Line #61 Main/MatryoshkaObject


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/33445_russian_nesting_dolls_1_222.jpg]]
2
3	->''"I'm full of tinier men!"''
4	-->-- '''The Living Doll''', ''WesternAnimation/TheTick''
5
6	A form of replication in which a container holds a smaller version of itself. Sometimes, the smallest container holds a [[EasterEgg surprise]] for the person who goes through the trouble of opening all those layers.
7
8	In UsefulNotes/{{Russia}}, Matryoshka Dolls are commonly used to symbolize motherhood and fertility. In fiction, these types of objects can also serve as a visual motif for a character's nested identities or society's hierarchies.
9
10	SuperTrope to NestedMouths and RecursiveAmmo. See also DrosteImage and MiniMe. Compare to NestedStory and RecursiveReality.
11
12	----
13	!!Examples:
14
15	[[foldercontrol]]
16
17	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
18	* In ''Anime/YuGiOhZEXAL'', Housaku Yasai uses move a called "Tomato Matryoshka" which allows him to summon another "Tomato Matryoshka" from his hand or deck when it is Normal Summoned.
19	* ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann''. The titular mech is the size of a galaxy, piloted by Super Galaxy Gurren Lagann, the size of a moon, piloted by Arc Gurren Lagann, the size of a mountain, piloted by Gurren Lagann, the size of a house, controlled ([[CombiningMecha mostly]]) by Lagann, the size of a large golf cart, piloted by Simon, the size of a man. Simon pilots himself. [[ExaggeratedTrope Taken even further]] in the movie edition, where the titular mech pilots Super TTGL, which is the size of several galaxies (TTGL makes up about the size of Super TTGL's head).
20	* In ''Webcomic/HetaliaAxisPowers'', Santa goes missing one year, so the nations help by delivering presents themselves. Japan fills his gifts with games and boxes nested inside larger boxes.
21	-->'''Kid:''' ''[opening his presents]'' Whoa! More boxes are in this box! No matter how many boxes I open, there're more inside them, Dad! It's like a matryoshka doll!
22	* Used in the ''Anime/{{Wowser}}'' episode "Slap Happy Birthday" when Wowser finds a birthday present from Ratso on his doorstep, which turns out to be one of these, only for Wowser to find an itty-bitty (explosive) bone after taking all of the boxes out of the other.
23	[[/folder]]
24
25	[[folder:Comic Books]]
26	* In a ''ComicBook/TheFabulousFurryFreakBrothers'' comic, Fat Freddy brings home a shrink-wrapped package of marijuana. It has another layer of shrink wrap inside, which has another layer, which has another... although just before Franklin and Phineas are about to kill him for spending their drug money on plastic bags, there is indeed a tightly compressed bag of marijuana at the very center.
27	* In ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye'', [[spoiler:Ultra Magnus]] turns out to be a cross between this and MetaMecha; it's a long story...
28	* ''Media/XsOmnibus'': Played with when the character Auto creates a math rule in which the hypotenuse of every triangle becomes the smallest leg of a circle, all while the meaning of the word hypotenuse stays the same and the triangle remains a closed shape. This cause every triangle to infinitely collapse in on itself and create a Matryoshka-type paradox.
29	[[/folder]]
30
31	[[folder:Fan Works]]
32	* In the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' of Creator/AAPessimal, [[AmoralAfrikaner Rebecka Smith-Rhodes]] is a young Witch whose first mentors in the Craft were [[UsefulNotes/{{Russia}} Rodinian]]. A Rodinian witch with a more mystical streak uses the nested Matryoshka dolls to explain how it works: each successive layer in the doll represents another witch in the chain and you can go as far back as you like. She looks at Bekki and with each successive doll, speaks the name of a Witch. Bekki understands as she gets to the familiar name of Irena Politek, then opens the doll and brings out the whole and unbreakable smallest doll inside it. The witch names this as "Rebecka Yohannovna". Then the seemingly solid Bekki-object seperates in two and this reveals an even smaller doll inside - but just a shape in silver light. The mystic then tells Bekki "Who knows, Firebird?" and ends the illusion.
