Examples: Itchy & Scratchy from The Simpsons, The Scary Door from Futurama, or The Grand Inquisitor from Dostoevsky.
If games count then all the radio stations in GTA
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.
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”.
Springtime for Hitler, The Producers https://youtu.be/1zY1orxW8Aw
Interesting! I didn’t know there was a movie. The version I saw on stage was even more over-the-top (very stereotypical gay coded)
1967, dir Mel Brooks - I mean, who else? What a guy. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Producers_(1967_film)
Following up on that, I’d been trying to remember the song in Blazing Saddles, when they literally break the fourth wall and there’s an anachronistic musical number being filmed - it’s called “The French Mistake”. https://youtu.be/FezOkjeNs5Y
I’m a big fan of fake brands/products in anime. I don’t know why, but they bring me joy.
Teen Girl Squad!
“ARRRRROWED!!!”
“Ow, my skin!”
dag, yo
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:
“Ya Heard? With Perd!” in parks and recreation.
More like Turd Crapley!
“Ow, My Balls” is a claaaassic.
Crash Nebula and The Crimson Chin from Fairly Oddparents are both great
Interdimensional TV on Rick and Morty
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. 🦜☠️
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.
Three dog is a treasure
Fillory and Further by Christopher Plover
within
The Magicians by Lev Grossman
“The Deb of Night” radio show from Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines is consistently hilarious and a great way to relax between the more horrific parts of the game. Bonus points for one of the regular callers guessing the plot of the game by complete chance and one of the main villains calling in to threaten whoever might be listening.
