It’s a term that originated in the theatre for those moments when the characters in a play acknowledge the existence of their audience, as with Puck’s final speech in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream.’ Motion pictures have been using the technique since their earliest days, but you can’t beat the utter demolition of the conceit in ‘Blazing Saddles,’ which not only references the audience but has the final showdown in a movie theater, after which the main characters sit down to watch the rest of the movie that they’re in. (It’s Mel Brooks, it gets weird.) Perhaps as impressive an achievement is Grant Morrison’s ‘Animal Man’, which manages to turn breaking the fourth wall into A Plus drama, with A-Man actually meeting his maker in a very touching sequence. It may be my fave-rave comics fourth-wall-breaking experience, which leads us to today’s query that can see you…
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) still loves the days when She-Hulk was Deadpool before Deadpool was Deadpool, asking: Which is your favorite example of a character breaking the Fourth Wall?
4 Comments
The only time I have ever enjoyed this in comics is John Byrne’s Sensational She-Hulk. Can’t stand Deadpool.
Out of comics, it’s Ferris telling everyone to go home!
She-Hulk was good. I might add Animal man too, especially Road Runner issue.
I really enjoy some of the tongue-in-cheek stuff that James Roberts did over on IDW’s MTMTE/Lost Light
Mel Brook’s Blazing Saddles: Harvey Korman as Hedley Lamarr –
“You will only be risking your lives, while I will be risking an almost certain Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.”