“Merchandising! Merchandising! Where the real money from the movie is made!”
“God willing, we’ll all meet again in Spaceballs 2: The Search for More Money”
Or, during their epic Schwartz-saber duel, Lonestar and Dark Helmet accidentally whack one of the camera crew. “Ahh…he did it!”
The Ape Man (1943)
From an earlier thread:
…And the ending was wild. After the usual thriller-type ending, the movie goes on to completely explode the fourth wall.
A rather goony-looking character, who has appeared at odd moments to provide hints and guidance to our hero, turns to the camera and reveals himself to be the Author!!!
Did someone call for a pedant?
You’re conflating two scenes. They were on the ground when that dialog took place.
It’s called The Pirates of Penzance, and is taken from the operetta of the same name. It’s pretty standard in operas, operettas, and plays to break the 4th wall. G&S did this as a matter of course.
Unless you’re thinking of something else.
In the Wayne’s World movies Mike Myers frequently addressed the audience.
Not only that, but there’s an extended gag about product placement.
In the beginning of Mel Brooks’ To Be Or Not To Be , Mel and Anne Bancroft are speaking in Polish. A voice-over then announces that, from this point on, the rest of the film will be in English (and Mel and Anne react to it).
This is driving me crazy: Wasn’t there a recent comedy where one of the characters pulls out the film’s shooting script and begins reading from it? I remember this, but can’t place the film.
Otto is referring to a movie loosely based on Penzance. I don’t recall a 4th wall break in the Kline/Lansbury/Smith/Ronstadt movie version.
Not quite the same, but in Kate & Leopold, Meg Ryan, playing Kate, says at one point “Well, I’m not a character in a romantic comedy.”
In Brook’s Robin Hood: Men in Tights, much of the cast does this when Robin checks the script to find that he does get another shot.
In The Opposite of Sex Christina Ricci is a character in the movie and narrating the story. At one point it looks like she has died, when she says something like, “use your head, I didn’t die. I’m narrating the story dumb ass.”
Ah. I was wondering about that. Thanks.
In Mel Brooks’ High Anxiety, the 4th wall is broken – literally – by the camera crew during a zoom in. Then later while zooming out.
In High Fidelity John Cusack’s character addresses the camera several times.
In George of the Jungle (the Brendon Fraiser movie, not the cartoon), two of the bad guys get into an argument with the narrator.
In the same movie there’s also a scene shot looking up through the top of a glass table where the characters keep putting things on the table until it’s all covered up.
Yet another Mel Brooks film: Blazing Saddles.
When the chaos of Blazing Saddles gets out of control and escapes its sound stage on the studio property. It spreads to another sound stage where a musical is taking place, and the musical’s tuxedoed dancers end up fighting with the cowboys.
Shortly after that, Harvey Korman’s character ducks into a theatre showing–naturally–Blazing Saddles.
Another TV show: Eerie Indiana. In one episode, Marshall discovers he’s on the set of a TV show “Eerie Indiana” and that his family are just actors. It was written by Vance DeGeneris, Ellen’s brother.
Movies: The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, the characters interact with the narrator, just like they did in the cartoon.
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Or, during their epic Schwartz-saber duel, Lonestar and Dark Helmet accidentally whack one of the camera crew. “Ahh…he did it!”[/QUOTE]
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This is also done in the Mel Brooks movies Blazing Saddles, Robinhood: Men in Tights.
Not sure if it counts but in Wayne’s World , Wayne and Garth are talking about how they don’t want to do product placements in their movie just before doing product placement.
Whoopi Goldberg and Tim Curry does it in Loaded Weapon telling the audience to pay attention because they’re discussing the plot.
Several characters in I’m Gonna Get you Sucka. First when Kim Wayans is singing and again when Keenan Wayans, John Vernon and Kaddeem Hardison are discussing Blackploitation films.
Not a movie, but the TV show Moonlighting was rife with this sort of stuff.
The Insurance Sketch in Monty Pythons Flying Circus had this joke. Graham Chapman playing the Straight Man (Ha!) asks if he has any more lines. They check the script and see that he’s done. So he leaves.
In Coming to America, after Eddie Murphy talks his new bride into barking like a dog and hopping on one leg, he looks into the camera for a second because he knows everyone in the audience are having dirty thoughts.
My vote: Any Laurel & Hardy flick. It’s when Oliver Hardy makes eye contact with the audience and rolls his eyes in that well-known gesture of exasperation over Stan’s stupidity. I don’t recall a time when he actually spoke to the audience, but that non-verbal expression spoke volumes.