Audience? What Audience?

"Why do you keep doing that? Who are you talking to?! THERE'S NO ONE THERE!"

— Hun to 1987 Raphael, Turtles Forever

If you have a character who has Medium Awareness or is capable of Breaking the Fourth Wall, it's quite common to observe his interactions with characters who don't know they're fictional. Any time our medium-aware friend will directly address the audience or mention some boundaries of the medium, everybody else will either ignore him or act surprised and find themselves unable to understand what he's talking about. Eventually the other person will think he either is joking or has a few screws loose. Usually, no matter what he does, his efforts to make them realize they're all fictional characters will be meaningless—nobody will believe or even understand him.

Most of the time this trope is played in the same way medium awareness is in said work of fiction. If it's Played for Laughs, so is everybody's ignorance. If medium awareness is Played for Drama, this trope may add a little to it—our hero has to deal with being a fictional character and everybody else thinking he's crazy. If the other characters ARE aware of their fictional nature but aren't supposed to show it, see Scolding the Fourth-Wall Breaker.

Contrast No Fourth Wall and Who Would Want to Watch Us?; compare Cassandra Truth, The Cuckoolander Was Right and This Is Reality.

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Examples:

Advertising

• A UK TV advert for Tesco supermarket shows a woman discussing the special offers with the voice-over, while her family and passers-by look increasingly worried. At the end, her husband checks how full a wine bottle is, while she continues talking to thin air.
• A 1985 PSA for the US National Wildlife Federation featuring The Muppets has Kermit and Fozzie discussing pollution. At the end, Kermit turns to the camera and gives the viewers an address to write to for more information. Fozzie asks who he's talking to.

Anime & Manga

• In the last episode of FLCL, Kamon explains why manga-like scenes from the first episode didn't appear in later episodes ("It takes time and a lot of work") and why they reappeared in the last one (the creators were "accused of being lazy"). Naota has no idea what Kamon is talking about.
  • In the first episode they have a cut to a commentary track where Haruko mentions it's really hard to do slow motion scenes because you have to hold your breath while you do it.
    Naota: That was you?! I thought it was a special effect!
• In the first episode of Nyaruko: Crawling with Love! W, Nyarko gives introductions for Tamae and Yoichi for anybody who missed the first season; in the next cut, we see Nyarko is facing the front of the classroom and Mahiro asks "Who the heck are you talking to?"
• Mei Company begins with Mei Sakuragi giving an opening narration explaining how her world works. Her friend Itsuki Mizuta then asks who she is talking to.
• Played for Laughs in Rosario + Vampire, when the local Fourth-Wall Observer, Kurumu Kurono, complains to the audience that she's been shoved Out of Focus only one episode after she was introduced. This prompts the narrator bat of all people to ask the audience who she's talking to.
• in Etotama, Ordinary High-School Student Takeru isn't aware in the slightest that he's in an anime, which leaves him all the more confused when the deities around him constantly shatter the fourth wall to pieces.
• In the Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic prequel series Adventures of Sinbad, we get this after Sinbad, Mystras and Ja'far wind up naked in the wilderness.
  Ja'far: [pointing from an angle where his hands strategically hide the others' crotches] Listen, why don't you hide those instead?
  Sinbad: Hide what?
  Ja'far: Those things that aren't supposed to be seen on-screen!
  Mystras: What screen?
• How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend: Tomoya Aki wakes up to find Utaha Kasumigaoka in his bed. When he freaks out and asks why she is here, she says she had zero screen time in the previous episode, so she wanted to make up for it in this one. He gets confused and says he doesn't understand what she means by "screen time" and "episode".
• In episode 22 of Inazuma Eleven: Ares, Chou Kinun (disguised as a bear) tells the audience to look forward to the next episode. His pupil Lee Kobun (who also wears a bear costume) asks him who he's talking to.

