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Born in the Theatre

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As a result, there are a few No Fourth Wall jokes that appear in 1930s and 1940s vintage cartoons that would make absolutely no sense to a modern audience watching it on television or unaware of the history.

Nowadays, you'll mainly see them in Looney Tunes shorts.

Most common include:

  • A character runs full tilt towards the edge of the screen, the camera follows him, and pans beyond the film itself into the blank white nothingness of an empty theater screen. The character realizes what has happened, and jumps back onto the film.
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  • Occasionally asking "Is there a doctor in the house?" in combination with Amusing Injuries.



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  • The Osamu Tezuka short Broken-Down Film is full of these type of gags, seeing as it is presented as a bad print of a silent-era cartoon set in the Old West. The characters are constantly interacting with the deteriorating film stock - wiping away the surface dust, for example, or escaping the villain while the film is misaligned.
  • Tenchi Masaki's near-death out-of-body experience in the 19th Tenchi Muyo! OVA episode was represented as the classic clattering of a malfunctioning projector and film sliding out of position. Never mind that it was made in the 21st century on computers for a DVD release.

     Films — Animated  

  • Disney's Fantasia includes several short 'bumpers' in between the main sequences. In one of them, the sound track is invited to come into the picture and show off how it produces sounds. (In the technology of the time, the sound track was recorded on the same film as the picture, as a stripe of varying width, just out of sight past the edge of the frame.)
  • At the end of Aladdin, the Genie actually lifts up the film and says, "Made you look!" This one is based on early reactions to test screenings; after test audiences started leaving the film early during a cut with a reprise of Arabian Nights, the animators replaced it with the Genie-as-the-moon laughing, causing anyone who's leaving early to turn back wondering if there's more of the film left.
  • At the end of The Thief and the Cobbler, the thief removes the film from the projector and absconds with it. Talk about a scene stealer!
  • The melting film gag is used on Monsters vs. Aliens to transition from the black-and-white (and, on the 3-D version, flat) version of the DreamWorks Animation logo and into the film proper.
  • During The Emperor's New Groove, the film stops and Kuzco appears to point out that the story is about him, not Pacha, even drawing on the film frame with a marker to make his point. Interestingly, this gag is reused on The Series.
  • In Kronk's New Groove, Kuzco again interrupts to point out that this one is about Kronk and not him, actually bringing out the films' posters.
  • In The Simpsons Movie, Homer addresses (and insults) the audience. There's also a sign gag in front of the church which says "Silence thy cellphones!", which isn't an issue if you're watching it at home.
  • The framing device from The Lion King 1½. "Pumbaa! You sat on the remote!"

     Films — Live-Action  

  • In the movie Fight Club, the pointing out of a Cue mark (called, inaccurately, a Cigarette burn). The movie also used a fake subliminal movie frame at the end.
  • Scrooged ends with a CMOA that invokes this trope, when Frank Cross breaks the fourth wall to address the theatrical audience directly, even asking them to sing along to the closing credits — first the people on the right, then the people on the left...
  • Groucho Marx talked to the audience a lot (most likely carried over from the brothers' vaudeville days) - in Horse Feathers, as Chico starts a piano routine, Groucho looks at us and says "I've gotta stay here but there's no reason you folks shouldn't go to the lobby 'til this blows over!"
    • A similar joke appears in one of the Hope/Crosby Road to ... movies. As Crosby gets ready to sing a song, Hope turns to the camera and says, "OK, Folks, nows the time to go get some more popcorn from the lobby."
  • In the theatrical and DVD versions of Gremlins 2: The New Batch, there comes a point where there seems to be a problem with the projector and the film breaks, leaving a blank white screen. It turns out to be gremlins in the projection booth, who wickedly decide to replace the film with a naturism film, and an usher calls upon Hulk Hogan to restore order.
    • If you go to YouTube there's a whole slew of homemade ones that fans cooked up including one where the title creatures make the mistake of of messing with Batman.
  • Kiss Kiss Bang Bang's Lemony Narrator will regularly pause, rewind, or write on the film itself — in addition to making commentary on it — to make certain points.
  • Blazing Saddles: Hedley Lamarr is talking to himself while facing the camera and thinking up a plan. He then says to us, "Why am I asking you?"
  • 200 Motels: The Dental Hygiene Dilemma Film Within a Film starts with reels that move up and down, as if a new film has been put in the projector.
  • The famous Paddleball Shot used to show off the 3-D effects in the 1953 film House of Wax ends with one of these. The paddleball guy, who's been swatting his paddleball at various people entering the exhibit, turns to look straight at the camera, says "There's someone with a bag of popcorn!", and swats his paddleball right at the viewer.
  • At one point in the very strange Ingmar Bergman film Persona, the film cracks mid-scene. Then it melts.
  • One Wonderful Sunday: At a particularly sad moment for protagonist couple Masako and Yuzo, Masako turns and looks at the camera. She addresses the "ladies and gentlemen" who are watching them, asking the audience to Clap Your Hands If You Believe.

     Live Action TV  

     Web Animation  

  • The side effects of the Virus from the Strong Bad Email "virus" from Homestar Runner, particularly the scene where Strong Bad accidentally leaps off the screen and cannot jump back in, and at the same time, Homestar Runner (whom, as a result of him being affected by the Virus, has The Homestar Runner's torso) detaching his own head and using it to pick up certain icons on the navbar on the bottom of the screen. Then several windows resembling pop-up windows show up on the screen, one of them being an actual pop-up browser window, which most modern browsers will often block.