33	** Bekki is aware the other Rodinian Witches (including her Godsmother) know more about the dolls than they are prepared to tell and expect her to work it out for herself. At a time of ''real'' peril, however, she discovers that like [[UsefulNotes/{{Russia}} Rodinian]] stacking dolls - her [[TalkingToThemself inner dialogue]] can go all the way back to "Fifth Thoughts" and each level has a different, familiar, voice. Somehow the dolls are enabling this.
34	[[/folder]]
35
36	[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
37	* In ''WesternAnimation/HowTheGrinchStoleChristmas'', one waiter serves a tray containing another waiter, and so on, until a tiny one gives a strawberry to Cindy Lou Who.
38	* One of the toys in ''Franchise/ToyStory'' is a nesting egg.
39	* ''WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas'':
40	** A Mr. Hyde character that keeps a smaller Hyde under his hat, who in turn has a smaller Hyde under his hat.
41	** A nested doll appears in the "Making Christmas" sequence, the smallest doll of which contains a live scorpion. ([[FridgeLogic We never see it opened.]])
42	* In ''WesternAnimation/IceAge: A Mammoth Christmas'', Scrat gets a giant acorn from Santa, which opens up to reveal another acorn inside, and another, and another and another, until eventually he gets the real (small) acorn in the middle.
43	* The closing credits of ''WesternAnimation/Cars2'' show [[TheOtherDarrin Fillmore]], Sarge, Luigi, and Guido as nesting dolls.
44	* One of the Misfit Toys in ''WesternAnimation/RudolphTheRedNosedReindeer'' is a clown nesting doll, whose smallest doll contains a wind-up mouse.
45	* The present which WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck receives from [[WesternAnimation/SaludosAmigos Jose Carioca]] and Panchito Pistoles at the very beginning of ''WesternAnimation/TheThreeCaballeros''.
46	* In ''WesternAnimation/RiseOfTheGuardians'', BadassSanta Nicholas St. North [[DareToBeBadass challenges Jack Frost]] by asking, "What is your center?" He uses a Matryoshka doll of himself to illustrate his point. Each consecutive shell reveals a facet of his personality; powerful, jolly, mysterious, until he shows the center doll, which has a baby-face with wide eyes to illustrate his center, his sense of wonder.
47	* In ''Animation/TheFrogPrincess'', the needle that can kill Koshchei is contained in an egg, which was swallowed by a bird, which was swallowed by a rabbit, which is locked in a box.
48	* In ''WesternAnimation/AliceInWonderland'', under the Mad Hatter's hat is a smaller hat for the March Hare with an even smaller one under it for the Dormouse.
49	[[/folder]]
50
51	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
52	* In ''Film/SonicTheHedgehog2020'', one of Robotnik's machines is a mecha that, every time it explodes, releases a smaller mecha inside of it. At its smallest, it's a sticky time bomb that blows up and knocks Sonic unconscious.
53	* In ''Film/TheSorcerersApprentice'', Morgana's prison is a literal nesting doll. She's trapped at the center, and each of the other layers imprisons a different Morganan ([[BlackMagic evil magician]]).
54	[[/folder]]
55
56	[[folder:Literature]]
57	* ''Literature/TheCatInTheHatComesBack'': The Cat has Little Cat A under his hat, who has Little Cat B under its hat and so forth. [[spoiler:Underneath Cat Z's hat is the "Voom", which unleashes some kind of RealityBreakingParadox effect only for when the GodzillaThreshold has been reached (in the case, cleaning up the yard)]].
58	* Inverted in ''Literature/The500HatsOfBartholomewCubbins'' (also by Creator/DrSeuss): Cubbins' hat contains an identical hat. Removing the second hat reveals a third hat, which also looks exactly the same. Starting at hat 451, the hats actually get bigger.
59	* In Creator/CoryDoctorow's ''Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town'', three of the protagonist's brothers are Matryoshka dolls in the literal sense (by the way, his father is a mountain, his mother a washing machine and two of his other brothers are an island and an undead ghoulish thing), so when the one with the actual digestive system goes missing, the other two start to starve.
60	* In ''Literature/TheThirdPoliceman'', one of the policemen occupies his time making boxes which contain perfect smaller replicas of themselves. The protagonist is highly disturbed by this.
61	* ''Literature/ToyTerrorBatteriesIncluded'' has a child-sized KillerRobot called the Annihilator 3000, where upon being smashed by a golf club, breaks apart... only to reveal two smaller robots inside, two Annihilator 1500s. Turns out one of them (the one occupying the 3000's head-space) is evil and programmed to KillAllHumans, while the other is good.
62	* ''[[Literature/JackelianSeries Secrets of the Fire Sea]]'' has a virtual example: the Joshua Egg, a mathematical puzzle left as a clue to the Conquests' researches. Every layer of equations that is solved reveals a document and the next, smaller "Egg" inside.
63	[[/folder]]
64
65	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
66	* In the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "The Chase", Picard's old archaeology professor brings him a [[http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Kurlan_naiskos Kurlan naiskos]] as a gift. An ancient relic, the figure opens up to reveal several smaller versions of the figure inside.
67	* In the ''Series/{{Community}}'' ChristmasEpisode "Abed's Uncontrolable Christmas", Abed finds a gift labeled "Meaning of Christmas" has two nested boxes inside. Inside the last one is a DVD collection of the first season of ''Series/{{Lost}}'':
68	-->'''Pierce:''' ''That's'' the meaning of Christmas?\
69	'''Abed:''' No, it's a metaphor. It represents [[TakeThat lack of payoff]].
70	* Speaking of ''Series/{{Lost}}'', Howard L. Zukerman keeps diamonds a nested doll in the episode "Exposé".
71	* The TV version of ''Series/TinkerTailorSoldierSpy'' has a traditional Russian one in its intro. Each doll is revealed to have an irate expression until the final one, which is blank. This is reflecting the search for a Russian mole at the heart of [=MI6=].
72	* In ''Series/KaizokuSentaiGokaiger'', the HumongousMecha are nested in each other, each releasing the next-smallest. Sadly, the toys can't do that.
73	* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In the serial "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS18E7Logopolis Logopolis]]", the Master disguises his TARDIS as a police box, [[XanatosGambit and the Doctor materializes his TARDIS]] around it. [[ItMakesAsMuchSenseInContext Somehow]] this results in a large number of [=TARDISes-within-TARDISes,=] with the "innermost" one opening to a hitherto-nonexistent back door on the original TARDIS.
74	* In one episode of ''Series/{{Castle\|2009}}'', Castle and Beckett have to check Eastern European shops to try to find a candy bar the victim had (so that they can hopefully identify her). Beckett tells the captain Castle "had to buy something in every shop!" He's then seen showing off a set of new nesting dolls, gleefully explaining that they defy the laws of physics because "Just when you think there can't be another one..."
75	* An episode of ''Series/TheBigComfyCouch'' had Loonette and Major Bedhead unwrapping an extra large package that Auntie Macasar had delivered, only for every box to progressively contain a smaller box. Inside the smallest box were some extra small toiletries for Molly.
76	* In ''Series/{{The Librarians\|2014}}'' [[Myth/SlavicMythology Koschei's Needle]] is a dagger hidden with a series of nesting chests, each a different color.
77	* In the fifth season of ''Series/TheMaskedSinger'', a [[spoiler:trio]] of singers has this as their costumes, known as the Russian Dolls. As commented in the promo for the season: "They multiplied!? Could there be more?" Indeed, one of the biggest challenges for the judges was figuring out exactly how many singers were actually part of the costume.