Comic Books

• This happens to Deadpool a lot. Every time he breaks the fourth wall or indicates he knows he's a comic book character in the presence of someone else, they have absolutely no idea what he means. Most commonly the other character will respond with a Flat "What" and an assumption that he's crazy. This being Deadpool, they're probably not that far off.
  • Subverted in Uncanny X-Force #34. After saving Wolverine, Deadpool tells him that he wasn't worried about him dying because apparently "everyone knew he wasn't going to die". When Wolverine asks who's everyone, Deadpool points out to the reader, but in the next panel we find out he was actually pointing to a security camera. It turns into Mind Screw when you start wondering why the guys watching the footage of the security camera would think Wolverine was safe from dying.
• Played for Laughs in an issue of Damage Control where the characters met She-Hulk, and showed what her Medium Awareness looked like from the outside.
• One time when She-Hulk guest starred in her cousin's book (or possibly vice versa), at the end she addressed the audience; Hulk (who was intelligent at the time) called her on it.
  Hulk: Who are you talking to?
  She-Hulk: The people on the other side of the fourth wall.
  Hulk: Uh, Jen? There's no wall there. [waves hand to demonstrate] Just air.
• Played straight in Grant Morrison's run on Animal Man. Their arc featured the main character gradually becoming aware that he is a comic character.
  • He once wandered through Comic Limbo where different discarded characters made references to him being a character, only for him to be confused or outright dismiss them.
  • In one issue, several DC characters wiped out during the Crisis on Infinite Earths event reappeared. One character fully realized he was in a comic and pointed at the reader, claiming that "they" are enjoying the suffering of the characters and that the characters will be doomed to repeat these traumatic events every time someone reads that issue. At first, the other characters believe he's insane but they gradually see it too, eventually realizing that he was right. They don't react well. Note that this storyline alternates between being outside canon (and for good reason—imagine the Fridge Logic and Fridge Horror that would affect the DC Universe if it were) and being a mystical experience of The Multiverse that its participants could only interpret by way of a Breaking the Fourth Wall metaphor, though Morrison has dragged Meta Fiction elements into other stories such as Final Crisis.
  • When he guest-stars in the JLApe crossover because the Martian Manhunter needs information about morphic resonance, he's had a bit of a breakdown and his reaction is "Oh god, I'm important to the plot..." J'onn learns Buddy's view of reality via his telepathy, but decides not to share it with anyone.
• Monica's Gang:
  • This Brazilian comic has No Fourth Wall to the point of Postmodernism, their parody of Avatar had this exchange:
    How iwonic! It could only be a wwiter's idea.
    Writer? Who is that?
    Oh, just an imaginawy figuwe.
  • Also, when robots went back in time to kill Monica, Smudge and Jimmy so their descendants won't exist to revolt against robotkind, one of the robots theorized the one that came up with the idea plagiarized it from some movie.
• The 2000AD one-shot story It Pays To Be Mental had the main character (a class-D mental patient—quite harmless, released to community care) narrating to the audience. Dredd naturally considers talking to an imaginary audience quite subversive◊ but can't touch the patient due to his mental license, leading to an Aside Glance on the part of Dredd.
• The Simpsons Futurama Crossover Crisis: The first issue of the first miniseries ends with this:
  Narration Box: Farnsworth committed! Fry trapped in the school! Nibbler's brain lactified! Is all lost for the Planet Express crew? Are they finally, truly, totally boned?
  One of the Brain Spawn: Yes, they are!
  Another Brain Spawn: Who are you talking to?
• In Spider-Verse, the version of Peter Parker from the Ultimate Spider-Man animated series narrates his adventures, just like in the cartoon. His fellow Spider-Men are bewildered by this.
  Sixties Peter Parker: Who's he talking to?
  Miles Morales: I'm starting to think even he doesn't know.

