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9[[quoteright:350:[[Franchise/TomAndJerry https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/go_watch_tom_and_jerry.png]]]]
10[[caption-width-right:350:"Nice try fellas, but [[YourCostumeNeedsWork your Tom and Jerry costumes are pretty bad]]."]]
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15->'''Jay:''' Is it weird that the "Ghostbusters Theme Song" is now ''in'' the ''Franchise/{{Ghostbusters}}'' universe? I always thought that was odd.\
16'''Mike:''' Yes, yes. And it's also weird that they changed their logo to say "II".\
17'''Jay:''' That makes ''no'' sense. Their company is not a sequel!
18-->-- ''WebVideo/HalfInTheBag'' rifftrack of ''Film/GhostbustersII''
19
20When a work or set of works that appeared to stand on its own in RealLife turns out to be fiction VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory in its [[TheVerse greater universe]]. ComicBook/SpiderMan exists, and he knows people make comic books about his exploits, but they aren't necessarily accurate.
21
22Occasionally, the producers of a new production in an existing universe want to tie it in with the current real life present, but face the problem of trying to get people to believe it's set in the real world when they obviously have the fictional product right before them.
23
24So: Why not make that explicit? Simply make the series itself a fictionalized account of real events.
25
26The problem this causes is that you're left with several onion-like layers of canon: That presented in the original show, and that presented in the new show presenting the original show as fiction, and of course, that of the actual real world.
27
28This often leads to {{Retcon}}, MindScrew, or RashomonStyle, and may even allow the characters to [[RageAgainstTheAuthor criticize the author]] or [[WhoWritesThisCrap the work itself]]. More casually they may jocularly [[FourthWallMailSlot inform the audience]] or the AudienceSurrogate that it's not quite how it really happened, and that the story you've been reading ''contains some stretchers, to be sure.''
29
30This trope is related to the DirectLineToTheAuthor with a touch of {{Retcon}} and [[NestedStories Story Within A Story]] for good measure. In the case of a fictional character being the cause of a real-world or alternate canon event, see BeenThereShapedHistory. See also CelebrityParadox.
31
32DevelopersRoom is a subtrope specific to video games where the player can encounter the developers who programmed the game.
33
34Often overlaps with ATrueStoryInMyUniverse. Because there seems to be some confusion between Recursive Canon and DirectLineToTheAuthor, the distinction is as follows:
35
36* If the creator is claiming that they had transcribed/retold a story told to them by one of the characters in real life, it is DirectLineToTheAuthor.
37* If the FANS claim that the story was transcribed/retold by the creator from one of the characters in real life, it's LiteraryAgentHypothesis.
38* If the characters within the work claim that the work is a (perhaps fictionalized) record of events, it is ATrueStoryInMyUniverse.
39* Anytime the work appears within the work (regardless of if the characters say anything), then that is a Recursive Canon.
40
41In a particular MindScrew, if the author is [[MythArc not going for clarity]], the work of fiction may actually ''create'' the rest of the work, or the world of the work may "exist" inside it; this is a version known as {{Transfictionality}}. The [[UpTheRealRabbitHole real version of the characters]] may discover the fictional version of the real work, or vice versa. The author may even [[FridgeBrilliance imply]] that the fictionalized version is no more fictional than the outer layer, or that [[MutuallyFictional both shows are fictional to each other]] in a stable fictional loop.
42
43Compare with RecursiveFanfiction, where a work of fanfiction becomes so popular it starts spawning its own fanfiction, and the levels are now of fandoms rather than verses.
44
45A subtrope of RecursiveReality. See also CelebrityParadox, DaydreamBeliever, RashomonStyle, MutuallyFictional, WhoWritesThisCrap, WhoWouldWantToWatchUs.
46
47Not to be confused with CanonImmigrant.
48
49----
50!!Examples:
51[[foldercontrol]]
52
53[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
54!!In General:
55* Meta example: Many ''Isekai'' works has the protagonist be aware of other fictional Isekai works, [[GenreSavvy allowing them to recognize the trope as it plays out]]. "I've read stories where the protagonist died and was reincarnated into another world... this must be what happened to me, too..."
56
57!!By Series:
58* Multiple times, volumes of ''Manga/The100GirlfriendsWhoReallyReallyReallyReallyReallyLoveYou'' have appeared within the manga itself.
59* A scene in ''Manga/AyakashiTriangle'' has Matsuri and Suzu reading a manga featuring Reo, Matsuri's counterpart from the manga's {{pilot}} ''Reo × Leo''.
60* ''Manga/CodenameSailorV'':
61** The anime exists within the universe of ''Manga/SailorMoon'' which isn't exactly recursive canon because there never was a Sailor V anime. Sailor Venus DOES however sometimes read her own comic book which plays the trope straight. We're never told the actual contents of either and the main ''Sailor Moon'' franchise even seems to quietly avoid any direct references to Sailor V canon(s) in general to preserve simplicity.
62** Sailor Moon manga appear (but in brief cameo roles) as do the magazines that ran Sailor V and Sailor Moon (and parodies thereof; [=RanRan=] instead of Magazine/RunRun).
63* ''Manga/DeathNote'' has an unusual version of this - [[Manga/DeathNotePilot the pilot chapter]] mentions that a manga was written based on the "real story" it tells (well, mostly on the concept of the Death Note itself). This leads to a scene where Ryuk passes a poster for the live-action ''Film/{{Death Note|2006}}'' movie.
64* The original ''Manga/{{Devilman}}'' show exists in the world of ''Anime/DevilmanCrybaby'', including an appearance from the original opening. The fictional version in ''Crybaby'' is apparently not the exact same as the real show, as an internet search for "Akira Fudo" (the protagonist of both real works) showed no results.
65* ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'':
66** ''Manga/CMonDigimon'', the first ''Digimon'' work of fiction besides the virtual pets themselves, is about holographic technology that lets people see and hear the monsters inside the toys as if they were like real animals. ''Manga/DigimonVTamer01'', the first serialized manga in the franchise, has the same pets as ''C'Mon'' and a cameo from the ''C'Mon'' villain, but goes on to show actual Digimon existing that [[ArtShift look nothing like]] the holograms, [[CallBack as noted by a main character]]. These monsters live in a world separate from Earth that {{God}} forbid humans to visit unless there was a problem the native monsters could not handle on their own.
67** ''Anime/DigimonTamers'' establishes early on that a version of the ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'' franchise exists in the world, which is later revealed to have been created after a group of bankrupt computer scientists sold to a toy company the designs and concept of, you guessed it, the prototypical digital life forms they created which evolved to become the real Digimon and [[{{Cyberspace}} associated world]] which form the premise of the series. Merchandise exists of said franchise, most prominently [[TabletopGame/{{Digimon}} the card game]], and it's implied that an anime series starring an Agumon as the lead exists (which is only implied to be the same as the real life ''Anime/DigimonAdventure'' in the original version, while in the dub more explicit references were added).
68** ''Anime/DigimonUniverseAppMonsters'' takes a slightly similar approach, though theirs is more of a halfway example. This universe has digital monsters in it, but they're a new variety called ''Appmon'' and are based on smartphone applications as well as having their own way of evolving into differently-named higher forms. We find out in a 20th anniversary, however, that a fictional Digimon ''video game'' by the title of [[TitleDrop "Digimon Universe"]] exists, and that the main character played it when he was younger. The plot of the game seems to mirror that of ''Anime/DigimonAdventure'', and when Agumon is brought to life from the game, his role is reprised by Creator/ChikaSakamoto.
69* The Puma Sisters from ''Anime/DominionTankPolice'' appear working on a stall in the ''Manga/GhostInTheShell'' manga. A few pages later we see an in-universe advertisement for the ''Dominion Tank Police'' Manga.
70* In the Fujiko F. Fujio Museum in Kawasaki, one of the exhbits depicts Manga/{{Doraemon}} reading a Doraemon comic. This also happens in at least one of the original 45 issues' covers.
71* When Goku first visits West City in ''Manga/DragonBall'', he passes a poster advertising ''Dragon Ball'' itself.
72* ''Anime/ExcelSaga'' having NoFourthWall uses this right in the first episode, with Excel being assigned to kill Rikdo Koshi, the author of the original manga. He later comes to blows with Nabeshin, the creator of the anime.
73* In ''[[VideoGame/FatalFury Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture]]'', Terry plays ''Videogame/FatalFurySpecial''. Likewise, ''Anime/StreetFighterAlphaTheAnimation'' has a scene where Sakura can be seen playing as Ibuki in ''VideoGame/SuperGemFighter''. Sakura herself is actually playable in the real game.
74* ''Manga/FrankenFran'' has a surgeon refuse to deal with Fran, [[BodyHorror as he knows what happens when she gets involved in surgery]]. How does he know? Because he read the previous volumes of the manga (pulling out one to show her).
75* In one of the ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist2003'' [=OVAs=] set roughly 100 years in the future from the end of TheMovie, we see posters for TheMovie all over the place.
76* In ''Manga/{{Gintama}}'', Gintoki bashes his imposter Kintoki over the head with a complete collection of Gintama manga/[=DVDs=] out of the frustration of no one seeming to remember him, only to notice that he's also replaced him in the manga/[=DVDs=] in the aftermath.
77* The ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'' manga ''Ganota no Onna'' [[GenderFlip reimagines]] Char Aznable as an OfficeLady in present day Tokyo, with much of the show's cast appearing in some form or another. Despite this, ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'' is treated as an actual anime within the show, with Utsuki and Amuru (Char and Amuro) portrayed as massive fans of the franchise.
78** ''Anime/GundamBuildFighters'' takes place in a TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture version of the real world, where all the other ''Gundam'' series are fiction. The producers also included a truly epic number of Gundam characters in {{Continuity Cameo}}s during the course of the series, even though their respective origin shows are all supposed to be works of fiction in this universe. Including ''Anime/ModelSuitGunplaBuildersBeginningG'', which also takes place in an alternate real world where all the other ''Gundam'' series are fiction.
79** ''VideoGame/SDGundamGGeneration'' posits that ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamThe08thMSTeam'' is a television drama aired in the UC 0090s, possibly with input from the people who lived the real events like Michel. Interestingly, this is done primarily to justify the existence of space-use variants of Shiro's Gundam [=Ez8=], by suggesting that the show was so popular the writers [[GeckoEnding extended the storyline beyond what really happened]].
80* In one of the ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry'' manga arcs, Akasaka [[spoiler:writes a book based off the events of the arc]].
81* In ''Manga/ICantUnderstandWhatMyHusbandIsSaying'', season 2 [=DVDs=] were shown to be on sale in the convenience store Nozomu works at.
82* In episode 36b of ''Anime/JewelpetMagicalChange'', the Jewelpets are seen watching an earlier episode of that same season of ''Toys/{{Jewelpet}}'' on television.
83* ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders'' opens with Jotaro in prison...reading a copy of ''Shonen Jump'', the manga that publishes ''Jojo's Bizarre Adventure'', though it's not made explicit if JJBA itself exists as a manga in-universe.
84* Volume 2 of the ''Manga/KaguyaSamaLoveIsWar'' manga makes a brief appearance in season 2 of the anime during one of Kaguya's {{Imagine Spot}}s when Kei tells her how her older brother acts at home. The season 2 OVA also briefly shows the cover for volume 1 of the ''We Want to Talk About Kaguya'' spin-off.
85* ''Franchise/LupinIII'': One of the few traits kept from the [[NoFourthWall missing wall]]--style of the Manga. The franchise has no problem with the idea that Lupin has been fictionalized InUniverse.
86** ''Manga/LupinIII'' reading ''Manga/LupinIII''.
87** ''Anime/LupinIIIVsDetectiveConan'', Kogoro Mouri mentions a ''Lupin III'' comic, which is a CallBack to several earlier ''Detective Conan'' stories (particularly the eleventh movie, where a pair of bank robbers wear Lupin & Fujiko masks).
88** An Arab monarch is a fan of the ''Anime/LupinIII'' television series (since this takes place in the Anime/LupinIIIPartII series, assume he means that one), so he is not surprised when the Lupin gang shows up in his country.
89** ''Anime/GreenVsRed'' shows us a movie poster for ''Anime/TheCastleOfCagliostro'' in one of the Lupin's rooms. (Yes, one of. [[MindScrew Best not to ask if he's the real one]].)
90* ''Manga/LuckyStar'':
91** Magazine covers with the series' characters are often reproduced in-story. Also, in one case, the characters discuss the series' (RealLife) promotion event in Akibahara--[[OtakuSurrogate Konata]] recommends {{cosplay}}, [[{{muggles}} Kagami]] dislikes it as too much PanderingToTheBase, and Konata answers that Kagami should accept the fact that {{muggles}} won't read that anyway. Furthermore, when the trio visit a shrine in Kyoto near the end of the series, Konata reads a prayer that says "Konata is my wife". The joke being that after the manga was published, some otaku hung such prayers at the real-life Washinomiya shrine, which was the inspiration for the shrine the Hiiragi family runs. So in the anime Konata picks one of them up, undoubtedly to the delight of the fan who wrote it.
92** The anime's opening theme, ''Motteke! Sailor Fuku'', exists within the show itself. Not only is it the song of choice for the girls' cheerleading number for their school festival, but Tsukasa is also [[DiageticThemeTune heard humming part of it]] at one point in episode 6.
93** The spinoff ''Miyakawa-ke no Kuufuku'' features two magazines, which covers feature this very series, in episode 9.
94* ''Anime/{{Macross}}'':
95** The anime ''Anime/SuperDimensionFortressMacross'' has [[TheMovie a movie version]], ''[[Anime/MacrossDoYouRememberLove Do You Remember Love?]]'', which the producers later explained away as a propaganda video made by UN Spacy to portray the events of the TV series in a better light. The deaths of certain characters are made far more heroic, the love triangle made far more romantic, and in general, UN Spacy comes out smelling a lot better than in the TV series.
96** Series creator Creator/ShojiKawamori [[WordOfGod has gone on to say that]] ''all the Macross stories'' are merely second-hand retellings of real events that happened in an [[UnInstallment unseen]] "prime" continuity, mostly to explain the differences apparent in, say, the ''Anime/MacrossFrontier'' TV series compared to the movies that followed it. This has some interesting implications for ''Frontier'' in particular, as its movies paint several maligned parties in the TV series in a much more rosier light.
97* ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha'':
98** TheMovie is revealed in the [[AudioAdaptation movie Sound Stages]] to be a film being produced by one of the planets in the ''Nanoha'' universe, with Nanoha and Fate helping as technical advisers. The [=DVDs=] even have InCharacterCommentary.
99** The [[Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaAs second movie]] also had its own Sound Stages and commentary where it was shown to be an in-universe movie. Its nature as recursive canon even helps to justify Graham and his familiars being AdaptedOut, since [[spoiler:it wouldn't make any sense for TSAB propaganda to show a high ranking officer condemning an innocent girl to an eternal icy prison.]] But wait, it gets ''weird''. Before the second movie was released there was another Drama CD, ''Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha GOD Sound Stage M'', set in the AlternateTimeline of the ''VideoGame/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaAsPortable'' video games. In it, the OriginalGeneration characters introduced in those games encounter the versions of Fate and Nanoha from the first movie. In short, the movie timeline seems to actually exist.
100* Done within the same series with ''Anime/MartianSuccessorNadesico''. The Nadesico crew enjoys watching Gekiganger III, an affectionate parody of old {{Super Robot|Genre}} shows. All is fine and well until the 14th episode, where the show becomes an episode of Gekiganger III watching their favourite show, Martian Successor Nadesico. It gets even more confusing when the show ends off with it being an episode being watched by the crew of the Nadesico.
101* The ''Anime/MonsterRancher'' anime started with Genki being an avid fan of the game series and being [[TrappedInAnotherWorld sucked into the world]] by a special copy of ''Monster Rancher 2000''.
102* Characters in ''Manga/{{Nichijou}}'' are often seen reading ''Helvetica Standard'', another series by mangaka Keiichi Arawi...which features appearances by many characters from ''Nichijou''.
103* In TheStinger of ''[[Anime/NonNonBiyori Non Non Biyori - Okinawa e Ikukoto ni Natta]]'' the flight attendant offers some free mangas to read. They are shown on the screen aside the clearly readable text "Non Non Biyori".
104* In the ''Anime/{{Pecola}}'' episode "Golagola", Pecola turns on the TV when he thinks Golagola wants to watch some cartoons, and it plays the show's theme song.
105* A ''Manga/{{Plica}}'' movie was made while the comic strip was still going, leading to a couple of comics about Plica and Mari going to see the movie, which is ostensibly about them. No real in-story explanation is offered for this (presumably it's just because the mangaka [[ShamelessSelfPromotion wanted to make sure her readers knew about the movie]]).