78	* ''Series/CutthroatKitchen'' used one of these as a sabotage, consisting of a three-gallon, a one-gallon, and a twelve-ounce set of stock pots that the chef had to shuffle through every ten minutes, starting with the biggest and moving to the smaller ones. The chef who ultimately ended up with this struggled heavily, failing to even get his water boiling with the three gallon one and spilling almost half of his dish when moving from the middle pot to the smallest one.
79	[[/folder]]
80
81	[[folder:Music]]
82	* One of the "good" things listed in "Definition of Good" by Music/TheyMightBeGiants is "Thing that's stored in a larger version of itself".
83	[[/folder]]
84
85	[[folder:Pro Wrestling]]
86	* [[Wrestling/ImpactWrestling TNA]] had Wrestling/VinceRusso's [[FunWithAcronyms Sports Entertainment Xtreme]], a PowerStable so large it had other power stables inside of it. This is likely something TNA picked up from Wrestling/{{AAA}}, which has had stables of comparable size such as La Sociedad, though the latter was a joining of multiple stables rather than one that formed internal groups on its own.
87	* Wrestling/{{CHIKARA}} in 2014 had The Flood, the amalgamation of {{Heel}} groups out to destroy CHIKARA. Along with the BigBad Wrestling/{{Deucalion}} and his [[TheDragon Dragon]] Wrestling/JimmyJacobs, there were five subgroups, Wrestling/DieBruderschaftDesKreuzes (originally existed from 2009-2012); GEKIDO (2012); The Colony: Xtreme Force (debuted in 2013); The Wrecking Crew (led by Wrestling/SidneyBakabella) and The Odditorium (led by Wrestling/SinnBodhi). There were also [[Wrestling/HunterJohnston Delirious]], [[Wrestling/TheColonyWrestling Soldier Ant]], [[Wrestling/KaijuBigBattel Dr. Cube]] and assorted {{Mooks}}.
88	[[/folder]]
89
90	[[folder:Video Games]]
91	* One of the enemies in ''VideoGame/AlienHominid'' is a bunch of robotic Russian Doll {{bears\|AreBadNews}} that fight you partway through the boss.
92	* Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum from ''VideoGame/AmericanMcGeesAlice'' can open up and spawn smaller, weaker copies of themselves.
93	* You can get a couple of them to decorate your home with in ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossing: New Leaf''. Gulliver will give you a traditional, 3-piece set as a souvenir if he asks you trivia about Russia, and if you build an anatomically satisfactory [[{{Snowlems}} snowman]], it may thank you by sending you a 4-piece snowman family set in the mail. Both can be opened out in a row or tucked back away by touching them.
94	* In ''VideoGame/TheBindingOfIsaac'', it's possible to open a chest only to find another, smaller chest inside of it. This can potentially happen multiple times in a row, leading to smaller and smaller chests.
95	* ''VideoGame/BloonsTowerDefense'': Every single Bloon except the [[TheGoomba Red Bloon]] counts as one, holding one or more lesser Bloon types within and releasing them when popped.
96	* In ''VideoGame/DevilSurvivor2'', [[spoiler:the manifested Dragon Stream]] is one of these. It's a segmented "dragon" made up of heads linked by NestedMouths. [[spoiler:When you beat Mizar, it ends up swallowing Mizar along with every head in the chain until the last is left.]]
97	* Some treasure chests in ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry'' games are like this, and the inner chests are inexplicably the exact same size as their containers.
98	* VideoGame/DoomEternal: The BFG 9000 can be found powering the BFG 10000, a battleship-sized version of the normally hand-carried weapon.
99	* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'':
100	** The Grangalan outside Costa del Sol can spawn smaller versions of itself known Grangalan Jr. for the second generation and Grangalan Jr. Jr. for the third and smallest generation.
101	** The [[PlotCoupon Black Materia]] is contained within the Temple of the Ancients. When the party goes in and discovers it, they discover it is actually a replica of the real thing, and the real Black Materia is actually the Temple itself that contains it.
102	* In ''VideoGame/JumpStartKindergarten'', there's a game where you can interact with the matryoshka dolls.
