The Laughing Man Incident".
• In the famous British sitcom Dad's Army final Episode, Never Too Old, Mainwaring's platoon breaks the fourth wall by proposing a toast to the Home Guard, but raising their glasses towards the camera.
• In the anime Fruits Basket, Episode 10: Make it Clear if it's Black or White, Hatsuharu Sohma breaks the fourth wall after causing Kyo Sohma to fall by a rope that is strung at the wrist level. Hatsuharu Sohma turns to the screen afterwards, and warns the audience not to try this themselves.
• All Made in Canada episodes begin with Rick Mercer making a small editorial comment on modern society which is related to the episode's plot. His character Richard Strong frequently breaks the fourth wall during the show to give the viewers comments on the plot's current developments. The show will end with any one of the characters involved in the plot looking straight at the camera and saying either "I think that went well" or "This is not good" depending on how the character feels things turned out.
• In every episode of the BBC House of Cards trilogy, the main character, Chief Whip / Prime Minister Francis Urquhard (played by Ian Richardson), frequently breaks the "fourth wall" addressing the viewer directly as if talking to a life-long political ally, giving the viewer an immediate insight into Urquhard's next moves in his plans to crush his opponents. It is not only a great effect, it also ensures that the viewer doesn't lose track of Urquhard's many intrigues.
• Frankie Howard, in the 1960's BBC TV series "Up Pompeii" (http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/articles/u/uppompeii_1299003238.shtml) always addressed the audience at the start ("The Prologue") and end of the episode and frequently throughout the course of the episode. He almost always turned to the audience and delivered his punchlines directly to them. See also the 1969 film "Up Pompeii" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0125650) where he did the same thing. Frankie made comments directly to the audience in almost every film he ever made.
• The British TV series "U.F.O." episode 14 "Mindbender" has Straker (the lead character) hallucinating that he is an actor on a set for a TV series. The viewer's viewpoint pulls back to reveal the camera crew and the other technical staff, including the director holding the script! At the end of the episode, he reverts back again. This isn't strictly breaking the 4th wall as nobody addresses the real audience. It's more of a "play outside a play" rather than a "play within a play". See UFO Episode Guide (http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet/EpisodeGuideSummary/showid-3048/season-all).
• The 100th episode of "Stargate SG-1", titled "Wormhole X-Treme!", is largely set behind the scenes of a TV sci-fi show that bears a remarkable resemblance to "Stargate SG-1" itself (in the story, this is because it is created by an alien with repressed memories of the "real" Stargate program). The script includes numerous instances of characters commenting on the show-within-the-show that can also be taken as commentary on "Stargate SG-1" itself. The fourth wall is broken directly during the closing section when actor Christian Bocher delivers a monologue which begins "I'm Christian Bocher" and goes on to explain the relationship of his character in the episode to the character of Dr Daniel Jackson, mentioning not only Michael Shanks who plays Dr Jackson in the series but also James Spader who played the character in the movie on which the series was based. To add to the confusion, in this sequence Bocher and the other guest stars are actually playing fictionalised versions of themselves (though the factual information he gives about the series is all true).
• The animated SF series Robotech arguably breaks the fourth wall in two episodes. The normally third person style narrator addresses the audience near the beginning of the episode Wedding Bells where, in referring to Max's setting up a date with Mirya, the narrator says "After all, (chuckles) what would you do with a girl you've just met only hours before?" At the end of the episode Season's Greetings, the narrator says "Merry Christmas to all, and to all a safe night." The only other instances where the narrator addresses the audience is during the pre-closing credits previews of the next episodes where he regularly says variants of "Be sure to watch the next episode of...", but these are not part of the actual story narrative. The same can be said for the beginning of some episodes which recap what happened "In the last episode of Robotech". Also, the eyecatches to and from commercial breaks are voiced by various characters from the show. Again, these are not considered actually part of the story. It is a matter of debate of whether a narrator counts as a character on a show but in the beginning of the episode Metal Fire, Dana Sterling does briefly takes over narration for the last "episode" recap but her lines were delivered more in the style of a personal journal entry and can be dismissed.

• In the 1980s version of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, He Man and various characters addressed the audience in an epilogue summarizing a message or moral lesson to be learned from the episode. Many 80s cartoons followed suit and inserted epilogues that addressed either a safety tip or some other educational material. Since these were in separate epilogues removed from the story narrative, it is arguable whether or not these are true examples of breaking the fourth wall.
• In That's So Raven when the Pyramid comet gives Eddie psychic powers, and when Raven makes the comment of "Who would actually watch a show of a teen psychic, she looks at the audience. This was most likely for comedy and very ironic since she has her own television show.
• In Fullmetal Alchemist, Colonel Roy Mustang makes a call to Lieutenant Colonel Maes Hughes specifically to complain that he and his officers have not been on screen for several episodes. As he does so, the camera pulls back to reveal his entourage all staring at the camera as if to express their resentment.
• In Ed, Edd n Eddy, at the very least, Edd and Eddy are more than aware of the fourth wall when they mention commercial breaks, Emmy awards, and whether or not a character is in a particular episode.

In contemporary usage, parody is a form of satire that imitates another work of art in order to ridicule it. ... The Goon Show was a hugely popular and extremely influential British radio comedy programme, which was originally produced and broadcast by the BBC from 1951 to 1960 on the BBC Home Service. ... Nickelodeon (Nick for short) is an American cable TV network for children. ... Dora the Explorer is an animated series for preschool-age children that is broadcast on Nickelodeon in the United States. ... Swiper the Fox is a character from the popular Nickelodeon animated series, Dora the Explorer. ... Deep Space Nine Deep Space Nine is a fictional space station in the television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. ... Sisko could refer to the following fictional characters from the television series, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Benjamin Sisko Jake Sisko Jennifer Sisko This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... The Romulans, a fictional race in the Star Trek universe, are descended from Vulcans and are characterized as being deceitful, cunning, and treacherous. ... Mary Poppins (right, behind) as portrayed by Julie Andrews in the most famous adaptation of the character. ... Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a U.S. television series loosely based on the 1992 movie of the same name. ... This is a best of album released to celebrate 10 years since Placebo formed as a band in 1994. ... Alexander (Xander) LaVelle Harris is a fictional character in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. ... Anya Christina Emmanuelle Jenkins (also known as Anyanka, also known as Anya Emerson, also known as Aud) is a fictional character in the television show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, played by Emma Caulfield. ... Lorne is a fictional character appearing in the TV series Angel. ... Angel was the highly successful spin-off from the American television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. ... Jack Benny (born Benjamin Kubelsky, February 14, 1894 – December 26, 1974) was a comedian, vaudeville performer, film actor, and one of the most prominent early stars of American radio and television. ... Ernie Kovacs (1919-1962) Ernie Kovacs (January 23, 1919 - January 13, 1962) was a creative and innovative entertainer from the early days of television. ... Burns and Allen was a network comedy radio show starring George Burns and his wife, Gracie Allen. ... Monty Pythons Flying Circus (aka Flying Circus or MPFC, known during the fourth season as Monty Python) was the popular BBC sketch comedy show from Monty Python. ... The Monkees in 1968 (left to right): Micky Dolenz, Peter Tork, Mike Nesmith and Davy Jones The Monkees were a four-person band who appeared in an American television series of the same name, which ran on NBC from 1966 to 1968. ... Moonlighting was a mystery TV series that aired on ABC in the United States from 1985 to 1989. ... Its Garry Shandlings Show is one of the first original programs created by the fledgling Showtime network in the mid-80s to compete with original HBO comedies like Not Necessarily the News. ... The Bernie Mac Show is a half-hour sitcom featuring the comedic antics of comedian Bernie Mac. ... Season 1 is available on DVD The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air was a television sitcom which aired on NBC from 1990 to 1996. ... Hustle is a British TV drama series made by Kudos Productions for BBC ONE. It follows a group of London-based con artists as they attempt to dupe money out of their victims, or marks. ... Lovejoy (The Lovejoy Mysteries in the U.S.) is a series of picaresque novels by John Grant (under the pen name Jonathan Gash) about the adventures of Lovejoy, a slightly unsavoury British antiques dealer, in East Anglia. ... Life As We Know It was an American television drama on the ABC network during the 2004-2005 season. ... The Simpsons is one of the longest-running animated television series in American television history, with 16 seasons and 356 episodes since its debut on December 17, 1989 on the Fox Network and a spin-off of The Tracey Ullman Show. ... Taz-mania is an early 1990s cartoon show, produced and directed by Art Vitello broadcast in the United States and elsewhere around the world. ... Dangermouse is a British animated series which was produced by Cosgrove Hall and illustrated by Arthur Ranson. ... The Cosby Show was an American sitcom which first aired in 1984 starring Bill Cosby. ... HBO logo HBO (Home Box Office) is a premium cable television network. ... Mr. ... Cross portraying Tobias Fünke in the American T.V. show Arrested Development. ... French & Saunders is a British sketch comedy television show starring and written by comedy team Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders, and is also the name by which they are known on the rare occasions when they appear elsewhere as a double act. ... Dawn French (born October 11, 1957) is a British comedienne probably best known as one half of the comic duo French & Saunders. ... Jennifer Saunders (born July 6, 1958 in Sleaford, Lincolnshire) is a British comedienne, actress and comedy writer. ... Thelma and Louise is a road movie from 1991 conceived and written by Callie Khouri, co-produced and directed by Ridley Scott, and starring Geena Davis as Thelma, Susan Sarandon as Louise, and Harvey Keitel as a sympathetic detective trying to solve crimes that the two women find it easier... Clueless was a film directed by Amy Heckerling. ... Brandy on the cover of her album Full Moon Brandy Rayana Norwood (born February 11, 1979), known professionally as Brandy, is an pop/R&B singer and actress. ... A fictional crossover occurs when otherwise separated fictional characters, stories, settings, universes, or media meet and interact with each other. ... Its Garry Shandlings Show is one of the first original programs created by the fledgling Showtime network in the mid-80s to compete with original HBO comedies like Not Necessarily the News. ... 