Boston Legal used to break the 4th wall on occasion. So did Northern Exposure. Sometimes it works like in Ferris Bueller & sometimes it’s not very good
Dry, the second panel here is as good an explanation as you’re ever going to find. Can you be more specific about what you stll find elusive?
“Breaking the fourth wall” is as old as theater itself (although the term is far more recent). When a character on a stage (Hamlet, for instance) delivers a soliloquy, if he’s facing forwards (i.e. talking to the audience rather than talking to himself), he’s breaking the fourth wall. The Greeks wore masks throughout their plays, which meant that pretty much ALL of the speeches (and that’s what Greek theater largely WAS, characters taking turns making speeches) were delivered directly to the audience, so they cou7ld be heard.
In SOME cases (Hamlet again springs to mind) reminding the audience that they’re watching a play is a large part of the intent. When a play is itself about being in/watching a play, periodic distancing elements (lines like “All the world’s a stage”, actually putting a play-within-a-play onstage, having a Prologue character specifically refer to the stage and theater), it becomes “meta-theater.” In the same sense, comic strip characters who “know” they’re comic strip characters leads to “met-comics.”
In some ways, “breaking the fourth wall” has the contrary effect of drawing the audience further into the artificial construct they’re observing. In the last panel, Barney and Clyde may be reminding us that we’re reading a comic strip, but by interacting with us we become participants in the strip, not merely bystanders. When Iago and Richard III explain to us the rationale behind their villainies, we become not merely witnesses to their crimes, we are at that point complicit; we know what their victims do not, yet we are powerless to help them. In fact, we do not WANT to help them, because then the story we came to see could not unfold. That’s part of the katharsis which, when everything is resolved, fiction provides.
“Oooh,I’m a star, and the audience loves me… and I love them. And they love me for loving them and I love them for loving me. And we love each other. And that’s because none of us got enough love in our childhood. And that’s showbiz… kid.” — Roxie Hart
Dirty Dragon over 12 years ago
randayn over 12 years ago
Well put, Dirty Dragon.
Hillbillyman over 12 years ago
UH! Oh! you guys saw me in my underwear!
doc white over 12 years ago
Bob and Bing did it all the time.
Dry and Dusty Premium Member over 12 years ago
I like the term “the fourth wall” but I still don’t quite understand what it means.
Dapperdan61 Premium Member over 12 years ago
Boston Legal used to break the 4th wall on occasion. So did Northern Exposure. Sometimes it works like in Ferris Bueller & sometimes it’s not very good
fritzoid Premium Member over 12 years ago
Dry, the second panel here is as good an explanation as you’re ever going to find. Can you be more specific about what you stll find elusive?
“Breaking the fourth wall” is as old as theater itself (although the term is far more recent). When a character on a stage (Hamlet, for instance) delivers a soliloquy, if he’s facing forwards (i.e. talking to the audience rather than talking to himself), he’s breaking the fourth wall. The Greeks wore masks throughout their plays, which meant that pretty much ALL of the speeches (and that’s what Greek theater largely WAS, characters taking turns making speeches) were delivered directly to the audience, so they cou7ld be heard.
In SOME cases (Hamlet again springs to mind) reminding the audience that they’re watching a play is a large part of the intent. When a play is itself about being in/watching a play, periodic distancing elements (lines like “All the world’s a stage”, actually putting a play-within-a-play onstage, having a Prologue character specifically refer to the stage and theater), it becomes “meta-theater.” In the same sense, comic strip characters who “know” they’re comic strip characters leads to “met-comics.”
fritzoid Premium Member over 12 years ago
In some ways, “breaking the fourth wall” has the contrary effect of drawing the audience further into the artificial construct they’re observing. In the last panel, Barney and Clyde may be reminding us that we’re reading a comic strip, but by interacting with us we become participants in the strip, not merely bystanders. When Iago and Richard III explain to us the rationale behind their villainies, we become not merely witnesses to their crimes, we are at that point complicit; we know what their victims do not, yet we are powerless to help them. In fact, we do not WANT to help them, because then the story we came to see could not unfold. That’s part of the katharsis which, when everything is resolved, fiction provides.
fritzoid Premium Member over 12 years ago
“Oooh,I’m a star, and the audience loves me… and I love them. And they love me for loving them and I love them for loving me. And we love each other. And that’s because none of us got enough love in our childhood. And that’s showbiz… kid.” — Roxie Hart
Dirty Dragon over 12 years ago