History Main / NoticingTheFourthWall

* One of the [[http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/sandrewswann-s-proposal proposals]] for the nature of [[WebOriginal/SCPFoundation SCP-001]] is that [[spoiler:it is the collective of writers and editors of the SCP Foundation website itself, portraying them as careless or malevolent gods who rewrite reality at a whim. [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou And they've prepared countermeasures to kill them if it becomes absolutely necessary]], even though they're aware this may destroy reality.]]

* In ''ToyStory,'' Buzz Lightyear finally realizes he's a toy when he sees a commercial advertising him. This probably counts as an in-universe example, because what he doesn't realize is that he's a CGI animation.

* One of the dream sequences in ''MaxPayne'' has Max realize he's in a comic book/computer game. In the course of the dream he observes that each of these revelations are "Funny as hell, it was the most horrible thing I could think of." Upon awakening, he says that the drug-fueled dream left "dark stains on my soul that would never come off." As a confirmation of this, he observes in the game's sequel that "when I slept, my dreams were nightmares."

* ''FushigiYugi''

* A ShowWithinAShow example from ''StarTrekTheNextGeneration''. The Moriarity character from a SherlockHolmes reenactment miraculously learns that he's not only a fictional character but that he's a computer generated recreation of said character.

* One of the [[http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/sandrewswann-s-proposal proposals]] for the nature of [[{{SCP Foundation}} SCP-001]] is that [[spoiler:it is the collective of writers and editors of the SCP Foundation website itself, portraying them as careless or malevolent gods who rewrite reality at a whim. [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou And they've prepared countermeasures to kill them if it becomes absolutely necessary]], even though they're aware this may destroy reality.]]

* In ''ToyStory,'' Buzz Lightyear finally realizes he's a toy when he sees a commercial advertising him. This probably counts as an in-universe example, because what he doesn't realize is that he's a CGI animation.

* ''BigO'': You may not be able to tell by the confusing finale, but this was the true secret of Paradigm City: [[spoiler: the reason nobody remembers what happened prior to 40 years ago is because they didn't ''exist'' prior to 40 years ago.]]

* The {{Dilbert}} strip for [[http://www.dilbert.com/2011-10-20/ 10/20/2011]] plays with this: After the PointyHairedBoss tells Dilbert to print a condensed version of a report because they were "not made of ink," both glance toward the reader with comments about things they were not meant to know.

* The {{Dilbert}} strip for 10/20/2011 plays with this: After the PointyHairedBoss tells Dilbert to print a condensed version of a report because they were "not made of ink," both glance toward the reader with comments about things they were not meant to know.

* The sci-fi comic ''2000 A.D.'' once ran a Mark Millar comic about a man who suddenly realizes he's in a comic, and it will soon end. He decides to make the best of his time left by going in a nihilistic rampage ("It's not really murder, you understand. None of these people have names.") It ends with the man being arrested and pointing the reader out to one of the policemen. He turns around in horror, screams, and grabs on to the panel border with tears in his eyes. "Oh God! Please don't turn the page...Please, read it again!"

* ''TheSimpsons'' Treehouse of Horror comic "Immigration of the Body Snatchers" ends this way. After a parade of [[ShoutOut Shout Outs]] to twist endings from ''TheTwilightZone,'' ''PlanetOfTheApes'' and even ''MontyPython,'' Sideshow Bob shouts that none of it is real and they're all just ink on paper. Everyone laughs at him...until he points to the surrounding panels and to the reader.

* The whole point of the Elephant and Piggie book, We Are In A Book!

* Deconstructed in ''CaptainSNES'', where video game characters Touched by a particular EldritchAbomination realize that they're video game characters... and don't [[FreakOut take]] [[StartOfDarkness it]] [[FallenHero well]] [[MoreThanMindControl at]] [[YouBastard all]].
* This Xkcd strip features this mixed with NoInnerFourthWall when the subject of [[http://xkcd.com/429/ this man's]] fantasy realize the truth it's not pretty.

* Deconstructed in CaptainSNES, where video game characters Touched by a particular EldritchAbomination realize that they're video game characters... and [[{{Understatement}} don't]] [[FreakOut take]] [[StartOfDarkness it]] [[FallenHero well]] [[MoreThanMindControl at]] [[YouBastard all]].