Fan Works

• Common in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanworks. This usually involves Pinkie Pie, due to her being portrayed as having Medium Awareness (which is not canon outside of a few minor fourth-wall-breaking gags):
  • In Code: Pony Evolution, all the Lyoko Warriors are really confused by Pinkie Pie.
  Twilight: Remember, DON'T QUESTION IT!
  • Pony POV Series:
    • Pinkie Pie often references differences between the fic and the actual show, expresses her hatred of her portrayal in Cupcakes (Sergeant Sprinkles), and other fourth wall shenanigans, which always confuses her friends.
    • Nyarlathotrot suddenly starts ranting and raving at the author and readers, then threatening and insulting them. The heroes have no idea who he is yelling at, though Daring Do, who had been brought to life from her story, has a vague idea.
  • The Bridge:
    • Sonata Dusk starts breaking the fourth wall and Aria Blaze doesn't know what she's talking about.
    • Megalon and the Mane-iac start breaking the fourth wall and Gigan doesn't know what they are talking about. However, when they point at it, Gigan is briefly able to see the fourth wall and is horrified.
    • Discord starts referencing Toho's website and the fic's own TV Tropes page. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie have no idea what he is talking about.
• In the Doctor Who drabble "Legacy", the other Time Lords wonder who Rassilon keeps talking to.
• Kid Icarus Uprising: The Novelization: In Chapter 2, after opening the booby-trapped treasure box, Pit tells Magnus that he did it because the author made him do it. Magnus is completely clueless as to what he's talking about.
• In The Bank Called, Your Reality Check Bounced, Tamaki keeps addressing the reader as though they're a person watching the anime. Hughes has no idea what's wrong with this kid. Kyoya tries to downplay it.
  "Let's just say that the Host King has some very... colorful ideas about the way reality works."

Films — Live-Action

• The main character in Woody Allen's Whatever Works does this all the time, to everyone else's bewilderment.
• Invoked in Wayne's World: "Only me and Garth get to talk to the camera!"
• Played with in Pirates of the Great Salt Lake at the Narrator is either invisible or unremarkable to the characters. After one character is killed he can suddenly see the narrator, but not the audience the narrator is talking to.
  Kirk: I think he's talking to that grove of trees...
• In High Fidelity, protagonist Rob Gordon continually talks directly to the audience, telling his life story. Nobody seems to notice, until near the end, when he yells:
  Rob: When is this gonna stop?!
  Laura: [who just walked in] When's what gonna stop?
  Rob: Uhh, nothing.
• The Truman Show has an In-Universe example that is Played for Drama, when Truman is the middle of an emotional breakdown and is arguing with his wife, she, smack in the middle of their argument, suddenly presenting him a cocoa drink as if she was doing advertisement for it — which she's actually doing. It only infuriates Truman and escalates the situation further as he demands for her to tell him why she is acting like that.
• This is the plot of Last Action Hero. The kid from reality has to convince the character that he's inside a movie. His efforts are held back by the fact that his real world logic simply isn't relevant. That cartoon character on the force is a known and accepted part of their world, and everyone in a movie will be silver screen attractive, even random store clerks.
• Incompetent detective McSorely from Eat And Run is constantly narrating for the benefit of the audience, and on more than one occasion other characters ask who the hell he's talking to. He's not actually aware of the fourth wall, however, he's just crazy.
• When Doctor Scott apparently talks to the viewer during the dinner scene in The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let's Do the Time Warp Again, Brad gives a confused look into the camera as if he's trying to work out who Scott's talking to. This is a nod to a fourth wall break in the original movie that never gets addressed.
• The titular Happiest Millionaire Anthony Biddle asks his Irish butler John Lawless who he's talking to during one of his many addresses to the audience.

Literature

• Played for drama in Charlie the Purple Giraffe Was Acting Strangely by David D. Levine.

