Examples: Itchy & Scratchy from The Simpsons, The Scary Door from Futurama, or The Grand Inquisitor from Dostoevsky.
The lusty argonian maid
from morrowind :3 (and not skyrim >>:c)
The Princess Bride is one of my favorite examples of this, especially because the “story within the story” is the main story, which is unusual.
The Never Ending Story too.
I was so disappointed when that ended
I’m still watching it. What are you talking about?!
Also, there is a second and apparently a third?
Yeah, talk about false advertisement!
When I was a kid I absolutely loved movies with this format. It was like I was learning the story along with the characters on screen, and it just made it feel more real. Like the story was so old and with enough truth to it that they made a movie just about people learning about said story. It let you feel like the caring, kind old narrator was your adoptive grandpa, and he was revealing to you some ancient, fantastical part of our history. One that you could imagine really happened, even if the story had some exaggerations. Those opening sequences where they show a big old, leather bound book opening up to the first chapter (e.g. The Sword in the Stone)? HOOK IT TO MY VEINS
This is a literary device called a “bookend narrative.” If you want more stories like that, there’s your search term.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned the fake old movie that plays in Home Alone. “I’m gonna give you till the count of 10 to get your ugly yeller no good keester off my property before I pump your guts full of lead! One… Two… Ten!” 🔫🔫🔫🔫🔫
Angels with Dirty Souls
Image my disappointment upon becoming old enough to rent R-rated movies and finding out the only one I wanted was fictional.
It was also in the Detective Pikachu movie.
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.
Ow! My balls! from Idiocracy
There’s been some stuff coming out lately that makes me think this show isn’t far off.
I keep waiting to see Ass. Anything that wins that many Oscars has got to be worth it.
It was a clear send-up of “America’s Funniest Home Videos” at the time.
Angels With Filthy Souls
The “adult” movie Kevin watches in Home Alone. Apparently the main dude who was supposed to be in those didn’t show up so they just had some janitor or tech fill in and he went full ham on that shit and made it something to remember.
There’s also the McBane movie in The Simpsons that shows up in multiple episodes and if you connected them all together they actually make a coherent story line (it’s just riffing off Lethal Weapon anyway).
I was trying to remember the name and am so glad you brought Angels w Filthy souls.
IIRC the movie from Home Alone 2 was the sequel: Angels with Even Filthier Souls.
Oh my, I haven’t watched the second one since, oh, November 2016, completely forgot that. Thank you, that’s amazing.
I was thinking of the Home Alone movie as well, they made that fake movie just for the movie.
Community has Inspector Spacetime and the Kickpuncher movie series.
Troy and Abed in the Morning!
Nights
If it’s just general media within media, that Ben folds five ass crack bandit song was fucking killer
I always wondered if that was supposed to be Dave Matthews (real fans call him Dave) but the whole plan fell apart.
The Abed Movie could have been great.
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)
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.
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!”
“The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”
by Douglas Adams is a book about a book called “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”
Wormhole X-Treme! from Stargate SG-1
In-universe, creating that show was a genius move, if anything legit leaked they can just say it’s some fan fiction from the show and not from the real Stargate program.
Makes you wonder what the Stargate show was hiding :P
“what do you mean it’s not a real show? Does my agent know? I still get paid with real money though right?”
Well I grew up on a farm…
That’s the Wizard of Oz.
You got that from “I grew up on a farm”?
If you’re going to rip something off, choose something no-one knows.
Farscape flashback.
Gold.
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
“Sick, Sad World” from Daria
Came here to say.
I just referenced that on Lemmy a couple of days ago
Control: Threshold Kids
and Bitch Hunter from 30 Rock
By the same token, Night Springs from Alan Wake
What about Milf Island?
Threshold Kids is delightfully creepy but ultimately painful to watch, which perfectly fits the setting.
shüm
When does the Rural Jourer come out?
Check out https://nestflix.fun/ for a Netflix-like way to browse popular fictional media like this
You just won the thread.
I’m sad they’re not videos, but what a treasure trove.
Interdimensional Cable from Rick and Morty is outrageous. GTA’s radio stations (VCPR was the best) and TV shows are often really funny. The Pißwasser beer commercial from IV always gets me.
It’s got a much… umm more improvisational… uhh feel. Oh geeze.
I like that someone figured out half assing things can be just as funny or even funnier than putting in the effort to make it look more professional.
Now I’m curious about who first bottled that lightning.
Maybe the makers of Aqua Teen Hunger Force? Half the characters in there seemed like they were making it up as they went and is the earliest one I can think of where that was a common theme.
Home Movies came later but is the earliest where that’s applied to media produced “in-universe” that I can think of.
Home Improvement was earlier than both and Tim was often out of his league on his show, but that was more of a “ill prepared but at least trying to be professional” act than “making it up as we go and not even trying to hide it”.
