History Main / WhoWritesThisCrap

* In one of the ''[[UsefulNotes/MTVMovieAndTVAward MTV Movie Awards]]'', the cheesy writing in awards shows is mocked. Someone says a horrible banter line, and the presenter says, "Who writes this crap?" What follows is a pre-filmed sketch with David Cross pretending to be an awards show writer -- specifically, a parody of actual awards show writer Bruce Vilanch. "I'm a patter writer! I write this crap!"

* ''WesternAnimation/HazbinHotel'': Katie Killjoy explains she was only interviewing Charlie because Jeffery cancelled his cannibal cooking show, then holds up a poster of Jeffery Dahmer labelled "It's Dahm Good" with a sticky note saying "WHO APPROVED THIS?!"

* An issue of ''UsefulNotes/PlayStation Magazine'' features this as a gag in reference to ''VideoGame/BloodOmen2LegacyOfKain''

* The Game Over screen of the UsefulNotes/ZXSpectrum game ''VideoGame/BlobTheCop'' consists of the following verse:

* In ''Fanfic/TheKeysStandAlone: The Soft World'', John complains a lot about the rotten poetry sayings they keep finding. When someone tells him the gods wrote the stuff, he says, “Well, now we know they ain't the gods of poetry.”

* In the "Wassamatta U" episode of ''WesternAnimation/RockyAndBullwinkle'', the opposing football team is revealed to be entirely made up of girls.[[note]]Actually huge male goons dressed in girls' clothing.[[/note]] Rocky exclaims, "What kind of a game can you play with girls?" Bullwinkle replies, "Boy, this really is a kid's show, isn't it? Parcheesi, of course!"

* ''Anime/SpaceDandy''[='s=] LemonyNarrator does this when he's forced to say an IncrediblyLamePun.

* ''WebAnimation/HazbinHotel'': Katie Killjoy explains she was only interviewing Charlie because Jeffery cancelled his cannibal cooking show, then holds up a poster of Jeffery Dahmer labelled "It's Dahm Good" with a sticky note saying "WHO APPROVED THIS?!"

* ''Series/TheATeam'': In the episode ''The Crystal Skull'', the [[AsLongAsItSoundsForeign native chant]] at the end of the show is clearly "''[[LampshadeHanging Who wrote this? Who wrote this?]]''" repeated [[https://youtu.be/Pl-UkO9_Ofk?si=S8_AfyGCIylmPNW_&t=218 over and over again]].
* In one of the ''MTV Movie Awards'', the cheesy writing in awards shows was mocked. Someone said a horrible banter line, and the presenter said, "Who writes this crap?" What followed was a pre-filmed sketch with David Cross pretending to be an awards show writer -- specifically, a parody of actual awards show writer Bruce Vilanch. "I'm a patter writer! I write this crap!"

* This trope is a recurring gag on ''Series/TheMonkees''.

* ''Series/RedDwarf: Back to Earth'' has Rimmer reading what [[spoiler:the back of the DVD box]] says about him and exclaiming, "Neurotic? Neurotic?! I'm not neurotic! Who writes this stuff?!"

* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' took potshots at some of its less well-written episodes in "The Monster at the End of this Book", wherein the author of the ''Supernatural'' book series, upon being told that he's a prophet, apologizes to the main characters for having forced them to live "bad writing."
-->'''Chuck:''' All the horrible things you've had to go through... your parents' deaths, the monsters, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking that racist truck]]...

* Alton Brown asks, "Who writes this stuff?!" in the ''Series/GoodEats'' popcorn episode, after encountering a parody of Adam West Series/Batman1966.
** A bit of a TakeThat against himself, since Alton Brown writes ''Good Eats.''
* ''Series/StargateSG1'': Pretty much the point of "Wormhole X-Treme" is to give SG-1 and Co. a chance to say this. A good example is someone proposing that the third shot from a Zat Gun vaporizes its target (a retconned plot point from the early seasons) only to have a TV writer retort that that's "the stupidest thing [he's] ever heard."
** They also used "Citizen Joe", an episode where [[ItMakesSenseInContext a barber could see Jack O'Neill's life]] to mock some of their old episodes, particularly "Hathor", as well as some of the more complicated story points.
** They also took potshots at Creator/RolandEmmerich--writer of the original ''Film/{{Stargate}}'' film--by mocking his newer movies on the show.
* ''Series/StargateAtlantis'' had a quick mention, too, in "Doppelganger":

