History Main / FourthWallObserver

* Peter in ''{{Funny Games}}''

* In ''OrderOfTheStick'', all of the characters show MediumAwareness and huge amounts of GenreSavvy, but Elan generally shows more than the rest, but not necessarily knowledge of the fourth wall more than the rest (as the characters consider the fourth wall more part of the sets of rules for their universe, and rarely ever directly break it as much as reference it). However, the Oracle does show complete omniscience in that regard, talking to the audience as well as the general MediumAwareness the characters show, and gets the same reactions as most of these examples, thus, he is one of these relative to the rest of the characters, even though the other characters show bits of NoFourthWall themselves.

<<|CharactersAsDevice|>>
<<|MetafictionDemandedThisIndex|>>

** In particular, the tiny red insects who are always loitering around can break the fourth wall at will, and do so at every possible opportunity.

** Abed does break the FourthWall occasionally. In one episode opening skit, the other characters ask him if he can stop [[ShipperOnDeck pairing them up.]] His reply? "Yeah, I guess I can stop for one episode."

* While other characters ignore the FourthWall Shaddi from YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries has the job of protecting it.

* In ''OrderOfTheStick'', all of the characters show MediumAwareness and huge amounts of GenreSavvy, but Elan generally shows more than the rest, but not necessarily knowledge of the fourth wall more than the rest (as the characters consider the fourth wall more part of the sets of rules for their universe, and rarely ever directly break it as much as reference it). However, the Oracle does show complete omnipotence in that regard, talking to the audience as well as the general MediumAwareness the characters show, and gets the same reactions as most of these examples, thus, he is one of these relative to the rest of the characters, even though the other characters show bits of NoFourthWall themselves.

** As is AnimalMan. His entire series played with the Fourth Wall constantly. Later on, he temporarily [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence ascended to a higher plane of existance]] which upgraded his powers and also caused him to learn all of his life was a comic book. He temporarily suffered a HeroicBSOD until he was able to use it to his advantage. He begged the author of the comic for his family to be brought back to life after the author supposedly killed them all to make him DarkerAndEdgier. [[DeusExMachina The author was leaving the book anyways, so he agreed.]] When Animal Man called the author out on his WriterOnBoard agenda towards showing the evils of eating meat, the author admitted it, but then quickly threw together a bunch of crappy super villains to fight Animal Man to teach him a lesson while he both [[LampshadeHanging apologized]] for it and then [[AuthorTract ranted]] about how HumansAreBastards so eating meat is wrong. Since then, he's learned to live with it, although he still comments on it from time to time. For instance, when he's asked for help from other superheroes, he usually says something like "Oh God, I hope it's not another crossover where they kill off a bunch of C-List heroes like me."

* Rose from {{Homestuck}}, upon being asked about her writing notebooks by the "player", instead shoves them under her bed. Similarly, Jade knows that the player will [[HelloInsertNameHere try to name her Farmstink Buttlass]], so her precognition allows her to write a note, beforehand, about said attempted naming.
[[/folder]]

->'''Shirley:''' I don't understand, Abed. Is this you being "meta?"

''-- 'Community'''

->'''Abed:''' I don't understand, Abed. Is this you being "meta?"
-- 'Community'

->''"I'll make a real Crisis for those jerks! Hit 'em right in the Zero Hour!"''\\
-- '''The Joker''', ''Emperor Joker''.

*** The current excuse for removing this aspect of her character is that She-Hulk is no longer aware of the fourth wall, and has forgotten all these instances of knowing about it. The times when she was, have been explained away as a "side-effect of her gamma-irradiation" which caused her to see things that may not have been there. Funny how this side effect seems to only affect her and not other gamma-irradiated folks like the Hulk...

* Genie from Disney's ''{{Disney/Aladdin}}'' is one of these; though his insights usually have more to do with real world events, celebrities, and popular characters than actually referencing the fourth wall, he still has the same effect on the other characters.

