History Main / NoFourthWall

* ''Bride of Portable Hole Full of Beer'', a farcical ''DungeonsAndDragons'' supplement includes a prestige class that slowly figures out that it is a RPG character as it progresses. At the final level the character enters the real world and moves in with the player.

** DGenerationX would often use this to comedic effect by lampshading it into oblivion including a time TripleH covered up a flub with "Gimme a break, it's live TV." and once acknowledging he hadn't anything funny to add to the DX mantra that week because coming up with new ones every week was hard.

* ''VideoGame/VirtualOn''. Players who think they are playing a mere game console are actually participating mecha combats in another reality.

A series with NoFourthWall doesn't just break the fourth wall, it ''vaporizes'' it. There might as well not be one. Characters will make references to "the last episode" or "next issue". They'll [[RageAgainstTheAuthor criticize the writing, production]], [[BitingTheHandHumor management]] or even the [[TakeThatAudience audience]]. In extreme cases, they'll refuse to go on acting. Expect there to be large amounts of MediumAwareness, such as characters in a comic pointing out the use of panels. NoFourthWall often leads to characters being extremely GenreSavvy, or frequent [[LampshadeHanging lampshading]] of GenreBlindness.

A good way to test for whether it's merely BreakingTheFourthWall or if there is NoFourthWall at all is to check how important the breaking of the fourth wall is to the premise: If the moments of BreakingTheFourthWall could be removed without readily changing the premise of the series, it's likely BreakingTheFourthWall; if breaking it is such an important part of the series that removing it would noticeably change the series, it's NoFourthWall.

* Creator/ScottMcCloud's ''ComicBook/UnderstandingComics'' is a textbook on the medium of comic books -- in the form of a comic book whose main character (McCloud himself) addresses the reader throughout, discussing the techniques the book also demonstrates.

* ''[[http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL62BA69EAB6DBD807 Ed, Edd n' Eddy Z]]'' also has NoFourthWall. The characters themselves acknowledge the fact that the series is a {{Fandom Rival|ry}} to ''SuperMarioBrosZ'', a few characters directly reference past episodes of the series, and many times aspects of the series' creation, including the viewers and the author himself, are brought up. A few examples:

* ''FunnyGames'' is a horror movie with NoFourthWall. One of the villains is well aware that he's a slasher movie villain, and frequently talks to the audience. Why is he torturing this innocent family? Because his only motivation to kill is to please the audience, and breaking the wall takes the audience away from an observer's point of view and makes them part of the movie itself. This is the director's way of guilting the horror movie watcher; by making them the sole reason for the protagonists' demise. [[YouBastard Isn't that why people watch these movies?]] The most remarkable scene is the one where he rewinds the movie after his partner gets shot by their victim.

* [[FarFetchedFiction Robert Rankin's]] novels are full of NoFourthWall devices, including characters complaining the plot is the same as an earlier book, and minor characters demanding names and descriptions before they'll continue. Notably, ''Armageddon: the Musical'' concludes with Elvis Presley listing every FridgeLogic moment in the book. He doesn't get a satisfactory explanation. At one point, two characters reappear some time after apparently being blown up. One says "Oh, it's us! I thought we were dead!"

* ''ElleryQueen'' (Creator/{{NBC}}, 1975) always had ''one'' NoFourthWall moment [[OnceAnEpisode every episode]]. Immediately following Ellery's mandatory EurekaMoment, he would turn to the audience, briefly review the key evidence for the viewers, and ask them if they'd figured out who the culprit was -- right before going to a commercial. (See AllInHand.)

* ''Radio/HelloCheeky'' was some sort of strange play on this, depending on how you choose to interpret it... the characters (also actors) [[TheDanza share the actors' names]] but have distinct personalities, and a lot of the jokes come from casual conversation between the characters while not playing characters, or moments that weren't scripted in-canon. Apart from this, NoFourthWall also applied in a more traditional sense -- the characters were fully aware they were in a show called ''Radio/HelloCheeky'', and would occassionally read letters from fans, explain jokes or technical hitches, or otherwise address their listener ("hello, Eric").

