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| 5 | [[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/GarfieldAnimatedMovieTrilogy https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/garfield_gets_real_0.png]]]] |
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| 7 | ->'''Sam:''' I think I know what this is!\ |
| 8 | '''Dean:''' Okay, what?\ |
| 9 | '''Sam:''' It's a TV show.\ |
| 10 | '''Dean:''' [[SarcasmMode Ya think?!]]\ |
| 11 | '''Sam:''' I mean, here, wherever here is, this ''Twilight Zone'' Balthazar zapped us into. For whatever reason, our life is a TV show. |
| 12 | -->-- ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', "[[Recap/SupernaturalS06E15TheFrenchMistake The French Mistake]]" |
| 13 | |
| 14 | When characters in an ongoing story suddenly find themselves in a new fiction that views their entire history as a work of fiction, you're watching a Real World Episode. The intended effect is to make the audience believe that the characters have broken through the FourthWall and [[ThisIsReality entered your reality, as this new fiction is a stand-in for the real world]]. Stories with these plots are popular because of {{Deconstruction}} and LampshadeHanging jokes, as well as SelfDeprecation. Sometimes it's a form of raising the stakes, as at least two worlds may now be in trouble. The original world may turn out to be a product of someone's mind in the real world or it may be independent, with the ''real'' world inhabitants somehow learning about this parallel universe's story and becoming familiar with it as mere ''fiction'', so to speak. |
| 15 | |
| 16 | This trope is related to, but distinct from, RefugeeFromTVLand. There, a character is pulled out of a ShowWithinAShow, whereas a Real World Episode concerns characters the viewers have been following for some time prior to this, and no indication had yet been given that they were in fact in-a-universe fictional (other than the fact that they, y'know, exist in a TV series, movie, book, comic, or video game in the real-real-life). Quietly implies TheWorldAsMyth and can be paired with a ReadingIsCoolAesop. |
| 17 | |
| 18 | Compare MageInManhattan (where a powerful villain from another world, but not always another fiction, comes to assault the world of the audience), UpTheRealRabbitHole (where the "topmost" universe is recognized, sometimes arbitrarily, as the "real" one), and TomatoSurprise (where we learn the protagonists are not what we expected them to be). Contrast TrappedInTVLand (basically the inverse of this). |
| 19 | |
| 20 | ---- |
| 21 | !!Examples: |
| 22 | |
| 23 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 24 | |
| 25 | [[folder:Anime & Manga]] |
| 26 | * ''Franchise/FullmetalAlchemist'': |
| 27 | ** Ed and Hohenheim towards the end of ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist2003''; they never meet Hiromu Arakawa, but [[WordOfGod she has confirmed]] that [[spoiler:they really did end up in our London, and UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne and UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo were at least partially the result of all the alchemy that was going on in their world.]] The big plot twist was [[spoiler:that the other side of the Gate is 'our' world]]. |
| 28 | ** Inverted for TheMovie, ''[[Anime/FullmetalAlchemistTheConquerorOfShamballa Conqueror of Shamballa]]''. [[spoiler:Ed has been in Germany since the end of the anime, while the Thule Society is looking for a way into Amestris and end up invading it.]] |
| 29 | * ''Anime/ReCreators'' is an entire ''series'' of this, as characters from Anime, Light Novels Video Games, Fan Fiction, and Manga appear in the Real World. |
| 30 | * ''Anime/SonicX'' would probably count. At the very beginning of the series, Sonic, Eggman, and a whole menagerie of characters from their world are pulled into the explosion of Eggman's base, and end up in what is, for all intents and purposes, the real world. It gets progressively less "real" as the show goes on, however (for example, it turns out that the city Sonic and most of his friends emerged in was Station Square from the ''Sonic Adventure'' series, and later episodes had the two worlds merge in order to adapt both ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure'' and ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2''). |
| 31 | * Played fairly straight in most ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'' continuities, mostly ''[[Anime/DigimonTamers Tamers]]'', and {{subverted|Trope}} in ''[[Anime/DigimonDataSquad Savers]]''. The Digimon that appear in the "real world" often suffer a loss in [[PowerLevels power]], but they somehow manage to exist despite being made of data. Also, they can still use special attacks and Digivolve. |
| 32 | [[/folder]] |
| 33 | |
| 34 | [[folder:Asian Animation]] |
| 35 | * Season 8 episode 36 of ''Animation/HappyHeroes'' has Big M. coming to the show's production office and meeting the series creator Leo Huang. Cue RageAgainstTheAuthor for all the crap he's been forced to undergo. |
| 36 | [[/folder]] |
| 37 | |
| 38 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 39 | * The whole premise of ''ComicBook/{{Fables}}'', in which {{Public Domain Character}}s from folklore and fairy tales have decided to emigrate to our world. |
| 40 | * Franchise/TheDCU, prior to ''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'', had Earth Prime, a world that is in fact ''our'' world, with no superpowers or anything. ComicBook/{{Superman}} and ComicBook/TheFlash occasionally ended up here. Earth Prime got its own version of Superboy shortly before being destroyed in the Crisis. |
| 41 | ** Later, [[spoiler: Earth Prime was recreated, and the aforementioned Superboy wound up being dumped there after he [[NeverTheSelvesShallMeet punched himself.]] He seemingly lost his powers and did nothing there other than [[{{Metafiction}} reading the very issues you were reading]], {{troll}}ing DC message boards and making his parents cook for him. Even later though, the ComicBook/BlackestNight somehow managed to breach into Earth Prime; he regained his powers shortly afterwards.]] |
| 42 | ** He's stuck as a BasementDweller because people read about what kind of a person he was while trapped in the DC Universe. |
| 43 | * An early issue of Creator/GrantMorrison's deservedly famous run on ''ComicBook/AnimalMan'' builds to a climax in which the title character (a.k.a. Buddy Baker) freaks out because he can see the reader(s). At the conclusion of a long MindScrew StoryArc (which involves one of the few characters who can remember ''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'', as well as UsefulNotes/{{the Silver Age|of Comic Books}} version of DC continuity), Buddy has a long metaphysical conversation with Grant Morrison in person, who says that, at this point, he can't think of anything else to do with the comic than hand it over to somebody else. |
| 44 | ** It is heavily implied that the last issue of Morrison's run on ''ComicBook/DoomPatrol'' also takes place in the same world as his last Animal Man issue, i.e. the real world. Aside from the fact that the world seen in the Doom Patrol issue apparently has no superheroes, it also shares the same colour scheme with the final issue of Animal Man. And if we take into consideration Morrison's later DC comics, it seems the final issues of Doom Patrol and Animal Man both take place [[spoiler:inside the infant universe Qwewq, which is revealed to be our universe]] in ''ComicBook/AllStarSuperman''. This also means that [[spoiler:the final fate of our universe is to get speared by Frankenstein]] in Morrison's ComicBook/SevenSoldiers! |
| 45 | ** ''[[ComicBook/TheMultiversity Ultra Comics #1]]'' features the most literal RealWorldEpisode ever. [[spoiler:This chapter takes place on the real world, but it isn't the world depicted inside the comicbook. Earth-33 (a.k.a Earth-Prime) is the world of the readers themselves. The comicbook Ultra Comics is just a character in the actual story, a comicbook-shaped superhero made of paper and ink (or digital data) that acts like an avatar to its reader to fight The Gentry]]. |
| 46 | * The comics of Marc-Anthonie Mathieu explore the (two-dimensional, black-and-white) protagonists occasionally becoming aware of such things as "three-dimensionality" or "four-colour offset". These are implied to be dreams of the protagonists. |
| 47 | * ''ComicBook/DeadpoolKillsTheMarvelUniverse'' ends this way, with Deadpool using the Nexus of All Reality to enter the real world and murder the creators of his comic. |
| 48 | * The ''Series/DoctorWho'' comic in ''Magazine/DoctorWhoMagazine'' had a story in its 20th anniversary issue entitled "TV Action!", where the Eighth Doctor and Izzy traveled to our reality and meet Creator/TomBaker, who had played the Fourth Doctor. [[TheMadHatter Baker]] defeats that month's alien by merely ''[[TalkingTheMonsterToDeath talking]]'' to him and rambling endlessly. |
| 49 | ** The [[ComicBook/DoctorWhoIDW IDW comic]]'s final issue, written in honor of the TV series' 50th anniversary, recycled the premise. The Eleventh Doctor travels to an alternate dimension where ''Doctor Who'' is a fictional long running TV show, and he's just a fictional character, most recently played by Creator/MattSmith. During the course of the adventure he gets [[YourCostumeNeedsWork second place in a cosplay contest]], meets fans he's inspired throughout the years, [[NoBudget saves the always budget-less BBC money by letting them film his latest adventure]], and confirms that while Creator/ElisabethSladen may have tragically passed away, [[CharacterOutlivesActor her beloved character Sarah Jane Smith is still very much alive chasing adventures offscreen]]. Also, he's the one who suggests that Creator/PeterCapaldi play the next Doctor. |
| 50 | * In "World's Funnest", Bat-Mite and Mxyptlk fight across countless realities, briefly ending up in one made of photos, not drawings. Despite their God-like abilities, the weirdzo locales and POV's they've visited and the scores of mega-powers they've brought low during this fight, the place scares the crap out of them and they leave quickly by mutual consent. |
| 51 | * In a metafictional sort-of inversion, one Marvel Comics FifthWeekEvent was comic books based on what they would look like if published in the Marvel Universe itself. The writers there didn't know the secret identities of most characters, suffered from the FantasticRacism against mutants, and could not do comics based on what the heroes are really doing, so most such comics were very different from the real versions. |
| 52 | * At the end of ''ComicBook/MarvelZombies 5'', Machine Man and Howard the Duck go into a universe that isn't designated to collect information on zombies. They stumble across an actual Marvel zombie (that is, a giant fan of Marvel) who has become psychotic whom they kill. As the book ends, they comment on how the ZombieApocalypse trope itself makes little sense, cutting to a copy of their own book. |
| 53 | * Flirted with in ''ComicBook/TheSandman1989''. Dream's normal home is, of course, the Dreaming, but he can visit the waking world (the "real" world) whenever he wants. The last book in the series is titled "The Wake" and it's narrated in the [[SecondPersonNarration second person]], implying you (the reader) are watching current events. |
| 54 | * ''ComicBook/{{Vampirella}}'': The first Dynamite run ends with [[spoiler:Vampirella being sent to a universe by her mother Lilith where she is only a comicbook character.]] |
| 55 | * The 2017 five-issue miniseries of ''WesternAnimation/MightyMouse'' by Creator/DynamiteComics entails Mighty Mouse finding his way in the real world and having to help a bullied boy named Joey before they work together to stop a race of alien cats from conquering both the real world and Mighty Mouse's cartoon universe. |
| 56 | * Subverted in ''ComicBook/TheUnbelievableGwenpool''. [[spoiler:One of the latter story arcs surrounds the titular character believing that she's returned back to her mundane reality after an extended stay in the Marvel Universe, only to realize that she and her brother never actually left the comic after experimenting with some of her newfound abilities.]] |
| 57 | [[/folder]] |
