http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou

your house and slip live grenades under your pillow. Maybe we'll gut your favorite pet. Or maybe we'll just... BREAK YOUR TV RIGHT NOW!" The Joker's Ladder Ending, Ladder Ending, Mortal Kombat 11 "Meet the League of Misunderstood Maniacs! We're giving Orderrealm an enema. And when we're done, who knows where we'll crash next? Maybe we'll come tohouse and slip live grenades under your pillow. Maybe we'll gut your favorite pet. Or maybe we'll just...

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A monster is on the loose terrorizing a bunch of innocent people. As long as the monster and the victims are characters in a fictional world, one would usually be correct to assume that the boundaries of the Fourth Wall will be respected. But then, Breaking the Fourth Wall, the monster assaults the omniscient narrator, or leaps out at the audience. Definitely Paranoia Fuel.

Much easier to pull off with visual media like film, but a few literary examples also exist.

An easy way to invoke this trope is to describe a Brown Note, and say that a series of horrible events happened to anybody who experienced it before, and specify that the first symptom is a sense of foreboding. Since foreboding is a base response, even rational people who know that they cannot be negatively affected by a work of fiction will feel the visceral reaction thanks to the nocebo effect. Paranoia Fuel can then set in; mission accomplished.

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This trope can be done far more effectively in video games due to the interactivity of the medium, especially on computers where it's easy for the game to directly refer to the player by account names, talk to the player or execute this trope in the most literal fashion by actually attacking and harming the machine, as demonstrated by Imscared, or preserving information beyond replays and reinstalls, most famously shown by Undertale.

See also Second Person Attack, Rage Against the Author and The Most Dangerous Video Game. May involve Sean Connery Is About to Shoot You or a Tome of Eldritch Lore, or may implement Fission Mailed. Playing the Player is a game specific version of this, though it usually involves trickery instead of threats. Abusive Advertising is a related trope where advertisements threaten to cause harm to the audience if they don't buy what's being advertised. In-universe examples may fall under Deadline News or Spectator Casualty.

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Examples:

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Advertising

Pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca ran this series of ads in Japan warning of the dangers of arteriosclerosis. Set up like a comedic variety show, the presenter gives a short talk before saying "There are no outward symptoms, so even if you feel fine..." when someone on the set very non-comedically collapses from a heart attack. In the final version of the ad, it switches to a POV shot of the viewer at home collapsing and their vision dimming.

in Japan warning of the dangers of arteriosclerosis. Set up like a comedic variety show, the presenter gives a short talk before saying "There are no outward symptoms, so even if you feel fine..." when someone on the set very non-comedically collapses from a heart attack. In the final version of the ad, it switches to a POV shot of the viewer at home collapsing and their vision dimming. One very ill-advised campaign for mental health awareness in the early noughties featured a video advert that would play quiet whispering sounds while you browsed the webpage it was on. Only finding and hovering over the advert would reveal it as the source: an attempt to raise awareness about paranoia.

This is a huge factor of why the Viacom "V of Doom" closing logo is so infamous (and frightening). Aside from having to deal with the logo's ominous soundtrack and often dodgy quality (the filmed versions are infamous for often having film scratches, visible splices and/or shifted frames, though the concurrently-used videotaped versions didn't have these problems) the large, oddly-fonted "V" itself would slowly or quickly approach the camera and advance on the viewer like an oncoming train only for the screen to cut to black at the last moment. (Some versions avert the effect by having the "V" stop at the end, though.)

Anime & Manga

Comedy

Denis Leary's infamous joke about Jesus's death and comparing it to Elvis's not only had Leary said "I'm Going to Hell for This," but says that everyone who heard the joke will be accompanying him.

Comic Books

Comic Strips

In a Calvin and Hobbes strip, Calvin's Dad does this by his intention to read Calvin a bedtime story about a severed hand that strangles people. Calvin faints around the point Calvin's dad sticks a hand through the neck hole of his own shirt and grabs his own throat, screaming. This proves to be the most effective way of getting Calvin quiet and into bed.

Fan Works

Films  Animation

Beyond the Mind's Eye is an in-universe example, showing a man being attacked by his TV under the control of a character on the screen.

In Disney's animated Robin Hood, Alan-a-Dale the narrator is seen in prison. Like the rest of Nottingham's residents, he's been arrested for being unable to pay his taxes. "Yep, I'm in here too."

