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The fourth wall is the imaginary invisible wall at the front of the stage in a Proscenium Theater , through which the audience sees the action in the world of the play. The concept is generally presumed to have originated in Nineteenth Century Theatre with the advent of theatrical Realism . Critic Vincent Canby described it in 1987 as "that invisible Screen that forever separates the audience from the stage.""Film view: sex can spoil the scene;" (review). Canby, Vincent. New York Times. (Late Edition (East Coast)). New York, N.Y.: Jun 28, 1987. pg. A.17 . ProQuest ISSN: 03624331 ProQuest document ID: 956621781 (subscription). retrieved July 3, 2007 ORIGIN AND MEANING Although it originated in theatre, where conventional three-walled stage sets provide a more literal "fourth wall", the term has been adopted by other media, such as Cinema , Television , Comics , and Video Games to more generally refer to the boundary between the fiction and the audience. The fourth wall is part of the Suspension Of Disbelief between a fictional work and an audience. The audience will usually passively accept the presence of the fourth wall without giving it any direct thought, allowing them to enjoy the fiction as if they were observing real events. The presence of a fourth wall is one of the best established conventions of fiction and as such has led some artists to draw direct attention to it for dramatic effect. For instance, in A.R. Gurney 's '' The Fourth Wall '', a quartet of characters deal with housewife Peggy's obsession with a blank wall in her house, slowly being drawn into a series of theatre clichés as the furniture and action on the stage become more and more directed to the supposed fourth wall. BREAKING THE FOURTH WALL The term "breaking the fourth wall" in theatre generally means when a character is showing his/her awareness of the audience. The term originated from Bertolt Brecht's theory of " Epic Theatre " that he developed from (and in contrast to) Konstantin Stanislavski's drama theory. Most often, the fourth wall is broken through a character directly addressing the audience, although the same effect can be achieved by Breaking Character , through dialogue, or by the characters interacting with objects outside the context of the work (e.g. a character is handed a prop by a stage hand). Various artists have used this jarring effect to make a point, as it forces an audience to see the fiction in a new light and to watch it less passively. Bertolt Brecht was known for deliberately breaking the fourth wall to encourage his audience to think more critically about what they were watching, referred to as Verfremdungseffekt (often translated to "alienation effect"). The sudden breaking of the fourth wall is often employed for comical effect, as a sort of visual Non-sequitur ; the unexpected breaking from normal conventions of narrative fiction can surprise the audience and create humor. A very early example of this occurs in Francis Beaumont 's '' The Knight Of The Burning Pestle '', which contains three characters who are purportedly part of the audience. They interrupt the prologue and demand to be consulted on the plot, ordering a number of sudden (and usually extremely awkward) changes throughout the play, with comic results. Such exploitation of an audience's familiarity with the conventions of fiction is a key element in many works defined as Post-modern , which dismantle established rules of fiction. Works which break or directly refer to the fourth wall often utilize other post-modern devices such as Meta-reference or Breaking Character . By the 1940's, breaking the fourth wall was accepted in popular culture, as evident in the appealing "Road to..." movies with Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour. Hope or Crosby often addressed the audience with a wisecrack, letting them in on the joke or with an irreverent comment about the film's producers. A compromise to the concept often occurs in improvisational theatre, in which the audience is asked to interact with the players to some extent, such as by voting on a resolution to a mystery. In that case, the audience members are treated as if they were witnesses to the action in the play, effectively becoming "actors" rather than being a true "fourth wall." This is a major tenet of Augusto Boal's Theater Of The Oppressed . It is arguable that this technique was first employed in the modern sense (i.e., not in which an actor merely makes a clarifying aside to the audience, or clever implied self-references are made, but rather when the fourth wall is demolished to the point that there no longer remains any significant