Soap Within a Show: Difference between revisions

# As a result of the above, [[Tangled Family Tree|a completely incomprehensible family tree]].

# [[Twist Ending|A big twist that everyone looks forward to]]

# [[Deus Angst Machina]]

# A roguish, [[Troubled but Cute]] hunk that all of the women want (often wearing an [[Eyepatch of Power]]).

 

At least one character in the main cast will be a [[Daytime Drama Queen|regular viewer of the show]], and likely be [[Explaining the Soap|forced to explain it]].

{{examples}}

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* ''[[Minami-ke]]'' has ''Sensei and Ninomiya-kun'', a [[Show Within a Show]] in which every episode seems to feature ''somebody'' getting amnesia, wandering out into the street, and getting hit by a car.

** Also extended to video games, when the game based on the show is an over-the-top parody of every [[Video Game]] cliche?

* In ''[[Tenchi Muyo!|Tenchi in Tokyo]]'' Princess Ayeka in one episode gets down to watch what she claims is her favorite soap opera: "''Everyone'' has amnesia!"

 

== [[Eastern European Animation]] ==

* In ''[[Technotise Edit I Ja]]'', terrible soap operas exist in the future too, with a twist. The woman's "a robot... my heart is made of metal!" and the man reveals... "I am in fact... an alien! I don't even have a heart!" as a [[Shocking Swerve|shocking twist.]]

 

'''Light:''' [[Tranquil Fury|You know, this is excellent proof that I'm not Kira. Ryuzaki may be miserable and death-seeking but if I had been Kira then surely Matsuda would be dead by now.]] }}

 

== [[Film]] ==

* Amid the various British TV parodies in the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' [[Virgin Missing Adventures|Missing Adventures]] novel ''Time of Your Life'' is ''Jubilee Towers'', a soap that saves its budget by being mostly set in and around a TV studio...

 

* ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'' has the episode "Living the Dream", where House, a regular viewer of the hospital soap ''[[Show Within a Show|Prescription: Passion]]'', notices a symptom in one of the actors. He then kidnaps him in order to cure him.

* One episode of ''[[Psych]]'' has the the titular agency investigate a stabbing that was the result of a prop knife being swapped for a real one. Over the course of the episode nearly all cast members except Shawn and Lasiter are revealed as viewers. Even better, it was a Spanish-language ''[[Telenovela]]'', themselves known for being over-the-top.

** It should be notet, that was before they started ''[[Stargate Universe]]''.

* ''[[30 Rock|Thirty Rock]]'' had a lot of fun with this one.

* In ''[[Arrested Development (TV series)|Arrested Development]]'', there is the telenovela ''El Amor Prohibido'' which stars GOB's girlfriend Marta.

* ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]'' had an episode where the crew went back in time to Earth and Neelix and Kes got hooked on several soap operas.

* In ''[[Sonny With a Chance]]'', one of the main characters is the star of a [[Dawson's Creek]]-esque soap opera called "Mackenzie Falls" .

* One of these was even a major plot point of the fifth season of ''[[Nip Tuck]]''. Just the name tells you everything: ''Hearts'n'Scalpels''

* An episode of ''[[ALF]]'' had ALF writing for a soap opera, with a lot of the storylines taken from the Tanners day-to-day life, but soapified. Then the family asked him to stop using them for material, and his scripts got blander ... so the executives soapified them ''further''. Cue the family suspecting that the outrageous stuff now in the soap really happened.

{{quote|'''ALF''': I even cut out the sex...

* ''[[SCTV]]'''s ongoing soap opera parody ''The Days of the Week'' was a surprisingly understated example of this trope.

* ''[[A Bit of Fry and Laurie]]'' has a sketch that purports to be an Australian soap opera. It gets increasingly surreal, ending with Fry's character admitting to Laurie's that they've been having an affair ("You mean we've been sleeping together all this time... behind my back?") and then giving as an excuse that he'd just discovered that he was his own father.

* Spoof news programme ''[[The Day Today]]'' does occasional features on ''The Bureau'', a spoof soap opera set in a bureau-de-change of all places, where the staff all sleep with each other, get savagely beaten up, take drug overdoses and get fired as a matter of routine. All in less than 6 minutes of clips.

 

* Technically, it's a Soap Within a Music Video, but the music video for [[Foo Fighters]]' "Long Road to Ruin" contains one of these, where the members of the band and [[Rashida Jones]] portray both the characters and the actors who play the characters. So really, it's a Soap Within a Show Within a Music Video...?

 

== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==

{{quote|"Oh, Mary, you look ravishing in that skimpy negligee!

Mmm ... darling, don't you wish we were married?

But we are! ... or did you mean to each other?