In Wreck-It Ralph, when King Candy reveals himself to be Turbo , his appearance flickers between his disguise and his true form . Watch closely as he says " I am Turbo, the greatest racer ever! ": as soon as he finishes saying "Turbo" , the aforementioned flickering provides a Freeze-Frame Bonus, with his thumbs-up pose lifted from his TurboTime sprite rendered in full CGI, Slasher Smile included. He's looking at the audience while doing that.

, his appearance flickers . Watch closely as he says " ": as soon as he finishes saying , the aforementioned flickering provides a Freeze-Frame Bonus, with his thumbs-up pose rendered in full CGI, Slasher Smile included. He's looking at the audience while doing that. At the end of Yellow Submarine, The Beatles appear in live-action photography. John Lennon looks through a spyglass pointed outward toward the audience and announces, "Newer and bluer Meanies have been sighted within the vicinity of this theatre." (Fortunately, there's a way to defeat them: by SINGING!)

Films  Live-Action

Literature

Live-Action TV

Music

Songdrops has a song "Tarantulas", which tells the audience that tarantulas could be anywhere, even on their ceiling or head (but they only do bad stuff if you're afraid) and they might eat your hamster (or your dinner, depending on what version you're listening to).

"Future Shock", from Stratovarius' 1989 independent debut Fright Night note and in re-recorded form as a b-side to their 1996 single "Father Time" , contains such a line at the end of the second verse:

The day that changed our lives and history

There goes our dream

Nuked into the sky don't know why

In the heat of the blast

Watch the beauty of the mushroom cast

It won't take long

You won't live till the end of this song I saw it on the screenThe day that changed our lives and historyThere goes our dreamNuked into the sky don't know whyIn the heat of the blastWatch the beauty of the mushroom castIt won't take long

, contains such a line at the end of the second verse: At the end of Immortal Technique's "Dance With The Devil", the singer reveals that he was one of the gangsters in the story and says this: And listen cause the story that I'm telling is true

Cuz I was there with Billy Jacobs and I raped his mom too

And now the Devil follows me everywhere that I go

In fact, I'm sure he's standing among one of you at my shows

Eminem "Who Knew" has this lyric, accompanied by a tape sound effect: Shit, you probably think I'm in your tape deck now

I'm in the back seat of your truck with duct tape stretched out "The Real Slim Shady": And every single person is a Slim Shady lurking

He could be working at Burger King, spitting on your onion rings

Or in the parking lot, circling

Screaming, "I don't give a fuck!"

With his windows down and his system up

David Bowie came to feel this way about his stage personas, ultimately giving up on Alter-Ego Acting (not to mention cocaine) out of fear that he was getting too deeply Lost in Character. This was especially troubling with the sinister Thin White Duke from his album Station to Station, who became something of an Enemy Within once Bowie began drawing controversy for emulating the character's fascist persona a bit too keenly.

"The Number One Song in Heaven", by Sparks, implies that the listener can only hear the song because they're close to heaven (read: death). This is the number one song in heaven

Why are you hearing it now, you ask

Maybe you're closer to here than you imagined

Maybe you're closer to here than you care to be

Music Videos

Podcasts

Welcome to Night Vale has The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives In Your Home. While since her initial introduction she has been shown living in several in-universe characters' homes, it's still implied she lives in the listener's home, hiding just out of sight somewhere and occasionally messing with your stuff. Maybe she lives in EVERYONE's home. The live shows invoke this, starting with The Librarian. Word of God confirms that this is a tribute to William Castle.

The Message has the titular Message. The creator broadcasts it before anyone finds out that it's a delayed-action Brown Note

Kakos Industries has its own listenership be immediately deemed a Shareholder to the company prior to accessing the announcements. You can never not be a Shareholder, no matter how good you think you are. This is taken to be pretty frightening extremes during the sixth episode in which the executive prompts the idea that he is holding a gun to your head and if you think to turn around, he will shoot you.

Spooky Hal, the narrator who opens and closes the "Beyond Belief" episodes of The Thrilling Adventure Hour is a Will-o'-the-Wisp, a creature who feeds off human energy. To do this, he lulls them off their guard by telling them stories.

Radio

In one of Bill Cosby's comedy routines, the "Chicken Heart" story of the radio program Lights Out ends with the eponymous monster paying the audience a visit. "It's in your home state!" *bump-bump* *bump-bump* "It's outside of your door!" *bump-bump* *bump-bump* "And it's going to eat YOU up!" It scares Little Cos badly enough to both smear Jello all over the floor and set the sofa on fire.

Tabletop Games

Theatre

Theme Parks

Video Games

Visual Novels

Web Animation

Webcomics

Web Original

Web Videos

Western Animation

Real Life