106* In ''Manga/HareGuu'' with the scene after zooming out of the TV to where Hare is hanging out and Guu watching the TV, the manga cover is seen in a closer view
107* ''Anime/SeiyusLife'' has an example similar to ''Manga/SailorMoon''. Futaba is a fan of ''Manga/HayateTheCombatButler'' and gets to work with [[Creator/RyokoShiraishi Hayate's voice actress]] in episode 11 despite the fact that both shows take place in the same universe.
108* In the third season of ''Anime/SonicX'', when Chaotix show up and need to be brought up to speed on what's been going on, they steal a bunch of ''Sonic X'' [=DVDs=] and watch every episode up to that point.
109* In ''Anime/TheTowerOfDruaga'', they spend an episode trying to reach the top of a 60 floor tower inside the tower they are in. The main hero is controlled by the other characters, as if they are playing the ''VideoGame/TheTowerOfDruaga'' arcade game. One character even has a walkthrough for the tower.
110[[/folder]]
111
112[[folder:Asian Animation]]
113* ''Animation/HappyHeroes'':
114** According to episode 27, Happy S.'s favorite cartoon is ''Happy Heroes''.
115** In Season 4 episode 49, a robot child mentions that, thanks to the large bubble dome created by Sweet S. and covering the city, that "I can't go home to watch ''Happy Heroes''!"
116** In the first episode of Season 7, Mr. Lightbulb advertises and tries to sell in-universe [=DVDs=] of Season 6 of ''Happy Heroes''.
117[[/folder]]
118
119[[folder:Comic Books]]
120* ''ComicBook/TwoThousandAD'':
121** ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'' occasionally gets weird about this. ''2000 AD'' exists in Dredd's world, and is a controlled substance. ''2000 AD'' is best known for running the ''Judge Dredd'' comic strip.
122** In ''ComicBook/AndersonPsiDivision'' there's a story where a citizen in Mega City One visits a virtual reality program that features the Mighty Tharg, the alien editor of ''ComicBook/TwoThousandAD''.
123* Writer Tom [=DeFalco=] famously wrote a scene featuring ComicBook/AntMan watching an episode of the maligned ''WesternAnimation/FantasticFourTheAnimatedSeries'' and then complaining about how awful it was.
124* In some ComicBook/ArchieComics, the gang can be seen reading their own comic book. The fact that they aren't disturbed by seeing themselves and their stories in print is probably because [[NoFourthWall they're actually aware that they're comic book characters]].
125* In the ''ComicBook/AstroCity'' universe, companies publish comic books based on the in-universe superheroes. The most popular comics are the ones officially licensed by the heroes, but some will take news events and embellish the circumstances. Comics for "fictional" heroes (Batman, Superman, etc.) also exist, but don't sell as well.
126* Lampshaded in an issue of ''ComicBook/TheAuthority'' in which the team traveled to an alternate universe in which they encounter the comic book series they appear in.
127* The 1980s revival of Franchise/TheDCU's ''ComicBook/{{Blackhawk}}'' showed the original 1940s series to be a comic book rendition of the team. Weng Chan, the Chinese member of the team, understandably [[LampshadeHanging complained]] about the UnfortunateImplications of his portrayal as the stereotypical caricature "Chop-Chop".
128* In the ''ComicBook/BlakeAndMortimer'' book ''The Septimus Wave'', the events of ''The Yellow M'' (which this book acts as a sequel to) were the subject of a novel and stage play in-universe.
129* Very frequent in [[BritishComics British Humour Comics]] like ''ComicBook/TheBeano'' and ''ComicBook/TheDandy'' with characters frequently shown reading their own comic.
130* ''ComicBook/CaptainCarrotAndHisAmazingZooCrew'' takes place in a dimension called Earth-C, an alternate version of our world (not the DC Universe). Team leader R. Rodney Rabbit is a penciller on ''[[Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica Justa Lotta Animals]]'' -- who he later discovers are a real superhero team and who shut down the title for violating their trademarks.
131* Some ''ComicBook/ChickTracts'' contain [[ShamelessSelfPromoter Chick Tracts]] being used to convert people, in tracts that are supposed to be converting people.
132* ''ComicBook/TheFabulousFurryFreakBrothers'' are startled to find a comic book with them in it. Franklin urges them to change their look so they won't be associated with those idiots, then they find their local hangout bar has a 'Freak Brothers lookalike contest' with a cash prize.
133* ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis: [[ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes Legion of Three Worlds]]'':
134** In the DC event, the Earth Prime universe, which was destroyed in the original Crisis, is recreated. On Earth Prime, DC Comics exists exactly as it does in real life, and thus [[ComicBook/{{Superboy}} Superboy Prime]]'s girlfriend and family find out about every horrible thing he's done by reading the same comics you're reading. Which of course depicts them reading the comics they're reading, which depicts them reading... basically an infinite level of recursive canon.
135** The "Threeboot" version of the Legion of Super-Heroes was originally presented as taking place in the altered future of the DCU just as previous versions had been. In this version, the Legion was shown to have gotten their inspiration from 20th/21st century comic books featuring Superman, Batman, etc. ''Legion of Three Worlds'' revealed they were actually the future of Earth Prime, not the main DC Earth.
136* The Silver Age ''Franchise/TheFlash'' series portrayed the Golden Age Flash's adventures as merely being a comic book series. It was not until much later that the two actually met, revealing the GA Flash's comics to be a fictionalized account of what happened on another Earth.
137* UrExample: DC Comics' ''WesternAnimation/TheFoxAndTheCrow'' once had its protagonist, Fauntleroy Fox, become aware that he's a comic book character. He uses the knowledge gleaned from reading back issues of ''The Fox and the Crow'' to defeat his nemesis, [[TheTrickster Crawford Crow]]. A desperate Crow asserted that, if the Fox ended the game in this way, it would make him the loser forever.
138* In the DC Rebirth-era ''ComicBook/HarleyQuinn'' series, the events of the ComicBook/DCYearOfTheVillain crossover tie-ins are in-universe RealPersonFic that Harley is reading about herself.
139* In one of the ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica'' issues that was part of the ''ComicBook/{{Legends|DCComics}}'' crossover, it was mentioned that Creator/{{Kenner}}'s ''Super Powers Collection'' (a series of toys based on DC's heroes and villains) exists in the DC Universe.
140* In Gilbert Hernandez's comics set in his Palomar universe, after the end of the original ''ComicBook/LoveAndRockets'', Fritz stars in a gangster film VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory about the life of her own mother Maria, causing a rift between herself and her sister Luba. Gilbert later launched a series of graphic novels that purported to be adaptations of films in which Fritz had appeared in-universe, eventually including the Maria one. He took this to even greater MindScrew dimensions with his serial ''Speak of the Devil'', which has the same title as one of Fritz's in-universe films but, according to WordOfGod, is the story of the "real" in-universe events that the film was loosely based on.
141* Creator/MarvelComics exist within the Franchise/MarvelUniverse. In-universe they are stories as told by a "Marvel''s'' Comics", some with the cooperation of the superheroes themselves and some only VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory. In at least one instance ''ComicBook/SheHulk'' is seen reading an actual issue of The Savage She-Hulk. (This is further complicated by the fact that She-Hulk sometimes has NoFourthWall, though, so she is one of a few characters who could have been reading something published by Marvel Comics ''or'' by Marvels Comics.)
142** At various times, ComicBook/CaptainAmerica has been the artist for the in-universe Captain America comics. No, really.
143** In a FifthWeekEvent, the company published one-off issues of the Marvels Comics versions of most major titles, depicting how they are viewed in-universe. For some characters, like Captain America, the recursive canon version was almost indistinguishable from the usual comic, except that his secret identity was a secret. For others, like the X-Men, who have been pariahs in-universe for most of their history, they couldn't very easily be treated like superheroes. So instead, a backstory was made up for them, which supposed that they were a top-secret government project of paroled mutants, sort of like the ComicBook/{{Thunderbolts}} turned out to be.
144** All Marvels Comics published before 2001 carry MediaNotes/TheComicsCode Authority seal. The CCA is a federal agency in the Marvel universe, making all these comics legal, federal documents. [[MythologyGag Goodman, Lieber, Kurtzberg & Holliway]], the law firm She-Hulk works for, specializes in superhuman, metahuman and mutant law, keeps a complete archive of Marvels Comics from the 1930s forward as legal reference.
145** All this is the result of Marvel's evolving approach to the fourth wall. In early Silver Age comics, especially the ComicBook/FantasticFour, the comics referred to in the books really did seem to be the same ones you were holding in your hand, with Stan Lee and Jack Kirby making cameos fairly often and the stories supposedly being retellings of events related by the characters (helped by the FF not having secret identities), heightening the sense that Marvel comics took place in the "world outside your window". This became untenable as time went on, eventually being replaced by the modern "Marvels comics" concept; as late as 1984's "Assistant Editors' Month" event some stories still seemed to pay lip service to the notion that Marvel comics literally existed in the Marvel universe, but by the late 80s ''ComicBook/DamageControl'' depicted She-Hulk as breaking the fourth wall as she did in her solo book at the time, but that everyone else thought she was crazy for thinking she was a comic book character.
146** In the Marvel Universe, the literary villain Literature/FuManchu is a real person and the father of the superhero ComicBook/ShangChi. When Spider-Man and Shang-Chi teamed up for the first time, Spidey was shocked to discover that Fu Manchu was real, as he'd always considered him a fictional person. During the ''ComicBook/ActsOfVengeance'' crossover in the 90s, the ComicBook/RedSkull also made a reference to Fu Manchu that implied he was a work of fiction.
147* In ''ComicBook/MendyAndTheGolem'', one character in the 4th issue reads copies of the previous issues. And then he meets the main characters and shows it to ''them''. Rivkie mentions that the artists made her look a lot younger.
148* ''ComicBook/TheMultiversity'':
149** In ''ComicBook/TheMultiversity #1'', Nix Uotan is reading ''The Multiversity'' comics - specifically, ''The Multiversity #1'' and ''Ultra Comics #1''. Looking closely at the ''Ultra Comics'' issue Nix is reading, Creator/GrantMorrison and Doug Mahnke are residents of Franchise/TheDCU.
150** ''Ultra Comics'' itself is a particularly mind-screwy version where the main character of the book in some sense "is" the comic book itself. Not a DCU version of the comic; the actual comic you are holding.
151* ''ComicBook/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicIDW'':
152** One cover for ''ComicBook/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicIDW'' #28 has Spike depicted [[http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-57h92TAtLzA/VPmP-rOLAhI/AAAAAAAAA0g/_wvTXSl3aK4/s1600/MLP_FiM_28_CVR_A.png drawing coverart for the very same comics]], possibly #28 itself.
153** [[https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vyQCiFNJ-no/VxXKGRkUfnI/AAAAAAACjkE/ET1BZYTgCZMVH-WZxMlp8JO7_RSsoTODgCLcB/s1600/mylittlepony30-932x1414.jpg One cover]] for ''Friends Forever'' #30 has Twilight and Cadance holding a box with toys of themselves.
154* In Marvel's ''[[ComicBook/TheNewUniverse New Universe]]'', Marvel's main universe is fiction.
155* In one ''ComicBook/{{Paperinik|NewAdventures}}'' story he explains to a captured petty thief how he can afford being a superhero: he tried being financed by the city, but became shackled by bureaucracy, and he tried to get corporate sponsorship (Scrooge [=McDuck=], of course) but that also got in the way of actual, y'know, ''crimefighting''. So in the end he sells the right to publish stories about himself to Disney, which finances his gadgetry and whatnot. Then it gets meta by way of RuleOfFunny; the thief uses Donald's blabbering to escape, and he turns to the reader and, basically, says: "''Please'' don't tell Disney Comics about this screw-up!"
156* Creator/NeilGaiman's ''ComicBook/TheSandman1989'':
157** It was discovered that the Creator/JackKirby-created Sandman had been living a delusion in a dream dimension created by two denizens of Morpheus' realm.
158** Volume 10 implies that all live-action adaptations of DC characters [[AllJustADream are dreams]] of the comic versions.
159* In a ''ComicBook/TheSimpsons'' comics crossover, "When Creator/{{Bongo|Comics}}s Collide," it is established that Itchy and Scratchy are fictional cartoon characters within the ''Simpsons'' universe - but still has them appear as flesh-and-blood characters! The story resolves this inconsistency by having the space aliens Kodos and Kang (who ''themselves'' were originally fictional characters in a story told by Bart to Lisa in his treehouse before their in-universe {{Defictionalization}}) come to Earth and use a... [[BuffySpeak trans-temporal reality thingee]] to cause Itchy and Scratchy to materialize out of the Simpson family TV set and become "real" beings! Later in the crossover, Bart (as "Bartman") uses the same device to materialize ''Radioactive Man'' actor Dirk Richter out of the 1950s TV show to ask for his help, only for Richter to tell Bart that Radioactive Man is fictional and that he's a real person playing him. Undeterred, Bart simply materializes the "fictional" Radioactive Man out of one of his comic books, and ''this'' RM really does have superpowers.
160* In both ''ComicBook/SpirouAndFantasio'' and ''ComicBook/GastonLagaffe'', the characters work on the staff of the magazine that publishes their adventures, ''Journal de Spirou'' (later ''Spirou Magazine'', now simply ''Magazine/{{Spirou}}''). Consequently, the comic exists within its own world, and Spirou is occasionally recognized as its hero. In early stories by Jijé, he would meet members of his own fan club. In ''Alerte aux Zorkons'' a sniper refuses to fire on him and Fantasio (hanging from a Spirou-shaped advertising balloon) because he used to read the comic as a kid. A short story in one of the books has Spirou and Fantasio return to their offices, and a publisher is angry about something happening to Gaston Lagaffe. Fantasio tells him to follow the sound of rage from upstairs, but the publisher tells him it's about the comic.
161* In ''ComicBook/StrangeAdventures2020'', a bulk of the plot is kickstarted by a now-retired ComicBook/AdamStrange publishing a memoir of his previous space adventures provoking discussion on his life... which is itself titled ''Strange Adventures'' (and even features the same Doc Shaner cover art used for this series' first issue). This is around for rather [[{{Postmodernism}} postmodernist]] reasons: ''Strange Adventures'' (the series) is meant to [[{{Deconstruction}} raise questions on the nature of Adam Strange as a character]] while contextualized within various stories of his -- much like how the book is about [[UnreliableExpositor his dubious retelling]] of how [[WrittenByTheWinners he defeated the Pykkts during their invasion of Rann]], the series juxtaposes flashbacks of the glamorous side of his traditional SpaceOpera adventures to the darker present-day reality writers don't generally want audiences to know about or question, overall painting Adam as a man torn between the stories he pushes onto others vs. the stories others tell about him.
162* One issue of ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'' had them explaining to Impulse why he couldn't just release their real names to the public. He wonders why not since they're all in the ''Teen Titans'' and ''Justice League'' comics he's holding. Superboy points out that those aren't their real names. Which confuses Impulse as he's been calling Superman Dirk for months.
163* The ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans2003'' animated series is apparently an actual TV show in the DC Universe, as evidenced by a poster for the cartoon being present in Irey West's room in an issue of ''Franchise/TheFlash''. An issue of ''Teen Titans'' had the kids briefly watching an episode of ''ComiBook/TinyTitans''. Along the same lines older DC Comics had in-universe ads for the Adam West ''Series/Batman1966'' series.
164* In the Raphael one shot of ''ComicBook/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesMirage'', a billboard advertising ''Eastman and Laird's Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'' is briefly visible.
165* ''Franchise/{{Tintin}}'': In ''Cigars of the Pharaoh'', a sheik recognizes Tintin from having read all about his adventures, showing a copy of one of the books. The book was originally ''Tintin in America'', but in the later color editions it was anachronistically changed to ''Destination Moon''.
166* ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'':
167** In a few throw away lines a news vendor and a retired superhero in ''Watchmen'' make references to old ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' comics and in the DCU proper ComicBook/TheQuestion at one point reads a copy of ''Watchmen'' and ''recognises Rorschach as a CaptainErsatz of himself''!
168** "Behind the Mask" has the first Night Owl mention he got the idea for his costume from the ComicBook/BlueBeetle, of whom he is a CaptainErsatz.
169* ''WHIZ Comics'' #22 introduced Whitey Murphy from the ''[[Film/TheAdventuresOfCaptainMarvel Adventures of Captain Marvel]]'' film serial into the official ''ComicBook/{{Shazam}}'' comic book canon. Billy referenced having met Whitey before when they supposedly made a movie about Captain Marvel during a trip to Siam, implying the serial exists in-universe as a fictionalized version of actual events.
