Breaking The Fourth Wall / Western Animation

Why are you just sitting there reading TV Tropes? Don't you know that this page is all about breaking the fourth wall?^note What do you mean I'm too close?

Carl: This is a cartoon, sir.
Major Monogram: Carl, what have I told you about breaking the fourth wall?

— Phineas and Ferb

Why are you on this page?

Works with their own pages

• Chowder
• Ed, Edd n Eddy
• The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy
• Looney Tunes
• Phineas and Ferb

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In General:

• Preschool shows such as Blue's Clues and Dora the Explorer popularized this as a way to teach skills such as math, language, and problem solving to their child audience. The main characters will encounter some problem and ask the viewer to help them, or ask them to repeat a certain phrase, and pause for a few seconds to give the kids at home time to (hopefully) give the correct response. This wiki places all examples of this particular type of fourth-wall breaking under Fake Interactivity.

Creators:

• Tex Avery was the master of this. His characters would often do things like running off the edge of the film. One of his best involved a wiggling hair stuck on the film (which often happened in old projectors). After it's there for a while, one of the characters stops the action and plucks the hair off the film and tosses it away before resuming the scene.

By Studio:

• Old Filmation cartoons (He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983), She-Ra: Princess of Power, Ghostbusters) always ended with a character breaking the fourth wall and teaching a worthy lesson to the children after the main story ends.
  • On The Archie Show, every story began with Archie or one of his friends addressing the viewer. And between stories Archie introduced a dance for the young viewers to watch and learn.

By Series:

#-L

• Archer breaks once when he looks at the camera and advertises the wine he's drinking, "Glengoolie". Carol/Cheryl's break, which is more subtle, is when she hears ominous "tension music" and tells herself "Just ignore it, it's not diegetic.", and later screams "God damn it! Shut up, John Williams!" and "Please tell me you guys heard that!" for the next times it plays again.
• Hanna-Barbera's The Adventures of Gulliver episode "Gulliver's Challenge". After Bunko says (of an opponent) "He's going to get it", Glum turns to the camera and says "I have a feeling we're going to get it, too".
• The Amazing World of Gumball:
  • In "The Signal", Gumball and Darwin realizes they're on TV because they and their dad have been glitching in sync with Elmore TV broadcast due to poor signal.
  • During "The Night", when we see Sussie's dream. She dreams of the actual production set of the show, right as they're wrapping up a shot of her character. As Sussie is a Chinikin, still in character, Sussie is horrified to realize that she's now part of Aurelie Charbonnier's body (The person responsible for Sussie's motion capture in the show), and runs off the set screaming that she's transformed into a monster, much to the confusion of the production crew.
• A planned but unproduced finale episode of The Angry Beavers had Norbert explain to Daggett that they were really cartoon characters who were now facing cancellation. Although the episode was never animated, parts of the audio recording can be found floating around online.
• Animaniacs features this on several occasions. Example: Wakko, dressed as a doctor while dealing with Rasputin, remarks of his patient: "I think he'll need some anesthesia", which leads to Princess Anastasia hitting Rasputin with a mallet. Dot turns to the camera and says "Historical reference. Ask your parents." Lampshaded in the episode "Hello Nice Warners," where Mr. Director asked them who they're talking to.
  • As a veteran cartoon star, Slappy the Squirrel was no stranger to addressing the fourth wall either.
    Slappy: I wrestled with Walto Wolf, Sid the Squid and Beanie the Brain-dead Bison. This Doug-guy here's nothin'!
    Skippy: Yeah, but those were cartoons and this is real life!
    Slappy: ...Don't tell him - he might crack.
  • Really just one of many examples of how Animaniacs took most of Looney Tunes' running gags and did them to wretched and hilarious excess... another example being anvil-dropping.
• During the 100th episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Master Shake tries to sell the show for syndication cash, and during the meeting, his voice actor, Dana Snyder appears out from Master Shake. His attempts to sell the show fail, as the writers and producers say that because the show is only 11 minutes long, they only have about 50 half hour long episodes, and therefore don't qualify for syndication.
  • The episode doubles down, and when the episode's antagonist (the literal Number 100) tries to take over the attempts to gain syndication much to Frylock and Meatwad's confusion, Master Shake tries to explain that it's their hundredth episode, and that if he collects, he'll have their "episouls" forever. He even goes as far to advertise a couple Aqua Teen Hunger Force themed beanies which were at one point sold on Adult Swim's website.
    Master Shake: They sell all our stuff for more than you can buy at other places!
• Arthur doesn't just love the fourth wall, it's basically married to it. People often talk about the show, tell the cameraman to go to the episode's title card, talk to the audience at the beginning of the episode and even look at the audience.
  • There's even an episode dedicated to it, "You Are Arthur" in which Arthur and the viewer imagine what it's like to be each other for a day.
• In the Japanese Gag Dub of Beast Wars, Rattrap would occasionally comment on what audience members were eating.
• The Beatles episode "I Want To Hold Your Hand" had the boys, aboard a cruise ship, chastising the announcer for giving away their disguises they use to keep from being mobbed by hysterical female fans.
• Beetlejuice the cartoon does this quite a few times. Most often, it's BJ himself, but in "The Wizard of Ooze" the Wicked Witch of the West also broke it quite thoroughly.
  Witch: Thanks to that commercial break, I had plenty of time to round up some friends of mine!
  Witch: Curse that Lion's character design! Why couldn't he have been drawn with some eyes?!
• Billy:
  • In the opening, Billy looks at the audience and smiles.
  • In the credits, Billy looks right at the viewer and waves goodbye.
• Bluey: A rather elaborate example in the episode "Puppets": During Bluey’s dream, she is asked by a puppet if she’s also a puppet. She dismisses the idea and goes to sleep…but then the camera pulls back to show a time lapse of an animator working on the next scene.
• The Bugs Bunny short "Rabbit Every Monday" had Yosemite Sam hunting Bugs. We see a shadowy figure in front start to sneak out (remember the shorts used to be shown in theaters) and Sam points his gun at him and orders him to sit back down. Then says to the audience, "Anybody else try to get out to warn that rabbit gets his hide blown off!" Pause. "And I'll do it, too."
• Double Fourth Wall smashed—by Captain Planet. In "Hog Tide", to keep the Planeteers' minds off the hurricane that's doing a number on Hope Island, Gaia tells a tall tale about fictional heroes based on the Planeteers. As usual, the fictional heroes combine their powers to form Captain Planet, and asked who he is. Captain Planet sings his own Ending Theme.
  "I'm your powers, magnified. Haven't you heard the song? 'Captain Planet, he's a hero...'"
  • In an early episode, there is a normal & reverse Fourth Wall smash from the other side. This episode was the first time the Planeteers faced Zarm. After Zarm is sent away, the Planeteers talk about aliens and that people had to share the Earth. Wheeler states, "We get the hint. Your turn." A mystery voice says Captain Planet's catchphrase, "The Power is Yours" ending the show.
• In Centaurworld, this is a unique power that Zulius has. In the episode "Johnny Teatime's Be Best Competition: A Quest for the Sash", it is revealed that he is a Fourth-Wall Observer who is able to pause reality so he can gossip with the audience without everyone else overhearing as they would an Aside Comment. Doing this has the minor side effect of making anyone in the immediate vicinity feel like they are burning alive, which is naturally Played for Laughs.
• Happens on occasion on Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers. There are a few in-story occurrences, and a number in various episode endings. The most obvious ones are during Professor Nimnul's rants, when he seems quite aware of the camera's presence.
• Clone High: The Narrator enjoys breaking the fourth wall quite often, ranging from talking to specific viewers directly ("I'm talking to YOU, Doug") to discussing his coworkers and duties as narrator.
• Close Enough: During the Halloween Episode, Candace falls through a portal into the Cartoon Network offices and is increasingly terrified as she meets the voice actors for her mother and herself, sees the animation process of her world and meets the creator.
• Danger Mouse was prone to this as well, notably in the episode "The Good, The Bad And The Motionless". Penfold is frozen in time as DM battles his evil alter ego:
  D.M.: Good grief, Penfold, I can hardly...oh, I forgot. You're in suspended animation. (to us) Probably the animator's tea break!
• In this episode of Darkstalkers, Anakaris breaks the fourth wall by turning to the camera and saying, "You know, I hate it when my bandages get wet because they break!"
• The Deerskins: In "Crème Brulee" after chasing out The der and ripping the mirror off the wall to throw at him, she says to herself while looking down "I do not have more wrinkles than him" She then shifts her gaze toward viewer. "And these aren't liver spots they're beauty marks." She then adopts a questioning gaze as if responding to a remark or skeptical expression, And rushes toward the camera. "They are too!"
• Drawn Together was set up as an animated reality show, so talking to the audience would be justified. There are however, several occasions where the characters clearly acknowledge that it's not real life. Captain Hero once remarks that Spanky is voiced by Adam Carolla. In another episode Toot says, "Thank God I'm in the other story!"
