Chowder Now the Animators Have to Draw All This Fire

A typical stage featuring the fourth wall (house).

Breaking down the fourth wall is one of Chowder's most well known qualities (without ruining the immersion of the show). A fourth wall is the conceptual barrier between the show and the audience. When the fourth wall is broken, it means the characters within the media are allowing the audience to become one with it, most commonly being referred to directly as the audience or, less often, characters subtly referencing the fact that they're inside a form of media.

Though Chowder isn't the only character who breaks the fourth wall, he seems to do it most often, with the most infamous fourth wall break involving Chowder changing the show entirely and, in the end, shutting it down completely.

1 List of fourth wall breaks
- 1.1 Season 1
  - 1.1.1 "The Froggy Apple Crumple Thumpkin"
  - 1.1.2 "Chowder's Girlfriend"
  - 1.1.3 "Grubble Gum"
  - 1.1.4 "Sing Beans"
  - 1.1.5 "Mahjongg Night"
  - 1.1.6 "The Flibber-Flabber Diet"
  - 1.1.7 "Gazpacho Stands Up"
  - 1.1.8 "The Sleep Eater"
  - 1.1.9 "The Bruised Bluenana"
  - 1.1.10 "Brain Grub"
  - 1.1.11 "Shnitzel Quits"
  - 1.1.12 "The Broken Part"
  - 1.1.13 "The Apprentice Games"
- 1.2 Season 2
  - 1.2.1 "The Fire Breather"
  - 1.2.2 "The Hot Date"
  - 1.2.3 "Shopping Spree"
  - 1.2.4 "Won Ton Bombs"
  - 1.2.5 "The Big Hat Biddies"
  - 1.2.6 "The Deadly Maze"
  - 1.2.7 "Kid Shnitzel"
  - 1.2.8 "Gazpacho Fights Back"
  - 1.2.9 "The BLT's"
  - 1.2.10 "The Trouble with Truffles"
  - 1.2.11 "The Dinner Theater"
  - 1.2.12 "Big Ball"
  - 1.2.13 "Endive's Dirty Secret"
  - 1.2.14 "Paint the Town"
  - 1.2.15 "The Blackout"
  - 1.2.16 "The Chain Recipe"
  - 1.2.17 "The Garden"
  - 1.2.18 "Apprentice Appreciation Day"
  - 1.2.19 "The Grape Worm"
  - 1.2.20 "A Faire to Remember"
- 1.3 Season 3
  - 1.3.1 "Hands on a Big Mixer"
  - 1.3.2 "The Spookiest House in Marzipan"
  - 1.3.3 "The Poultry Geist"
  - 1.3.4 "The Belgian Waffle Slobber-Barker
  - 1.3.5 "A Little Bit of Pizzazz!"
  - 1.3.6 "The Heist"
  - 1.3.7 "Old Man Thyme"
  - 1.3.8 "Weekend at Shnitzel's"
  - 1.3.9 "Taste Buds"
  - 1.3.10 "The Toots"
  - 1.3.11 "Chowder Grows Up"
- 1.4 Other media
  - 1.4.1 FusionFall

List of fourth wall breaks

Season 1

"The Froggy Apple Crumple Thumpkin"

After Chowder regurgitates all of the food he was sent to pick up and makes a mess, Mung asks Schnitzel to clean it. Schnitzel proceeds to remove the entire scene from its frame and shakes the mess out of it, leaving it spotless, before re-attaching the scene.
At the end of the episode, Chowder eats the screen, zooming out to him in a patterned blue background, and then walks off-screen.

"Chowder's Girlfriend"

When Chowder orders a wedding cake, Mung mentions how long it'll take to make. Chowder skips to when the cake is already done.

"Grubble Gum"

After Mung asks for suggestions on what to do, Kiwi suggests that they "End the show now."
Some of the gum gets stuck on the scene and rips it off.
In Chowder's dream, it is stated that one of possible side affects of swallowing grubble gum is "mobius loops." "Grubble Gum" is an example of a Mobius Loop, an ever-looping episode. This is a very subtle fourth wall break.

"Sing Beans"

Mung tells Shnitzel to proceed to the next scene due to Chowder's horrible singing.

"Mahjongg Night"

When Chowder attempts to scale down the catering company to apologize to Truffles, he is suddenly attacked by a cloud monster summoned by the King of the Sky. When Chowder reaches the window of the kitchen, a strong gust of wind from the monster blows the colors clean off of Truffles, leaving only the outlines.

"The Flibber-Flabber Diet"

When devising a plan, Mung is given a close-up of his face to the screen, to which Mung says "Get that camera out of my face!"
When Chowder is stuffing his face as usual on Flibber-Flabber (straight from the Flibber Flabber Plant), Mung turns to the audience and says "This kid is a bottomless pit!"
While constructing a large version of the catering company, Mung accidentally cuts off the bottom right corner of the screen before Shnitzel repairs it.

"Gazpacho Stands Up"

Chowder tries to practice his handwriting. When Chowder is near Gazpacho's stand, he starts writing on the lower left corner of the TV screen. Gazpacho tells him "Hey! Don't write there!" and soon sprays the screen and wipes it off after having the camera come close enough for him to do so. Chowder then points to the former Cartoon Network logo (now replaced and off-traced by the 2010 logo.) and asks "What about that one?" Gazpacho responds "Eh, that one doesn't come off. I've tried." Ironically, the Cartoon Network logo isn't shown in the next scene.

"The Sleep Eater"

When Truffles enters the scene and offers to help, Chowder tells her that she isn't in the episode. She disappears and is never seen for the rest of the episode.

"The Bruised Bluenana"

When Chowder explains to Gazpacho what had happened previously, he starts from the beginning of the episode. Gazpacho says "Somebody fast forward, there's no time!" Chowder quotes a conversation that occurred shortly after, before Gazpacho interrupts him and tells him to skip ahead. Brief scenes from later parts of the episode, including the credits sequence involving Shnitzel and Chowder and the Cartoon Network Studios logo, can be seen. Gazpacho then tells him Chowder went too far and has him rewind to the present.

"Brain Grub"

The majority of "Brain Grub" focuses on breaking down the fourth wall and is perhaps the most famous instance. In this episode, Chowder's overdose of the titular Brain Grub makes him become so smart that he notices the existence of the fourth wall and proclaims that everyone are 'weirdos who make strange food'. He then changes the show with his "brain power," and turns it into a dull, educational cooking show. After realizing why this was a bad thing, Chowder smashes his brain, causing everyone to appear in a white limbo with nothing but a giant on-off switch. Out of curiosity, Chowder flips the switch, causing the episode to end.
At one point in the episode, when Mung says an order is going to take a while, Truffles responds with "We've only got 11 minutes." This is a reference to the run-time of each episode in the show.

"Shnitzel Quits"

When Shnitzel is first hired by Endive, Panini starts hounding Shnitzel with questions about Chowder, one of them being, "What's Chowder's favorite cartoon? I bet it's Chowder!"
When plummeting to his doom, just before hitting the ground, Shnitzel is grabbed by a mysterious hand from the sky. The chains he is tied up with are erased and his body is redrawn, and it was revealed to be C. H. Greenblatt who did this. He convinces Shnitzel to return to the catering company.
When convincing Shnitzel to change his mind about quitting, he drops a giant stick of blutter onto Chowder and Mung through a television screen.

"The Broken Part"

When looking for Chowder, Mung Daal knocks on the TV screen to see if he was out there.
Following an exercise montage sequence, Grits refers to the "sweet montage" they just had.

"The Apprentice Games"

Endive breaks the fourth wall in "The Apprentice Games" when she tells Mung to give it a rest and says "We heard you in the first part!"

Season 2

"The Fire Breather"

After Chowder sets the kitchen on fire, Mung yells at him, saying, "Look what you've done! Now the animators are gonna have to draw all this fire!"
After Mung explained to Chowder why he married Truffles, he said to "never mention it again" and winks to the camera.
When Chowder struggles to speak Spanish in one scene, he can be seen reading the captions below him nervously.
Mung said, "You're interrupting my monologue."
Chowder burns part of the background away.
While packing, Chowder rips off part of the background and stuffs it in his suitcase.
When Mung reads Chowder's goodbye letter, he says, "It's a good thing I heard the voice over!" since Chowder's handwriting is completely illegible.

"The Hot Date"

Chowder mentions during his interrogation "and there was the episode where my brain got huge and I changed the show!" This is referencing a previous episode, "Brain Grub."

"Shopping Spree"

After running out of money, Mung Daal points out that they ran out of animation budget. The voice actors of the four main characters, Dwight Schultz, Nicky Jones, Tara Strong, and John DiMaggio, all start a car wash to raise enough money to bring the animation budget back.

