What are your favorite moments of characters breaking the fourth wall in fiction?
I liked the line Sweeney Todd sang in “The Ballad of Sweeney Todd” in the eponymous musical, in which he said, “What happened then, well, that’s the play/And he wouldn’t want us to give it away.”
Another example: The fourth wall is utterly shattered throughout the whole of The Great Muppet Caper, but perhaps no more so than when Kermit and Miss Piggy’s characters have an in-character argument in which they talk about how Miss Piggy lied about being Lady Holiday, and it devolves into an out-of-character argument in which Kermit criticizes Miss Piggy for overacting, and Piggy threatens to walk off the movie. It truly must be seen to be believed.
First one that comes to mind is from “It’s A Wonderful Life”, the Jimmy Stewart Christmas movie from way back. There is one scene where Stewart’s character suddenly realizes that what has come before with the angel and him never having been born is actually true. He runs toward the camera, stops, and does a slow pan from right to left with a look of pure horror on his face, stopping when he is facing the camera full on. It’s at about 1:04 in the following clip.
I’m thinking about (perhaps more restrictively than you) single “asides” in movies otherwise played straight (so no Ferris Bueller, no Spaceballs, etc.) The first thing that came to me was Rufus at the end of BaTEA.
A good one is Eddie Murphy’s glance at the camera in Trading Places when one of the Duke brothers mentions bacon, the “kind you might have on a bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich.”
Groucho during Chico’s piano solo in Horse Feathers: “I’ve got to stay here, but there’s no reason why you folks shouldn’t go out into the lobby till this thing blows over!”
There were some good ones in the recent zombie spoof “The Dead Don’t Die”. Adam Driver continually mentions how “this is all going to end badly”, to the point where Bill Murray demands to know why he thinks so.
Driver: “Well, I read the script.”
Murray: “The script?”
Driver: “Yes, the script to this movie.”
Murray got upset, because Jarmusch only gave him the script for the parts that he was in. There was a bit early in the movie where Driver said he really liked the song on the radio because it was “the theme song”.
I like the scene earlier in Blazing Saddles when Harvey Korman delivers a musing monologue while facing the camera:
… if I could find a sheriff who so offends the citizens of Rock Ridge that his very appearance would drive them out of town. (pause) But where would I find such a man? (pause) Why am I asking you?