Live-Action TV

• Doom Patrol:
  • Mr. Nobody, the villain, is aware that he's a character in a show on a streaming platform, discusses the series' critical reception and its narrative structure, and even pauses playback of the app at one point. The other characters treat this as a delusion on the part of Mr. Nobody, though they do acknowledge that Mr. Nobody's narration has real power.
  • There's also Flex Mentallo, who may or may not be a fictional character, who can hear and understand the Negative Spirit speaking even when no other character can.
• In the third episode of Gentleman Jack, "Oh Is That What You Call It?", Anne lies to Ann Walker, and then glances at the camera and raises her eyebrows slightly. Miss Walker glances over her shoulder and asks "What are you looking at?" Anne replies, "What? Nothing!"
• One episode of Just Shoot Me! had Maya meeting an insane man who thought he was Woody Allen. Near the end, he breaks the fourth wall and starts talking to the camera ^note or at least, he thinks he is, to Maya's great confusion.
• Mimpi Metropolitan: This trope can be expected whenever a character is not alone when breaking the fourth wall.
  • In episode 44, Mami Bibir asks who Bambang is talking to when Bambang confides to the audience that he feels all his efforts to get Melani are pointless.
  • Episode 49: Melani asks when Bambang tells the audience not to get jealous seeing him holding hands with Melani. Bambang replies that he was talking to singles.
  • In episode 57, after Alexi asks the audience to "call the numbers below", Mami Bibir is confused about who Alexi is talking to and where is the numbers.
  • Episode 60: Pipin asks when Alan is telling the audience to watch the previous episodes instead of expecting a flashback if they don't get a reference.
• This happens often at 30 Rock. In one of the final episodes, Jenna turns to the camera and admits she's never met Mickey Rourke. Liz looks at where Jenna is looking in confusion.
• Community: Abed says that they're back for next year unless an asteroid hits the Earth, then winks at the camera and says "and that's canon." Annie tries to figure out who he's winking at.
• Once on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Will stares at the audience in horror after his date starts bossing him around. She finishes her rant with, "And what are you looking at?!"
• Played semi-dramatically in Fleabag. Fleabag has been giving the audience Aside Glances and comments for the whole series, but it's a shock to both her and the audience when her love interest The Priest starts noticing her doing it in the middle of a serious conversation. The first time, he describes it as her suddenly seeming like she's "gone away somewhere" for a moment. On a later occasion he actually follows her gaze to look straight at the camera (but can't see anything).
• Odd Squad: At the end of "A Job Well Undone", Olympia begins giving her acceptance speech for co-winning the Agent of the Month award to the audience. Otis leans into frame and immediately asks who she's talking to, but she ignores him and continues on with the speech. Even Oprah — the one who was open to Odd Squad as an organization being made into a show to begin with — is shown looking around for any semblance of an audience before Otis advises her to walk away and she follows him.
• In She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, She-Hulk makes an aside comment to the audience, prompting Hulk to turn to look at her in confusion.

Roleplay

• Sometimes on NoPixel, Diego will break the fourth wall (as befitting his source material), and it confuses the heck out of other characters. This leads to hilarity when he first meets Jordan Steele.
  Diego: [Faces the fourth wall] Can you point to the police officer abusing us?
  Jordan: I'm not on duty right now!
  Diego: [Still talking to the fourth wall] You can? Well, where is he?
  Jordan: What — who the fuck are you talking to?
  Diego: [Still talking to the fourth wall] Right there? Great job!
  Jordan: Hello? What the fuck? Who are you talking to?
• Not all characters in Wanya Kingdom VS Awoofy Unity can see the creators, leading to this happening on occasion. Often happens to NES in Waddle Wars, since she is married to a Fourth-Wall Observer.

Theatre

• In Spamalot, one of the quests King Arthur has been assigned (in addition to finding the Holy Grail) is to put on a Broadway musical. Later on in the show, The Lady of the Lake graciously points out to him that "but you ARE on Broadway!". King Arthur is rather surprised. The Grail then turns out to be under one of the seats in the audience, and the person in that seat gets brought onto the stage and given a Monty Python foot trophy.
• Westeros: An American Musical: "Time for a Frown" is basically an analysis of the play's source material sung by a gathering of several characters. A few mentions of "George", the author of the books, leave Sansa clearly bemused.

