Ripped To Shreds: The Fourth Wall
By far one of the biggest sources of income for the entertainment industry comes from television and movies. On many an evening, people will like to relax after a hard day’s work with a beer in one hand, their feet up on the coffee table, and you guessed it, their eyes glued to the TV screen, watching curiously to learn more about the new character on Heroes. And even though people might want to believe that any old schmuck can write a movie or a television show, the truth is that not every person can do it. If you asked someone sitting next to you in a bar at what point in a certain action sequence you should use cross cuts, or how much time you should spend on the exposition, I’m willing to guess they won’t even come close to answering your question. It’s mastering the use of techniques like this that separate directors like Martin Scorsese from whoever directed Mortal Combat and Street Fighter.
But even though directing televisions shows and movies might not be common knowledge to most people, most people know one simple concept regarding this: the shows are not real. (Except in the case of reality tv and informational shows, which I am not discussing in this column.) Sure, there are times when shows will be based off of true stories, but the audience knows that what they are watching is actors and actresses following a script, and that what they are watching is a show that’s reality only exists in it’s own fictional universe. In Rocky 3, Clubber Lang (the villain) didn’t say that he was simply a character played by Mr.T: he WAS Clubber Lang. Entertainment productions like this are based on the audience suspending their disbelief long enough to really get into the movie.
But what if during that movie, Clubber Lang had said “That Rocky Balboa aint no hero. I bet if you looked into his personal life, you would find out he’s done some bad stuff, like make a porno or something.†For those who do not know, Sylvester Stallone (the actor who played Rocky) made a porn film before he became famous, and when Stallone rose to stardom, this porn film got some publicity. Had Clubber Lang made this comment, it would have had a double meaning to it: the face value of the comment in the context of the story, and also an underlying value that only the audience would have gotten, and not the fictional characters. Mr. T and the directors of the movie know that Stallone made that film, but Clubber Lang doesn’t. Get it?
This my friends is what is called breaking the fourth wall. It’s when the characters acknowledge they are being watched by an audience, and talk directly to them. Most rooms on a studio set physically only have 3 walls, but viewers pretend there is a fourth wall, as if the characters can not see the audience. But when they make a comment that only the audience would understand, it is as if the characters break through the fourth wall that the audience pretends is there. Considering that this is a wrestling column and that I just spent time discussing what it is to break the fourth wall in the entertainment industry, I think most of you know where this is headed. That’s right, I am going to talk about my opinion on what role the use of breaking the fourth wall should have in professional wrestling. I understand that wrestling is a whole other animal than a sitcom, a drama, or an action series. But it’s an animal just the same, meant to be hunted and dined upon like any other wild game. The only difference is that you can’t prepare it the same way you prepare most other meats.
George Costanza saying that all he ever sees on tv is morons complaining about their dates is a seemingly harmless fourth wall joke, but would it be just as harmless to Booker T’s respective show if he sarcastically said it’s a really big coincidence that wrestlers tend to cheat more once the fans start booing them? Is Homer Simpson saying that shows that begin mid season are usually lame attempts to boost low ratings (referring to the fact that The Simpsons started mid season) going to have the same effect as Edge saying to the Hardy Boys that they did a good JOB at Wrestlemania 2000? I must admit, it is kind of cool to hear comments like that in professional wrestling. It’s kind of like the people who make the show are acknowledging the viewers through the show that they are a fan of. They’re breaking down the fictional wall that helps prevent the viewer from remembering that what they are watching is indeed fiction. But I also realize that a room must have four walls. You don’t have the potential to lead a normal life in a room that only has three walls. The wind will blow in, the rain will ruin everything, and most of all, you can not have privacy. Your own world becomes everyone else’s world for their own personal viewing pleasure, and repairing that wall can be very difficult and time consuming, if not altogether impossible.
