Lampshade Hanging - Television Tropes & Idioms

Witchblade's English voice actor for Masane Amaha, not to mention all of the Clone Blades to varying degrees, did this in their voice acting in what is Fridge Brilliance. The Japanese VA's made the Blade Bearers sound bestial and feral, which just made the Blade Bearers sound like psychotic amazons. The English VA's made battle sound like Orgasmic Combat, which is subtle lampshading of the fact a huge part of the series is BUILT on its sex appeal, and even is plot relevant, as the Witch Blade's power induces powerful emotion that makes kicking ass feel like aggressive love making.
- Original already sounds as a mix of Orgasmic Combat and Dissonant Serenity. May be even better, as anime adaptation plays on the subtle alien-ness of Witchblade.
This trope basically comprises all of the content in one episode of Lucky Star.
In the Fullmetal Alchemist manga there's a short arc that consists of a long flashback of the Civil War against the Ishvalans. In it, the then-Major Roy Mustang is talking to the then-Captain Maes Hughes when the latter receives a letter from his lover Gracia back in the Central City. As the family-enthusiastic he is, he gets overly emotional about the letter, to which Roy Mustang warns him that, in books and movies, the "family-type guy" is always the first to be killed. And then they get attacked by an Ishvalan, both of them are unarmed, of course. Especially blatant since Lt. Colonel Maes Hughes, who by then also has a three-year-old daughter he is overly passionate about, becomes the first important character to die in the series several issues before this flashback.
- Also in FMA, the logic behind Armstrong going shirtless, and as to where his clothing has gone, is sometimes questioned on-screen by his comrades.
In at least one hentai manga, a character strains the local fourth wall to the limit when she asks "Why does everything always seem to entail fucking John?" (Ironically, this editor was referred to it because it was such a blatant lampshade hanging, rather than the obvious reason.)
Another hentai manga, one of Saigado's Yuri and Friends series, actually has a character point out the "censorship black dots" that covered the "goods", commenting that "it would feel even better if the black dot wasn't in the way!!"
- There is at least one H-manga where the guy's penis is a black bar and she complains about the shape.
Yet another hentai dōjinshi, this time of Disgaea. Initially, Adell and Rozalin are just starting to go at it — and then one comments how this seems like such a bad porn plot... And then the camera zooms back on the Prinny Squad recording it.
In TUBAME Syndrome, when Taiga tries to have a tender moment and confess to Tubame, he suddenly gets interrupted by a kick to the face at the pivotal moment. Afterward, he wonders to himself why he only gets interrupted during the good moments.
In the English dub of Yu-Gi-Oh GX, characters have an unfortunate tendency to make ridiculous numbers of puns and gags based around their character concepts. In the second season, it's common for other characters to complain about this. (I.e., "Enough clock references!", "What's that supposed to mean?"/"Everything's a music reference to him, remember?")
- Speak for yourself. If you take it as a gag dub, it can be hilarious.
In Dragon Ball Z, and especially in the the first 9 movies, Piccolo is constantly saving Gohan in Big Damn Heroes moments. Constantly. So when Gohan is exhausted and about to be consumed by lava in movie 10, and Piccolo swoops in out of nowhere and carries him to safety, no-one thinks anything of it. But then Gohan wakes up and realizes he had been hallucinating: it was Kuririn who saved him... while dressed up as Piccolo.
- In direct reference to Kuririn, it is entirely likely that the man would have (if asked) outright said he was making sure it would work, making the lampshade as glaring as a tie-dyed Kevlar actual lampshade would be.
- The entire fight between Gotenks and Super Buu is made of this trope. Gotenks does every stupid bit from the earlier fights in the show, such as taking forever to power up and holding back so much he risks losing the fight, but draws attention to it.
  - Buu's response to the above: reading a magazine and sipping an attractive-looking fruity drink. And the eeevilest "get the hell on with it!" glare.
- The 2008 special hangs a massive lampshade on the ridiculous Power Level growth and gaps of the series by having two opponents appear who are "as strong as Freeza" to which Goku responds that he wasn't much of an opponent in retrospect and they're perfect for the kids.
In a recent episode of Naruto, Sai lampshades Naruto's tendency to exert a ridiculous amount of effort in training. Sai, while reading a book on friends, comes across Naruto practicing. After reading that "when your friends are working unusually hard on the job, it is nice to casually bring them a snack", he looks up to see Naruto using 1000 shadow clones to learn a new technique. Noting "Seems normal to me," he then bites into the apple he had been bringing for Naruto.
