Talk:Fourth Wall Breaks

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Revision as of 10:52, 18 January 2005

This answers my question, I guess we are going to be tracking all 4th wall breaks. - Dr Haggis - Talk 16:36, 29 Nov 2004 (MST)

Can we at least be grammatical and call this something like "Fourth Wall Violations"?

I was going for [The] Fourth Wall Breaks, actually, as in "Fourth Wall Breaks! Details at 11." But if you think it's confusing, by all means change it. I'm just not going to go through the effort. :) --Vannav

I think this should at the very least be separated into two categories: "Audience Acknowledgement" in which the characters talk about the audience, and "Total Breakage", which consists of e-mails like "virus" that make fun of them being on a website. It's important to realize that somebody could theoretically make a real website in which they read e-mails sent in to them, so acknowledgement of an audience is not necessarily the same as acknowledgement of "cartoondom". So audience acknowledgement might not even qualify. --Tom H.

I argee, since "audience acknowledgement" could refer to all the emails. "Fourth Wall Breaks" should be limited to "Total Breakage".--Hysterical Woman 15:33, 30 Nov 2004 (MST)

"Total breakage"... don't know what I was thinking with that one. As with "cartoondom." --Tom H. (I actually signed up for the wiki but forgot my username.)

I don't think this page is necessary. --Upsilon

For Homestar Runner dot com, breaking the fourth wall is the rule rather than the exception. Except during the main toons (and even at times during them) the characters all seem to be fairly aware of an audience. Many references are made to the site, to sending Strong Bad emails, and there are few instances of characters being concerned that others are talking to the audience. Therefore, I don't think this page should exist. --Tim333

Are these really fourth-wall breaks?

To quote Wikipedia:

"The term breaking the fourth wall is used in film, theater, television, and literary works; it refers to a character directly addressing an audience, or actively acknowledging (through breaking character or through dialogue) that the characters and action going on is not real."

This page should not exist if one's definition of fourth wall breakage includes audience awareness through participation. It should exist (in some form or another) if one only counts the complete breakages (i.e. references to "the black").

In my opinion, this should only list total breakages. However, just implying that you're essentially watching a cartoon is NOT breakage in my opinion (they never say it really IS fake, just that it's not a live broadcast), so to me, only flashback (Homestar says he's usually behind the black) and virus (if you need THAT one explained, you need to go watch it) is breakage.

I'll gladly detail WHY I don't think the rest are breakages if anyone requests it for a particular e-mail. --83.88.139.108 13:21, 6 Dec 2004 (MST)

• I concur. If we refer to every time Strong Bad recognizes he's being watched in a Strong Bad e-mail, we have to list every single last Strong-Bad e-mail!!! --Jay 11:17, 7 Dec 2004 (MST)

• One could assume he's doing a Jennycam style live webcam show. Featuring him. Answering emails.

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• That seems to be the most likely scenario. -Clever Ben

You know, this is a very interesting question, and I'm happy to see so many people debating it. As a major in film and a minor in drama, however, I can certainly attest to the fact that "breaking the fourth wall" is an important concept to at least TRY to point out. For folks in the trade and in the scholarly-studies, it basically translates to "acknowledging the 'real' world outside of the filmworld or playworld." In film, this rule is hardly ever broken -- actors are rarely directed to look directly into the camera. 99% of the time, they're often looking just to the side of it. When an actor DOES directly address the audience, because breaking the rule is SO strange and SO "not done," it's usually used for kooky humor, as in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, or for jarring psychological effect, as in Psycho. H*R being a cartoon only makes this page more interesting, because it's taking a pretty intellectual concept and putting it to use for the masses. Voila. -- Queenie-C