Alice and Bob are beginning to get really tired of being used to explain tropes. So when they find out that some tropers are going to write them into the Rage Against the Author article to explain the trope, they decide they have had enough. The two form a plan to go to these tropers' houses to tie them up, beat them up, and stick ice cubes down their pants.
Thankfully, they get stopped, but many creators of fiction are not so lucky. They do something that displeases one of their characters, leading to said character tearing down what remains of the Fourth Wall just to let their creator know how they really feel. This can range from a verbal chewing-out up to actual physical violence against said creator. No matter what form it takes, it frequently is Played for Laughs. However, more post-modern works can throw a little drama into the mix by having it go poorly for the character in question.
The in-universe equivalent is Rage Against the Heavens. Also see Interactive Narrator, Author Avatar, Author Powers, and Who Writes This Crap?!.
The first step in this trope is tearing down the Fourth Wall without Audience Participation. The creator(s) of the work have become characters in their fiction, often because their fictional characters have left the fiction and entered "our" reality. Usually this creates a Show Within a Show effect that doesn't normally exist.
Early versions of this trope were Played for Laughs, but the paradox of killing the creator had to be examined. Some stories had the work end after the creator was killed, while others go a secondary meta-level, or even leave the question of how the character can continue to exist without their creator open for the audience to answer.
See also Interactive Narrator, Author Avatar, Author Powers, Welcome to the Real World, and Who Writes This Crap?!. Rage Against the Heavens is where the work considers the creator to be someone who lives in this world that they created.
