Ever since TV and movies became a thing, some have insisted on breaking the fourth wall. The best meta performances can lead to hilarious in-jokes and make the audience feel a deeper connection to the characters.
TV is full of fun examples, and there are also several movies that make this their central premise.
[Note: This discussion may contain spoilers, so keep that in mind before you read.]
(]Peacock/Screenshot]; [Disney+/Screenshot]; [Hulu/Screenshot]; [Paramount+/Screenshot])
What Is Breaking The Fourth Wall?
It’s More Than Having An Inner Monologue
Many TV shows and movies are narrated by the protagonist, but that’s not what we’re talking about here. Breaking the fourth wall means that the show or movie acknowledges in some way that it’s fictional or talks directly to the audience.
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Closely related: in-jokes that make references to other shows in a franchise or other parts the actors have played.
Meta and fourth-wall-breaking entertainment has been around forever.
Characters talking directly to the audience can be traced back as far as Shakespeare, and the idea of meta-comedy transferred over to one of the earliest TV shows.
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Long Before Seinfeld, This Comedy Giant Had A Show About His Life
Jerry Seinfeld’s 1990s mega-hit owes a huge debt to George Burns. Forty years before Seinfeld, The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show featured Burns and his wife playing fictionalized versions of themselves and their lives as a comedian and his wife.
Burns often began episodes with monologues in front of a curtain addressed to the audience.
Sometimes he also had a monologue during the show in which he discussed what was happening in the story, and often he’d be interrupted by Gracie or another character calling him and tell the audience he had to go.
In later episodes, Burns also watched the show’s events unfolding on a TV set in his study, which led to some of the earliest and best meta performances on TV.
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Days Of Our Lives Characters Watch A Soap Opera
Abe Carver Trying To Buy The Rights Is One of TV’s Best MEta Performances
The Peacock soap is known for experimental storylines, including one in which half the town was “killed,” only to be resurrected on an island named Melaswen (New Salem spelled backward!), and in the past few years, it’s taken things a step further.
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Days of Our Lives introduced a fictional soap opera for characters to watch called Body & Soul. Several of the same actors starred in the soap opera, leading to some of the best meta performances in the series’ history.
Abe Carver realized he was being lied to when he saw the guy who claimed to be his son, Theo, guest-starring in an episode.
Unlike DAYS, which moved to Peacock rather than being canceled in 2022, Body & Soul has recently gotten the axe. This leads to Abe commenting on crazy storylines that are also taking place in Salem while he and Kate try to buy the rights to the defunct fictional soap.
(Courtesy of Disney+)
Doctor Who Season 1 Specialized In Breaking The Fourth Wall
The Mysterious Mrs. Flood Kept Talking To The Audience
Doctor Who Season 1’s ending didn’t resolve one mystery: who is this woman who keeps saying cryptic, vaguely threatening things to the audience?
At the end of the Christmas special, Mrs. Flood (Anita Dobson) made it clear she wasn’t merely another neighbor when she turned to the camera and told the audience she’d seen a TARDIS before.
She appeared sporadically throughout the eight-episode season, often breaking the fourth wall or otherwise acting strangely.
Her soliloquy at the end of the season finale was one of the best meta performances because it not only threatened The Doctor but left audiences wondering who or what she really is.
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Carlton Runs Through The Fresh Prince of Bel Air’s Set
The Famous Sequence Was An Accident
A 1994 episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air ends with Carlton running all through the set, even crawling on his hands and knees out of the kitchen — but this was not a scripted moment.
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The hilarious sequence is one of the show’s best meta performances, involving a freaked-out Carlton running all over the set after he thinks he killed Lisa. Carlton was only supposed to run out of the kitchen but actor Alfonso Ribiero decided to do something extra to entertain the live studio audience.
His fourth-wall breaking performance was so funny that the producers decided to keep it in when they edited the episode for broadcast.
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Amazon Prime’s Fleabag Regularly Talks To The Audience
Her Fourth Wall-Breaking Often Creates Comedic Or Touching Scenes
Fleabag is a British comedy about a quirky single woman living in London. Part of the series’ charm is the main character’s habit of talking directly to the audience.
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Unlike other shows that occasionally use this gimmick, Fleabag has fourth-wall-breaking baked into its winning concept. Fleabag constantly talks to the audience, while, for the most part, the people around her don’t notice.
This not only leads to some hilarious situations but makes audience members feel like they are part of the show’s universe.