1962 was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1969 was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1969 calendar). ... A reprint of one of Leslie Charteris early Saint novels, issued in the early 1960s to tie-in with the Roger Moore TV series. ... Decoy was a groundbreaking American police procedural television series which was created for syndication in 1957. ... Events and trends Although in the United States and in many other Western societies the 1970s are often seen as a period of transition between the turbulent 1960s and the more conservative 1980s and 1990s, many of the trends that are associated widely with the Sixties, from the Sexual Revolution... Ellery Queen stamp issued by San Marino. ... In the context of fiction, the canon of a fictional universe comprises those novels, stories, films, etc. ... 1965 was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1965 calendar). ... BBC Doctor Who website DMOZ Doctor Who page Doctor Who Cuttings Archive — hosts a large number of press cuttings from the 60s onwards. ... BBC Doctor Who website DMOZ Doctor Who page Doctor Who Cuttings Archive — hosts a large number of press cuttings from the 60s onwards. ... William Hartnell as the First Doctor William Henry Hartnell (January 8, 1908–April 23, 1975), a British actor, was the first actor to play the lead role of the Doctor in the long-running science fiction television series Doctor Who from 1963 to 1966 He was born in St Pancras... Christmas (literally, the Mass of Christ) is a holiday in the Christian calendar, usually observed on December 25, which celebrates the birth of Jesus. ... Whose Line Is It Anyway? is an improvised and largely unscripted comedy game show. ... Events and trends The 1990s are generally classified as having moved slightly away from the more conservative 1980s, but keeping the same mind-set. ... Nickelodeon (Nick for short) is an American cable TV network for children. ... Clarissa Explains It All was a quirky situation comedy series from Nickelodeon starring Melissa Joan Hart. ... Sister, Sister is the name of several works. ... 2004 is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Disney Channel is a cable TV network run by The Walt Disney Company. ... Saved by the Bell was a popular teen sitcom which ran from 1989 to 1993 and built a large, loyal fanbase. ... The Simpsons. ... A cliffhanger or cliffhanger ending is a plot device in which a movie or novel contains an abrupt ending, often leaving the main characters in a precarious or difficult situation (for instance, hanging from the edge of a cliff). ... Who Shot Mr. ... In the television series, The Simpsons, the Wiggum family consist of Clancy (father and police officer), Sarah (mother), and Ralph (child). ... Charlene and Robbie in the episode Refrigerator Day Dinosaurs was an American television sitcom on ABC, about a family of talking dinosaurs that ran for 65 episodes from April 1991 to July 1994. ... For alternate meanings of HBO, see HBO (disambiguation). ... Oz was the first one-hour dramatic television series to be produced by HBO. The show, which aired for six seasons ( 1997- 2003), is set in a maximum-security prison in an unspecified eastern state in America. ... CBSs first color logo, which debuted in the fall of 1965. ... Aerial photo featured in the opening sequence of Green Acres There is also the US town of Green Acres, Washington Green Acres is an American television series that was produced by Filmways, Inc. ... Yankee Doodle is today a well-known American childrens song, which has existed in many versions over time. ... Pokémon (Japanese: ポケモン Pokemon, pronounced Poh-Kay-Mon) is a video game franchise, created by Satoshi Tajiri and published by Nintendo for several of their systems, most importantly the Game Boy. ... Team Rocket (ロケット団 Roketto Dan in Japanese) is an evil organization in the fictional world of Pokémon which exploits Pokémon for profit and is headed by a man named Giovanni. ... Family Guy is an animated television series set in the fictional town of Quahog (pronounced KOH-hog ), Rhode Island. ... Dawsons Creek title card Dawsons Creek is an hour-long American television drama aimed at and mostly about teenagers, which aired from 1998 to 2003. ... Family Guy is an animated television series set in the fictional town of Quahog (pronounced KOH-hog ), Rhode Island. ... In the fiction world of the animated TV series Family Guy, Megan Meg Griffin is the sweet-natured teen-aged daughter of the title character, Peter Griffin. ... Reality television is a genre of television programming which generally is unscripted, documenting actual events over fiction, and featuring ordinary people over professional actors. ... Chris Griffin is the fictional eldest son of Peter and Lois Griffin in the popular television cartoon series Family Guy. ... Family Guy is an animated television series set in the fictional town of Quahog (pronounced KOH-hog ), Rhode Island. ... South Park is a comedy animated series created by Matt Stone and Trey Parker. ... It Hits the Fan is one of the most notorious episodes of the TV sitcom South Park; it is the 2nd episode of the 5th season. ... Arthur is the eponymous main character of the popular PBS cartoon show based on the Marc Brown books. ... NYPD Blue was a long-running American television police drama. ... The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius is a spin-off of the Oscar-nominated computer-animated movie; Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, first officially aired in September 2002. ... The Angry Beavers was a Nickelodeon animated series about Daggett and Norbert Beaver, two brother beavers who have left their mom and home to become two bachelors in the forest. ... Nickelodeon (Nick for short) is an American cable TV network for children. ... Muniz as Malcolm, playing the role of Puck in a High-School production of A Midsummer Nights Dream Frankie Muniz (b. ... The Fox Broadcasting Company, usually referred to as just Fox, is a television network in the United States. ... Malcolm in the Middle is a situation comedy on the Fox Network. ... The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) was formed in 1927 by means of a royal charter. ... The Young Ones is a: film starring Cliff Richard — see The Young Ones (movie) song sung by the same — see The Young Ones (song) television series, a 1980s British sitcom about four students living together — see The Young Ones (TV series). ... For other uses, see The Good Life (disambiguation) The Good Life was one of the most successful British sitcoms of all time, produced by the BBC during the mid-1970s. ... Batou and a Tachikoma Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex is also titled Kōkaku Kidōtai: Stand Alone Complex (ManMachine Interface: STAND ALONE COMPLEX) in Japan, and is often refered to by its acronym GitS:SAC. GitS:SAC is a Japanese anime TV series set in the Ghost in the... An episode is to television and radio what a chapter is to a book: a part of a sequence of a body of work. ... The cast of Dads Army (left to right): Pike, Frazer, Warden Hodges, Godfrey, Mainwaring, Walker, Jones and Wilson Dads Army is a British sitcom about the Home Guard in World War II, written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft and broadcast on BBC television between 1968 and 1977. ... The Home Guard, originally named the Local Defence Volunteers (LDV), was instituted by the British government during World War II to defend the UK in the event of an invasion by Germany. ... A scene from Cowboy Bebop (1998) Anime (アニメ) is Japanese animation, sometimes billed in the west under the portmanteau Japanimation. ... Fruits Basket manga, volume 1 (English version) Fruits Basket (フルーツバスケット) is a shōjo manga series created by Natsuki Takaya (pseudonym, real name unknown) serialized in the bi-weekly Japanese Hana to Yume (Flowers and Dreams) magazine, which is published by Hakusensha. ... An episode is to television and radio what a chapter is to a book: a part of a sequence of a body of work. ... Hatsuharu Sohma Hatsuharu Sohma (草摩溌春 Sōma Hatsuharu), or, more simply Haru, is the ox of the Chinese Zodiac in the manga and anime entitled Fruits Basket. ... Kyo Sohma Kyo Sohma (草摩 夾 Sōma Kyō) is a member of the Sohma clan in manga and anime entitled Fruits Basket, able to transform into the cat. ... Hatsuharu Sohma Hatsuharu Sohma (草摩溌春 Sōma Hatsuharu), or, more simply Haru, is the ox of the Chinese Zodiac in the manga and anime entitled Fruits Basket. ... Made in Canada is a Canadian television sitcom, which aired on the CBC from 1998 to 2003. ... Rick Mercer Rick Mercer (born October 17, 1969 in St. ... The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) was formed in 1927 by means of a royal charter. ... Building a House of Cards is a pastime involving stacking playing cards on top of each other, risky because they can fall over with the slightest movement. ... Ian William Richardson CBE (born April 7, 1934) is a British actor best known for playing the Machiavellian politician Francis Urquhart in the House of Cards trilogy for the BBC and Masterpiece Theatre and to North American television viewers as the man in the Rolls Royce who asks Pardon me... Stargate SG-1 (popularly abbreviated as SG1 or SG-1) is a television series based upon the 1994 science fiction movie Stargate. ... Alternate meanings: see Michael Shanks (archaeologist) Michael Garrett Shanks (born December 15, 1970 in Vancouver, British Columbia) is a Canadian actor who achieved fame for his role as Dr. Daniel Jackson on the television series Stargate SG-1. ... James Todd Spader (born February 7, 1960 in Boston, Massachusetts) is an actor best known for his roles in movies such as Pretty in Pink, Sex, Lies, and Videotape, Stargate, and Secretary. ... Robotech is an 85-episode science-fiction television series about three successive extraterrestrial invasions of Earth. ... He-Man as seen in a DC comic from December, 1982, one of his earliest appearances and preceding to the debut of his animated series. ... The Baxter Family Thats So Raven is a television show produced by the Disney Channel. ... Fullmetal Alchemist Vol. ... From left to right: Ed, Eddy, and Edd (Double D) Ed, Edd n Eddy is an animated series created by Danny Antonucci and produced by a. ...

