Reciprocal Fiction Paradox: Difference between revisions

[[File:phpcbozucpmmm5.jpg|frame|Top: In ''[[Doctor Who]]'', the Tenth Doctor watches ''[[Eastenders]]''. Bottom: in ''EastEnders'', Bradley and Stacey attend a ''Doctor Who'' convention.]]

 

 

The answer is: [[Fiction Identity Postulate|Because it's not real!]]

 

A related paradox is the [[Celebrity Paradox]] which involves actors shared between works and an awareness of the other works.

 

* A [[Show Within a Show]] example: Many characters in ''[[Martian Successor Nadesico]]'' are fans of ''Gekiganger 3''. The [[Recap Episode]] showed that, in turn, the main characters of ''Gekiganger 3'' are fans of ''Nadesico''.

** [[Mind Screw|To make it even stranger]], each [[Defictionalization|defictionalized]] something from the other in-verse. Done mutually with {{spoiler|the Gekigan flare}}.

* ''[[Excel Saga (anime)|Excel Saga]]'' featured a kid who drew forged key frames from the show ''[[Puni Puni Poemi]]''. The show was [[Defictionalized]], and in ''Puni Puni Poemi'', a math problem in school involves the number of cels used in each episode of ''Excel Saga''.

 

== Comic Books ==

* [[Terra Obscura]]. Their science heroes are the stars of comic books in [[Tom Strong]]'s world, and vice versa.

* Jimmy Olsen in ''Superman'' comics is a fan of the Spin Doctors, a band with a ''Superman''-inspired album and a song about Jimmy Olsen.

 

== Fan Works ==

* Played with in M. McGregor's "[http://www.tthfanfic.org/Story-16694-62/MMcGregor+The+Wonderland+Subject.htm The Wonderland Subject]", a dimension-hopping ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' / [[Ultimate Marvel]] crossover in which each universe has fiction based on the other one. Xander and Jean Grey spend quite a while [[Even Heroes Have Heroes|being fannish at each other]].

** It has been [[Wild Mass Guessing|theorised]] that in the fanfic's universe, ''[[Lucky Star]]'' references "the [[Trope-tan]] [[Show Within a Show|anime]]" instead of ''[[Suzumiya Haruhi]]''.

 

== Film ==

** In the first ''[[A Nightmare on Elm Street]]'', ''[[The Evil Dead]]'' is seen on a TV, a [[Shout-Out]] to a poster for [[Wes Craven|Wes Craven's]] earlier film ''[[The Hills Have Eyes]]'' appearing in ''[[The Evil Dead]]'' (which was itself a [[Shout-Out]] to a poster for ''[[Jaws (film)|Jaws]]'' appearing in ''[[The Hills Have Eyes]]''). Then in ''[[Evil Dead 2]]'', Freddy Kreuger's glove is seen in the shed where Ash creates his chainsaw-hand. Confused yet?

* In ''[[Independence Day]]'' a character makes a passing reference to the [[X Files]], conversely, in the first [[X Files]] movie we see Mulder urinating in front of an ''[[Independence Day]]'' movie poster.

 

== Literature ==

* Scots author Quintin Jardine has written two long-running series: ''Skinner'', about a high-ranking Edinburgh police detective, and ''Oz Blackstone'', a private detective and part-time actor. In at least one Blackstone novel he is involved in making a film based on the Skinner books, while the Blackstone novels themselves appear in Skinner's world.

 

* ''[[Doctor Who]]'' is fictional in ''[[Eastenders]]'', they have a character who is a fan (Bradley) who even goes to a Doctor Who convention at one point. ''EastEnders'' is also fictional in ''Doctor Who'' wherein Jackie Tyler is a fan, and ''EastEnders'' appears [[Show Within a Show]] style in "Army of Ghosts". The Doctor also references it in "The Satan Pit". There was a crossover between them in 1993 for ''[[Children in Need]]''. In "Dimensions In Time", neither show acknowledges the other's fictionality in it and it isn't considered in continuity for either (one explanation touted by ''Doctor Who'' Spin Off Media is that it was [[All Just a Dream]] of the Seventh Doctor).

** ''EastEnders'' and ''Doctor Who'' are so popular and iconic, though, that any program predominantly set in 21st century Britain is bound to reference one or the other eventually.