• Duck Dodgers:
  • Marvin the Martian does this in one episode. He details his evil plot and laughs evilly when one of his henchmen comes up and asks who he's talking to. He stammers out a brief "You know...them! The people watching us!" before the henchman goes "Oooooookaaaay,' and whispers to his fellow goon that Marvin is insane because he thinks there are people watching them.
  • In "Hooray for Hollywood Planet", when Duck Dodgers is acting in a movie, he complains that the script of the movie isn't believable. In response, the director says in response, "Let's be honest kiddo, this is an action comedy starring a cartoon duck. Nobody cares about the story."
  • Done repeatedly in the episode "Samurai Quack", an Affectionate Parody of Samurai Jack.
• Done all the time on Duckman, with asides to the audience, and slams against the show's home, the USA Network.
• Justified on DuckTales (2017) episode "Quack Pack!" where the actual fourth wall isn't broken because there is an In-Universe audience that's part of the whole setup:
  Huey: In all this time fixing the room, have you noticed it only has three walls?
  Scrooge: Oh, don't be daft, lad. Of course there's a fourth wall.
  Huey: Oh, really? Have you actually looked at it?
  [they stare at the fourth wall and see the in-universe audience]
  Della: Okay, that is a little weird.
• In the Superhero Episode of The Fairly OddParents!, Timmy and the Crimson Chin explain to the Nega-Chin his existence is controlled by the comic book writer. The villain decides to confront him.
  • In the Crimson Chin's first appearance, he has an Heroic BSoD upon finding out he's a fictional character.
• Family Guy toyed with this in "Fifteen Minutes of Shame", where they broke the fourth wall in a reality-TV Show Within a Show. Chris hung a lampshade on it with "Fourth wall! You're breaking the Fourth wall!"
  • What's especially funny about the example above is that it's a reality show, which acknowledges the fact that there's a camera there, so even though Peter is talking to the camera, it's not actually breaking the fourth wall any more than a TV news show would be because there's no pretense of not having a camera there.
  • Another episode had a pretty direct fourth-wall-breaking when Stewie mocked the cast of Desperate Housewives (which shared a timeslot with their show), then turned to the camera and encouraged the audience to switch over to ABC and look. "I'll wait. I'll wait five seconds. [pause] Oh my God, did you see? Did you see how old and ugly they all are?"
  • In "Peter's Progress", Stewie broke from the current scene to start complaining about the banner ads promoting other shows that are commonly shown across the bottom of programs now. It started off as Medium Awareness, because Stewie was obviously cognizant of the fact that he's on a TV show. He then broke the Fourth Wall by telling the audience to enjoy the ads as they went to commercial.
  • In the episode "Dial Meg for Murder", Peter uses the TV Guide to find out what will happen.
  • Also, in "Saving Private Brian", after Brian discovers that Stewie got them into the army, he says that's ridiculous, and the Vaudeville duo come out and break into piano and dance. Stewie then shoots them with his pistol, and addresses the audience, "Okay, they're dead, alright? We're not gonna be seeing them again."
  • In the episode "Stew-Roids", there is a scene where Connie D'Amico (the main antagonist of the Griffin's daughter, Meg) is knocked unconscious. It appears Peter is coming to her aid ... until he decides to take advantage of the situation by touching her inappropriately. Just before he rubs his thing to her crotch, he glares and (as if looking at the audience) says, "It's just a cartoon, OK?"
• Futurama liked playing with the fourth wall:
  • In the episode "Fear of a Bot Planet", Fry and Leela are attempting to work out how to rescue Bender from a planet full of human-hating robots. Leela remarks, "If only I had two or three minutes to think about it," at which point it immediately cuts to a commercial break. When the show returns from commercial, Fry and Leela have worked out a plan and are enacting it.
  • In "Bender's Big Score," the Professor talks about how their license was "cancelled" two years ago by "the delivery network" (a building with a logo BOX NETWORK is shown. The B flickers and part of it goes out so that it looks like an F). The professor gets a phone call and announces "The asinine morons who canceled us were themselves fired for incompetence," so Planet Express is "back on the air! Yes, flying on the air in our mighty spaceship!"
  • In "Rebirth" (the first regular episode after the show was picked up by Comedy Central), the Professor mentions that they have apparently gone through the "Panama Wormhole, Earth's central shipping channel." Zoidberg finds this humorous, and the Professor agrees: "Yes, it's sort of a comedy central channel, and we're on it now."
• Garfield and Friends indulged in this a number of times.
  • "Invasion of the Big Robots" opens with Garfield waking up in the wrong cartoon, a Mazinger Z-esque action cartoon.
  • A U.S. Acres short had Wade, freaking out over a cryptic message warning that "The bunny rabbits is coming", turn to the audience and shout "Why are you just sitting there watching television? Don't you know that the bunny rabbits is coming?"
    • Wade says the same thing in "Wade You're Afraid", but the second question is changed to "Don't you know that the bull is loose?"
  • Aloysius does this (mostly unintentionally) too many◊ times◊ in◊ his episodes.
  • In "Yo Jumbo" when Jon stands up to a bully for calling him a chicken, his voice briefly changes to that of Roy, a rooster in the U.S. Acres segments that Thom Huge also voices.
• Garfield's Babes and Bullets: At the very end, Jon interrupts the fantasy, asking "What are you doing in there?". Garfield responds "Getting ready to roll the end credits" and closes the door.
• The Garfield Show breaks the fourth wall as much as Arthur, if not more. In fact, there's an episode titled "It's About Time", where Nermal goes back in time to get Jon to adopt him, so he can get his own TV show. That episode also has Garfield ask himself "When did Jim [as in Davis] start making comics?"
• Gravity Falls has done this several times:
  • In "Fight Fighters", during the climactic fight between Dipper and Rumble McSkirmish, Soos waves his arm in front of Rumble's life meter, attempting to change it.
  • The shorts series Dipper's Guide to the Unexplained and Mabel's Guide to Life are about Dipper and Mabel filming their life in Gravity Falls to show to the public. They often address the viewer by saying things like "I know what you're thinking", or just speaking directly to the camera.
  • "Weirdmageddon" features literal crashing of the fourth wall, as Wendy and Dipper drive through the weirdness bubbles and undergo a series of Art Shifts; at one point they assumed the real life likeness of their respective voice actors, Jason Ritter and Linda Cardellini.
• Green Eggs and Ham: When McWinkle shows photos of Sam eating the Hameggeddon in "House", Gluntz simply states that it's Sam eating his favorite food, listing three specific instances, and says that she figured that out "three episodes ago".
• Even though it's rare, Hilda managed to do it at the end of the Season 2 episode, "The Stone Forest", where she's confused by the turn of events after becoming a troll for the first time and turns directly to the camera and asks the audience what's going on. Also, the credits roll after this, where "The End" by Frankie Cosmos answers Hilda's question. This is hilarious for fans that have not only watched the show but also read the comics because, even before Season 2 was released, they knew what was going on. And they are welcome to continue to story by reading "Hilda and The Mountain King" while waiting for the 70-minute movie special.
• Shep from Horseland frequently speaks to the viewer to introduce the episode and to explain the moral learned.
• In Jem, the fourth wall was usually pretty solid, but in "The Day the Music Died", Kimber, Raya, Aja, Pizzazz, Riot, and Ashley broke it to speak directly to the viewers.
• Subverted in The Jimmy Timmy Power Hour 3. Multiple times in the movie, Sheen appears to be asking the viewers a question before the camera cuts to behind him, revealing that he's actually talking to Libby.
