History Main / FourthWallGreeting

* Numerous infomercial parody videos by the LoadingReadyRun comedy group starts with the "Oh hi, I didn't see you there" line, to the point where it is a RunningGag.

* ''Film/ThisIsSpinalTap'' starts this way.

--> '''Dr. McNinja:''' "Did� Did something happen? Why are you here?"

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--> '''Dr. McNinja:''' "Did… Did something happen? Why are you here?"

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** The 138th episode special used the trope repeatedly with Troy [=McClure=], once parodying it by returning from a commercial break to have [=McClure=] asleep on a couch and having to be prodded awake from off stage so he could deliver the line.----

** ChuckNorris talking to an off-screen "friend" in mock surprise at the end of a Total Gym ad. Because a multi-title holding karate champion with tons of sponsors and access to thousand-dollar equipment would give a shit about a hundred dollar weight bench, let alone interrupt a shoot to tell his friends about it.

* ''[[Series/TheMitchellAndWebbLook The Mitchell and Webb Situation]]'' had a sketch parodying this, where the man being featured on a RealityShow is bewildered by the whole charade. The sketch starts with the host ringing his doorbell and greeting him as if it's the first time they've met. "What do you mean? You've been here over an hour. You've only just gone outside again. I'm miked up!" "So where's the kitchen?" "It's where you set up all those lights."

* ''The MitchellAndWebb Situation'' had a sketch parodying this, where the man being featured on a RealityShow is bewildered by the whole charade. The sketch starts with the host ringing his doorbell and greeting him as if it's the first time they've met. "What do you mean? You've been here over an hour. You've only just gone outside again. I'm miked up!" "So where's the kitchen?" "It's where you set up all those lights."

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** The 138th episode special used the trope repeatedly with Troy [=McClure=], once parodying it by returning from a commercial break to have [=McClure=] asleep on a couch and having to be prodded awake from off stage so he could deliver the line.
----

* Music/JoshGroban does this in the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Axzxe1a78E faux commercial]] for "Josh Groban Sings the Tweets of KanyeWest".

* Will from Tested.com uses (abuses?) this trope in [[http://www.tested.com/take-a-tour-of-the-new-tested-office/47-89/ a video showcasing the site's new office]].

* Seth [=McFarlane=] used this opening for a commercial advertising ''FamilyGuy'' on Creator/AdultSwim. On the show proper, Stewie uses it at the start of his one-man show, before being heckled off by a drunken Elroy Jetson.

* "Hello, I'm the NostalgiaCritic, and I remember it so you don't have to."

* "Hi. I'm your NostalgiaChick, and..."
** Actually, almost every{{RunningGag}} ThatGuyWithTheGlasses or ChannelAwesome reviewer!

* "Welcome to AtopTheFourthWall, where bad comics burn!"

** Speaking of Seth [=McFarlane=], the intro to his "Life of Larry" pilot starts off with him saying, "Oh, hi there. You scared the crap out of me."

* This is the regular format of the "BettyWhite in her home" segments on the NBC prank show ''Betty White's Off Their Rockers'', sometimes with the actual phrase used by White herself.

---> '''Dr. McNinja:''' "Did… Did something happen? Why are you here?"

** Speaking of Seth [=McFarlane=], the intro to his "Life with Larry" pilot starts off with him saying something along the lines of, "Ah, hello there, you scared the crap out of me."
* Parodied on ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' with the Mr Sparkle commercial, the actor in was in a hot tub and basically said "Don't believe me, watch this commercial".

* Used by numerous DVD bonus features on the ''Series/{{Stargate SG-1}}'' box set. They're so brilliantly cheesy it's hard to tell if it's deliberate or not.

A Fourth Wall Greeting is a greeting by an actor or character used when introducing a scene which is meant as an intimate, behind-the-scenes look at something. Typically, the setup of the scene has the camera pan over to an actor in a dressing room or on a soundstage, either out of costume or in some other way indicating that they are currently out of character. The actor will look momentarily surprised, then say something like "Oh, hi there. As you can see, I'm on the set, getting ready to film the next big scene in ''AvatarAndTheAirbendingFellowshipOfVampireSlayers''. We work really hard here to make sure that all the WireFu you see here looks absolutely convincing. Hey, why don't I show you around the set and you can see for yourself just how we do some of those amazing scenes."

The setup is intended to give the sense that the viewer has caught the actor unprepared, and therefore this excusive look into his world is going to be entirely candid and not fiction in the slightest. Because this camera crew just showed up uninvited and the actor in question did not notice them coming.

This setup was sometimes used for commercials for unrelated products, here to give the impression that, while you know that the celebrity endorsing the product is an actor, in the profession of telling you things convincingly even when they are fictional, right ''now'', you're hearing him when he's off-duty and is therefore telling you the real truth. While it is still used, even used straight, it is often with at least a bit of a wink and a nod if not outright LampshadeHanging (such as the actor delivering the line in a way that implies he is reading it from a cue card).

At one point, it was a sign that ViewersAreMorons, but any instances nowadays are mere parodies. Also common in kids' {{Edutainment Show}}s, where it's perhaps a bit more understandable. Unrelated to Film/TheRoom, [[BrokenRecord despite the phrase's pervasion.]]

->'''Dr. [=McNinja=]:''' ''[[[BreakingTheFourthWall Stares at fourth wall]], surprised]'' Did... did something happen? Why are you here?
-> ''[[BattleDiscretionShot [A roar and explosion occur off-panel]]]''
-> ''[Beat panel]''
->'''Dr. [=McNinja=]:''' I don't want to know.
-->-- ''Webcomic/TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja'', [[http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/18p6 "Dr. McNinja's Final Thoughts"]]

At one point, it was a sign that ViewersAreMorons, but any instances nowadays are mere parodies. Also common in kids' {{Edutainment Show}}s, where it's perhaps a bit more understandable. Unrelated to TheRoom, [[BrokenRecord despite the phrase's pervasion.]]

* Stephen Colbert often uses the line on ''TheColbertReport'' on returning from a commercial, especially when he's delivering TheTag from his fireside set. For example, "Oh, Hi there. I was just standing here pretending not to notice you."
** This is a carryover from his segments on ''TheDailyShow''. One of them, "So You're Living in a Police State," began with a grainy, greenish image of a bathroom from the ceiling. He came in and stood at a urinal peeing, then suddenly looked straight into the camera and said, "Oh, hi! I didn't see you there in the sprinkler head!"

* JoshGroban does this in the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Axzxe1a78E faux commercial]] for "Josh Groban Sings the Tweets of KanyeWest".

* An episode of ''{{Buffy}}'' begins with Andrew enacting a familiar form of this trope in-universe - he looks up from a book as he sits in an antique chair in an old fashioned library. In this instance the books are fake. In fact the whole scenario is in Andrew's imagination and he's actually sitting on the toilet, pointing a video camera at himself.

* "Well, hello there, and welcome to ''{{Urinetown}}''. (Not the place, of course--the musical.)"

StockPhrase used when introducing a scene which is meant as an intimate, behind-the-scenes look at something. Typically, the setup of the scene has the camera pan over to an actor in a dressing room or on a soundstage, either out of costume or in some other way indicating that they are currently out of character. The actor will look momentarily surprised, then say something like "Oh, hi there. As you can see, I'm on the set, getting ready to film the next big scene in ''AvatarAndTheAirbendingFellowshipOfVampireSlayers''. We work really hard here to make sure that all the WireFu you see here looks absolutely convincing. Hey, why don't I show you around the set and you can see for yourself just how we do some of those amazing scenes."