division between performance and audience, with drama joining reality or the exact opposite depending on one's perspective) in the sensational 1921 premiere of Pirandello 's play '' Sei Personaggi In Cerca D'Autore '' (''Six Characters in Search of an Author''), wherein six ordinary people come to the rehearsal of a play to demand that their stories be told as part of the performance. The fourth wall is sometimes included as part of the narrative, when a character discovers that they are part of a fiction and 'breaks the fourth wall' to make contact with their audience, as seen in films like '' Tom Jones '', which won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1963, Woody Allen 's '' Annie Hall '' (with Marshall McLuhan ) and '' The Purple Rose Of Cairo '', and Jonathan Gash 's Lovejoy novels. Also, it is broken twice by Peter Pan and Captain Hook in the 1954 musicial of Peter Pan . George Burns commonly broke the fourth wall and directly addressed the audience in his 1950's TV comedy show."At work with Garry Shandling; Late-Night TV, Ever More Unreal;" {Link without Title} . Weinraub, Bernard, New York Times. (Late Edition (East Coast)). New York, N.Y.: Dec 10, 1992. pg. C.1. Proquest ISSN: 03624331 ProQuest document ID: 965497661 retrieved July 3, 2007. In these situations however, the 'fourth wall' that the character breaks remains part of the overall narrative and the wall between the real audience and the fiction remains intact. These sorts of stories do not actually break the fourth wall in the strictest sense, but are more properly referred to as Metafiction , or fiction that refers to the conventions of fiction. The television series '' Titus '', which ran from 2000-2002, employed a similar technique; lead character Christopher Titus directly addressed the audience in a black-and-white "neutral space", which he used for narrating the events in the show's "Live Story". This technique is also used in Comic Strip s; for example, Calvin And Hobbes "spoke" to the readers in a few strips. The Marvel Comics character Deadpool is also known to speak to the reader and even refer to his nature as a comic book character, much to the confusion of others around him. The television series Moonlighting and Clarissa Explains It All make extensive use of breaking the fourth wall. The fourth wall is also often broken in both the traditional Commedia Dell'arte style or modern reincarnations of such kinds of plays, such as '' Pippin ''. Usually, the cast of players is looking to the audience for advice or support. This device is also common in many popular television comedy series, such as '' It's Garry Shandling's Show '', '' Boston Legal '', '' The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air '', '' The Bernie Mac Show '', '' Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide '', '' Malcolm In The Middle '', '' Oz '' and '' Saved By The Bell '' where characters use 'knowing' and comical looks toward the audience or sometimes even speak directly to camera. In the final scene of the series finale of '' The Cosby Show '', actors Bill Cosby and Phylicia Rashād broke the fourth wall and danced off the set, as hundreds of audience members gave a rousing standing ovation. In video games ''.]] Breaking the fourth wall in video games is very common, mostly due to the fact that the players play an active role within the game. It’s usually done as a comic relief, as a part of the game, or to increase the player’s awareness of the game’s fictional nature. Some game series are known to use this technique very often, such as '' EarthBound '', '' Final Fantasy V '', '' Donkey Kong '' , '' Paper Mario '', the '' Metal Gear Series '', '' Contact '' and '' Destroy All Humans 2 '', among others. Tutorial Method The most common way to break the fourth wall in video games is in a tutorial fashion. A character in the game instructs the player’s Avatar (or in some cases, directly instructs the player) how to perform a specific action within the game world. The '''' and '' Metal Gear Solid '' as the character must input a radio-frequency which is never given in-game, but instead printed on the video-game's manual (in ''Metal Gear 2'') or back CD cover (in ''Metal Gear Solid''). Ever since '''' was released, the rest of the Paper Mario games have been known for breaking the fourth wall in this fashion. For example, in the game '' Super Paper Mario '' when Mario is given the power to flip from 2-D to 3-D, the wizard Bestovius tells him that he needs to press the "A" button to use it. Mario asks what the "A" button is, and the wizard just says that the "great beings watching over us from another dimension" will know what he means. The fourth wall