Literature

• In J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan, Peter Pan encourages the good little children who believe in fairies -- in particular, the people reading the story right there and then -- to help make Tinkerbell better, after she drinks Peter's glass of poisoned milk. The scene is derived from audience participation in the original stage version, which has roots in pantomime.
• In Stephen King's novel series The Dark Tower it can be argued that the fourth wall is broken when the characters Roland Deschain and Eddie Dean actually enter the real world and meet with the writer to help him complete the series. It also occurs when Callahan discovers a copy of Salem's Lot, a book in which he is a character.
• Dave Sim's Cerebus features Sim tormenting and speaking directly to his creation on several occasions, most frequently in the collection 'Minds'.
• Similarly, Berke Breathed's comic strip Bloom County regularly featured characters conversing and/or arguing with an unseen narrator (presumably the writer himself).
• In the online comic Drowtales, the reader is the invisible friend of one of the characters.
• In many web comics, such as Bob and George, or, notably, One Over Zero and Framed, the author appears regularly as one of the main characters, sometimes openly admitting to the characters that their lives exist solely for the amusement of the reader. In Elf Only Inn and The Order of the Stick, the characters are aware they are fictional role-playing characters but the unseen characters who are running them are not aware that they themselves are fictional. No Fourth Wall to Break exists as though there were no fourth wall at all. The semi-autobiographical web comic Real Life not only features a version of the author (Greg Dean) but also the artist himself as the narrator--at times the characters have even spoken of the fact that they occupy a comic strip.
• Douglas Hofstadter's book Gödel, Escher, Bach alternates essay-style chapters with a series of dialogues between fictional characters. Hofstadter inserts himself in the final dialogue, admitting to the characters that they are only his creations and apologizing for using them as a voice for his own droll puns and wordplay.
• Douglas Adams' novel So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish contains several instances of Adams referring to himself as "The chronicler". At one point he reviews Arthur Dent's curious lack of a sex life (as delineated in the three previous novels) and suggests that his readers who are not interested in such matters might like to "skip to the last chapter, which is a good bit and has Marvin in it."
• At one point in James Joyce's Ulysses, the character of Molly Bloom breaks the fourth wall and addresses the author, "O Jamesy, let me up out of this."
• Works of Zoran Zivkovic often include the writer as one of the characters, and characters discussing the reader.
• Paul Auster's novel City of Glass is a detective story in which one of the things being searched for is the author himself.
• Milan Kundera's novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being includes descriptions of Kundera's own bafflement at why he feels such strong emotions about purely fictional characters.
• Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events breaks the fourth wall frequently, as the author addresses the reader, telling them to skip over particularly gloomy parts or stop reading the book altogether. The author also includes himself as a character in the plot, following after the protagonists and chronicling their adventures. The same happens in the 2004 movie adaptation.
• The Sensational She-Hulk, a Marvel Comics comic book, often included off-hand or not so off-hand jokes that broke the fourth wall, with its titular character complaining about the writers or artists, lampooning comic stereotypes, and even mentioning issues of the comic itself. In one instance, She-Hulk and other characters escape a trap by walking across pages of the comic.
• Many Self-Insert fanfics break the fourth wall.
• Deadpool frequently speaks to the readers of his comics, in one instance claiming that the reader is the only person that bought the book. Perhaps this is a result of his bizarre, in-flux mind.
• Jostein Gaarder's novel Sophie's World starts as a straightforward story, then descends into a meta-level when a character receives a book called Sophie's World and begins to read it again from the beginning, becoming interlaced with its plot.
• Michael Ende's novel The Neverending Story is initially about a boy reading a fantasy novel, also called The Neverending Story. The characters in the inner novel gradually learn about their fictional nature and about the identity of the reader in the framing story, who himself becomes an active participant in the fantasy world. The film based on the novel takes this a stage further and as we see the young child (who is portrayed reading the novel and imagining the action that is then portrayed in the film) the voice-over of one of the characters in the novel says that they "are aware that someone is watching our adventures, just as the one watching us are themselves watched by others". (i.e. the audiences in the film theatre)
• Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman's Dragonlance and Death Gate Cycle series contain a character who regularly breaks the fourth wall. In Dragonlance Fizban makes occasional references to the real world. In the Death Gate Cycle novels Zifnab makes references to the real world, other novels by Weis and Hickman, and even novels of other writers. Many believe Fizban and Zifnab are the same person because of things they have said and because their names are anagrams of each other, but the authors assure us they are not.
• In the final two books of Stephen King's Dark Tower series, Song of Susannah and The Dark Tower, the author (Stephen King) is a character in the novel, and near the end of the last book warns the audience not to read any further if they fear unhappy endings.
• Italo Calvino's book If On A Winter's Night A Traveler features characters reading a book called "If On A Winter's Night A Traveler" by Italo Calvino.
• Grant Morrison's tenure on the comic book Animal Man established a metafictional relationship between Animal Man and the "real world". Morrison explores the theme further in his later work The Filth.
• Near the end of Robert Anton Wilson's and Robert Shea's Illuminatus! trilogy, the characters become aware of their state as characters in a book.
• The character of Huckleberry Finn addresses the audience prior to the action of the book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, to explain that the author, Mark Twain, got most of the facts right in its prequel, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
• In Dave Eggers autobiographical book, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, the author frequently makes references to literary devices that expedite telling the story rather than presenting personal historical facts. For instance, in two instances, characters speaking with Dave remark how "this isn't really how it went" and Dave explains how this telling makes him look better and the story more readable. Later printings of the book also feature an addendum at the end called Mistakes We Knew We Were Making, detailing some deliberate omissions and composite events.
• In the 1950's and '60's, it was common for Superman to end adventures by winking to his audience. (See Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?)
• Chuck Palahniuk's Invisible Monsters is narrated by main character Shannon MacFarlene. The story jumps back and forth between time periods, sometimes alternating from the time immediatly following Shannon's "accident" (which left her without a jaw) to later, when she, Brandy Alexander, and Seth Thomas are traveling the eastern United States as con artists, and back again to previous times. (This is done by using the literary device "jump to" or "jump back to"). During the parts of the book where Shannon is in the hospital, she makes reference to her boyfriend Manus, who eventually leaves her. Later, she reveals that Manus and Seth are the same person (a fact that is never secret to her), and that she kept this information from the reader so that they'd appreciate the shock when she finds out her boyfriend is trying to kill her.
• In episode two of Wonder Showzen when Chauncey and Kaitlin (a guest star) ride in the rocket ship, The Fourth Wall is broken when Chauncey tells the audience to be distracted by the commercials coming up after the world explodes becaues Chauncey "made God mad".
• In Megatokyo (an online comic strip about the misadventures of some American slackers in Tokyo), The Fourth Wall is repeatedly broken in special strips, as well as in the normal story. One good example is when Seraphim (a character based on the artist's wife) critiques a strip in a discussion with Piro (the strip's artist). Piro also notes that the dialogue here was based on actual conversations, breaking the wall in two different ways.
• In a 1981 issue of the Marvel Comic series Micronauts (issue #36), the Micronauts while stranded on Earth visit a comic book store which is selling the very comic that they appear in. During this scene, the comic book store owner was also explaining to a customer about the new direct sales through specialty shops approach that Marvel was at the time experimenting with for certain modestly selling but cult favorite titles, including Micronauts. Their conversation was interrupted by the appearance of the Micronaut's ship in the store. The comic book store owner immediately recognized it as the HMS Endeavour from the comic.
• Stan Lee's trademark style of narration in many of the original Marvel comics is generally seen as breaking the fourth wall.