  Sheen: Do you know what this means?! Do you?! Do yoooouuu?
  Libby: Seriously, stop doing that!
• On Jimmy Two-Shoes, Jimmy does this after an Accidental Kiss between Beezy and Heloise to show it again in slow motion!
• An episode of Johnny Test did this as well. Johnny and his talking dog Dukey are trapped in an action movie (through the use of VR helmets created by his genius sisters), and when they realize how the movie's supposed to end (think Thelma & Louise) Dukey screams at Johnny "You couldn't have just stayed home and watched cartoons like normal kids!". Johnny and Dukey then pause and look at the audience before continuing to panic about getting out of the movie.
• KaBlam: God, Henry and June seem to find this as their favorite activity. What happened to kids playing video games and watching TV? Well, they're the hosts of the show, and they're pretty much on TV (at least 1996-2000 ^note  original Nickelodeon run and 2001-2006 ^note  [[reruns on Nick/Nicktoons/Nicktoons Network ).
  • There is even an entire episode about it. After finding a projector showing pictures of the real world, they try to LITERALLY break the fourth wall, to the point of catapulting themselves against the screen and Lampshading the fourth wall. In the end, they end up finding a door that leads them to the real world, only to get real world pain after trying to ride bikes (they were turned into actual people, and had all of the limitations of a human. They give up, rewarding themselves for trying, only for Mr. Foot to go get the door to get a pizza delivery, making their attempts useless.
• The characters of Kaeloo speak to the audience a lot, especially Mr. Cat.
• Ron occasionally gets to play with fourth wall breakage during the post-script season of Kim Possible, most notably in the first episode, where in the tag he tells Kim about a dream he had where she jumped sharks, and once in "Grande Size Me", where he delivers a PSA to the audience about the dangers of allowing your DNA to be mutated in chemical vats (while the other characters stand around confused as to who he's talking to).
  • Kim does it one time herself during the second season, pushing away the opening titles to double-take at the scientists wanting to study Ron as the secret to her success.
• Let's Go Luna!: "Luna's Christmas Around the World" ends with Luna noticing she has one fruitcake she hasn't given to anyone for Christmas yet. She wishes the viewers a merry Christmas as she offers them the fruitcake.
• Jake Long was once captured by Gantu in one episode of Lilo & Stitch: The Series. Jake commented there's no aliens in his show.
• "Little Bill, who are you talking to?"
• One of the most famous No Fourth Wall lines in Looney Tunes history was introduced in the 1941 Bob Clampett Bugs Bunny short Wabbit Twouble. When Elmer Fudd, his face covered in soap, reaches for a towel, Bugs leads him around with the towel on the end of a branch. He tells the viewer, "I do this kind of stuff to him all through the picture."
  • Cecil Turtle says that earlier in Tortoise Beats Hare.
  • A variant of this line also turns up in Tex Avery's first Droopy short for MGM, Dumb-Hounded.
  • "Hare Tonic" has Bugs convincing Elmer Fudd (who had brought him home to make into stew) that he was infected with the highly deadly and infections disease Rabbititis. In the last scene, he points to the audience and goes nuts, telling Fudd that everyone out there had Rabbititis. After Fudd runs off, he assures the viewers that if they actually had Rabbititis, they'd see red and yellow spots before their eyes (spots appear on the screen), and then they'd start swirling around (the spots on the screen do so), and then, everything'd go BLACK! (the screen blacks out).
  • Another famous example involving Bugs is in ''What's Opera, Doc?. At the end, after Elmer kills Bugs, then goes into a What Have I Done mode and mournfully carries Bugs' body away, Bugs comes back to life briefly to tell the audience, "Well, what did you expect from an opera? A happy ending?"
  • In one of the Bugs/Daffy cartoons with the Abominable Snowman, Daffy leads the snowman to Bugs and, sneaking off while the snowman is hugging Bugs, he turns to the camera and says "sure, I know I'm a louse. But I'm a LIVE louse." - on a host segment of the Bugs Bunny television show, a dopey sheepdog says (Looking for Bugs) "Where's the little bunny rabbit I saw on TV last week? I have to catch him. (Looking at us) Actually I'm a sheepdog by trade, but this is my day off."
  • A Porky Pig short called Porky in Wackyland was about Porky trying to catch the elusive dodo bird and gets sent into an insane reality world where said dodo bird would torment him in a Roadrunner-esque way, albeit more insane. One way he annoys Porky is by riding up from the horizon in the Warner Bros. logo (complete with the "boing" sound effect) slaps Porky, and zooms back into the horizon, with the WB "boing" sound effect playing in reverse.
  • An early Porky cartoon The Case of the Stuttering Pig had the villain warning the audience not to try and help the heroes - he especially singles out "that guy in the third row." At the end, the guy in the third row helps subdue the villain.
  • In "Tick Tock Tuckered", another short featuring Porky Pig and Daffy Duck, they are trying to get to sleep to wake up early in the morning, so they are not fired for being late to work. Of course, this causes many things to plague them and prevent them from getting to sleep. One of them is the moonlight shining through the window and keeping Porky awake. The problem is resolved when Daffy shoots at the moon, causing it to fall and disappear over the horizon. In response to the unexpected outcome, Daffy looks at the audience, and expresses his disbelief ("Unbelievable, isn't it?").
  • And then there were the shorts whose films "broke" near the end, leaving the screen a white void. After a brief pause, one of the characters from the cartoon in question steps out into the void and addresses the audience, "Ladies and gentlemen, due to circumstances beyond our control, we are unable to continue with this picture."
  • Foghorn Leghorn did this often. Speaking to the foil du jour: "It was, I say, it was a joke, son!" Then turning to the camera: "Nice boy, but about as sharp as a sack o' wet mice."
  • In Rabbit Hood Little John tells Bugs over and over that Robin Hood will "be here soon". Near the end Bugs says to him: "You said that all through the picture. Where is he?" Turns out Robin Hood does indeed arrive, but in Stock Footage from The Adventures of Robin Hood.
  • The entirety of Chuck Jones' Daffy Duck short Duck Amuck is devoted to this very idea, with Daffy being tormented throughout by a mystery director. Daffy spends the entire short talking to the director who is constantly changing the scenery, props, and even Daffy himself with the use of a paintbrush, pencil, and eraser. And in the end, the director turns out to be Bugs Bunny!
    • Bugs gets the same treatment from Elmer Fudd in Rabbit Rampage.
  • The now-censored cartoon Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips has Bugs disguised as Hideki Tojo but gives himself away to the Japanese soldier by eating a carrot:
    Soldier: (to us) Honolable a-haaa! That no Japanese general...that Bugs Bunny! I see him in Warner Bros./Reon Schresinger/Mellie Merodies cartoon picture! Oh, he no fool me!
• The Loud House:
  • In the show's first season, Lincoln Loud regularly breaks the fourth wall, talking with the viewer about how to survive in a house with 10 sisters. This was mostly dropped by Season 2, only to return in later seasons (albeit more sporadically due to the series branching out to give the entire family more focus as an Ensemble Cast).
  • Lincoln also suggests that Ronnie Anne do this at the end of "The Loudest Mission: Relative Chaos", as a way to process her thoughts and survive the chaos of living with a large family like him, as part of setting up her new spin-off show. Her comment on the effectiveness of talking to the audience also implies that everyone in the show's universe is vaguely aware of the fourth wall, but generally don't see the worth in acknowledging it.
  • Luan breaks the fourth wall talking with the viewer at the end of "April Fools Rules".
  • Clyde also talks to the viewer at the end of "One Flu Over the Loud House".