170[[/folder]]
171
172[[folder:Comic Strips]]
173* One very early ''ComicStrip/{{Foxtrot}}'' Sunday strip had the strip's title panel on a newspaper Roger was reading.
174* The logo box of one ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}'' [[http://garfield.com/comic/1992-01-05 strip]] is Garfield reading the newspaper comics, with the very logo box on the front, causing a DrosteImage.
175* ''ComicStrip/HiAndLois'': This is one possible interpretation of the [[http://hiandlois.com/comics/november-10-2018/ November 10th, 2018 strip]]. When Ditto is asked if his pancake looks like a "cartoon character", he says that it resembles ComicStrip/BeetleBailey. Not only is ''Hi and Lois'' a SpinOff of ''Beetle Bailey'', but Ditto is ''Beetle's nephew''. But if there was a cartoon in the strip's universe ''based'' on the "real" Beetle, Ditto's statement would make sense. (Given the lack of context, this might be MediumAwareness instead.)
176* The 1908 musical adaptation of ''ComicStrip/LittleNemo'' was advertised on posters displayed in several strips. One strip had Nemo recreating the Valentines scene "like I saw in the show," and discovering that he's standing on stage behind an orchestra pit. The Dancing Missionary and Gladys the cat, characters created for the theatrical production, also made occasional appearances in the strip.
177* The early 1990s strip ''Thatch'', which was primarily an AuthorTract against political correctness, engaged in this. One strip had Politically Correct Person, the title character's {{Superhero}} alter ego, telling some [[WackyFratboyHijinx frat boys]] that their plan for a Mexican-themed party is not P.C. P.C. Person asks why not drink beers from other countries and wonders if the frat boys are against those other countries as well. One of them asks if having a "water party" would be P.C. The final panel showed the school newspaper with the headline "Water Party a Fiasco." The next strip is someone showing P.C. Person the previous strip in the school newspaper, meaning the strip exists within the world of the comic strip.
178* The final strip of ''ComicStrip/USAcres'' consists of the characters watching themselves on television, with Orson giving out a ThatsAllFolks from the television on the last panel, complete with PorkyPigPronunciation.
179[[/folder]]
180
181[[folder:Fan Works]]
182* ''Fanfic/TheBankCalledYourRealityCheckBounced'' is a {{crossover}} between ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemistBrotherhood'' and ''Anime/OuranHighSchoolHostClub.'' Toward the end of the story, Renge (from OHSHC) is shown reading one of the volumes of the ''FMA'' manga. Prior to this, Kyouya throws Tamaki for a loop by informing him that they are not in an anime, as Tamaki believes, but are in fact in a fan fiction.
183* ''Contractually Obligated Chaos'':
184** Somewhat overlapping with DirectLineToTheAuthor, the ''[[Fanfic/{{Cinderjuice}} Contractually Obligated Chaos]]'' series of ''WesternAnimation/{{Beetlejuice}}'' fanfics has a RunningGag in which Prince Vince keeps tabs on the events of the stories via his Website/{{Tumblr}} account; the CreatorInJoke is that he follows the author's blog. Accordingly, someone actually ''made'' a Prince Vince RP blog which ''did'' follow the author, and would comment on new chapters whenever they were posted. (The blog has since been deleted.)
185** Dr. Zigmund Void joins the cast in the fifth installment, and suggests that the current situation might be rectified by entering Lydia's brain and searching for subconscious clues. However, he admits he can't remember how to do that, so the solution is for those present to watch the episode of the cartoon in which that's the entire plot.
186* In ''Fanfic/EmpathTheLuckiestSmurf'', Creator/{{Peyo}} still created ''Franchise/TheSmurfs'' and is responsible for [[WesternAnimation/TheSmurfsAndTheMagicFlute its]] [[WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs related]] [[Film/TheSmurfs adaptations]], but it's all VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory that came from a certain artifact that Handy and Empath have created in "Days of Future Smurfed".
187* [[http://www.equestriadaily.com/2012/06/drawing-competition-ponies-playing-with.html This fanart contest]] on Blog/EquestriaDaily is built on this trope.
188* In ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'' fanfic ''Fanfic/{{Fellowship}}'', the game Chrono Cross exists in the universe. There is a fanbase for it. The characters draw fanarts for the characters in the game and/or play the said game in a PS emulator (except the older characters, who play it in a PS console).
189* A ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' example is "If the Emperor Watched TTS," a fanfic on ''Website/SpaceBattles.com'' by Praetor 98. It features the Emperor and his sons watching video files of the humorous web series ''WebAnimation/IfTheEmperorHadATextToSpeechDevice'', which pokes fun at the modern Warhammer-verse and points out the various ways they messed up and how they would eventually create the Grimdark CrapsackWorld of the future. In addition to lighthearted {{MST}} style riffing, the series explores what Big E and company would do to stop the horrible events of the Horus Heresy before they occur. Notable, unlike TTS' Emperor who is constantly BreakingTheFourthWall, this series' version of the Emperor prefers a more subtle LeaningOnTheFourthWall to preserve more drama.
190* In ''Fanfic/InnocenceOnceLost'' the spinoff ''The History of The Human War'' is also an in-universe book written by Lyra that Alt!Twilight has the Canon!Mane Six read to bring them up to speed.
191* ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4663711 Letters of Ness]]'' ([[HeAlsoDid created by the author of the]] ''Fanfic/PaperMarioX'' [[HeAlsoDid series]]) ends with [[VideoGame/EarthBound1994 Ness]] and [[VideoGame/{{MOTHER 3}} Lucas]] receiving a copy of ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosForNintendo3DSAndWiiU SuperSmashBros 4]]'' (which, according to Lucas, isn't even out in Japan yet) from Paula and Kumatora, which they then proceed to play. (Take note that the story takes place in the SSBB universe.)
192* The First Anniversary chapter for ''Fanfic/ManehattansLoneGuardian'' features ''Tale of the False Paradise'', an illusion-based stageplay by Burning Salamandra based on Leviathan's descriptions of Zero and Neo Arcadia, with focus given to the first game and the events leading up to it. [[spoiler:Leviathan herself plays the role of Zero.]]
193* In ''Fanfic/MikesNewGhostlyFamily'', the first three games of ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys'' franchise (''[[VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys1 FNaF 1]]'', ''[[VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys2 FNaF 2]]'', and ''[[VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys3 FNaF 3]]'') exist in-universe as indie horror games released by Scott Cawthon. As it turns out, about a year prior to the beginning of fanfic's events, Mike Schmidt and the Marionette told Scott about the events of Fazbear's tragedy and the ghost children's plight, and the man agreed to retell their tale via fictional medium. [[spoiler:Though when [[IncompetenceInc Fazbear Entertainment]] rose back to prominence, they [[AnOfferYouCantRefuse persuaded]] Scott into surrendering the rights to the franchise to repaint its story as lies and jokes with their "[[VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddysVRHelpWanted Freddy Fazbear Virtual Experience]]" VR game (only to fail when the police state of Utah exposed their lies).]]
194* In an omake for the Touhou/Pokemon crossover ''Fanfic/MonstersInParadise'', Yukari admitted to buying drinks for a young man in Tokyo during the mid-1990s and telling him of Gensokyo's existence. At the time, she believed that telling an alcoholic about Gensokyo would have no serious repercussions. Her reaction when she finally discovers much later that her conversation spawned at least seventeen games, assorted supplementary material, and a highly creative fanbase? Several minutes of stunned silence.
195* ''WebVideo/MyLittlePonyCamaraderieIsSupernatural'': When Twilight asks Pinkie Pie how she got into the former's house, the latter says she's "seen every episode."
196* ''Fanfic/ReimaginedEnterprise'':
197** One of the early twenty-first century pop songs Audrey Rocia listens to is "Faith of the Heart".
198** The crew refer to the works of Creator/LarryNiven, yet there are hints that (as in ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekTheAnimatedSeries'') the Kzinti race exists in this setting, and they were created by Larry Niven. (This paradox is {{lampshade|Hanging}}d at one point).
199* In ''Fanfic/SonOfTheWarp'', the ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' game and ExpandedUniverse exist within itself. This is particularly bizarre, as the lore describes events of the far future in great detail.
200* ''Fanfic/ToyHammer'' is about a guy's TabletopGame/Warhammer40000 miniatures coming to life. Later, in a pitched battle against Chaos, the Present-day incarnation of The Emperor shows up.
201[[/folder]]
202
203[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
204* ''WesternAnimation/Cars1'' features automobile versions of past Pixar films, including ''[[WesternAnimation/ToyStory1 Toy Car Story]]'', ''[[WesternAnimation/MonstersInc Monster Trucks Inc.]]'', and ''WesternAnimation/ABugsLife'' ([[{{Pun}} with all the characters as Volkswagens]]). But what would their equivalent of ''Cars'' be?
205* A joke in ''Animation/PleasantGoatAndBigBigWolfMeetThePegasus'' has Prince Pegasus being encouraged to confess his romantic feelings to Princess Blue and struggling to say his line, only to [[AbortedDeclarationOfLove cop-out at the last second]] and say "I love watching ''[[Animation/PleasantGoatAndBigBigWolf Pleasant Goat]]''!" instead. If this quote is anything to go by, the ''Pleasant Goat'' TV show (and presumably the films, {{manhua}}, merchandise, etc. as well) somehow exists within the ''Pleasant Goat'' universe itself.
206* Elaris can be seen playing the multiplayer mode for ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankUpYourArsenal'' in both [[WesternAnimation/RatchetAndClank the]] ''[[WesternAnimation/RatchetAndClank Ratchet & Clank]]'' [[WesternAnimation/RatchetAndClank movie]] and its [[VideoGame/RatchetAndClank2016 video game tie-in]].
207* This was actively {{defied|Trope}} in ''WesternAnimation/TheSuperMarioBrosMovie'', which has other Creator/{{Nintendo}} franchises referenced in the version of Brooklyn where Mario lives with no changes but replaces their version of ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong'' with a substitute called ''Jump Man'' (a MythologyGag on Mario's original name) that has a yeti in place of Donkey Kong.
208[[/folder]]
209
210[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
211* In ''Camping Sauvage'', Pierre-Louis sees an ad of the movie on the back of a bus he is following.
212* ''Film/FoolishWives'' by Creator/ErichVonStroheim features a character reading a book called ''Foolish Wives'' by Erich von Stroheim.
213* In the 1990s, producer Rick [=McCallum=] implied that the Franchise/IndianaJones films portray a "fictionalized" version of the character, and that the ''Series/TheYoungIndianaJonesChronicles'' TV portrays the "real" version of the character.
214* The commentary track to the DVD release of ''Film/TheAdventuresOfBuckarooBanzaiAcrossTheEighthDimension'' is written under the assumption that the film is a fictionalized account of real events. The commentators go so far as to constantly explain how the events depicted differ from "what really happened", or make comparisons between Peter Weller's portrayal and that of the "real" Buckaroo.
215* Russo's ''Film/ReturnOfTheLivingDead'' movies portray the film ''Film/{{Night of the Living Dead|1968}}'' as a Hollywood adaptation of a true story. Characters in his films refer to it and point out aspects that don't conform to their "reality." One character in the [[Film/TheReturnOfTheLivingDead first film]] moans, "You mean the movie ''lied''?". Amusingly, in the ''Return'' universe, ''Night of the Living Dead'' is a well-known movie, but the (surely astonishing!) true events it's based on are obscure. Romero's sequels, on the other hand, are set in the same fictional universe as ''[=NotLD=]''.
216* ''Film/NightOfTheLivingDead3D'' has characters watching the [[Film/NightOfTheLivingDead1968 original 1968 film]] on TV.
217* The 2005 movie ''Film/{{Bewitched}}'' is based around the conceit that witches are real, but that the [[Series/{{Bewitched}} 1960s TV series]] was fiction. HilarityEnsues when a real witch is cast in [[ShowWithinAShow a remake]] of the TV series.
218* ''Film/DoubleDragon1994'' features an actual cabinet of the [[VideoGame/DoubleDragon original arcade game]] in the scene before the final battle. The monitor of said cabinet gets smashed in an ensuing fight scene.
219* In ''Film/TheTimeMachine2002'' when Alex travels to the future to research time travel, the librarian offers him a copy of ''Literature/TheTimeMachine'' by Creator/HGWells, as well as the 1960 George Pal film.
220* ''Film/Gremlins2TheNewBatch'' has a scene where the Gremlins attack Leonard Maltin while he's giving a bad review to the first film. Then again, this is also a movie where [[NoFourthWall the film is torn in half by the Gremlins]], and Wrestling/HulkHogan has to threaten the Gremlins into re-starting the movie.
221* In ''Film/TenThingsIHateAboutYou'' characters mention studying Shakespeare and admiring him, which is quite an odd thing to do in a Shakespeare adaptation. If they had studied the works of Shakespeare, then they would probably realise that their situation was extremely like the one in ''Theatre/TheTamingOfTheShrew''; and they might also note that some of them share the same name with their characters in the play.
222* In ''Film/BewareTheBlob''; the pseudo-sequel to ''Film/TheBlob1958'', a man actually watches "The Blob" on TV as it attacks.
223* The characters in ''Film/HalloweenIIISeasonOfTheWitch''' watch the original ''Film/{{Halloween 1978}}'' on TV. Helps that ''Season of the Witch'' is a sidestory that doesn't feature Michael Myers.
224* In ''Rumor Has It...'', the main character discovers that ''Film/TheGraduate'' was based on her grandmother.
225* ''Film/{{Spaceballs}}'': In one of several completely self-referential NoFourthWall gags, the bad guys watch a tape of ''the movie they're currently in'' to learn where the good guys are headed. They end up stopping the tape at the exact same scene they're in, and briefly watch it in real time. Colonel Sandurz explains that, thanks to "a new breakthrough in home video marketing," it's now possible for "instant" VHS cassettes of movies to become available in stores before they've even finished filming.
226* In ''Film/BlazingSaddles'', once the action has broken out of the Western set into the real world, the lead characters go to a movie theatre which is showing... ''Blazing Saddles''.
227* Rosencrantz, in ''Film/RosencrantzAndGuildensternAreDead'', makes a paper airplane (among other things) out of... pages of ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}''. Or Guildenstern. They're not sure which is which. Also, they both watch a play of Hamlet. This scene occurs during the play, so they're in Hamlet movie watching a Hamlet play watching a Hamlet puppet show.
228* Film/{{Hellboy|2004}} mentions in TheMovie that he absolutely ''hates'' [[ComicBook/{{Hellboy}} the comics]], as they always [[ProphetEyes get his eyes wrong]].
229* ''Film/{{The Saint|1997}}'' hints that the [[Literature/TheSaint Leslie Charteris novels]] exist within it, and that the film hero was inspired by and is consciously imitating the prose character.
230* 47, the main character of ''Film/{{Hitman}}'', which is based on the computer games of the same name, comes across two teenagers playing the first game of the series.
231* ''Film/SilentNightDeadlyNightPart2'' has an interesting example of this. [[Film/SilentNightDeadlyNight The first movie]] features AxCrazy Billy Chapman, who dresses as Santa Claus and kills people. In ''Part 2,'' Billy's little brother Ricky Caldwell (they changed the family name for some reason) narrates his rise to insanity. During this time, he and his girlfriend go to a movie that is, in fact, the original ''Film/SilentNightDeadlyNight''; his girlfriend even describes the plot of the movie to him.
232* In ''Film/TheMuppetMovie'', Dr. Teeth and Electric Mayhem are able to rescue the other stranded Muppets because they have a copy of the movie's script.
233* The ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' graphic novel appears in the background of one scene of the ''Film/{{Watchmen}}'' movie.
234* In the hospital scene near the end of ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'', one can see the movie's previous scene playing on the TV.
235* ''Film/ApocalypseNow'' contains a nice reference to its source material, Conrad's ''Literature/HeartOfDarkness''. Colonel Kurtz reads from Eliot's 'The Hollow Men', which contains the epigraph 'Mistah Kurtz - he dead!'; he is reading 'From Ritual to Romance' and 'The Golden Bough', which Eliot mentions as two texts underpinning 'The Waste Land', whose epigraph was to be 'The horror! The horror!'. Both quotations are, of course, from the original Conrad.
236* {{Subverted|Trope}} in ''Film/LastActionHero'', Danny is sucked into his favorite movie where he ends up befriending detective Jack Slater, played by Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger in Danny's universe (and ours), and when they go into a video store together, Danny sees a poster for ''Film/TheTerminator'', starring Creator/SylvesterStallone.
237* ''Film/TheBeastmaster II: Portal Through Time'' features a scene where our heroes drive past a movie theater showing ''Beastmaster II: Portal Through Time''.