Video Games

• In Deltarune, Ralsei at one point encourages Kris to push some blocks using Z (the key on the keyboard). Susie is heard off to the side wondering who the hell Z is.
• Played for Drama in The Hex. Rust McClain, the protagonist of Waste World, is the only one of the six protagonists to not know he is a video game character, as is his son Rocky. When confronted with elements like Game Mods and characters asking what game he is from, he has no idea what they are talking about. The fact that he is ignorant of his game character nature means he is often left confused and lost at the things that happen in his own game, like it being unfinished (which could possibly be the reason he doesn't realise he's a game character) or aliens being modded enemies, and feeling like he is at the mercy of something he cannot comprehend.
• Paper Mario:
  • Common in Super Paper Mario, where exposition dumps and tutorials will often make reference to the player sitting in front of the screen, much to the confusion of Mario and company.
  • This is also done in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, as there are a couple instances of a character talking to the player, leading your partner to ask what they mean by "you in front of the TV".
• In Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Raiden will be utterly confused any time a character breaks the fourth wall.
• In The Secret of Monkey Island, Herman Toothrot makes a number of snarky aside comments during Act 3. When Guybrush eventually asks "Who are you talking to?", Herman cheerily replies "The people watching!"
• In Secret of Evermore, a prophet declares that everyone around him is a character in a video game. Some nearby Non Player Characters and the player character all regard him as insane. He even declares that, if he's lying, may the powers that be strike him down! The player then has the option of doing just that, enforcing the beliefs of the NPCs and player character (but if the player refuses, the prophet bestows gifts on the hero.)
• In Senran Kagura: Estival Versus, Asuka says to watch the OAV for more information about Ryōna. Homura asks who she is talking to. Asuka convinces her not to worry about it.
• In Fate/Grand Order, characters who originated from gag mangas like Nobunaga and Sakura Saber often break the fourth wall like in their home series, while the others don't know what they are talking about.
• Edge pulls this off in WWE Smackdown VS RAW 2011 when he and his longtime pal Christian reunite:
  Edge: Dude, we totally fooled the player into thinking we weren't going to reunite.
  Christian: I know, we totally ... wait a minute? Player? What player?
  Edge: You see that weirdo staring at us through the TV?
  [Edge & Christian look right into the camera and for an added bonus, Edge waves hello to the player in question]
  Christian: No, but I'll take your word for it.
• In a secret joke event in The New Order Last Days Of Europe, which is inaccessible in normal gameplay and can only be unlocked through using cheats to advance through Nazi Germany's focus tree, sees Albert Speer showing up for a meeting with Adolf Hitler in his office to introduce his plans to work with the USA against Imperial Japan. But instead, he is greeted by an angry Hitler suddenly storming into the office, still wearing his nightgown, and screaming incoherently about the player being a cheater, before going on a rant about how he, in all of his years of playing Hearts of Iron, have never felt the need to cheat once and conquered all of Europe fair and square. Speer, quite horrified and confused at what is going on, manages to make Hitler calm down, at which the elderly Führer quietly excuses himself and walks off with a look of defeat on his face, while muttering to himself the player should just restart the game and play it without cheating this time. Speer, still utterly confused at to what Hitler was ranting about, then goes down to the basement to restart the heating system, hoping that his boss' weird outburst was just the result of a lapse in the air conditioning.
  Speer: Mein Gott! Has he taken his pills yet?

Visual Novels

• Doki Doki Literature Club!: Though even she mostly stays in character, Monika is the only one who has a handful of fourth-wall breaking jokes. At one point, Natsuki makes a pun that only works in Japanese, and Monika complains it makes no sense in translation (as if the Animesque game is really translated, which it's not), and Natsuki is pretty confused. Another time, Monika does it by herself, as she first gives the player a tip about saving the game and then wonders out loud what she was even talking about. And then Played for Horror when it turns out that being the only game character aware of her existence has left Monika in an existential crisis, feeling like her "friends" are merely bits of code, and trying to take over the game to bond with the only real person she knows- the player.

