Wonder if there’s a term for this: Suppose there is a defuse-the-bomb scene in a movie, but one of the character asks,* “shouldn’t there be a blue or red wire to cut?”* and then another character replies, *“no it doesn’t work like that, this isn’t the movies” *- that would be an attempt by the movie script to generate realism by claiming that a movie isn’t behaving like a movie, but it is in itself a case of breaking the 4th wall, right?
“lampshading”
My favorite is in Watchmen
“Do you think I would be describing my Master Plan if there was the slightest chance you could affect it? I’m not a Republic serial villain- I did it fifteen minutes ago.”
In the movie they changed it to “comic book villain”
Aha, thanks!
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It’s not breaking the 4th wall, it’s rather that it interferes with immersion in the story and your suspension of disbelief.
I like that they point out it goes back at least as far as Shakespeare.
In Avengers: Endame
when discussing time travel, they diss people who think that actual time travel would be like it’s shown in Back to the Future
Right. Time travel isn’t anything like Back to the Future, it’s more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey…stuff.
The above clip is an example of lampshade hanging, because time travel in Doctor Who doesn’t obey consistent rules. It works one way in one episode, and then another writer writes another episode and time travel works differently. Time travel is consistently inconsistent.
Also, if you’re wondering how he eats and breathes and other science facts, then repeat to yourself ‘It’s just a show, I should really just relax.’
We recently watched the whole run of Mork and Mindy.
In one episode Robin Williams was a guest star so there was a lot of lampshading in that episode. E.g., Mork holding up a Williams album cover and claiming that they don’t look alike, how funny Williams’ hair was, etc.
They did something similar in Ocean’s 12. Tess (played by Julia Roberts) was used to get access to priceless jewels in a museum by pretending she was film actress Julia Roberts (because in-movie she looked just like Julia Roberts)
I always hate when people say “This isn’t like a movie, this is real life!” in movies and then what happens is straight out of some hack screenwriters script and nowhere else.
It’s actually more like Jeremy Bearimy.
The timeline just happens to look like “Jeremy Bearimy” in English cursive, so we call it “Jeremy Bearimy.”
From “Boston Legal”
Carl Sack : [Arguing, in court, about television age-ism] You know, the only show unafraid to have its stars over 50 is "Bo..."...
Carl Sack : Gee, I can't say it.
[- gesturing toward the cameras and the audience - ]
Carl Sack : It would, um, break the wall.Not sure this counts, but Tyrion starting to tell a variation on a dwarf joke in the finale of GOT broke the 4th wall for me, but didn’t actually do so in the true sense. I understood him to be talking to the audience. On my own?
MiM
There’s a cute bit in THE GREAT GATSBY where, between hurrying through the phrase “educated at Oxford” and his then-came-the-war-old-sport talk of being decorated as a major, Jay’s clichés about having lived like a rajah playing big-game hunter really can’t be taken all that seriously.
Of course, that’s when Jay keeps the chat going by producing a medal, engraved to Major Jay Gatsby for extraordinary valor, and a photo of various blazer-clad youths right where you’d think — including him, cricket bat in hand.
My favorite example is in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar—after they’ve killed Caesar, Brutus and Cassius talk about how people in the future will act out the assassination they’ve just committed.
TV Tropes calls this sort of thing “leaning on the fourth wall,” i.e., subtly reminding the audience that they’re watching a performance, but without breaking the wall and addressing the audience directly.
I’m not sure where this falls into the continuum of breaking the 4th wall, but I saw a fun one last night.
In the show Gentleman Jack, the lead character occasionally breaks the 4th wall, pretty traditional stuff. In one scene, she gives a wry look directly into the camera and the other person in the scene says “what are you looking at?”
Blackadder was likely parodying that passage during this exchange
Blackadder:
I want to be remembered when I’m dead. I want books written about me. I want songs sung about me. And then hundreds of years from now I want episodes of my life to be played out weekly at half past nine by some great heroic actor of the age.
Baldrick:
Yeah, and I could be played by some tiny tit in a beard.
Blackadder:
Quite.
This seems similar to the movie where Gene Hackman walks up to a bar and orders a “beer” like many people do in the movies and are given a beer.
In this case, the bartender looks at him like an idiot and says “Sir, this is a bar. We have several types of beers. You’ll have to be more specific.” At which point Gene Hackman smiles and says, “You pick one for me.”
I’ve started watching a body-swap movie called Family Swap. It isn’t great so far, but you really gotta respect this bit of lampshade hanging. One character is googling for body swapping on her cell phone. This conversation takes place among the four family members:
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CC, any luck?
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No. This is a completely unique and original situation that has literally never happened before.
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Right? I mean, no kid has ever just woken up big.
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Yeah, it’s so freaky.
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You’re telling me. I’m 17 again.
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I’m 13 going on 30.