Murder?! You sick animal! I love it when you talk that way! Come here!" }}

** Calvin then commented that he learns things staying home that he would ''never'' find out about in school.

== [[Radio]] ==

* ''Medical Center of Love'' on ''[[Adventures in Odyssey]]''. Just one scene includes two [[The Reveal|reveal]] [[Twist Ending|twists]] and 3 characters declaring the secrets they've discovered from reading other people's diaries. By the end of the episode/virtual reality adventure in the Room of Consequences, Erica is practically pulling her hair out in frustration. "How do you soap opera people live like this day in and day out?!"

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

** In one of the vid-comics, Quark is watching one when he's interrupted by the arrival of his trainer, Helga. Hilariously, it seems to be the exact same one Nefarious broadcasts.

* On the silver strip in ''[[Dead Rising]]'', you can go to the cinema and see a film which is practically every cliché line by line. It is incredibly funny.

 

== [[Web Animation]] ==

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

** Starring [[Large Ham|Calculon]], whose characters mentions having six [[Evil Twin|evil identical septuplets]], and no less than ''four'' [[Split Personality|split personalities]].

*** Best shown by the episode's recap:

** The series 11 episode "Pygmoelian" revolves around a soap called ''It Never Ends''.

* The long-lost 1990 Saturday morning cartoon series ''[[Gravedale High]]'' has ''Trudy and the Beast'', which stars wolf-man actor Billy Headstone as the eponymous Beast, who seems to be having an affair with a married woman. Cleofatra loves to watch TatB since [[Celeb Crush|she has a crush on Billy]].

* ''[[Fairly Oddparents]]'' has ''All My Parents' Offspring'' (parody of ''[[All My Children]]''), ''Kissy Kissy Goo Goo'' and ''All My Biceps'' (Jorgen's favorite show starring Wanda's identical but somehow hotter sister Blonda).

* ''The Loved and the Loveless'' on ''[[Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends]]'', which the entire cast watches.

* ''[[King of the Hill]]'' had one with a gun toting Mexican priest/assassin (''Los Dias y Las Noches de Monsignor Martinez''). It looked awesome.

** '''[[Catch Phrase|Vaya... con DIOS!]]'''

* In ''[[American Dad]]'', Roger watches what's supposed to be ''[[Dynasty]]'', but the only scene we ever see is the two main women slapping each other and calling each other "bitch" in turn. The scenery changes sometimes, but they are always doing the same thing.

* Everyone in the ''[[Kim Possible]]'' episode "Sick Day" passes around [[Mundangerous|a cold]], and while recovering, they all watch the same soap opera:

* The Autobots of ''[[Transformers Generation 1]]'' were partial to ''[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/As_the_Kitchen_Sinks As the Kitchen Sinks]'', which features drama such as an affair between Donna and Gordon, Sheryl's will (which Jack apparently didn't know about), and (in a deleted line), the will actually belonging to Bob, who named Katy as his successor!

* In one episode of ''[[Jimmy Neutron]]'', the kids end up on a deadly game show on an alien planet, while their parents back home frantically try to rescue them (having found out via Earth's sudden reception of all nine billion galactic TV channels) and berate Jimmy's dad Hugh for watching ''[[Recycled in Space|Andromeda 90210]]'' instead of the game show. Naturally, he ends up on the set at the very end and saves the day by answering the trivia question correctly:

'''Hugh:''' It's impossible to answer, because Dakota's evil twin wasn't hatched, she was [[Evil Knockoff|cloned]] by Dr. Meldak's [[Clingy Jealous Girl|jealous wife]]'s ex-husband's [[Tangled Family Tree|former lovechild]]! ''[[Captain Obvious|Duh!]]'' }}

* In the [[Darkwing Duck (animation)|Darkwing Duck]] episode, "Star Crossed Circuits", Darkwing's new super computer is convinced that "she's" a character from a Soap Opera called, "The Young and the Brainless" and that she's in love with Darkwing.

 

* Italian comedy program ''"Mai Dire Reality"'' ("Never Say Reality [Show]") spoofed this with the reality show-spoof "Il divano scomodo" ("The Uncomfortable Sofa"), that has its participants [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|forced to stay on an uncomfortable sofa during the whole show]] when one of its participants, Bamma, a <s> whore</s> girl with the hobby of prostitution suddenly jumps off the couch for no other reason than switching the TV on, in order to watch an episode of [[The Bold And The Beautiful]] (since it's still inexplicably popular in Italy). Cue the [[Gag Dub]]:

{{quote|'''Ridge Forrester:''' [[Crowning Moment of Funny|"Brooke... I'm your]] ''[[Mind Screw|grandpa."]]''}}

* The whole plot of the [[Donald Duck]] comic series by Silvia Ziche, "Il Papero Del Mistero" (Duck Mystery). Scrooge McDuck wants to renew his TV channel's program so he employs the whole Duck and friends family to star in a soap opera with an over-the-top plot based on improvisation.

* Harold, [[Batman]]'s mechanic, was once shown to be a fan of a soap, something that the prim and proper [[Battle Butler|Alfred]] chastised him for. Later shown to be [[Hypocritical Humor]] as Alfred begins riffing on the show, with obvious knowledge of previous plot points.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Parody Tropes]]