Webcomics

• 1/0 has this as a major plot point as characters start developing "personal Fourth Walls".
• In Apricot Cookie(s)!, Butter Cream wonders who Apricot is talking to as she's still practicing her extended Opening Monologue.
• In Bob and George, Megaman is paranoid, and Protoman disbelieving.
• In Crossoverkill, when the Doppleganger Gang confronts the Master Assassin - leader of the Character Assassins, a killer cult that believes they can break the fourth wall and enslave their creator by killing the "Alpha Character" — we can see how his breaking the fourth wall and addressing the reader looks from their perspective. Amusingly, Master Assassin is not actually fourth-wall aware — he just thinks he is. His aside glances are as likely to go away from the reader as towards them.
  Kid Apocalypse: And what's with the kooky asides? Who's he thinks he is talking to?
  Syko Suki: Dunno.
• In Drow Tales, the first time Keil talks to the audience, a Guard asks who she's talking to. Inverted later on, when she's talking to Naal, who assumes she's talking to her imaginary friend and walks off.
• El Goonish Shive is setup wherein the filler strips have No Fourth Wall, but story arcs do, which results in most of the cast only being aware of the fourth wall on occasion. Keyword being "most". In one early instance, when Matt and Rat (two discarded characters), try to complain to Tedd about not being protagonists, he didn't know what they meant. Matt quickly deducted that it means a story arc started, so Tedd is no longer aware he that is in a comic... so forces him to break the fourth wall so they could have an argument. Said characters were subsequently treated for their shared psychosis and became productive members of society according to Word of God.
• Every time Mindmistress meets medium-aware characters, she tries to explain why it's impossible for them to be comics characters. It never works.
• The sprite comic Kid Radd uses this trope - it's about video game characters being rescued from their games and living in the internet. Sometimes it takes a while for them to adjust.
• Done in Gunnerkrigg Court by the trickster god, Coyote. He asks her to tell him stories, and the next panel is an announcement that she tells wonderful stories
  Coyote: But what was the dark secret he promised to tell her? Now we shall find out...
  Antimony: Who are you even talking to?
  Coyote: HAHAHA!
• In The Order of the Stick after telling Roy that Belkar will die before the end of the year, the Oracle specifies in an aside to the readers that he means a year in the comic, not real life, much to Roy's confusion. Despite the fact that there's usually No Fourth Wall in the comic.
• Silas, occasional narrator of Something*Positive. Mostly the other characters try their best to ignore him, but sometimes they feel the need to point out there's nobody there.
  Davan: Silas, how many times have I told you not to sit on my porch and narrate gossip to your imaginary cowpoke friends?
  Silas: I'm so lonely.

Web Videos

• At the start of his review of Ninja Resurrection, Bennett the Sage turns to address the audience as he wonders how bad the anime had to be to make him suffer a lengthy blackout. Gabe, who has to snap Sage out of his coma so he can record the episode, stands by looking confused:
  Sage: It's ridiculous to think that Ninja Resurrection is so bad that it rendered me catatonic for two whole days... [aside glance] isn't it?
  Gabe: What the hell are you looking at?
  Sage: [still looking at the camera] Just get in the chair, Gabe.
• During Half in the Bag, either Mike or Jay will acknowledge the camera, with the other literally asking, "Who are you talking to?"
• In I'm a Marvel... And I'm a DC, where there is No Fourth Wall, Darkseid does not know he is a fictional character and gets very mad when The Joker tries to tell him what he really is.
• The Minecraft Multiverse:
  • In SMPLive, some characters are very aware of the medium they're in... while Schlatt, on the other hand, is not, and will get actively upset if someone points it out.
    Michael: Did I take the roleplay too far...?
    Schlatt: Roleplay??
  • Schlatt's medium unawareness carries over from SMPLive into Dream SMP as well, which makes sense, given the Character Overlap:
    Schlatt: "Let's remember this is all roleplay?" No, it's not. This is real. Minecraft is real life.
• In one of TomSka video, two friends are arguing over whether they are in a student film.

