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1[[quoteright:300:[[Film/ANightAtTheOpera https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/spiking_the_camera_2.png]]]]
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3A specific form of BreakingTheFourthWall accomplished merely by [[IKnowYoureWatchingMe looking directly at the camera]]. Usually done by accident, by amateur actors who happen to notice a camera is pointed at them. The trouble here is that the editor didn't catch it, allowing the character to make eye contact with the audience. Typically a film or live TV trope, especially in dramas.
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5''Intentional'' occurrences fall under AsideGlance or FourthWallObserver.
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7Contrast with NoFourthWall (thus including documentaries and reality TV), where the cast is aware of the audience, which — in turn — is aware of the production crew. Not to be confused with ''actually'' spiking a camera, which would probably fall under CameraAbuse.
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10!!Examples:
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13[[folder:Film — Animated]]
14* In ''WesternAnimation/SurfsUp'', Lani brings an injured Cody to her uncle the Geek[[spoiler:, really Big Z in hiding]], who is shocked at seeing the documentary crew following them, staring at the camera with suspicion and indignation.
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17[[folder:Film — Live-Action]]
18* An in-universe version occurs in ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger'', as a film director specifically tells Steve not to look at the camera during filming of a Captain America propaganda film. This becomes a BrickJoke when genuine combat footage of the Howling Commandos is shown later on, in which Cap looks at the camera.
19* Happens a few times in ''Film/DazedAndConfused'', a consequence of using some very fresh actors and random locals as extras.
20* ''Film/HotFuzz'': Creator/TimothyDalton looks into the camera for a second in a bar scene. Instead of using a different take, Creator/EdgarWright actually put a cash register ring on it, to draw ''even more'' attention to it.
21* In ''Film/LoveActually'', Creator/KeiraKnightley's character looks at the camera as the boat she's on is pulling out of the dock. Of course, it's a film taken by an in-story amateur on her wedding day, so the slip is more forgiveable. The director commented on it, because the character filming is in love with Keira, and so by looking at the camera, it's like she's looking straight at him.
22* In ''Film/LethalWeapon'', a traffic car passes in the background filled with a black family staring at the camera curiously which the filmakers tried to blur out.
23* In the opening scene of ''Film/ANightAtTheOpera'' there's a woman in the background who is framed precisely in the center between between Sig Ruman and Margaret Dumont, who stares into the camera the entire time.
24* Averted in ''Film/PansLabyrinth''. It is pointed out in the DVDCommentary, where one of the actors looked at the camera as he was exiting the scene, that they covered it up by digitally replacing his head in the relevant frames with his head from the last frame before he looked. It's all over in less than a second, so you don't notice it unless it's pointed out.
25* ''Franchise/StarWars'': Obi-Wan appears to do this in ''Film/ANewHope'' just after scaring the Tusken Raiders off and ensuring that Luke is alive. He turns to the camera, doffs his hood and says "Hello there!" The very next shot shows that we have been looking through R2-D2's eyes.
26* In ''Film/TheTenCommandments1956'', Sephorah warns Moses of an intruder nearby; Moses tells Sephorah "Your eyes are sharp as they are beautiful". Yvonne De Carlo responds by staring straight into the camera, ''away'' from where she's just said the danger was.
27* ''Film/TheBigLebowski'': Liam O'Brien, the silent partner of Jesus Quintana, does this repeatedly. The person playing him, James G. Hoosier, was a crew member thrown into the scenes and had no other acting experience. Careful watchers will notice Hoosier taking delayed cues from off-screen and constantly trying to keep himself from spiking, but repeatedly failing.
28* In ''Film/ApocalypseNow'', Harrison Ford does this in the briefing scene. It does have the effect of making the audience feel more involved.
29* ''Film/PeeWeesBigAdventure'': Done in-universe. In the ShowWithinAShow at the end, when Pee-wee is having a cameo as a bellhop, he can't help himself but glance at the camera and [[{{corpsing}} corpse]] all throughout the scene. Then he glances off to the side and slides mostly out of frame, as if the director was frantically motioning him to get out of the shot and stop ruining the take.