So what I’m basically saying is that breaking the fourth wall is something that should be used very sparingly or preferably not at all in professional wrestling. Let me start this off with a reason that is seemingly very obvious: it hurts the overall enjoyment of the show. The other night I caught the end of a Walker: Texas Ranger rerun where they broke this fictional barrier. Walker (played by Chuck Norris) and three of his friends had just brought some criminals to justice in what apparently was an action packed adventure. They all then sit around and jokingly say that there should be a movie made about their adventure, and they all discuss what actors should play who. The three friends said they wanted academy award winners like Helen Hunt and Denzel Washington to play them, and when they talked about who should play Walker, they agreed on Chuck Norris. Walker said that they would get to have Oscar winners play them, but Chuck Norris hasn’t won anything. One friend said Chuck had won six world karate championships, to which Walker smiled and responded “That’ll work.â€
That discussion was an example of the characters saying something that has a second meaning that only the audience would understand. Now I personally really liked that scene. But I have to be honest: when I saw Walker on again the next day, in the back of my mind was the fourth wall discussion I had recently seen on the show. I am not really a big fan of this show to begin with, but when I tried to get into this episode, I had unusual trouble suspending my disbelief for extended periods of time. I had trouble feeling the suspense of the situations Walker was in when the character himself already hinted at the fact that he really is just that, a character played by an actor. Now with most shows I usually do think about the technical behind the scenes work that went into the show, but what hurts my enjoyment more than anything is when the characters themselves acknowledge things beyond the fictional universe that they live in. I watch for the story, and I don’t want to be reminded that its not real.
And I have to say, this exact same concept applies to the industry of professional wrestling. I’m sure many of you remember when Triple H made a comment to the effect of “Whoever the father of Stephanie’s child is, he must be a studâ€. You knew what Triple H really meant by that, and you knew the real deal on Steph and Trips before that. But in the universe of WWE, that’s not the deal. Whatever suspension of disbelief many people had had for that particular storyline was shattered, even if only for a short time. Many people who got that joke probably liked it, but the fact of the matter is that people watch professional wrestling for the show itself: not to hear some minor, insignificant joke. The two can not exist in equal amounts in professional wrestling, and the more fourth wall jokes you put in, the more cracks you put into that wall.
Let’s look at the situation from this angle: Before George Foreman was seemingly known mostly for selling indoor grills, he had been the heavyweight boxing champion of the world. He was known as a very feared competitor, and when he faced Muhammad Ali in the now infamous “Rumble In The Jungle†match, he was outsmarted as much as one athlete can be. In this match, Ali used a very unique strategy in that he allowed Foreman to throw most of the punches while he covered up and tried to block them. Common sense told Foreman to attack, attack, attack.
But common sense is also what tells you the world is flat. When Foreman became exhausted enough from unsuccessfully throwing punches meant for a knockout, Ali seized his chance and quickly knocked him out. Seems all good and well for Ali, right? Not if you look at it like this: in every competitive sporting event you compete it, you should have the attitude of trying to make yourself better for the next event. Ali used a strategy that he simply could not use again after that. His opponent would have known what he was doing had he tried what he did to Foreman. Ali walked away with the victory and the title after that match, but did he walk away from an experience that would help him in the future? No.
People will watch wrestling for the show itself, but when the writers or the wrestlers decide to throw a fourth wall joke in there, they do their job in making that particular segment entertaining, just as Ali did his job in beating Foreman. But as mentioned before, people’s suspension of disbelief will be shattered, even if only temporarily. Ali was a great fighter, and using that strategy probably didn’t hurt him so much as it didn’t help him in the long run, but I think you can make the connection here. Fourth wall comments make sports entertainment very enjoyable for a few, brief seconds, but in the grand scheme of things they don’t help the fan’s long term interest in the show: they hinder it. How can I believe that Triple H and Stephanie McMahon don’t like each other when Triple H acknowledged something contradictory to this?
