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{{trope}}
* Most [[Alternate History]] books will have one - such as characters having their picture painted in Vienna by a [[Adolf Hitler|mediocre artist called Adolf]], or buying used cars from Richard Nixon.
* [[Peter David]] loves to cross media with these. Trans-Sabal from [[Marvel Comics]] shows up in his Arthurian trilogy. And then there's [[Star Trek: New Frontier|Morgan]]...
* [[Stephen King]] often inserts Mythology Gags in his novels, making brief, casual, and usually vague references to events or characters from a previous novel that might not have absolutely nothing to do with the current novel whatsoever, but that fans of King who have read most of his novels would easily be able to recognize.
** For example, the novel ''[[Needful Things]]'' includes bully Ace from the novella ''The Body'' and references to the novels ''Cujo'' and ''The Dead Zone''. This makes sense as all of these events occur in the same (fictional) town.
** In ''[[The Dark Tower]]'' novels, elements from many of his earlier books appear, with such frequency that by the end of the series the reaction has accelerated into full-blown [[Canon Welding]].
** ''Dolores Claiborne'' is possibly the strangest example of this, as the titular character experiences a brief psychic connection with the protagonist of ''Gerald's Game,'' to whom she has no other connection at any time.
*** This connection happens on July 20, 1963, during a total solar eclipse, which makes it a real-life [[Shout -Out]] to an actual total solar eclipse that went across Maine on July 20, 1963.
** ''Insomnia'' contains a good deal of this, including numerous references to ''[[The Dark Tower]]'', but the one that stands out the most is when the protagonist finds a pair of shoes belonging to the little boy {{spoiler|who died}} from ''[[Pet Sematary]]''.
** ''Pet Sematary'' itself contains a passage where a character mentions that it used to be legal to keep animals like raccoons as pets in the area, before there was an incident involving a [[Cujo|rabid dog]].
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** In ''Bag Of Bones'', it's revealed that Thad Beaumont, the protagonist of ''[[The Dark Half]]'', committed suicide.
** In ''[[Misery]]'' Annie talks about a photographer she once knew who took pictures [[The Shining|of an old hotel whose caretaker went crazy and burned it down.]]
** ''[[Desperation (Literature)|Desperation]]'' and ''[[The Regulators (Literature)|The Regulators]]'' were published simultaneously (by King and his alter ego, Richard Bachman), and thus the characters, settings and plot are connected and have a lot of overlap. However, both novels also feature a character called Cynthia Smith, who mentions briefly in ''Desperation'' that her nose was broken by a bad man. Cynthia was a secondary character in King's previous novel ''Rose Madder'', in which the assault took place.
** The villain of ''The Eyes of the Dragon'' is Randall Flagg of ''The Stand'', using a different name.
* The new ''[[The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy (Literaturenovel)|The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy]]'' novel, ''[[The HitchhikersHitchhiker's Guide to Thethe Galaxy (Franchise)/And Another Thing|And Another Thing]]...'' opens with Arthur, Ford, Trillian and Random experiencing false lives, before learning they're still on Earth, and it's still being destroyed by the Grebulons (as seen in ''[[The HitchhikersHitchhiker's Guide to Thethe Galaxy (Franchise)/Mostly Harmless|Mostly Harmless]]''). When describing her hallucination, Trillian claims they were rescued from Earth by the Babel Fish, which transported them to Milliways. This was the bonus "[[AuthorsAuthor's Saving Throw|they're not really dead]]" ending of The Quintessential Phase of [[The HitchhikersHitchhiker's Guide to Thethe Galaxy (Radioradio series)|the radio series]].
** The wonderfully meta introduction to said book may also count, as it alludes to the "trilogy in <s>three</s> <s>four</s> <s>five</s> six parts", as well as the franchise's radio, television, film and stage productions.
