Show Within a Show: Difference between revisions

* ''[[Watchmen]]'' includes excerpts from the autobiography of one of the characters, as well as interviews with various others. ''[[Watchmen]]'' also includes the meta-comic ''Tales of the Black Freighter'' which is drawn by an artist who is [[Chekhov MIA|missing throughout the story]].

* Bolivar Trask's sci-fi pulp series ''The Sentinels'' in ''X-Men Noir''. For bonus points, the original series featured chapters from ''The Sentinels'' as back-ups. ''Punisher Noir'', meanwhile, has Frank Castelione, Jr.'s favorite radio drama, ''The Punisher''. ''Iron Man Noir'' has ''Marvels: A Magazine of Men's Adventure'', a pulp magazine featuring the (heavily fictionalized) exploits of Tony Stark as written by his friend Virgil Munsey and, later, Pepper Potts.

 

=== [[Fan Works]] ===

* In ''[[Magical Girl Noir Quest]]'', Midori is behind the series ''[[Author Avatar|Miracle Midori]] x Murder Mayumi''. Unsurprisingly, she is rather embarrassed when the person represented as Murder Mayumi finds out about it.

* In ''[[Undocumented Features]]'', anything published by BaconBooks -- be it comic books or hardback self-help -- has probably had Derek Bacon's hand in it somewhere, and not just as the publisher.

 

===[[Film]] ===

* ''[[RoboCop]]'' has two:

** One an action show about a lawman, ''T.J. Lazer'', which is the favorite show of Murphy's son.

* ''[[Forgetting Sarah Marshall]]'' where Sarah is the star of Crime Scene - Scene of the Crime. Jason Segel's character also writes music for the show.

* ''[[The Holiday]]'' features a movie trailer for a fictional film called "Deception" starring [[James Franco]] and [[Lindsay Lohan]].

** The U-62 schedule lists a few other shows-within-a-show that exist only as fictional [[Real Trailer, Fake Movie|cinema trailers]] or else don't exist at all, usually with bizarre titles like ''[[Hide Your Gays|Those Darn Homos!]]'' Effectively, the [[Ultra High Frequency|station]] is merely a [[Framing Device]] used to package a random string of short comedy/parody sketches as a feature-length film.

* Likewise, ''[[Network]]'' (1976) has the UBS network newscast, complete with "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not gonna take it anymore!" editorialising, as a show within a show.

 

=== [[Literature]] ===

* Most of the ''real'' kids in ''[[Detective Conan]]'' are fans of ''Kamen Yaiba'', a [[Lawyer-Friendly Cameo]] version of ''[[Kamen Rider]]'' (which takes the name "[[Yaiba]]" from another of the Conan mangaka's works). A number of times, Conan & company solve mysteries at sets, stunt shows, production offices, or production studios associated with the franchise (and in one case at a costume party where cosplayers showed up in intricate Kamen Yaiba outfits).

* ''[[Oreimo]]'' has ''Stardust Witch Meruru'', a Magical Girl Show, and Kirino is a fan of the show. In one episode, she made Kanako dress up as Meruru for a costume contest, and Kanako won!

 

=== [[Comic Books]] ===

* ''[[Red Dwarf]]'' had ''Androids'', a soap opera about robots.

* ''[[Married... with Children]]'': Al Bundy is a big fan of ''Psycho Dad'', and even went so far as to travel to Washington D.C. to complain to Congress when [[Straw Feminist|Marcy]] had it cancelled.

* In the ''[[Angel]]'' episode "Birthday", Cordelia is shown an [[Alternate Timeline]] where she didn't meet Angel and has her own TV show, the ''[[Friends]]''-a-like ''Cordy''.

** Also, the kids' puppet show ''Smile Time'' in the episode of the same name.

* Dean Winchester of ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'' is a big (though secret) fan of the ''[[House (TV series)|House]]''-like ''Dr. Sexy, MD''.

* In an unusual case, a real show was the show-within-a-show on ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' -- Spike was a fan of the [[Soap Opera]] ''[[Passions]]'', and was shown watching -- or trying to watch -- it on several occasions.

 

=== [[Newspaper Comics]] ===

* In ''[[Super Robot Wars Alpha]]'', Ryusei Date is fan of mech simulator game call ''Burning PT'', which is actally used by military to recuit pilot. It's only mention in dialogue and players never actually see the game until anime adaption of [[Super Robot Wars Original Generation]] though. In the end of Super Robot Wars Original Generation Gaiden, he end up watching his favourite anime ''Banblade'' with his [[Unwanted Harem]], but players never actally see how the anime look like. Also in Super Robot Wars Alpha 3, he give [[Macross 7|Mylene Jenius]] a rare copy of ''[[Super Dimension Fortress Macross]] : Legend of Lyn Minmei'' as birthday present.

