Pinkie Pie Breaking The 4th Wall

About

Pinkie Pie Breaking The 4th Wall refers to the character Pinkie Pie^[1] of the animated tv-series My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic being able to cross dimensions and other antics by breaking the so-called 4th wall^[2].

Origin

The idea of Pinkie Pie being able to break the 4th wall is taken directly from the show itself. Although most characters’ abilities in the during the episodes are limited to what should be physically possible in show^[3], Pinkie Pie, who is already known for her random nature, has had several instances where she shows awareness to the cinematic and cartoon elements of the show. Reacting to fade-outs and iris-wipes, and often looks directly at the audience. Other ponies do this as well, but more for the convenience of breaking out into song. Unlike Pinkie Pie who does it at a normal, non-spectacular, basis.

The Fourth Wall

The Fourth Wall^[4] is the imaginary “wall” which supposedly seperates fiction from reality. The idea of the fourth wall is the concept that the characters are unaware of the fact that they’re fictional characters in a work, the audience observing them, and whatever medium conventions occur inbetween the two. When a character acknowledges their fictionality, this by for example speaking directly to the audience watching the show, is referred to as “breaking the fourth wall”.^[5] This is often combined with other special abilities such as being able to jump between places or dimensions.

Spread

Fans have noticed Pinkie Pie’s abnormal behavior and made her 4th wall awareness^[17] and made it one of Pinkie Pie’s character traits. Creating images and comics where this ability is pushed even further. On the brony imageboard Ponibooru, searching for either “fourth wall”^[6] or “4th wall”^[7] turns up over 250 images as of June 6th, 2012. Although not all of these feature Pinkie Pie, she does take up the large majority. On DeviantArt, searching for “Pinkie Pie 4th Wall”^[8] results in over 500 images and “Pinkie Pie Fourth Wall”^[9] over 350. Some of these images are shared amongst both search terms, but there is also plenty of variety to be found. Equestria Daily has also featured Pinkie Pie’s 4th wall antics multiple times on topics such as art^[12][16], videos^[13], music^[14] and fanfiction^[15]. Tv Tropes’ article on Toon Physics^[3] also uses Pinkie Pie as an example.

"Pinkie Pie from My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic has many toony abilities no other pony is capable of. These almost never amount to any practical effect, however, and are generally accepted as “Weird things that Pinkie Pie does, just ignore it” by anyone around to witness them."

Creator Response

One of creators of MLP:FiM also reacted to questions about Pinkie Pie’s 4th wall antics on his DeviantArt.^[10] Claiming it were animation errors all along they didn’t missed. The moments where Pinkie is looking at the audience, she is actually looking at a pony off screen. This was also covered by Equestria Daily on March 3th, 2011.^[11]

"

Poltergeist Bilboard

In the beginning of October 2011, a My Little Pony bilboard was spotted on the 101 freeway in Hollywood.^[18] The bilboard featured Pinkie Pie sitting in front of a tv showing static in the style of the 1982 movie Poltergeist while looking at the viewer. The banner was created to celebrate the launch of the second season of the show on September 17th and for Halloween which takes place on October 31st.

Notable Examples

External References