* Also most characters in ''LeastICouldDo]]'' use NoFourthWall on occasion, especially during the comic's annual Valentine's Day contest, wherein the characters themselves often read through fan-mail and pick a winner to go out on a date with a chosen character in the strip.
** Another instance of ''[[http://www.leasticoulddo.com LICD]]'' NoFourthWall is when the author and artist send a letter to the characters stating that they will no longer be "forever 24", and that they will begin to age like normal people do. See also WebcomicTime.

* ''[[{{Webcomic/SketchComedy}} Sketch Comedy]]'': to the point where not only the cartoonist, but even [[http://thesketchy.com/ic/2012/12/03/is-there-anything-you-do-thats-not-hot-tub-comics the readers]] become characters in the comic.

* ''[[{{Webcomic/SketchComedy}} Sketch Comedy]]'': to the point where not only the cartoonist, but even [[http://thesketchy.com/ic/1027 the readers]] become characters in the comic.

* ''[[Film/TwentyFourHourPartyPeople 24 Hour Party People]]'' is an interesting one considering that it's a ''biopic''. Aside from the main character narrating on screen (including one time where he remarks that one scene will be "cut and appear on the DVD extras"), there is also a scene in which a (fictional) incident is recounted in which Tony Wilson's wife cheated on him with Howard Devoto of the Buzzcocks. The real Devoto, playing a janitor in the scene, turns to the camera and remarks "I ''definitely'' don't remember ''this'' happening!". And there's also one point in middle of the film where every cameo by an actual musician is pointed out, which happens right after Steve Coogan -- playing Tony Wilson -- points out that the guy in the last scene was the [[RealPersonCameo actual Tony Wilson]].

* ''{{Webcomic/Roommates}}'' is the most meta part of a whole MetaFic [[{{Franchise/Buildingverse}} 'verse]]. Characters knowing the page numbers, giving advice about gaining audience sympathy, invoking/exploiting/discussing/conversing/lampshading/etc. tropes or fixing their own speechbubble is normal. At least one even steals the author's beer. Also TheoryOfNarrativeCausality and {{Fanservice}} are pretty much SentientCosmicForces.

* Some sample quotes from the ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' series:

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' has Pinkie Pie. Ohgod, PINKIE PIE. She doesn't break the fourth wall... '''IT OPENS ITSELF UP FOR HER.'''
--> '''Pinkie Pie:''' "Hey! That's what ''I'' said!"
** When repairs of the fourth wall got too expensive, they installed a door.
** Spike has apparently been taking lessons from Pinkie Pie, as evidenced in the episode "Lesson Zero".
** Season 3 episode "Magic Duel" had ''Twilight Sparkle'' breaking the fourth wall along with Pinkie Pie at the end.

* ''{{Pippin}}''. When the title character's very first words are a request to have some more lighting, it's clear that the FourthWall is going to be transparent at best. Throughout the show, characters talk to the audience and the conductor and get into conversations with the LemonyNarrator. And this is without going into what happens in the final scene, where the show suffers such a catastrophic breakdown that by the final curtain there might not even a ''third'' wall.

** The principal clown of ''{{Mystere}}'', Brian Le Petit, is a ScrewySquirrel who somehow got into the theater and first masquerades as an usher. By the time the show is over, the animal characters of the Red Bird and Green Lizards have almost thoroughly explored the first few rows of the theater, a real audience member [[spoiler: has been adopted by a giant baby as its parent]], and Brian [[spoiler: has locked a man in the audience in a crate so he can woo his date]].
** In ''Kooza'', the 'King' character sets off the stages security system every time he moves onto it. The alarm blares out, "please move away from the stage" until the king pulls out //something//, and turns off the alarm with the accompanying car alarm beep. Note that this only happens to the king. Later in the show, an audience seat is revealed to be on a hydraulic lift, raising the audience member five to six feet above the nearby seats.

* Jerry Dumas and Mort Walker's [[TooGoodToLast sadly short-lived]] ''Sam's Strip'' of the early '60s was more or less built around this. The title character would address the readers directly, frequently [[RageAgainstTheAuthor complained to the cartoonist]], kept spare [[IdeaBulb idea bulbs]] and [[SymbolSwearing swear symbols]] in a closet, and would occasionally rent out the strip's panels. Characters from other strips, many of them old and obscure, would frequently pop up.

->''"What!? What fourth wall!? There's never BEEN a fourth wall in this stupid comic!"''

[[folder: Radio]]
* And then there's ''Captain Kremmen'' by Kenny Everett, which not only demolished the fourth wall but the fifth, sixth and seventh! It knew it was a radio serial and of course often started with the Kremmen's bright "Hi Kids! In our last episode ..." Many episodes, more digitals than could be calculated on a digital calculator, included some sort lampshading or wall shattering, including:
** Why Captain Kremmen knew he would thwart the cosmic baddie's plans: "I have faith in my scriptwriters!"
** Captain Kremmen to Captain Kremmen, in the ''Bionic Double'' arc: "Won't this confuse the listeners?" "Anyone who listens to this is madn anyway!"
** "What are we going to do, Captain?" "I'm gonna to do what I always do when something desperate and untoward happens. Leave it to next week!"
** Lengthy foley effects of feet walking down a corridor.
-->'''President:''' "You're very quiet, Kremmen."
-->'''Kremmen:''' "Just padding out the serial, sir."
* Icelandic radio theatrical comedy Harry & Heimir would do this a few times per episode. From noting they only had x minutes to solve the mystery of the week before the end of the episode to reading the other character's lines in the script; and in the finale of the second season they drove a horse carriage out of the studio, onto the streets of Reykjavík and finally crashing. The show ending where they were recovering in the hospital.
* Creator/TheFiresignTheatre was basically Radio Without Walls
* ''Radio/HelloCheeky'' was some sort of strange play on this, depending on how you choose to interpret it... the characters (also actors) [[TheDanza share the actors' names]] but have distinct personalities, and a lot of the jokes come from casual conversation between the characters while not playing characters, or moments that weren't scripted in-canon. Apart from this, NoFourthWall also applied in a more traditional sense -- the characters were fully aware they were in a show called ''Radio/HelloCheeky'', and would occassionally read letters from fans, explain jokes or technical hitches, or otherwise address their listener ("hello, Eric").
* Characters on the children's show ''Jungle Jam and Friends'' are fully aware that they're putting on a production, beginning every episode by asking the {{Narrator}} about the stories for today.
[[/folder]]

* As a hybrid of circus and traditional theater, CirqueDuSoleil does this a lot -- while many of the shows are telling a self-contained story, it's usually with full awareness of the audience and AudienceParticipation and acknowledgement are common. Notable examples include:

** They also get a gag where Hedy Lamarr ([[RunningGag that's ''Hedly''!!]]) asks himself where he might find a sheriff whose very appearance would drive the townsfolk out of Rock Ridge, while looking at the camera, then asks "And why am I asking you?"

* The ''WesternAnimation/SamAndMax'' animated show never had a 4th wall, pointing out jokes that were used in the comics, referencing the constraints a kids' show puts on them, and even going so far to point out the show's lack of viewers.

* ''TheManyLovesOfDobieGillis''

** Deadpool is ''so aware'' of being in a comic book[[hottip:*:[[MatchGame how aware is he?]]he even speculates on whether pulling off something specifically awesome will get him a solo series or [[FunnyAneurysmMoment movie]].

* All of the characters on ThatGuyWithTheGlasses and ChannelAwesome. Most of them are reviewers, and talking directly to the audience by their premise, but it goes beyond that. Characters from the shows/movies/comics/games that they review come out, they can [[InvokedTrope invoke tropes]] to control the narrative, use a BigLippedAlligatorMoment or whimsical montage as a weapon, and they can read the subtitles.

** Captain Kremmen to Captain Kremmen, in the ''Bionic Double'' arc: "Won't this confuse the listeners?" "Anyone who listens to this is mad anyway!"

* Icelandic radio theatrical comedy Harry & Heimir would do this a few times per episode. From noting they only had x minutes to solve the mystery of the week before the end of the episode to reading the other character's lines in the script; and in the finale of the second season they drove a horse carriage out of the studio, onto the streets of Reykjavík and finally crashing. The show ending where they were recovering in the hospital.

* In the BBC radio adaptation of ''Guards!Guards!'', the {{Narrator}} accidentally steps on Sam Vimes in the gutter.