* Fox Mulder in the fifth season ''Series/TheXFiles'' episode "Post-modern Prometheus"; "This isn't the way the story is supposed to end... I want to speak to the writer!" It's then played as if Mulder was appealing to the writer of the comic in which the monster was featured and asks for a better ending.
* And now for something completely different: one episode of ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'' had this caption with the last four words crossed out:
** '''THE R.S.P.C.A. WISH IT TO BE KNOWN THAT THAT MAN WAS NOT A BONA FIDE ANIMAL LOVER AND ALSO THAT GOLDFISH DO NOT EAT SAUSAGES. THEY ARE QUITE HAPPY WITH BREADCRUMBS ANTS' EGGS A̶N̶D̶ ̶T̶H̶E̶ ̶O̶C̶C̶A̶S̶I̶O̶N̶A̶L̶ ̶P̶H̶E̶A̶S̶A̶N̶T̶.'''
** When the narrator reaches the last four words, he asks, "Who wrote that?"

-->'''Waiter:''' Fine, sir, he said in between clenched teeth knowing full well it was a most unrewarding part.
-->'''Interviewer:''' This is the silliest sketch I've ever been in.
* A potential example occurred in the fifth season finale of ''Series/{{Lost}}'': after leading the Others to the statue where [[spoiler:Jacob]] lives, Richard suddenly claims that only Locke (the leader) can speak to [[spoiler:Jacob]] when Locke asks if both he and Ben can go inside. Locke angrily accuses Richard of simply making things up as he goes along. This is likely a reference to one of ''Lost'''s most famous criticisms in popular culture; the idea that (especially during earlier seasons) the writers had no long-term gameplan and made things up with no intention of resolving them.
** Although this has a slightly different meaning when you find out later that [[spoiler:this Locke is actually the Anti-Jacob and therefore already knows all the rules, meaning that Richard *did* make this up.]]

** The episode "Normal Again" had several lines of this nature during the CuckooNest scenario, such as the psychologist saying that Dawn's existence created "inconsistencies," and commenting almost snidely that Buffy went from fighting a god to a bunch of losers from high school.
** In the episode "Shadow", Glory comments on the writing of a magic spell she's performing: "Dark incantations. Always overwritten."
** In "Tabula Rasa", after everyone loses their memories, Buffy has to tell Spike that he's a vampire and they're both pretty confused that he seems to be one of the good guys. This leads to a playful TakeThat to both ''[[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Buffy]]'' and ''Series/{{Angel}}'' and a ShoutOut to the latter, including the catchphrase for "Angel Investigations".

** From "Once More With Feeling":
--->'''Willow:''' I think this line's mostly filler.
* In one episode of ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'', Paris is playing what appears to be a holonovel with the Voyager crew as characters, and ends up being trapped in the brig with several other characters, including a holographic Tuvok. Paris, who just wants to get to the fun part already, suggests an escape attempt. "Tuvok" firmly shuts this down, asserting that, "Procedure dictates that we wait for the right opportunity to attempt an escape, whether it takes an hour or a week," eliciting a comment of this type from Paris. It turns out it was Tuvok himself and he intended it as a training scenario, not entertainment, which accounts for the lack of story-worthy pacing.

** Inverted in the episode "Soultaker", thanks to the fact that the riffed movie's female lead was also its writer.

** During the Comedy Central era, Crow T. Robot was shown to be an aspiring scriptwriter. However, whenever Crow shows off his scripts, it's usually Tom Servo who tells him his scripts suck. Usually really loudly and angrily.

** At the beginning of "The Doctor Dances", the Ninth Doctor is his surrounded by a possessed child and its clones. He forces them to retreat by repeatedly shouting "[[PunctuatedForEmphasis Go. To. Your. Room.]]" He then comments, "I'm so glad that worked. Those would have been terrible last words."
** When the Doctor meets his [[MyFutureSelfAndMe future self]] this inevitably happens. The War Doctor is not shy in his opinions of his successors, in what could be taken as meta commentary on elements added to the show since its revival in 2005; jabs at elements such as the [[YoungerAndHipper younger]], [[HotterAndSexier sexier]] casting choices ("... am I having a midlife crisis?"), the Revival Doctors' habit of [[AdrenalineMakeover pointing their sonic screwdrivers]] like Film/DirtyHarry ("There you are with the pointing again! What are you going to do, assemble a cabinet at them?!?") or [[NoHuggingNoKissing getting snogged by the various women]] they encounter ("Is there a lot of this in the future?").

