Fourth Wall, FOURTH WALL!!!!!

[sheic99]

So as I've mentioned in a few previous posts recently, I was hit by the nostalgia bug recently (plus the fact that I've only ever seen the Duelist Kingdom and Battle City arcs to date) and decided to rewatch the entire Yu-Gi-Oh! anime, dubbed by 4Kids.

I just finished watching the Noah Arc, which takes place in the first half of Season 3. Now, this arc never actually took place in the original manga. It basically cuts the Battle City events into two seperate arcs, which take place in Season 2 and the second half of Season 3. This is all just technical stuff, but the Noah Arc was written in to make up for the delay in the manga of the Battle City plotline.

Anywho, right at the end of the arc, main character Seto Kaiba basically dismisses the entire plotline of the Noah Arc with a literal handwave, saying "this was all just a waste of my time. Now let's just forget this ever happened and never mention it again."

My reaction? You guessed it. Facepalm. To sum it up for those confused by paragraph 2:

- Yu-Gi-Oh! anime catches up to manga.
- Yu-Gi-Oh! anime gets filler arc in Season 3 to make up for it.
- At end of arc, main character dismisses it.
- Arc is never mentioned again.

So what I want to know is, has anyone else seen anything like that before? Whether for comedy or serious reasons (this case was actually serious), have you seen an instance where someone has effectively wiped everything previous from the slate and dismissed things with a literal handwave?

(P.S. No linking to TV Tropes please, I know there are countless examples there but I want to hear if you have any new ones...)

And since that's a fairly lame topic idea on it's own, we can also use this as a general 'fourth wall' discussion thread .

Please tell me I'm not the only person to see that horrible pun.

OT: Surprisingly, the comic Maus did this a couple of times, but without the intention of humor though.

 

[robakerson]

Way back on SNES Earthbound was chock full of ooc fourth-wall-breaking comments.

From "I wonder if Earthbound is released yet."
to the ever classic "The x button is the button on top, whatever that means"
all the way to a section or two talks directly to the screen
"You, that's right, the one holding the controller"

Edit: Another one which comes to mind, but which I don't fully remember was clear back in the floppy days there was an adventure game (King's quest?) which blue-screened and asked you to insert the (insert ridiculously large number here) disk to continue at one point in the game.

 

[Irony's Acolyte]

I've actually just reminded myself with this of one Family Guy episode, I believe it was the first after it was reinstated on Fox following it's cancellation. At the start, the family are in the living room and Peter talks about all the other 'high-quality programming on Fox'. He then recites a massive list of this apparent 'high-quality programming', which is actually a list of every recent cancelled Fox show at the time, including Firefly. It turned out to be an absolutely massive list, much worse than I'd have previously thought...

Damn! I literally just thought about how Family Guy has broken the 4th wall a couple of times while I was reading the post right above this one. Then you had to go and ninja me! ERRRRR!

Anywho, Family Guy has ripped on Fox a couple times at the end of some of their episodes. There's the one you mentioned and there is another one where after Peter makes fun of Fox and asks "What are they going to do, cut the animation budget?" (or something along those lines) he then er... "walks" out into the kitchen in a poorly animated way. Plus after both of the Star Wars parodies, Peter (voiced by Seth MacFarlane, creator of Family Guy) and Chris (voiced by Seth Green, co-creator of Robot Chicken) argue about each other's shows.

 

[Sexual Harassment Panda]

The only thing I could of right now is South Park reinstating Kenny.

As for the fourth wall. Boston Legal broke it frequently...god I want to watch that show again.

 

[Manicotti]

Order of the Stick doesn't have a fourth wall either.

 

[Zayren]

In one instance of Problem Sleuth, the titular sleuth solves a problem by looking it up on GameFAQs. And in Homestuck, the main characters keep a GameFAQs guide.

 

[Trivun]

This reminds of something, something to do with a racist caricature:

"But my first and foremost task is to protect the fourth wall. Great success. Without the fourth wall, man would become like the animal, animal would become like the rock, and the rock would become like the Jew."

cookie for whomever gets the reference.

Fourth Wall breakers add comic relief most of the time. Ferris Buehler's Day Off is an incredibly good example of it.

Hahahahaha, I watched that very episode just a few hours ago . It's Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series...

"Jagshemash, my name Shadi!"

 

[Not-here-anymore]

I break the 4th wall all the time. Oh, wait, you guys don't know about that, do you... We're definitely not an entertainment system for hyper-advanced beings, honest!

Oh, and in terms of sweeping away large chunks of storyline, Lost, which would conveniently kill off characters just before they could reveal their motivations on a semi-regular basis

 

[Milo Windby]

The Joker has, at times, shown to be fully aware of being a comic book character, even directly talking to the reader. However, most characters ignore this, due to the fact that he is criminally insane.

 

[elementsoul]

Duel Masters did it constantly. There was another show on a channel that I saw a bit of when channel flipping that did it in order to bash on every other popular kids show for a good minute or two; I think it was about bike racing.

 

[AngryFrenchCanadian]

Any webcomic EVER!

Seriously. You need a filler? BAM! Just make one of your characters break the 4th wall.