103	* In ''VideoGame/KidIcarusUprising'', this is one of the forms [[{{Shapeshifter}} Thanatos]] assumes during his boss fight.
104	* In ''VideoGame/LuckBeALandlord'', a Matroyoshka Doll symbol will periodically destroy itself only to become a smaller doll with a larger payout, until it reaches its smallest size.
105	* The Mammoshka boss in ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiDreamTeam''. It's a mammoth like creature inside a whole horde of mammoth like shells each slightly bigger than the one inside it. The actual creature even turns out to be less than half the size of the thing you start out facing!
106	* ''VideoGame/MoshiMonsters'' has Yana the Bobbly Wobblov, who's animation makes them pop open.
107	* In ''VideoGame/PaperMarioStickerStar'', the boss of World 4 is a gigantic ice statue of Bowser. Once you deplete its health enough, it breaks apart, only to reveal an identical, smaller statue within. This continues until you uncover the one controlling it, [[spoiler:a [[{{Snowlems}} Mr. Blizzard]]]].
108	* ''VideoGame/{{Pronty}}'' has an AdvancingBossOfDoom, Raksha, who's as large as the tunnel it's fought in and pursues you until it's defeated. The moment Raksha dies, however, it regurgitates a smaller, red version of itself, and you need to defeat it all over again! Thankfully the smaller red Raksha isn't as difficult as it's initial form.
109	* ''VideoGame/TheRoomMobileGame'' is centered on an elaborate puzzle box, with intricate contraptions in every side that eventually open it to reveal another puzzle box inside, which in turn leads to another, and so on. Given that you have to [[GogglesDoSomethingUnusual use a special eyepiece to see some of the clues]] to solve them, and how each box is more complicated than the one before, things get stranger and stranger the deeper you go.
110	* ''VideoGame/SpiderManAndTheXMenInArcadesRevenge'': The FinalBoss starts as an AttackOfThe50FootWhatever and shrinks into smaller forms the more you damage it, until finally the mecha is destroyed and a half-dozen Arcade robots pop out of it.
111	* ''VideoGame/{{Stacking}}'' takes place in a world of Matryoshka dolls, so this counts for everyone in it.
112	* ''VideoGame/StarRuler'' allows people to [[DesignItYourselfEquipment design their own starships, then adjust the ship size]], from smaller than a Coke can to [[PlanetSpaceship larger than the galaxy]]. It's possible to build a size 2000 carrier which has docking space for a size 1500 carrier, then a 1000, then a 500, et cetera. With Quantum Compressors, the trope can be {{Inverted}} - it's possible to build a ship with a [[BiggerOnTheInside storage space larger than the ship itself]], allowing ships [[ClownCar to vomit out progressively larger ships]].
113	* The Battling Blowfish in ''Mii Force'' in ''VideoGame/StreetpassMiiPlaza'' is a giant pufferfish robot. After you break it's blue outer shell, it reveals a smaller, red one, after that there is still a yellow one inside.
114	* ''VideoGame/{{Subnautica}}'': the [[CoolBoat Cyclops]] is a submarine which contains a small docking bay suitable for storing either a Seamoth (a smaller submarine) or a PRAWN Suit (a MiniMecha). Both of these mount small storage compartments in which the player might choose to stash a Seaglide (a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diver_propulsion_vehicle DPV]], thus allowing the player to put a vehicle inside a vehicle inside a vehicle.
115	* ''VideoGame/TitanicAdventureOutOfTime'': To recover Georgia's real diamond necklace, you must get into Sacha's cabin, figure out the combination to his safe, and take out a Matryoshka doll which is the necklace's hiding place.
116	* ''VideoGame/{{Ultima}}'' makes this a signature of [[BigBad the Guardian's]] magic constructs, with nearly all of them being hollow geometric objects containing a smaller copy of themselves inside.