238-->'''Spoony:''' Actually they should go inside and watch it because hopefully this takes place in a parallel universe where ''Beastmaster II'' doesn't suck!
239* ''Film/TheWizardOfSpeedAndTime'' involves the protagonist trying to sell his script for a movie which is... the one we are watching. To further shatter the FourthWall, the crooked producer is played by Jittlov's partner, who turned out to be... a crooked producer.
240* The ''VideoGame/{{TRON}}'' arcade game exists in ''Film/TronLegacy'', but was created in the film by Kevin Flynn and released by Encom; real merchandise from the first movie shows up in the film as merchandise of the game.
241* ''Film/WesCravensNewNightmare'' is about the actors from the first ''[[Film/ANightmareonElmStreet1984 Nightmare on Elm Street]]'' movie being targeted by the "real world" Freddy Krueger. The film ends with [[spoiler:Heather Langenkamp reading the ending of the script for ''New Nightmare'', which describes how she's [[NoFourthWall reading the ending of the script for ''New Nightmare''.]]]]
242* Peter Jackson's ''Film/KingKong2005'' plays with this a little. A MythologyGag about a "Fay, doing a picture with RKO" and being directed by a "Cooper" (references to Fay Wray, the original Ann Darrow; the company that produced the original ''Film/KingKong1933''; and its director, Merian C. Cooper) whilst the events of the film are taking place, one scene from Denham's film as being almost identical to an interaction between Ann and Jack in the original, as well as the stage show with Kong being ''very'' similar to the sacrifice scene from the original film, right down to the identical music and depictions of the Skull Island natives. This almost seems to imply the original 1933 film was a Hollywoodised version of real events in-universe.
243* As part of a ViralMarketing campaign for the first film, Creator/MichaelBay's ''Film/{{Transformers|2007}}'' is referred to in the Sector Seven Alternate Reality Game as a counter-information campaign by the titular organization, to cover up leaks and real events involving the existence of Cybertronians by presenting them as fictional. It even goes so far as to say Hugo Weaving is secretly a Sector Seven agent, who doubles as an actor and was put into the film (as Megatron's voice) to ensure the cover up went smoothly. It also suggests that the [[WesternAnimation/TheTransformers original G1 TV series]] was another such campaign.
244* Played with in the opening of ''Film/TwilightZoneTheMovie'', in which a couple of guys driving down the highway play TV trivia games, and then discuss ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' episodes that'd scared them as kids. One then [[spoiler: turns into a monster and eats the other]], and the ''Twilight Zone'''s theme music starts playing.
245* The fictional lore of Franchise/TheSmurfs in our world proves to be actually true in [[Film/TheSmurfs the 2011 live-action movie]], and the Smurfs try to find it because it contains the spell that can return them to their world.
246* ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger'': Captain America starts off as purely a propaganda character played by an actual super soldier. The real life iconic comic featuring Captain America "socking old Adolf on the jaw" also exists in universe as an adaptation of his live show. He also stars in a series of WWII movie serials as his character, all before actually becoming a war hero. Then when he first meets the BigBad, the latter tells him (perhaps sarcastically) that he's a big fan of his films.
247* ''Film/{{Logan}}'':
248** Laura is shown to be a fan of ''ComicBook/XMen'' comic books that exist in the universe of the [[Film/XMenFilmSeries movies]]. However, Logan is sure to note that they are only VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory.
249** In a deleted scene, Laura's friend Bobby is shown playing with action figures of Wolverine and Sabretooth. He then stops and asks Logan if Sabretooth was ever real, or just a bad guy from the comic books.
250* At the beginning of ''Film/PootieTang'' we see Pootie, famed athlete/martial artist/movie star/etc., being interviewed by Bob Costas, who then says we're going to see a clip from Pootie's new movie. What follows is, basically, the whole movie -- until the very end, when we return to the interview, with Costas commenting that that's the longest clip he's ever seen.
251* As the credits roll, the final scene of ''Film/FreeEnterprise'' shows the two leads making the movie you've just watched. (They're not in it, they're directing.)
252* ''Film/BookOfShadowsBlairWitch2'' opens by establishing that ''Film/TheBlairWitchProject'' was fictional, while the mythology behind it was not.
253* In ''Film/StreetFighter'', M. Bison utilizes a modified ''VideoGame/StreetFighterII'' arcade cabinet to detonate a series of mines.
254* ''Film/SWAT2003'' has a scene where the unit has the day off. In a blink-and-you'll-miss-it gag, Boxer is sacked out on his sofa watching a rerun of ''Series/SWAT1975'', the TV series the movie is based on.
255* ''Film/TheHumanCentipede 2'' is about someone who watched the first film and wants to recreate it. The same applies for the third film, where the first two films inspire a deranged prison warden to make the inmates into a centipede made of over 500 people.
256* Same in ''Film/GraveEncounters 2'' - the characters in this movie are doing a documentary about the disappearance of the actors who played in the first film.
257* There is a scene in ''[[Film/AttackOfTheKillerTomatoes Killer Tomatoes Eat France]]'' where Professor Gangreen uses small toys and figurines to illustrate his battle plan to his tomato henchmen Zoltan, Ketchuck, and Viper. One of the items he uses is his figure in the toyline of the ''Attack of the Killer Tomatoes'' animated series.
258* This is unintentionally done in ''Film/JemAndTheHolograms2015''. In some of the clips they use of Jem's fans (which are taken out of context; the fans were talking about the [[WesternAnimation/{{Jem}} original cartoon]], not the pop star in the film), you can see television sets in the background of some of the clips playing the original cartoon.
259* In ''Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow'' sequel, ''Film/ShockTreatment'', a copy of ''Magazine/TimeMagazine'' can be seen on Betty's desk with a picture of the iconic ''Rocky Horror'' lips and "Cult Films" written on the cover.
260* In ''Film/T2Trainspotting'', Spud starts writing down his memories of things that happened as a way to keep himself occupied while he's trying to get off heroin, and they turn out to be [[Literature/{{Trainspotting}} the original stories that make up the novel]].
261* ''Film/{{The Great Gatsby|2013}}'' uses Nick's stay in an asylum after Gatsby's death as the frame, and the last shot reveals that Nick has written the novel but decided not to take credit.
262* In ''Film/{{Shazam|2019}}'', real world action figures from the ''Film/JusticeLeague2017'' movie are seen in a toy store. Presumably, in this continuity, the toys were modeled after the real heroes who helped save the planet from Steppenwolf.
263* One of Logan's thugs in ''Film/DeadRisingWatchtower'' can be seen playing ''VideoGame/DeadRising3''. Especially confusing as ''Watchtower'' canonically takes place before ''3''.
264* A poster for the original ''Film/{{Grease}}'' can be seen in the background of the ''Grease: Lives'' remake.
265* In ''Film/RepoMen'', Remy ends up calling his book ''The Repossession Mambo''. Same name as the novel that the movie is based on.
266* In ''Film/{{Jabberwocky}}'', a man performs a puppet show while reciting Creator/LewisCarroll's original ''Jabberwock'' poem.
267* In ''[[Film/TheMightyDucks D3: The Mighty Ducks]]'', it's established in-universe that the NHL team was specifically named after Gordon Bombay's team once they rose to national prominence. In real life, the then-Disney-owned Mighty Ducks of Anaheim expansion team was piggybacking off the success of the first movie the previous year, in a overt display of corporate synergy.
268* In ''Film/DrTerrorsHouseOfHorrors'', one of the main characters walks past a poster advertising the film ''Dr. Terror's House of Horrors''. This occurs in an AlternateTimeline that ultimately doesn't happen - but that only makes it even ''more'' of a MindScrew.
269* In ''Film/EightMile'', Rabbit is seen at one point scribbling on his [[RoomFullOfCrazy mountain of lyric sheets]]. Since these were Music/{{Eminem}}'s real papers, one of them is visibly written on a page of the ''8 Mile'' script.
270[[/folder]]
271
272[[folder:Literature]]
273* In ''Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography'', it was strongly suggested that the ''Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents'' books exists in the eponymous universe. In addition, the LemonyNarrator is himself a character of the books - which he dedicates to his deceased beloved, Beatrice. When [[FridgeLogic you really think about it]], the whole idea sounds rather stalkerish. The final book ''The End'' explains this as [[spoiler:''A Series of Unfortunate Events'' is actually a chronicle written by inhabitants of the Island by many authors, including the Baudelaires' parents. Lemony is just the latest author, and the events we're reading are just one of many, regarding hundreds of people.]]
274* The sequel of ''Literature/TheCityOfDreamingBooks'' mentions ''The City of Dreaming Books'' as a book in-universe. Which makes sense, since it is an autobiographical piece the main character wrote. And doesn't make sense since Moers explicitly says it's a compilation of the first two volumes of a longer series and was never published as one book in universe.
275* ''Literature/ThursdayNext'' has this in spades. Two different fictional versions of Thursday -- i.e., the character we observed in earlier books -- play a role in the fifth book of the series. On top of that, the Thursday Next series is mutually recursive with the same author's Nursery Crime series, in that each book is fictional within the context of the other. The sixth TN book {{exaggerate|dTrope}}s this by revealing that all five of the previous books were ''the in-universe fictionalized versions'', and in some cases bear no resemblance to what actually happened.
276* ''Literature/AdventuresOfHuckleberryFinn'': "You don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of ''Literature/TheAdventuresOfTomSawyer''; but that ain't no matter. That book was made by Mr. Creator/MarkTwain, and he told the truth, [[ATrueStoryInMyUniverse mainly]]."
277* Creator/PhilipJoseFarmer wrote a famous series called ''Literature/WorldOfTiers'', set in [[TheMultiverse a Multiverse]] that included our own universe. These books were used to create "Tiersian" psychotherapy in the real world. Farmer then wrote another book, ''Red Orc's Rage'' about a form of real world psychotherapy based on the novels.
278* In Creator/JulesVerne's ''Literature/TheMysteriousIsland'', first it's established that the novel is set in the same universe as ''Literature/InSearchOfTheCastaways'' and ''Literature/TwentyThousandLeaguesUnderTheSea'' ... and then it's revealed that one of the characters has actually ''read'' the latter book.
279* ''Literature/TheNumberOfTheBeast'' by Creator/RobertAHeinlein is confusing. It starts out with only modern canon weirdness, as the main characters visit worlds they know are fictional (like Oz). Then they meet up with a character from an earlier series by the same author, they know he's fictional and then he reveals that [[MutuallyFictional they are too]], since he only knew where to meet them by reading their stories. The first of which was ''this book''.
280* In Creator/BretEastonEllis' ''Literature/LunarPark'', a character from ''Literature/AmericanPsycho'' shows up, holding a copy of ''American Psycho'', to talk to Bret Easton Ellis, who wrote ''American Psycho'', about murders inspired by ''American Psycho''.
281* ''Literature/TheNeverendingStory'' by Michael Ende is a novel in which the main character, Bastian, finds a copy of ''Literature/TheNeverendingStory'', and begins to read it. Bastian finally realizes that the story is more than just a story, when he gets to the part where a character in the book starts retelling the story word-for-word from the beginning -- and starts not with the first chapter of the story within the story, but with the beginning of the [[FramingDevice exterior story]]: the one you're reading, in which Bastian is the main character.
282* Another example by the same author is the ''Literature/JimButton'' series. The second book contains a chapter where Jim und Luke receive a bag of fan mail from readers of the first book. The narrator even assures the reader that his or her letter is in this mail.
283* In Creator/DianaWynneJones's ''Literature/ArchersGoon'', [[spoiler:this is briefly the case for the main story. How does this come about? Because Archer ''thinks'' that Quentin's words must be recursively fictional (i.e. that whatever Quentin writes as fiction turns out to be real), and consequently replaces Quentin's confiscated typewriter with one that is rigged to do exactly that. This allows Quentin, eventually, to manipulate reality by typing what he wants to happen.]]
284* ''Literature/HouseOfLeaves'' has one of the central characters reading a book called, yes, ''Literature/HouseOfLeaves'', which certainly appears to be the same one [[TomeOfEldritchLore that the reader is holding in their hands]]. Of course, this character exists only within a documentary which doesn't appear to exist in the narrator's universe and may or may not have been entirely invented by another character, presumably meaning that [[Literature/HouseOfLeaves the book]] exists within the documentary's universe but ''not'' within Johnny Truant's universe, at least until it's [[DirectLineToTheAuthor written down by Johnny]], which doesn't happen until well after the documentary would have been made, assuming said documentary and its participants actually existed, and... [[MindScrew I don't even know]].
285* ''Franchise/TolkiensLegendarium'':
286** In ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', Gandalf discusses with Frodo how [[StartOfDarkness he began to suspect]] Bilbo's magic ring was an evil influence when ''[[UnreliableNarrator he lied about it]] in the first edition of his biography, [[Literature/TheHobbit There And Back Again: A Hobbit's Holiday]]''. When going through Bilbo's papers after the war, Frodo [[RetCanon went back and revised]] the section on Gollum's cave to explain [[DirectLineToTheAuthor what really happened]].
287** The entirety of ''Literature/TheHobbit'' and ''The Lord Of The Rings'' and its appendices are supposedly transcriptions from the Red Book of Westmarch, written by Bilbo and later Frodo. They're called "The Downfall of the Lord of the Rings and the Return of the King." ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'' and other stories of Elvish heroes are from Bilbo's three-volume work "Translations from the Elvish."
288* The epilogue of ''Literature/WolvesOfTheCalla.'' Just...that epilogue. And it causes Callahan to have a HeroicBSOD.
289** ''Franchise/TheDarkTower'' really takes it to the level of RecursiveReality. For instance, Eddie Dean determines that Co-Op City is in Brooklyn ''only in the fictional version of TheMultiverse he's from'', not [[{{Transfictionality}} the real version]] where it's in the Bronx, because, of course, Creator/StephenKing didn't do the research at the time.
290** When the detectives in ''Literature/MrMercedes'' find the clown mask that the killer used to hide his identity, one comments that it reminds him of "[[Film/It1990 that TV movie about the clown in the sewer]]." The other later watches the film and admits the resemblance.
291* In Gene Roddenberry's novelization of ''Film/StarTrekTheMotionPicture'', it is asserted that the original ''Series/{{Star Trek|The Original Series}}'' was a dramatization of the actual adventures of the ''Enterprise'' and that certain things were exaggerated or distorted for dramatic effect. This was Roddenberry's way of distancing himself from elements in the original series that he was unsatisfied with due to budgetary or technical limitations (for instance, after the Klingons were redesigned in the movie, Roddenberry told Trek fans to pretend they'd always looked that way.)
292* A character in one of Creator/EnidBlyton's ''Secret Seven'' stories asks about ''Five Go Down To The Sea'', part of another series by the same author.
293* The [[Literature/TheWonderfulWizardOfOz Oz books]] are an interesting case; Creator/LFrankBaum always included a "note to his readers" in the beginning of each book, and in the first few books he talks about writing the book, even thanking children for the ideas they've sent him, but gradually he begins talking about Oz more as if it's a real place, and he's just recounting events as they were told to him by Dorothy. In later books, new visitors to Oz, such as Betsy Bobbin and Trot, are familiar with the land of Oz and its inhabitants from having read the previous books.
294* In ''Yankee in Oz'' by Ruth Plumly Thompson, this trope is especially notable. Tompy is not only familiar with Oz from having read the books, but at the end starts reading the book in which [[OurGeniesAreDifferent Jinnicky]], who he had met in this story, first appeared.
295* In the ''Virals'' series, the spin off to the Temperance Brennan novels (adapted into the ''Series/{{Bones}}'' TV series), the protagonist Tory Brennan is Temperance "Bones" Brennan's niece who gets canine abilities in a FreakLabAccident. She mentions watching ''Bones'' with her father despite actually interacting with Bones herself.
296* At the end of Winston Groom's ''Gump & Co.'', the sequel to his ''Forrest Gump'' novel that the [[Film/ForrestGump film]] is based on, Forrest is at the Oscar ceremony that's awarding Best Picture... to the film adaptation of his life. He also gets to meet Tom Hanks.
297* In the Literature/SherlockHolmes universe, Watson and Holmes are both aware that Watson is writing and publishing stories about Holmes's career. Holmes disapproves of the sensationalistic tone of Watson's stories.
298* In Creator/KevinJAnderson's ''Literature/DanShambleZombiePI'' novels, the undead detective's exploits become the inspiration for a series of mystery novels. The first one shares a title with the ''actual'' first book in the series, whose events it documents, albeit with a lot more {{Fanservice}}.