is frequently broken in this fashion throughout the Paper Mario series. Story Driven The fourth wall can also be broken simply through story driven elements within the game. In the game '' Tak And The Power Of Juju '', the Shaman addresses the player directly as an Omniscient Being throughout the story. In Max Payne during dream sequences, you can sometimes see messages that say something like "Wake up! You are in a computer game!" Perhaps one of the best examples of breaking the fourth wall is '''' for the Nintendo GameCube . In this psychological horror game, as the player's character loses their sanity (based upon experiences with monsters, ghosts, etc in the game), the game begins playing tricks on the player. Examples include showing a "MUTE" icon on the screen and disabling audio output, making the television appear to shut off (by showing a quick white flash and then making the screen dark), pretending to overwrite the player's memory card, disabling gamepad input, and showing bugs crawling across the screen. Taken to the extreme, in for PC and Dreamcast , the player’s soul is 'absorbed' into the protagonist's body at the beginning of the game, and then wanders from body to body, either voluntarily or to be able to make progress in the storyline. The computer thus becomes a medium to another dimension. Additionally, the whole storyline (and conclusion) is actually deeply tied to this fourth wall breaking, in order to bring an unusual and augmented involvement from the player. Unusual Player Actions Another common method employed by video games is to address the player when he does something unusual while playing (ex: clicking numerous times on a character in a '', the Drow character threatens to strangle the player with the Xbox Controller cords if they do not resume play. In the MLB Slugfest games when a player doesn't swing at a good pitch, one of the announcers Jim Shorts will say something like," It's not his fault, it's the guy with the controller not pressing the swing button." Character Awareness The fourth wall is broken by the game ''al entity throughout the entire gameplay). In a dialog taking place there the player will be presented with a choice to answer the question "Who is saying this?" either as "It is me, Bachelor" (or another playable character) or as "It is me, the player". In the latter case the NPC will show the full awareness that he is "merely a bunch of triangles on your monitor". In the MLB slugfest games. When the player completes a game, the announcer Tim will sometimes say, "We will see you tomorrow at 7 for another great game." After that the other announcer Jim will say, " Uh, Tim this is a video game." Easter Eggs ''. After finishing the game as on both the light and dark sides, Atton Rand will say this quote when you find him: ''"I'm Atton. I actually wasn't supposed to make it into the final game, but I was created at the last minute. Blame my agent. I was actually slated for a spin-off to Jedi Knight, but I don't want to talk about what happened there."'' Another example is in widely popular GTA San Andreas. On top of a tall bridge the player can find a sign that says "There are NO Easter Eggs Up Here! Go Away!" IN CINEMA, VIDEO, AND DOCUMENTARY "Breaking the fourth wall" is also used in numerous movies and documentaries, such as '' Walking With Dinosaurs ''. One such instance is when a '' Tyrannosaurus '' roars, some of its saliva flies onto the camera. This technique is also used in other ''Walking with...'' series, ranging from ants swarming over the camera to '' Dimetrodon '' flinging dung from another animal's intestines, which splatters onto the lens. It is also used to much humorous effect in the Walt Disney movie, George Of The Jungle, where the characters at many times follow instructions given by the Narrator, with the villain being lifted off-screen on shouting back at him. It's also used in The Lion King in a Safari when Timon says "Hey! You! Staring at me! Wondering why you can't see me! Choose something!" Another example of Breaking the Fourth Wall occurs in '' Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back ,'' when Jay ( Jason Mewes ) and Holden McNeil ( Ben Affleck ) are discussing the need (or lack thereof) to stop production of a movie based on the characters of Bluntman & Chronic - the main characters of a comic book based on the characters of Jay & Silent Bob - Holden asks "A 'Jay and Silent Bob' movie? Who would pay to see that?", just before they look directly at the camera as to question the intelligence of the audience, as Silent Bob (director Kevin Smith ) gives the camera a big smile, and a double thumbs-up. Smith also uses the device in '' Mallrats '' when