History Main / RecursiveCanon

* The 1980s revival of TheDCU's ''{{Blackhawk}}'' showed the original 1940s series to be a comic book rendition of the team. Weng Chan, the Chinese member of the team, understandably [[LampshadeHanging complained]] about the UnfortunateImplications of his portrayal as the stereotypical caricature "Chop-Chop".

* Similar to the ''Macross'' example, the ''MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha'' [[TheMovie movie]] is revealed in the [[AudioAdaptation movie Sound Stages]] to be a film being produced by one of the planets in the ''Nanoha'' universe, with Nanoha and Fate helping as technical advisors.

* Similarly, an issue of ''Teen Titans'' had the kids briefly watching an episode of ''TinyTitans''.

* Similar to the above, one very early ''{{Foxtrot}}'' Sunday strip had the strip's title panel on a newspaper Roger was reading.

* Similar to the Paper Mario example, one NPC in ''VideoGame/EarthBound'' wonders if ''[=EarthBound=]'' has been released yet.

** Similarly, one ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' short had the titular duo sit down in a theater to watch...''Tom and Jerry''.

* The Sailor V anime exists within the universe of ''Manga/SailorMoon'' which isn't exactly recursive canon because there never was a Sailor V anime. Sailor Venus DOES however sometimes read her own comic book which plays the trope straight. Sailor Moon manga also appear (but in brief cameo roles) as does the magazines that ran Sailor V and Sailor Moon (and parodies there of. RanRan instead of RunRun)

* In ''Fanfic/EmpathTheLuckiestSmurf'', Peyo still created ''Franchise/TheSmurfs'' and its [[WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs related]] [[Film/TheSmurfs adaptations]], but it's all VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory that came from a certain artifact that Handy and Empath have created in "Days Of Future Smurfed".

** In ''TheLordOfTheRings'', Gandalf discusses with Frodo how [[StartOfDarkness he began to suspect]] Bilbo's magic ring was an evil influence when ''[[UnreliableNarrator he lied about it]] in the first edition of his biography, [[Literature/TheHobbit There And Back Again: A Hobbit's Tale]]''. When going through Bilbo's papers after the war, Frodo [[RetCanon went back and revised]] the section on Gollum's cave to explain [[LiteraryAgentHypothesis what really happened]].

* ''VisualNovel/UminekoNoNakuKoroNi'' takes this and runs with it to the Nth degree. By the end of the series, it's a story about a story about a story about a game about a story about a game about some message bottles about a game about a murder. And there are probably a few layers forgotten there as well.
** And to boot, it might be possible that the events of ''HigurashiNoNakuKoroNi'' were actually a novel in the world of Umineko - although it's hard to tell whether it's serious or just a meta-gag when Battler mentions it.

* In one of the final expansion packs for [[TheSims]] 2, it was possible to obtain a computer that would allow your Sims to play The Sims.

* In an episode of MadTV, you can actually see an extra reading an issue of Magazine/{{MAD}}.
** In another episode, House (played by Michael [=McDonald=]) is actually watching an episode of MadTV. It features Stuart (played by Michael [=McDonald=]) causing him to remark that he [[CelebrityParadox looks just like him]].
* {{Sliders}} has a variation. In the finale, the group slides to a world where a "seer" has been watching them psychically across the multiverse. He turned the visions into paintings, books, and ultimately, a live-action TV show that looks vaguely familiar...

This often leads to {{Retcon}} or RashomonStyle, and may even allow the characters to [[RageAgainstTheAuthor criticize the author]] or [[WhoWritesThisCrap the work itself]]. More casually they may jocularly [[FourthWallMailSlot inform the audience]] or the AudienceSurrogate that it's not quite how it really happened, and that the story you've been reading ''contains some stretchers, to be sure.''

* The original ''Series/{{Star Trek|The Original Series}}'' television series, featuring the starship NCC-1701 ''Enterprise'', was so popular that a massive write-in campaign convinced NASA to name the first real-life space shuttle OV-101 ''Enterprise''. Much later, when ''Star Trek: Enterprise'' (a prequel to the original Star Trek) was created, there were several almost-explicit references implying that the NX-01 ''Enterprise'' was indeed named after the space shuttle. Let's recap: the fictional NX-01 was named after the real OV-101, which was named after the fictional NCC-1701, which was named (in-universe) after the NX-01. The mind boggles.