117	* ''VideoGame/YouDontKnowJack'': The intro to the "Elephant, Mustard, Teddy Roosevelt, or Dracula?" questions on the Facebook version of the game include matryoshka dolls of an elephant, a bottle of mustard, Theodore Roosevelt, and Count Dracula. In ''VideoGame/TheJackboxPartyPack'', similar intros accompany the "Kangaroo, Peanut, Albert Einstein, or Uranus?" questions from ''YDKJ 2015'' and the "Octopus, Coffee, Queen Elizabeth, or Frankenstein?" questions from ''YDKJ Full Stream''.
118	[[/folder]]
119
120	[[folder:Web Comics]]
121	* ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'' has (as of Book 17) the All Star, a [[https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2017-05-28 "Matrioshka Brain"]][[note]]using the author's original spelling[[/note]], a series of nested [[DysonSphere Dyson Spheres]] given over entirely to computer systems (including support infrastructure).
122	[[/folder]]
123
124	[[folder:Web Original]]
125	* Website/SCPFoundation:
126	** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-641 SCP-641 ("The Pacifier")]]. SCP-641 appears to be a normal matryoshka doll, but the dolls are extremely thin and the total number of dolls inside is unknown (it's at least 3,228, and may be infinite).
127	** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-1917 SCP-1917 ("The Armour Maker")]]. SCP-1917-1-36 through SCP-1917-1-42 are duplicates of Russian-made T-34/76 tanks that were created by SCP-1917. Each successive tank is 20% smaller than the previous one, and they were designed so they could be nested inside each other.
128	[[/folder]]
129
130	[[folder:Western Animation]]
131	* In the Fleischer cartoon ''WesternAnimation/BimbosInitiation'', Bimbo opens a door which contains a smaller door, which contains a smaller door and so on. The smallest door eats Bimbo.
132	* In the exclusive ending of the ''WesternAnimation/BluesClues'' episode "Blue's Birthday", Steve opens a present with an increasingly smaller present inside each one, similar to the Wowser example. Unlike that one where it was mean spirited, Steve gets a heart-shaped cookie from Blue that says "Thank You" for giving her the best birthday.
133	* ''WesternAnimation/RazzberryJazzberryJam'': One of the presents Louis gets in "Tuning In" is a crate from the "Bandleader Of The Year Association" full of smaller crates. The smallest, which is about palm-sized, contains a trophy that could not possibly have been able to fit inside it if not for the show's liberal application of {{Hammerspace}}.
134	* ''WesternAnimation/TheTick'': The Living Doll from "Grandpa Wore Tights" has the superpower to split his body in half and [[SelfDuplication produce a smaller clone of himself]]. Hence his ridiculous-sounding battle-cry "I'm full of tinier men!"
135	* In the WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck & WesternAnimation/BugsBunny cartoon ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Million_Hare The Million Hare]]'' (1963), [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qz3tvUDZO9I Daffy and Bugs compete to win a prize]], which turns out to be a "[[{{Pun}} million box]]"... which proves to be [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin just that]]: an enormous wooden crate, with ''one million'' tiny cardboard boxes inside. However, each of the boxes contains a $1 bill, and [[GaveUpTooSoon Daffy doesn't find out until after he cedes the prize to Bugs]].
136	** In "Knight-mare Hare", a sorcerer turns Bugs into a horse, but Bugs is able to remove it like a costume. Later, Bugs uses the same spell on the sorcerer, but when the sorcerer tries to remove the horse costume, he finds himself wearing an identical costume underneath, which has another costume underneath, and so on.
137	* ''WesternAnimation/StaticShock'': In a {{Crossover}} with ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'', Static and Superman fights a giant robot toy monkey, courtesy of Toyman, which unleases several smaller versions of itself.
138	* ''Franchise/TomAndJerry''
139	** In "WesternAnimation/SafetySecond", Tom is cornered by a large firecracker. Instead of blowing up, it breaks apart to reveal a smaller firecracker, which then reveals a smaller firecracker, and so on until all that is left is a tiny firecracker. Tom holds it in his hand and places it on his nose, and then it goes off with a huge explosion.