Willam Black kicks a stage support in frustration, causing a videocassette to drop into Silent Bob's hand and making Silent Bob falsely believe he has successfully used the Jedi Mind Trick , and again in the captions before the end credits, we are informed that Willam finally sees the Magic Eye picture, whereupon Willam is relieved (he can also see the caption). William also calls Renee (played by Shannen Doherty ) "Brenda," a reference to the character she played in Beverly Hills, 90210 . In '' Ferris Bueller's Day Off '', Ferris breaks the fourth wall on several occasions, including: when explaining how to fake illness to get a day off of school, when discussing his frustration with Cameron's anxiety, when expressing surprise that his sister Jeanie has saved him from Principal Ed Rooney, and in telling everyone to leave after the end credits. In '' Wayne's World '', Wayne and Garth frequently talk to the camera. In a scene in Stan Mikita's Doughnuts, an employee played by Ed O'Neill begins a monologue with the camera. Wayne intrudes and admonishes O'Neill, stating that only he and Garth get to talk to the camera. In the opening credits for '' Sledge Hammer! '', Sledge utters his catchphrase, "Trust me, I know what I'm doing," and fires his gun at the camera. Glass is heard shattering and a bullet hole can be seen in the "glass" television screen, while the picture, including Sledge, is blurred. In some cartoons, such as Tex Avery 's Magical Maestro , a hair seems to be caught in the cartoon (as cartoons were shown in movie theatres for many years) and a character in the cartoon plucks the hair from . In the television show That's So Raven , Raven Baxter, a teen psychic, overhears someones comment on the fact that her psychic friend should get his own T.V. show, Raven says "that's absurd, who would watch a show about a teenage psychic?" while staring mischievously at the audience and the viewers at home. On the Kids WB cartoon " Johnny Test ", Johnny and his talking dog, Dukey, are trapped inside the movie "The Quickest and the Monkiest"(a parody of " The Fast And The Furious "), Dukey remarks "You had to watch your Dad's movies. You couldn't watch cartoons like normal kids." Johnny and Dukey look at the audience. During an episode of Hannah Montana , Hannah is about to be kissed by Jesse McCartney, when she looks towards to the audience and says, "Eep!". In a couple of episodes of Brandy And Mr. Whiskers , they interact with the audience at the end, like when at the end of an episode, Mr. Whiskers states that he realizes that people shouldn't waste their lives staring at a screen since living real life is much better, but Brandy then questions as to if TV is the same thing, in which they both begin to nervously laugh and look at the viewers, then a hand appears with a remote, it clicks a button, and the TV goes blank. In Kim Possible Ron is lecturing the audience about eating mysterious substances from chemical vats, while everyone is looking at him weirdly asking each other who he's talking to. He also looks at the screen in another episode after reacting to an echoing voiceover. Kim also Breaks The Fourth Wall when she stops the show's opening into halfway through. Canadian cartoon, Jacob Two Two has occasions when the forth wall is broken, such as characters reacting to background music or start taking photographs of the audience. Whilst in the British cartoon Horrid Henry both the central character and his brother Perfect Peter are aware of the viewers at home watching them. In the TV show Family Guy the forth wall is broken on repeated occasions Such as when Peter Griffin complains about Fox Network he retorts to a warning that '"What are they going to do? Cut our budget?"''''' He then leaves in a poorly animated walk. Another reference is when Meg Griffin demands that the cameras following her to be turned off with her brother screaming that she's breaking the forth wall. This may have come from The Simpsons where such instances have occasionally occurred (see Examples Of Meta-references In Fiction for more details). In the movie Spaceballs , Dark Helmet is watching a video of Spaceballs and asks his helper what they are watching. He replies that they are watching the movie and that when the movie is over the movie will come out on tape. Dark Helmet looks at the camera and talks to the audience saying, "Everybody got that?" Also, during a "schwartz-fighting" scene, Dark Helmet accidentally slices a boom operator's chest with his schwartz, and immediately points at Lone Starr, saying "he did it!" A similar scene occurs when the heroes are captured only for the soldiers to find they've caught the Stunt Doubles instead. At one point