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ABC’s Moonlighting Was An Experiment In Fourth Wall-Breaking
The Iconic Series Experimented With Talking To The Audience From Season 2 On
Moonlighting epitomized the now-tired TV trope of the couple that might or might not get together.
For five seasons, Bruce Willis and Cybil Shepherd butted heads while working together as private detectives, and sparks flew… but they never crossed the line into romance.
Starting in Season 2, Moonlighting had another claim to fame: it began breaking the fourth wall, leading to some of Shepherd and Willis’ best meta performances.
During the second season, the stars appeared as their characters to introduce some episodes, talking directly to the audience for the first time, and when the series ended after five seasons, the crew broke down the sets on camera.
(Courtesy of CBS Studios)
The New Version of Matlock Will Reference The Original
The Series May Make It Clear It Knows It’s A Reboot
Kathy Bates is set to star in a new version of Matlock on CBS during the fall of 2024.
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From the trailer, it appears the reboot is very different than the original, which starred Andy Griffith as a country lawyer turned modern-day Perry Mason.
However, it has no plans to forget where it came from and will make references to the original Matlock. This might lead to breaking the fourth wall, especially if the characters acknowledge that they are living in a reboot of a popular series.
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Michael Scott Meets David Brent
The Two Versions Of The Office Manager Come Face-To-Face
The Office is based on a British series, so when the American and British versions of the same character met, it led to a hilarious in-joke, which is why we included it on our list of best meta performances.
Michael asked David for help with an English character he was working on, and the two parted as best friends after discussing how seemingly offensive comedic caricatures are not meant to be so.
The characters didn’t acknowledge that they were each other’s alternate-universe selves, but the in-joke only works if you’re aware that this is the case.
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Movie: The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
Nicholas Cage Must Reprise Iconic Roles To Save Himself From Ruin
Nicholas Cage plays an alternate-universe version of himself who is completely broke in this film, which is a masterclass in breaking the fourth wall.
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Not only does Cage play himself AND play himself playing past roles, but the movie itself is a parody of many of the action-adventure films he has done.
After accepting a million dollars to attend a wealthy fan’s birthday party, Cage is recruited by the CIA and must reprise his previous roles as part of a mission to save the world.
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Movie: Deadpool Continues The Comic Book Tradition
The Marvel Anti-Hero Has Always Spoken To The Audience
The Deadpool film is, of course, based on the comic book character, who often broke the fourth wall to speak to his readers.
Related: How Much Should Showrunners Rely on Audience Reaction For Their Storytelling?
The movie is no different.
Ryan Reynolds’ version of Deadpool likes to comment on ridiculous scenes or real-world events, continuing the tradition of interrupting the action to speak to the audience.
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The Film’s Premise Was All About Breaking The Fourth Wall
Who else remembers The Truman Show? The iconic Jim Carrey movie offers one of the best meta performances in the medium.
The central premise is that Carrey’s character is the star of a reality show but doesn’t know it. He thinks his life is real.
The audience knows it’s fake, and he doesn’t, so in a way, it’s the opposite of breaking the fourth wall.
Still, the idea of a reality star believing his fake life is real while the audience is waiting for him to discover the truth is as meta as it gets.
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The Comedian Continued This Trend In Other Movies
Comedian Mel Brooks is known for his meta humor, spoofs of popular culture, and dry wit. Blazing Saddles was one of his first movies, and breaking the fourth wall was a big part of the film.
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This film is a spoof of Westerns starring a Black sheriff — however, it is the same type of anti-racist story as Huckleberry Finn, which means that it uses racial slurs as part of its effort to make racists look bad, especially at the beginning of the movie.
Brooks softens the blow by having characters speak directly to the audience and explain what’s going on in the film at various points.
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Movie: Goodfellas’ Final Scene Was One Of The Most Effective Uses of The Fourth Wall
The Final Twist Made The Movie’s Ending Powerful
If you love Law & Order: Organized Crime or The Sopranos, Goodfellas is the movie for you.
The movie is about the rise and fall of a notorious mob boss who grows up in an organized crime family and seems unaware of the pain he causes others by committing the types of crimes that are normal to him.
The film is narrated by mobster Henry Hill (Ray Liotta), but the final scene suggests that the entire movie has been his explanation to the jury of his crimes.
Without this fourth-wall-breaking plot twist, the film would have been a less memorable story rather than the classic it is considered today.
(Courtesy of Disney+)
Over to you, TV and movie fanatics.
What is your favorite fourth-wall-breaking series or film?
Hit the comments and let us know!