Was this building designed by TV writers or what?
*desperately trying to think of something to do that isn't grocery shopping or cleaning or writing* Ah HA, I have it! fannish5!
5 greatest (or favorite) examples of breaking the fourth wall, or canon material going meta.
1. Avatar: The Last Airbender, "The Ember Island Players". Ooh, topical, for an audience of me. Anyway, I might have been cringing with secondhand embarrassment the entire time, but I was still very impressed with the creators of ATLA for going there, skewering themselves (and the fandom a bit) so thoroughly.
2. Fringe, "Brown Betty". I'm not entirely sure this counts, but whatever, I love it so I'm including it. For one episode, they created an entire (amazing) new world which I found way more impressive than the alternate universe we've already seen (yeah, I know).
3. Watchmen/Tales of the Black Freighter. One of my favorite things about Watchmen is the weird mirror Tales of the Black Freighter held up to it the whole time. I mean, jeez, what was that? Mostly a game for English majors, it seemed, who had analyzed way too much Shakespeare to just shut it off and enjoy this little comic book.
4. The Middleman. Well, of course. That show was one continuous stream of meta jokes and fourth wall demolition.
5. Blazing Saddles. The last ten minutes of this movie are just... like.. insane, I don't even know. The same kind of thing happens at the end of Life of Brian and Monty Python and the Holy Grail, but it didn't work nearly as well for me in those. I'm not sure why. Maybe the final affirmation of the Jim/Bart bromance colors my perception. I will say one of my most favorite jokes in the whole movie is Bart confronting Hed(le)y in front of the movie theater and Hed(le)y making the tire squeal noise as he comes to a stop.
Runners-up: Sherlock/Grimm/Once Upon a Time. I'm lumping these together because it's all kind of the same thing- reinterpretations where the viewers can pick out the references to the source material and smile knowingly to themselves. Always a good time.
5 greatest (or favorite) examples of breaking the fourth wall, or canon material going meta.
1. Avatar: The Last Airbender, "The Ember Island Players". Ooh, topical, for an audience of me. Anyway, I might have been cringing with secondhand embarrassment the entire time, but I was still very impressed with the creators of ATLA for going there, skewering themselves (and the fandom a bit) so thoroughly.
2. Fringe, "Brown Betty". I'm not entirely sure this counts, but whatever, I love it so I'm including it. For one episode, they created an entire (amazing) new world which I found way more impressive than the alternate universe we've already seen (yeah, I know).
3. Watchmen/Tales of the Black Freighter. One of my favorite things about Watchmen is the weird mirror Tales of the Black Freighter held up to it the whole time. I mean, jeez, what was that? Mostly a game for English majors, it seemed, who had analyzed way too much Shakespeare to just shut it off and enjoy this little comic book.
4. The Middleman. Well, of course. That show was one continuous stream of meta jokes and fourth wall demolition.
5. Blazing Saddles. The last ten minutes of this movie are just... like.. insane, I don't even know. The same kind of thing happens at the end of Life of Brian and Monty Python and the Holy Grail, but it didn't work nearly as well for me in those. I'm not sure why. Maybe the final affirmation of the Jim/Bart bromance colors my perception. I will say one of my most favorite jokes in the whole movie is Bart confronting Hed(le)y in front of the movie theater and Hed(le)y making the tire squeal noise as he comes to a stop.
Runners-up: Sherlock/Grimm/Once Upon a Time. I'm lumping these together because it's all kind of the same thing- reinterpretations where the viewers can pick out the references to the source material and smile knowingly to themselves. Always a good time.