 

[DefunctTheory]

I don't think there can exist a thread about the fourth wall without mention of how it was utterly obliterated by Eternal Darkness. Friend of mine actually thought he'd had all of his data corrupted. /obligatory mention of awesome games.

I applaud you sir. Applaud!

The crash error screen got me, but only because it was the first 'massive' insanity hit I ever had. How was I supposed to know?

 

[Last Bullet]

No "Ed, Edd, n Eddy"? Really? Disappointed. "Didn't we win an Emmy for that episode?"

 

[oktalist]

Invader Zim, in the episode The Most Horrible X-mas Ever, when the character Minimoose is introduced. "Who, him? He's Minimoose! He's been with me from the beginning! Uh huh. Yep."

 

[SideburnsPuppy]

Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, of all things, does it constantly in Season 3. "Are you kidding? I carried that water around for three episodes, and you're not thirsty?"

My favourite example, though, is in Family Guy when Peter learns a valuable lesson about media or something. He looks at the camera and not-so-subtly lectures the parents watching that, if they have a problem with the show, they should give their kids rules and limits instead of blaming the show itself, finishing by saying, "Yeah, think about that." Probably the smartest moment in that series.

This reminds of something, something to do with a racist caricature:

"But my first and foremost task is to protect the fourth wall. Great success. Without the fourth wall, man would become like the animal, animal would become like the rock, and the rock would become like the Jew."

cookie for whomever gets the reference.

Fourth Wall breakers add comic relief most of the time. Ferris Buehler's Day Off is an incredibly good example of it.

Hahahahaha, I watched that very episode just a few hours ago . It's Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series...

"Jagshemash, my name Shadi!"

GOD DAMN YOU, TRIVUN! I wanted that cookie. Friendship over. Not really, though! Please forgive me...I'm so sorry for that little outburst.

 

[Krion_Vark]

*SNIP*

Any anime that pretty much follows the manga does this. They don't necessarily say oh hey its never happened but they do NEVER I mean NEVER even mention those characters that were brought up in the filler arcs again. Unless they are a character that they meet in the actual manga.

 

[-Samurai-]

MGS1 did this heaps, it was awesome.

It's on the back of the CD case XD

Well how was I supposed to know that?

Colonel tells you.

They do it in MGS4 as well. Otacon wants you to switch disks, but then remembers that they're on Blu Ray.

 

[xerzewatt]

Starcraft and Warcraft 3 units had a lot of 4th wall breaking quotes (when you piss them off by clicking them a lot).

crypt lord: and they say blizzard games don't have bugs!
peasant : Help! Help! I'm being repressed!
footman : Uncle Lothar wants YOU.
knight : By the gods you're annoying!
priest : Side effects may include: dry mouth, nausea, vomiting, water retention, painful rectal itch, hallucination, dementia, psychosis, coma, death, and halitosis. Magic is not for everyone. Consult your doctor before use.
sorceress : Click me baby, one more time
Maybe you should get a strategy guide
I don't remember casting Slow on you
For the End of the World spell, press Control-Alt-Delete.
dragonhawk rider : Tell Blizzard I'd make a great action figure.
Get that filthy cursor away from me
mortar team : Clearly, Tassadar has failed us! You must not
gyrocopter : You can be my wingman anytime
Gryphon Rider : This Warhammer cost me 40k
Blood Elf Engineer : Why don't you bother someone else with your incessant clicking
Paladin : No? Is that your final answer

 

[Trivun]

So as I've mentioned in a few previous posts recently, I was hit by the nostalgia bug recently (plus the fact that I've only ever seen the Duelist Kingdom and Battle City arcs to date) and decided to rewatch the entire Yu-Gi-Oh! anime, dubbed by 4Kids.

I just finished watching the Noah Arc, which takes place in the first half of Season 3. Now, this arc never actually took place in the original manga. It basically cuts the Battle City events into two seperate arcs, which take place in Season 2 and the second half of Season 3. This is all just technical stuff, but the Noah Arc was written in to make up for the delay in the manga of the Battle City plotline.

Anywho, right at the end of the arc, main character Seto Kaiba basically dismisses the entire plotline of the Noah Arc with a literal handwave, saying "this was all just a waste of my time. Now let's just forget this ever happened and never mention it again."

My reaction? You guessed it. Facepalm. To sum it up for those confused by paragraph 2:

- Yu-Gi-Oh! anime catches up to manga.
- Yu-Gi-Oh! anime gets filler arc in Season 3 to make up for it.
- At end of arc, main character dismisses it.
- Arc is never mentioned again.

So what I want to know is, has anyone else seen anything like that before? Whether for comedy or serious reasons (this case was actually serious), have you seen an instance where someone has effectively wiped everything previous from the slate and dismissed things with a literal handwave?

(P.S. No linking to TV Tropes please, I know there are countless examples there but I want to hear if you have any new ones...)

And since that's a fairly lame topic idea on it's own, we can also use this as a general 'fourth wall' discussion thread .

Please tell me I'm not the only person to see that horrible pun.

OT: Surprisingly, the comic Maus did this a couple of times, but without the intention of humor though.

They use the pun in the arc itself. In Duels during that arc, each character has a special monster called a Deck Master. And when Noah duels Seto Kaiba near the end of the plot, he just happens to use the combo of 'Shinato' and 'Shinato's Ark' as his Deck Master...