Western Animation

• In the Duck Dodgers episode parodying 1970s anime, Marvin the Martian explains his motives in villainous monologue directly to the viewers, and one of his robot minions ask who he's talking to. Marvin tries to explain but fails and the robots spend the rest of the episode laughing at him.
• The Ghost And Molly Mcgee episode "All Shark, No Bite" ends with Molly giving a Public Service Announcement to the audience that sharks have an undeserved bad reputation, and Scratch wonders who she's talking to.
• The Kim Possible episode "Grande Size Me" ended with Ron addressing the audience about genetic mutation. Nobody knew whom he was addressing and he was sent to the teacher's office.
• In Turtles Forever, Hun eventually gets fed up with 1987 Raphael making asides to the audience, and snaps "Why do you keep doing that? Who are you talking to?! THERE'S NO ONE THERE!"
• From an episode of Brandy & Mr. Whiskers:
  Brandy: Lola, I must have seen that same thing happen in like a dozen TV shows, and it never worked once!
  Lola: But Brandy, this isn't a TV show! This is real life!
  Brandy: [aside glance] I haven't had the heart to tell her.
• In My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, Iron Will gives the fourth wall a thumbs-up whenever he says one of his catchphrases, to the confusion of other characters.
• In the South Park episode "It's a Jersey Thing", Sheila admits via a Jersey Shore-style Confession Cam that she's from Jersey. Which leads to this moment...
  Sharon: Um, Sheila, who are you talking to?
  Sheila: You wouldn't understand. It's a Jersey thing.
• One episode from the very short-lived stop-motion Black Comedy Canadian TV series, What It's Like Being Alone, had one of the mutated orphans, Sammy Fishboy, suddenly becomes aware than an unseen audience is watching him and freaks out that they (us) won't leave him alone and the idea that he may cease to exist if the show ends or we change the channel. Whenever he tries to point out to the others where he's being watched, the camera pans to show him pointing at random objects and locations. The other orphans and their caretaker Aldous think he is insane and use different methods to cure his madness, including medications, being catapulted into a nearby tree, shock treatment, and dumping him in a bath filled with hundreds of leeches. Eventually, the resident sea monster patches things up by stating that Sammy's "delusions" are his imagination and that everyone else has one.
  Sammy Fishboy: Oh my god I can see you! Yeah, yeah, yeah you out there! A-am I still asleep? Why does it feel like I'm trapped in a TV show?! Why have you trapped me here while you watch, you ugly pink fleshy things with your sofas and chairs and ugly pictures on your walls! What's going on here! How did this happen! STOP WATCHING ME YOU UGLY PEOPLE! Why are you out there watching meee!
  Brian Brain: Who is Sammy conversing with?
• Jem episode "The Day the Music Died" had the titular character asking who Riot was talking to when he told the audience she was okay.
• On his first battle against The Mask, Kablamus ranted about children seeing them and Mask said he agreed. He then told the audience he knew about the children watching the cartoon but Kablamus was crazy. (He was right about Kablamus, mind you)
• Bugs Bunny makes Gossamer self-conscious when he points out the audience in Hair-Raising Hare:
  Gossamer: PEOPLE!!!!! [runs off through the wall screaming]
• This happens frequently on Danger Mouse. Notably when Mac the Spoon asks who "are all these viewers?" Penfold names four.
• Every episode of Little Bill ends with Little Bill in bed, talking to the audience about his adventures that day. It always ends with a member of the family (varying each time) calling in from the hallway: "Little Bill! Who are you talking to?"
• The sketch from Robot Chicken where He-Man is accidentally killed has him addressing the audience on how trees are some of our most precious resources; Skeletor then leans into the shot and asks who he's talking to. He-Man responds, "Your face" and punches Skeletor.
• In the Avengers Assemble episode "Avengers Disassembled", Iron Man recruits Spider-Man onto the team. The others question this decision when Spidey is shown standing in the corner talking to himself, apparently expecting the fight to stop until he's finished, like it does in Ultimate Spider-Man (2012).
• Unlike other characters in Ed, Edd n Eddy, Jonny 2x4 for whatever reason is not aware that he is a fictional character. At the end of Ed, Edd n Eddy's Big Picture Show, Jonny is confused when Plank tells him they haven't got time to get revenge on the other kids for an earlier slight because the movie is over.
  Jonny: There's no time left? It's the end of the movie? What movie?
• Animaniacs has a scene where the Warners are cornered by Mr Director, and give an Aside Glance to the audience. Mr Director wonders who they were looking at, and even presses his nose right up against the camera lens to see 'the nice people in the teeveeee!', yet somehow he still doesn't see anybody there.
• Rick and Morty: Rick is frequently shown as a Fourth-Wall Observer, but these comments are typically ignored or found confusing by other characters. Doesn't help that said comments are often part of Rick's many rambling diatribes.
  Rick: Wake up, Morty! We're in a promo commercial! This isn't real life!
  Morty: Promo commercial? What're you talking about?
• Kaeloo: Episode 69, a Dora the Explorer parody, Kaeloo tries to teach the audience to speak foreign languages by saying a word in a different language and staring at the screen waiting for the audience to repeat after her. In the middle of one such session, Stumpy walks in, sees Kaeloo standing there staring into space since he can't see the audience, and is highly confused, going so far as to wave his hand in front of her face.
• At the end of the Ultimate Spider-Man (2012) Christmas Episode "The Moon Knight Before Christmas", Spidey is wrapping up is narration when he's interrupted by Moon Knight communing with the moon. Moon Knight is surprised to learn Spidey isn't talking to the moon, and when he refuses to say who he is talking to, calls him a weirdo.

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