Soap Within a Show: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"Yugi, I think I'm pregnant -- And ''you're'' the father!"''|'''Tristan''', who is [[Mister Seahorse|male]], ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!: theThe Abridged Series]]''}}

# Comas (as per 1, [[Dude, She's Like, in Aa Coma]])

# [[Back Fromfrom the Dead]] (yet again 1)

# [[Easy Amnesia]] (Q: [[Let Me Get This Straight...]]...is there ''anyone'' here who doesn't have amnesia? A: I forget...)

# [[Say My Name|Oh, John! Oh, Marsha!]] (a reference to the classic [[Stan Freberg (Creator)]] routine)

{{quote| '''Calculon:''' Son of a bit. This is ''my'' house. But that means I'm blackmailing ''myself''.<br />

** [[Say My Name|"SENSEI!"]] ''[[Say My Name|"NINOMIYA-KUUUUUUUUUN!!"'']]''

* 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!"

** In the ''[[Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki]] OAV'' the girls all watch a strange alien soap opera starring excessively melodramatic blob aliens, but it doesn't get much actual screen time.

* In an episode of ''[[Stitch!]]'', Gantu is seen watching a soap opera which involves a woman that has been married 25 times, and most of her previous husbands are apparently in a coma.

== Fanfiction[[Fan Works]] ==

* ''[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/611320/1/newRanma newRanma]'' by "Space Pirate Hamster" features a show by the name of "Nurse Academy" that Kasumi (and her sisters to a lesser extent) is a large fan of. While recovering from surgery, Ranma-chan is a bit confused by the interwoven plots and unrealistic actor ages, but becomes strangely fascinated...

* In the ''[[Death Note (Manga)|Death Note]]'' fic ''[[All You Need Is Love (Fanfic)|All You Need Is Love]]'' in order to [[Broke Episode|raise funding]] for the Kira investigation Matsuda begins work on a low-budget soap opera which is (''very loosely'') based [[I Wrote Our Story|on the lives of the Kira Taskforce]]:

{{quote| '''Matsuda:''' Well, [[Significant Anagram|Inamo]] it turns out had an affair with Y's [[Evil Twin]] A and that A is now back in town but Y doesn't want [[This Is My Name Onon Foreign|Hikaru]] to know because he's afraid that A will seduce Y because they're identical and it's really hard to tell them apart.<br />

'''Light:''' And let me guess Hikaru is going to sleep with both of them because he's not only gay but he's also a whore.<br />

'''Matsuda:''' Um, well, I don't know if I'd use that term but what if he really can't tell the difference and then… Wow Light, you have really good ideas! You should help me write sometime!<br />

* The ''novelas'' described in ''[[Aunt Julia and Thethe Scriptwriter]]'' by [[Mario Vargas Llosa]] are supposedly not too far removed from actually South American radio dramas of the time. Until, that is, the plots of the separate ''novelas'' start to merge into one...

== [[Live -Action TV]] ==

* ''[[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.

* ''[[Red Dwarf (TV)|Red Dwarf]]'' has a ''[[Neighbours]]'' parody with androids.

{{quote| '''Kelly''': I wasn't with Simone that night, Brooke. I spent the night with Garry.<br />

'''Brooke''': Garry? Your ex-husband Garry? My business rival? What are you telling me Kelly?<br />

'''Kelly''': It's Brooke Jr.<br />

'''Brooke''': What about Brooke Jr?<br />

{{quote| '''Rachel:''' (discussing how Joey may not win a soap opera award) "Come on Joey. You're going up against the guy who survived his ''own'' cremation!"}}

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

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

* Done to the extreme in the ''[[That '70s Show]]'' season 2 episode 'Vanstock'.

* 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 [[DawsonsDawson's Creek]]-esque soap opera called "Mackenzie Falls" .

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

* ''[[Mad TV]]'' had a parody of K-Dramas entitled ''Attitudes and Feelings, Both Desirable and Sometimes Secretive'', or ''Taedo''. It featured accidental [[Brother-Sister Incest]], assassins, [[Fun Withwith Subtitles]], doppelgangers, [[Incurable Cough of Death]], and John Cena.

* An episode of ''[[ALF (TV)|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...<br />

'''Kate''': What sex? Who had sex?<br />

* In the sixth season of the popular Israeli satire show ''[[Eretz Nehederet]]'', every episode ended with a [[Gag Dub]] of some Arabic soap opera. The series was titled ''En Gvul laAhava'' (‘Love Is Boundless’), written with a font [[Foreign Looking Font|resembling Arabic script]]. A rather casual [[Crowning Moment of Funny]] was when one of the character’s daughter called her father ‘[[Leaning Onon the Fourth Wall|pathet]]’ (a word coined by ''Eretz Nehederet'' in a series of sketches joking about Israeli teens), and her father complained it’s ‘[[Genre Savvy|all because of television]]’.