The manga gives us this particular exchange right after the fight with the Sound Ninja in the 2nd Chunin Exam:
Shikamaru: [Naruto] is totally clueless.
Chouji: He must be the type that could never become a main character in a story.
- While this line does make it into the anime, it is Sakura and not Chouji who says it.
The Daughter of Twenty Faces seems to enjoy hanging lampshades on many of its tropes, such as the relationship between the heroine and a junior member of the Gentleman Thief's gang, or the fact that the heroine is a bit young to be a cat burglar.
Macross Frontier hangs lampshades in order to help subvert its tropes — the pretty boy main character is so pretty that his callsign and half-mocking nickname among his friends is Princess (to his chagrin); when Klein, a Zentraedi who has trouble with her "height" when human-sized, is teased by an old friend about it, the old friend jokes that if they ever got romantically involved the friend would probably get arrested for pedophilia.
Kara no Kyoukai (despite all of its seriousness) does this when Mikiya comments that Toko's long philosophical lecture sounded like "something out of a cheap novel" — which it is, technically.
Excel Saga took this and ran with it.
In Onegai Twins, Mizuho Kazami, homeroom teacher, fills in for the gym teacher during a swimming class. Miina Miyafuji and Karen Onodera note that there only seem to be two teachers who work at the school.
Suzumiya Haruhi. Of course, that is bound to happen when you have normal, Genre Savvy people in a crazy world. Haruhi herself, admits to recruiting people to her club because they fit stereotypes; a moe girl and mysterious transfer student are the basis for any adventure!
- Kyon's First Person Smartass narration lampshades just about everything.
To Aru Majutsu No Index: Touma acknowledges his tendency to break into long monologues, ending a speech to some rivals with "Quit getting depressed in this kinda long prologue!"
In the second episode of Code Geass R2, C.C. lampshades Lelouch's Large Ham tendencies after he tricks a Britannian soldier into leaving their Knightmare Frame for the umpteenth time and then gloatingly geasses them. "I understand your geass only works with direct eye contact, but were those theatrics really necessary?"
- Upon meeting Lelouch/Zero for the first time, one of the members of the Shinjuku resistance cell comments that he "didn't expect the master strategist to be such a ham."
- Possibly one during the Zero Requiem plan. After two seasons of Britannian security acting as dumb as bricks, the grand plan actually involves a conscious use of seemingly Genre Blind guard behavior when Suzaku assassinates Lelouch.
Love Hina lampshades itself several times. One of the best examples is that, after Keitaro take countless Megaton Punches and completely heals within a few panels over the course of the story, it was stated by characters and ascended into a plot device that he is in fact immortal.
- Keitaro himself gets in on it in Volume 12. Naru had just leapt off a cliff after him (he fell), and he managed to stop their fall partway down by snagging a branch.
  Keitaro: Don't ever do that again, okay? I'd survive, but I doubt you would.
- Keitaro gets caught peeking at Naru in the bath (again), this time from the "safety" of a second floor balcony.
  Keitaro: How the hell did that punch connect?!
In Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, Mokona mentions that it is getting very, very confused with the plot. Anyone following said plot since the beginning agrees.
Mokona: "Syaoran was just calling them 'Mother' and 'Father'... but then why do they look just like Syaoran and Sakura, even down to the clothes?!"
Mahou Sensei Negima does this a lot, especially after Jack Rakan shows up. Chisame in particular fills the Meta Guy role often. Then we have Haruna, who reads a lot of manga and is incredibly Genre Savvy.
In an episode of Bleach, Kon ends up being a hapless Super Sentai parody, who makes jibes against a monster saying he'll be able to kill him before the commercial break. There's even reference to the ridiculous FX, which turns out to be generated by one of the other characters.
In Scryed, Kazuma lampshades his status as an Idiot Hero.
Mujo: Stupid. You are so stupid.
Kazuma: Tell me something I don't already know!
In D.Gray-Man, Krory springs back after being crushed by Jasdevi. They wonder how he was able to do it.
Jasdevi: How did he ressurect himself? Did we turn his anger into power by calling him a vampire? No, that only happens in manga.