"Won Ton Bombs"

After Chowder ruins the time string, the screen splits, revealing the series' creator, C. H. Greenblatt wearing a blue wig drawing a picture of Chowder in the studio. He turns and sees the camera and jumps.
When beginning his story on how Mung Daal failed to make the Won Ton Bomb, Lo Mein mentions that it is "featured in entertaining thought bubble form"

"The Big Hat Biddies"

In order to stress the importantness of keeping Truffles satisfied, Mung reminds the audience that, "If mama ain't happy, ain't no one happy," before pointing to the viewers and saying, "Not even YOU!"

"The Deadly Maze"

In "The Deadly Maze," Chowder's conscience tells him to go back and save Gumbo from Jeffrey and his Baby Minotaur. Chowder says "But he'll hurt Mung if I let him go!," to which his conscience replies that the episode is not long enough.

"Kid Shnitzel"

Shnitzel curses in his "radda" language, to which Chowder replies, "This is a kids' show!"
When the word "friendship" is displayed, Mung walked in and asked, "WHERE ARE ALL THESE LETTERS COMING FROM?!"

"Gazpacho Fights Back"

When Rosemary lays her eggs, Chowder says, "I thought this was a kid's show!"

"The BLT's"

Mung tries to make everyone leave the BLT's testing class by saying, "Quick everyone, the show is about to be canceled!"

"The Trouble with Truffles"

After becoming relaxed enough, Shnitzel gains the ability to speak English, at one point being able to say, "Now the audience can finally understand me!"
Mung says to Shnitzel, "Yes, we know it's tough being a rock monster but this episode isn't about you, is it?"
When Truffles was crying, part of the background breaks revealing a white void.
In one scene, Shnitzel walks out of the scene and cleaned the previous scene up with a sponge, before walking back in to continue to the next.

"The Dinner Theater"

After the initial 11 minutes of the episode ends, Chowder says he'll "Get to the case". When the curtains come down, he says, "To be continued after these messages."

"Big Ball"

Mung breaks the fourth wall when he says to Chowder, "Get away from the screen. Your giant head is blocking the view."
When Truffles shouts "BREAK!!!!", the players shatter literally. Truffles sarcastically replies, "Yes, that's very funny. I hate this show."
Mung Daal doesn't want Chowder to play in the game, so he had him go and warm a bench. This was followed by Mung looking to the camera and saying, "Don't judge me."
After Chowder went to let Mung know that he had successfully warmed the bench, the scene cut to a bench that was now on fire. After switching back to Mung and Chowder, Chowder was suddenly noticeably naked. Mung Daal asked Chowder what happened to his clothes, to which Chowder responded, "I got hungry during the cutaway."

"Endive's Dirty Secret"

In "Endive's Dirty Secret," there was a short scene of C. H. Greenblatt admitting that he is the creator of Chowder.

"Paint the Town"

Chowder discovers "Chowderland" by breaking through the background into a white void.
Mung breaks through Chowder's thought bubble after Chowder remembers Mung's words wrong.

"The Blackout"

Gorgonzola breaks the fourth wall when tells Chowder, "Leave me out of here, silly cartoon!" after he uses Gorgonzola to light the way.
Later, when the elevator reaches the basement of the Tower O' Power, there are two skeletons resembling Chowder and Gorgonzola sitting inside. The two then come out from hiding and step out of the cartoon. Chowder asks if they should take the skeletons with them, to which Gorgonzola says, "Nah, they were just for a gag."

"The Chain Recipe"

After Mung gets a deep papercut, Chowder declares that the bad luck has begun as the background warps, revealing a white background.
Chowder tells Mung that losing his nose is bad luck, to which Mung responds, "Happens every episode."
When Truffles loses her hair and dress, she points at the audience and says, "Don't you look at me!"
After Chowder says, "If Mung won't cook the chain recipe, then Mung will cook the chain recipe!" Colonel Chicken walked up to him and stated that he didn't understand what Chowder meant. Chowder responded by telling him that he's not supposed to understand until after the wipe (transition).

"The Garden"

At the beginning of the episode, Mung said "So anyway, this is gonna be the best episode ever cause I'm gonna teach you about where food comes from." Later on, he said "No! That's enough crying for one episode."

"Apprentice Appreciation Day"

When Mung was trying to convince Chowder that he's special, he states that "Not everyone has a weird show named after themselves," to which Chowder responded, "That's true, this show is weird."

