History Main / ExploitingTheFourthWall

** In another strip, the team makes plans to pull of a plan at night, and then, to avoid many hours of waiting, [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0155.html simply announces "Later that evening...]]

** In another strip, the team makes plans to pull of a plan at night...and then [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0155.html find a way to avoid several hours of waiting]].

* ''Theatre/PeterPan'': When Tinkerbell is injured, Peter and company save her life by getting the audience to chant "I do believe in fairies, I do, I do".

** This was repeated in "Rabbit Rampage" with Bugs Bunny as the victim and [[spoiler:Elmer Fudd]] as the sadistic animator.

* In Screw Attack's Death Battle between Deadpool and Pinkie Pie, Deadpool, in response to Pinkie pie summoning a horde of clones, reaches outside the video panel, grabs the thumbs up/down meter, and uses it as a lightsaber to fend off the clones. Pinkie Pie's original, desperate to find some means of defending herself, grabs an ad that convenient appears and blocks Deadpool's strike... causing Deadpool to suddenly stop the fight to ask, "You see those things too?"

* As part of its FakeInteractivity, on ''WesternAnimation/BluesClues'', Steve or Joe would sometimes pass an object back or forth between them and the viewer(s).

* In ''Videogame/BravelyDefault'' and ''Videogame/BravelySecond'', You, the player, are a tangible force within the game's world. The {{Big Bad}}sof both games directly acknowledge your involvement with the party. This is taken to the furthest possible extreme in the second game, [[spoiler: when you use the NewGamePlus to derail the villain's plot completely.]]

* In ''Videogame/BravelyDefault'' and ''Videogame/BravelySecond'', You, the player, are a tangible force within the game's world. The [[BigBad True antagonists]] of both games directly acknowledge your involvement with the party. This is taken to the furthest possible extreme in the second game, [[spoiler: when you use the NewGamePlus to derail the villain's plot completely.]]

[[AC:Comics]]

* ''Comicbook/TheUnbelievableGwenpool'' always had shades of this by having the knowledge of a real world comicbook nerd fairly up to date on the Marvel Universe up until ''Comicbook/SecretWars2015'', but then she gained full on RealityWarper levels by way of EnlightenmentSuperpower. Access to ''gutter space'' (space between, and behind panels and pages), all the NinjaProp, PerspectiveMagic tricks etc., in theory [[ImaginationBasedSuperpower whatever the heck she can think of]] that you can pull off by playing with the comicbook layout basically. She even ''ripped'' the page to get on the other side once.

[[AC:{{Film}}]]
* ''Disney/TheManyAdventuresOfWinnieThePooh'' presents the stories like they're being read from a book. When Tigger gets stuck at the top of a tree, the InteractiveNarrator gets him down by turning the book sideways so Tigger can stand on the text, then tilting the book so Tigger can slide down to the ground.

[[AC:FanWorks]]

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]

[[AC:{{Theater}}]]

[[AC:VideoGames]]

[[AC:{{Webcomics}}]]

* ''WebComic/BobAndGeorge'':

---> '''Mega Man:''' Ooh! Should we turn on subtitles?
---> '''Proto Man:''' You idiot! This is a comic! Everything is subtitled anyway!

[[AC:WebVideo]]

* ''WebVideo/ScootertrixTheAbridged'': Pinkie Pie can create {{Plot Hole}}s and invoke OffscreenTeleportation--she's basically a minor RealityWarper whenever the camera ''isn't'' on her. In Episode 7, she uses this to get herself and Fluttershy down from the mountain, and in Episode 16, she uses it to get movie tickets for herself and all her friends, even thought the movie was completely sold out.
-->'''Pinkie Pie:''' Anything's possible with editing.

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]

* In the ''WesternAnimation/DangerMouse'' episode "Once Upon A Time Slip," a microphone malfunction gives the LemonyNarrator near-absolute control of the story. He decides he'd rather tell a story about Robin Hood, so D.M. and co. wind up acting out a medieval costume epic until D.M. can trick the Narrator into putting things back to normal.

[[quoteright:230:[[Webcomic/AmazingSuperPowers http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/exploiting_the_fourth_wall.jpg]]]]

* ''Comicbook/TheUnbelievableGwenpool'' always had shades of this by having the knowledge of a real world comicbook nerd fairly up to date on the Marvel Universe up until ''Comicbook/SecretWars2015'', but then she gained full on RealityWarper levels by way of EnlightenmentSuperpower. Access to ''gutter space'' (space between, and behind panels and pages), all the NinjaProp, PerspectiveMagic tricks etc., in theory [[ImaginationBasedSuperpower whatever the heck she can think of]] that you can pull off by playing with the comicbook layout basically.

* ''Comicbook/TheUnbelievableGwenpool'' always had shades of this by having the knowledge of a real world comicbook nerd fairly up to date on the Marvel Universe up until ''Comicbook/SecretWars2015'', but then she gained full on RealityWarper levels by way of EnlightenmentSuperpower. Access to ''gutter space'' (space between, and behind panels and pages), all the NinjaProps, PerspectiveMagic tricks etc., in theory [[ImaginationBasedSuperpower whatever the heck she can think of]] that you can pull off by playing with the comicbook layout basically.

* ''WebComic/BobAndGeorge'' has a RunningGag where [[ContractualImmortality the eponymous characters can't die due to their names being in the title]]. During the "Helmeted Attack" storyline, however, the [[EvilTwin Helmeted Author]] uses his AuthorPowers to change the title of the comic, [[HeroKiller allowing him to]] [[http://www.bobandgeorge.com/archives/040317 kill George]]. [[StatusQuoIsGod This doesn't last long, of course.]]

* ''Series/TheMonkees'': In one episode, when the boys are in a seemingly impossible to escape situation, Mickey exits the set and goes to the writers' room where he gets them to write their escape.

* ''WebVideo/ScootertrixTheAbridged'': in Episode 16, the main characters try to go see a movie, but tickets are all sold out. Twilight Sparkle encourages Pinkie Pie to use her fourth wall powers to get those tickets. So Pinkie deliberately creates a PlotHole--in the very next scene, everyone has their movie tickets, and no one can explain where they came from.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'', this happens in-universe when the Nega-Chin, a villain from a [[ShowWithinAShow comic book]], goes to the writer's house and fights him to get him to write a story where he wins.

* In ''Disney/TheManyAdventuresOfWinnieThePooh'', when Tigger gets stuck on a tree, he asks the narrator to tilt the book so that he can come down.

* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'': The cast page shows Haley Starshine (the party thief) holding a huge diamond. When in need of a diamond in the strip, [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0649.html Haley steals it from herself there]]. And then the cast page got updated, too: now instead of a diamond Haley holds a note that reads "I.O. me one big-ass diamond".

But others do it for a practical reason: they use elements from beyond the FourthWall to help them achieve some kind of in-universe goal. This is a supertrope to ReadingAheadInTheScript, when they cheat to see what the plot has in store for them, and Ninja Prop, when elements of the medium itself are brought into the story.

* ''Theater/PeterPan'': When Tinkerbell is injured, Peter and company save her life by getting the audience to chant "I do believe in fairies, I do, I do".