| 58 | |
| 59 | [[folder:Fan Works]] |
| 60 | * The ''Franchise/StarTrek'' {{fanfic}} ''Visit to a Weird Planet'' had Kirk, Spock, and [=McCoy=] accidentally being beamed onto the set of ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries''. A sequel fanfic by a different writer, ''Visit to a Weird Planet Revisited'', had the actors beamed onto the real Enterprise. |
| 61 | ** ''Revisiting a Visit to a Weird Planet Revisited'' extends this conceit to Picard, Riker, Data and their actors from ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration''. |
| 62 | * Notably used in a ''Franchise/BackToTheFuture'' [[http://www.kristensheley.com/bttf/interactiveII.html fanfic,]] where accidental interaction with the creators and actors changes them to earlier drafts. Interference with Michael J. Fox's audition causes Marty's appearance to change to that of [[TheOtherMarty Eric Stoltz]], flying past Bob Gale causes the [=DeLorean=] TimeMachine to revert to a refrigerator, and tearing off a page establishing the [[MacGuffin almanac]] from the sequel's screenplay wipes out all the events stemming from Marty buying it in 2015. |
| 63 | * The [[http://shifti.org/wiki/Xanadu_(setting) Xanadu storyverse]], in which at a fairly large convention called "[[TitleDrop Xanadu]]" all of the [[BecomingTheCostume costumes become real]]. While most stories focus on weirdness and some on [[UsefulNotes/FurryFandom furries]], naturally a number of cosplayers were featured, with varying levels of mental change, from "Whoa, suddenly my costume is perfect!" to "Where is this place? Where did my TrueCompanions go?" Two stories have [[RefugeeFromTVLand characters and such from fictional fiction]]; [[http://shifti.org/wiki/Slinx Slinx]], a Franchise/{{Pokemon}} {{Expy}}, and [[http://shifti.org/wiki/The_Perils_of_Voice_Acting The Perils Of Voice Acting,]] a pastiche of He-Man, She-Ra, and other cartoons from that period. |
| 64 | * Way back in 2002, someone wrote a story called the ''[[http://www.henneth-annun.net/stories/chapter.cfm?stid=339 Fanfic Lounge.]]'' It took place in [[GoodGuyBar a lounge made for fictional characters]] so they could relax between fanfics. While it's uncertain how many spin offs were made, this one was about ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' cast, along with Creator/ElijahWood and Creator/OrlandoBloom, being gathered in the lounge in order to find a solution to the problems plaguing LOTR fanfiction. IIRC, this is where the LOTR cast discovers their fictional status, and Orlando Bloom and Elijah Wood are just as weirded out at meeting their fictional counterparts. The story featured the culture shock scenario for the LOTR cast, and contained such gems as: [[spoiler:Boromir trying to open a can of Mountain Dew with a dagger, the cast becoming confused at references to future events in the books/movies (the cast was taken some time before the splitting of the Fellowship), and perhaps the best part, the cast being informed of the existence of Yaoi slash fiction, and being informed of who is frequently paired with who.]] The two RealLife actors also experience their own variant, when [[spoiler: Elijah Wood is nearly torn apart when he accidentally walks into a room used to hold OP characters (and then later identifies ''Franchise/SailorMoon'' as being among them), and Orlando Bloom becoming horrified when he's told that the body he's currently inhabiting was pulled out of an NC-17 fic, explaining why he was missing his shirt (hard to explain, you'd have to read it).]] |
| 65 | * Appears in ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4413991/1/Harry_Potter_and_the_Soul_of_the_Hero Harry Potter and the Soul of the Hero]]'', where the author and Harry have a conversation for the sake of heroic DeusExMachina. |
| 66 | * The ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' fanfic ''[[https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NwdIJMALxxi6egHz832IuNIHy1J7JAqulJFoGeLM5tY/edit?hl=en_US&pli=1 My Little Dashie]]''. An {{inversion}} of the fandom's usual {{Self Insert Fic}}s, the story involves Rainbow Dash arriving into the real world (as a filly), and becoming essentially the narrator's adopted daughter. |
| 67 | * ''Fanfic/{{Anthropology}}'' has Lyra end up in the world of modern humans for a while, [[spoiler: her true place of origin.]] |
| 68 | * The premise of ''Fanfic/TheBookKeeper'' is that Wilson Bridges can meet characters from books. They briefly enter the real world, and Wilson comforts them, before they disappear back into their stories. |
| 69 | * ''Fanfic/ProjectBluefield'' has one in the ''VideoGame/FireEmblemFates: [[AlternateContinuity Devastation]]'' drabble [[http://archiveofourown.org/works/8562733/chapters/20102485 "Hot Dogs For Lunch"]] which, instead of taking place in the world of Hoshido and Nohr, occurs in a Costco food court. [[spoiler:With the narrator buying hot dogs for himself and [[UnexpectedCharacter Queen Mikoto of Hoshido]].]] |
| 70 | * The "current day" of ''Fanfic/CoreLine'' is a decade (or a little more than that) after an apocalyptic event in which elements of Fiction invaded the "real world" and changed it, both for the better and for the worse. Even after so long, Fictions keep on Emerging into the world and the "in this universe our lives were your entertainment" revelation still finds victims as a result. Some [[RageAgainstTheAuthor really don't take it well.]] |
| 71 | [[/folder]] |
| 72 | |
| 73 | [[folder:Films -- Animation]] |
| 74 | * ''[[WesternAnimation/GarfieldAnimatedMovieTrilogy Garfield Gets Real]]'' is based on the premise that every ''Garfield'' strip we've ever read has been made using props in a studio, and Garfield has never actually been in the real world the comic strips makes it look like he lives in. And then he travels there. |
| 75 | [[/folder]] |
| 76 | |
| 77 | [[folder:Films -- Live-Action]] |
| 78 | * The premise of the live-action ''Film/FatAlbert'' movie is that the cast of ''WesternAnimation/FatAlbertAndTheCosbyKids'' [[RefugeeFromTVLand come out from their show]] into a live-action world is plays in. |
| 79 | * ''Film/TheAdventuresOfRockyAndBullwinkle'' did this. |
