Fourth Wall

The Fourth Wall is the imaginary "wall" at the front of the stage in a traditional three-walled box set in a proscenium theater, through which the audience sees the action in the world of the play. The idea of the fourth wall was made explicit by philosopher and critic Denis Diderot and spread in nineteenth-century theater with the advent of theatrical realism, which extended the idea to the imaginary boundary between any fictional work and its audience. Speaking directly to or otherwise acknowledging the audience through the camera in a film or television program, or through this imaginary wall in a play, is referred to as "breaking the fourth wall" and is considered a technique of meta-fiction, as it deconstructs the boundaries normally set up by works of fiction.

Lampshading is the writers' trick of dealing with any element of the story that threatens the audience's willing suspension of disbelief — whether a very implausible plot development, or a particularly blatant use of a trope — by calling attention to it... and then moving on. In simple terms - the author points out the improbable subject through some medium (character, passerby, narration, etc.) and says it exists regardless of logic.

Breaking The Fourth Wall/Lampshading[]

Fourth Wall Breaks/Lampshading[]

Season 2[]

In Who Did It to Trina? right before Robbie tells his version of the story André complains by saying, "Oh, no, no. Now we gotta hear another version of the story from a unique point of view?" He is basically saying what is happening in the episode.
In Who Did it to Trina? Cat's version of what happened was a scene from Drake & Josh which was created by Dan Schneider.
In Tori Tortures Teacher, André notes that they don't sit at a certain end of the table; that end happens to face the camera and anybody sitting there would have their back to the audience.
In Terror on Cupcake Street, Sikowitz says that the other kids in class never talk, and everyone agrees, and Tori says they just sit there and react.

Season 3[]

In A Christmas Tori when Sikowitz tells this kids they have to participate in Secret Santa they complain which makes Sikowitz say, "No ad-lib complaining." which is what the kids were basically doing.
At the end of A Christmas Tori, Tori is reading the end to a book entitled 'A Christmas Tori'.
In The Breakfast Bunch when André takes off his shirts when he's run dancing his last shirt says "Final Shirt" on it.
In The Breakfast Bunch, after Tori is locked in the janitor's closet she finds a secret passageway to the library with a sign that reads "SECRET PASSAGEWAY TO LIBRARY".
In April Fools' Blank, Cat says that Jade spoke her stage directions. Also, Mike Caron (a Victorious director) comes in and addresses Andre as Leon, saying he's late for a scene with Victoria. At the end of the episode, Tori/Victoria thanks the audience, the cast, the crew, and Dan, the creator.
In April Fools' Blank, when Rex says there's going to be a commercial break, he says "Stay tuned for the second half of Victorious, or don't. I get paid either way."
During the Match Play show in April Fools' Blank, Trina's answer is "cut to next scene," which causes the show to cut to the next scene.
In April Fools' Blank, when the characters yell "where's the beef?", Tori says that kids won't get that reference.
In How Trina Got In, right before Beck tells how he heard Trina got into Hollywood Arts, André starts to rub his temple in order to "visualize the story."
In How Trina Got In, Sikowitz looks up to the ceiling as if to visualize the past, and everyone else looks up, and then awkwardly look at him when nothing happens.
In the beginning of Tori Goes Platinum, Sikowitz tells the class that most TV show and Hollywood movie writing is terrible, prompting Jade to say, "Don't we know it."
In Crazy Ponnie, Ponnie refers to herself as "one of the quiet kids who sit in the back and just reacts to stuff," to which Tori replies, "You're a shrugger?!"

Season 4[]

In The Hambone King when Robbie is telling Tori why he can't beat Gerold Arnpeg he says, "This whole conversation just sounds like bad writing."
In Three Girls and a Moose, Cat refers to the fact that Tori only wears glasses when she is home alone, which is a recurring gag in the series.
At the end of Robbie Sells Rex, when it is revealed that the Flour Bomber is just some bored guy on semester break, Jade, Andre, and Beck say that it was a let down, acknowledging that this is a poorly written ending.
In The Slap Fight, Sinjin refers to Tori, Andre, Beck, Jade, Cat, and Robbie as "the main people," as in the main characters. He later says that they star in all the plays, sing all the songs, and do all the talking as if he knows he is only a secondary character in a television show.
In Victori-Yes when Andre is helping the girl write her song Andre is about to say no to her, but he hears Sikowitz's voice in his head and looks around as though he can actually hear it in the room.

Crossovers/Specials[]

In iParty with Victorious Kenan Thompson is a guest star, and the show All That is mentioned. Dan Schneider created All That, and Kenan was on All That.

