Examples: Itchy & Scratchy from The Simpsons, The Scary Door from Futurama, or The Grand Inquisitor from Dostoevsky.
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.
Teen Girl Squad!
“ARRRRROWED!!!”
“Ow, my skin!”
dag, yo
Surprised that no one has mentioned Vegemorphs from PBS’s Arthur yet.
Fillory in the magicians trilogy by Lev Grossman is fantastic.
Fillory and Further by Christopher Plover
within
The Magicians by Lev Grossman
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.
Galaxy Quest the Show inside Galaxy Quest the Movie
Do the Justice Friends from Dexter’s Lab count?
The lore books in The Elder Scrolls series, hands-down.
I’m a big fan of fake brands/products in anime. I don’t know why, but they bring me joy.
Interdimensional TV on Rick and Morty
Springtime for Hitler, The Producers https://youtu.be/1zY1orxW8Aw
Interesting! I didn’t know there was a movie. The version I saw in theaters 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
If games count then all the radio stations in GTA
“Ow, My Balls” is a claaaassic.
There’s so much in Infinite Jest, but I think my favourite would be “Blood Sister: One Tough Nun”.