* This Xkcd strip features this mixed with NoInnerFouthWall when the subject of [[http://xkcd.com/429/ this man's]] fantasy realize the truth it's not pretty.

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* This Xkcd strip features this mixed with NoInnerFouthWall when the subject of [[this man's http://xkcd.com/429/]] fantasy realize the truth it's not pretty.

* This Xkcd strip features this mixed with NoInnerFouthWall when the subject of [[this man'shttp://xkcd.com/429/]] fantasy realize the truth it's not pretty.

[[AC:Web Comics]]

* This is [[{{Batman}} Joker]]'s reason to behave as crazily as he wishes.

* In ''ToyStory,'' Buzz Lightyear finally realizes he's a toy when he sees an commercial advertising him.

* Superboy-Prime from DC Comics flips this around. He loses the real world (ours) and ends up going more then a bit nuts in the realms of comics that used to be fake to him.

RealLife: If you're a Gnostic or a Zen Buddhist, [[spoiler:YouShouldKnowThisAlready]].

*The above quote from ''{{Chowder}}'', who is able to notice it because an overdose of "Brain Grub" grants him superhuman intelligence. He then uses his mental powers to make the show smarter, turning it into a boring intellectual program.

*''FairlyOddparents'': When Timmy wishes the Crimson Chin out of his comic and shows him he's fictional, he suffers a HeroicBSOD. When he's returned to the comic, every panel is just him sucking his thumb in a fetal position.
*''BigO'': You may not be able to tell by the confusing finale, but this was the true secret of Paradigm City: [[spoiler: the reason nobody remembers what happened prior to 40 years ago is because they didn't ''exist'' prior to 40 years ago.]]
*The entire premise of the webcomic ''[[http://www.kidradd.com/ Kid Radd.]]'' The title character already knew he was a video game character being controlled by a player, but still had no idea there was a universe beyond his game.
*''[[http://www.kongregate.com/games/EddyParanoia/inquisitive-dave Inquisitive Dave]]'' begins as a side-scrolling adventure game, but [[spoiler: after the evil wizard Zardolph is defeated,]] he comes back with the knowledge that their entire world is just a video game, and this knowledge had given him the power to [[spoiler: escape the game and become a virus, destroying every system "because only through chaos can they know true freedom!"]] This leads to [[spoiler: a final confrontation with him at the top of his tower, where the trick to beating him is to hide in an alcove his magic can't reach and refuse to fight back. As a villain character, the point of Zardolph's existence is to fight the hero, so if the hero doesn't fight him, his existence is redundant. Thus, he disappears]]. After the credits, the creators reveal [[spoiler: to Dave that Zardolph hadn't really escaped their control; it was just a test of Dave's lateral thinking.]]

* One of the dream sequences in ''MaxPayne'' has Max realize he's in a comic book/computer game. In the course of the dream he observes that each of these revelations are "Funny as hell, it was the most horrible thing I could think of." Upon awakening, he says that the drug-fueled dream left "dark stains on my soul that would never come off." As a confirmation of this, he observes in the game's sequel that "when I slept, my dreams were nightmares."
* A ShowWithinAShow example from ''StarTrekTheNextGeneration''. The Moriarity character from a SherlockHolmes reenactment miraculously learns that he's not only a fictional character but that he's a computer generated recreation of said character.

* In the ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' musical episode ''Once More With Feeling'' Anya notices the sudden lack of a fourth wall in their appartment:
--> ?It?s like we?re being watched. Like there was a wall missing from our apartment, like there were only three walls, and not a fourth wall??
*The GenreSavvy DeadpanSnarker Digeri Dingo from TazMania has more fun with the fourth wall than any other character in the show. Subverted as he's not very concerned that he lives in a fictional cartoon.
* A couple of characters in the later DarkTower books by StephenKing do this. Callahan angsts over it while some get pissed at the author for killing off their friends.
* All of the characters in OneOverZero know that they are fictional and constantly [[ContemplateOurNavels Contemplate Their Navels]], pondering subjects such as whether they exist and whether they will continue to exist after the author stops writing the comic. However, the comic has NoFourthWall to speak of.
* FushigiYugi