In Gun X Sword, the protagonist's Humongous Mecha is able to instantly drop out of Hammerspace whenever he needs it. In one episode, his sidekick asks how this happens, and in a subversion of Possession Implies Mastery, he replies that he's kind of vague about that detail.
Darker than Black seems to lampshade its use of the Tin Man trope in the episode with Bertha and Itzhak. Itzhak's Power At A Price involves a compulsion to write poetry, and as Bertha notes, his ability to do this is completely at odds with the idea that he is emotionless.
- The OVA is a somewhat Lighter And Softer self-parody and with its heroine's fetish for Hei's collar-bone, lampshades the Paper Thin Disguise. At least twice during the series, characters see Hei in costume and then immediately after see his civilian identity, but don't make a connection between the two. The heronie's fetish indicates that a moderately perceptive person should make the connection.
  - Actually, in both instances the person in question is suspicious, but does eventually shrug off the similarity since BK 201 is allegedly a sadistic mass murderer while Hei is friendly and laid-back.
Ergo Proxy uses a lot of pretentious philosophic symbolism and Mind Screw plots. So, at various points characters will reference how pretentious some naming is, and in a notable example on the mind screw front (where for no reason at all, the characters find themselves on a gameshow), they are shown commenting that they have no idea what the hell is going on.
In Detective Conan, the way murder follows Conan around in a Busmans Holiday is often lampshaded by "oh, not you again" remarks from Inspector Megure (who at first places the blame on Kogoro since he is the one who gets the credit for most of Conan's detective work).
In the anime version of Katekyo Hitman Reborn, instead of the manga's motorbikes the Famiglia ends up with airbikes, incredible hovercraft that just happened to be lying around in their base while their genius mechanic/inventor forgot about their existence entirely until the necessary episode. As with most of the Deus Ex Machina incidents in the anime, Yamamoto lampshades it with the brilliant observation that "It's almost like these bikes were made just for us to ride them!" Of course, judging by the rest of the adaptation, it's unlikely Yamamoto does this intentionally. Sigh.
Ouran High School Host Club is absolutely filled with lampshades. Quite cleverly subverted in one episode, when a piano is suddenly introduced as a Deus Ex Machina and Haruhi asks if it was always there. The other hosts Hand Wave this, saying that the club's base of operations is a music room, after all. Even though the piano has never been seen before in the anime.
- The manga scene where Tamaki asks what spring reminds the club members of comes to mind. The twins answer "Promotion in grades!" The two are promptly tied and gagged with an author's note stating there will be no promotion in grades.
  - This is lampshaded again later in the series by Genre Savvy Haruhi when seniors Honey and Mori mention their graduation approaching.
  - During one episode of the Ouran anime, Tamaki tells the others of their place in the story. He assures them that he and Haruhi are the main characters and so, by proxy, are love interests, and the rest of them are the "homosexual supporting cast." Kyoya argues this later, telling Tamaki that homosexual or not, he doesn't think he's supporting cast.
There's a point in Death Note when Light pulls in all his remaining coincidence karma at once - namely, when he runs into Naomi Misora, the only person in the world who could expose him, just as she's about to do so. It's rather badly done, and Light comments to himself that "a god besides the Shinigami is on his side".

Shows up fairly often in the joke "Unglued" and "Unhinged" sets from Magic: The Gathering. For example, Ow's flavor text is "Have you ever noticed how some flavor text has no relevance whatsoever to the card it's on?"

In Batman, the Joker has fluctuated nigh constantly from harmless prankster, to larcenous loon, to homicidal harlequin of hate. Grant Morrison took note and made it part of his canon personality that, well, he doesn't really have a personality. He just reinvents himself ~~constantly~~ every single morning. He first mentioned it in Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth, and revisited the concept throughout his stint that began with Batman and Son.
In an early, limited-edition Sonic the Hedgehog comic book (that has been collected in Sonic Beginnings), Princess Sally has blonde hair in the first issue, and in the next, she's a brunette. When she says she has something to tell him, Sonic asks, "You mean why you changed from a blonde to a brunette?"
- This is also refrenced in a later story were Sally goes on an angry rant and someone will be punished... because someone published a story that she dyed her hair from blonde to black.