* Some of the ''[[Grand Theft Auto]]'' games have a number of different (all rather raunchy) shows that the player can watch.

 

=== [[Web Animation]] ===

* ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987 series)|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' (1987 series) has the movie ''Snow White and the Seven Samurai''. Clearly a blockbuster, Michelangelo has to fight through a mob at the video store in order to rent it.

* In ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003 series)|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' (2003 series) Casey's favorite movie is ''Rio Gato'', a "spaghetti western" that, according to Casey, was so popular it was remade several times.

* One episode of ''[[Garfield and Friends]]'' featured Garfield watching the game show "Hit The Buzzer, Win A Cookie", which is [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]].

* ''Duck Detective'' on ''[[Gravity Falls]]'', a show loved by the whole cast; it is described as a show initially intended for a child audience, but Grunkle Stan notes how it also caters to adults and has a lot of hidden meanings intended for mature audiences... [[In-Joke|In other words, much like ''Gravity Falls'' itself.]]

** Season four Mikey starts watching ''Chris Bradford's 2 Ruff Krew'', a show staring Chris Bradford (a villain on the show) that seems similar to ''[[Chuck Norris: Karate Kommandos]]'' with some of ''[[The A-Team]]'' mixed in.

** Season five, they watch ''Space Heroes: The Next Generation'', clearly a [[Sequel Series]] to the show in the first season based on ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]''.

 

== Examples of type 3 (SWAS is plot point) ==

** The next episode goes even further. The first third of the episode involves [[Tokyo Is the Center of the Universe|an alien invasion of Japan]], but the alien commanders [[Distracted by the Sexy|become distracted]] [[Fan Service|by what happens]] [[Shotacon|in the last third of the episode]]. We also get to see [[Another Side, Another Story|the last third in full]], juxtaposed against the first third with picture-in-picture and cut shots. Thus the show within a show goes full circle.

* ''[[Kirby: Right Back at Ya!]]'' features its own television channel. Said channel generally only contains shows made by King Dedede himself, and is often used to start off or elaborate the plot.

* ''[[Chobits]]'' -- ''A City Without People'', drawn by {{spoiler|Chi's original creator}}. It [[Hangs a Lampshade]] on the problems Persocoms are causing and drops hints on Chi's nature and eventual internal struggle.

* [[Tenchi Universe]] gives us one program that distracts Mihoshi so badly that Washu's Mecha Washu-Mihoshi runs off to watch it mid-fight. That show? [[Moldiver]].

*** Which brings up another amusing point about the comics: While some heroes, like the aforementioned She-Hulk and Fantastic Four, are public figures in the Marvel Universe, others, like [[Spider-Man]] or [[Daredevil]], aren't about to spill their secret identities on newsstands, so their comics-within-a-comic are only accurate as far as the superheroics go, and make up the heroes' "real" identities, personal lives and origin stories out of whole cloth.

*** Marvel once printed a series of one-shots, called ''Marvels Comics'', which were supposed to be the comics that exist in the 616 universe.

* ''[[Watchmen]]'' also has ''Tales of the Black Freighter'', a dark pirate comic (since superhero comics didn't catch on in a world with real superheroes, pirate comics became common instead) which is used as a metaphor for various parts of the story and the characters' plights.

* [[Daniel Clowes]]' comic ''David Boring'' has the protagonist find "The Yellow Streak," a one shot comic by his father that seems to suggest why his parents divorced, while individual panels are used in the main story to suggest David's reactions.

* ''As the Kitchen Sinks'' in ''[[Transformers Generation 1]]'' is a [[Soap Within a Show|soap opera show]] that the Autobots are seen watching on Teletraan-1.

** Humorously enough, when Optimus was called to fight, he actually ''groaned'' when this happened. That's right, the most [[Badass]] robot there is wanted to see what happened next.

* ''[[Invader Zim]]'' boasts two -- ''[[Department of Redundancy Department|Mysterious Mysteries of Strange Mystery]]'', and ''Probing the Membrane of Science With Professor Membrane.''

* ''[[Futurama]]'' featured the head of Matt Groenig presenting his new show ''Futurella'' at the 3010 Comicon. It got cancelled 3 seconds into the opening sequence.

 

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[[Category:Narrative Devices]]

[[Category:Older Than Steam]]

[[Category:Metafiction Demanded This Index]]

[[Category:Beginning Tropes]]