Deadpool and She-Hulk are two Marvel characters who have broken the fourth wall to talk to the audience. These are two drastically different superheroes. One is a foul-mouth, joke-slinging merc with an incredible healing factor. The other is a Hulk, a character with great strength and endurance who is trying her best to adapt to the life of a super-powered person.
Deadpool and She-Hulk have drastically different personalities and backstories, which is why the characters interact with their audiences differently. Although there is much debate whether their fourth-wall breaking is done effectively, they address the audience to accomplish different things.
10 Deadpool & She-Hulk Have Different Target Demographics
She-Hulk: Attorney At Law caters more to a female audience, portraying one of the MCU's few female superheroes with their own movie or series. Rather than fighting a lot of crime, the show focuses on Jennifer Walters facing challenges in her love life and in the workplace. When she speaks to the audience, her dialogue builds on those challenges.
Deadpool's audience consists of people who enjoy crass humor, or as the titular antihero says, confused girlfriends who didn't expect to see the title character of a superhero film kill a lot of bad guys. Much of the movie's humor gives the film a deserved R-rating, and Deadpool isn't afraid to use these jokes when talking to the audience.
9 Deadpool Is Funnier & Cracks More Jokes
Deadpool is a lot funnier than She-Hulk. Admittedly, Deadpool makes far more jokes during the time he is talking to the audience. However, his humor is often fast-paced, so if a joke doesn't land, the movies will have already moved on.
She-Hulk's commentary about how the show is still about her despite having different cameos is meant to be humorous. Still, it is permeated with many pauses between the cameos she's had. Even her little jab at Bruce in the first episode has too long of a pause, which can feel awkward when they aren't filled with audience laughter.
8 Deadpool Is A Stronger Narrator
Deadpool has a strong narrative role in his films. He establishes the plot and either talks over or between events of the film to keep fans updated on how he feels or to set up future scenes in the movie. For example, Deadpool is the one who establishes the first and second films as love stories and family movies.
She-Hulk sets up flashbacks instead. In the group therapy scene, She-Hulk pauses to remind the audience about the man who mugged her. She also uses her fourth-wall break to set up another flashback of how she got her powers. It's too brief for her to be a strong narrator.
7 Jen Wouldn't Want To Talk To The Audience
It is extremely easy to believe that Deadpool would be happy to talk to an audience. He is the type of guy who is social and good with people. He has a soft spot, helping a customer with a stalker problem and refusing to take her money. She-Hulk doesn't seem at all like the type who wants to talk to an audience watching her.
After all, when Jen gets a massive wave of attention after publicly transforming into her Hulk form, she tries to ignore the media as much as she can. It doesn't make sense that she would want to acknowledge the thousands of people who are watching her every move at home.
6 Deadpool Found Comfort In The Audience
Deadpool often cracks jokes, using humor to disguise the fact that he is in pain. He interacts with the audience, even in traumatic moments, to cope with the genuinely sad parts of the film. He has lost the love of his life, and his appearance changed for the worse when he mutated. In a way, communicating with the audience effectively communicated how he was feeling and gave him someone to talk to during his lowest points.
She-Hulk has vented her frustrations with the obstacles she's faced, but she hasn't gone through the kinds of struggles that Deadpool has. Therefore, she hasn't needed or sought comfort from the audience.
5 No One Has Noticed She-Hulk Talking To The Audience
Characters like Negasonic Teenage Warhead and Colossus have heard Deadpool talk to the audience and have asked him who he's talking to. Deadpool isn't afraid of talking to the audience, even when other people are around.
Jen usually talks to the audience when she's alone, like in her office and in the car. She has spoken to the audience in front of other people before, but only Bruce has noticed her make a comment about him not being okay with her decision to remain a lawyer. Unlike the characters in Deadpool, Bruce never commented on it since he may not have known she wasn't just speaking to herself.
4 Nothing Would Be Missing If She-Hulk Didn't Break The Fourth Wall
If Deadpool didn't break the fourth wall, his movie would be missing a lot of its humor. Breaking the fourth wall has become such an integral part of his character that fans would quickly take notice if the next installment didn't include it.
If She-Hulk didn't break the fourth wall, nothing would be missing from the series. She usually uses a fourth-wall break as a means to describe her feelings, but her facial expressions, body language, and tone are already more than enough to convey this.
3 Deadpool Talks To The Audience Frequently
She-Hulk doesn't address the audience that often, and so far, she has only spoken to the audience a handful of times. Since this happens so infrequently, it can sometimes feel jarring when she does turn to the audience after a long period of interacting only with the characters in the show.
Deadpool has addressed the audience far more frequently. Deadpool likes to remind his audience that he realizes that they are there. As a result, his fourth-wall breaks don't take viewers out of the story.
2 Deadpool Makes Fun Of All Superhero Films
She-Hulk makes fun of previous Marvel movies and some of the events that happen during her series. For example, she and Bruce made a joke about how Bruce was once a completely different person during his fight against Abomination. She even pokes fun at the fact that she has so many cameos in her series.
Deadpool takes the opportunity to make fun of anything he can, including things from the DC Universe. Making comments on so many franchises is what made Deadpool stand out so much.
1 Jen Seems Uncomfortable Talking To The Camera
When Deadpool talks to the camera, it's as if he's talking to an old friend. He knows that the audience exists and is there to join him during his adventures. Ryan Reynolds seems to have absolutely no problems with looking directly at the camera and talking to the audience.
When Jen looks at the camera and talks to it in the first episode, it's clear through her still body language and facial expressions that Tatiana Maslany is uncomfortable and unused to doing it. It's clear that she's trying her best to do something that actors are usually encouraged not to do, but her conversations with the camera don't feel natural.