140	** A similar gag happens in "WesternAnimation/TheYankeeDoodleMouse" except that Tom holds up the firework close to his face instead of placing it on his nose.
141	* In the ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'' episode "Mom & Jerry", Dexter ([[FreakyFridayFlip in the body of a mouse]]) hides from his mother inside a nesting doll. ...except he isn't the smallest doll and his mom actually ''[[LosingYourHead removes his head]]'' to inspect the smallest of the nesting dolls, not realizing her mistake. While her attention is away, Dexter puts his head back on and sneaks away. [[MST3KMantra Perhaps it's best not to think too much about how Dexter pulled that off, boy genius or not]].
142	* A couch gag in Season 9 of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' has Homer run in front of the TV alone and the top half of his body pops off to reveal Marge. Inside Marge is Bart, inside him is Lisa and inside her is Maggie.
143	* The [[Creator/DisneyChannel Playhouse Disney]] series ''WesternAnimation/HigglytownHeroes'' featured characters whose appearance was modeled on these types of dolls.
144	* In ''WesternAnimation/UltimateSpiderMan2012'', there's a Doombot that contains a smaller Doombot which contains a smaller Doombot and so forth - all of them nasty, right down to the mouse-sized one. They get loose on the SHIELD helicarrier.
145	* Mr. Scatterbrain from ''WesternAnimation/TheMrMenShow'' does this in a music video from the episode "Movies".
146	* There is a ''WesternAnimation/MrBogus'' claymation short where Bogus finds a large fruit on the kitchen counter, but each time he cuts it open, the peeling falls apart to reveal a smaller fruit inside, and so on, until he is forced to settle with eating the tiny fruit found in the center.
147	* The ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' episode "Spies Reminiscent of Us" has a gag where Stewie becomes one of these when he arrives in Russia.
148	* In the ''WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse2013'' short "[[Recap/MickeyMouseS3E12Dancevidaniya Dancevidaniya]]", Mickey gives Minnie a nesting doll, with the innermost doll being a Faberge egg twice the size of the largest doll. Later, When Mickey confronts WesternAnimation/{{Pete}}, [[spoiler:he opens himself up like a nesting doll and out comes multiple Mickeys who outdance Pete into submission. At the end, Mickey produces a full-size sleigh with horses from the Faberge egg.]]
149	* WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse encounters a door-based variation of this near the end of ''WesternAnimation/TheMadDoctor''. He comes up to a door and opens it and four other doors apparently all on the same hinges, but the sixth one won't budge. Mickey decides to {{ram\|mingAlwaysWorks}} it, but gets outsmarted by the [[DoorJudo door's judo skills]].
150	* In "Lady Madonna" from ''WesternAnimation/BeatBugs'', the Beat Bugs help Lady Madonna, who is one of these. Her children are the dolls inside her, but one of them, Pasha, has gone missing.
151	* In ''WesternAnimation/MenInBlackTheSeries'', there is a [[LittleGreenManInACan race of miniscule Greys who pilot]] {{Mobile Suit Human}}s to blend in with humanity called the Arquillians. There's also another race called the microcephalopods who use arquillian mobile suits to bodyjack the arquillians' human mobile suits!
152	* In ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'', in "The Diet", Gumball and Darwin are searching for Richard's junk food stashes. They find a banana, which they almost don't confiscate due to it seeming like the only healthy item. Then Gumball peels it back to reveal an ear of corn, which they still decide to let Richard keep due to corn still being relatively healthy. Then Darwin peels the corn kernels back to reveal a [[VisualPun corn]] ''[[VisualPun dog]]'' Richard was hiding inside the other two objects.
153	* ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama'':
154	** In "[[Recap/TotalDramaMoMonkeyMoProblems Mo' Monkey, Mo' Problems]]", the monkey eats the coin the Wâneyihtam Maskwak have to retrieve from it. Then the monkey gets eaten by a bear. The team guides the entire bear back to Chris, who reminds them the coin has to be useable to win the challenge. Sugar performs the Heimlich maneuver on the bear to get the monkey out and grabs inside the monkey to get the coin out.