| 80 | * And the Woody Allen movie ''Film/ThePurpleRoseOfCairo''. |
| 81 | * ''Film/{{Enchanted}}'' as well, also doubling as an AffectionateParody of the Disney Princess films. |
| 82 | * An early (and fortunately rejected) [[http://www.scifiscripts.com/scripts/wtchmn.txt Sam Hamm script]] for a film version of ''Script/{{Watchmen}}'' written in 1989, ended with Dan, Laurie and Rorschach inadvertently finding themselves in real-life New York City, where a young kid recognizes them as characters from the comic book. Of course, in the ''real'' 1989, children [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids generally didn't read]] ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}''. |
| 83 | * Inverted and lampshaded in ''Film/GalaxyQuest'', wherein the cast of the title ShowWithinAShow is transported to the spaceship of a race of aliens who believe the show is real and have based all their technology off of it. Naturally, they expect the hapless actors to save them from a genuine alien threat. |
| 84 | * The Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger film ''Film/LastActionHero'' is chock-full of both RefugeeFromTVLand and ThisIsReality. |
| 85 | * The movie ''Film/WesCravensNewNightmare'' uses this trope straight, but turns the {{Antagonist}} into the one doing the world-crossing. In this, the real-life cast of the ''Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet'' movies (including Creator/RobertEnglund, who played Freddy) are attacked by a demon who takes on the persona of the fictional Freddy Krueger. |
| 86 | * ''Series/TheLeagueOfGentlemen's Apocalypse''. |
| 87 | * This also occurs at the end of the short film ''Film/TheGamers''. [[spoiler:The roleplayers are all killed by the characters they are roleplaying.]] |
| 88 | * Believe it or not, this occurs in ''Film/Goosebumps2015''. Every monster R.L. Stine ever created is locked inside their manuscripts, and he has dedicated his life to protecting the world from them. Then someone opens one of the books... |
| 89 | * The premise for the movie ''Film/StrangerThanFiction''. The main character, Harold, is a real person and hears a narrator narrating his life. [[spoiler: He eventually ends up meeting his narrator.]] |
| 90 | * ''Film/BlazingSaddles'' destroys the fourth wall by having the grand finale gun battle/brawl spill out into the rest of the Warner Brothers Studio. We follow the characters through the commissary, through another movie set (where one of the characters announces he works for director Creator/MelBrooks). We then follow the villain to the Chinese Theater in Hollywood where he attends a showing of... ''Blazing Saddles''. |
| 91 | * The plot of ''Film/KamenRiderHeiseiGenerationsFOREVER'' involves the Heisei Franchise/{{Kamen Rider}}s being summoned into a world where ''Kamen Rider'' is a long-running television series and toyline. The villain gets the idea to RetGone all Heisei Riders across time and space by cancelling the first Heisei ''Kamen Rider'' show, ''Series/KamenRiderKuuga'', and ''Kamen Rider'' fandom itself is the main obstacle in his plan because ''Series/KamenRiderDenO''[='=]s implementation of RippleEffectProofMemory exists in that world. |
| 92 | * In TheMultiverse of the ''Franchise/UltraSeries'', the setting of ''Film/UltramanGaiaTheBattleInHyperspace'' is a mundane universe grounded in reality where the ''Ultra Series'' is a work of fiction and {{kaiju}} don't exist. Most of the film revolves around a lonely boy who idolizes ''Series/UltramanGaia'', and after finding a wish-granting artifact, magically transported Gaia across universes into his world. Then some bullies make wishes to create kaiju... |
| 93 | * ''Film/DeepInTheValley'': Diamond Jim ends up banishing CowboyCop Rod Cannon from the porn world of Deep Valley. TheStinger reveals that he is now working in Lester's old dead-end job at the liquor store. |
| 94 | [[/folder]] |
| 95 | |
| 96 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 97 | * Occurs in ''Franchise/TheDarkTower'' by Creator/StephenKing. [[spoiler: In fact, Creator/StephenKing himself appears in a later book in the series.]] |
| 98 | * Happens briefly in the first ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novel, ''Literature/TheColourOfMagic''. |
| 99 | ** Then in ''The Science of Discworld'' spin-off, the wizards at Unseen University manage to create a planet called Roundworld, a world free from magic and [[TheoryOfNarrativeCausality narrativium]]; it is, of course, Earth. In the second and third ''[=SoD=]'' books, the wizards discover that [[TheFairFolk the elves]] and the Auditors respectively have interfered with human history, requiring them to set things right by influencing the writing of ''A Midsummer's Night's Dream'' and ''The Origin of Species''. |
| 100 | ** The early Creator/TerryPratchett short story "Final Reward" has a barbarian hero, following his death, arriving in the hall of his "creator"; that is, the fantasy writer who invented him. |
| 101 | ** The fan film ''[[http://www.snowgumfilms.com/runrincewindrun/ Run Rincewind Run!]]'' -- created for the opening of Nullus Anxietas (the 2007 Australian Discworld convention) -- features Rincewind being hit by a spell that sends him to "meet his maker." (Which he does, at the convention.) For a fan film, they should have done more research. Rincewind ''never'' looks behind him while running (it slows you down). |
| 102 | * The end of the novel ''Literature/SophiesWorld'' involves the characters realizing that they are characters in a book and deciding to escape to the real world. [[spoiler: which is still within the book and therefore not ''our'' real world.]] |
| 103 | * Bernard Werber's ''Le mystère des dieux'' also ends like this: the characters actually hit the end of the universe... which turns out to be the page of a book. |
| 104 | * In the novel ''My Hero'' by Creator/TomHolt, fictional characters [[AnimatedActors clock out between chapters and negotiate with their agents for choice heroic roles]], all the while [[NoFourthWall actively bitching out their authors for shoddy plotting]]. Much of the book revolves around the misadventures of characters pulled into the real world, but since this vision of the real world is one in which mad Cornishmen build footballers from body parts and a literary agent turns out to be planning the End of the World, the "this is reality" effect is rather diluted. |
