The Best Fourth Wall Breaks

[Kane Jones]

From Weird Science - 35 seconds into this clip, fourth wall break at 47 seconds;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bDAYP4kpGk

[mobias]

Yup Top Secret is a good one. I think the Airplane one is better though. One of the greatest moments in comedy in my opinion. Sums everything about love, relationships and life in general in one brilliant line http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEXLCOqapWk

Edit. I see its been added already.

[Kane Jones]

OP already did the Airplane! one, mobias.

[mobias]

OP already did the Airplane! one, mobias.

Ahh so he did, I only saw the Trading Places one. To early in the morning for me still. Apologies.

I'll add the Austin Powers one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8w95xIdH4o

[Catalogue Trousers]

1:57 - Vic and Tom in fourth-wall-breaking contest!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdfC012y80Y

[CottenRunt]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUwhnO-nTLo <--- 20 seconds in.

I loved the Naked gun films as a kid, it was my first introduction to slapstick humour and, of course, Leslie Nielsen.

[Mini]

And a wonderfully neat one from 30 Rock:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEfiwPUL4u4

There are lots in 30 Rock, I think Steve Buscemi looked straight into camera in the latest episode.

[Petey Pate]

Tex Avery cartoons have 4th wall breaking in spades.  Here's one of my favourite examples, which makes no sense when you're watching on it TV (let alone a computer monitor), but is funny nonetheless.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8BA08q9OJI

[Petey Pate]

Actually this scene (from Magical Maestro) is even better.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4pd9b_mgm-magical-maestro-1952_shortfilms&start=250

And of course the ultimate 4th wall breaking cartoon is Chuck Jones' Duck Amuck.

http://vimeo.com/23806273

[Glebe]

Great thread!

The Harold & Maude 4th wall-break is one of my fave movie moments ever... the rest of the movie could be crap (which it certainly fucking isn't) and it'd still be worth it just for that. Top Secret one is fucking great... don't watch 30 Rock, but that's fantastic wall-breaking from Tina Fey.

Of course Oliver Hardy wasn't the only early proponent...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dsw9jYU_rJI

Lots of wall-breaking in Blazing Saddles, can't find any specific clips on YouTube, though.

[zomgmouse]

Question: is it breaking the fourth wall when characters are just looking into the camera, or only when they turn towards it? I feel it's exclusively the latter, but I could be wrong. Something about them looking at the audience rather than the camera (which could be another character).

[goldrush almighty]

I think you're right. You have to feel as though characters are looking past the camera rather than merely into it. Much is made of Ferris Bueller's pep talks to the audience, but they always feel like an integral part of the film. His principal's withering look to camera during the credits, on the other hand, as he's forced to join a busload of Bueller acolytes, is much more unexpected and satisfying. Something about the slow, languid raising of the eyes, filled with contempt for a world he can't understand and categorically doesn't want to. He's found no solace anywhere within the confines of the film and is forced to reach out beyond it and appeal directly to you, the viewer, for understanding.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1JzFlkQYuw#t=2m58s

[biggytitbo]

[BlodwynPig]

[Saucer51]

This is a great one from Samuel L Jackson, 2 mins 15 seconds in.

http://youtu.be/gR81gKiKXoE

[QDRPHNC]

Can't find a video of it, but Juliette Lewis did a good one in Natural Born Killers after Woody Harrelson killed the chap with the snake. Quite effective, given the context.

[BritishHobo]

Tex Avery cartoons have 4th wall breaking in spades.  Here's one of my favourite examples, which makes no sense when you're watching on it TV (let alone a computer monitor), but is funny nonetheless.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8BA08q9OJI

The Lion King 3 was an entire movie based around characters from the first movie (and other Disney films) sitting down to watch a prequel, complete with the cinema silhouette thing that that cartoon uses, and which interrupted the film regularly with characters standing up or talking - it went straight to video.

[Jemble Fred]

That's because it was consciously based on Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, in parallel to the first film being Hamlet.

The second was Romeo & Juliet, and they're idiots not to go right ahead with King Lear for Lion King 4 if you ask me...

[Nik Drou]

[Petey Pate]

The Lion King 3 was an entire movie based around characters from the first movie (and other Disney films) sitting down to watch a prequel, complete with the cinema silhouette thing that that cartoon uses, and which interrupted the film regularly with characters standing up or talking - it went straight to video.

Sounds more inspired by Mystery Science Theatre than Tex Avery.  When characters are commenting on a film they are watching within the film does it really count as fourth wall breaking?

That's because it was consciously based on Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, in parallel to the first film being Hamlet.

So that's why there was all that backstabbing poisoning at the end of Lion King.  Never made that connection until now.

[DukeDeMondo]

It loses something being taken out of context like this, but the fairly famous moment in JCVD when our man is lifted up out of the narrative so that he can emote the fuck out of himself up in the rafters and tell us about how he's wasted his life is still cool as thunder.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMb5FE7aMN0

Also, I'm getting really sick of the "quick glance to the camera before the credits roll" that appears in about 89% of indie/"arthouse" pictures about a character has a fierce time of it and then gets on a bus at the end.

[Hangthebuggers]

The master.

Beat me to it. Wasn't he the first to do the 'quick glance at the camera / viewer in a resigned sort of way'?

[Papercut]

Ferris Bueller has been mentioned, but I always enjoy the post-credits sequence when he tells the audience to shoo, and go home. A well considered amount of arrogance goes into that, for both the character and the film.

I guess all of it seems a bit smug and selfish if the character doesn't appeal to you, though.

[Tiny Poster]

"Yes, I normally stay to the end as well...bye."

[Nik Drou]

Not sure about this bit from Jumanji...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2hUgrFkkJU

[Incandenza]

400 Blows. Shattering.

[Eclectic Boogaloo]

It lays it on a little thick, but the ending of Scrooge gets me every time.

When Bill Murray stops talking to the "TV" audience and then starts talking to the "movie" audience, it's a brilliant moment, and reasonably seemless, and i think it takes the cinema audiences off guard.

I never saw the film in the cinema, but I can't imagine (certainly in the UK) any people singing along to "Put A Little Love In Your Heart".

It was still a lovely gesture and aways make me well up... Especially when Murray starts to tear up too!

[Catalogue Trousers]

The final scene of Licence To Kill has two in short order. Firstly, Q effectively directly toasting the audience (rather charming) and then a statue of a fish winking at the audience. DaFUG?

[Icehaven]

one of the coolest ones is from the beginning of harold and maude. having just faked his own suicide by setting himself on fire he walks into the room, freaking out the girl that was there to see him and feeling rather chuffed with himself...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fa_H2zd8Ybs

Yes! I've always loved this, and the whole film, I wish he'd been in so much more.
Also like Vod's 4th wall break in the last episode of the first Fresh Meat series too, when Oregon starts talking to some blokes, and Vod gives a slightly shocked, ''Well now did you ever!?!'' look directly to the camera, fairly subtle and unexpected.

[Cerys]

There's one I've been trying to place for ages, and I've only just put my finger on it.  Shirley Valentine, when Shirley is rescued from loneliness by Jeanette and Dougie from Manchester.