Dark Helmet finds himself ''watching himself'' watching a movie leading to comical situation. On another occasion one of his cronies press the wrong button on a remote causing the screen to plunge into darkness, with Dark Helmet ranting that he '''''"...turned the movie off!"'''''with the cameras coming back on to show background cast members behaving out of character! In an episode of '' I Dream Of Jeanie '', a painter as the episode ends paints over the screen, substituting the usual '' Fade To Black ''. In the movie '' Men In Black '', at the end '' Will Smith '' says to the viewing audience, "Sorry", before he presses a button on the Neuralizer. The long running Cartoon Network show Ed, Edd N' Eddy has many times when one of the characters breaks the fourth wall. In one episode, Double D reminds Eddy of the time he taught Jimmy to be like him, in which Eddy replies, "Oh yeah! Didn't we win an Emmy for that episode?" In a few episodes of '' Muppet Babies '', sometimes one of the babies would speak to the viewing audience. (A tomato hits the screen in front of Baby Fozzie.) Fozzie Bear: Nobody's FORCING you to watch, you know! John Belushi in Animal House looks back at the audience while peeping in a sorority house. Occasionally, similar incidents happened in cartoon shows like the animated series like '''', and in episodes of the TV show '' Popples ''. In the episode, "Popples Play Pee Wee Golf", Party Popple tees off using the pom-pom of her tail. The ball ricochets off the sides of the screen, then hits it dead-on, shattering it. Party Popple: Oops! As the glass falls away, Part Popple pulls a replacement TV screen out of her pouch, replaces it over the old screen's spot, then waves hello. The , presented in 3-D, Carmen breaks the fourth wall by pointing her hand toward the audience saying, "You have to go through me first... Game Boy ." The fourth wall is also broken on the Podcast channel for the Homestar Runner website, Podstar Runner. At the end of each segment, Strong Bad panics over being 'stuck' in a tiny box (the IPod screen), and knocks frantically at the screen until it 'cracks'. As glass shards come down from the screen, he hopes that the iPod's owner 'got the extended warranty'. The famous Marvel Comics character Deadpool (Wade Wilson) commonly breaks the fourth wall, one example being when he talked to Loki , the Norse God of Mischief , both showing knowledge that they are characters. In DC Comics the villain Joker is similarly aware, even to a greater level, of actually being able to remember non-canon and even Marvel-DC comics crossover events. On one occasion, during the Emperor Joker arc of Superman , he comments to the audience that, since he has gained the powers of God, he can disregard any word, or even reinvent the entire alphabet, if he sees fit, at which point the text changes to an illegible and meaningless series of symbols, but realizing that this makes the comic completely unreadable to the audience, he changes it back, commenting "okay... bad idea." CONTROVERSY Unless being used for a comical effect, breaking the forth wall can also be annoying or unfair on the audience and create plot holes. For example in a video game or a film the continuation would no longer make sense if the character began talking from its universe to reality. Howether it can make sence if it is suggested to be the actor giving the audience information on a previous episode, this form is used commonly, especialy in Anime. TECHNICAL LIMITATIONS Although breaking of the fourth wall is usually deliberate, the technical constraints of filmmaking, or the impracticality of refilming a complicated scene, can sometimes inadvertently break the wall by "reminding" the audience that they are watching a film:
The above kinds of anomalies, if blatantly obvious and distracting, are sometimes considered " Bloopers ". However, in some cases these effects themselves are inserted deliberately to add realism. '' Firefly '' and the re-imagined series of Battlestar Galactica contains many examples in CGI sequences, such as cameras shaking when a starship passes close or the camera being hit by debris and damaged after the nuclear destruction of the Cloud Nine liner. This can also be used for comical effect, such as an episode of '' Arrested Development '' where a character suggests that a mole might be spying the Bluth Company reunion; as Michael replies that "nobody is listening in on us", the boom microphone is clearly visible at the top of the screen. Most modern computer and video games featuring advanced graphics also feature lens flares when the camera is facing the sun. REFERENCES SEE ALSO
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