Possible Fourth Wall Breaks/Lampshading[]

In The Bird Scene, after Tori successfully completes The Bird Scene, she posts "FINALLY... I... am... VICTORIOUS!!!"
In Wok Star, Mrs. Lee's wall of celebrities has a picture of Dan Schneider, the creator of Victorious. There is also a picture of him in Tori's locker.
In Sleepover at Sikowitz's, Beck mentions Dan Schneider while in character at Sikowitz's house.
In Sleepover at Sikowitz's Tori yells, "I am VICTORIOUS!" when she stayed the longest without breaking character.
In iParty with Victorious Sikowitz jumps up out from underneath a counter and blares a trumpet, saying "It's me!", looks to the camera showing his trumpet, then says "With a trumpet!"
In Beggin' on Your Knees, a girl tells Robbie that guys never ask her out, and he smiles and looks toward the camera.
In Ice Cream for Ke$ha, when Tori says that she remembers the deal she made with Trina when she was younger, she looks up as if she was going to set up a flashback before Trina interrupts her.
- Jade can be seen starting at the camera in a "what" tone, implying that she wants the viewers to know what it is Robbie is talking about in that same episode.
In Prom Wrecker when Tori suggests the name Prome she slightly looks toward the camera.
In the TheSlap/iCarly.com video Random Debate, the iCarly characters are doing a random debate when Ariana Grande, Matt Bennett, and Daniella Monet come into the video and start calling all the iCarly characters by the actors' names. As the video continues, the iCarly cast is left wondering if they're in character or playing themselves, especially when Rex appears even when Matt is nowhere near him.
In 2010, a video was posted on iCarly.com of Liz Gillies and Victoria Justice. They were dressed as and acting like their characters, but they were asking people to vote for iCarly and Miranda Cosgrove, and also promoting the show Victorious. They even stated themselves in the video, "We're breaking the fourth wall!"
In The Breakfast Bunch, when Jade's harassing Cat about being a vegan, Jade briefly looks toward the camera when she sits down.
In The Breakfast Bunch, when, Mr. Dickers reads the note you can hear Rex's voice reading the note along with the others:
- Tori: "A future pop-star"
- André: "A musician"
- Beck: "An actor"
- Robbie: "A nerd with temporarily straight hair"
- Jade: "A girl who likes scissors"
- Cat: "And meeeeee..." "Oh, it's Cat. Bye."
In Car, Rain & Fire, when Tori and Cat see the news story about Mona Patterson's house being burned down, they change the channel. The show they change it to is Hungry Girl, a Food Network cooking show hosted by Dan Schneider's wife Lisa Lillien.
In Cell Block when the group is holding Cat down to the chair Ariana Grande breaks character and smiles a little bit. This is confirmed by Ariana via twitter.
In Victori-Yes, when Cat posts an update on The Slap the background said DanWarp and a drawing of Dan Schneider, the creator of Victorious.
In Victori-Yes, there is also a DanWarp Channel.

The Slap Fourth Wall Breaks[]

"Bloopers are hilarious. Unless, they're yours. Then they're embarrassing. Oy, It's going to be a long night." They were referring to the Victorious blooper episode: Blooptorious.
Rex posted a worried question about the episode Rex Dies.
On TheSlap.com, The Worst Couple, André's Horrible Girl, and The Blonde Squad were promoted.
Robbie's song, "Robbie's Big Toe" mentions the show's title and the basic plot of Tori being a new student there, saying that there is a "crazy cast of characters", that Tori and Jade's conflict makes for a good story, and finally ends it by saying the show should be renamed "Robbie's Big Toe."
Beck's status: "Had to pick up some production equipment in Burbank today and drove by a high school that looks exactly like Hollywood Arts. Weird." (Burbank High School is where they shoot the exterior of Hollywood Arts).
After Victori-Yes, Sikowitz posted this on TheSlap: "This week I challenge you to say YES to everything!!! May you all have adventures worthy of a hit sitcom's series finale!" He says this as if he knows that this was a plot in a certain sitcom's series finale.

Accidental Fourth Wall Breaks[]

In the first promo from Prom Wrecker, a Victorious sign is visible because the Prome scene was filmed at the parking lot of Nickelodeon on Sunset where many Nickelodeon shows are filmed.

Cast Reactions[]

Matt Bennett said, "We don't break the fourth wall yet. But I feel like there's room to do it. I think we're gonna get really post-modern. Really strange." in the last part of this video.

External links[]

Fourth Wall at