History SelfDeprecation / Literature

** In ''Martians in Maggody'', a character snarkily suggests that one of the UFO "experts" may already be planning a new book with some really stupid title, like "Martians in Maggody".* In one of Ed [=McBain=]'s Literature/EightySeventhPrecinct novels, it's stated that cop Meyer Meyer didn't like ''Film/TheBirds''; in another, recurring BigBad the Deaf Man singled it out as the only Creator/AlfredHitchcock movie he didn't care for. ''The Birds'' was scripted by Creator/EvanHunter ([=McBain=]'s real name).

* In ''The Pleasure is Mine'' the main character Prate constantly believes he is not taking care of his wife, or spending enough time with her, believing he is not good enough. [[spoiler: This changes when his son has him babysit Jackson, Prate's grandson, who teaches him to believe he is a good person for his family.]]

** It's especially JustForFun/{{egregious}} in the "Azazel" stories, which always begin with the author having lunch with a character named George, who constantly insults him -- and then proceeds to run out on the check (sometimes even borrowing money from Asimov) at the end of the story. In fact, just in case the reader missed it (the stories never explicitly state that the narrator is Asimov himself), he makes a point of saying so in the introduction to the anthology.
** In the foreword to one of the ''Black Widowers'' stories, he acknowledged that when he portrayed the character of Manny Rubin as constantly insulting his "friend" Dr Asimov ("Just because I lend him some money, that makes him a friend?") the person he was ''really'' being unfair on wasn't himself but Creator/LesterDelRey (who Rubin was based on).
** The novel ''Murder at the ABA'' includes several insult exchanges between Asimov ([[AuthorAvatar self-inserted]] as a minor character) and the protagonist Darius Just (who is based on Creator/HarlanEllison).

* ''I Am A Cat'', Natsume Soseki's social satire of late Meiji-era Japan, not only features a major character bearing more than a passing resemblance to the author who comes off about as well as any other character in the book (i.e. not at all), but has a passage in which this character and several others directly bash Soseki's other work. (Since none of these characters are at all likeable, it may be that we're supposed to disagree with them, which would make this either a TakeThat at critics or a roundabout form of self-praise. It's hard to tell.)

* ''Halting State'' by Creator/CharlesStross has a scene in a ''[[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons Dungeons & Dragons]]''-based MMORPG, where the characters fight a slaad (i.e., a giant chaos frog) and then discuss what a ridiculous monster it is. Stross wrote the magazine article for 1st-edition ''D&D'' that slaadi originally appeared in.

* In ''The Brothers Karamazov'', of all places, when Mitya is interrogated, he claims that to give the full story of the crime would "take you three volumes and an epilogue." How long is the book at this point? Three volumes!

* Joan Hess once had her small-town police chief protagonist, Arly Hanks, read a mystery novel about an amateur sleuth whose daughter Talks In Capital Letters, while remarking that its plot seems ridiculously contrived. The bookstore-owner sleuth of Hess's ''other'' mystery series is the mother of a teen with this very VerbalTic.
** In ''Martians in Maggody'', a character snarkily suggests that one of the UFO "experts" may already be planning a new book with some really stupid title, like "Martians in Maggody".
* In one of Ed [=McBain=]'s Literature/EightySeventhPrecinct novels, it's stated that cop Meyer Meyer didn't like ''Film/TheBirds''; in another, recurring BigBad the Deaf Man singled it out as the only Creator/AlfredHitchcock movie he didn't care for. ''The Birds'' was scripted by Creator/EvanHunter ([=McBain=]'s real name).

-->''"It's just an arbitrary set of rules like chess or tennis or, what's that strange thing you British play?"\\

* ''Literature/TheHuntForRedOctober'': Jeffrey Pelt, the National Security Advisor claims that he is "... a politician, and that means that when I'm not kissing babies I'm stealing their lollipops."

* In ''Literature/UnderHeaven'', by Creator/GuyGavrielKay (emphasis added): When the narration discusses the importance of the timing of a certain pair of events (along with the movements of a different character being deemed "not part of any pattern that signified"), "Only a tale-spinner, not a true scholar — someone shaping a story for palace or marketplace — would note these conjunctions and judge them worth the telling, and '''storytellers were not important either'''. On this, the history-mandarins could agree."

* One more than one occasion in his stories, Creator/PGWodehouse included comments about what brainless chumps writers tend to be.

* In Literature/UnderHeaven'', by Creator/GuyGavrielKay (emphasis added): When the narration discusses the importance of the timing of a certain pair of events (along with the movements of a different character being deemed "not part of any pattern that signified"), "Only a tale-spinner, not a true scholar — someone shaping a story for palace or marketplace — would note these conjunctions and judge them worth the telling, and '''storytellers were not important either'''. On this, the history-mandarins could agree."

* In Literature/UnderHeaven'', by Creator/GuyGavrielKay (emphasis added):
When the narration discusses the importance of the timing of a certain pair of events (along with the movements of a different character being deemed "not part of any pattern that signified"), "Only a tale-spinner, not a true scholar — someone shaping a story for palace or marketplace — would note these conjunctions and judge them worth the telling, and '''storytellers were not important either'''. On this, the history-mandarins could agree."

* Creator/EdwardLear engages in a few pot-shots directed at himself in his nonsense-filled poetry. At least one of his poems is a spot of this trope.

* Robert Goldsborough wrote a number of ''Literature/NeroWolfe'' novels after [[AuthorExistenceFailure series creator Rex Stout's death]]. The final one features a victim who had [[{{Continuation}} been writing another author's character]]. At one point, Archie Goodwin slams the victim's writing. [[spoiler:The motive for the murder is that said victim plagiarised his last novel.]]

* ''Literature/LesMiserables'': Grantaire is a skilled orator, quotes classical literature at length, and can master pretty much any physical activity with ease, but describes himself as a complete ignoramus who only understands "love and liberty".

* Rob in ''Literature/AnOutcastInAnotherWorld'' occasionally makes jokes of this nature, although mostly internally. Alternate perspectives have shown that other people think more highly of Rob than he thinks of himself.