* Boris Yelnikoff from Woody Allen´s ''{{Whatever works}}''

* Many tankoban volumes of manga (ie, any individual-series manga you'd pick up in the states) have additional sketches or comments from the author between chapters. Some of these are just random blurbs of information about the author and what went on when making the series, others fall into this, bordering into NoFourthWall territory. A particular set of examples in several of the tankoban volumes of Fruits Basket are single-panel reactions from characters stating their disdain at not being featured as prominently in that particular volume, with another talking about the one with the most focus, or whoever's on the cover.

[[SquirrelGirl http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Monkey-Joe2.jpg]]

->''"I'll make a real Crisis for those jerks! Hit 'em right in the Zero Hour!"''
-->-- '''The Joker''', ''Emperor Joker''.

** There's also Squirrel Girl and her squirrels, FunPersonified.
*** When Deadpool and Squirrel Girl team up in a GLA special, the Fourth Wall doesn't so much break as slink away quietly with its tail between its legs. Rather than explain to her in detail what happened to her boyfriend Speedball, Deadpool just hands a copy of the relevant comic to Squirrel Girl and lets her read it.
** Most of the characters written by Fabian Nicieza becomes a Fourth Wall Observer during the recap pages. They are allowed to, because the recap pages are not in continuity (a clause even Deadpool is forced to follow).

* While he is occasionally like this in normal comics as well, In the ''Emperor Joker'' storyline, where he gains 99% of [[Comicbook/{{Superman}} Mr. Mxyzptlk's]] powers, [[Comicbook/{{Batman}} The Joker]] becomes one of these big time, occasionally saying references to the comic and the industry, which the other characters usually ignore. Among the best of these that he did was sticking a "Why Didn't Anyone Call In To Save Me" sign on Jason Todd's skeleton (a reference to the fact that DC used a phone-in poll to decide whether he would live or die), and, faced with the fact that he couldn't erase Batman from existence due to his obsessions, yells at the artist to stop redrawing him.
** Mxyzptlk himself is Fourth Wall Savvy. In a recent issues of Batman/Superman:

** AmbushBug is another example from TheDCU. He and Squirrel Girl are sort of like both [[DistaffCounterpart DistaffCounterparts]] and [[AlternateCompanyEquivalent alternates of each other.]]
** As is Animal Man. His entire series played with the Fourth Wall constantly. Later on, he temporarily [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence ascended to a higher plane of existance]] which upgraded his powers and also caused him to learn all of his life was a comic book. He temporarily suffered a HeroicBSOD until he was able to use to his advantage. He begged the author of the comic for his family to be brought back to life after the author supposedly killed them all to make him DarkerAndEdgier. [[DeusExMachina The author was leaving the book anyways, so he agreed.]] When Animal Man called the author out on his WriterOnBoard agenda towards showing the evils of eating meat, the author admitted it, but then quickly threw together a bunch of crappy super villains to fight Animal Man to teach him a lesson while he both [[LampshadeHanging apologized]] for it and then [[AuthorTract ranted]] about how HumansAreBastards so eating meat is wrong. Since then, he's learned to live with it, although he still comments on it from time to time. For instance, when he's asked for help from other superheroes, he usually says something like "Oh God, I hope it's not another crossover where they kill off a bunch of C-List heroes like me."

* The ''Comicbook/IncredibleHulk'' used to pall around with a group of super-powered do-gooders called ''The Pantheon''. Except Paris wasn't quite the do-gooder they thought. In addition to causing outright chaos, he speaks to the reader, is aware when the end of the book is coming up and at one point, turns the book OFF. Creepy.

* One of the Reminiscences of Ijon Tichy from the ''Memoirs of a Space Traveller'' by Stanisław Lem is about a scientist that succeedes in creating sentient AI in the form of computer-generated phantoms living in a digital world. One of this beings is aware of how things are (or rather foreknows it), and is held by the others as a madman. It is suggested in the story that its characters may well be in the same situation.