** With layers upon layers... in the note on that page is a link to a screencap comic based on ''HarryPotter'', which looks like a version of the comic, down to the note that has a link to a screencap comic based on ''TheSoundOfMusic'', which looks like a version of the comic, down to the note that has a link to a screencap comic based on the ''ComicBook/{{X-Men}}'', which has a link...

* In Gilbert Hernandez's stories in ''ComicBook/LoveAndRockets Volume 2'', Fritz stars in a gangster film VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory about the life of her own mother Maria, causing a rift between herself and her sister Luba. Gilbert later launched a series of graphic novels that purported to be adaptations of films in which Fritz had appeared in-universe.

* In ''Anime/LuckyStar'', magazine covers with the series' characters were often reproduced in-story, and in one case the characters discussed the series' (RealLife) promotion event in Akibahara--[[OtakuSurrogate Konata]] recommends {{cosplay}}, [[{{muggle}} Kagami]] disliked it was much too PanderingToTheBase, and Konata answer that Kagami should accept the fact that {{muggles}} won't read that anyway. When the trio visit a shrine near the end Konata reads a prayer that says 'Konata is mai waifu'. The joke being that after the manga was published, some otaku hung such prayers at the shrine featured in the book. So in the anime Konata picks one of them up, undoubtedly to the delight of the fan who wrote it.

* In one of the ''VisualNovel/HigurashiNoNakuKoroNi'' manga arcs Akasaka [[spoiler:writes a book based off the events of the arc]].

* The reviewers of Website/ThatGuyWithTheGlasses encounter all sorts of crazy stuff in their videos:
** [[WebVideo/TheAngryJoeShow Angry Joe]] lives on a space station, has a army of clones and the power to shoot lightning from his fingers.
** [[WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall Linkara]] fights an [[EvilTwin evil robot twin]] and a MultiversalConqueror with equipment ranging from ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' to ''Series/DoctorWho''.
** [[WebVideo/TheSpoonyExperiment Spoony]] has been killed and cloned by his MadScientist enemy Dr. Insano, and also became a [[GreenLantern Black Lantern]].
** WebVideo/TheNostalgiaChick associates with {{Mad Scientist}}s, fictional characters and a Makeover Fairy. Her sidekick turned evil and rampaged across America.
:: But all this is forgotten in the annual MassiveMultiplayerCrossover film featuring them all, where it appears that the characters actually live in (more or less) the real world; Nostalgia Chick, Linkara, Spoony ''et al'' really go by those names, and are employed by TGWTG to make the videos on the site.
*** It is brought back around in the fourth anniversary, ''ToBoldlyFlee''. Linkara's space ship and Joe's space station are involved in the plot, the reviewers are menaced by villains from previous reviews, such as [[Film/BattlefieldEarth Terl]] and Mechakara, and [[spoiler:in the last episode, the Nostalgia Critic has a very important encounter with Doug Walker]].

* An episode of the ''TransformersGeneration1'' cartoon has a brief shot of a movie theater playing ''TransformersTheMovie''. The events of which movie happened 20 years after the episode in question! Would have spared them a lot of losses if the Autobots bothered to check it out.

* The NeoGeo ''Double Dragon'' [[RecursiveAdaptation fighting game based on the movie]] has a stage where production stills from the movie are displayed on a large monitor.

* In the ''AstroCity'' universe, companies publish comic books based on the in-universe superheroes. The most popular comics are the ones officially licensed by the heroes, but some will take news events and embellish the circumstances. Comics for "fictional" heroes (Batman, Superman, etc.) also exist, but don't sell as well.

** In addition, the newspaper headline in Onett after beating the FinalBoss is "Chief Strong finishes [=EarthBound=], asks 'Where is the sequel?'"

* In Gilbert's stories in ''ComicBook/LoveAndRockets Volume 2'', Fritz stars in a gangster film VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory about the life of her own mother Maria, causing a rift between herself and her sister Luba. Gilbert later launched a series of graphic novels that purported to be adaptations of films in which Fritz had appeared in-universe.

* The epilogue of ''[[TheDarkTower Wolves of the Calla]].'' Just...that epilogue. And it causes Callahan to have a HeroicBSOD.
** ''TheDarkTower'' really takes it to the level of RecursiveReality. For instance, Eddie Dean determines that Co-Op City is in Brooklyn ''only in the fictional version of TheMultiverse he's from'', not [[{{Transfictionality}} the real version]] where it's in the Bronx, because, of course, Creator/StephenKing didn't do the research at the time.