* A season 7 episode of ''[[Seventh7th Heaven]]'' had Eric, who was off from work recovering after open-heart surgery, sitting around the house watching a soap opera about a woman named Maria alien DNA in her stomach.

== [[Music]] ==

* Technically, it's a Soap Within a Music Video, but the music video for [[Foo Fighters (Music)|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...?

* The daytime television show that Calvin watched in one strip of ''[[Calvin and Hobbes]]''.

{{quote| "Oh, Mary, you look ravishing in that skimpy negligee! <br />

Mmm ... darling, don't you wish we were married? <br />

But we are! ... or did you mean to each other? <br />

I've got to have you! Let's [[Murder the Hypotenuse|murder our spouses]]! <br />

* ''Medical Center of Love'' on ''[[Adventures in Odyssey (Radio)|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?!"

* ''[[Ed Reardons Week (Radio)|Ed ReardonsReardon's Week]]'': The main character's friend is a director whose latest blockbuster films are a trilogy about a dolphin named Dermot, who is in love with his human trainer. The clips the audience hears are all melodramatic twaddle. The trainer goes blind at one point ... and then Dermot donates his corneas to her.

* ''[[Max Payne (Video Gameseries)|Max Payne]]'''s ''Lords and Ladies''.

* The intro to ''[[Command and& Conquer]]: Tiberium Dawn'' flips though several TV channels, one featuring two people who yell at each other, [[Slap Slap Kiss|slap each other in the face and then kiss]] to swelling music.

* The soap opera in ''[[Dan and MabsMab's Furry Adventures|DMFA]]'' hasn't received a title yet, but [http://www.missmab.com/Comics/Vol_1101.php we have a vague idea of its plot] and as of this writing, [http://www.missmab.com/Comics/Vol_1109.php it has ensnared three different characters].

* ''[[Futurama]]''{{'}}s ''All My Circuits''. (Formerly the [[Trope Namer]].)

{{quote| "Let me get this straight. Does anyone '''not''' have amnesia?"<br />

{{quote| A disheveled priest interrupts two lovers (male boss and female employee) in an office.<br />

'''Woman''': Father Mcgrath, I thought you were dead!<br />

* ''[[Totally Spies!]]'' has ''Beautiful People, Horrible Lives''.

* ''[[DuckDuckTales Tales(1987)]]'' has ''The Young and the Featherless''.

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

** [https://web.archive.org/web/20130508122550/http://video.adultswim.com/king-of-the-hill/signor-martinez.html I think this sums it up pretty well.]

* In ''[[American Dad (Animation)|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.

{{quote| '''Killigan''': Can you believe Belisha and Brock switched brains?<br />

* In the 1980s ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1987 (Animation)|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' cartoon, Krang is shown to have a specific fondness for a soap opera of the "Oh John! Oh Marsha!" variety. In fact, that's [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|pretty much all the show seems to be]].

** Master Splinter has picked it up in [[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003 (Animation)|the 2003 toon]]. It's briefly [[Lampshaded]] in the CGI movie (made doubly funny with VA Mako's delivery), and ''[[Turtles Forever]]'' starts with him watching a man say "I'm not your stepbrother - I'm your ''[[Dropped a Bridget On Him|half-sister]]''!"

* The Autobots of ''[[Transformers Generation One1]]'' 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!

{{quote| '''Meldar:''' How many [[Evil Twin|evil twins]] were hatched from Dakota's birth sac on the popular daytime drama ''Andromeda 90210''?<br />

* Grim of ''[[The Grim Adventures of Billy and& Mandy]]'' is addicted to the show ''[[My Little Pony|My Troubled Pony]]''. Two [[Stock Parody|Stock Parodies]] for the price of one!

* In the [[Darkwing Duck (Animationanimation)|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 Onon 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 series of [https://web.archive.org/web/20140724045605/http://www.seriouseats.com/2008/08/videos-japanese-fanta-commercials.html Japanese Fanta Commercials] featured a series of improbable and terrible teachers that the students had to put up with. One of them was Ms. "Rose Princess," a soap-opera-esque lady teacher whose class was interrupted first by her long-lost suitor suddenly reappearing in her life, then by her mother accusing her of husband-snatching.