| 105 | * ''Literature/{{Inkheart}}'' by Cornelia Funke. The sequel pulls it in reverse, where characters from the real world enter the fantasy world. |
| 106 | * OlderThanSteam: In Part II of Cervantes' ''Literature/DonQuixote'' (published in fact many years after Part I) the title character meets fans of Part I, and even takes the opportunity to [[TakeThat bash]] another [[FanFiction Part II of dubious authorship]] that had been published before the real thing. In fact, Don Quixote swears that he precisely will NOT go to the tournament in Aragon described in "Avellaneda's" Quixote, even though this had been foreshadowed in Part I. |
| 107 | * Jasper Fforde's ''Literature/ThursdayNext'' series pulls this ''all the time'', in [[MindScrew as many ways as you can think of.]] It starts with Thursday Next's reality being the "real world" for the fictional characters she meets when she ventures into fiction (kind of like the ''Inkheart'' sequel that way). It's even possible to go behind-the-scenes in any work of literature (to the backstory, the frontispiece, etc) which makes it seem even more staged. Then it gets ''more'' bizarre when Thursday is offered a way to [[spoiler:un-eradicate Landen]] by hopping along to another world, which sounds even more suspiciously like our world. She eventually decides [[spoiler:against it, since the price for both her and Landen being alive was that they would not remember or have ever met each other.]] |
| 108 | * A senior-citizen Gamer in ''Literature/DreamPark'' tells the other Gamers a story about how, back in the days of TabletopGames, her adventuring party opened a door in a dungeon full of magical portals, and found itself in the living room where her gaming group was playing. One of the heroes shot the GameMaster with a crossbow bolt, and the entire dungeon disappeared. |
| 109 | * Inverted in Creator/RogerZelazny's ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfAmber'' novels, in which Amber is the only true world. All other realities (including our own) are just imperfect reflections of Amber. |
| 110 | * After an unusual incident involving a storm, a fire drill, and a cowbell, Literature/WaysideSchool is shut down and the kids are sent to different schools. [[LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt When they eventually return to Wayside]], all the kids recount their horrific tales at the other schools. [[ButtMonkey Todd]], however went to the worst school of all: YOURS. |
| 111 | * A short story in the anthology ''Fantasy Gone Wrong'' features a writer struggling with a unicorn to get it to save a centaur from a dragon. The writer and the unicorn discuss variations and reasoning. |
| 112 | * The Red Shirts in ''Literature/{{Redshirts}}'' travel to the real world to get the show they're appearing in cancelled. [[spoiler: Subverted in that they later discover that the "real world" was just as fictional as their own.]] |
| 113 | [[/folder]] |
| 114 | |
| 115 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 116 | * The final episode of ''Series/EerieIndiana'', "Reality Takes A Holiday", has this as its plot. Marshall is sent a script of the episode, and suddenly his home turns into a movie set. His family and friends are actors, and everyone starts calling him Omri Katz, the name of his real life actor. Dash X (who is aware that he's just a fictional villain) tries to have Marshall killed by writing his death into the script, but Marshall prevents it in the end by secretly writing his death out at the last second. After he yells "Action!" his life returns to normal. |
| 117 | * The SeriesFinale of ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'' [[spoiler:shows the surviving cast finally settle onto a beautiful habitable planet they dub the Earth. 150,000 years later, we're shown that this Earth gave rise to modern-day New York City, as well as numerous advances in robotics and artificial intelligence that seem suspiciously RippedFromTheHeadlines.]] |
| 118 | * An episode of ''Series/DiagnosisMurder'' had Amanda Bentley, played by Creator/VictoriaRowell, win a trip to the set of ''Series/TheYoungAndTheRestless'', in which Victoria Rowell also starred. Other regular characters from within the show and real actors from ''The Young and the Restless'' playing themselves, plus actors playing fictional ''The Young and the Restless'' crew, commented on [[ActorAllusion how much Amanda Bentley looked like Victoria Rowell]]. |
| 119 | * In the ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS06E13FarBeyondTheStars Far Beyond the Stars]]", Sisko wakes up as a ScienceFiction writer in the 1950s, and "Deep Space Nine" is just a story he's been writing. Of course, no one wants to read a story in which a black man commands a space station... |
| 120 | * In an episode of ''Series/GrowingPains'', Ben Seaver wishes his life were more like TV, and wakes up to discover his entire life is a television show called ''Meet the Seavers''. All the actors are referred to by their real names, and members of the production crew feature prominently. At one point Kirk Cameron, who usually plays Ben's older brother Mike, confides to Ben [[MindScrew that he actually is Mike, and has been trapped in the real world for years]]. |
| 121 | * The TV series (blending CG I with live action) ''Series/AceLightning'' featured a group of videogame characters trying to exist in the real world. |
| 122 | * The premise of the ''Series/RedDwarf'' ReunionShow ''[[Recap/RedDwarfBackToEarth Back to Earth]]''. Unlike most examples, several of the people they run into in the "real world" fairly easily work out what they are, and don't find it especially outlandish that a group of fictional characters might pop out into the real world. Of course, they ''are'' science fiction fans. [[spoiler:As it turns out, the "real world" is a drug-induced hallucination.]] (Strictly, it's not the ''real'' real world; it's one where the series is still going, and is more popular than ever... and where people stopped using DVD and went back to VHS... and where ''Series/CoronationStreet'' is a real place.) |
