Fourth Wall

The Fourth Wall is a literary term that refers to the invisible wall between the audience and the show, that separates fiction from reality. In works of fiction, characters are not allowed to "break the fourth wall", which means they're not allowed to mention that they're fictional and instead act as though their fictional story is in real life. However, many works of fiction have purposely broken the fourth wall as is their means of telling their stories. Big Mouth has broken the wall numerous times for comedic purposes.

Occasions

Season 1

• Ejaculation
  • Jessi tells Nick that he has a big mouth, title dropping the name of the show.
• Everybody Bleeds
  • The Ladybug appeared multiple times, throughout the episode to talk directly to the audience.
• Am I Gay?
  • Coach Steve rips through the "next episode" screen at the end of the episode, trying to find a bathroom in the Netflix channel. He asks the audience what they'll be doing after the show is over.
• Sleepover: A Harrowing Ordeal of Emotional Brutality
  • Maury makes a callback to the previous episode, by saying "You're picturing it and we're talking about it." and then asks the audience if they're binge-watching the show. He tells the audience that in the next episode, Jessi will be discovering her vagina.
  • Nick and Andrew fight Val and Kurt by squirting ointment in their eyes. Kurt screams "Aaaah! It stings!" and Andrew adds "But it's worth it." An achievement pop up appears on screen, reading "You've unlocked a reference to episode one".
• Girls Are Horny Too
  • Coach Steve appears in a confessional sequence, in a similar fashion to The Office. Steve talks to how the confessional trope is usually just a storytelling crutch but in this case, it's a meaningless departure from the plot. However, he has faith the story will get back on track again.
  • Duke Ellington talks directly to the audience, pointing out the absurdity in Elliot and Diane promoting their son and daughter talking about sex.
• Pillow Talk
  • Diane bans Nick from watching Netflix for an entire week. Nick cries over this as he looks to the camera, asking what he will do without Netflix.
• Requiem for a Wet Dream
  • Maurice jokes that the writers insisted on there being a scene where he skull-fucks Garrison Keillor.
• The Head Push
  • Nick gets drunks and says that he has a big mouth. He then realizes that "Big Mouth" is the name of the show he's in and starts drunkenly rambling to the audience.
• I Survived Jessi's Bat Mitzvah
  • Maury breaks the fourth wall to make a commercial for Monster Energy drinks, in hopes that he'll become the spokesperson for the brand.
  • Maury's Jewish Penis eats a scallop and looks at the audience asking, "What, you've never seen a hormone monster's Jewish penis eat a scallop before? Get a life!"
• The Pornscape
  • Nick and Andrew say that someday, they should create a TV show, based on their teenage years. This is a reference to how Big Mouth is a TV show, created by Nick Kroll and Andrew Goldberg, which is based on their teenage years. Maurice worries that due to the sexual content, their show might be labeled as "child pornography" (in reference to the controversy the show gets in real life) but then wonders if they'll be able to get away with it if it's animated, before turning to the camera and nervously asking "Right?"

Season 2

• What Is It About Boobs?
  • Nick does a spot-on impersonation of Coach Steve, which is a subtle nod to the fact that they're both voiced by the same voice actor, Nick Kroll.
• The Shame Wizard
  • Jessi points out to Connie that she only has four fingers instead of five and justifies that although it's not anatomically accurate, it's a very common stylistic choice in animation.
  • Nick and Gina talk about Netflix in a very stilted, commercial-like manner as though they were trying to market the streaming service to the audience. Nick says that if Gina can't afford to but Netflix, he can give her his own account for free. Before he can finish, the scene cuts as though Netflix was trying to censor them for giving away ways for viewers to freeload their shows and lose them money.
  • At the end of the episode, the Bad Mitten breaks the fourth wall to spoil the next episode for the audience, revealing that Coach Steve is going to lose his virginity.
• Steve the Virgin
  • Coach Steve breaks the fourth wall to say that this week, it's going to be him, who's going through changes as opposed to the main cast. Coach Steve then appears during the opening credits to sing along with the theme song. In the end, he asks the viewer if they skipped through the opening credits.
• The Planned Parenthood Show
  • Nick worries about the controversy their show will get for doing an episode on the topic of abortion. He later looks through the FaceBook comments on his phone and is horrified to see what some angry people are saying about them.
  • The episode ends with an SNL style cast-reunion party, where everybody thanks the audience for watching their show and hopes they'll win an Emmy. (In real life, this episode was nominated for an Emmy but lost to The Simpsons).
• Drug Buddies
  • In a flashback to 1998, Greg and Shannon smoked weed and started hacking and gagging. Greg apologized, saying that marijuana is of very poor quality "back in this day in age". The way he worded this makes it clear that he knew he was in a flashback.
  • Shannon and Greg get back from watching The Truman Show in theaters and Shannon wonders how weird it would be if her whole life took place in a TV show.
  • Nick goes on a drug trip and sees his future self, who tells him that when he becomes an adult, he'll base a cartoon off of his life that will air on Nitflax.
• Guy Town
  • The ladybug appears again and starts breaking the fourth wall again.
  • Andrew tells the audience that if they missed the fleshlight on the table during the poker scene in the musical number, they should rewind to see it.
• Dark Side of the Boob
  • Tyler goes crazy and tells the viewer of the show that he wants to touch their boobs.
  • At the end of the episode, Shame Wizard tells the audience to watch the next episode.
• The Department of Puberty
  • Connie tells Rick that she can never understand what he’s saying and Rick tells her that if she doesn’t understand, she can just refer to the subtitles.