* References to characters watching ''[[Passions]]'' started showing up during season four of ''[[Buffy]]''. Shortly afterward, ''Passions'' characters started watching ''Buffy''.

** Also, characters in Buffy have talked about Xena, whereas, while they clearly can't have a television show on Xena, there is a play called 'Buffus the Bacchae Slayer'. Of course, as Xena is both told by a [[Literary Agent Hypothesis|literary agent]] and [[No Fourth Wall|fictional within itself]], it's anyone's guess as to what is actually going on.

** Also, in the ''Batman'' episode "The Impractical Joker," Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson, and Alfred are watching a news program about how Batman and Robin were made helpless by a new Joker device earlier in the day. In disgust, Bruce asks to change the channel, noting that ''The Green Hornet'' is about to come on. We don't get to see any of that, as Joker breaks into the TV channel's signal to gloat and taunt Batman over the airwaves.

* In ''[[The X-Files|X-Files]]'', a character is seen watching an episode of ''[[The Simpsons]]''. Fortunately, it's not the episode where David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson appeared as Mulder and Scully. Note that it does not seem the fictionality is both ways, so it may not count.

** [[House (TV series)|Dr. House]] watches ''[[Gossip Girl]]'' and Blair Waldorf watches ''House''. Leighton Meester, the actress who plays Blair, also guest-starred on an episode of ''House'' as a teenager in love with the titular character. In the 2011 movie ''The Oranges'' Hugh Laurie plays a man who falls in love with a friend's daughter... played by Meester.

* In ''[[Community]]'' Abeds favorite TV show is ''[[Cougar Town]]'' and in one episode he talks about guest starring on it. In one episode of ''[[Cougar Town]]'' Laurie and Travis watch the first season of ''[[Community]]'' on dvd. This eventually came full circle with Laurie and Travis as bit characters in the season finale of ''[[Community]]'' and Abed as a bit character on the season finale of ''[[Cougar Town]]''. A later episode of ''Community'' had Abed, [[Meta Guy]] that he is, explaining the [[Mind Screw]] the whole thing had been for him.

 

* ''[[The Way of the Metagamer]]'' and ''The Way Of The Metagamer 2: [[In Name Only]]''. ''In Name Only'' makes the occasional cameo in the original, and it's [[Word of God|been stated that]] the original exists within the world of ''In Name Only''. Interesting in that ''In Name Only'' does not exist.

* ''[[Homestuck]]'' takes this trope to its [[Mind Screw|Mind-Screw extreme]] with the events of the main story and the Midnight Crew. In the world of the main characters of ''[[Homestuck]]'' the Midnight Crew are from the latest ''[[MS Paint Adventures]]'' series, and the reverse is true for the actual members of the Midnight Crew in ''their'' world. However, [[Word of God]] along with recent events in the story claim that the the Midnight Crew ''exist within the same canon as [[Homestuck]]!'' In other words, it's not a [[Show Within a Show]], it's a [[Your Head Asplode|Show Within]] ''[[Your Head Asplode|Itself!]]''

*** Like the time Jade read a panel of ''Homestuck'', even being pretty true to what John had been doing at that point.

** The paradox is explained by the [[Author Avatar]], who is likely sending different comics to different universes.

 

== Western Animation ==

** Also, in the ''Simpsons'' episode ''Mayored to the Mob'', Üter wears a ''Futurama'' shirt (this was long before anyone had heard anything about ''Futurama'' in the real world.) In an episode of ''Futurama'', Bender eats the shorts off of a Bart Simpsons doll.

** Also, thanks in part to certain [[Manatee Gag|trope]]-[[Trope Namer|naming]] episodes of ''[[South Park]]'', and innumerable references to each other, ''[[South Park]]'', ''[[Family Guy]]'', and ''[[The Simpsons]]'' are all fictional within each other's Universes.

* This trope even occurs within a single show: ''[[South Park]]'' and ''[[Show Within a Show|Terrance and Phillip]]'' have watched each other's television shows. This gets a bit muddled as Terrance and Phillip are "real" actors in the South Park universe with a television show the South Park kids watch, but the characters (one assumes) Terrance and Phillip play have watched ''South Park''. Do what now?

 

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[[Category:Consistency]]