The cinematic adaptation of Deadpool, wherein our anti-hero addresses the audience directly, is of course not a new convention— although it did stir some interest on the part of theatre-goers on what’s known breaking the fourth wall, the three walls of a box stage suspended and closed off by another, imaginary boundary.
A metaphorical fifth wall might appear if another actor, perhaps suffering from genre blindness, is prompted to question the sanity of another’s aside to those out there in TV Land. Another film whose narrator extensively engaged the viewers (and not just in a post-credits denouement) was the 1986 John Hughes comedy Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, but I didn’t appreciate the blocking homage of Ryan Reynolds to Matthew Broderick until seeing it side-by-side. Of course, both characters ought to be footnoted as tributes to Tex Avery’s Bugs Bunny, I think.