M-Z

• Most of the short segments in between stories on Maryoku Yummy have this (most of the ones at the end), with Maryoku asking the viewer "Which wish is..." or asking the viewer to copy her actions.
• At the end of some several episodes of Meeow, Maisie MacKenzie will wiggle her fingers or waves goodbye to the audience.
• Happens quite literally in the 2013 Mickey Mouse cartoon Get a Horse!, where various characters rip through the screen and into the theater. They then proceed to cross back and forth, flipping the screen in every direction, until by the end it is completely torn away.
• Mr. Bogus will more often than not break the fourth wall to address the viewers about his current situation.
• Muppet Babies (1984) broke the fourth wall a couple of times in the episode "Good Clean Fun":
  Animal: Go bye bye!
  Piggy: No, Animal, the show's not over yet!
  Animal: Sorry.
  Piggy: It's OK.
• My Little Pony Friendshipis Magic:
  • Pinkie Pie breaks the fourth wall from time to time in early episodes, and it's a self-imposed rule by the writers that she's the only character within the main cast that's allowed to do so. This begins in "Friendship is Magic, Part 2", where she interrupts the Iris Out and babbles to the audience about how excited she is to have Twilight Sparkle living in Ponyville, and playing with the Iris Out became becomes a minor running gag for her after this, such as in "Swarm of the Century" and "The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows"; in the former, she even plays a closing Sad Trombone. This is largely limited to closing credit gags, however, and mostly occurs in early seasons — later episodes make much more sporadic use of this..
    • At the end of "Over a Barrel", Pinkie does a similar thing while Twilight Sparkle is reading aloud her letter to Princess Celestia. When Twilight quotes Pinkie's song from earlier in the episode by saying "you've got to share. You've got to care", Pinkie, annoyed, pops out of the closing iris and says "Hey! That's what I said!"
    • In "Magic Duel", Pinkie Pie breaks through the iris-out again, angry about her lack of a mouth. Twilight joins in on the action, creating a portal into the black screen and using her magic to give Pinkie her mouth back. Pinkie happily opens her mouth to say something right before the end credits start playing. Earlier in the same episode, Trixie removed Pinkie's mouth (using the Alicorn Amulet) by dragging the Flash file with the mouth into a computer's trash bin.
    • In "Make New Friends But Keep Discord", Pinkie makes an excited Aside Comment about how Discord wants "all the cakes" at Sugarcube Corner. She doesn't just look at the camera; she grabs it and starts shaking it up and down.
    • In "The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone", Gilda agrees to help Pinkie save Rainbow Dash, and insists that it doesn't make them friends. Pinkie waits for Gilda to walk off before turning to the camera and gleefully exclaiming, "Except it doooooes!"
  • Applejack gets in on it once or twice as well. During "Wonderbolts Academy", when Pinkie Pie is going off on one long protracted tangent about how Rainbow Dash has forgotten them, Applejack spends the entire time looking right at the audience as if to say "Can you believe this?"
  • Discord is a fan of this. During "Keep Calm and Flutter On", he brainwashes some beavers and then grins right at the screen and whispers "Whoopsie!" In "Princess Twilight Sparkle, Part 2", while eating some popcorn, he looks at the camera and says he'll need more popcorn. In "To Where And Back Again", he comments on the episode's cast by saying "Well, isn't this quite the combination of secondary characters?"
  • Sweetie Belle gets one in during Fandom Nod-loaded "Slice of Life". She, along with a large group of other secondary characters, are watching the main six "stars" of the show gathered together and discussing something. Sweetie suggests, "Maybe it's a friendship problem and it'll be wrapped up in half-an-hour or so."
• My Little Pony: Pony Life: Applejack inherits Pinkie's role of Fourth-Wall Observer from Friendship is Magic, addressing the audience directly on occasion.
• Nature Cat: A large chunk of the show's humor revolves around mentioning past episodes and seasons, looking at the camera (most commonly with a usual Aside Glance from Hal), or just outright acknowledging the fans of the series in general. The show entered this territory starting with the second season before the jokes got so big that when it switched animation studios and got Denser and Wackier, the show just dove into the No Fourth Wall territory starting with Season 4.
• Numberjacks
  • Every episode ends with the Numberjacks asking the audience to find examples of the episode's topic around them, usually ending it with some variation of "Any problems, call the Numberjacks!".
  • In the episode "The Dreaded Lurgi", Five thanks the Agents for stepping in to help after Three, Four, and Six fell victim to the lurgi, then turns towards the audience and thanks them as well.
• P.C. Pinkerton: The titular character would often look to the audience and talk directly to them.
• Perfect Hair Forever has a moment when Cat Man is forcibly pulled by Coiffio into a boat. When it is forcibly rocked he turns to the camera and insists with increasing anxiety that they go to commercials.
  "Let's go to a commercial. Let's go to a commercial! COMMERCIAL!"
• Popples:
  • In "Popples Alley", Puffball rolls up to Bonnie (who dubs it her lucky bowling ball)…
    Puffball: Hey kids, come here! I've got something to show you!
    (Cue a Hammerspace world, which includes a a planet or two!)
    Bonnie: (amazed) WOW! I've never seen anything like that in my entire life!
    Puffball: (laughing)'' You haven't looked in Billy's closet, have you?
  • In Pop Goes The Radio, Putter asks the viewing audience for a pair of goggles (to help Billy) while winking at us.
    • And From Beyond the Fourth Wall, the pair of goggles sail at him, hitting him in the head!
      Putter: (recovering) Gee, I'm glad I didn't ask you kids for a bucket of water!
      (A bucket's worth of water is thrown at him, soaking him to the bone.)
      Putter: NO!
  • PC does this in the episode, Backyard Adventure.
