History Main / MediumShiftGag

* ''WesternAnimation/YOLOCrystalFantasy'', in "The Terry Cup", Sarah was crying in the bathroom at the Terry cup after her recent break-up, but then a tickler gnome by the name of Queeklebum comes out of the toilet, and tries to cheer her up with a little drink. But as Sarah takes it, Queekleblum warns her that drink was poison, and floats off. After taking that drink, Rachel's vision starts to twist, and rushes to the exit, as soon as she walks out, she's suddenly in a dark empty room, in live-action, while being played by Miachel Cusack. Then suddenly an emotional song starts to play, and Sarah begins to start dancing, until it cuts to reality, where Rachel has been drunk dancing across the party floor.

** Used for an AprilFoolsDay prank, with live-action puppets.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

[[folder:Asian Animation]]
* ''Animation/PleasantGoatAndBigBigWolf'': In episode 64, Paddi is trapped in a giant can by Wolffy and ticks him off by singing a song. Wolffy then gets angry, resulting in an InfernalBackground that is clearly live-action as he goes to open up the can and grab Paddi out of it.
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* When Mark's tripping on [=DMT=] in ''Literature/DeadMensTrousers'', the text changes to a comic-strip for a page.

* ''{{Series/Fringe}}'' did this unexpectedly. An episode of Season 3 revolved around the characters using LSD to take a JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind, which naturally involved a lot of MindScrew. At one point they find William Bell in his office, at which point everything turns into a cartoon. Walter outright wonders why Bell is a cartoon, only for him to point out that he's now a cartoon as well. This also helped cover up that [[Creator/LeonardNimoy Bell's actor]] was too busy to appear in person.

** "Graveyard Shift" has an appearance by Film/{{Nosferatu}} at the end, who's been flickering the lights on and off the entire time.

** There's also the classic scene in which Squidward wonders who was flickering the lights throughout an episode, and the camera shifts to see Film/{{Nosferatu}} turning the lights on and off.

** In "Hooky", The fishermen who try to catch SpongeBob and Patrick are live-action. Also, there are photos of dried fish at a gift shop, a can of tuna, and a jar of mayonnaise.

* The''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'' episode, "The Contest", had fantasy segments based on ''South Park'', ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHead'', ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'' and ''WesternAnimation/DrKatzProfessionalTherapist''.

** An episode set in the Stone Age had cutaways to the show's creators in deliberately choppy photoanimation explaining what was going on.

* There was an episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'' that had fantasy segments based on ''South Park'', ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHead'', ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'' and ''WesternAnimation/DrKatzProfessionalTherapist''.

->'''Peter:''' Believe me Chris, you don't wanna mess with drugs; I tried them once, big mistake! Things got way too real.\\
'' [cut to a flashback of a live-action Peter Griffin]'' \\
'''Peter:''' Holy crap I am freaking out!
-->-- ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' (normally an animated show)

* The punchline of the WesternAnimation/BugsBunny cartoon "WesternAnimation/RabbitHood" is that RobinHood has been [=MIA=] for most of the film, and when he finally appears, it's live-action footage of Creator/ErrolFlynn from ''Film/TheAdventuresOfRobinHood''. A dumbfounded Bugs comments, "That's silly, it couldn't be him!"

** One episode had the opening re-enacted by live actors, originally made as a promo for Creator/SkyOne.

** In Treehouse of Horror VI", Homer entered "the third dimension" and became CGI 3D, as did Bart when he went into that dimension to rescue Homer.

[[caption-width-right:279:[-Who looks like a puppet when out of the sea?-]]]