30* ''Film/KillerKlownsFromOuterSpace'': Early on in the film, one of the two girls the Terenzi Brothers got into their BadHumorTruck with promises of free ice cream does it.
31* ''Film/HerculesReturns'' is a GagDub of a 1960's sword and sandal movie. At one stage an actor does this trope, so the GagDub turns it into him BreakingTheFourthWall to apologise to the audience for suggesting that ViewersAreMorons.
32* InvokedTrope in ''Film/TheBattleOfSanPietro''. Creator/JohnHuston had the soldiers recreating the battle glance at the camera just like they would normally, to make it look like a documentary.
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35[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
36* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''. In "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS5E12Checkpoint Checkpoint]]" a VictimOfTheWeek who's {{Mind Rape}}d does this, but as he's rambling "I know you're always looking at me" at the time, it's likely a LeaningOnTheFourthWall gag.
37* Thanks to retakes being too expensive for much of its NoBudget history, this happens fairly often in Classic ''Series/DoctorWho''.
38** Creator/TomBaker was particularly prone to this, to the point where it's a bad-acting habit associated with him in the same way that Creator/WilliamHartnell is associated with line flubbing (though not to the same extent) — and since he has very unusual and piercing eyes it can suck you right out of a scene. See the scene at the start of Episode 2 of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E2PlanetOfEvil "Planet of Evil"]] where, in a scene focused on Sarah Jane talking, Baker accidentally makes eye contact with the camera and breaks it off as soon as he realises what he's doing. A particularly painful example is when Tom Baker makes clear accidental eye contact with the camera in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E3TheDeadlyAssassin The Deadly Assassin]]" during a sequence where the camera is doing a [[BinocularShot shot from the POV of a sniper scope]], making it seem like the Doctor has spotted the sniper and ''completely'' changing the intended interpretation of the scene. Of course, later on, sometimes it's intentional AsideGlance — a Fourth Doctor quirk that may have developed out of Baker's bad habit.
39** Soldeed in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E5TheHornsOfNimon The Horns of Nimon]]" accidentally makes eye contact with the camera while overacting his way through the script in one scene. Likely an artifact of the serial's [[BottleEpisode cheap production]] and a side effect of HamAndCheese.
40** Though he swears he did it as a joke, during the filming of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS19E3Kinda "Kinda"]] Creator/MatthewWaterhouse told guest star Richard Todd (a distinguished actor with a very long film career under his belt) not to look directly into the camera.
41* Parodied in a ''Series/GreenAcres'' episode where a documentarian comes to Hooterville to shoot a film. Mr. Haney opens up a film acting class and the first thing he teaches is to not look at the camera. The others interpret this as covering their eyes or turning their back to the camera.
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44[[folder:Video Games]]
45* In the first five ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' games, "child" characters are depicted in battle with their heads tilted towards the camera, showing both eyes, whereas "adults" will be depicted in full profile to face the enemies. These include the Onion Kids in ''III'', young Rydia, Palom and Porom in ''IV'', and Krile in ''V''.
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48[[folder:Western Animation]]
49* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': Whether done intentionally or as the result of an animation error, a shot at the end of "Bridle Gossip" shows Pinkie Pie [[https://derpibooru.org/596339 staring at the camera]]. Naturally, this resulted in common {{Fanon}} that Pinkie is a FourthWallObserver.
50* ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow'' parodies this in the episode "Carter and Briggs". During their guest appearances on the titular ShowWithinAShow, a very nervous Mortecai and Rigby keep looking at the camera [[BadBadActing while barely delivering their lines.]]
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53[[folder:Real Life]]
54* British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn is known for doing this a lot during his television appearances, prompting Website/{{Twitter}} comparisons to Creator/TomBaker's [[Series/DoctorWho Doctor]] (above) — or, more sinisterly, Francis Urquhart's {{Aside Glance}}s from ''Series/HouseOfCardsUK''.
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