Jack Benny, of course. Frequently accompanied by a well-timed Beat for maximum impact. A fewgoodexamples. There's plenty of Lampshade Hanging in the last one. And, as that last clip shows, Johnny Carson knew his way around this trope as well.
The Tonight Show had a recurring skit called "Noches de Pasión con Señor O'Brien", which takes the form of a Spanish telenovela in which Conan is the star and hero. Whenever his character would announce his name, he would stare into the camera and shout his name. In this instance, the trope is used to display a character's badassery.
That sounds almost exactly like when Conan guest hosted Saturday Night Live and starred in a sketch about a superhero, "Moleculo the Molecular Man". People would say his name, and he would turn to the camera and bellow, "THE MOLECULAR MAN!" Including when he was disguised as his Alter Ego, which is how they figured out he was Moleculo (THE MOLECULAR MAN!).
He did this occasionally on his edition of Late Night, particularly when he would take a camera crew along with him on excursions. In one bit, during a visit to the doctor, he very slyly winked at the camera as the very attractive female physician lifted his shirt in order to listen to his heartbeat, while in another, he almost panicked when dealing with a nutty pedestrian.
In a variation of this trope, Alec Baldwin's character is under pressure to join his acting crew and say a few lines on live TV. Unfortunately, he's a horrible actor and has no idea what he's doing in front of a camera, also having an amateurish tendency to stare directly into one. At one point a friend reminds him to avoid doing this, after which Baldwin looks directly into our camera.
The show has done some more straightforward ones. A Cold Open begins with Pete saying, "So we're agreed. Assuming nothing goes wrong in the next eight hours...," and Liz gives a knowing look over his shoulder. And in the flashback that shows the last time she slept with Dennis, she asks him to come up to her apartment to "change a couple lightbulbs," and he turns to smirk at the camera.
In a first season episode of America's Next Top Model, uber-Christian Robin is commencing a group prayer when the (openly) gay atheist Ebony turns to the camera and rolls her eyes mid-prayer, in a rare example of a reality TV show personality acknowledging the camera during a non-talking head sequence.
Despite the mockumentary format, Arrested Development doesn't use these very often, but one notable occurrence is when Warden Gentles attempts to insult wannabe-actor Tobias by calling him "a television actor". When David Cross looks away, his eyes linger on the camera just enough to make the irony apparent.
Barney & Friends: The song "Icky, Squishy, Gooey, Ooey" has a pause at the end of the second verse where the kids all pause from their artwork, look at a camera overhead, and cry "EW!"
Bear of Bear in the Big Blue House was an absolute master of these in the form of Eye Takes in response to the craziness that sometimes occurred around him.
The late Bob Holness in a famous Blockbusters out-take when a contestant meaning to say "organism" accidentally offers the answer "orgasm" instead.
Frequently used on Bottom: Richie occasionally blurts out something so awkward that Eddie will shoot an Aside Glance at the camera. Granted, this is one of their more subtle instances of Breaking the Fourth Wall, but still...
In one scene, Michael's mother gives him a look and then indignantly walks out the door. A few seconds later, Fiona (his partner in UST) does the exact same thing, causing Michael to give a truly freaked out look right at the audience, silently asking "Did you just see this shit?".
He has also done it at least twice when the job involved religion. No, not at the audience, at God.
Sam gives us one of these at the end of his movie.
In the Discovery Channel game show Cash Cab, Ben Bailey (the host) frequently does this in response to answers from the contestants.
A contestant was once asked the name of a certain tattoo dye (henna) and blurted out "Hentai!" This prompted a long, knowing aside glance from the host.
Castle does this when his mother asks in bewilderment, "You haven't heard of the Serenity?" in reference to a spiritual retreat she plans to attend. There have been a few Firefly references in the show to date; it is unclear if Nathan Fillion asks for them or if the writers are just big fans.
Often crops up in the works of Chespirito. The most notable example is Quico in El Chavo del ocho who does it the most often, usually followed by a "Wonder that they meant by that?" in response to somebody insulting him.