299* The ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' novel ''Arena'' describes card players playing a card game much like ''Magic: The Gathering''. The ''Greensleeves'' trilogy describes a metal bird dropping a metal egg during a vision of the multiverse, which could either be the description of an artifact creature, or a jet plane from Earth, the planet that publishes ''Magic: The Gathering''.
300* The second ''Literature/PrincessDiaries'' book has Mia reference a movie that's come out based on her life. It isn't explicitly stated that it's the same movie with Anne Hathaway that came out in our world, but the references she makes (like cutting out some of the characters) are consistent.
301* The main protagonist of ''Literature/{{Relativity}}'' is a superhero named Black Torrent, but [[LegacyCharacter his father was the original Black Torrent.]] In-universe, there exists a series of comic books about the original Torrent, but he's never read them. Since he was set-up to be more of a secret government agent than a superhero, the writers of the comic had little clue about what his actual adventures were and had to make up a lot of it.
302* ''Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse'':
303** Some parts of the ExpandedUniverse have taken it further, with a conspiracy theorist claiming that the Doctor [[FictionAsCoverUp deliberately creates fictional stories of himself]] on many worlds so that no one believes he really exists.
304** Another ExpandedUniverse story suggested that the Aaru ''Doctor Who'' films starring Creator/PeterCushing exist in-universe, as a highly [[AdaptationDecay decayed]] adaptation of a series of novels that Barbara Wright wrote based on her experiences travelling with the Doctor. The novelisation of ''The Day of the Doctor'' states that the Doctor himself is a big fan of the movies and even considered taking the TARDIS back to the 1960s to persuade Cushing to make a third one.
305** According to a COVID-19 webcast, ''Doctor Who'' is a show that can be watched on the BBC iPlayer in their universe. However, we don't know if this version of the show matches ours.
306* Creator/VernorVinge's ''Literature/ADeepnessInTheSky'' is ''partially'' recursive. It uses a SwitchingPOV that alternates between chapters focusing on a group of humans lurking in orbit around a planet inhabited by non-spacefaring aliens and studying them, and chapters focusing on the aliens themselves. Near the end of the book, it is revealed[=/=]heavily implied that all of the alien-POV passages in the novel were written InUniverse by a human translator monitoring the aliens' communications [[spoiler:and directly communicating with one of them]].
307* The first book of ''Literature/TheVampireChronicles'' -- ''Interview With The Vampire''-- is written as if it is Louis telling his story; the sequel, ''The Vampire Lestat'', has the title character encountering the original book and noting what liberties Louis took with the story, allowing a graceful {{Retcon}} of the character from the villain to the hero.
308* One of the novels in the series ''Literature/TheDestroyer'' features the character looking at a movie poster and mocking everything about it-- the poster being an exact description of ''[[Film/RemoWilliamsTheAdventureBegins Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins]]'', which is based on the Destroyer novels.
309* Dumbledore's forward in ''Literature/TheTalesOfBeedleTheBard'' imply that the ''Literature/HarryPotter books'' are biographies based on Harry's life written by an in-universe Creator/JKRowling.
310* In the Phillip K. Dick short story ''The Day Mr. Computer Fell Out Of Its Tree'', an over-arching digital intelligence that controls all devices everywhere goes completely mental one morning, with root beer coming out of the taps and doors locking themselves for no reason. One character, on discovering this, remarks internally that 'It's been reading old Phil Dick science fiction stories'.
311* ''Literature/Babel17'' by Creator/SamuelRDelany has an [[MindScrew amusingly twisted]] example. Rydra Wong and her shipmate Ron start talking about "'Empire Star' and other Comet Jo stories", written by Muels Aranlyde, and Wong explains that Comet Jo is a real person who she knows, but that the stories are only [[VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory loosely based on reality]]. ''Literature/EmpireStar'' is actually a novella by ''Delany'', and its protagonist ''is'' named Comet Jo. So you're left to wonder if Delany's novella is fact or fiction from the perspective of ''Babel-17'''s characters.
312* At the end of Creator/MarcelProust's ''A la recherche de temps perdu'', you realize that the Narrator is preparing to write everything you just read.
313* ''Literature/YouOnlyLiveTwice'' asserts that a series of thriller novels based on James Bond's adventures have been published. This also led to the weirdest of the ''Literature/JamesBond'' continuation novels, John Pearson's ''James Bond: The Authorised Biography of 007'', in which Pearson catches up with the ''real'' James Bond, on whom Ian Fleming based his novels. In turn, this means that in Pearson's version of the ''Bond'' universe, Fleming's ''You Only Live Twice'' mentions that there are works of fiction based on the real exploits of the hero of his fictions, which were themselves based on a real person, who is of course fictional to us, Pearson's readers.
314* ''The New Adventures of Elektronik'' by Yevgeny Veltistov start with the titular robot watching the 1979 TV movie based on the earlier books, and complaining about how it's VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory.
315* In [[Creator/MichaelConnelly Michael Connelly's]] ''Literature/HarryBosch'' and ''Literature/MickeyHaller'' series, the films of Connelly's novels ''Literature/BloodWork'' and ''Literature/TheLincolnLawyer'' and the Creator/PrimeVideo series ''Series/{{Bosch}}'' exist as adaptations of the actual events that took place in the fictional Los Angeles where the books are set. Bosch remarks at one point that Terry [=McCaleb=], the protagonist of ''Blood Work'', doesn't really look much like Creator/ClintEastwood, and Terry's neighbor Buddy Lockridge complains about [[AdaptationalVillainy the way he was portrayed in the film]]; Haller, a born Angeleno raised in a bilingual household by an Irish-American father and Mexican mother, begins affecting a Texan accent in imitation of Creator/MatthewMcConaughey in the books published after the 2011 film of his debut novel, ''The Lincoln Lawyer''; and the ''Bosch'' Amazon series is mentioned as being loosely based on several of Harry's past cases.
316[[/folder]]
317
318[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
319* ''Series/{{War of the Worlds|1988}}'' reveals that the 1938 RadioDrama was part of a government disinformation campaign to cover up a real invasion. The 1953 film, on the other hand, is in-continuity. It also acknowledges that the original H. G. Wells novel on which the radio drama was based exists in-universe. This is feasible because the 1953 movie has practically nothing in common with the book beyond a few broad strokes that could credibly be coincidence.
320* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
321** Borderline example in the 25th anniversary serial "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS25E1RemembranceOfTheDaleks Remembrance of the Daleks]]", which is a sequel to the original pilot episode and is set in the same place and time; at one point we hear a BBC continuity voice announcing the time and date the first episode of "a new science-fiction serial" was broadcast -- it's cut short just before the full name of the series is actually dropped, with only the first syllable being revealed: "Doc".
322** In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E10InTheForestOfTheNight In the Forest of the Night]]", a poster advertising ''Doctor Who'' is seen on a bus in the background.
323** One of the thousands of channels in the Ninth Doctor story "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E7TheLongGame The Long Game]]" appears to be airing the Fourth Doctor story "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS18E1TheLeisureHive The Leisure Hive]]". Justified as it may just be showing the planet the older story was set on.
324** Some books have the Creator/PeterCushing movies, ''Film/DrWhoAndTheDaleks'' and ''Film/DaleksInvasionEarth2150AD'' as being in-universe movies made after Ian and Barbara sold their story to Creator/AmicusProductions.
325* The opening scene of [[RecycledTheSeries the short-lived sitcom version]] of ''Film/FerrisBuellersDayOff'' explained that the movie was a fictionalized retelling of the real Ferris Bueller's life, with the "real" Ferris (Charlie Schlatter) criticizing Matthew Broderick's portrayal of himself. He then takes a chainsaw to a cutout of Broderick.
326* The [[AlternateRealityGame ARG]] ''ARG/TheLostExperience'' acknowledges ''Series/{{Lost}}'' as a fictional TV series which incorporates "real" elements such as The Hanso Foundation and the Widmore family.
327* ''Series/MadTV1995''
328** In one episode you can actually see an extra reading an issue of Magazine/{{MAD}}.
329** In another episode, House (played by Michael [=McDonald=]) is actually watching an episode of ''Series/MadTV1995''. It features Stuart (played by Michael [=McDonald=]) causing him to remark that he [[CelebrityParadox looks just like him]].
330* In the third episode of ''Series/BlackLightning'', Grace tells Anissa about a comic book series called ''ComicBook/{{The Outsiders|DCComics}}'', and even shows her an issue. In real life, ''The Outsiders'' has featured Black Lightning, Anissa and Grace as major characters at various points in its publication history. In the same episode, Anissa dresses as ComicBook/{{Catwoman}} (or possibly an {{Expy}}) for a costume party, and Grace mentions ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} as another potential costume choice, implying those heroines are also fictional in this universe. In the real comics, Catwoman and Supergirl have actually interacted with Grace on a few occasions.
331* The last episode of ''Series/SwampThing'' reveals that Daniel Cassidy (the alter ego of ComicBook/BlueDevil) owns some of the actual ''Blue Devil'' comics DC published back in the 80s.
332* ''Series/{{Sliders}}'' has a variation. In the finale, the group slides to a world where a "seer" has been watching them psychically across the multiverse. He turned the visions into paintings, books, and ultimately, a live-action TV show that looks vaguely familiar...
333* There is a Series/NickVerse that exists with various Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} shows, mostly centered on the works produced by Creator/DanSchneider. Continuity is played fast and loose, with later series often implying that previous ones are both within the same continuity ''and'' ShowWithinAShow. For example, one episode of ''Series/{{Victorious}}'' has a character refer to an episode of ''Series/DrakeAndJosh'', indicating it's a television series in that continuity. But another episode has a supporting character ''from'' that series appear...
334* ''Series/ElChapulinColorado'' comic books exist in ''Series/ElChavoDelOcho''. Chavo and Quico once discussed a Chapulin episode where a villain painted himself invisible. (Said episode was real) And the two series did have a crossover. Don Ramon was reading a Chapulin comic in a ''Chapulin'' episode.
335* One ''Series/NowhereMan'' episode involved the GovernmentConspiracy created a television show based on the main character's life, named after the show with almost shot-for-shot recreations, but with [[StylisticSuck bad acting and camera work]], and it even got to the point where they were filming real time what was happening, in a subversion of {{PostModernism}}, where he had to do things out of character in order to defeat their plans.
336* The original ''Series/{{Star Trek|The Original Series}}'' television series, featuring the starship NCC-1701 ''Enterprise'', was so popular that a massive write-in campaign convinced NASA to name the first real-life space shuttle OV-101 ''Enterprise''. Much later, when ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' (a prequel to the original Star Trek) was created, there were several almost-explicit references implying that the NX-01 ''Enterprise'' was indeed named after the space shuttle. Let's recap: the fictional NX-01 was named after the real OV-101, which was named after the fictional NCC-1701, which was named (in-universe) after the NX-01. It gets even weirder if you know an original proposed name for OV-101 was "Constitution". Which would mean that the Constitution Class USS ''Enterprise'' NCC-1701 was named for the NX-01 ''Enterprise'' which was named for the OV-101 ''Enterprise''.
337* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': The producers considered concluding "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS06E13FarBeyondTheStars Far Beyond the Stars]]" by showing Benny Russell directing an episode of a TV show called ''Deep Space Nine,'' but thought this would cause too much of a canon snarl. (They also considered ending the ''series'' with a shot of Benny Russell finishing writing his Deep Space Nine story, but nixed that too.)
338* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'':
339** While the TV series ''Supernatural'' doesn't exist within the show, there is a series of in-universe novels that is identical to the TV show in every other way, with each novel corresponding to a similarly titled episode. This allows for a whole heap of [[FandomNod meta episodes]], but also has significant plot relevance, as the in-universe explanation is that the writer of the series is a prophet who wrote the series based on his visions. This sometimes allows the characters to find out information by asking the author himself. [[spoiler:In another twist, at the end of season 5 it's implied that ''Supernatural'''s author was quite literally [[WordOfGod God]] in disguise all along, which was later confirmed in season 11.]]
340** In season 6, the characters are thrown into an alternate reality, in which they take the place of "Jared" and "Jensen", two actors in a series called "Supernatural". In short, the actors are playing characters who are playing the actors who play them.
341** In season 10, the characters find themselves investigating events surrounding a play, which is basically a musical slashfic of the novels. [[spoiler: And, unknown to Sam and Dean, the prophetic author of the novels was involved in the production of the musical play.]]
342* In ''Series/SupermanAndLois'', Jordan is sometimes seen playing ''VideoGame/{{Injustice 2}}'', a fighting game that features his father as a playable character and the death of his mother as a significant plot point.
343* At the end of the ''Series/BurkesLaw'' episode "Who Killed Purity Mather?" the GirlOfTheWeek switches on the TV in Amos Burke's limo and begins to watch an episode of... ''Burke's Law''!
344* This is actually canon within the world of ''Series/{{Heroes}}''. Isaac Mendez is a precog whose visions come out through his artwork. He created a comic book 9th Wonders which contains much of the plot of the first few seasons.
345* Although not quite in-universe, one [=PBS=] promo for ''Series/AsTimeGoesBy'' was Jean and Lionel settling in for a quiet evening and deciding to watch... ''As Time Goes By''.
346-->'''[[Creator/JudiDench Jean]]:''' [pointing at the screen] [[ButHeSoundsHandsome She's very good.]]
347* One episode of ''Series/MadAboutYou'' featured a crossover with ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'', where the latter series' Kramer is shown to be the current tenant of the former series' Paul's apartment. However, a later episode of ''Seinfeld'' shows George and his fiancée Susan watching ''Mad About You'' on TV.
348* In one episode ("Lost and Found in Translation"), the three leads of ''Series/PowerRangersDinoThunder'' sit down for a bit of satellite TV and find themselves watching a badly dubbed episode of the series their show is based on, ''Series/BakuryuuSentaiAbaranger''. At first they're appalled by how silly the show makes them look, but in the end they develop a bemused affection for it.
349* ''Series/MimpiMetropolitan'': In episode 47, Mami Bibir tries to talk to Melani (played by Faradilla Yoshi) about a sitcom named ''Mimpi Metropolitan'' and particularly one of its star Faradilla Yoshi, but Melani doesn't pay attention.
350* ''Series/BreakingBad'': In the episode "Rabid Dog", if one looks closely at the shelf in the Schrader house right before filming Jesse's confession, there's a DVD copy of ''Breaking Bad'' visible momentarily, at the very edge of the screen, amongst the books.
351[[/folder]]
352
353[[folder:Manhua]]
354* There's an ''Manhua/OldMasterQ'' strip where the three protagonists, Master Q, Big Potato and Mr. Chin, buys tickets for their own (then-upcoming) movie, ''Older Master Cute'' (1981). Prompting the surprised ticket seller to perform a DoubleTake.
355[[/folder]]
356
357[[folder:Music]]
358* Music/{{Eminem}}:
359** In the skit at the end of ''Relapse'', Steve Berman is heard listening to the ''Relapse'' track "Old Time's Sake" in his office, when Eminem presents him with the demo of his ''Relapse'' CD for the first time.
360** In "Bad Guy" from ''The Marshall Mathers LP 2'', Matthew - the LoonyFan mudering Eminem [[RevengeBallad for what he did to his brother Stan]], admonishes Eminem for releasing a [[{{Sequelitis}} sequel]] to ''Music/TheMarshallMathersLP'' "to get people to buy!"... on a song which is the AlbumIntroTrack for ''The Marshall Mathers LP 2'' itself. "Bad Guy" is also a sequel to "Stan", a song from ''The Marshall Mathers LP'' - [[CelebrityParadox Matthew plays the album to Eminem in the car to harass him]].
361** Prior to this in the "Stan" saga, Stan is shown with a vinyl copy of ''The Marshall Mathers LP'' on his table while writing his letters in the music video. ''The Marshall Mathers LP'' is the album "Stan" is on.
362
363[[/folder]]
364
365[[folder:Pinballs]]
366* In Creator/SternPinball's ''Pinball/TheSopranos'', you're playing through the exploits of the Soprano family... which includes completing Episodes from HBO's ''Series/TheSopranos'' television show.
367* Creator/{{Gottlieb}}'s ''Pinball/{{Mayfair}}'', based on the film version of ''Film/MyFairLady'', shows Eliza walking past a theater that is holding a production of ''Theatre/MyFairLady''.
368* The backglass for Creator/{{Capcom}}'s ''Pinball/Breakshot1996'' shows several people playing pool in a rec room, which has a ''Breakshot'' pinball machine in the corner.
369[[/folder]]
370
371[[folder:Roleplay]]
372* On ''Roleplay/NoPixel'', Jacob Harth [[https://clips.twitch.tv/InterestingDepressedRedpandaGOWSkull-n9_MTjTswK32tHu1 mentions]] to another character that he's trying to join ''Roleplay/NoPixel'', explaining that it's a [=FiveM=] community with a very difficult application process.
