Examples: Itchy & Scratchy from The Simpsons, The Scary Door from Futurama, or The Grand Inquisitor from Dostoevsky.
30 Rock has quite a few good ones:
- M.I.L.F Island
- Bitch Hunter
- TGS
- The satirized version of NBC in the show (lots of ‘biting the hand’ humor)
Celebrity Homonym
OMG I would love for that to be a real show. It would have to be hosted by the actor who did it in the show; he was perfect.
“It’s always the other one. Let me see the card.”
“No! Never!”
Can’t forget The Rural Juror
Apparently I will forget you, Rural Juror. 😆 But I’m still glad I met you.
Weirdly (or not, perhaps) MILF Island was turned into a real show (sort of) not once but twice. On The Cougar a 40-year-old woman was seeking a partner among male contestants who were all in their 20s. On the rather more disturbing MILF Manor a group of women between the ages of 40-60 stay in a villa seeking to pair up with a pool of younger bachelors, which turns out to be made entirely of the women’s sons. Wikipedia says in season 2 the ex-husbands were also added to the dating pool so the sons had to compete against their dads for the divorced moms.
My god. That… that’s enough reality tv, thank you
John Oliver sometimes runs random out of context clips of MILF Manor and I’m not sure actually watching them in context would make them any less ridiculous.
Loved MILF Manor. As weird as it sounds, MILF Manor season 2 was actually pretty touching at times. Season 1 was cringe overload. Both were great
I only saw a promo for it once and was pretty grossed-out, but had to at least look up the Wikipedia. I don’t think I was the target audience, other than it reminding me of 30 Rock.
It’s absolutely ridiculous garbage. But if you are like me and into that shit, it’s great.
The lore books in The Elder Scrolls series, hands-down.
There is an entire universe of conflicting knowledge, personal bias, and unreliable narrators that leave Tamriel’s history feeling very real, and very open to interpretation. The fun of it is piecing together the truth somewhere in the middle. But I’ll die on the hill that the Arcturian Heresy is absolute horseshit written by a madman, and comparable to the scribbles of a paranoid schizophrenic on an anti-vax forum. Anyone who references that volume in regards to Tiber Septim and the forming of the empire is an impressionable dweeb.
This is not exactly what you’re asking for (media inside media), but it’s really close in spirit (nested narratives), and I really like it: a book written in Portuguese in the XIX century, called Noite na Taverna (Night in the Tavern).
The book has an overarching story of friends telling each other stories in a tavern, over booze; with all those nested stories being about love, despair, and death (it has a strong gothic vibe).
And, as each character tells the others a story, there’s always that fishy smell that the story might be actually bullshit; and other characters do raise some doubts about its in-universe veracity (like Bertram does to Solfieri). And you, as the reader, do the same - but in no moment you question the veracity of the overarching story, and you feel like you’re inside the tavern alongside the drunkards.
So it’s a lot like the author is toying with your suspension of disbelief - redirecting it from the overarching story to the nested stories, and as you doubt the later you get even more immersed into the former.
If I must use an example of media within media, then my choice would be “The Book” within Orwell’s 1984. I think that it’s a great piece because it shows Orwell’s views on politics and society, while still serving narrative and worldbuilding purpose - for Winston it’s a material proof of the Inner Party’s bullshit, for O’Brien it’s a tool of the Inner Party to sniff out dissidence. (Note: 1984 is extremely misrepresented nowadays, I’m aware, but I still like it.)
Also, the appendix talks about ingsoc policies in the past tense. They lost.
I’ve never noticed this usage of the past tense in the appendix about Newspeak - you’re right, it does. And it’s also written in standard English, so interpreting it as written in a world after Oceania fell is viable.
And following this line of thought we could even interpret the main story as a narrative within another.
Another possibility is that the appendix is not written in-universe, and uses the past tense because it’s how people expect storytelling to be written in English, with Orwell speaking directly to the reader instead of Winston Smith.
It’s definitely not Winston, he died in the main story. I interpreted it as an unnamed historian writing about this years later. I don’t think Orwell would self-insert and write from an in universe perspective.
In the second hypothesis it wouldn’t be self-inserting; it’s more like the author explaining something to the readers, outside the story.
I haven’t finished the book, but I have to give it to the “Navidson record” in “House of leaves”.
House of leaves is a book about a guy who finds a manuscript about a movie that doesn’t exist. So there are multiple layers on the narrative, from near to far you have:
- The editor who’s editing the book
- The writer of the book (Johnny) who tells his story and what he finds in the manuscript
- The person who wrote the manuscript (Zampano) and his views on the movie
- The documentary “The Navidson record” which the manuscript is describing. Filmed by Navidson (who’s, as far as Johnny can tell, a fictional character in a fictional movie that never existed)
The reason why I have to give it to that particular piece of media within media is that everyone else in the book is a pain in the ass that feels that you have to drag yourself to in order to get to the next chapter of the Navidson record. So in a way it’s a fictional media within a fictional media that’s better than the fictional media it belongs to.
And in case you haven’t heard of house of leaves, I’ll leave you with a page from the book:
The book is brilliant, even if it’s difficult to read and follow. The satire of art criticism is just so on point.
…And it’s hard to know if the Navidson record and house never really existed or not (in the context of the book) because of the way Johnny is slowly unraveling. It’s got strong elements of cosmic horror to it, along with razor-sharp satire, and the delineation in writings styles between Johnny’s personal narrative, Zampano, and the various journal articles are written really sells the entire piece.
In “day of the tentacle” Bernard could walk up to the computer and play the game preceding day of the tentacle. That was nice.
Maniac Mansion!!
That was the name! I had a hard time remembering. I loved that genre.
Same. And Day of the Tentacle was incredible
the Wall in Solar Opposites.
Way more interesting than the actual Solar Opposites. 😂
I might actually stick just those parts end to end and put it in a bottle and throw it into the high seas. 🦜☠️
Fillory and Further by Christopher Plover
within
The Magicians by Lev Grossman
I really like Fire and Blood.
Dhalgren?
Tool Time in Home Improvement
Yeaaaaah
This was so impactful that I only recently realized the title of the actual TV show wasn’t “Tool Time”. People talked about a mysterious show called “Home Improvement” and I didn’t even suspect it was the one I watched with my parents all those years ago
The poems of Thomas Zane in the old gods of asgard concert in the book about max Payne in the video game Allen wake in the video game control in the amazing TV series the threshold kids in that song the janitor is singing.
… Pretty sure that’s the continuity.
“Ya Heard? With Perd!” in parks and recreation.
More like Turd Crapley!
Who Dat Ninja
Tales of the Black Freighter from the Watchmen comics is pretty awesome.
All My Circuits on Futurama is one of my favorites on tv. Dramatic beeping intensifies.
As The Stomach Turns. It was a classic parody of soap operas on The Carol Burnett show, and as someone from that era i can vouch that it was a pretty spot on parody, at least from what i saw on tv when staying home sick from school.