- A previously unpublished story had an ending where the Monster Of The Week was shrunk down to a microscopic size, which Sonic finds he can't joke about. NICOLE then notes that, by her analysis, "Planey Mobius is about to get very complicated. New faces, complex relationships, entire worlds opening up!" This was referencing the Cerebus Syndrome the comic was undergoing at the time. Sonic, however, insists that Status Quo Is God. The story was finally published in Sonic Archives: Volume 5
In a semi-recent issue of Ultimate Spider-Man: Ultimate Venom attacks an art museum, Spider-Man fights him off, and (as usual) the NYPD tries to arrest him for the trouble. Spider-Man angrily points out that they're being idiots for pointing their guns at him when he just saved who knows how many museum patrons from being eaten. A nearby woman chimes in, "Spider-Man saved my baby!" Spider-Man's response: "You know what? THANK YOU! No one ever says anything nice, I appreciate that."
In Ex Machina, the main character of the series decided to release a biography of himself in graphic novel form. Brian K Vaughn, the writer of the series, appeared in the comic as one of the prospective writers for the biography, and in a conversation, said that he dislikes meta, as it takes him out of the story.
Mark Millar did this to death when he was writing Ultimate X-Men. Every time a plot device didn't make sense (the U.S. Army sending robots to fight Magneto, the Brotherhood goons not recognizing Cyclops, Professor X not noticing that the Hellfire Club was plotting against him, etc.), someone in the cast would point this out. You almost got the impression that Millar was simply trying to apologize for creating so many plot holes.
The Deadpool is this.
A Justice League comic book had the Atom (along with someone else) shrink down smaller than an atom. The person asks how it's possible for them to survive, seeing as how the air molecules are too large for them to breathe. Atom replies, "I don't know".
The writers for the Spider Man arc "The Other" made a glaring continuity error during the story; in one issue, the villain Morlun broke Mary Jane's arm, but in the next issue her arm is unbroken. After the arc, J Michael Straczynski wrote a scene in Amazing Spider-Man, where Peter Parker asked Tony Stark about MJ's arm. Tony provided an elaborate Applied Phlebotinum explanation(involving injecting a material in MJ's arm that acted like a cast but allowed her full movement of her arm). In the next frame, Peter and Tony appear to be looking directly at the reader with expressions on their faces as if daring the reader to challenge Tony's explanation. The next frame, the scene is forgotten and they return to the main plotline.
X-Force/X-Statix lampshades everything.
Joss Whedon's final issue of Astonishing X-Men has one of the characters say something to the effect of, "Your big plan was to bring back the destroyer of your world from the dead and then shoot the Earth with a giant bullet. Is everyone on the planet a complete idiot?"
Peter David tells a story about how, while writing a particular issue of The Incredible Hulk, he handily had Bruce and Betty Banner escape from a damaged Kree ship just moments before the ship exploded, but forgot to do the same for Rick Jones, whom he had technically just killed in the explosion without meaning to. Rather than rewrite the scene, he had the Banners watch incredulous as Jones floated down to the ground on a parachute. Knowing that the readers will see it for a shuck-and-jive, David then included the lampshading:.
Bruce Banner: Where the heck did you get a parachute?
Rick Jones: What? Oh that. I always carry one around with me, in case I ever have to jump out of an exploding Kree spaceship at the last minute.
Bruce Banner: In case you... that's the silliest thing I've ever heard! How often could you possibly...
Rick Jones: (interrupting) Just the once, so far.

In Aeon Natum Engel, if the situation is lampshadable, it WILL be Lampshaded.
Half the humour in Yu-Gi-Oh The Abridged Series is hanging lampshades on ridiculous plot points, poor character traits, screwing the rules due to money, excesses of Serious Business and gratuitous use of ancient Egyptian laser beams, among other things.
Played straight, and then lampshaded in this chapter of a Warhammer40000 fan fic, which has the main character bash an Eldar Farseer and Space Marine Terminator with a fire extinguisher in much the same way as he did the previous chapter, gives a snark about the possibility of it becoming a running gag, then goes on to extinguish the smoldering lampshade behind him.

A Double-Lampshare Hanging happens in a single scene of the fourth wall-less biopic 24 Hour Party People: Factory Records owner Tony Wilson is caught red-handed by his wife while he is receiving fellatio from a prostitute. His wife then retaliates by immediately seducing Howard Devoto, the lead singer of the band The Buzzcocks. Tony catches the pair having sex in a toilet stall. The real Howard Devoto, portraying a janitor cleaning the bathroom sink, then turns to the camera and says "I definitely don't remember this happening." There is then a disclaimer read by the actor playing Tony Wilson, stating that this incident indeed never actually happened.
