I was watching The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack again and came across a comedic method that I had not defined nor noticed before. I will call it breaking the 4th wall unknowingly. Here’s what set off about 10 minutes of laughter for me.

K’nuckles was in drag and pretending to be the figurehead of a candy cruise ship. He had snuck away from his post to go to the candy buffet and he and Flapjack were fighting over some sweets. They rolled near the captain’s table where the captain was speaking with the benefactor of the ship. She said, “you must be very proud of this ship.” He replied that he was more proud of the figurehead and the camera cut to flapjack and knuckles frozen, listening to the conversation. The captain then said, let’s go see it NOW.

This, in itself was funny, but then, a short silent pause happened as the captain and the countess slowly walked to the door. She stopped and said quickly, “let’s run!”

The fourth wall was broken, but while remaining true to the scene. She supposedly didn’t know that k’nuckles and flapjack were there and would find it difficult to get to the figurehead before she could, but unknowingly made it even more difficult.

This made me howl!