Sir James Matthew Barrie, Bt. ... Statue of Peter Pan in St. ... Tinkerbell or Tinker Bell is a fictional character in J.M. Barries play and subsequent novel Peter Pan. ... An audience is the/a group of people who participate in and experience or encounter a work of art, literature, theatre, music or academics in any medium. ... Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is a prolific American author best known for his horror novels. ... The Dark Tower can refer to one of several things: The Dark Tower (series) — a series of novels by Stephen King. ... Roland. ... Salems Lot is a horror novel by Stephen King, written in 1975. ... Dave Sim (born May 17, 1956 in Hamilton, Ontario) is a Canadian comic book writer and artist, best known as the creator of the 6,000 page graphic novel Cerebus the Aardvark. ... Cerebus the Aardvark (or simply Cerebus) was an ambitious monthly independent comic book begun by Canadian artist Dave Sim in 1977, and running for 300 issues and 6,000 pages, through March 2004. ... Bloom County was a popular comic strip by Berke Breathed which ran from December 8, 1980 until August 6, 1989. ... THIS IS A VANITY PAGE PLEASE DELETE ORT ? ... Web comics are comics that are available on the web. ... Bob and George is a sprite-based web comic which takes place in a highly parodized version of the fictional universe of Mega Man (known as Rockman in Japan). ... One Over Zero (1/0) is a webcomic created by Mason Williams a. ... From Left to Right: Belkar, Vaarsuvius, Elan, Haley, Durkon and Roy. ... Web comics are comics that are available on the web. ... Real Life is a web comic drawn and authored by Greg Dean. ... Greg Dean is the cartoonist of the popular webcoic, Real Life. ... Douglas Richard Hofstadter (born February 15, 1945) is an American academic. ... GEB cover Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid is a Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Douglas Hofstadter, first published in by Basic Books. ... A pun (also known as paronomasia) is a deliberate confusion of similar-sounding words or phrases for rhetorical effect, whether humorous or serious. ... Douglas Noel Adams (March 11, 1952 – May 11, 2001) — also known as Bop Ad or Bob after his illegible signature, or by his initials DNA — was a British comic radio dramatist and author, most notably of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (HHGG or H2G2). ... So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish (1984, ISBN 0345391837) is the fourth book of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy series written by Douglas Adams. ... Arthur Philip Dent is a fictional character, the hapless protagonist in the comic science fiction series The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. ... James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (February 2, 1882 – January 13, 1941) was an expatriate Irish writer and poet, and is widely considered one of the most significant writers of the 20th century. ... The name Ulysses can mean: The Roman equivalent of Odysseus A 1922 novel by James Joyce: Ulysses (novel) A 1967 movie based on the novel, Ulysses (movie) A solar probe: Ulysses (spacecraft) A poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson A anime television program produced by DiC Entertainment: Ulysses 31 An indie... The title given to this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. ... Paul Benjamin Auster (born February 3, 1947) is an American author. ... City of Glass is a book by Canadian author Douglas Coupland, published in 2000, featuring short essays and photographs of his home town of Vancouver, British Columbia. ... Milan Kundera is a Franco-Czech writer, born April 1, 1929 in Brno, Czechoslovakia. ... The Unbearable Lightness of Being is a novel written by Milan Kundera in 1984. ... Daniel Handler a. ... A Series of Unfortunate Events is a childrens book series by Daniel Handler, writing under the pseudonym of Lemony Snicket, and illustrated by Brett Helquist. ... The protagonist is the central figure of a story, and is often referred to as a storys main character. ... 2004 is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... She-Hulk is a fictional character, a comic book superhero in the Marvel Comics universe. ... Marvel Comics, sometimes called by the nickname House of Ideas, is an American comic book company. ... A comic book is a magazine or book containing the art form of comics. ... Fan fiction (also spelled fanfiction and commonly abbreviated to fanfic) is fiction written by people who enjoy a film, novel, television show or other media work, using the characters and situations developed in it and developing new plots in which to use these characters. ... Deadpool (real name Jack, surname unknown, alias Wade Wilson) is a fictional comic book mercenary, anti-hero and occasional supervillain in Marvel Comics universe. ... Jostein Gaarder (born August 8, 1952) is a Norwegian author of novels, short stories, and childrens books. ... Sophies World is a novel by Jostein Gaarder, published in 1995. ... Michael Ende (November 12, 1929 – August 29, 1995) was a German writer of fantasy novels and childrens books. ... The Neverending Story (Die Unendliche Geschichte) is a fantasy novel by Michael Ende, first published in 1979. ... Margeret Weis is an extremely prolific fantasy novelist, perhaps best known for her work with Tracy Hickman on the Dragonlance series. ... Tracy Raye Hickman (born 1955) is a best-selling fantasy author, most commonly known for his work on Dragonlance as a game designer and co-author with Margaret Weis, while he worked for TSR. They also wrote Dark Sword trilogy and the Death Gate Cycle. ... Dragonlance Logo Dragonlance is a large series of fantasy books, and a Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting. ... Cover of Dragon Wing Death Gate Cycle is an ambitious fantasy septuplet written by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. ... Dragonlance Logo Dragonlance is a large series of fantasy books, and a Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting. ... Fizban The Fabulous is a fictional wizard from the Dragonlance fantasy novels written by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, and distributed by Wizards of the Coast. ... Cover of Dragon Wing Death Gate Cycle is an ambitious fantasy septuplet written by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. ... An anagram (Greek ana- = back or again, and graphein = to write) is the result of permuting the letters of a word or words in such a manner as to produce other words that possess linguistic meaning. ... Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is a prolific American author best known for his horror novels. ... The Dark Tower can refer to one of several things: The Dark Tower (series) — a series of novels by Stephen King. ... Italo Calvino (October 15, 1923 - September 19, 1985) was an Italian writer and novelist. ... Grant Morrison (1960 - ) is a Scottish comic book writer and cartoonist best-known for his non-linear narratives and counter-cultural leanings and often acclaimed as one of the most creative writers ever to work in mainstream comics. ... Animal Man is a fictional character in the DC Universe. ... The Filth is a comic book series, written by Grant Morrison, drawn by Chris Weston and published by the Vertigo imprint of DC Comics. ... Robert Anton Wilson Robert Anton Wilson or R. A. W. (born January 18, 1932) is a futurologist, libertarian, and novelist. ... Robert Joseph Shea (1933 - March 10, 1994) was the co-author (with Robert Anton Wilson) of The Illuminatus! Trilogy. ... 23 The Illuminatus! Trilogy is a series of three novels written by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson. ... Huckleberry Finn is the protagonist of Mark Twains famous book, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. ... The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885) by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) is commonly accounted as the first Great American Novel. ... Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was a famous and popular American humorist, writer and lecturer. ... The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn book cover The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is a very well-known and popular story concerning American youth. ... Dave Eggers (born in 1970) is an American writer, author of the memoir A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and editor of the literary magazine McSweeneys. ... A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (or AHWoSG) is a 2000 memoir by Dave Eggers. ... Superman, nicknamed The Man of Steel, is a fictional character and superhero who first appeared in Action Comics #1 in 1938 and eventually became one of the most popular and well-known comic book icons of all time. ... Charles Michael Chuck Palahniuk (born February 21, 1961 in Pasco, Washington, USA) is an American satirical novelist and freelance journalist living in Portland, Oregon. ... Invisible Monsters is a novel by Chuck Palahniuk published in 1999. ... Wonder Showzen is an adult comedy version of a childrens variety show, a la Sesame Street, that airs on MTV and MTV2. ... A strip depicting Piro, Largo, Sonoda and Nanasawa, published on October 8, 2004. ... Long a symbol of Tokyo, the Nijubashi Bridge at the Imperial Palace. ... Publishing History The Micronauts was originally a Marvel comic published between 1979 and 1986. ...

Film

• One of the first movies to tell a fictional story, The Great Train Robbery (1903), ends with a famous shot of a cowboy firing a gun directly at the camera. Legend says that during initial screenings of the film, this scene panicked many members of the studio audience.
• Some of the first popularized breaking of the fourth wall in cinema was courtesy of Groucho Marx, of the Marx Brothers in films such as the 1929 film The Cocoanuts and the 1930 film Animal Crackers.
• In the opening scenes of Mary Poppins, Bert gives the audience a guided tour of Cherry Tree Lane. He later addresses the audience as "art lovers" when he is doing his work as a screever.
• In the mockumentary Man Bites Dog the characters alternate between talking to the audience of the documentary they are producing and the audience watching the film.
• In Annie Hall, Woody Allen breaks the wall by asking the audience direct questions. He has been often quoted in interviews as portraying this as homage to Groucho Marx.
• In many animated cartoons, the cartoon characters will suddenly start talking directly to the audience, or encountering a break or tear in the film that the cartoon is being projected upon, or many other ways to remind the audience that they are watching an animated cartoon. Animation director Tex Avery was a pioneer of breaking the fourth wall, and his cartoons often stated, "In a cartoon, you can do anything!"
• Chuck Jones's Daffy Duck cartoon Duck Amuck is an elaborate and frantic deconstruction of the fourth wall.
• In Sunset Boulevard, Gloria Swanson's character Norma Desmond gestures at the camera in her closing scene and refers to "all those people sitting out there in the dark", although the character herself is a film actress, and she may simply be pining for her past audiences.
• In the "Road" comedy movies starring Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, Hope and Crosby often broke the fourth wall, making such remarks as "At our age? Paramount wouldn't dare!"
• In Tom Jones, various characters break off in the middle of a scene to look into the camera and address the audience.
• In Medium Cool, a gas grenade goes off very close to the camera, and a shout is heard: "Look out, Haskell, it's real!" This is a reference to the film's director/cameraman, Haskell Wexler. In the film's last shot, the camera pans and zooms in on Wexler, pointing his camera at the camera.
• In On Her Majesty's Secret Service, James Bond (played by George Lazenby) defeats several bad guys in the teaser who are attacking his future wife. The girl then runs off. Lazenby says, "This never happened to the other fellow," referencing former James Bond actor Sean Connery. This is the only time in the Bond series this happens.
