# Comics device--it's not breaking the fourth wall exactly . . . does it happen in other media **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 1, 2009, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comics-device-its-not-breaking-the-fourth-wall-exactly-does-it-happen-in-other-media/508456 "2009-09-01T06:25:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comics-device-its-not-breaking-the-fourth-wall-exactly-does-it-happen-in-other-media/508456/21 "2009-09-02T02:45:18Z")
There have been a number of gags on David Letterman centering around visible boom mics and falling sandbags/spotlights. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comics-device-its-not-breaking-the-fourth-wall-exactly-does-it-happen-in-other-media/508456/22 "2009-09-02T02:58:53Z")
> [@](#): > > Woody Allen did the same thing in Bananas: he gets an invitation to dine with the president of a South American country. As he says, “I’m going to meet the president,” you hear a harp in the background. Allen then goes to his closet where there’s a harpist practicing. The “Kentucky Fried Theater” crew did this a lot, too. In **Top Secret** nick reads a letter left at his table and you hear an echoing voice-over. Then the camera pulls back to reveal the guy reading the letter into a megaphone. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comics-device-its-not-breaking-the-fourth-wall-exactly-does-it-happen-in-other-media/508456/23 "2009-09-02T03:02:06Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Here’s a copy of the Brueghel drawing “Summer”, which violates the “frame” The center dude’s codpiece violates my eyes. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comics-device-its-not-breaking-the-fourth-wall-exactly-does-it-happen-in-other-media/508456/24 "2009-09-02T03:23:44Z")
> [@Koxinga](#): > > Hmmm . . . I’m not sure which play you might be referencing – I don’t think the Player King and others from “The Mouse Trap” (within _Hamlet_) had any asides? It isn’t really violating the fourth wall so much as calling explicit attention to it, but the Narrator of _Henry V_ essentially apologises to the audience for the play being a bunch of actors in a rubbish re-enactment of momentous historical events, and craves the audience’s imaginative indulgence in pretending it’s all real: which is, of course, the implicit contract entered into by an audience anyway, so basically Shakespeare is lampshading the fact that this is all make-believe. Of course, the Narrator of the play isn’t the most reliable of sources… ---
**Author:** ![choie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/choie/32/7829_2.png) [@choie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/choie)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comics-device-its-not-breaking-the-fourth-wall-exactly-does-it-happen-in-other-media/508456/25 "2009-09-02T03:40:21Z")
Here’s a case of a regular book character briefly acknowledging his existence within the confines of a book’s pages, in a way very similar to the OP’s example. I’ll quote myself from [this thread about authors referencing themselves as authors](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=376733): * * * The wonderfully whimsical and sometimes absurdist mystery author Edmund Crispin, who wrote mysteries featuring the eccentric Oxford professor Gervase Fen, goes a step further and often breaks the fourth wall, implying that Fen actually knows he’s in a novel. One of my favorite passages occurs in _The Moving Toyshop_, when Fen and a poet comrade have been knocked out and captured by a person or persons unknown. As Cadogan (the poet) groggily recovers from unconsciousness, he hears Fen talking to keep himself occupied: > [@](#): > > _Originally Posted by Edmund Crispin’s The Moving Toyshop, Ch. 6:_ > > “Fen steps in,” said Fen. “The Return of Fen. A Don Dares Death (A Gervase Fen Story).” > > Cadogan moaned and opened his eyes. (…) Beside him Fen’s voice droned on (…) > > “Murder Stalks the University,” said Fen. “The Blood on the Mortarboard. Fen Strikes back.” > > “What’s that you’re saying?” Cadogan asked in a faint, rather gurgling voice. > > “My dear fellow, are you all right? I was making up titles for Crispin.” Later, while Fen and Cadogan are running around during a chase scene, Cadogan asks which direction they should head in. Fen suggests going “…Left … After all, Gollancz is publishing this book.” (Gollancz was Crispin’s left-leaning publishing house.) * * * The other characters never seem to acknowledge Fen’s unusual comments, and probably just brush them off as his usual whimsical nonsense. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comics-device-its-not-breaking-the-fourth-wall-exactly-does-it-happen-in-other-media/508456.md?page=1)