Breaking the Fourth Wall

"Breaking the fourth wall" is when a character speaks directly to the audience in a play or through the camera in a film or television show and is used for comedic purposes. The term "breaking the fourth wall" comes from the fourth imaginary "wall" at the front of the stage in a traditional three-walled box set in theatre. 

Great examples of breaking the fourth wall are present in popular television shows, like How I Met Your Mother, Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and Scrubs. Films such as Ferris Bueller's Day Off,  Spaceballs, and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back are also guilty of having characters break the fourth wall. 

Having a character completely acknowledge the audience is a fun little gag that can be very funny if it's used in the right kind of film or television show.

Why Do We Watch Films?

You've been to the movies with your friends on a Friday night, right? What's better than spending time with your buds with a butt-load a popcorn while you watch an action flick or a comedy? I believe that films are the most entertaining forms of media to date, but to some people films are more than just a form of entertainment. People go to movies to escape reality.

Films are a fantastic way of "escaping" because films put us in the shoes of people extremely different from ourselves. Why do we love Marvel's The Avengers? Because for those two hours we're a god that controls lighting with our mighty hammer and we're a playboy philanthropist with a bad-ass robotic suit. We are also a highly trained spy that doesn't look bad in some spandex. Why do we love the Indiana Jones films? Because we're a charming, handsome every-man who always overcomes the odds while on crazy adventures until we walk out of the spacious, dark room of our local movie theater. 

Films also excel at taking us to new worlds. George Lucas' Star wars and its sequels were such a hit because audiences loved being dropped into the ice and snow covered world of Hoth or the swampy, tree-ridden world of Dagobah. James Cameron's Avatar completely immersed audiences in the epic world of Pandora, so much so that people became depressed after they left theaters! It's clear that films are more than just a source of entertainment! Films have the power to remove audiences from the real world and transport them to epic worlds and meet larger-than-life characters.