• In Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Ferris guides the audience throughout the movie.
• In High Fidelity, Rob Gordon (John Cusack) discusses his thoughts concerning the events of the story directly with the audience. At one point he is talking to the camera while in bed with a sleeping woman; he whispers and checks to see if his talking is waking her up.
• Spaceballs features several examples. In one scene Colonel Sandurz explains their secret plan and Dark Helmet then turns to face the camera and asks the audience: "Everybody got that?". In another scene, Sandurz decides to find the heros by playing a video of the movie and they see the film happening "now" (imagine it as holding a camera connected to a TV and filming what is on the TV). Later, Yogurt suggests that the cast might meet again in "Spaceballs 2: The Search for More Money". In the climactic fight scene, Dark Helmet accidentally kills a cameraman with his lightsaber.
• In Blazing Saddles various characters look into the camera to deliver lines, most notably the character of Hedley Lamarr, who asks a rhetorical question while looking at the camera, then says to the audience, "Why am I asking you?". During the climactic fight scene between the townspeople and the bandits, the camera pulls back to show that the town is in fact a set on the Warner Brothers studio backlot. The fight spills over into another soundstage and the commissary. The villain flees the scene and attempts to hide in a theater showing Blazing Saddles until the movie shows the hero outside of the theater. The two principal characters then enter the theater to watch the end of the movie, which consists of themselves dismounting their horses and riding into the sunset in a limousine.
• The Wayne's World movies feature occasional asides by main characters, where the camera pans or moves away from the scene to focus on the actor. At one point, the owner of Stan Mikita's Donuts begins ranting about killing a man who romantically rejected him, and the main characters yell at the camera man to focus back on them. There are other examples including an "Oscar Clip" scene where Wayne splashes water in his eyes to simulate crying, Garth launching backwards every time he sees someone (twice), and a debate over which movie ending is the best.
• Parts of the film Fight Club are centred around breaking the fourth wall, and the narrator is frequently seen addressing the audience directly, or insinuating our presence. For example, the scene in which the Narrator says "Let me tell you a little bit about Tyler Durden" and then proceeds to address the camera directly. Tyler also addresses the audience during this section. Furthermore, the entire concept of the scene appears to be placing the film within its own context - i.e. as a film, where the narrator describes the reel changing process: "If you look for it, you can see these little dots come into the upper right hand corner of the screen" (and Tyler points to the dots as they appear). Additionally, in the rest of the film, things referred to in this scene can also be seen (e.g. the single-frame splices of other images) - encouraging the audience to question the film's role within itself.
• In The Sum of Us, a character who is unable to speak occasionally addresses the audience directly, e.g. to complain, ironically, about the condition that stops him from speaking, saying 'the trouble with having a stroke is the people that treat you like a fuckwit afterwards'.
• In the Disney animated film The Emperor's New Groove, the excessively self-centered Emperor Kuzco talks persuasively to the audience by narrating and even interjecting dialogue throughout the film's exposition, which adds a comedic element to the film while expanding the bounds of Kuzco's arrogance.
• In Airplane!, an '80s spoof comedy, Elaine Dickinson tells Ted Striker, referring to their broken relationship: "I can't live with a man I don't respect", and after she goes, Ted turns looking to the audience and says "What a pisser!". This film makes extensive use of camera addressing, enhancing a tendency to the comedy of absurd in cinema.
• In The Truman Show many characters in the show that the film is about routinely break the fourth wall while addressing the TV audience with ads. This confuses the protagonist, who does not realise that he is part of a show.
• Gremlins 2: The New Batch, the sequel to the movie Gremlins, features a scene where the "film" on which the movie is being projected is burned by the projector bulb. In some home video and television releases of the film, the gremlins instead change the channel. Daffy Duck also makes cameos during the credits and explains his point of view on them to the audience.
• In the Back to the Future trilogy, the villain Biff Tannen in 1955 is played by the same actor as his supposed ancestor, villain Buford Tannen in 1885. In the original Back to the Future, the Biff character collides with a truckload of manure; in Back to the Future III the same actor (as wild-west outlaw Buford Tannen) has an unfortunate encounter with a heap of manure again, the line "I hate manure" being a clear reference to the original Back to the Future. This chronology makes no sense (a different character, and 1885 should be the first, not second instance, preceding 1955 by 70 years). It therefore must rely on the fourth-wall-breaking assumptions that the audience not only would have seen Back to the Future first but would also be aware that the same actor is playing both of these characters.
• The film Adaptation is a self-referential film throughout, in which the main character of the story is screenwriter Charlie Kaufman.
• In 24 Hour Party People, Tony Wilson talks to the audience throughout the film, and in one scene talks about a scene that was deleted out of the final cut, making note of the fact that it will be on the DVD.
• In Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story there is a stinger at the end of the film where Ben Stiller's villainous character bemoans the tendency for Hollywood films to have happy endings.
• Monty Python and the Holy Grail famously ends with a policeman breaking the camera. Also, a perilous situation, where the knights are being chased to and fro by a hideous beast, is resolved by the animator having a heart attack.
• In the movie adaption of Shirley Valentine, the main character (Shirley) is talking to the audience throughout the length of the movie. This becomes a bit humorous in regards to the forth wall in that she explains this behaviour to other characters as if she is literary "talking to the wall".
• In the movie Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Jay and Bob find out that Bluntman & Chronic, the comic book based on their likenesses, has been adapted into a film in production by Miramax Films. Upon learning of the movie, Holden Mcneil, played by Ben Affleck, says that Miramax will probably use Ben Affleck and Matt Damon in the movie. He also comments on the fact that "Nobody in their right mind would pay money to see a Jay and Silent Bob movie." Mcneil and Jay then turn towards the camera with a somewhat confused look on their faces.
• The movie Big Money Hustlas makes extensive use of fourth wall breakage for comedic effect. After a scene of gratuitous nudity, a character comments that "we didn't even need to do that". When the main character's name is said, a musical sting plays; the other characters eventually begin to hear and complain about the sting, and the villain kills the musician responsible during the climax. Mick Foley appears at one point, and a running joke has him unable to find a new catch phrase, during which he quotes his various professional wrestling catch phrases.
• In Funny Games by Michael Haneke one of the villains winks at the camera and adresses the audience by asking it questions like "We're not up to feature film length yet. Is that enough? But you want a real ending, with plausible plot development don't you?" He also actively changes the continuity by rewinding the movie using a remote control.

Film refers to the celluloid media on which movies are printed Film is a term that encompasses motion pictures as individual projects, as well as the field in general. ... Justus D. Barnes in a famous still from The Great Train Robbery The Great Train Robbery is a 1903 western film. ... 1903 has the latest occurring solstices and equinoxes for 400 years, because the Gregorian calendar hasnt had a leap year for seven years or a century leap year since 1600. ... Groucho Marx poses for an NBC promotional photograph Julius Henry Marx, known as Groucho Marx (October 2, 1890 – August 19, 1977), was an American comedian, working both with his siblings, the Marx Brothers, and on his own. ... The brothers in Hollywood: (left to right) Chico, Zeppo, Groucho, Harpo The Marx Brothers were a team of sibling comedians that played in vaudeville, stage plays, film and television. ... 1929 was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Cover of sheet music for When My dreams Come True The Cocoanuts (1929) is the first released Marx Brothers film. ... 1930 is a common year starting on Wednesday. ... Animal Crackers is a 1930 comedy film, and one of the Marx Brothers most beloved and oft-quoted movies. ... Mary Poppins (right, behind) as portrayed by Julie Andrews in the most famous adaptation of the character. ... Mockumentary (portmanteau of mock documentary. ... Man Bites Dog is also a daily news report serie in Belgium. ... Annie Hall is a 1977 film directed by Woody Allen from a script by Allen and Marshall Brickman. ... Woody Allen (born December 1, 1935), is one of the leading American filmmakers. ... Homage is generally used in modern English to mean any public show of respect to someone to whom you feel indebted. ... Groucho Marx poses for an NBC promotional photograph Julius Henry Marx, known as Groucho Marx (October 2, 1890 – August 19, 1977), was an American comedian, working both with his siblings, the Marx Brothers, and on his own. ... Animation refers to the process in which each frame of a film or movie is produced individually, whether generated as a computer graphic, or by photographing a drawn image, or by repeatedly making small changes to a model (see claymation and stop motion), and then photographing the result. ... Frederick Bean Tex Avery (February 26, 1908 – August 26, 1980) was an animator, cartoonist, and director, famous for producing animated cartoons during the Golden Age of Hollywood. ... Charles Martin Chuck Jones (September 21, 1912–February 22, 2002) was an American animator, cartoon artist, screenwriter, producer, and director of animated films, most memorably of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts for the Warner Brothers cartoon studio. ... Daffy Duck is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. ... Duck Amuck is a surreal 1953 Warner Brothers cartoon starring Daffy Duck, who is tormented by a sadistic animator who constantly changes Daffys clothing, location, appearance, and even shape. ... Sunset Boulevard (also known as Sunset Blvd. ... Gloria Swanson (March 27, 1897 - April 4, 1983) was an American actress. ... Leslie Townes Hope KBE (May 29, 1903 – July 27, 2003), best known as Bob Hope, was a famous entertainer, having appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, on radio and television, movies and in army concerts. ... Bing wooed fans with a sensuous voice, wit, and good looks. ... Tom Jones is a 1963 comedy film which tells the story of a young 18th century man who is taken into the household of a rich gentleman and grows up living a bawdy life with many women. ... Medium Cool is a 1969 film directed by Haskell Wexler and starring Robert Forster. ... 