373[[/folder]]
374
375[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
376* ''TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness'':
377** FrankensteinsMonster was the first of his Lineage of TabletopGame/{{Promethean|TheCreated}}s. When he tried to create a "bride," he ended up making a horrific monstrosity in human form. One way the "bride' got revenge was by telling Creator/MaryShelley a story that painted him in the worst possible light, thus spawning ''Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus.''
378** ''TabletopGame/VampireTheRequiem'': Every vampire in London was scrambling for a while to find out who spilled the beans on {{Dracula}} to Bram Stoker.
379* ''TabletopGame/TheDresdenFiles'' RPG is stated to exist in the universe of the novels, having been written by Harry's friend Billy for the same reason that Bram Stoker wrote ''{{Dracula}}'', to spread information about monsters and their weaknesses to the common man. The game book is filled with margin notes from Harry, Billy, and Bob, and the implication is that it's a RomanAClef, but this isn't the final version and so none of the names have been changed yet.
380* Later editions of ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'' mention [[WesternAnimation/BattleTech1994 the cartoon series]] as an in-universe propaganda holo-vid that's VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory.
381[[/folder]]
382
383[[folder:Theatre]]
384* OlderThanSteam: In ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'', Polonius mentions that he played Caesar in ''Theatre/JuliusCaesar''. Possibly also an ActorAllusion if the same (original) actor played both roles... Or, given that most plays at the time (including Shakespeare's) were retellings of earlier tales, Polonius's reference could've been to some earlier playwright's version of ''Julius Caesar''.
385* Lampshaded in Creator/SteveMartin's adaptation of the 1910 farce by Carl Sternheim, ''The Underpants''. Gertrude says that she has just seen a comedy by Sternheim; when Louise asks if she should see it, Gertrude says "Wait until it's adapted."
386* ''Car Talk: The Musical'' had ''Radio/CarTalk'' playing on the radio at the beginning of one scene.
387* In ''Theatre/{{Rent}}'', during "La Vie Boheme," Mark mentions "Musetta's Waltz" by name. This means that ''Theatre/LaBoheme'' exists within the world of ''Theatre/{{Rent}}'', which is loosely based on it, right down to most of the characters having similar or even the same names.
388[[/folder]]
389
390[[folder:Toys]]
391* Courtney Moore from the ''Literature/AmericanGirlsCollection'' was given a Molly doll in her stories, which took place during the year American Girl was founded. Assuming that the characters do have a shared universe, it could be implied that Molly and the rest of the cast were real people in the ''American Girl'' mythos and that their toys and stories were based on their lives.
392[[/folder]]
393
394[[folder:Video Games]]
395* [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario Universe]]:
396** At the Yoshi theater in ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga'', one of the films that are set to play is Mario & Luigi. It's referred to as an action blockbuster. [[spoiler:The end of the game reveals that the game itself ''was'' this film.]]
397** In ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'' an NPC gushes about this new game he has called "Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door". If you talk to him in the middle of the game he says he already beat it and the ending is amazing. In addition, [[spoiler:the ending sequence mentions that Flurrie and Doopliss are performing a play based on the events of the game... but since the battle system is itself "onstage", it's implied that you might be playing the play. Which means that the play refers to itself...]]
398** ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry3DixieKongsDoubleTrouble'': Wrinkly Kong has a Nintendo 64 in her house and sometimes she is playing ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'', Peach's Castle theme can be heard.
399** ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountryTropicalFreeze'': One of the games Donkey Kong may play on his 3DS within his Idle Animation is ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountryReturns 3D''
400** The plot of the ''VideoGame/WarioWare'' series is about Wario opening a video game company and selling compilations of microgames, short games that last only 5 seconds, and as a [[NostalgiaLevel nostalgic bonus]], many of those microgames are based on classic Nintendo videogames but converted into very short versions, however, some of these microgames are based on Mario games, Yoshi games, Donkey Kong games and even Wario Land games, a more justifiable example, is when even microgames from previous ''[=WarioWare=]'' games for the Game Boy Advance are included, and they are shown running in a GBA in your screen.
401* ''VideoGame/TronTwoPointOh'' states that the events in the original ''Film/{{Tron}}'' movie happened, and then the rights to the story were sold to Creator/{{Disney}}, who made a movie about it. The opening scene of the game begins with the main character playing an old ''VideoGame/{{TRON}}'' arcade cabinet. A ''second'' Tron arcade game is [[spoiler:rigged to an archaic modem and used by Alan to hack into the system, create Mercury, and try to contact Jet]].
402* In ''Bitcoin Billionaire'', there is a poster for ''Bitcoin Billionaire: The Movie''.
403* In ''[[VideoGame/HenryStickminSeries Completing the Mission]]'', selecting the "Walkthrough" option results in Henry watching a LetsPlay of his own game. Unfortunately for him, the let's-player selects the "Walkthrough" option, [[OverlyLongGag causing the entire scene to loop continuously until the player clicks out of it]].
404* In ''Legend of the Cryptids'', the Curious Witch of Sabato is playing ''Legend of the Cryptids'' on a smartphone.
405* The ''VideoGame/{{Myst}}'' video game series is based -- or so {{canon}} claims -- on the actual journals of the characters, but the games are heavily abridged versions of the "real" events, and starring [[FeaturelessProtagonist a faceless, sexless Stranger]] instead of the as of yet unnamed real character. This was taken further with the release of ''VideoGame/UruAgesBeyondMyst'', which tells the story of modern-day archeologists exploring the caverns of D'ni, and even further still in ''VideoGame/MystVEndOfAges'', which tries to specificise some events hinted at in ''Uru''. It was finally taken to the {{Kayfabe}} level, where Cyan Worlds employees often present the idea that ''all'' of the Myst series, including ''Myst V'' and ''Uru'', exist as fictionalized accounts of real events.
406* In ''VideoGame/{{Scribblenauts}}'', one of the objects Maxwell can summon is the game cartridge itself.
407* The "plot" (such as it is) of ''We Love Katamari'' is driven by the idea that, following the success of the first game, ''VideoGame/KatamariDamacy'', the stars (that is, the King of All Cosmos and the Prince) have become hugely popular, and must therefore answer requests from adoring fans. Things get sillier when the King convinces himself that he owes his huge popularity to his stylish, captivating ''chin''.
408* ''VideoGame/KeroBlaster'': ''Kero Blaster'' is a game in both its prequels ''Pink Hour'' and ''Pink Heaven'', while ''Pink Hour'' itself is a game within ''Pink Hour''.
409* Creator/HideoKojima's ''VisualNovel/{{Policenauts}}'' is referenced in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' in a poster in Otacon's lab, where it is implied in one scene that it was one of the animes that inspired Otacon to get into mechanical engineering. Nobody seems to bring up the fact that Meryl Silverburgh has the same name, likeness, and occupation of a character in ''Policenauts''. In the Platform/NintendoGameCube remake, ''The Twin Snakes'', the ''Policenauts'' poster is replaced with a ''VideoGame/ZoneOfTheEnders: The 2nd Runner'' poster; ''VideoGame/{{Metal Gear Solid 4|GunsOfThePatriots}}'', during the return to Shadow Moses, features the ''ZOE 2'' poster, with one corner having come off to reveal the original ''Policenauts'' poster underneath.
410-->"It's just like one of my Japanese Animes!"
411* In ''VideoGame/DukeNukem3D'', a Duke Nukem arcade cabinet can be found in the first level, and has on it his appearance from the previous platformer games. Using it provokes the quip "Hmm... don't have time to play with myself." Likewise in ''VideoGame/DukeNukemForever'', we find out that the first level of the game is a recreation of the final boss from 3D, and when the level is over, we pan out of a TV screen to see that Duke himself is playing a video game based off himself, all while one of the game developer's spokeswomen was... shall we say... "helping herself" to him while he was playing.
412* One NPC in ''VideoGame/EarthBound1994'' wonders if ''[=EarthBound=]'' has been released yet. In addition, the newspaper headline in Onett after beating the FinalBoss is "Chief Strong finishes [=EarthBound=], asks 'Where is the sequel?'"
413* In ''VideoGame/GoatSimulator'', the developers office can be found, and several computers are already running ''Goat Simulator''. In ''Goat MMO Simulator'', the servers running the game can be found and trashed, causing the game to crash.
414* ''VideoGame/Metro2033'' has several copies of the book Metro 2033 as well as posters for the book scattered around the place. Would makes sense that it was a popular book after the apocalypse though, seeing as it predicted the whole damn situation everyone is in.
415* In ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'' there are [[http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/File:CityPinball.jpg pinball machines]] of the game.
416* It's actually a plot point in ''VideoGame/DayOfTheTentacle'' that Doctor Fred never saw a penny from "[[VideoGame/ManiacMansion the video game based on his family]]" since he locked the contract in his safe and forgot the combination. [[spoiler:When Hoagie mails the contract via the Pony Express 200 years in the past, Creator/LucasArts calls Dr. Fred to inform him they found the contract and pay him $2 million in royalties.]]
417* One cutscene from ''VideoGame/Stinkoman20X6'' showed Stinkoman playing... ...''Stinkoman 20X6''.
418* In ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', the first two ''Franchise/MassEffect'' novels, ''[[Literature/MassEffectRevelation Revelation]]'' and ''[[Literature/MassEffectAscension Ascension]]'', are available in-universe as [[BasedOnATrueStory dramatizations of the actual events]] written by human author Drew Karpyshyn. One of the ads you can encounter on the Citadel is for a film, ''Citadel'', based on the events of the first game.
419* ''Franchise/MegaMan'':
420** In ''VideoGame/MegaManLegends'', the video game store in Apple Mart apparently stocks the game Mega Man Legends.
421** The ''VideoGame/MegaManClassic'' games exist within ''Mega Man Legends'', itself a distant future of those games. [=MegaMan=] Volnutt got his name because Roll is such a huge fan of those games.
422* The Platform/NeoGeo ''VideoGame/DoubleDragon'' [[RecursiveAdaptation fighting game based on the movie]] has a stage where production stills from the movie are displayed on a large monitor.
423* In ''VideoGame/{{Glitch}}'', it is possible to create a ''Glitch'' video game.
424* ''The Simpsons'' arcade game in ''VideoGame/TheSimpsons'' arcade game.
425* ''VideoGame/TheSimpsonsGame'': The Simpsons find the manual to ''The Simpsons Game'', confront God, and find out [[spoiler:they are video game characters in ''The Simpsons Game'', a video game in a much larger video game, ''The Planet Earth'', in ''The Simpsons Game'', being played by Ralph Wiggum, who notices the player playing ''The Simpsons Game'']].
426* In ''[[VideoGame/StarSoldier Star Parodier]]'', not only is the Platform/PCEngine a player character, it has ''Super Star Soldier'' in its [=HuCard=] slot during the opening FighterLaunchingSequence.
427* ''VideoGame/TheSims'':
428** In ''VideoGame/TheSims2'', it was possible to obtain the Platform/PlayStation2 version of ''The Sims''. The penultimate expansion pack has [[CreatorCameo Rod Humble]] gift every household a computer with ''VideoGame/TheSims3'' preinstalled.
429** ''VideoGame/TheSims4'' features a video game called ''Sims Forever'' that Sims can play on their computers; it is in fact the original ''[[VideoGame/TheSims1 The Sims]]''. Upgrade a computer's graphics and ''VideoGame/TheSims2'' or eventually ''VideoGame/TheSims3'' will take the place of the original.
430* One of Heaven's fate structures in ''VideoGame/Afterlife1996'' is... Game of After Life.
431* In ''[[VideoGame/SoulHackers Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers]]'' negotiating with certain demons will reveal that they are playing a game called ''Soul Hackers'', and then show that they are at the part where they meet the hero in the game. This freaks them out.
432* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTacticsAdvance'', the opening cutscene mentions the ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' games. Then as the protagonist spends enough time in Ivalice, with Moogles and such, he notices his hometown somewhat became a ''Final Fantasy'' game.
433* Throughout Stauf Manor in the PC game ''The 11th Hour'', you can find boxes of its predecessor, ''VideoGame/TheSeventhGuest''. A CD of the game is even the solution to one of the {{fetch quest}}s you're assigned.
434* The first-gen ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' games allow you to [[DevelopersRoom visit Game Freak studios]], and talk to a sprite artist who drew the player character for the Pokémon games. This was kept in [[OncePerEpisode all future games in the franchise as well]], where there would be somewhere you could talk to Game Freak staff members and the Director would usually give you a certificate for completing the Pokédex.
435** In ''[=HeartGold/SoulSilver=]'', the Director will comment on how hard it is to make a remake of a classic game.
436** In earlier games, mostly the first and second generation, you can find [=NPCs=] playing Pokémon on a Game Boy. For an extra level of strangeness, trading a Pokémon with one of them produces the usual animation of a link cable connecting two consoles, as if you've physically linked your real Game Boy to their virtual one. The ''[[VideoGame/PokemonLetsGoPikachuAndLetsGoEevee Let's Go]]'' remakes made a MythologyGag out of this with [[https://youtu.be/YTHsHQYZuyc?t=1294 a floor in Celadon Department Store]] selling Switch consoles, ''VideoGame/PokemonQuest'', and a game suspiciously similar to the one you're playing.
437* Creator/{{Sierra}} games are a combination of Recursive Canon, ContinuityCameo and CreatorCameo, resulting in a loose CanonWelding.
438** ''VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarry 4'' is a missing game in ''Leisure Suit Larry 5'', and appears in ''[[VideoGame/SpaceQuestIVRogerWilcoAndTheTimeRippers Space Quest IV]]''. Interestingly, it's a plot point in both: after Larry and Patti got together at the end of ''Leisure Suit Larry 3'', they're separated again at the start of ''[=LSL5=]'' and have no clue ''why'' because of the missing game. In ''SQIV'', recurring nemesis Vohaul [[BrainUploading uploaded himself into]] a disc for ''[=LSL4=]'', and the Xenonian scientists were so eager to play it that they installed it (and him) onto Xenon's planet-controlling supercomputer.
439** ''Space Quest IV'' also has the ''Space Quest IV'' computer program and the ''Space Quest IV'' hint book, with RidiculousFutureSequelisation as future time periods.
440** The company Sierra On-Line is found in ''[[VideoGame/KingsQuestIVThePerilsOfRosella King's Quest IV]]'', ''Leisure Suit Larry 3'', and ''[[VideoGame/SpaceQuestIIIThePiratesOfPestulon Space Quest III]]'', and is mentioned in ''Space Quest IV''.
441** Rosella re-enacts a scene from ''King's Quest IV'', in the real world of ''Leisure Suit Larry 3''.
442** ''The Hoyle Book of Games'' has characters recounting adventures from the games alongside a game programmer.
443** Magazines and guidebooks further support a DirectLineToTheAuthor as the authors interview characters starring in their own games.
444* The stadium stage in ''[[VideoGame/RivalSchools Project Justice]]'' features in-universe advertisements for other Creator/{{Capcom}} video games, including ''VideoGame/StreetFighterAlpha 3'' and ''VideoGame/CapcomVsSNKMillenniumFight2000''. Both of those games feature Sakura, a character established to exist in ''Project Justice'''s universe, as a playable fighter. This is made even weirder by the sequel, ''VideoGame/CapcomVsSNK2MarkOfTheMillennium'', which actually added Kyosuke from ''Project Justice'' to the playable lineup.
445* ''VideoGame/Tekken3'': Mokujin plays as Mokujin on the ''Tekken 3'' arcade cabinet.
446* ''VideoGame/{{Ultima}}'': The Avatar is from the real world where the Ultima games exist, including ''VideoGame/UltimaV'' in ''VideoGame/UltimaVI'', ''Ultima VI'' in ''Martian Dreams'', ''VideoGame/UltimaVII'' in ''Ultima VII'', ''VideoGame/UltimaVIII'' in ''VideoGame/UltimaVIIPartII'', and ''Ultima Online 2'' in ''VideoGame/UltimaIX''. Wall paintings in ''VideoGame/UltimaUnderworld'' and ''Ultima Underworld II'' are the box art of previous games. Bartenders in ''Ultima III'' mention "EXODUS: Ultima ]I[". ''Ultima VII'' contains the ''Ultima VII'' strategy guide "Key to the Black Gate" and Prima strategy guide "Ultima: The Avatar Adventures".
447* There's a subtle example in the tenth installment of the ''VideoGame/DarkParables.'' The Fairy Tale Detective, while exploring the castle occupied by Queen Valla and her sister [[Literature/GoldilocksAndTheThreeBears Goldilocks]], comes across novelizations of the previous nine games in the series. When placed in numerical order on the shelf, they unlock a BookcasePassage. The detective doesn't comment on it, probably because this is hardly the weirdest thing she's encountered in the series.
