The Wise Ry Guy

What’s it like to break the fourth wall in real life?

I’ve been watching the sitcom Community

And Abed is my favorite character

Obviously

I’ve also been compared to him by a friend

Which I actually like

(this seems indicative of the accuracy of the comparison, considering what Abed is like as a character)

By now, breaking the fourth wall is a pop culture cliche

It’s old, overused and sad to watch at this point in most of the things in which it is employed (didn’t stop me from doing it in Mr. Plumber tho)

Excepting whenever the Coen brothers do it of course…

There’s a point in Community-

no I’m not using italics anymore relax

when Jeff asks Abed how he’s so satisfied all the time

why he never wants to amount to something more than a community college student sitting on a couch eating Lucky charms and watching cartoons

Abed says the lucky charms are what he wants

Espoused from a posture of wisdom, lack of conventional ambition shouldn’t be concerning..

Then he points out to Jeff:

“You can do whatever you want; you just have to know what that is.

For me, it’s lucky charms and tv.”

At other points, Abed directly breaks the fourth wall

Often, as he does here, Abed simply voices the moral truth of what the other characters are experiencing

The writer also consistently use Abed as the meta expression of their own commentaries

Abed is always a few steps ahead

Abed operates at a higher stratosphere

And this in addition to his adorable clear-cut rationality and wholly transparent desire to be liked

are the only reasons Abed works as a character in a sitcom

If he was realistic, well, he’s the guy we all silently (or not so silently) judge

He’s the guy we avoid in the hallway

And yet!

I myself strive for what he represents – to be able to break the fourth wall in real life

Ok

So

What does that mean?!

Do you pay enough attention to acknowledge the meta reality?

Let’s break down people for a sec

food, sex

That was easy

Just kidding

obviously, there are untold aspects and dimensions of the human being of which I could have no understanding nor knowledge

And I imagine our drives for food and sex have intricacies that I couldn’t even make up

I’m trying to imagine people without society

geez

thats unoriginal

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

ok

How do I explain meta reality?

One solution to this problem

I’m a complete douchebag who is unaffected by your small concerns and customs

a different solution

your reality is defined by all of the things you don’t question or even consider

these are likely not mutually exclusive.. eek

Did you know… that someone can only become themselves on purpose?

What percentage of your actions are intentional?

And intentionality implies among other things motivated by a somewhat self or meta personality

Perhaps the meaning of your life…

is performance

#BoBurnham #MakeHappy

Not sure that followed directly..

But what am I, not going to mention Bo Burnham?

My goal is to act within the rules and outside of them simultaneously

It seems to me that’s how successful people operate

And the geniuses are the ones that choose to think

about who they are and what they are doing

about common motivations and patterns of behavior

Breaking the fourth wall in real life

man

seems like a me problem for each of us

I would always like to be able to step outside of myself

But how? And what does it entail?

Well

What will follow is by no means a comprehensive explanation

consider the manners and respects with I could

I love the Coen Brothers

I capitalized the b that time

completely arbitrary! love it

They’re great, both of them

And when I found out Joel and Frances were married?

Mm mm

That was a chuckle – how do you explain the good-natured “I shoulda known” light grin and shake of the head in one adjective?

If you know please please tell me I’m dying over here

#dyingtosurvive #meta @hashtagemailsymbol

Coen brothers have a film called Burn After Reading

and I can unequivocally let you know that

at no point in this movie does any character break the fourth wall

Just the opposite!

This film… it is entirely hysterical

It is so funny

And I’ll tell you why it’s my favorite film

Although I did watch Bladerunner 2049 recently and that was a banger

I also just realized I’m more Jeff than I thought.. still thirty-something percent Abed though (25% Annie I know that’s my unfortunate yet perhaps my truest nature)

The favorites thing is a big step for me cause I’ve always been enamored with the idea of favorites on the whole gut it’s been tough for me to have the in the past due to my enormously passive & indecisive/uncommiting and/or scaredy-feline nature

So

Not a single character in the film burn after reading has any sort of perspective

And I was originally gonna go for a nuanced explanation of this but I am getting a bit long-winded

So ill cast aside the cankerwackles & bop straight for the pickle-nanny

the plot of burn after reading is

A Giant Kerfuffle of Tiny Proportions!

And that’s how I feel…

About the entire world!!!

 

.not entirely accurate but ill leave it there cause, just cause