Season 3

• My Furry Valentine
  • Maury and Andrew do a do a confessional sequence where they tell the viewers how they first met.
  • The Ladybug tells the audience that if they’re uncomfortable with the episode’s subject matter, they had better buckle up because this is a double-length episode.
  • Jessi and Connie do a confessional sequence, telling the audience how they first met.
  • Matthew admits to booking a voice double for Jessi, when they sing "Who Needs a Boy?".
  • Duke Ellington breaks the fourth wall to advertise Oedipal Arrangements.
  • Matthew and Maury do a confessional sequence, telling the audience how they first met.
  • Andrew scores a basketball goal and in amazement, tells the audience to rewind and see him score again, after finishing the special, of course.
• Girls Are Angry Too
  • Maury helps the audience remember what Andrew did in the previous episode by showing them a flashback.
  • Connie bets that Jay was going to fuck a turkey at the end of the episode.
  • The Ladybug tells the audience that this season, they're in for a real treat and also points out how one of the episodes is called "How To Have An Orgasm".
  • Jay brags fucking a turkey and Connie comes out of the locker, saying that she called it.
• Cellsea
  • Coach Steve works as a caterer for parties and says that the writers are giving him a new job in every episode.
• Obsessed
  • Andrew refers to water as "blue liquid", which may be a joke on how water is always blue-colored in cartoons, despite it being clear in real life.
  • Maury and Matthew sing a parody of "He's a Jolly Good Fellow" and Maury says that the song is public domain.
• Florida
  • Marty complains about the show during the theme song, calling it disgusting and stupid and comparing it to the far superior show, Two and a Half Men. He gets so sick of listening to the theme song that he shouts at the audience to skip the theme song already.
• How To Have An Orgasm
  • Maury promotes suicide and Andrew reminds him that because of Netflix's standards and practices, he should probably dissuade suicide so that none of the audience members kill themselves. Maury tells people that killing themselves is wrong, even though it makes for some captivating television, which was a reference to the other Netflix series, 13 Reasons Why.
  • In Jessi's imagination, Coach Steve (in the form of a monkey) enters and then thinks that he's probably not supposed to be in this part. This is a joke on how Coach Steve is always being shoehorned into every episode of the show even for just a short cameo, no matter how little the plot calls for him.
• Duke
  • Nick says that he doesn't watch anything on HBO and then talks to someone off-camera and asks if that's what they wanted him to say, implying that the producers at Netflix told Nick, as one of their stars, to slander HBO, as it was one of their competitors in the market of streaming services.
  • Big Bowser Blakely mentions that people used to call refrigerators "ice boxes" "back in the day, which is now." as though he knew he was in a flashback to the past.
• Rankings
  • A child stripper shows the boys how old she is on her fingers. She holds up all of her fingers, which translates to her being eight years old. This is a reference to the common stylistic choice of cartoon characters only having four fingers on each hand.
• The ASSes
  • The kids are surprised to see Jay behaving properly in class and begin to wonder if they're just having a fever dream. Caleb assures them that they're not having a dream because if they were, the animation style would be different.
  • Jay refers to Amazon Prime as the number one streaming service.
• Disclosure the Movie: The Musical!
  • Mr. Lizer says the cast list for the play will be revealed after "You" skip the opening credits.

Trivia

• There have been more fourth-wall-breaking episodes than there have been normal episodes.
  • The only episodes not to break the fourth wall are "Am I Normal?", "Smooch or Share", and "Super Mouth".
  • The episodes "Ejaculation", "What Is It About Boobs?", "Obsessed", and "Rankings" lean on the fourth wall, making ambiguous meta-references.