Troy and Abed In The Morning! Notably, one instance where Jeff berates someone for appearing on this non-show, pointing out the lack of cameras: Abed looks directly into the camera.
"Competitive Wine Tasting" has drama Professor Sean Garrity lampshade a rather anticlimactic ending to the Troy & Britta storyline, declaring "We're actors. ... All that matters...is our time...in the spotlight." With each dramatic pause, the camera gets a bit closer, until he looks straight into it on "in the spotlight".
The second documentary episode has Abed putting together a documentary with the help of a couple extra cameramen. The last shot of the episode before The Tag is Abed giving one of the other cameras a pointed look, making it a curious example, since it applies both to his in-universe documentary and the episode itself.
Better Things: The last shot from the series featuring Sam shows her wink at the audience, to wish us goodbye.
In Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, One-Shot Character and Only Sane Person Cornelia gives one when her storyline reaches the breaking point and her dysfunctional coworkers start competing for her attention like a group of middle schoolers — right before breaking into her own musical number (which, as the creators previously confirmed, is a sign of Rebecca's craziness creeping into someone's mind).
In The Daily Show, many of the field reporters will do this when their interviewee is talking about something absurd.
A Dalek manages to do this in "The Daleks' Master Plan" — Mavic Chen is spiralling into a Villainous Breakdown and a Dalek confronts him about his incompetence. Chen rants impotently at it and then slaps the Dalek in the eyestalk. The Dalek flails around in confusion for a second, briefly fixing the camera with its eyestalk as if to ask "can you believe he did that?" It's a real testament to the skills of the Dalek operators that they could pull this off.
Some unintentional ones are done by the First Doctor. The actor had a bit of a habit of flubbing lines and occasionally, after catching himself completely mangling a sentence, would glance over at the director as if to ask if there'd be a retake.
In "Spearhead from Space", when the Brigadier and the other members of UNIT leave the Doctor alone and unguarded in his hospital bed, he gives the camera a short, conspiratorial look.
In "The Brain of Morbius", after Solon tells the Doctor "What a magnificent head", the Doctor glances over at the camera. Later, when Solon makes a hideous pun and Morbius bellows "FOOL!", Solon quickly glances at the camera with wry amusement.
"The Invasion of Time": After the Fourth Doctor fails to operate his sonic screwdriver, he announces "even the sonic screwdriver won't get me out of this one," presumably to himself, and fixes the camera with a brief stare.
In "The Creature from the Pit", the Doctor forces a villainess' hand onto Erato's larynx machine and the creature starts speaking through her. As she goes through her Villainous Breakdown, we can see the Doctor lurking at the edge of the shot, looking straight at the camera out of the corner of his eye and smirking.
The Made-for-TVMovie: after the Eighth Doctor acts oddly, Grace gives a baffled glance at the camera.
In "Day of the Moon", Richard Nixon is allowed to boggle briefly at the camera after learning about Delaware's sexuality.
Near the end of "Asylum of the Daleks", Oswin casts a brief glance directly into the camera after she says, "and remember", which is seen as a direct message to the viewers since the actress (and possibly the character) would return later in the season.
The Twelfth Doctor does it at the end of his premiere episode, "Deep Breath", and again while striding past the camera in "Heaven Sent" while mentioning that he's "nothing without an audience".
This is easier to spot in HD due to the dim lighting, but Clara Oswald flicks her eyes at the camera in "Hell Bent" when she states that whatever it was she just told the Doctor in a private moment is something she won't tell the Time Lords "or anybody else" (cue the glance at us).
Family Feud: Count on Steve Harvey to make a perplexed glance at the camera whenever someone gives a strange answer in regular play.
Right after Kaylee says "It's real simple," in the pilot episode of Firefly, Jayne flicks his eyes up. May be unintentional. The camera has come around to face him as he gives a "you gotta be kidding me" look, but Jayne is looking at Kaylee, not the camera.
