47 Times TV Shows Basically Winked At The Audience

A while back, we asked the BuzzFeed Community about their favorite examples of TV shows and movies breaking the fourth wall. Here are some of their submissions!

1.On SpongeBob SquarePants, when Squidward referenced the fact that he was miserable in every episode (which lasted about 11 minutes):

Nickelodeon

Suggested by ijustliketocomment

2.On Buffy the Vampire Slayer, when Buffy said, "Dawn's in trouble. Must be Tuesday," referencing how Dawn seemed to get in trouble every week and that the show aired on Tuesdays:

UPN

Suggested by Gaelicmaiden

3.On Moonlighting, when Maddie and David referenced the audience and looked in the camera:

4.And when Maddie and David walked off the set because the crew was singing Christmas carols:

5.On Boston Legal, when Alan said he wanted to be on cable:

6.When Galavant started the second season with a song about how they were back for another season:

7.On The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, when Jazz said Aunt Viv seemed different after she was recast:

8.On Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, when Rebecca didn't recognize Greg because he had been recast:

9.When Jane ended Jane the Virgin by winking at the camera:

10.On Legends of Tomorrow, when Nate lamented that the other DC heroes weren't joining them during one conflict then blamed it on them not having done one of the crossovers:

The CW

Suggested by Vanessa

11.On Angel, when Angel said he'd never sleep with Darla, then looked at the camera as he had, in fact, slept with her only two episodes before:

12.On Fleabag, when the Hot Priest looked into the camera, becoming the only character to do so besides Fleabag herself:

13.On Phineas and Ferb, when Monogram talks about Candace and the princess looking alike and Carl says, "Well, it is a cartoon, sir," and Monogram chastises him for breaking the fourth wall:

Nickelodeon

Suggested by jen528

14.And on Phineas and Ferb, when Dr. Doofenshmirtz said this was "real life," and then he and Perry looked at the camera:

15.On The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, when Will looked at the camera and asked why they didn't have a ceiling and then the cameras panned up to show the studio lights:

16.On Mr. Iglesias, when Carlos referenced the actor's role on The Office:

17.On Community, every time Abed would reference the plot of the show like it was, well, a TV show:

NBC

Suggested by hannahmarder

18.And when his character in Jeff's animated coma dream was actually called "Fourth Wall":

19.On Stargate SG-1, when O'Neill said that Teal'c only played a Jaffa on TV:

20.On Arrested Development, when the show was facing cancellation and the characters not so subtly referenced it, and then the narrator full-on asked the audience to tell their friends about the show:

21.And when Tobias referenced how detailed TV and movie sets are, only to open the cabinet and see a single coffee cup:

22.On Skins, when Effy gave her iconic smile at the end of Season 2 to show she'd lead the next season:

23.And when Rich whispered "bye" to the camera at the end of Season 6, signaling the then-end of the show:

24.On House of Cards, when Claire actually spoke to the camera for the first time, revealing she's always known the audience was there:

Netflix

Suggested by hannahmarder

25.On That's So Raven, when Raven suggested people wouldn't like a show about a teen psychic then looked at the camera:

26.On Supernatural, when Dean and Sam went to a world where they were filming Supernatural:

27.And when Sam and Dean discovered a school was putting on a play about them and Dean looked into the camera after the mention of Destiel:

28.On The OA, when the characters were transported to a dimension where they were filming The OA:

29.On Boston Legal, when Alan told Denny he'd barely seen him all episode.

30.On Fuller House, when the cast referenced Mary-Kate and Ashley's fashion careers as the reason why Michelle hadn't returned to the series:

31.On Buffy the Vampire Slayer, when Xander and Anya sang about their complaints about their relationship in "I'll Never Tell" to the camera so that it felt like you were watching a live musical:

32.And when Buffy looked right into the camera for "Something to Sing About" in the same episode:

UPN

Suggested by mysteria19

33.On Orange Is the New Black, when Poussey looked at the camera at the very end of her last scene, a flashback that took place years before she died:

Netflix

Suggested by samanthab46f45c967

34.On The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, when Will tricked Carlton into thinking he'd killed Lisa and Carlton ran around the entire set and even through the studio audience:

35.On Animaniacs, when the characters spoke over the credits complaining about their job / the people who work on the show:

36.On Glee, when Brittany "thought [she] was doing a voiceover" but was really just speaking to the camera:

37.On The Simpsons, when Dr. Hibbert looked at the audience and asked if they could solve who shot Mr. Burns (but it turned out he was talking to Wiggum):

38.On Family Guy, when Peter said that they were being canceled because Fox didn't have room for them anymore as they needed to focus on a bunch of other shows, then listed all these other shows, which all got canceled:

39.On Phineas and Ferb, when Doofenshmirtz said it felt like the summer had been going on for four years (which was how long the show — which took place over a summer — had been going on at that point):

Disney Channel

Suggested by robairsarai

40.On One Day at a Time, when Alex said there was nothing good on Netflix anymore in a reference to the fact that Netflix canceled the show and they had to move to network TV:

41.On Roseanne, when DJ was in therapy repeating, "They say she's the same, but she isn't the same," about Becky, as they swapped the actor multiple times in the series:

42.On Henry Danger, when the characters made sure to remind the young audience not to start fires:

43.On Scrubs, when Carla wasn't into JD's suit and he said it only mattered if America loved it:

44.On Community, when Abed said the only way they wouldn't be back for another season was if a meteor hit and then looked at the camera and called it "canon":

45.On Boy Meets World, when they referenced the fact that the network had changed the airtime of the show:

46.On Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, when a new character was introduced and everyone sang a song wondering why the show would introduce a new character:

47.And finally, on Jane the Virgin, when the narrator revealed that he was an older version of Mateo:

Did we miss any? Let us know in the comments!

Note: Submissions were edited for length/clarity.