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.
The lusty argonian maid
from morrowind :3 (and not skyrim >>:c)
McBain in The Simpsons is a classic.
This video stitches the movie together somewhat.
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.
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
Yeah, talk about false advertisement!
I’m still watching it. What are you talking about?!
Also, there is a second and apparently a third?
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.
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
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”.
I’m a big fan of fake brands/products in anime. I don’t know why, but they bring me joy.
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.
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.
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.
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.
“The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”
by Douglas Adams is a book about a book called “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”
“Ow, My Balls” is a claaaassic.