| 123 | * A meta-version takes place in the finale movie of ''Series/TheFamousJettJackson'': Jett, an actor in the show's world, switches places with Silverstone, his character on the ShowWithinAShow. |
| 124 | * In the ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' episode "The French Mistake", Sam and Dean Winchester get blasted into the real world where everyone sees them as their actors Creator/JaredPadalecki and Creator/JensenAckles, working on ''Supernatural'' itself. Among the things that the Winchesters discover are Bobby being named for a show producer, Jared being married to the actress who played Ruby (and luckily, not assaulting her thinking she's the demon, though Sam *does* FadeToBlack with her), and the show being filmed in UsefulNotes/{{Vancouver}}. Of course, the episode still has a kill count... one that includes [[spoiler:actor Creator/MishaCollins (Castiel) and series creator Eric Kripke]]. |
| 125 | ** Oddly enough, while several people comment on how oddly "Jared" and "Jensen" are acting (or not acting, since Sam and Dean can't act), no one comments on how "Jensen" is constantly in-character as Dean — Dean's voice is an octave lower than Jensen's making it jarring for people to hear him out of character and should be a cue to everyone around them that something is off about him. |
| 126 | ** Inverted with the episode "Scoobynatural," where the characters are plopped into an episode of ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooWhereAreYou'' becoming cartoon figures in the process. |
| 127 | * One of the final episodes of ''Series/UFO1970'' has Ed Straker finding himself in an alternate reality where he is an actor filming a TV series called UFO, with other characters from the series using their actors' real names. |
| 128 | * The creators of [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Buffy]], Series/{{Angel}}, [[Series/XenaWarriorPrincess Xena]] and [[Series/HerculesTheLegendaryJourneys Hercules]] LOVE this trope. Each of these series has at least one episode happening in the "real world". Hercules even gets to keep his powers throughout his episodes. |
| 129 | ** Subverted in the case of Xena and Hercules, as their "real world" episodes are set in the same universe as their regular series, just thousands of years later, with Xena and her friends being reincarnated in the modern era and Hercules being ReallySevenHundredYearsOld ([[BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy and living in the present as Kevin Sorbo]]). They're also both famed InUniverse, with the shows existing in their worlds and based on their historic deeds. |
| 130 | * The finale of season 2 of ''Series/TheOA'' was setting up this as the premise of season 3, but the show was canceled. |
| 131 | * The first season finale of ''Series/TheTwilightZone2019'' is about various characters who are '''making''' an episode of ''The Twilight Zone''. While the cast are filming, however, one of the scriptwriters is stalked by a mysterious blurred figure later revealed to be none other than [[spoiler:Rod Serling himself]]. |
| 132 | [[/folder]] |
| 133 | |
| 134 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 135 | * The Final Destination stage in the ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' series is said to travel between the fictional world where the characters live and the real world. This is evidenced as the scenery changes as the time passes along the level, from space, to a wormhole, to a realistic sea. |
| 136 | * The GameOver scene of ''VideoGame/ComixZone'' shows a comic book villain, having successfully traded places with his author, go on to do comic book villainy in the real world. (The game itself follows the adventures of the author, who is TrappedInTVLand and has to be the comic book hero.) |
| 137 | * Late in ''VideoGame/StarOceanTillTheEndOfTime'', [[spoiler: the protagonists discover that the creators of their world are going to destroy it, so they go up a level in reality to 4D space, and find out their world is a video game, and their creators are the company that developed it. Inverted in that the world where this game company exists isn't the world of our Earth- the game world is.]] |
| 138 | * In Morrigan's ending in ''[[VideoGame/TatsunokoVsCapcom Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars]]'', she travels through the dimensional rifts caused by the main villain... and ends up outside the video game. |
| 139 | * In ''VideoGame/{{Drakengard}}''[='s=] fifth ending, [[spoiler:Caim and Angelus follow the Queen Grotesquerie to Japan 2004, and end up causing a [[ApocalypseHow Class 3-4 cataclysm]] that is followed by ''VideoGame/{{NieR}}'']]. |
| 140 | * Used in rather bizarre fashion in the good ending to ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'': after discussing the fact that the Chronoverse consists of infinite parallel realities, [[spoiler: Schala (or some alternate-dimension variant of her) is seen wandering the streets of a real-world city in her search for the amnesiac Serge - the implication being that our world is one more of the infinite potential realities, and that the player himself might be an alternate-world version of Serge]]. |
| 141 | * This is where ''VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarry3PassionatePattiInPursuitOfThePulsatingPectorals'' and ''VideoGame/SpaceQuestIIIThePiratesOfPestulon'' end. |
| 142 | * ''VideoGame/TheMatrixPathOfNeo'' takes Neo and Seraph's fight from ''Film/TheMatrixReloaded'' and has them suddenly transported into a movie theater playing the actual clips from their fight in said movie, even as the two continue to battle it out in the game. |
| 143 | * ''VideoGame/JumpForce'' features the heroes and villains of Magazine/ShonenJump duking it out as their worlds merge with the real world. Many stages take place in real-world cities, such as New York, Tokyo, and Paris. |
| 144 | * ''VideoGame/SuperMarioFusionRevival'' has a representation of the real world, dubbed Terra Alternata, as World 2. ''VideoGame/MetalSlug'' Rebels serve as the primary source of conflict in that world. |
| 145 | * The ending of the arcade version of ''VideoGame/GoldenAxe'' depicts various enemies escaping from the arcade machine to the streets, with the three heroes also escaping and chasing after them. |
| 146 | * The final level of ''Hard Head 2'' takes place in China for no apparent reason, complete with a portrait of [[UsefulNotes/MaoZedong Chairman Mao]] thrown in for good measure. |
| 147 | [[/folder]] |
| 148 | |
| 149 | [[folder:Web Animation]] |
| 150 | * In the ''WebAnimation/Supermarioglitchy4sSuperMario64Bloopers'' episode "Mario in real life!? (200 vid special)", Mario winds up activating a portal within [=SMG4's=] computer, which eventually sucks him and most of the major/recurring characters into [=SMG4's=] real-life house. Soon enough, the real-life [=SMG4=] has to deal with the characters' antics while trying to help them get back home. |
| 151 | * In the ''WebAnimation/RedVsBlue'' Season 14 episode "Red vs. Blue vs. Rooster Teeth"", the Reds ([[AndZoidberg plus Caboose]]) end up jumping through a malfunctioning teleporter. Meanwhile, at the Rooster Teeth studio, Miles Luna ends up accidentally spilling an energy drink on the Xbox they're using to generate the show, while Burnie Burns flips the switch to shut off power to spite Miles. The combination results in the Reds (plus Caboose) ending up in the studio, face-to-face with their creators, who are, understandably, freaked out. Sarge immediately assumes the other people are "the enemy". The same accident results in the Reds (plus Caboose) being sent back... along with Burnie Burns. |
| 152 | * A skit called "A Slip Through Time and Space" in the first season of ''WebAnimation/RWBYChibi'' has the [[GenkiGirl energetic Nora]] drinking a lot of coffee which causes her to go through several dimensions, the last being transported to her becoming her voice actress; Samantha Ireland. In a sequel called "A Slip Through Time and Space Pt. 2, Nora drinks coffee again, this time, she appears in the Creator/RoosterTeeth studios, taking the form of a [=RWBY=] Vinyl figurine. Nora also runs into a bunch of other Vinyl Figure versions of other characters. |
| 153 | [[/folder]] |
| 154 | |
| 155 | [[folder:Webcomics]] |
| 156 | * In the guest story "The Sluggite Koan" in ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'', [[KillerRabbit Bun-bun]], after being thrown out of time itself in a previous canon story, emerged from the computer screen of a fan of the comic. Being who he is, he proceeded to throw the guy in [[TrappedInTVLand in his place]] and left to menace his own creator. |
| 157 | * ''Webcomic/PlanescapeSurvivalGuide'' implied that the "Firstworld" (Earth) was a real place for several chapters. In the 4th chapter, many of the characters ended up there, and also discovered D&D campaign settings depicting the very Multiverse they just came from. How or why has not yet been explained. |
| 158 | * In ''Webcomic/RealLifeComics'' this occurred during the PlotHole Arc. It was played for laughs due to there being NoFourthWall and solved relatively quickly. |
| 159 | * ''Webcomic/{{Sinfest}}'' has the Reality Zone. The art style changes and real world physics apply. TheDevil steers clear. |
| 160 | * In one ''Webcomic/{{Nodwick}}'' arc an evil wizard bungled his spell and turned the comic universe into the real world. Once things were back to normal Piffany started [[BewareTheNiceOnes hitting him with her staff]] and shouting "That's for making me a Walmart greeter!" |
| 161 | * In ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'', a filler strip [[https://www.egscomics.com/sketchbook/2008-01-02 features]] Tedd, Elliot, Sarah and the Goo looking at the [[https://www.egscomics.com/comic/2002-01-21 first strip]] on a computer. |
| 162 | [[/folder]] |
| 163 | |
| 164 | [[folder:Web Original]] |
| 165 | * ''WebOriginal/ProtectorsOfThePlotContinuum'': [=PPCers=] occasionally recruit the less offensive characters from badfics, especially child characters. |
| 166 | [[/folder]] |
| 167 | |
| 168 | [[folder:Web Videos]] |
| 169 | * [[spoiler:WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic]] enters the real world and meets [[spoiler:Creator/DougWalker]] in Part 8 of ''WebVideo/ToBoldlyFlee''. |
| 170 | [[/folder]] |
| 171 | |
| 172 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 173 | * ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries'': In the two-part GrandFinale, one of the Spideys of the interdimensional Spider-Man team (led by "our" Spidey) was not Peter Parker, but an actor who played him. In his world, we met Creator/StanLee, voiced by... Stan Lee. He had created Spider-Man for a comic book and was surprised to find that there was a world where his creations were real. He also found Madame Web quite fascinating (she was voiced by Stan's real-life wife, Joan B. Lee.) |
| 174 | ** Speaking of Marvel, the title Earth-1218 was used to designate ''our'' world. |
| 175 | * In ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'' episode [[Recap/DarkwingDuckS1E40TwitchingChannels 'Twitching Channels']], Megavolt invents a device that allows him to travel through electrical wires, appliances, and broadcast signals. He proceeds to use television sets as warp gates to enable easy theft and getaway on a crime spree, which Darkwing must of course put a stop to. In hot pursuit, the two go on [[TrappedInTVLand a chase scene across the channels of TV Land]], and ultimately stumble out of a television set into the real world, where they're shocked and unnerved to discover they're merely fictional characters in a popular TV show watched by strange furless apes. This gets subverted, however, when it's revealed that [[ComicBooksAreReal the "real world" isn't any more real than Darkwing's world]]; the local television executive owns a strange helmet that receives transdimensional signals, and he created the television show ''from'' listening to Darkwing's exploits, not the other way around. Darkwing is (after a little comical blackmail) welcomed with open arms and made a star of the stage, but he ultimately grows bored and wants to go back to where he has real villains to fight. Eventually he goes home using Megavolt's device combined with the helmet, but the helmet gets damaged afterward. When the executive's assistant inspects it, it is now attuned to the world of ''WesternAnimation/ChipNDaleRescueRangers''. |
| 176 | * A ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' WesternAnimation/TreehouseOfHorror episode had Homer being sucked into The Third Dimension ([[{{sting}} dun-dun-dun]]!). He eventually destroyed that universe and wound up in our world. Specifically the erotic cake store at 13567 Ventura Boulevard in Los Angeles. The funniest part is that Homer is absolutely ''frightened'' by three dimensions - but is ''instantly'' calmed by the erotic cakes. Cue curious people staring at a CGI Homer, even gazing at him inside the store. |
| 177 | * The third season finale of ''WesternAnimation/SuperRobotMonkeyTeamHyperForceGo'' had [[EldritchAbomination The Dark One]] opening a wormhole that leads to his next meal: modern-day Earth. There's even [[RecursiveCanon a billboard advertising the show]] visible. Neither him nor the Hyperforce actually land on the planet though. |
| 178 | * In ''WesternAnimation/{{Chaotic}}'', the episode ''Chaotic Crisis'' involves the Underworlders reverse-engineering human technology to create portals linking Perim, Chaotic, and Earth. ([[spoiler:It was AllJustADream, however.]]) |
| 179 | * About half of the episodes of Creator/DiCEntertainment's ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfSuperMarioBros3'' had the characters visiting Earth in some way. In this continuity, Mario and Luigi are plumbers from "the real world" who discovered the Mushroom World on a plumbing job, and Earthlings are drawn with the same art style as the Marios. Even though this would make the Mushroom World a [[AlternateUniverse parallel world]] as real as Earth, [[UpTheRealRabbitHole Bowser, Peach and Toad refer to Earth as "the real world"]] [[UpTheRealRabbitHole even though the Mushroom World is]] ''[[UpTheRealRabbitHole their]]'' [[UpTheRealRabbitHole real world, and is as real to them as the 'real' real world.]] |
| 180 | * ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': |
| 181 | ** A flashback to when Peter did acid results in a [[MediumShiftGag live-action hallucination]]. |
| 182 | --->'''Peter:''' Things got ''way'' too real. |
| 183 | ** In the episode "The Road to the Multi-Verse", Stewie and Brian get transformed into Live Action versions of themselves in one universe, much to their discomfort. |
| 184 | --->'''Stewie:''' Um, Brian? This feels ''weird''.\ |
| 185 | '''Brian:''' Hit the button! |
| 186 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheScoobyDooProject'', a [[SurprisinglyCreepyMoment surprisingly dark]] parody of ''Film/{{The Blair Witch Project}}'' and other FoundFootageFilms, makes good use of the RogerRabbitEffect and allows the animated teenagers themselves to be treated as if they, too, were extensions of the real world, and not just [[UnusuallyUninterestingSight Unusually Uninteresting Sights]]. At one point, however, Shaggy notes how eerie the forest look. |
| 187 | -->'''Shaggy:''' Like, these woods don't look like our regular woods. ....Things just look more, realistic. |
| 188 | * An episode of ''WesternAnimation/KaBlam'' had Henry and June attempting to break into the real world and eventually doing so because there just happened to be a door on the studio set leading outside. They briefly become live-action kids, but end up returning to cartoon form quickly when they find that real pain hurts. |
| 189 | * An episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Superjail}}'' ends with the Warden waking up as a live-action homeless man wearing the same purple suit after the [[CreepyTwins twins]] overload his dream machine. |
| 190 | * In ''WesternAnimation/DuckAmuck'' Daffy Duck argues with his animator, who erases and redraws the situation to torment Daffy. Arguably [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] however, as said animator turns out to be [[spoiler: Bugs Bunny.]] |
| 191 | * The 2013 WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse short ''WesternAnimation/GetAHorse'' has Mickey and his friends in a hand-drawn black-and-white cartoon go through the movie screen and into the real world, which is rendered in CGI. |
| 192 | * The 200th episode of ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo'', aptly called "The Self-Indulgent 200th Episode Spectacular!", has the Titans finding themselves at Warner Bros. Animation when trying to escape their world, which is rapidly disappearing due to the show's production staff being on break. After being introduced to the crew and having a brief existential crisis when they learn they're all cartoons, they start hunting for the show's creators so the 200th episode can be produced, meeting the duo's families and attempting to write the episode themselves in the process. |
| 193 | -->'''Raven:''' If we can't find those [[SelfDeprecation two, lazy hack writers]] and get them to write a script, we'll stop existing completely. |
| 194 | * ''WesternAnimation/CloseEnough'' has its season three HalloweenEpisode, where one of the segments is Candace having a nightmare where she literally pushes through the fourth wall and ends up in Cartoon Network Studios, which produces the show. To her building horror, she meets various members of the show's cast and crew, including creator J.G. Quintel ([[AuthorAvatar who looks exactly like her dad]]) and [[Creator/JessicaDiCicco her own voice actor]], before running out the building and realizing that she's a fictional character. |
| 195 | [[/folder]] |
| 196 | ---- |
| 197 | ->'''Dean''': ...why? |
| 198 | ->'''Sam''': I don't know. |
| 199 | ->'''Dean''': [[WhoWouldWantToWatchUs No, seriously, why? Why would anybody want to watch our lives?]] |
| 200 | ->'''Sam''': [[SelfDeprecation Well, I mean, according to that interviewer, not very many people do.]] |
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