A Finnish TV show called Frank Pappa Show did this with the character of "the milk maid", a blonde dressed in a traditional outfit, who would interview various celebrities of the time and occasionally shoot an aside glance with a blank expression towards the camera as they happened to say something unintentionally (on the interviewee's part, at least) comical.
Since the character was not milked enough during Frank Pappa Show, she also appeared in every Iltalypsy episode.
In The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Will has a habit of doing this in a more obvious way than most examples of this trope (often looking directly into the camera). At one point, his aunt asks him exasperatedly, "Whoare you looking at?!"
Another example happens at the start of the fifth season, when Jazz comes to visit, complaining about why he's the last to know Will's back from Philadelphia before asking who's playing the mother that season. A boy comes out to tell it's the same actress. As Jazz wonders who the boy is, Will reveals that he's Nicky, who was last seen as a baby in the previous season. While Jazz looks on bewildered, Will looks to the camera and makes a "growth spurt" motion.
Used almost Once per Episode by The Skipper on Gilligan's Island whenever he reacts to whatever goofy thing Gilligan's done this time.
Happens amusingly on Glee when one of its voiceovers appears to be from Brittany...until it turns out that she's actually speaking, and Blaine has no idea who she's talking to or what she's staring at.
In The Golden Girls, Dorothy gives these a lot, especially after Rose says something stupid.
In Harry Hill's TV Burp, a particularly awful clip or line of dialogue is often followed by Harry giving a pained glance to the camera. (This is one of the weirder uses since most of the show is Harry talking to the camera, only to Aside Glance to a different camera...)
(featured clip of battery hens) Voice: What animal, of any description, want to live in here? Harry Hill: A fox?
High Fidelity: Rob frequently looks over to the audience while addressing them on her life. Simon does too when it's his turn.
In the Home Improvement episode "Unchained Malady", Tim has been having a string of bad luck which he starts to believe is from his not forwarding a chain letter that he had scoffed at earlier. One of the warnings at the end of the letter was that "a naval officer in Borneo disregarded this letter and three days later he was decapitated". Tim talks to Wilson for reassurance later, and has this exchange with him:
Wilson: Well, personally, Tim, I place no credence in chain letters. Of course, I did have a friend once who didn't return a chain letter, and he disappeared mysteriously. (Beat) Wilson:He was a naval officer in Borneo. *Tim looks up at the camera with a shocked expression*
In the How I Met Your Mother episode "The Mermaid Theory", Future Ted is trying, in voice-over, to explain why Barney and Lily were arguing. As he is retracting various reasons but still not getting the story right, the two of them glance at the camera, and then Barney glances at his watch. They are, in fact, breaking the interior fourth wall with Future Ted. In other words, Barney and Lily are breaking Future Ted's fourth wall, not Neil Patrick Harris or Alyson Hannigan breaking the actual fourth wall. Simple, huh?
Hustle: The crew often give aside glances while they're in the middle of a con, as one of the series' trademarks was its breaking of the fourth wall.
Impractical Jokers' Joe Gatto is particularly fond of this when the challenge gets particularly absurd.
Happens quite often in The InBESTigators, particularly by Ezra, usually after Kyle says something.
It's Garry Shandling's Show has Garry Shandling himself do this constantly - hardly a scene goes by where he doesn't. See, the entire premise of the show is that Garry is not only fully aware he's on TV (as are all his friends and family), but the Studio Audience lives "inside" his house. As such, an Aside Glance from Garry often doesn't stop there, and leads to him giving snarky commentary straight to the audience mid-scene.
Las Vegas: Danny McCoy, the lead, is trying to track down an ex-thief. He finds her at a strip club-gold bikini, heels, sits in front of her and offers her a Benjamin. She takes it, says she's taking him someplace private, and leaves the room. When he catches her outside, in her car, she says she thought he was a bill collector. When they've ascertained that she didn't steal the jewel, she stands up and puts one leg on Danny's doorframe, saying she owes him a lap dance. Danny asks if he can get his money back. She says no refunds. Danny looks at her legs for a second, then turns and grins at the camera and wiggles his eyebrows. End scene.