"The Grape Worm"

Right before Chowder rode down the foothills, Jam asked, "Why is the music sounding like it's gonna get all energetic?"
Soon later on, after giving a "motivational" speech, Jam exclaimed how the background was dark and how there was "a see-through me!"

"A Faire to Remember"

Near the end of the episode, Chowder said it was all a convenient misunderstanding that Panini thought him and Marmalade were in love, following by Marmalade saying "Yeah, it happens every 11 minutes."
At the end of the episode, when Chowder was kidnapped by Panini, he called to Mung and Truffles for help, shouting, "Help, Mung! Truffles! I know you weren't in this episode but please come and help me!" They then showed up and Mung stated, "What's he talking about? We're right here." Truffles asked "Well, should we do something to help Chowder?," to which Mung replied "No. This is all the screen time we get."

Season 3

"Hands on a Big Mixer"

At the end of the episode, when it is revealed that Chestnut won the mixing bowl, Chowder said, "Man, I hate it when shows have a twist at the end!"

"The Spookiest House in Marzipan"

When Chowder hesitates to deliver the sandwiches to the house across the street, Mung Daal scrolls the scene, forcing Chowder to slide closer and closer.
When Gazpacho asked Gorgonzola if he was dead, Gorgonzola sarcastically replies "yes." Gazpacho laments how "he never knew his character on the show."

"The Poultry Geist"

When the gang was sailing through the Gravy Yard, a C. H. Greenblatt puppet can be briefly seen in the foreground.
At the end of the episode, Mung Daal said, "Let's never speak of this episode again." then, Chowder turns to the audience and says "The End."

"The Belgian Waffle Slobber-Barker

At the beginning of the episode, after hounding Mung with question, Chowder asked why he asked so many questions, to which Mung answered, "It's the fastest way for us to inform our loyal fan-base on what wacky recipe we're cooking." Chowder then turned to the audience and said, "Hi, loyal fanbase!"
When the gang climbed a mysterious ladder, after a cut-away, they came back down the ladder, and Mung said, "Boy, that has to be the craziest episode we ever had!"
- He does this again later on in the episode. After cooking another Cryberry Pie over the duration of the episode, he set it out to let it cool. After another cutaway, Mung comments once more, "Boy, that has to be the craziest episode we ever had!"

"A Little Bit of Pizzazz!"

Though very subtle, and hard to notice, this fourth wall break happened when Mung, in Chowder's body, was reading a recipe book. The text in the book is the script for the episode.

"The Heist"

When Endive stated that the gang had to pay back all the money for the sugar sapphires, Mung responded stating "There won't be any money left in the budget for the third season!" Chowder then responded, "I still have so many stories to tell."

"Old Man Thyme"

During the baby invasion, there was a quick scene of the C. H. Greenblatt puppet being attacked by babies.

"Weekend at Shnitzel's"

While waiting for something to happen at Shnitzel's place, Chowder commented that the episode was boring.

"Taste Buds"

Mung Daal asked the younger audience in a Dora the Explorer-esque fashion who liked food the most. The camera went from Truffles, to Shnitzel, to Chestnut, and finally to Chowder, with the audience saying "yes" or "no" to each one.
When Mung stated that they had a picky clientele, the scene cut to a pick, unsatisfied with its meal. Chowder said that he got the joke, saying, "Good one, Bill Reiss!," referencing the show's creative director.

"The Toots"

When Mung told Chowder that Tootin' Fruit makes bread rise just like yeast, Chowder asked why they couldn't just use yeast. Mung answered, "Because this is Chowder!"

"Chowder Grows Up"

When detesting Mung telling him he had to grow up, Chowder told him that, "This whole cartoon series is based on me being the apprentice!"
During the musical number, Gorgonzola told Chowder to stop, and that he was "getting your stinky song all over me!" followed by, "How did I get in this music number, anyway?"
After the 20 years had gone by and Mung was showing Chowder how his inability to grow up affected his friends, he flew him into the sky for quick travel. Chowder told Mung that he didn't know they could fly, to which Mung said that "anything's possible in one of these 30-minute specials."

Other media

FusionFall

Chowder doesn't just break the fourth wall in the show, but he does it in other media as well. In FusionFall, he'll sometimes say to the player, "Help! I think I'm trapped in a video game!"

Chowder Now the Animators Have to Draw All This Fire

Source: https://chowder.fandom.com/wiki/Breaking_Down_the_Fourth_Wall