2003 Penguin Books paperback edition On Her Majestys Secret Service is the eleventh James Bond novel by Ian Fleming, published in 1963. ... The James Bond 007 gun logo James Bond, also known as 007 (pronounced double-oh seven), is a sophisticated fictional character and British spy created by writer Ian Fleming. ... George Lazenby as James Bond 007 George Lazenby (born September 5, 1939) is an Australian actor. ... Sean Connery Sir Thomas Sean Connery (born August 25, 1930 in Edinburgh, Scotland) better known simply as Sean Connery, is a Scottish film actor who has starred in many Hollywood films and is best known as the original official James Bond. ... Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick) shakes things up on a parade float Ferris Buellers Day Off is a 1986 film written and directed by John Hughes. ... High Fidelity is also the title of a book by Nick Hornby and a film directed by Stephen Frears, based upon Hornbys book. ... John Cusack as Ed in Identity John Paul Cusack (born June 28, 1966) is an American film actor, born in Evanston, Illinois. ... Cover for the Spaceballs DVD Spaceballs is a 1987 science fiction spoof movie written, directed by, and starring Mel Brooks. ... Dark Helmet is a fictional character performed by Rick Moranis in the movie Spaceballs by Mel Brooks. ... This is the weapon of a Jedi Knight. ... Blazing Saddles is a Warner Bros. ... A rhetorical question is a figure of speech in the form of a question posed for rhetorical effect rather than for the purpose of getting an answer (How many times do I have to tell you to stop walking into the house with mud on your shoes?). A rhetorical question... Warner Bros. ... A limousine (or limo) is a long luxury car, traditionally black in color. ... Waynes World is a 1992 comedy film starring Mike Myers and Dana Carvey as hosts of a cable access television show from Aurora, Illinois. ... Fight Club (1999) is a film based on the novel Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk. ... The Sum of Us is a 1994 Australian movie starring Russell Crowe. ... Disney empire The name Disney may also refer to several aspects of the entertainment empire of The Walt Disney Company: The Walt Disney Company Walt Disney Pictures, the companys flagship motion picture studio Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California The Disney Channel the companys theme parks and... The Emperors New Groove is an animated movie released by The Walt Disney Company in 2000. ... An exposition may be one of the following: In music an exposition is the first of the sections in sonata allegro form. ... The knotted plane was used on movie posters and VHS and DVD covers. ... The Truman Show (1998) is a movie directed by Peter Weir, written by Andrew Niccol, and starring Jim Carrey. ... Gremlins is a 1984 movie directed by Joe Dante. ... Back to the Future is a 1985 film by Robert Zemeckis, written by Robert Zemeckis and Robert Gale, and starring Michael J. Fox. ... Biff H. Tannen is a fictional character in the Back to the Future films — he acts as the town bully and opposes the hero of the series, Marty McFly. ... 1955 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Buford Mad Dog Tannen is a fictional character in the Back to the Future films — he is a town outlaw in Hill Valley, 1885 and is the great-grandfather of Biff Tannen from the first two Back to the Future films. ... 1885 is a common year starting on Thursday. ... Back to the Future is a 1985 film by Robert Zemeckis, written by Robert Zemeckis and Robert Gale, and starring Michael J. Fox. ... The driver of a car transporter truck prepares to offload Skoda Octavia cars in Cardiff, Wales For further uses of the word truck, see Truck (disambiguation). ... The word manure means some types of organic matter used as fertilizer for land. ... Back to the Future Part III is a movie starring Michael J. Fox that opened on 25 May 1990. ... 1885 is a common year starting on Thursday. ... 1955 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Adaptation. ... 24 Hour Party People is a 2002 film about Manchesters popular music community from 1977 to 1997, and specifically about Factory Records. ... Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story is a comedy from 20th Century Fox, written and directed by Rawson Thurber and available on DVD or VHS December 2004. ... Ben Stiller (born November 30, 1965 in New York City) is an American comedian, actor, and film director. ... For other uses, see Hollywood (disambiguation) Greetings from Hollywood Hollywood is a district of the City of Los Angeles, California, U.S.A., that runs from about Vermont Avenue on the east to just beyond Laurel Canyon Boulevard above Sunset and Crescent Heights Boulevards on the west; the north to... Monty Python and the Holy Grail is a comedy film from 1974. ... For the band, see The Police. ... A camera is a device used to take pictures (usually photographs), either singly or in sequence, with or without sound, such as with video cameras. ... Shirley Valentine is a play by Willy Russell, adapted into a movie starring Pauline Collins. ... Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back is the fifth movie from Kevin Smith, famous for his cult films Clerks. ... Movie created in 2000 featuring Bands such as The Misfits and the Insane Clown Posse ... A catch phrase is a phrase or expression that is popularized, usually through repeated use, by a real person or fictional character. ... Micheal Haneke (born 23 March 1942 in Munich, Bavaria, Germany) is a filmmaker and writer best known for his bleak and disturbing style. ...

Interactive entertainment

• Many virtual reality or motion simulator rides, such as the former Thunder Road at Dollywood, break down the fourth wall. Thunder Road had the audience playing the role of a federal agent engaged in a car chase with a cunning moonshiner in the hills of Kentucky.
• In the Metal Gear family of video games, the player and the player's character are frequently conflated by the other characters in the story line. In Metal Gear Solid, one of the protagonist's opponents (Psycho Mantis) is psychic, and makes reference to how many times you have saved onto the memory card, and what other Konami video games you have saved. He also demonstrates his telekinetic abilities by asking the player to put their controller down, after which the controller will start vibrating if the player has that option turned on. Also, in the remake version, Snake will look directly into the camera and nod as if to tell the player to listen to Mantis. But the most interesting break concerning Psycho Mantis is that when fighting him, he "reads" your mind - meaning: he "scans" your controller. So if you push a button he "sees" it coming and responds before you act, in the game. The solution to it is to change the control port, when you beat him he comments on the port change - "So... you used the other... I... I wasn't able to read the future...". Another enemy, Revolver Ocelot, tortures Snake and indicates that he will know if the player is using a turbo controller to cheat and skip the sequence. One member of Solid Snake's support team states that the game has no bugs, and that any errors encountered are just something the player is imagining. In the sequel, Metal Gear Solid 2, a character goes berserk and starts spouting gibberish, much of which references past Metal Gear video games. He also berates the player's performance, and tells them to turn the game console off; he is going to finish the mission on his own. Also, Solid Snake, at one point in the game, is asked how he can afford to use up so much ammunition. He merely replies, "Infinite ammo" while pointing to his bandana, a reference to the bandana received from Meryl in the previous game which granted unlimited ammunition.
• Many console RPGs have out of character tutorial or help dialogue explaining controller movements, or mentioning game elements when no fictional equivalent exists (hit points, Limit Breaks, etc.).
• In Final Fantasy VII, in the aforementioned tutorial room, the cursor (used mainly for locating your character and screen exits) has a conversation with Cloud and the player.
• In the Monkey Island and Simon the Sorcerer series of adventure games, the player's character often make humorous comments directed at the players behind the screen. In Monkey Island, specifically, many references are made to other games by LucasFilm Games, as well as films from the same franchise, for instance Indiana Jones and Star Wars. Also, the pantsless pirate, Herman, makes several comments directed at the player, causing the player character (Guybrush Threepwood) to become confused. At the end of Monkey Island 2, in the Dinky Island jungle, there is a screen with a phone where the character can speak to a LucasFilm Games hint line advisor saying 'I'm stuck in the Jungle in Monkey Island 2!' (Referring to a notably frustrating joke involving non-existent floppy disks.) There is also a section where the player can return to a scene from Monkey Island 1, saying: "This is hauntingly familiar..."
• In Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, an RPG game made as a sequel to the Mario RPG series, a few characters intentionally break the fourth wall. For example, Professor Frankly and Lord Crump, at different points, yell "You, in front of the TV!", referring to the person playing the game. Professor Frankly tells the player to listen carefully to his explanation (after this, the companion with Mario is confused, and is not aware of the player, asks Frankly who he is talking to, to add some humor to the game), while Lord Crump refers to his disguise at the point of the game. There is also a moment in which Goombella accidently breaks the fourth wall while talking about a character: "That's Stewart, the blimp conductor. He checks tickets for blimp passengers. He's what you call a Cheep-Cheep. Normally they don't hang out on land, but... They've actually been around a while in the Mario Bros. series, you know. Oh, gosh, I just broke through the fourth wall, there, didn't I? Sorry, just forget it."
• In Earthbound, at one point, Tony calls Jeff on your cell phone and asks you to enter the player's name for a school project. This comes into play in the final battle, where you must use a move called "Pray" several times to win. Each time you pray, a character you've encountered hears you and begins to pray, which hurts Giygas, the final boss. When you pray for the ninth time, it says that "............ heard the call and began to pray." It shows that message over and over again, and each time, 2 or 3 dots are replaced with letters from whatever you entered for Tony's school project. The final result is, say, "John Doe prayed." So, the player is the one who heard the call.