  • In The Popples Play Pee-Wee Golf, Party literally breaks the Fourth Wall when the ball she putts (after a water hazard retrieval) strays off-course, shattering the TV screen... and Party fixes the problem by replacing it!
  • Tree House Capers: "Uh oh, Party! Now look what you've done! The kids won't be able to see the show!"
• The Narrator of The Powerpuff Girls (1998) commonly acknowledged himself as the narrator of the show, interacted with the characters in almost every closing narration, and was often in on the show's gags. One particular episode, "Simian Says," had Mojo Jojo kidnap the narrator and take his place, causing the girls to rob banks and commit crimes for him and nearly destroy each other through his narration.
• In the Ready Jet Go! episode "Mindy's Weather Report", Mindy is watching TV and comes across a channel which is showing Dinosaur Train, another one of Craig Bartlett's shows.
  • In the same episode, we get these meta lines, which are referencing how bland Mitchell was as a character at that point (He eventually got some Character Development):
    Mitchell: Dad, this sandbag is kind of heavy.
    Mr. Peterson: That’s okay, son. Mine is too. Builds character.
    Mitchell: I think my character’s big enough.
  • In "Tiny Blue Dot", Sydney says "Somehow, this day just turned into a space-travel musical!" referencing to how the episode is a Musical Episode.
  • In "Back to Bortron 7", Sean says "There's not a moment to lose!" and "Come on Zerk! Back to the house, and step on it!". Both times, he looks directly at the viewer and says "I've always wanted to say that".
  • In "A Star is Born", Sunspot shows some crude drawings on his tablet. Those drawings are the storyboards for the episode.
  • This is probably the most meta moment that the show has to offer, courtesy of the episode "Commander Mom"
    Dr. Amy Skelley: Well, it's about time you all came to see me, after all those times you've been by to see Sean's mom in the other building.
  • There's an extremely meta line in Mindy and Carrot Bake. When Mindy and Carrot are stuck in space, they try to call Face 9000 for help, but they find out he's on vacation, which explains his overall absence from the show as of late season 1 and early season 2.
  • In "Mini-Golf at the DSA", Sean breaks the fourth wall when he says "Hey, that's my line!" in response to Mr. Peterson using his catchphrase.
• One third-season episode of ReBoot, "To Mend and Defend", featured Enzo and Dot hiding behind tombstones as a player looking like Ash (from Evil Dead) massacered zombies and skeletons in a game. They both express horror at the (offscreen) carnage and wonder what kind of sick, demented person would ever play a game like that...and both turn and glare at the camera.
  • There's also an incident during the first season in which Mike the TV is being particularly annoying, and Enzo asks "You want to live to see another season, right?" in an attempt to shut him up.
    • Since Mike is a TV and speaks often in TV-related lingo, Enzo might simply have been putting the threat into words Mike will be more likely to understand.
• Rick of Rick and Morty often talks directly to the audience or makes reference to having a Catchphrase like "Wubba-lubba-dub-dub!"
• Rocky and Bullwinkle's characters do this a lot. Particularly, the lead characters. When they reference things that happened in previous episodes, they actually say they happened in a previous episode. They talk to the narrator from time to time. And they also mention the conditions of the show.
  • At one point, the narrator was kidnapped, then shown tied up and gagged alongside Rocky and Bullwinkle (who were in the same fix). That's not just breaking the fourth wall, that's blowing it to smithereens!
• Rosie's Rules: Rosie steps aside and talks to the viewers to tell them her rules.
  Rosie: Rosie's Rule. A chef needs to get ingredients before she cooks. Or there's nothing to cook!
• Done occasionally in Sally Bollywood. One such example happens when it appears that a case is just caused by an absent-minded student leaving his book in his locker, causing Doowee to exclaim "End of episode" (before it is pointed out that there was more to the case). On another occasion, after Doowee has been pelted with socks from the roof, he proceeds to look directly at the camera and questions the chance of that happening.
• Sheep in the Big City is so full of this, that it would be much easier to name moments when it doesn't break the fourth wall. It even goes as far as to literally have a character named The Plot Device (that pretty much does what you'd expect), and have the narrator, Ben Plotz, frequently complain about how cliched or absurd the plots are.
• The Simpsons tends to shy away from outright fourth wall breaks (though it will often very aggressively lean on it), but some instances do sneak through:
  • Played straight in "Pygmoelian", when Moe is upset about his picture being covered up on the Duff Calendar, and he realizes he's ugly. Carl tries to cheer him up, inadvertently insulting Lenny, Barney, and Homer. All four start sobbing, and Carl turns to the camera and says, "See this is why I don't talk much." Later in the same episode, a TV exec (not actually on TV himself) says "What the fudge?" with the word "fudge" beeped. And at the end, Moe lampshades the show's Reset Button and is cut off by the credits.
  • Also at the beginning of the movie, where Homer complains about TV shows being recycled as feature films: "I can't believe we're paying to see something we get on T.V. for free! If you ask me, everyone in this audience is a giant sucker! (pointing at the camera) Especially you!"
  • In one episode, they talk about a home for TV/Film animals that aren't cute anymore. Snowball immediately perks up and does something to get attention.
  • There was also one gag in which, as an ad passed across the bottom of the screen, Homer ate it. Yes. The ad. "Mmm...promo... Eeew! Fox!"
  • In "The Day the Violence Died", Roger Meyers Jr, arguing that everything is plagiarized from everything else, mentions that Chief Wiggum is a ripoff of Edward G. Robinson... which is kind of true. In the background, Wiggum does a double take.
  • Several episodes use this just before commercial breaks:
    • "All About Lisa" has (Sideshow) Mel narrating. Just before the first break, he says "And so Lisa entered the world of show business, and it is indeed a business, as you'll find in 3... 2... 1..."
    • In "Guess Who's Coming To Criticise Dinner?", Homer turns to the camera and says "We'll be right back!" at the end of act 2.
    • In "Lost Verizon", Bart starts playing with the features of a mobile phone he's just found before holding it into the camera and saying "Oh cool, you can even watch commercials on it!" Cue act break.^note Unfortunately this joke is completely ruined in the UK, as Sky fade into the title screen whenever they go to a break.
    • In "Funeral for a Fiend", when the Simpsons find out that the new restaurant they saw an advert for was a trap by Sideshow Bob, Homer says "The next time a commercial comes on, I'm gonna close my eyes, cover my ears, and scream as loud as I can!" Cue a cut to black followed by Homer screaming right before the ad break starts.
  • Done in a (faux) terrifying-inducing way in "Attack of the 50-Foot Eyesores", a segment of one of their Halloween specials in which giant mock-ups of famous advertising characters come to life and almost succeed in destroying Springfield. At the end of the story, after the creatures have been vanquished, Kent Brockman turns to his TV audience (and thus, to us) and warns that "the next ad you see could kill you and all of your loved ones!" Homer then casually steps in front of Kent and says: "We'll be right back."
  • In "Bart vs. Thanksgiving", Bart and Homer are watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade on TV:
    Bart: It wouldn't hurt them to use some cartoons made in the last fifty years.
    Homer: Bart, this is the tradition. If you build a balloon for every flash in the pan cartoon character, you'll turn the parade into a farce.
    (A Bart balloon shows up on the television)
  • "22 Short Films About Springfield" ends with Professor Frink running in to introduce his skit, only to be cut off by the credits.
• Sonic the Hedgehog:
  • Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog with its "Sonic Says" shorts, in which Sonic and occasionally Tails teach a life lesson to the audience. (Including, in one infamous incident, what to do if you're victimized by a child molester.)
  • Sonic Boom LOVES to break the 4th wall, whether its by the characters looking directly at the viewer, talking to them, or even 4th wall breaking comments. Some examples below.
    • In "Cowbot", Tails will occasionally look directly at the viewers, pretending he's a commentator for "Coconut Hurl".
    • "Sole Power" features Eggman revealing the power source of his giant robot. After saying "Gee, I wish I thought about that." he turns to the viewers, before saying "Oh wait, I did!"
    • "Battle of the Boy Bands" is full of hilarious meta jokes, including Justin Beaver's producers conveniently revealing their whole plans while Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails watch. Knuckles had this to say, while looking at the viewers. "Talk about lazy writing."
    • "It Takes A Village to Defeat a Hedgehog" has a hilarious example from Eggman, when he's asked who Shadow is. His response is "He's only the 2nd most popular character in the whole canon!" Later Orbot and Cubot directly tell the audience to start an online petition for Sonic Boom season 2.
    • And speaking of season 2: "The Biggest Fan", being about an overly obsessed Sonic fanboy, obviously does this in spades, from jokes about Sonic's arms and sports tape to Mark (the fanboy in question) having several fanfictions, quite a few of which are hinted at not being work safe. The fourth wall was never the same after that day...
    • In "Give Bees A Chance", Sonic calls in Tails for an assist and Tails replies "Roger!" When Knuckles asks "Who's Roger?" Sonic replies, in Roger Craig Smith's voice, "He's talking to me."
• South Park:
  • In the episode "Bebe's Boobs Destroy Society", when Eric tries to kick Kyle off the group of main characters, Kyle remarks that he's "been there since the beginning".
  • There's also a gap in the fourth wall in "Cartoon Wars". The overall plot is a battle to show the prophet Mohammed uncensored in a cartoon. The closing narration for part I: "Will the cartoon be allowed to appear uncensored? Will Family Guy be destroyed??? Will television executives fight for free speech? Or will Comedy Central puss out?" They did. In Part II, Cartman tells Kyle at one point, "See? That was a line that was relevant to the plot! Unlike Family Guy!"
  • South Park has an intermittent tendency to lean on the fourth wall. Example 1: In "Christmas Critters", Stan is arguing with the narrator of the story over the ridiculous plot (the narrator wins) (although considering Cartman was telling the story this could be considered a slight subversion), Example 2: Kyle deconstructs the entire episode structure in "Butt Out", trying to get everyone else to realize that they go through the same formula every week, and bemoaning the fact that he's always the one to deliver the Aesop... Look, it's Trey Parker and Matt Stone. There's gonna be leaning on the fourth wall.
  • From "The Tooth Fairy Tats", when Cartman is dressed up as the Tooth Fairy: "Move left! Move left!" [Cartman is moved to the right] "No, CAMERA LEFT! CAMERA LEFT!"
  • At the end of "Towelie": "You are the worst character ever, Towelie."
  • "This is just like when we got our money back for Baseketball."
  • In "Cartman's Incredible Gift", Mrs. Crabtree is killed by a serial killer, causing the police to remark that she wouldn't be missed by the fans much as she was a minor character and hadn't been in any recent episodes.
  • In "Proper Condom Use", Chef remarks that kids might be taught about sex by someone who's a total pervert. Mr. Garrison is then shown and he demands the camera not be shown on him.
• Space Goofs "Holiday Heave Ho" The aliens were about to blow Santa Claus sky high with firecrackers as he was climbing down the chimney when the characters give a PSA about fireworks safety.
  Etno: Don't try this at home, kids.
  Candy: Yes, you could hurt yourself.
  Gorgious & Bud: Or someone you love.
  Stereo 2: So remember...
  Stereo 1: Girls and boys...