MADtv (1995)'s Jordan Peele, playing as R. Kelly in "Trapped in the Cupboard", is in a grocery store and looks toward the camera during a line. Another customer notices this and looks in the same direction quizzically.
The title character of Magnum, P.I. does this frequently, particularly when something ridiculous has occurred or he's done something mischievous.
Bud Bundy does this a couple of times on Married... with Children, looking slyly at the audience on those very rare occasions when he was about to get some action from a girl.
This happens in many episodes of The Mighty Boosh. The series 3 episode "Party" has two particularly good examples:
When Howard Moon sputters that he's a mere ten years older than Vince Noir, both characters turn to the camera, silently acknowledging that they are contradicting previous canon (an earlier episode stated they were the same age) and reality (Julian Barratt is only five years older than Noel Fielding).
Later, Tony Harrison (also played by Fielding) tells Howard, "Wow, you're older than me!" and then smiles right at the camera.
Another prime example, the Crack Fox rather terrifyingly shushing the audience.
In an episode of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers called "Best Man for the Job", Kim and Tommy are having an intense running argument about their respective campaigns for class president. This extends to when they're morphed, to the point that they're delivering Offhand Backhands to Putties while arguing instead of concentrating on the fight. One of the Putties goes down, looks at the Rangers, and then looks right at the camera with a look of "You've got to be kidding me, right?" (According to Jason David Frank, a lot of the times the actors for the Rangers would dress up as Putties to help pad scenes. Gotta wonder if it was one of them.)
One episode of The Millers ends with Nathan's father Tom, sister Debbie, and brother-in-law Adam wondering if people saw his just-finished newscast:
Tom: They will if theBig Bangaudience stuck around long enough to watch it* The Big Bang Theory was on just before them at the time it was shot. Debbie: They are the smartest audience on TV. [Camera cuts to a side view and they all turn to stare into the camera for a few seconds]
Monty Python's Flying Circus. Members of the troupe would often turn and look directly at the camera/audience, usually to register their disbelief in the situation.
In the Fish License sketch, John Cleese does this right after he asks to buy a fish license for the first time and the clerk gestures for him to move down to the next window.
Cleese: The man's sign must be wrong. I have in the past noticed a marked discrepancy between these post office signs and the activities carried out beneath. But soft. Let us see how dame fortune smiles upon my next postal adventure.
In the Hungarian Phrasebook sketch, the tobacconist (Terry Jones) rolls his eyes after a fireman (Michael Palin) breaks character.
It's happens a few times on Mystery Science Theater 3000. One example: in the episode featuring Hamlet, Tom Servo decides to change his name. At first, there's nothing wrong as he uses the last name "Sirveux". However, when he reveals that his first name shall be "Htom" (pronounced "Hhh-tom") and not "Thom", Crow does this, then quickly replies "Well, then, Htom, why don't you "hlick me"?"
Happens from time to time in Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide. On one occasion, Ned and Cookie's reasons why Moze shouldn't do a volcano (specifically) for extra credit included "Plus it's been done on every show ever" followed by a s-l-o-w turn towards the camera.
Felix does this several times on The Odd Couple (1970). Once after Oscar draws a mustache on Felix with a marker in an episode titled "You Saved My Life".
Used by several characters in both the US and UK version of the faux-documentary TheOffice. Characters who are "allowed" to shoot nonplussed or aside glances at the camera tend to be the most self-aware (Jim Halpert from the US series uses this device most often, often several times an episode; for the UK version, it's usually Tim Canterbury or David Brent).
This trope is also subverted once by having one of the usually-oblivious characters, Dwight Schrute, imitate Jim's mannerisms by sarcastically mugging for the cameras (complete with an eye roll).
Karen also lampshades it once when Jim moves to the branch in Stamford, asking "What is that?" after imitating Jim looking into the camera.
In the UK series, this is subverted when Neil notices that a janitor is staring at the film crew and glances camera-wards to see what he's staring at.
In one episode, Jim is hiding in a car from Karen. Karen does not see Jim but does notice the camera in the car with him. Jim pushes the camera out of sight and shoots an angry look above the camera, at what is assumed to be the cameraman.