  • In the same game, there is a sign in Moonside that reads "I sense...that...you have a controller in your hands..."
• A number of games break the fourth wall if the player doesn't perform any action for a set period of time. For example, in the Resident Evil series, the character of Jill Valentine will impatiently tap her foot if she stays in one spot for too long. In some games, the character will say something like "I don't have all day," while other characters may yawn or fiddle with their weapon. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is the first game with this feature, which was also followed up on by the Earthworm Jim series, among several others.
• A running joke in several console RPGs is that a certain character (usually insane) recognizes that the entire world and its populace are merely characters in a video game, subject to the control of a "button-pressing overlord" (the player). This has been seen as a gag in Secret of Evermore and Anachronox, and the concept in a more serious form is central to the plot of Star Ocean: Till the End of Time.
• The whole premise of the computer game Omikron is to break the 4th wall. According to the game, the player character is actually the player himself or herself, whose soul has been sucked into the game world by the game, where it exists as a ghost-like entity capable of possessing the game's characters. Defeat in the game world means losing your soul in the real world (although, in reality, you can always reload from a saved game).
• In Warcraft games and some other strategy games the characters go beyond reacting to being selected with acknowledgement. When clicked several times in a row, they respond with amusing remarks, such as "That tickles", "Why must you torment me?", "Do that again and you'll pull back a stump" and even "Stop that persistent clicking!" [1] (http://dlh.net/chtdb/chtview.php?lang=ger&typ=Engl.%20FAQ&sys=pc&cap=&search=&match=&layout=&disp=e30852&page=2) There are similar occurrences in the first Baldur's Gate game. Prolonged clicking leads to such comments as 'One day Tiax will point and click.' Aditionally, the character of Xzar--an insane necromancer--breaks the fourth wall on a regular basis, quoting Hannibal Lecter and Lenny from 'Of Mice and Men.'
• Another "break" in Baldur's Gate is found in the expansion to Baldur's Gate II, Throne of Bhaal. At one point you'll meet a group of adventurers of fairly low level and you'll assign them a mission. When they return you'll be informed that they save the game and the leader says that your group can be easily defeated. After fighting the adventurers (which is fairly easy) you'll be informed that they loaded the game and this time they'll refrain from attacking you.
• In the Donkey Kong Country trilogy, Cranky Kong usually breaks the fourth wall to complain about today's current video gaming systems.
• The game Conker's Bad Fur Day had plenty of fourth wall-breaking moments in which Conker would not just talk directly to the audience but the makers of the game itself as well. One mention was after he saw the Uga Deity for the first time, dramatic music played and Conker requested that the musician play something "with a bit more of a beat" instead. The game also spoofed various movies such as Saving Private Ryan, The Matrix, Aliens, The Wizard of Oz, and Jurassic Park. The end of the game also shattered the fourth wall in which Conker was able to escape from space and defeat the final boss due to the game locking up.
• In the game The Lost Vikings for the SNES, the three main characters often hint to each other that they may all be existing in a video game. This occurs when the characters have died several times, when the characters reach a new level, or when the player is idle for too long. On one occaision, Olaf the Stout questions why the supervillain of the game bothered to leave so many compartments, floating blocks, power-ups, and other conventional video game props. This comment lampoons the logic of all platform based games at that point.
• In The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, there's a mini-game where you do battle with an old swordsman. After you hit him 1000 times, he will ask you if your left index finger is tired. The left index finger is the one used to press the L button on the GameCube controller; which, when held, will lock onto your target to make fighting easier.
• In the Fallout series, the fourth wall is frequently broken. For example in Fallout 2 the player character can, during a conversation in Vault City, allude to the game's developers. When told that he should stay in character he complains that he worked hard to get the high scores in Intelligence and Perception necessary to get that dialog point, which alludes to the system of stats behind the game. Also, other characters will break the fourth wall during battles with remarks like "I need more action points!" or "Wish I had a Limit Break."
• In Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean, Kalas will talk to you asking you what to do, it is crucial to the story. You are essentially a character in the story.
• In Super Smash Bros. Melee one of the possible anwsers you can get from Fox's secret taunt is getting Peppy and Slippy to explain the game's control to which Falco will reply "What? You're just explaining the controls now?".
• In Super Smash Bros. Melee for Nintendo Gamecube having a Pikmin game save on your memory card unlocks a Captain Olimar trophy.
• Rayman 3 also broke the fourth wall a few times, one of the most memorable instances being Murphy asking you if you ever played a video game before when you're doing poorly in the intro stage.
• In Max Payne, one of the game's chapters begins as the villain injects Max with what is supposed to be a lethal dose of hallucinogen. This results in a surreal dream sequence where Max relives several parts of his life in a Salvator Dali style distortion, and while answering a ringing phone he hears Mona Sax telling him "Max, you're in a graphic novel!" where Max spontaneously realizes that he is indeed a character in a film noir story. As an added twist to his hallucination, he goes through the very same sequence with the ringing phone again, this time he's told "Max, you're in a computer game!" which is also true, and Max suddenly realizes that he can see weapon icons hovering over his head (the game's weapon selection controls)
• There are a number of instances of fourth-wall breaking in the Splinter Cell series, published by UbiSoft. In Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow, ads can be found ingame for other UbiSoft games, and at one point, one of the main characters sips coffee from an UbiSoft coffee mug. In Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, a character mentions that "crowbars are only for geeky video game characters", which also doubles as Ubisoft's way of poking fun at Gordon Freeman. At another point in that game, the main character, Sam Fisher, says, "Let me guess... three alarms and the mission's over?", the response to which is, "This isn't a video game, Fisher." A third instance of fourth-wall breaking in Chaos Theory can be heard as dialogue between two patrolling mercenaries–they discuss UbiSoft's game, Prince of Persia: Warrior Within. Finally, the fourth wall is also broken in that game when a blimp with the UbiSoft logo is clearly visible during one of the game's cinematic sequences.
• Bomberman Jetters nearly breaks the fourth wall: In the "fake" ending, Mujoe (in his space ship) talks to the player about sparing his/her life but the scene quickly cuts to his base, revealing that he was in fact talking to White Bomber and Max.
• An easter egg in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas tells the technical statistics of a bridge in the game (including how much space it takes on the disc).
• In Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Farah and the prince banter in the library. Farah reads a poem out loud and the prince annoyedly asks her to instead find a book with some clue how to get out of the palace. To this, she replies "It's not that kind of game" (whereupon the prince mutters to himself "Game!? She thinks this is some kind of game?"). Also, the game over screen stresses the fact that the entire gameplay is an on-going narration - if the player fails, the prince's voice says things like "No, no, that's not what happened". At the end of the game, it is revealed that the prince is actually retelling the story ingame and not berating the player. Now that the fourth wall is down, the player not only identifies with, but actually is both the character who is retelling and the character who is listening, inside the game.
• In Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, there is a large pool in the shape of the Rockstar logo. This is only possible to see from a helicopter.
• In the Pokémon Red, Blue, Yellow, FireRed, and LeafGreen versions, there is a building in Celadon City where the player gets to meet the game's developers, who say things to the player such as, "I'm the graphic artist, I drew you!"
• In most of the Command & Conquer games, the player takes the role of a commander and as such, many characters in the FMVs will speak to him/her.
• In the first X-Men game for Sega Genesis, after you defeat the villan Mojo, you are tasked with destorying the source of the virus affecting the Danger Room. However, after destorying the source, you are told the world your in is collapsing and you must "reset the computer". The statement is misleading; You actually have to press the reset button on your Genesis console.
• In the game Banjo Kazooie for Nintendo 64, you can enter secret codes inside of the sandcastle in a level called Treasure Trove Cove. If you enter too many codes, the evil witch Gruntilda will threaten to delete your game save data. If you enter another code after she says this (without exiting the sandcastle), your game save will be deleted.
• In Metroid Fusion for Gameboy Advance, there is a computer terminal in the AQA Sector of the game that is difficult to reach at a certain point in the game (after unlocking the final security doors, but before getting the Diffusion Missile Upgrade), but it is possible by using a difficult technique called Shinesparking. If you can get to the terminal, the characters in the game (A member of the Galactic Federation and the Computer, ADAM) give Samus Aran a special message. After talking to her, the Galactic Federation member asks the computer, "I wonder how many players will see this message... ?".
• In the Infocom text adventure The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, when Ford Prefect hands you the guide before taking a nap, he leans over and whispers to you "I'm not supposed to tell you this but you'll never be able to solve this game without consulting the guide about a lot of things."
• In Space Quest 4, the protagonist can consult a fictitious SQ4 hint book to help him in the game. Space Quest 3 is credited as being designed by characters the protagonist meets during the game!