  Santa: Have a safe and happy holiday!
• SpongeBob SquarePants:
  • In "Missing Identity", SpongeBob retraces his steps, and Patrick has to say hi to him to make it complete, one of the times, we get this, even though SpongeBob is the only person around, and he was already leaving.
    Patrick: Hi Spongeboob... uh Spongeboob?! I said— haha, who's Spongeboob?! Haha I said Spongeboob! Ahahaha again, okay, sorry people.
  • Also in the episode 'Wet Painters', SpongeBob is going to start painting the wall. The next scene shows a time card, with the narrator mentioning "One Hour Later". Cut back to SpongeBob, who is still not starting to paint the wall. Another time card is shown, the narrator says "Two Hours Later", and yet again SpongeBob is still not starting to paint. Another time card, the narrator says "Three Hours Later", and then Patrick is shown to be the one handling the time cards and he tells SpongeBob to move along because he's all out of time cards.
  • In an episode that practically centered on fourth wall breakage, Patrick broke the fourth wall again in the episode 'Krusty Krab Training Video'. He acknowledges the Narrator several times throughout the episode, believing that the Narrator is the Krusty Krab's ceiling or a ghost. SpongeBob also addresses the Narrator a lot, asking if he can make a Krabby Patty multiple times.
  • Also happens in the episode 'Drive Thru'. When one of Pearl's friends shouts through the cheap, tin-cans-on-a-string "microphone" with a megaphone [causing huge ear pain for Squidward], he turns to the camera and says "I'm not faking it, you know. That really hurt... a lot."
  • Squidward is the master of SpongeBob fourth wall breakage, usually by referencing the running time of the average episode: "I give him eleven minutes" in 'Nature Pants', and in 'Club Spongebob', "Why must every eleven minutes of my life be filled with misery?..."
  • The Christmas-themed episode 'Goons on the Moon' has a scene with Squidward looking through craters on the moon. Through one of these craters is Roger Bumpass (The voice actor of Squidward)'s desk.
  • The ending of "Stuck in the Wringer" includes SpongeBob telling the audience that crying solves your problems.
• Steven Universe has done this a few times:
  • The Uncle Grandpa crossover episode "Say Uncle" declares itself to be non-canon.
  • Word of God states that any fusion that includes Garnet has this ability, with it seen most obviously with Sardonyx in "Know Your Fusion" (where she behaves like a late-night talk show host) and Sunstone in "Change Your Mind" (who gives 1990s-style PSAs).
  • In "Steven's Dream", Steven and Greg are taking a tour of a Korean animation studio, which Greg ends abruptly when he sees himself being animated...
• Another example of the cartoon series Taz-Mania. As mentioned before, it sometimes does this; for example, in Here, Kitty, Kitty, Kitty, Kitty breaks the fourth wall by pulling down a poster that reads, "I'll Be Back", which is set to take place in Here Kitty, Kitty, Kitty Part II.
  • Speaking of which, the LONGEST FOURTH WALL BREAKING was Axel in "Sidekicked", when he does his speech about that he is a sidekick (cue to rapid falls of the boulder crushing Taz.)
• The Trapped in TV Land episode of Teen Titans (2003) has this in spades, with Cyborg referencing the particular episode and season they're in, and Robin giving quizzical glances out the TV screen and then later running up and grabbing the camera, yelling at the audience "Do not watch this program! It will liquify your brain!" (The In-Universe explanation for this action is that Control Freak has tampered with the broadcast.)
  • Another time, the HIVE Five appeared over the theme song and spray-painted their logo on the screen. The leader, Jinx, steps forward and says "We're the HIVE Five and this is our show now." (If you look closely, you can see Gizmo in the background, using some device to hijack the broadcast.)
• An episode of Wabbit: A Looney Tunes Production called "One Carroter in Search of an Artist" has Bugs getting the Duck Amuck treatment - this time the animator is equipped with a digital pen and a tablet. At the end, it's revealed that the animator is Daffy, finally getting his revenge on Bugs for the events of Duck Amuck!
• The Weekenders LOVES doing this.
  • Tino often talks to the audience by having the background turn grey, telling them what's happening this weekend and its outcome in the beginning and the end of an episode.
    • In the episode where the gang is suspicious of Tish's whereabouts, Tino tries to tell us you shouldn't jump to crazy conclusions.
      Lor: Who are you talking to? Are you hiding something from us?
  • At the end of "Listen Up", Carver talks about the plot until the camera turns away. He comes close to the screen and knocks on it and then the show starts to fades out. He closes the episode by yelling "DON'T FADE OUT ON ME WHILE I'M TALKING!!! HEY! LATER DAYS!!!!"
• In World of Winx Bloom addresses the audience in a couple of episodes.
• In the opening and closing sequences of Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum, the characters talk to the viewer. Luckily, there's no Fake Interactivity.
• Happens in the Xiaolin Showdown episode "Hannibal's Revenge":
  Master Fung: Hannibal alone is a potent threat, but together with Wuya, their evil forces could mean... the end of the world.
  Raimundo: Where have I heard that before? Oh yeah! [looks towards camera up close, eyes resembling monitors with show logo]
  Raimundo: Previously on… Xiaolin Showdown...
  [Xiaolin Dragons and Fung wink and give thumbs up in acknowledgment]
• /Yam Roll: "What's Wrong With This Picture" has Yam Roll invite the audience to count all of the mistakes in the episode. There's only one mistake, and it's that Yam Roll isn't wearing the right hat.
• In the Ireland episode of Yogi's Treasure Hunt, Yogi and pals are trapped in a room filling with water as it goes to a commercial. When the show resumes, they're on the roof of the building safe and sound.
  Huckleberry Hound: If it weren't for that there commercial interruption, you folks would've seen a real exciting escape!
  Snooper: Yeah, take Huck's word for it - it was a doozy!

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