* The ''VideoGame/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' video game has Spike reading an invocation to summon a demon lord that's holding Dru's spirit hostage. In the middle of the invocation, he pauses to say, "Who writes this dross?" (Which has some added humor value, since before he became a vampire, Spike was a writer known for writing [[PurpleProse truly]] [[StylisticSuck bad]] poetry. In fact, his original nickname of "William the bloody" was a reference to this, as in "William the bloody awful poet!")

-->'''Text Box:''' Captain Smiley is used to grabbing poles to make progress.
-->'''Smiley:''' I'm "used to grabbing poles"? Who writes this stuff?!
-->'''Star:''' [[VitriolicBestBuds Someone awesome!]]

** ''So let's see what nonsense they've made up for this game shall we? Well, I have to hand it to them. This time they've managed to come up with a decent storyline that doesn't involve the usual golden bananas. Only joking kids! This one's worse than all the previous efforts put together! I know you probably aren't expecting a best seller, but wait till you hear this load of rubbish...''

* ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'': In the episode "[[DuckTales2017S2E5StorkulesInDuckburg Storkules in Duckburg!]]", Louie films a KitschyLocalCommercial for Harp-B-Gone (his latest GetRichQuickScheme). The commercial stars Webby and Huey as a father and mother respectively, with [[LargeHam Storkules]] as their baby child. Huey is visibly disinterested the whole way through, and briefly breaks character after his first line to ask "Who wrote this?"

** One interstitial was a ShoutOut to Orson Welles' frozen pea meltdown (described in Real Life). The Brain is brought in to do a voiceover but he becomes more and more annoyed at the poor quality of the copy he's supposed to read.

* The Creator/OrsonWelles example below was parodied on ''WesternAnimation/TheCritic'':

--->'''Mr. Cat:''' ''[yelling]''' [[NoFourthWall I don't like this episode!]]

A SisterTrope to BetterThanABareBulb. Compare SelfDeprecation, SelfParody, TakeThat, WhoWouldWantToWatchUs, and WritersSuck. ThrowingOutTheScript can overlap.

* In a seventh season episode of ''Series/{{Castle}}'', "Dead from New York," the star cast member of the ShowWithinAShow has a violent episode during rehearsal, complaining about the poor quality of a sketch, and declaring the show's producer "dead". (The latter of course subsequently turns up really dead.)

* In the "WebAnimation/CheatCommandos" fanfiction "Fanfic/CheatCodenome" Crack Stuntman complains about the script and says the reason he continues to voice Gunhaver is for the paycheck.

* ''Series/TheATeam'': In the episode ''The Crystal Skull'', the [[AsLongAsItSoundsForeign native chant]] at the end of the show is clearly "''[[LampshadeHanging Who wrote this? Who wrote this?]]''" repeated over and over again.

* The first level of ''VideoGame/{{Emogame}}'' has a boss battle against Music/{{Creed}}. Before the fight, Scott Stapp explains that he and his band were literally formed from the shit of [[Music/PearlJam Eddie Vedder]], at which the player character remarks that at least they know they suck. Then Scott elaborates, saying that they have held onto that shit and used it to build an attack helicopter, and now they must kill you because you know their secret. Your response is "God, this plot is getting worse and worse."

-->'''Orson Welles:''' [[Film/CitizenKane Rosebud.]] Yes, Rosebud Frozen Peas! Full of country goodness and green pea-ness. Wait, that's terrible. I quit!

* In the Saint of Killer's origin story in ''ComicBook/{{Preacher}}'', the Devil and the Angel of Death are playing poker.
-->'''Satan:''' Who dealt this piece of crap?\\
'''Angel:''' You did, Nick. Remember?\\
'''Satan:''' I did? Fuck.

* In the SNES/Sega game ''VideoGame/{{Bubsy}}'', the stage names were all JustForPun. Bubsy was one of the first voice-acted characters in the 16-bit era. His response to one of the worse puns? "Hey, I didn't write this stuff."

* In ''Anime/DragonBallZKai'', regarding the [[BadBadActing poorly acted]] [[SpecialEffectsFailure low budget]] reenactment of the Cell Games, Mr. Satan asked, "Who wrote this junk? And why did they make me look like a bobblehead?"

** "Cole MacGrath vs. Alex Mercer": Throughout the episode, it revealed that both Wiz and Boomstick are going off of a script that was written in 2013 and was thrown in the trash. Boomstick is utterly flabbergasted by why it was written in the first place, considering it has a lot of outdated jokes, references and slang (including an evil version of Boomstick that comes out of nowhere and says "awesomesauce").

'''Crimson Chin:''' Actually, Cleft, you saved me... from myself. ''(({{Beat}}))'' ''Wow,'' that was shmaltzy. Who did you say writes this?\\