This is probably somewhat of a more obvious reason as to why I feel fourth wall jokes will ultimately do much more harm than anything for a fan’s enjoyment of the show. Give a man a fish, he eats for a day: teach a man to fish, he eats for a lifetime. Make a comment that breaks the barrier between the real world and the world of the characters, the fans will have enjoyment for a brief moment: keep that barrier intact and the fans’ enjoyment has the potential to go on and on. Sounds good, right? But I feel there is yet another reason why comments like these will eventually strengthen a person’s urge to change the channel from USA on Monday nights.
Remarks like this basically make the show look unprofessional. As I said before, most people really do like fourth wall jokes in and of themselves. But most people have the notion that a show just isn’t supposed to break those boundaries. A person might not understand many theatrically artistic reasons why comments like that can hurt a program, but most people will have a basic instinct about it that will all say the same thing: they’re not supposed to be there. It’s like when someone complains that hardcore wrestling is garbage because it isn’t really “wrestling.†Whether or not you agree or disagree, or even know why you agree or disagree, there will always be people who think that breaking that fictional universal barrier shouldn’t be done for no other reason than “that’s just the way it should be.†In the long run they will begin to lose respect for the show, and while remarks like these can help a sitcom that doesn’t take itself seriously at all, it won’t help people see it as a comedic masterpiece, nor will it do much good for an action-drama show that some people take very seriously like WWE or TNA.
This is similar in many ways to the Fox show Family Guy. Family Guy is an animated sitcom meant for people who are teenagers and older. Unlike it’s mature animated counterparts in King of the Hill and The Simpsons, many of the jokes do not take place in the context of the story itself. Then in an episode of South Park, Family Guy was heavily criticized for not following the basic format most mature animated shows take with their jokes, and I know people who don’t want to watch Family Guy anymore because of it. When you think about it, there’s really nothing wrong with Family Guy. These people liked the show before this episode of South Park aired, and now they don’t watch it because they lost respect for it. I mean, a joke is a joke, right? There’s no set rules as to how you can put jokes in your show, but there are people who won’t watch the series simply because in their minds “that’s just not the way it’s supposed to be.â€
This is the way that sports entertainment is. People expect wrestling not to open up the door on the air that lets people see that these are actors playing fictional characters. There are many people who feel that you have to sleep at the same end of your bed every night, you can’t eat fried chicken for breakfast, and that wrestling loses integrity when it breaks the fourth wall. This is very much like the Family Guy viewers who lost respect for the show simply because it didn’t have a format like South Park or The Simpsons. Letting go of their respect for the show made the show go down in its entertainment value in their eyes, and the same process can happen in wrestling. In WCW’s final years, the fourth wall had not so much been broken as it had been professionally removed altogether, which was a very big reason why many people lost respect for it and stopped watching altogether.
I’m not trying to say breaking the fourth wall will automatically ruin a movie or a tv series. But I truly believe that it just doesn’t help to make viewers want to tune in the next week. I get the same feeling you do when a wrestler acknowledges that we the viewers know that there is more than meets the eye to sports entertainment. But I just think that deep down, we don’t want to be told that during the programming itself. When we kick back and watch tv, we like it better when we think that Steve Austin and Vince McMahon really do hate each other. When the tv is on, we don’t care about Henry Winkler, we care about The Fonz. We don’t care about Julia Louis Dreyfus, we care about Elaine Benes. We don’t care about Adam Copeland or Paul White, we care about Edge and Big Show, even if our immediate gut feelings might tell us otherwise.
Breaking the fourth wall is something that is usually used sparingly in most forms of entertainment, and sports entertainment is no exception. In my opinion, it makes it harder to really get into a storyline when a comment is made that keeps my disbelief grounded, even if only briefly. When you add that these kinds of remarks make most television programs look unprofessional, pro wrestling included, they will also make people lose respect for the program. A television program that I can’t get into, nor do I respect and therefore enjoy less, is simply not something I’m going to have a high priority for to watch. It is my own personal opinion that even though a room on a studio set usually only has three physical walls, the strongest wall has to be the one that only exists in our minds.