448* ''Franchise/MortalKombat'':
449** In ''VideoGame/MortalKombat3'', Liu Kang's "Arcade Drop" [[FinishingMove Fatality]] squashes his opponent under a ''Mortal Kombat'' cabinet. This returned in LighterAndSofter form in ''VideoGame/MortalKombatVsDCUniverse''.
450** The Tournament stage in ''VideoGame/MortalKombat11'' features ''VideoGame/MortalKombatDeadlyAlliance'', ''VideoGame/MortalKombatX'', ''VideoGame/MortalKombatShaolinMonks'' and ''VideoGame/MortalKombatDeception'' arcade cabinets in the background, as well as numerous posters and banners from Creator/NetherrealmStudios, the makers of the game.
451* Creator/{{Ubisoft}}'s games, particularly its "Creator/TomClancy's" line, really like to do this. ''VideoGame/RainbowSix'' is the biggest offender, to the point that it does this to ''itself'' on multiple occasions: one level in ''Raven Shield'' features its own credits scroll on a random TV, and ''[[VideoGame/RainbowSixSiege Siege]]'' has a few levels where you can find DVD cases for various Ubisoft games like ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed'', ''VideoGame/TheDivision''... and ''Rainbow Six: Siege''. ''Vegas 2'' is big on this as well, as you can find arcade machines for ''VideoGame/SplinterCell'' across several levels (while at the same time being assisted by an NSA agent who dresses exactly like a Splinter Cell operative), and the level in a convention center around the time of a big video game tournament has large banners for several games, including Ubisoft's own ''VideoGame/FarCry2''.
452* ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIVBlackFlag'' and ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIIILiberation'' also exist as in-universe games, titled "''Pirates of Nightmares''" and "''Liberation''", respectively, and are developed by Abstergo Entertainment. Supposedly developed by taking data from the Animus and then turning that information into a video game, these projects exist to skew public favor for the Templar's interpretation of history. The actual games themselves paint the Assasins as the good guys so it's hard to tell what the Templars were going for if their own games are more or less on the same trajectory.
453* ''VideoGame/{{Postal}}'' does this due to its ''VideoGame/MetalGear''-like [[BreakingTheFourthWall irreverence for a fourth wall]], so much so that [[SelfInsert the actual video game's developers are characters in the second game]]. This came to the point that ''Postal Redux'', the [[VideoGameRemake remake]] of the original ''Postal'', was teased more than a year before it came out... by way of giving the player an errand in ''VideoGame/Postal2: Paradise Lost'' to install ''Postal Redux'' boards into the arcade cabinets at the mall.
454* The ending of ''VideoGame/SecretOfEvermore'' suggests that the entire game was just the result of the main character [[MrImagination daydreaming]] after going out to see a movie called "The Secret of Evermore". [[spoiler:But a mysterious spark of electricity around the theater marquee throws that into question, coupled with the following scene showing the previous citizens of Podunk he rescued, preparing to return to their lives outside of Evermore.]]
455* The infamous DummiedOut Hot Coffee minigame in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'' has a ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCity'' poster hanging up in the wall, especially odd given that characters from ''Vice City'' do appear in ''San Andreas''. Given that the minigame wasn't finished, the poster was probably just a placeholder.
456** If you look hard, there are a place in Los Santos that show tiles of GTA Vice City boxart.
457** In Zero's RC Store there are sold action figures of Lance Vance and Tommy Vercetti from GTA Vice City, and James Earl Cash and Piggsy from ''VideoGame/{{Manhunt}}''.
458* In ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCity'' there are a [[AnachronismStew video games store]] near Pole Position Club that has posters of ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIII'' characters, and the target cut-out in the shooting range minigame consists of characters from GTA III as well.
459* ''Franchise/RatchetAndClank'':
460** On the title screen for ''[[VideoGame/RatchetAndClankGoingCommando Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando]]'', Ratchet can be seen playing several games, including [[VideoGame/RatchetAndClank2002 the first]] ''Franchise/RatchetAndClank'' game as well as ''Going Commando'' itself.
461** Related to the title screen, another game that Ratchet can be seen playing is ''[[VideoGame/JakIIRenegade Jak II]]''. Posters of Jak and Daxter can also be seen at various points in the game. Ratchet and Clank appear in a secret gun course in ''[[VideoGame/Jak3Wastelander Jak 3]]''. Jak is a playable character (only for Player 2) in ''VideoGame/RatchetDeadlocked'', and similarly Ratchet is a secret unlockable character in ''[[VideoGame/JakXCombatRacing Jak X: Combat Racing]]''. Finally, Ratchet and Clank appear on masks in ''Daxter''. In short: VideoGame/JakAndDaxter exist as both fiction and real characters in ''Ratchet & Clank'', and vise versa.
462* Creator/NaughtyDog games in general end up having this trope a lot.
463** Nathan and Elena can be seen playing ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot'' in ''VideoGame/Uncharted4AThiefsEnd''. In the [[Platform/PlayStation4 PS4]] version of ''VideoGame/CrashBandicootNSaneTrilogy'', Coco can be seen watching Nathan and Elena playing Crash at the start of ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot2CortexStrikesBack''. Try wrapping your head around that.
464** ''Crash Bandicoot'' is fiction in Uncharted but a Wumpa Fruit can be found in ''Uncharted 4''. ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUs'' has ''Uncharted'' board games and a newspaper referencing an ''Uncharted'' movie, however a newspaper in ''VideoGame/Uncharted3DrakesDeception'' references the fungus in ''The Last of Us'' and a Firefly pendant can be found in ''Uncharted 4'' along with a poster for a ''The Last of Us'' comic series titled "American Daughters". Jak and Daxter have plush toys, board games, and pinatas in ''The Last of Us''. Precursor orbs exist in ''Uncharted'' but the name of Daxter's species - the Ottsel - is a brand in the same universe. Naughty Dog itself exists on a mousepad in ''The Last of Us''. So on, and so forth.
465* In ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII'', the framing device for the WesternAnimation/ClassicDisneyShorts-inspired Classic Kingdom minigames is that they were created to promote a film festival of the actual short films, albeit with Sora being Mickey's main co-star. Scrooge [=McDuck=] and Ludwig Von Drake (who is credited with the invention of synchronized sound) are credited as the producers of these cartoons.
466* In the sci-fi sandbox game ''VideoGame/{{Starbound}}'', one of the furniture pieces you can find in NPC structures is an arcade machine for a mysterious game called "Starbound", complete with [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall fourth-wall pushing flavor text]] depending on your player character's race.
467-->'''Apex:''' A space exploration game called Starbound. It feels familiar.\
468'''Avian:''' Never heard of this Starbound game. And yet...\
469'''Floran:''' Sstarbound spaceship game. Floran get achievement for [[BreakingTheFourthWall sssmashing fourth wall]].\
470'''Hylotl:''' This Starbound game speaks to me on a spiritual level.\
471'''Novakid:''' Some kinda space explorin' game called Starbound. I do that stuff in real life!
472* A funny example can be found in ''VideoGame/{{Darkstone}}''. In one of the higher level quests, the player's objective is to rescue SantaClaus. He rewards the player character by presenting them with a miniature copy of ''Darkstone II''. (Unfortunately, the real ''Darkstone II'' never actually got made.)
473* A [[Platform/SegaMasterSystem Sega Mark-III console]] with a copy of its ''Hokuto no Ken'' game can be found in ''VideoGame/FistOfTheNorthStarLostParadise'', leading to the truly surreal sight of Kenshiro playing a game based on '''his own adventures'''.
474* ''VideoGame/WeNeedToGoDeeper'' is heavily inspired by ''Literature/TwentyThousandLeaguesUnderTheSea'' to the point of Captain Nemo being a real person InUniverse and [[spoiler: having died in the deepest reaches of the Living Infinite.]] However, a tattered copy of ''Leagues'' is one of the trash items which can be found. This is possibly consistent with Verne's writing rather than a joke, as in ''Literature/TheMysteriousIsland'', ''Leagues'' is revealed to be an InUniverse book written by the novel's protagonist, Professor Arronax.
475* ''VideoGame/DynamiteHeaddy'' has in a few early stages some signs stating "Dynamite Headdy: Now on Sale!"
476* ''VideoGame/NipponSafesInc'''s sequel ''The Big Red Adventure'' implies that the adventures of the three main character in the previous game both actually happened and also were a video game of the same name.
477* One of the game [=ROMs=] available for the Mobile Super X in ''VideoGame/LaMulana'' is ''La-Mulana'' itself.
478* ''VideoGame/LoneSurvivor'' has a few arcade cabinets, one of which, L.S., is heavily implied to be the game itself.
479* Among the random items found in the basement of an antiques shop in ''VideoGame/DeusExMankindDivided'' is a copy of the previous game, ''VideoGame/DeusExHumanRevolution''.
480* In ''VideoGame/SummertimeSaga'', the Main Character can play ''Summertime Saga'' on his PC. It shows a replica of his room in much lower graphics before crashing and telling the player to write a bug report to Darkcookie. [[SarcasmMode He loves dealing with those]].
481* In one mission in ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars30'', while some of the characters are exploring [[Anime/GaoGaiGar G-Island City]], [[Anime/BravePoliceJDecker Yuto Tomonaga]] enters a store where [[Anime/{{Betterman}} Keita Aono]] is working at and asks for a copy of ''Super Robot Wars 300''.
482* Subverted in ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarOnline2'', where "Phantasy Star Online 2" is an in-universe video game played by humans on Earth in an alternate universe. It is quickly revealed that [[spoiler:the "game" is a direct link from Earth to the Oracle universe under the guise of a video game, and the "avatars" piloted by the players are Aether bodies remotely controlled by unwitting humans to test their Aether potential]].
483* On the 97th floor of the titular dungeon in ''VideoGame/DungeonEncounters'', [[spoiler:you can buy a copy of ''Dungeon Encounters'' from a DungeonShop as an equippable item. It even costs the same as it does in real life, assuming you use a 100 G = $1 USD exchange rate]].
484* ''VideoGame/{{Darius}}'' and ''Darius Gaiden'' have {{Joke Ending}}s that feature an illustration of the protagonists beating the game on an arcade cabinet.
485[[/folder]]
486
487[[folder:Visual Novels]]
488* ''VisualNovel/ChoicesStoriesYouPlay'': ''VisualNovel/TheCrownAndTheFlame'' is a TV series in the Choices universe, which is mentioned several times in other books. ''VisualNovel/TheRoyalMasquerade'' and ''VisualNovel/TheRoyalRomance'' feature TC&tF characters' descendants.
489* ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry'' takes this and runs with it to the Nth degree. By the end of the series, it's a story about [[spoiler:a story about a story about a game about a story about a game about some message bottles about a game about a murder. And there are probably a few layers forgotten there as well]]. And to boot, it might be possible that the events of ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry'' were actually a novel in the world of Umineko - although it's hard to tell whether it's serious or just a meta-gag when Battler mentions it.
490* ''VisualNovel/HiveswapFriendsim'':
491** The series, a dating sim based in the universe of ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'', ends with [[spoiler:your character sitting down to read the very comic which spawned the game]]. [[KudzuPlot This is one of the tamest parts of the canon]].
492** Its direct sequel ''VisualNovel/{{Pesterquest}}'' goes even further, starting with your character getting mad at ''Literature/TheHomestuckEpilogues'', then accidentally teleporting to the locations of several of the characters that star in it as they appeared in the beginning of the comic.
493* In ''VisualNovel/SoushuuSenshinkanGakuenHachimyoujin'', the ''VisualNovel/ShinzaBanshoSeries'' is apparently a popular fighting game series of which Ayumi is a huge fan of, owning at least one of the titles and seemingly likes to sing [[VisualNovel/DiesIrae Einsatz]] when she gets the chance.
494* When the characters of ''VisualNovel/GoGoNippon'' became [[VirtualYoutuber Virtual Youtubers]] they did a playthrough of their own game, with Akira even getting embarrassed at the content of her own route.
495[[/folder]]
496
497[[folder:Web Animation]]
498* The ''WebAnimation/BadDays'' pilot "Disassembled" includes a scene in which the ComicBook/FantasticFour watch a cartoon starring themselves, ''WesternAnimation/TheFantasticFour1967''.
499* The series finale of ''WebAnimation/SonicForHire'' has Sonic getting a bolt of inspiration and starting to run backwards through the series' locations. Suddenly, what appears to be the show's opening plays again, and Sonic and Tails show up on the bottom of the screen and Sonic says he could then activate the level select CheatCode. Sonic then selects the very same episode that is being played.
500-->'''Tails:''' Holy shit, look at this! It's all our episodes! We have done a lot of stupid shit.
501[[/folder]]
502
503[[folder:Webcomics]]
504* [[http://darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0050.html Narrowly averted]] by ''Webcomic/DarthsAndDroids''. With layers upon layers... in the note on that page is a link to a screencap comic based on ''Franchise/HarryPotter'', which looks like a version of the comic, down to the note that has a link to a screencap comic based on ''Theatre/TheSoundOfMusic'', which looks like a version of the comic, down to the note that has a link to a screencap comic based on the ''ComicBook/XMen'', which has a link... This continues to at least twenty-seven repetitions, including a ''[[Webcomic/{{Mezzacotta}} Postcard]]'' [[http://www.mezzacotta.net/postcard/?comic=121 comic in the same style]] that links to the ''Star Wars'' layer. The fourteenth layer is ''Film/{{Inception}}'' with the strip title "[[LampshadeHanging Dream 50: How Deep Does the Rabbit Hole Go?]]" As discussed in CelebrityParadox, some of screencapped works eventually appear in the outer layers again.
505* In ''Webcomic/DumbingOfAge'', there are Dexter and Monkey Master, a cartoon and comic series, and Robo-Vac, a comic book, both {{Shout Out}}s to the original continuity (which includes ''Webcomic/{{Roomies}}'', ''Webcomic/ItsWalky'', ''Webcomic/{{Shortpacked}}'', and ''Webcomic/JoyceAndWalky''). Additionally, Robo-Vac is a comic in ''Webcomic/{{Roomies}}''.
506* ''Webcomic/MobyDickBackFromTheDeep'': Herman Melville wrote Literature/MobyDick in the world of this webcomic. Of course, the great white whale in the book wasn't an ancient, undead giant that's been terrorizing the oceans of the world for centuries. In the original book, Captain Ahab and his crew weren't [[spoiler:turned into a bunch of ghouls [[BarredFromTheAfterlife who can't move on to the afterlife]] until they finally put the whale down for good]].
507* ''Webcomic/MSPaintAdventures'' pushes new boundaries for this trope. There are four separate webcomics, or "adventures", on the site: ''Webcomic/{{Jailbreak}}'', ''Webcomic/BardQuest'', ''Webcomic/ProblemSleuth'', and ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}''. There's also an entity known as the Midnight Crew. The relationship between the five is [[MindScrew a little complicated, to say the least]].
508** ''Problem Sleuth'', ''Bard Quest'' and ''Jailbreak'' [[http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=4&p=001555 take place in the same universe.]] They also are an in-universe series of games, as Problem Sleuth has to look up his own game on [=GameFAQs=] in order to get past an extremely difficult puzzle.
509** John, TheHero of ''Homestuck'', owns [[http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=001931 video games with the same titles as the first three adventures.]] It is unknown if these games are associated with the fictional mspaintadventures.com that exists within that universe.
510** The Midnight Crew were introduced in a series of non-canonical extra commands for ''Problem Sleuth''. Several characters in ''Homestuck'' [[http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=002012 go to mspaintadventures.com,]] where there is a Midnight Crew adventure going on. Moreover, Jade checked it at a time when it was concluding [[http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=002731 an intermission]] which seems to be a variation of ''Homestuck'' and didn't seem to notice.
511** After the end of Act 3, ''Homestuck'', in turn, began a Midnight Crew-themed intermission. In it, Spades Slick of the Midnight Crew - using a computer which once belonged to John's dad, no less - [[http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=003067 went to mspaintadventures.com]] and found... ''Homestuck'' itself.
512** At the end of the intermission, it is revealed that the Midnight Crew intermission is part of the ''Homestuck'' story with direct ramifications on it. So... the whole thing's a little complicated.
513** It's ultimately quite simple though now that Creator/AndrewHussie is actually a character in story; he's got time and space warping walls that he watches people with[[note]]Technical term: fifth walls.[[/note]] and so he can violate what we'd consider normal. It also helps that parallel universes are involved. To put it simply, he's sending Midnight Crew comics to John's universe, ''Homestuck'' comics to the Midnight Crew's universe, and a ''third'' universe gets a sequel to ''Problem Sleuth''.