Virtual reality (abbreviated VR) describes an environment that is simulated by a computer. ... This article needs to be wikified. ... Thunder Road is the title of a 1958 movie about running moonshine in the mountains of Kentucky in the early 1950s. ... Dollywood is an amusement park owned by country music singer Dolly Parton and Herschend Enterprises. ... State nickname: Bluegrass State Other U.S. States Capital Frankfort Largest city Louisville Governor Ernie Fletcher Official languages English Area 104,749 km² (37th)  - Land 102,989 km²  - Water 1,760 km² (1. ... Metal Gear is a series of stealth-based games created by Hideo Kojima and developed and published by Konami. ... A computer game is a game composed of a computer-controlled virtual universe that players interact with in order to achieve a defined goal or set of goals. ... Metal Gear Solid, commonly abbreviated as MGS, is a stealth-based game developed by Konami and first published for the PlayStation game console in 1998. ... Psycho Mantis is a fictional character in the game Metal Gear Solid. ... Memory cards are solid-state electronic flash memory data storage devices used with digital cameras, handheld and laptop computers, telephones, music players, video game consoles, and other electronics. ... Konami Corporation (コナミ) (NYSE: KNM) is a leading developer and publisher of numerous popular and strong-selling computer and video games. ... Solid Snake is the main protagonist in the Metal Gear video game series. ... Revolver Ocelot, or Shalashaska, is a fictional character who originates in the Metal Gear video game series. ... Turbo button generally refers to a button (control) on a piece of electonic equipment, which makes the equipment run faster in some way. ... Solid Snake is the main protagonist in the Metal Gear video game series. ... A computer bug is an error, flaw, mistake, failure, or fault in a computer program that prevents it from working correctly or produces an incorrect result. ... Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (commonly abbreviated MGS2) is a stealth-based game that was developed and published by Konami for the PlayStation 2 in 2001. ... Metal Gear is a series of stealth-based games created by Hideo Kojima and developed and published by Konami. ... Solid Snake is the main protagonist in the Metal Gear video game series. ... Computer role-playing games (CRPGs), often shortened to simply role-playing games (RPGs), are a type of video or computer game that traditionally use gameplay elements found in paper-and-pencil role-playing games. ... Final Fantasy VII is a RPG that was Square Co. ... The Secret of Monkey Island, CD version. ... Simon the Sorcerer is one of the many names of Simon Magus, a Samaritan Gnostic. ... This is an article about a game company. ... Official LucasArts logo LucasArts Entertainment Company (sometimes shortened to LEC), is a video game developer and publisher. ... Indiana Jones wax figure at Madame Tussauds Indiana Jones is a fictional bullwhip-toting archaeologist with an overdeveloped fear of snakes, played by Harrison Ford in a series of films by George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. ... For the missile defense program, see Strategic Defense Initiative. ... Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is the sequel to the Nintendo 64 video game Paper Mario, and is the fourth in the series of Mario role-playing game titles that includes Super Mario RPG, Paper Mario, and Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. ... Ness, the red-capped boy in this picture, experiences many humorous adventures in EarthBound. ... Resident Evil, known as Biohazard (バイオハザード) in Japan, is a successful franchise of horror-adventure video games developed by Capcom. ... Sonic the Hedgehog 2 can refer to. ... Jim firing his gun in Earthworm Jim 2, for Super Nintendo Earthworm Jim is a platform game starring an earthworm who battles evil with the help of an ultra-high-tech-indestructible-super-space-cyber-suit. It was developed by Shiny Entertainment, released for the Sega Genesis in 1994, and... Secret of Evermore, released in North America on September 18, 1995, is a role playing video game for the Super Nintendo video game system. ... Anachronox (released July 2001) is a computer game produced by Tom Hall and the Ion Storm games studio. ... Introduction Star Ocean: Till the End of Time is the third game in the Star Ocean video game series. ... Warcraft: Orcs & Humans is a real-time strategy computer game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment in 1994. ... Donkey Kong Countrys title screen. ... Cranky Kong Cranky Kong is the original Donkey Kong, who appears in the DK arcade games, the Donkey Kong Country trilogy, and in Donkey Kong 64. ... Conkers Bad Fur Day is a Nintendo 64 video game made by Rareware that was marketed as an adult platform game. ... Saving Private Ryan is a 1998 film directed by Steven Spielberg dealing with the World War II Battle of Normandy. ... The Matrix is a film first released in the USA on March 31, 1999, written and directed by the Wachowski brothers (Andy and Larry). ... Aliens is a 1986 science fiction horror movie starring Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Lance Henriksen, Carrie Henn, Bill Paxton and Paul Reiser. ... The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. ... A mosquito in amber Jurassic Park is a novel written by Michael Crichton and published in 1990, which was later adapted as a movie directed by Steven Spielberg. ... From left to right: Olaf, Baleog and Erik The Lost Vikings is a side-scrolling action game which was developed by Blizzard Entertainment (then known as Silicon & Synapse) and released in 1992 by publisher Interplay Entertainment. ... The European SNES design is identical to the Super Famicom. ... The Green Goblin, a supervillain and enemy of Spider-Man. ... The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (or Zeruda no Densetsu: Kaze no Takuto in Japan) is the ninth game in the well-known The Legend of Zelda series of video games. ... A minigame is a (usually short) segment of a video game that uses a different style of gameplay than the rest of the game. ... The Nintendo GameCube (Japanese: ゲームキューブ; originally code-named Dolphin during development; abbreviated as GCN) is Nintendos fourth home video game console, belonging to the 128-bit era; the same generation as Segas Dreamcast, Sonys PlayStation 2, and Microsofts Xbox. ... A game controller is an input device used to control a video game. ... Fallout is a computer role-playing game produced by Tim Cain and published by Interplay in 1997. ... Fallout is a computer role-playing game produced by Tim Cain and published by Interplay in 1997. ... Baten Kaitos is a series of role-playing games. ... Super Smash Bros. ... Peppy in Star Fox: Assault. ... Slippy Toad is a fictional toad character, from the Star Fox series. ... Falco with a Homing Laucher. ... Super Smash Bros. ... The Nintendo GameCube (Japanese: ゲームキューブ; originally code-named Dolphin during development; abbreviated as GCN) is Nintendos fourth home video game console, belonging to the 128-bit era; the same generation as Segas Dreamcast, Sonys PlayStation 2, and Microsofts Xbox. ... Pikmin (ピクミン in Japanese) is the first of the Pikmin series of video games which are designed by Nintendos Shigeru Miyamoto (of Mario and Zelda fame). ... Rayman 3 is the third entry in the Rayman series. ... Max Payne is a third-person shooter computer game developed by Finnish company Remedy Entertainment, produced by 3D Realms and published by Gathering of Developers in July, 2001. ... The latest game in the series, Chaos Theory was released in 2005 Splinter Cell is a series of video games and novels created by American author Tom Clancy. ... Ubisoft Entertainment (formerly Ubi Soft) is a computer and video game publisher and developer headquarted in Montreuil-sous-Bois, France. ... Ubisoft Entertainment (formerly Ubi Soft) is a computer and video game publisher and developer headquarted in Montreuil-sous-Bois, France. ... Half-Life 2 concept art of Gordon Freeman holding a crowbar Dr. Gordon Freeman is the fictional protagonist of the Half-Life series of first-person shooter computer games. ... Sam Fisher is the main character in the Splinter Cell series of games and novel created by author Tom Clancy. ... Sam Fisher is the main character in the Splinter Cell series of games and novel created by author Tom Clancy. ... Prince of Persia: Warrior Within Categories: Computer and video game stubs | 2004 computer and video games | Game Boy Advance games | GameCube games | PlayStation 2 games | Windows games | Xbox games | Ubisoft Entertainment games | Action-adventure games ... Bomberman Jetters is an anime based off of the popular video game series Bomberman. ... From the custom of the Easter egg hunt observed in western nations and many parts of Europe, Easter eggs are hidden messages or features which may appear in movies and books, on CDs and DVDs, or in computer programs. ... Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is the fifth video game in the Grand Theft Auto series. ... Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is a third-person action adventure video game published by Ubisoft. ... Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (released in October 2002) is the fourth video game in the hit Grand Theft Auto series. ... Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue were the first Pokémon games released for the Game Boy in the United States. ... Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue were the first Pokémon games released for the Game Boy in the United States. ... Screenshot of Pokémon Yellow. ... Pokémon FireRed and Pokémon LeafGreen are games in the world famous Pokémon video game series. ... Pokémon FireRed and Pokémon LeafGreen are games in the world famous Pokémon video game series. ... Command & Conquer is a real-time strategy series of computer games released by the game developer Westwood Studios (1985 – 2003), which was purchased by Electronic Arts in 1998. ... The X-Men are a group of comic book superheroes featured in Marvel Comics. ... Sega Genesis 2 The Sega Genesis is a 16-bit video game console released by Sega in North America in 1989. ... Banjo-Kazooie is a 3-D platform/adventure video game for the Nintendo 64. ... The Nintendo 64, commonly called the N64, is Nintendos third home video game console. ... Samus having her Power Suit surgically removed. ... The Game Boy Advance is a best-selling handheld. ... Samus Aran in Varia Suit from the Metroid Prime series. ... Infocom was an American software company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. ... ... Ford Prefect is: a model of car - see Ford Prefect (car) a character in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, named after the car - see Ford Prefect (character) This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Space Quest is a series of six computer games that follow the adventures of a hapless janitor named Roger Wilco, as he campaigns through the galaxy for truth, justice and really clean floors. ...

See also

• Audience participation
• Metafiction
• Gaze
• Heckling