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.
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.
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.
Ow! My balls! from Idiocracy
There’s been some stuff coming out lately that makes me think this show isn’t far off.
It was a clear send-up of “America’s Funniest Home Videos” at the time.
I keep waiting to see Ass. Anything that wins that many Oscars has got to be worth it.
I’m a big fan of fake brands/products in anime. I don’t know why, but they bring me joy.
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)
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.
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.
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.
Can’t forget The Rural Juror
Apparently I will forget you, Rural Juror. 😆 But I’m still glad I met you.
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!”
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.
When does the Rural Jourer come out?
shüm
Mysterious Mysteries of Strange Mystery from Invader Zim
Come to Zim!
Wheel! Of! Fish!
Camp Pining Hearts from Steven Universe. Does Fiona and Cake from Adventure Time count?
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.
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.
That Baywatch show on friends looks good.
“Always running”
Do the Justice Friends from Dexter’s Lab count?