* ''[[Wicked (Literaturenovel)|Wicked]]'', in novel form, makes a ''lot'' of minor references to the oft-ignored [[Land of Oz (Literature)|rest of the Baum series]]. Perhaps most notable is naming the deposed Ozma (there's more than one in the series) "Ozma Tippetarius": {{spoiler|Tippetarius, or Tip for short, being the name of the gender-bent disguise of Ozma from ''[[The Marvelous Land of Oz (Literature)|The Marvelous Land of Oz]]''}}.
* The [[Novelization]] of ''[[The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Film)|The Texas Chainsaw Massacre]]'' remake reveals Erin's last name is Hardesty, which was the surname of the heroine from the original 1974 film.
* [[Eoin Colfer]]'s books have a few recurring names:
** Phonetix is a large corporation that's mentioned in both the ''[[Artemis Fowl (Literature)|Artemis Fowl]]'' series and ''[[The Supernaturalist (Literature)|The Supernaturalist]]''.
** Myishi is a character in ''[[The Wish List]]'' and also a corporation in ''[[The Supernaturalist (Literature)|The Supernaturalist]]''. In a bit of [[Fridge Brilliance]], {{spoiler|both names refer to evil or villainous entities.}}
** Stefan Bashkir, a major character in ''[[The Supernaturalist (Literature)|The Supernaturalist]]'', is also an alias used by [[Artemis Fowl (Literature)|Artemis Fowl]].
** ''The Artemis Fowl Files'' (a companion book) is dedicated to "Finn, Artemis's best friend." Finn is the surname of the main character of ''[[The Wish List]]'', and also a false surname that gets used in ''[[Airman]]''.
* In the ''[[Bionicle]]'' children's book ''Desert of Danger'', Mata Nui first tries to defeat a sand bat by knocking off it's mask, which was a very common theme back when the toy-line first started. Another character instantly points out that in this new world Mata Nui found himself in, animals don't wear masks. Even so, the book's artist did use an older bat-themed mask as a reference for drawing the sand bat's head.
* In [[Star Trek: Ex Machina]], McCoy, exasperated by the sheer diversity of aliens on the refit ''Enterprise'', sarcastically asks what’s next - hortas and glass spiders? Those readers familiar with the works of [[Diane Duane]] will get the joke (a reference to two of her characters, crewman Naraht and K’t’lk).
* Pick a ''[[Sherlock Holmes]]'' pastiche, adaptation... anything about Sherlock that Doyle never wrote. It is an absolute guarantee that there will be at least one of these.
* In ''[[On Her Majesty's Secret Service]]'', the first ''[[James Bond (Literaturenovel)|James Bond]]'' novel after ''[[Dr. No (Film)|Dr. No]]'', the first [[James Bond]] movie, Bond is revealed to have Scottish heritage as a nod to [[Sean Connery]]. Also, Ursula Andress, who played the [[Girl of the Week|Bond girl]], is mentioned as a guest at Blofeld's ski resort.
* There's a sort of meta-[[Mythology Gag]] in the ''[[Past Doctor Adventures]]'' novel ''The Indestructable Man'', which pastiches all [[Gerry Anderson]]'s work (except ''[[Space Precinct]]''). In ''[[UFO]]'', SHADO's [[Front Organisation]] was a movie company, because it meant they could save money by filming backstage at Pinewood Studios. In the book, SILOET's [[Front Organisation]] is the British TV and Film Corporation, based in Shepherd's Bush, meaning that if it was a real episode of 60s ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'', they'd use [[The BBC]] Television Centre for the same purposes.
** The [[Virgin New Adventures]] novel ''Conundrum'' by Steve Lyons made the [[The Silver Age of Comic Books|1960s]] ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'' comics stories a product of the Land of Fiction. (One story in ''[[Doctor Who Magazine (Magazine)|Doctor Who Magazine]]'' would later feature those stories as another product of the Doctor's imagination.)
* A ''[[Hellblazer]]'' novel features John going on a ramble about [[Alternate Universe|Alternate Universes]], amd mentioning one where he's [[Keanu Reeves|a dark-haired American]], who nonetheless went through [[Constantine (Film)|a version of the "Dangerous Habits" arc]].
 
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Literature]]
[[Category:Mythology Gag]]
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