514** A lot of the characters of ''Homestuck'' lived in the Midnight Crew's universe before. [[spoiler:They live in the Alternian universe (A2).]]
515** [[spoiler:Bringing the Midnight Crew shenanigans full circle, the ''actual'' sequel to ''Problem Sleuth'' is told through bonus comics for ''Webcomic/HomestuckBeyondCanon''. Characters from ''Homestuck'' are transported to that universe during the plot, including Jane, who was a fan of the in-universe sequel.]]
516** Complicating things even further is the existence of the [[AudienceSurrogate MSPA Reader]], who up until ''Homestuck'' was just an amusing meta-reference. Since they've become a recurring character in ''Homestuck'', they've gained their own Land and therefore their own session, started reading the comic after ''VisualNovel/HiveswapFriendsim'' (including all the parts that reference them directly), then dove deeper into it during ''VisualNovel/{{Pesterquest}}'' by meeting the human cast after reading what happens to them during ''Literature/TheHomestuckEpilogues''.
517* ''Webcomic/PlanescapeSurvivalGuide'' has a character visiting the comic's site [[http://planescapecomic.com/183.html here]].
518* At the beginning of chapter 4 of ''Webcomic/ApricotCookies'', Apricot finds what appears to be a print copy of chapter 1. {{Subverted|Trope}} in that it's actually a ShowWithinAShow written by Starlet.
519* ''Webcomic/{{Hoofstuck}}'': Rainbow Dash has a picture of Dirk Strider on her wall, referencing how Dirk, [[Webcomic/{{Homestuck}} in his own continuity]] has a picture of Rainbow Dash on his.
520* There are aparently ''three'' different iterations of ''Webcomic/TawawaOnMonday'': one as a simple DVD, another where Himura's Twitter, the images, and the anime itself exist where its main star can see it, and implied through a poster bearing the title and a [[GenderFlip cute (presumably top-heavy) boy]] that exists in the anime.
521[[/folder]]
522
523[[folder:Web Videos]]
524* In ''WebVideo/HalfInTheBag'', Mike Stoklasa acts as the creator of the Plinkett reviews in episodes where they screen the ''Star Wars Episode I'' review at conventions, despite the fact that a different Plinkett exists in their universe. In the ''WebVideo/RedLetterMedia'' teaser videos, Mr. Plinkett (who seems to be the same Plinkett as the review universe) calls ''WebVideo/HalfInTheBag'' "our new review show," and he also acknowledges the existence of Mike and Jay (calling them frauds). In both the ''[=HitB=]'' universe and ''RLM'' teasers, ''Feeding Frenzy'' is acknowledged as a work of fiction, despite featuring yet another version of Harry S. Plinkett.
525* The reviewers of Website/ChannelAwesome encounter all sorts of crazy stuff in their videos, but all this is forgotten in the annual MassiveMultiplayerCrossover film featuring them all, where it appears that the characters actually live in (more or less) the real world; Nostalgia Chick, Linkara, Spoony ''et al'' really go by those names, and are employed by TGWTG to make the videos on the site. It is brought back around in the fourth anniversary, ''WebVideo/ToBoldlyFlee''. Linkara's space ship and Joe's space station are involved in the plot, the reviewers are menaced by villains from previous reviews, such as [[Film/BattlefieldEarth Terl]] and Mechakara, and [[spoiler:in the last episode, the Nostalgia Critic has a very important encounter with Doug Walker]].
526* ''WebVideo/TFSAtTheTable'': A RunningGag with the players and fans is the Natural One-ders' Saturday Morning Cartoon, broadcast long after the actual One-ders' adventuring careers ended. This then became the focus of a one-off special episode, showing an episode of the cartoon on home scrying orbs. There's even a cheesy Aesop message. However, the cartoon is only VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory, so the heroes' adventures also include campy things like fighting a mummy ninja in his hovering pyramid HQ. The characters are also simplified and rendered as something fitting in a kid's TV show:
527** Ezra is a weakling and depends on being a GuileHero.
528** Wake is always serious and has NoSenseOfHumor.
529** Grammy is a kindly old lady, instead of a crazy sea hag.
530** Nedra is naïve, excitable and trips over everything.
531** Skrung is a cheap goblin stereotype.
532** Gulphur has a sometimes-Scottish-sometimes-Irish accent and drinks copious amounts of '[[FrothyMugsOfWater orange juice]]'.
533** Although it wasn't included in the episode, the players have also reacted positively to fanart depicting Calliope the faun's cartoon persona as a [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot druid/ninja/forest guardian]], and Carble the gargoyle as a robot.
534* ''WebVideo/{{Phelous}}'' does a review of his own ''Franchise/MortalKombat'' parody, ''Mortal Komedy'', tearing into it mercilessly only to be reminded by [[CelebrityParadox Sub-Zero]] it was his own series.
535-->'''Sub-Zero:''' You realize this is your ''own'' show, right?\
536'''Phelous:''' [[CurseCutShort FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-]]
537[[/folder]]
538
539[[folder:Western Animation]]
540* The ''Franchise/{{Ghostbusters}}'' films exist in ''WesternAnimation/TheRealGhostbusters'' universe as a retelling of actual events. Cartoon Peter Venkman notes that Creator/BillMurray looks nothing like him. Toys from the TV series, however, show up in ''Film/GhostbustersII'' and [[VideoGame/GhostbustersTheVideoGame the 2009 video game]], which is noted as {{canon}} to the movies. So the cartoon is a retelling of events in the movies which is a retelling of events in the cartoon which is--oh dear, I've gone crosseyed.
541* ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}''
542** The Smithsonian/US Presidents episode of ''WesternAnimation/ThisIsAmericaCharlieBrown'' had the characters go to the museum and look at an original ''Peanuts'' comic that can be found in the museum, as well as information about the Apollo 10 modules (that were nicknamed "Charlie Brown" and "Snoopy").
543** ''WesternAnimation/ItsTheGreatPumpkinCharlieBrown'' has a scene where Lucy is shown reading an issue of ''Magazine/TVGuide'' with her own picture on the cover.
544** Peppermint Patty actually reads a ''Peanuts'' book, with Charlie Brown and Lucy on the cover, in ''He's Your Dog, Charlie Brown''.
545* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsCloneWars'' has a {{retcon}} to imply that the episode/scene/five minutes with Mace Windu was an in-universe cartoon later drawn by the kid watching the whole scene, in an attempt to account for Mace Windu's abilities being stronger than normal.
546* ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'':
547** In ''Stage Door Cartoon'', Elmer Fudd sits down in a theater for a screening of a Bugs Bunny short, alongside a Southern-voiced sheriff who says how much he "just ''dotes'' on that thar critter's doin's". Watching the cartoon, Elmer sees Bugs on the screen putting on a sheriff disguise, so he starts tearing off the clothes of the sheriff next to him in the theater... only to discover it's the ''real'' sheriff, who promptly hauls him away.
548** In ''WesternAnimation/AnItchInTime'', Elmer is seen reading a ''Looney Tunes'' comic book with Bugs and Porky on the cover.
549* In the Franchise/TomAndJerry short ''[[ClipShow Matinee Mouse]]'', Tom and Jerry sit down in a theater to watch...''Tom and Jerry'', with the ticket-keeper expressing bewilderment as to why the duo walk together as friends. The friendship moment ends, however, as each laughs at the other's expense, to the point where [[NoFourthWall the characters onscreen watch the duo in the theatre fight]].
550* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'', Grim can be seen watching ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor'', but come ''Billy and Mandy's Big Boogey Adventure'' and ''The Grim Adventures of the KND'', we see that they exist in the same universe. Seeing as Creator/CartoonNetwork often depicted its shows' characters as living in one big SharedUniverse, it seems like this was bound to happen at some point.
551* The episode of the ''Franchise/TransformersGeneration1'' [[WesternAnimation/TheTransformers cartoon]] "[[Recap/TransformersG1MakeTracks Make Tracks]]" has a brief shot of a movie theater playing ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformersTheMovie''. The events of which movie happened 20 years after the episode in question! Would have spared them a lot of losses if the Autobots bothered to check it out.
552* ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends'':
553** In the episode "Badtime Story", [[CowardlyLion Wade]] gets Roy to leave so Wade can finish the story by telling him "Your favorite TV show's on". Roy's reaction: "''Garfield and Friends''? Oh my gosh! I can't miss it this week. We'll finish this later. Bye!" We later then see Roy at his house, saying "Hey, wait a minute! This isn't Saturday morning! Garfield isn't on!"
554** At the end of "Secrets of the Animated Cartoon", the ''U.S. Acres'' characters all gather up to watch ''Garfield and Friends''.
555** In "The Lasagna Zone", Garfield, TrappedInTVLand, begs Odie to change the channel, but Odie mistakenly knocks the remote off the armchair, causing it to break and the channel to change endlessly, resulting in Garfield running in place through several different screens. One is Booker and Sheldon standing in a field, and another is the title card of the earlier episode "Sludge Monster". Earlier in the same episode, Jon throws Garfield a book of the cable TV listings, the cover of which has Garfield's picture on it.
556** Averted: In ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldsHalloweenAdventure'', when Garfield is flipping through TV channels at the beginning, one is a Jim Davis-drawn pig in a cartoony field. One may be tempted to think it's Orson and that he's watching ''Garfield and Friends'', but this special predated it by 3 years.
557* ''WesternAnimation/HiHiPuffyAmiYumi'': Animated Ami and Yumi see their live action counterparts on TV and don't recognize who they are in "Sitcomi Yumi". A poster of the real duo also appears in "In Harmony's Way". [[https://youtu.be/dJclATVwo9E?t=10 "These guys rock!"]]
558* The opening theme of ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'' showed DW reading an ''Arthur'' book and watching ''Arthur'' on TV.
559-->'''Arthur:''' ''[on TV]'' Hey, DW!\
560'''DW:''' Hey!!!\
561'''Arthur:''' ''[falls off the screen screaming, the title falls apart below him]''
562* ''WesternAnimation/MenInBlackTheSeries'' is an Alternate Continuity from the movies. The movie actually exists in this universe and is the story of the MIB leaked by the Worms using a human suit and the name of Creator/LowellCunningham. The series even mentions Creator/WillSmith and Creator/TommyLeeJones as the actors playing J and K and shows them (in very accurate cartoon versions) on camera.
563* ''WesternAnimation/DungeonsAndDragons1983'' starts with a group of kids going on a D&D-themed ride at a theme park, suggesting the D&D games exist in their world. They are then sucked into the real world of Dungeons and Dragons. Incidentally, they [[PopculturalOsmosisFailure don't seem to know anything about the D&D world]], despite apparently having recognized the ride's theme.
564* In the first ''WesternAnimation/{{Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles|1987}}'' cartoon, there was a side character named "Bug Man" who is also a comic book character. In the first episode with him, Michaelangelo helps him on his adventures, to the disbelief of the other turtles. In the second episode he shows up in, [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome the comic has destroyed his life]], telling everyone (including his enemies) his SecretIdentity, his WeaksauceWeakness, etc.
565* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' are established as a fictional cartoon in ''WesternAnimation/TheCritic'' - but Jay visits Springfield at one point. Guh?
566** ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' is stated to be a work of fiction within the Simpsons universe ([[CreatorCameo Matt Groening]] is famous for creating ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' in ''The Simpsons'', meanwhile he is famous for creating ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' within the universe of ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}})'' which [[ContinuitySnarl gets extra confusing]] when it was confirmed the two would have a crossover in the fall of 2014.
567** In "Bart vs. Thanksgiving", Bart and Homer talk about the unfamiliar balloons in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, a balloon of Bart appears on the TV just as they look away, a reference to the introduction of a real Bart balloon in the 1990 edition of the parade.
568--->'''Homer:''' If you start building a balloon for every flash-in-the-pan cartoon character, you'll turn the parade into a farce.
569* One of many {{Creator Cameo}}s in ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'' featured Jhonen Vasquez and Steve Russel sitting at a table with a script titled "The Nightmare Begins"--that is to say, the script for the show's first episode.
570* ''WesternAnimation/NedsNewt'' has occasionally shown to exist within itself, with an instrumental of the theme song playing from within TV sets, for instance. This obviously excludes instances where the characters are LeaningOnTheFourthWall.
571* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy''
572** In "Dial Meg for Murder", Peter decides to check the newest issue of ''TV Guide'' to find out why Meg has been acting so weird. He sees that the description for the episode mentions that he enters a rodeo, which did indeed occur, and that Meg is dating a criminal.
573** In "Petey IV", Peter asks Vladimir Putin if they have ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' in Russia, to which he replies that [[SelfDeprecation they have]] ''[[SelfDeprecation Family Guy]]''.
574* In Creator/TexAvery's ''[[WesternAnimation/TexAveryMGMCartoons The Early Bird Dood It!]]'', a bird chases a worm down a road and briefly pauses to examine a billboard advertising the film ''[[Film/MrsMiniver Mrs. Minimum]]'' with an added attraction -- the very cartoon they're in!
575-->'''Bird:''' Say, I hear that's a pretty funny cartoon.\
576'''Worm:''' [[SelfDeprecation Well, I hope it's funnier than]] ''[[SelfDeprecation this]]'' [[SelfDeprecation one!]]
577* ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987'' and ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'' have a SharedUniverse, both of which have Launchpad as a main character and Gizmoduck a supporting one. In ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'', ''Darkwing Duck'' is a ShowWithinAShow that Launchpad watched as a kid, though significantly different in some way (most obviously, he and Gizmoduck were not part of it, it's a live-action show in-universe, [[spoiler:Negaduck isn't a character, and Darkwing's SecretIdentity isn't Drake Mallard]]). Eventually, the actor who plays Darkwing in a recent movie adaptation ([[spoiler:who ''is'' named Drake Mallard]]) [[AscendedFanboy becomes Darkwing]] [[ComicBooksAreReal for real]], [[spoiler:and Darkwing's original actor becomes Negaduck]].
578* ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius'': In the episode "Lights, Camera, Danger", Jimmy asks Goddard to show him all of the world's most successful movies at warp speed. The last film, which Jimmy grows wide-eyed on is none other than [[WesternAnimation/JimmyNeutronBoyGenius his own]].
579* A brief gag in ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'', during a TravelMontage on a trip to Korea, shows Steven and Greg checking out a Korean animation studio. The cartoon being drawn in the studio is very clearly ''Steven Universe'' itself (which is indeed animated in UsefulNotes/SouthKorea), and they even seem to be working on that particular episode. After looking around for a few seconds, an unnerved Greg ushers his son out of the room [[AudienceWhatAudience before Steven can realize what's going on.]]
580* In the Season 8 premiere of ''WesternAnimation/VoltronLegendaryDefender'', Pidge is seen watching an episode of the original ''Voltron'' dubbed-anime, though it's noted to be a new show in-universe, and several other characters reference how different it portrays them as being from how they actually are.
581* ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'' has an episode centered around the premiere of an animated film based on the adventures of Ladybug and Cat Noir. The director of this film is Thomas Astruc, [[CreatorCameo the creator of the actual series]], and clips shown from the film itself [[DevelopmentGag use footage from an early 2D promotional video]].
582* ''WesternAnimation/{{Doug}}'': In the Disney episode "Doug's Secret Christmas", Skeeter and his family are shown watching a Christmas special -- specifically, "Doug's Christmas Story", the ChristmasEpisode from the Nickelodeon run.
583* ''WesternAnimation/TamagotchiVideoAdventures'': While in the flying saucer, a couple of the Tamagotchis are seen playing with the [[Toys/{{Tamagotchi}} very virtual pets the video is adapted from]].
584* ''WesternAnimation/ZigAndSharko'': In one episode, Marina opens a crate marked "Xilam"[[note]]The production company behind the show[[/note]] and finds ''Zig and Sharko''-branded (complete with the show's actual logo) action figures of herself, Sharko, Zig, and Bernie.
585* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'':
586** The show began with two internet shorts called ''WesternAnimation/TheSpiritOfChristmas.'' The fourth season ChristmasEpisode is about the boys making the second one as a short film with themselves as the main characters. (Apparently the vulgarity was an example of ThrowItIn, and [[TheyKilledKennyAgain Kenny]]'s death was RealLifeWritesThePlot.)
587** The second season episode "Terrance and Phillip in Not Without My Anus" is supposed to be a ShowWithinAShow, but later episodes reveal that Saddam Hussein ''did'' try to take over Canada at some point. Maybe the ''Terrence and Phillip'' movie was BasedOnATrueStory?
588[[/folder]]

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