What counts as breaking the 4th wall?

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Blindswordmaster

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What precisely counts as breaking the 4th wall for you? Does just looking at the camera count, or does it take more?
 

Hazy992

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usmarine4160 said:
Not breaking the 4th wall until the character talks to the camera directly
What about Deadpool? He does things like talk to the editor and stuff. Does that count?
 

Blindswordmaster

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Hazy992 said:
usmarine4160 said:
Not breaking the 4th wall until the character talks to the camera directly
What about Deadpool? He does things like talk to the editor and stuff. Does that count?
Deadpool can see his own thoughts, I think HE counts as breaking the 4th wall.
 

Erja_Perttu

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http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BreakingTheFourthWall

Regnes said:
Breaking the 4th wall is any character(save perhaps for the narrator) acknowledging in anyway that they are in a fictional setting.
Which is pretty much what he said.
 

Elementary - Dear Watson

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As the above 3 have said! THey don't even have to look at the camera! MGS does it all the time without actually acting, or looking at the camera! Things like saying Meryls number is 'on the box'!
 

JesterRaiin

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Blindswordmaster said:
What precisely counts as breaking the 4th wall for you? Does just looking at the camera count, or does it take more?
Acknowledging of the audience. Staring in the camera and talking about something doesn't count for me.
 

coppah20HE

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Breaking the 4th wall, in my opinion, is when a character adresses, or communicates either the audience directly, or makes a reference outside the context of the fictional setting.

For example; in the opening scene of James Bond On Her Majesty's Secret Service, George Lazenby (playing Bond), after letting the girl he's with escape during a fight scene, says "this never happened to that other fellow" and smiles at the camera. not only does he adress the audience directly, but he makes lightof the fact that the character he is playing, was previously played by another person, supposedly something only the audience could know.
 

hazabaza1

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Being aware of the fact that they're in a medium sometimes helps.
There's also leaning on the fourth wall, like in Persona 4 where Yosuke goes "That's supposed to be a game character? How insulting!" Keep in mind it just established the fact that Yosuke is a gamer, so it tricks you for a second there.
 

SextusMaximus

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Talking to the camera and talking about the show in question. Mighty Boosh does this a bit!:)
 

Lieju

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Pretty much what several people before have said:
When a character aknowledges in some way they are fictional or aware of things happening in the real world.

Just looking at the camera might be breaking it, but it might be just a part of how it's shot.
And character can be (seemingly) talking to the audience or narrating, and I wouldn't call it breaking the fourth wall.

If it's something like the character turning to the audience and monologuing to establish how they feel in a stage play, or narrating about past events.

Since if it's more like a way the story is told than the characters aknowledging it's a story.
If a character is narrating about things that happened to him/her it can be taken as them just going through stuff that happened to them.

Unless they say something like "And you, dear reader, might find this difficult to believe".
 

Scarim Coral

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Prety much either the character look directly in front of us and address us the audiences or also is fully aware that he or she is in a frictional world (e.g. make a joke about the upcoming episode/ issue/ chapter or aknowledge out of content stuff).