     Western Animation  

  • Tex Avery MGM Cartoons:
    • "Billy Boy", a farmer is trying to rid himself of a goat who's eating everything he owns. One attempt to dispose of him fails when the goat eats the half of the screen the farmer was standing on.
    Bird: Hey! I hear that's a pretty funny cartoon.
    Worm: Well, I sure hope it's funnier than this one!
    • In "King Size Canary" a mouse warns a cat not to eat him because he'll save his life later on. He knows because he's already seen the cartoon before!
  • Woody Woodpecker has pulled this once or twice. For example, in Who's Cookin Who?, when Woody is starving, he asks "Could somebody go to the lobby and get me a candy bar?" Also pulled in the short The Screwdriver, in which Woody is quizzing a cop, and reminds us "No coaching from the audience, please!"
  • Looney Tunes:
    • The Bugs Bunny cartoon Rabbit Punch ends with Bugs Bunny about to be run over by a train. As the train barrels toward Bugs, the film breaks. Bugs walks onto a blank screen and announces, "Ladies and gentlemen, due to circumstances beyond our control, we are unable to continue with this picture. And, uh, confidentially," he adds, holding up a pair of scissors, "the film didn't exactly break."
    • In the short Daffy Duck and Egghead, after several silhouette interruptions, the annoyed character on screen shoots the patron who falls dead.
    • In Duck Amuck, the film appears to slip in the projector, resulting in a top-bottom frame reversal. The two Daffy's from each frame then start arguing with each other: "If you wasn't me, I'd smack you right in the puss!"
    • The best "doctor in the house" moment came in "Hair-Raising Hare": chased by a monster, Bugs Bunny runs through a door, slams it shut, leans up against it panting and begs of the audience, "Is there a doctor in the house?" A silhouette stands up and raises a hand: "I'm a doctor." Bugs pushes off from the door, pulls out a carrot, and gives his Catch-Phrase: "Eh, what's up, doc?"
    • "Look, out there in the audience..." "PEOPLE! AAAAAAAAAH!" In that same cartoon, Bugs Bunny disposed of Gossamer the big orange monster by frightening him into running out through the back wall of the theater, and through numerous other walls behind it, leaving behind a tunnel of Impact Silhouettes.
    Chief: Thanks! (leaves; suddenly re-enters) You little tattletale! (leaves again)
    • Guided Muscle: At the end, after the Coyote falls for the Roadrunner's last trick and gets blown up by his own dynamite trap, he puts up a sign saying "Wanted: One gullible Coyote. Apply to manager of this theater."
  • Tiny Toon Adventures:
    • While not actually produced for theaters (it's a TV show, after all), at least three gags invoked it. One of these occurrences had Hamton J. Pig joyriding in the Batmobile, and upon making a big swerve to dodge a building, he briefly flies out of the film strip. Another episode had Hamton threatening an anthropomorphic fire, and the camera pans out to reveal that the scene is being played out on a film strip. The fire proceeds to burn the strip, comically reducing Hamton into a roasted pig. The Whole Plot Reference Christmas special had Buster at the edge of a film reel, contemplating suicide ala George Bailey. He later does jump out... in joy, and lands right back in the "film" (this is after he is granted a second chance at life).
    • There's also the one with Plucky and Hamton breaking into Warner Bros. Studio through the sewers with a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reference. This being the nineties, everyone in the "audience" is vocal about having seen that one coming.
  • Popeye:
    • In the cartoon How Green is My Spinach, Bluto creates a formula that wipes out all the spinach in the world, including Popeye's. As Bluto sweeps the floor with Popeye (literally), the narratornote  asks, "Can this be the end of our hero? Can't anybody save him? Is there a can of spinach in the house?!" The short abruptly goes from a color cartoon to black & white live-action, showing people watching the cartoon (still in color) in a movie theater. A worried boy pulls out a can of spinach from a grocery bag, yells, "Here, Popeye, catch!", and tosses it to the screen. You can probably guess the rest.
    • In the cartoon "The Hungry Goat", Popeye's commanding officer leaves for a day at the movie theater, and warns him not to harm the goat. Later, as Popeye is about to throttle the goat for eating the boat, the goat warns that the admiral could be watching them right now — and sure enough, he is seen silhouetted against the screen, taking his seat. At the end of the cartoon, the admiral sees the damage being done to his ship and runs back. He asks Popeye where the goat went, and we see the goat sitting in the audience, laughing.
    Boy in audience: Aw, why doesn't Popeye eat his spinach and sock him one?
  • The Simpsons do it at least twice (could be more): in one of the Couch Gags the whole family runs off the film.
  • At least twice, Foghorn Leghorn stretched out the closing iris that ended the cartoon because he wasn't finished talking. This gradually stopped as his gimmick became playing practical jokes instead of being a Motor Mouth.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: This joke has since been inherited, and used at least twice, by Pinkie Pie.
  • The 2013 Mickey Mouse short Get a Horse! has Mickey and the rest of the characters go through the movie screen from their 2D black-and-white world and coming out in 3D color (see the page image).

Alternative Title(s): Born In The Theater


Example of: