What are your favorite examples of 'media within media' (e.g., shows, stories, or movies inside of other shows or books)?

merari42@lemmy.world to Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world – 179 points –

Examples: Itchy & Scratchy from The Simpsons, The Scary Door from Futurama, or The Grand Inquisitor from Dostoevsky.

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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.

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.

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.

Community has Inspector Spacetime and the Kickpuncher movie series.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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".

Control: Threshold Kids

and Bitch Hunter from 30 Rock

Threshold Kids is delightfully creepy but ultimately painful to watch, which perfectly fits the setting.

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

Ballfondlers from Rick and Morty

Impotent Rage from GTA V

The Silver Shroud from Fallout 4

As far as other media within Rick & Morty, the Second Life-like "Roy" is something that I wish could exist. Immersive gameplay, accelerated time, tangible experiences, and endless possibilities.

And assuming that human beings work on it imagine what skills and abilities you could acquire.

It's kind of like the piccolo thing in Star Trek the next generation with picard. Like imagine playing a video game and then coming home and being a rockstar guitarist on par with Slash, or getting 50 years worth of meditation and monk training in before work on Monday on top of a second lifetime full of martial arts training.

Something like that would be so revolutionary it would dwarf any kind of nonlethal AI apocalypse in comparison.

It's kind of like the piccolo thing in Star Trek the next generation with picard.

I highly doubt the resemblance was coincidental.

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

The main story has really picked up since Dan Stevens took over the voice of Korvo. IMO, it was a huge improvement. Also, the wall story isn’t as compelling as it used to be.

“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

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

I wonder how many times someone has tried to turn House Of Leaves into a movie or a series. It would be pretty wild no matter how they tried it.

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

Thank you!!! I was going to post this but figured I'd make sure nobody else had already. Terrific taste, Twin Peaks is my all-time favorite tv show 😗🤌

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.

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.

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. 🦜☠️

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.

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.

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)

Just saw "The Play That Goes Wrong," and it is a two hour masterpiece of a play within a play.

I see videos of complete productions on youtube. Go watch one.

I just stated watching The Goes Wrong Show on Amazon. Not sure if I would appreciate more than 1 episode a night, but the first one had me laughing so hard I couldn't breathe.

For something similar Noises Off is a hilarious movie about pretty much the same thing.

Noises Off is one of the funniest things I've seen in my life. Loved every second of it.

1 more...

The “Busty Asian Beauties” running gag in supernatural. Was a magazine, website etc. Always gave me a chuckle.

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.

Threshold Kids in the Video game control it was a kids TV series to teach kids in the game about the FBC it was kinda bonkers

The hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy

"Well, that about wraps it up for God" by Oolon Colluphid

I'm a big fan of fake brands/products in anime. I don't know why, but they bring me joy.

Marvelsoft Macindows

"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.

I occasionally on long drives will queue up the full playlist of The Deb of Night and treat it as real radio.

Gotta love The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon from The Murderbot Diaries.

We never actually find out what happens in it, though.

We know a little, there's a whole wiki page about it lol just pieces together from Murderbot's descriptions. - but according to the author, it's like "How To Get Away With Murder" but in space.

Seven on 7 is a series of TV news shorts and commercials from The Boys universe. It's a delightful little parody of Fox News. The whole series is available free on YouTube.

"S." by Doug Dorst is in itself a fake novel, where the "real" story takes place as handwritten notes in the margins to form the complete story, the fake novel itself just a prop. But reading the novel-within-a-novel-that-is-the-novel "Ship of Thesus" by itself is an interesting short surreal read.

Invitation To Love the soap opera that a lot of residents of Twin Peaks, especially Nadine, seemingly adored.

Welcome to Nightvale.

Isn't that a podcast?

Yes, with a fictional Public Radio host, his show is the podcast.

Not really media within media then is it? It's just plain media.

Dunno, I think a fake radio show inside a podcast is media inside a different media. But yes it's the whole thing, and a favorite.

Regardless of the technical definition of media-within-media, it's rad!

Crash Nebula and The Crimson Chin from Fairly Oddparents are both great

Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff from Homestuck. Although it actually predates Homestuck and was retroactively converted into media-within-media, does that still count?

"Address Unknown", a twilight zone/detective noir tv show within the universe of Max Payne.

Also "The Scary Door", a twilight zone type show within the universe of Futurama.

You're taking a vacation from normalcy. The setting, a weird motel where the bed is stained with mystery, and there's also some mystery floating in the pool. Your key card may not open the exercise room because someone smeared mystery on the lock, but it will open... The Scary Door.

This was the first one that came to my mind. I was like 17 when that game came out and it blew me away.

Max Payne also has Lords and Ladies TV show.

McGarnigle from the Simpsons

Binky the Clown and The Buddy Bears from Garfield and Friends

Reptar from Rugrats

Watched Asteroid City recently for the first time. I thought the play within the movie (and the intertwining back and forth of storylines) was really interesting and entertaining.

Tales of The Black Freighter in Watchmen. Comic in a comic.

Black Mirror. News tickers and headlines discuss other world-building stories from different episodes.

Fillory and Further by Christopher Plover

within

The Magicians by Lev Grossman

Station Eleven from… Station Eleven is probably there only one that’s been as interesting to me as the story itself, I guess because it’s such a big part of the story and character motivations. The book and show are both good in their own ways, but I particularly like the passage repeated throughout the show:

I remember damage, then escape

Then adrift in a stranger’s galaxy for a long time

But I’m safe now

I found it again, my home

Once (I liked it so much I saw it twice...my apologies to Ted Lasso)

I don't know if that fits the definition, but it's an album being written within a movie which sounds like "media within media" to me.

The girl who looked up is a story told within Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive series. It's told very well, and actually told twice.

There are other stories told to different characters in times of need, but I liked that one the most.

  • Nation's Pride, in Inglourious Basterds. "Who wants to send a message to Germany?!" ~Fredrick Zoller

  • "I'd buy that for a dollar." in RoboCop.

i love coming across playable arcade games inside other games.
the example that comes to mind is Klungo's Arcade in Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts.

Back in the day, when I fired up Mortal Kombat 3 for the snes, I'd usually end up spending more time in the space invaders game than playing MK itself, especially since the consoles kept the tuning intended to keep the quarters coming for the arcade version (first fight would be easy, next fight would be hard, then easy after continue, so it wasn't just pay to play for the arcade but pay to win).

I'm curious if I'd remember each of the codes required for the secret menus, one of which contained the mini game. Can't remember them offhand but it might be different with an snes controller in my hand.

Actually I think I do remember one of them (or maybe it's the Konami code, or maybe those two are the same code):

Up, up, down, down, left, right, A, B, A

Or maybe it was right then left. Lol I also remember usually needing to try several variations before I'd get each code correct.

The poems of Thomas Zane in the old gods of asgard concert in the book about max Payne in the video game Allen wake in the video game control in the amazing TV series the threshold kids in that song the janitor is singing.

... Pretty sure that's the continuity.

King's Misery when there are several bits from the novel the writer is making to please his capturer seems like a classic at this point. More classic is the trope of Necronomicon-alikes in lovecraftian stories. But I prefer The Book of Mindfulness that a character from the Black Book sitcom accidentially swallowed and became a saint, even god-like figure.

I seem to remember one of the GTA games (maybe San Andreas?) had a stand up set from I think Ricky Gervais as something that would play on the TVs.

The movie Twins starring Danny Divito and Arnold Schwarzenegger plays at the drive in the anime Blood Blockade Battlefront

Inside the 90s anime Martian Successor Nadesico, there is a 70s-era anime called Gekiganger III. Characters various levels of knowledgeable about, or fans of, the show. A single OVA episode was released in addition to the clips from within Nadesico.

This may not fit perfectly into the that category but i think it's cool how Lazarus Jones exists in the media in some capacity in most of the GTA games. One of the best threads of continuity throughout the series.

That Baywatch show on friends looks good.

"Always running"

I’m surprised and saddened for it to have taken so long for someone (in this case, me) to have mentioned Astronaut Dolphin Detective from Mr Pickles.

The "Lucky Earther" mini documentary in S06 of the Expanse.

As The Stomach Turns. It was a classic parody of soap operas on The Carol Burnett show, and as someone from that era i can vouch that it was a pretty spot on parody, at least from what i saw on tv when staying home sick from school.

Good Morning Glipglorp! From the Androids and Aliens podcast by the Glass Cannon Network. It was a random bit of world-building that the players latched on to and ran with and it turned into a whole episode.

The Dick Van Dike show is a great one.

The Marvelous Misses Maisel

The game from the startreck like episode on BlackMirror and Sword Art Online! Both are arguably great.

The twilight zone episode about the podcast and the airplane is amazing too.

Do the Justice Friends from Dexter's Lab count?

There's so much in Infinite Jest, but I think my favourite would be "Blood Sister: One Tough Nun".

Galaxy Quest the Show inside Galaxy Quest the Movie

I didn't see this one in the list, but UNN newscast from Starcraft 2 is one of my favorites! Particularly Donny Vermillion.

The Navidson Record from House of Leaves, although it's questionable whether it is supposed to actually exist within the narrative.

The supermarket commercials on Mr show or anything on Mr show