this post was submitted on 11 Sep 2024
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Examples: Itchy & Scratchy from The Simpsons, The Scary Door from Futurama, or The Grand Inquisitor from Dostoevsky.

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[–] [email protected] 97 points 3 months ago (2 children)
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[–] [email protected] 74 points 3 months ago (3 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 3 months ago (3 children)

The Never Ending Story too.

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[–] [email protected] 69 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

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!" 🔫🔫🔫🔫🔫

[–] [email protected] 41 points 3 months ago

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.

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[–] [email protected] 56 points 3 months ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 51 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Ow! My balls! from Idiocracy

There's been some stuff coming out lately that makes me think this show isn't far off.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago

I keep waiting to see Ass. Anything that wins that many Oscars has got to be worth it.

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[–] [email protected] 44 points 3 months ago (4 children)

Community has Inspector Spacetime and the Kickpuncher movie series.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 3 months ago

Troy and Abed in the Morning!

Nights

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[–] [email protected] 44 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (4 children)

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).

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[–] [email protected] 40 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (3 children)

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)
[–] [email protected] 30 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Can't forget The Rural Juror

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Apparently I will forget you, Rural Juror. 😆 But I'm still glad I met you.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (4 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 months ago (1 children)

My god. That… that’s enough reality tv, thank you

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago

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.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 36 points 3 months ago

"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"

by Douglas Adams is a book about a book called "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"

[–] [email protected] 34 points 3 months ago (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago

Makes you wonder what the Stargate show was hiding :P

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

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.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago

"what do you mean it's not a real show? Does my agent know? I still get paid with real money though right?"

[–] [email protected] 28 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Tool Time in Home Improvement

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 3 months ago (2 children)

"Sick, Sad World" from Daria

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 3 months ago (2 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (5 children)

Control: Threshold Kids

and Bitch Hunter from 30 Rock

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Check out https://nestflix.fun/ for a Netflix-like way to browse popular fictional media like this

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

The "I'd buy that for a dollar!" guy from Robocop.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Tropic Thunder movie previews

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (6 children)

Ballfondlers from Rick and Morty

Impotent Rage from GTA V

The Silver Shroud from Fallout 4

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 months ago (2 children)

"The Wall" in Solar Opposites. It's arguably better than the main story.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 months ago (2 children)

“Scary door” from Futurama

It’s a play on the twilight zone and it’s quite something.

“A casino where I’m always winning? This must be heaven!” “A casino where I always win… I must actually be… IN HELL!”

“No Mr. smith. You’re not in heaven or hell. You’re on an airplane!”

“Help! There’s a gremlin destroying the plane! You’ve gotta believe me!”

“Why should I believe you?! You’re Hitler!”

For those interested: The Scary Door

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 months ago

All the ads in Robocop and Starship Troopers really

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 months ago (1 children)

The Adventures of Captain Proton from Star Trek: Voyager!

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 months ago (1 children)

"Ya Heard? With Perd!" in parks and recreation.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 months ago (3 children)

The book House of Leaves is presented as a documentary within a book within a book. Really fun read, too

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 months ago

If games count then all the radio stations in GTA

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 months ago

Mysterious Mysteries of Strange Mystery from Invader Zim

Mysterious Mysteries of Strange Mystery logo from the episode Gaz, Taster of Pork

Come to Zim!

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 months ago (2 children)

“Invitation to Love”, the soap opera within the show “Twin Peaks”.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 months ago

McBain in The Simpsons is a classic.

This video stitches the movie together somewhat.

https://youtu.be/BzjfrdcN1Z8?si=G84IdUwMkfPKDm3w

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago (2 children)
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[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Three Dog, the radio DJ for "Galaxy News Radio" within Fallout 3, was one of the best parts of the game.

The Fallout series has lots of other media within media too, like the Grognak the Barbarian comic series or Cat's Paw magazine.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago
[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

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.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Homer’s Odyssey.

Most modern adaptations present the stories Odysseus tells while visiting the Phaeacians as if they were the actual plot—but Homer’s audience would have known Odysseus as a notorious liar and trickster and wouldn’t necessarily have regarded his stories as true even within the context of the frame narrative. Homer’s epic focuses as much on the parallel stories of Telemachus and Penelope—I read the underlying story as their struggle to untangle Odysseus from his own web of deceptions and fantasies and bring him back to reality.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago (2 children)

the Wall in Solar Opposites.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (4 children)

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.)

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