Frequently used on Parks and Recreation. What's really interesting is that it shows the wide variety of emotions that can be conveyed by this trope. Leslie's aside glance normally means "I'm so fucked," April's means "I am uncomfortable," and Ben's means "Are you seeing this shit?"
Defied in Scrubs where some new interns are excitedly talking about a recent episode of a Medical Drama show and Dr. Cox has a This Is Reality speech about tv shows and actually being a doctor. He mentions that there are no cameras "Over there" and waves in the direction of the camera, while the interns look everywhere but at the camera.
Done a few times on SCTV, largely by Floyd Robertson reacting to his dimwitted co-anchor Earl Camembert's antics or by cast members actually breaking character (such as Harold Ramis looking off-camera and grinning during a parody of Ben Hur where John Candy as Curly Howard as Ben Hur goes off-script and barks at him or when Ramis was given real rum to drink instead of a stand-in during a sketch where a home dentist shows his viewers how to anesthetize themselves with alcohol in lieu of novocaine, which he was unaware of until he actually started drinking it).
In the final season of Smallville, an alternate version of Lionel Luther gives a meaningful aside glance, basically telling the audience he's pumped for the series finale.
Lionel: I wouldn't miss this for the world. Can't wait to see how it all turns out.
T.J. from Smart Guy does this in an episode where he succeeds in finding a new drummer for the band in which his older brother, who claims to have tough standards for the candidate, is the lead singer. The one who makes the cut is a girl around his brother's age.
Stella. Constantly. Lampshaded over the hill and back again, ironic since it's already a Lampshade Trope. Characters will look at the camera, smile at it, wave at it, notice that other characters are looking at the camera and awkwardly change their positions to look too. Sometimes all four in a row. In at least one case, a character is looking at the camera, the shot changes, and they're still looking at the camera despite being in mid-word during the cut.
For a series that has so thoroughly destroyed its fourth wall, Supernatural has surprisingly few of these. However, there's an epic one in the 200th episode, the aptly named "Fan Fiction". In it, Dean has just noticed that the girls playing him and Castiel (in the musical of his life) are a real couple, and the director says that she's OK with the subtext this brings to their performances because "you can't spell subtext without S-E-X." Jensen Ackles gives the camera a long, flat look in the beat before the scene cuts.
In an episode of That's So Raven where Eddie develops psychic powers and becomes popular because of it, one of his new friends comments that he should have his own TV show. This prompts Raven to cynically question who would wanna watch a show about a teen psychic and look deviously at the camera. Obviously, the writers were very proud of the joke.
Stanley Roper does this very often, combined with a silent chuckle, on Three's Company, generally after making a Double Entendre at his wife Helen's expense.
Johnny Carson of The Tonight Show was particularly known for delivering bewildered aside glances to the audience whenever the guest did something particularly humorous or surprising. Most other talk show hosts do the same.
The Toy Castle: In "Alouette", when the Strongman claims that boys can do anything better than girls, the China Doll shoots the camera a "yeah, right" look.
The Twilight Zone (1959): In "The After Hours", as the Sales Supervisor Mr. Armbruster passes by Marsha's mannequin, he notices that it looks just like her and turns his head to look at it. He turns his head to face the audience and looks at them in astonishment. He turns back to look at the mannequin, turns back to the audience and gives them a bemused look, then walks away.
New BBC3 series We are Klang! has this as a common staple for two of the three main characters, when they lampshade an easy crack, like talking to a pair of buttcheeks.
"Where are the hidden agendas?" "I can't find them anywhere."
The X-Files: In the episode "Musings of a Cigarette-Smoking Man", the title character electronically eavesdrops on people who activate a counter-surveillance system that disrupts the audio. He flips a switch that disrupts the counter-surveillance system and smirks towards the camera when the people he's spying on say that their conversation is secure.
Given the mockumentary format of the show, What We Do in the Shadows (2019) has plenty of these; usually from Guillermo, but Nadja has her fair share too.
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