155	** In "[[Recap/TotalDramaSkyFall Sky Fall]]", Jasmine states that she isn't afraid of crocodiles, but since the ones coming after her are sent by Chris, she reasons there's a good chance there's tigers inside them and sharks inside the tigers. Of something like that, she is afraid.
156	* ''WesternAnimation/LetsGoLuna'': In "What a Matryoshka", Leo orders a Russian nesting doll but gets the wrong one. It's up to the gang to return the giant matryoshka doll to the store.
157	* ''WesternAnimation/WorkItOutWombats'': In "Junior Supers," Super uses a nesting doll to show how big jobs can be broken up into smaller jobs.
158	[[/folder]]
159
160	[[folder:Real Life]]
161	* Why, [[TropeNamer the matryoshka dolls]] themselves! A common variation of them is a matryoshka with faces of various Russian leaders, usually from Lenin to Putin.
162	* Plastic nesting cups, a popular baby toy in America, are just a cup version of these.
163	* By definition, baby mammals are smaller versions of their parents. Marsupials bring up the analogy to perfection.
164	* Aphids. The females are actually ''born pregnant''. A {{Squick}} factor emerged when zoologists figured out ''how''. [[note]] In many related species, the males never actually get "born" and carry on squatting inside their mothers, waiting for their sisters to mature, and... well. [[/note]]
165	* Nested functions are common in computer programming.
166	* A common prank/trick at Christmas is to wrap a special item within multiple layers of boxes. This is also the basis of the game "Pass the Parcel" -- a prize is hidden within multiple layers of packaging and is passed around while music plays. When the music stops, whoever's holding the parcel gets to remove one layer.
167	* A more sinister example are the [=MIRV=]s, Multiple Independently-targetable Reentry Vehicles. These are missiles that [[RecursiveAmmo hosts many smaller missiles inside them]]. They may be armed with nukes.
168	* The smallest scale of model railroad, Z scale (1:220), can be used on larger model railroads to represent a model railroad. Yes, a model railroad featuring a model railroad. ''Webcomic/{{XKCD}}'' [[https://xkcd.com/878/ had fun with this idea.]]
169	* Telescopic antennas are a textbook example of matryoshka principle in technology.
170	* [[https://iflscience.com/editors-blog/archaeologists-discover-mayan-temple-has-two-more-pyramids-inside-it/ The Temple of Kukulcan]] in the Mayan ruins of Chichén Itzá, Yucatán is a Matryoshka ''pyramid'', with at least two smaller pyramids in it. There are a few theories as to why it was built that way. A new pyramid could have been built simply as a renovation of the old one, or alternatively, built to erase the past from the city's memory with the arrival of a new leader. It's quite possible most of the {{Mayincatec}} pyramids are like this, beacuse why demolish or repair such a structure when it'd be much easier to simply build a new pyramid on top of the old one?
171	** Some long-standing castles in Europe are like this, having had successive layers of fortification added over the centuries to partially or entirely enclose smaller and older defensive structures.
172	** Could also be said of large cities worldwide, that have expanded over generations by absorbing one ring of suburbs and satellite villages after another.
173	* As mentioned in the webcomics section, the [[InconsistentSpelling Matrioshka or Matryoshka]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matrioshka_brain Brain]], a hypothetical object consisting of [[DysonSphere nested Dyson Spheres]]. The innermost layer takes in energy from the star and runs a massive computer system, with the next layer absorbing the waste heat from the inner layer to run its own systems and repeated for however many layers are built. Perhaps one of the most triumphant examples of JustForFun/AbusingTheKardashevScaleForFunAndProfit.
174	* Atoms. It was originally thought that an atom was the smallest indivisible particle. Then we found out they were made up of smaller particles. [[SerialEscalation Then we found out ''those'' particles were made out of even smaller particles]]. If the trend continues we will eventually find out that those are made out of smaller still particles.
175	[[/folder]]

Context Main / MatryoshkaObject