In The Perfect Score the thieves planning to steal the SAT enter the door code to open the door to the room where they expect the SAT has been filed. One character says, "Ladies and Gentlemen I give you..." "...a complete waste of time." The room turns out to be COMPLETELY empty. One of the characters says "Wait, why would anyone lock the door to this?"
In the blaxploitation spoof I'm Gonna Git You Sucka, one of the small-time thugs has a shoot out with the main character, but ends up running out of ammo. However, the main character has plenty of ammo left. "Hold on a minute!! You just shot 12 times with a 6-shot revolver without reloading!!" The character smugly replies, "Whatcha gonna do about it?"
In Snakes on a Plane, after Samuel L Jackson's character explains to his superiors that the bad guy has filled the plane with deadly snakes, the superior comments, "What kind of insane plan is that?"
Perhaps the most delicious use of this is in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me:
Austin: So, Basil, if I travel back to 1969 and I was frozen in 1967, presumably I could go back and look at my frozen self. But, if I'm still frozen in 1967, how could I have been unthawed in the nineties and traveled back to the sixtiessssoooh no, I've gone cross-eyed.
Basil: I suggest you don't worry about those things and just enjoy yourself. (to camera) That goes for you all, too.
Austin: Yes.
- Or when Austin is supposedly driving around England:
  Austin: You know what's remarkable? Is how much England looks in no way like Southern California.
- Isn't all of Austin Powers basically just one giant lampshade hanging?
In The Forbidden Kingdom, Jason Tripitakas' last name is a lampshade hanging of his role as well as the story's roots in Journey to the West (Tripitaka is a title of the monk Xuanzang, and as in the novel it's the other leads [Jet Li and Jackie Chan] that really make this story). For laughs, his being one of the only non-Chinese in the whole cast is lampshaded by Jet Li.
Jet Li: He's the Seeker? He's not even Chinese!
- Oh, come on, you mention that but not the best explanation for Ancient Chinese people speaking English ever? Initially, when Jason gets dumped in China, everyone speaks Chinese. Then Jason mentions that he can't understand, and Jackie Chan states, in Chinese-Accented English, "That's because you're not listening!" Thereafter, everyone speaks English.
In the 2008 Iron Man film, once Tony has come to accept that he's become a superhero, he proceeds to go on a little spiel describing in detail all of the trials he'll have to go through now, particularly identity crises and having to let the woman he loves in on it so she'll be up all night worrying about him. In short, all of the comic book movie clichés. And then magnificently subverts them by straight-out announcing his secret identity at a press conference.
- His doing so was not only lampshaded but foreshadowed by Tony in his semi-sober speech as he displayed the Jericho weapons system at the very start of the film: "Is it better to be feared, or respected?" As the dust and wind from the weapon's rather severe success billows toward and past him from behind, Tony finishes, "I say, is it too much to ask for both?"
In Galaxy Quest, when an improbably destructive obstacle impedes two of the heroes' headlong rush to save themselves:
Gwen DeMarco: What is this thing? I mean, it serves no useful purpose for there to be a bunch of chompy, crushy things in the middle of a hallway. No, I mean we shouldn't have to do this, it makes no logical sense, why is it here?
Jason Nesmith: 'Cause it's on the television show.
Gwen DeMarco: Well forget it! I'm not doing it! This episode was badly written!
- This is far from the only lampshade hanging in Galaxy Quest, of course, since it's about sci-fi actors living out a real version of their fictional adventures.
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. Marshall Willenholly is being shot at by two female criminals.
Willenholly: Why are you shooting at me? I'm just a Federal Wildlife Marshall.
Chrissy: Two reasons. One: we're walking, talking, bad girl clichés.
Missy: And two: because you're a man.
In The Mummy (1999), when the Dramatic Wind blows through for about the eleventeenth time, Brendan Fraser's character remarks, "That happens a lot around here."
In the third movie, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008), an audience member asks Evelyn if the fictional character in the book she wrote is based on herself. She responds, "Honestly, I can say she's a completely different person." And that's when you realize that the character of Evelyn is being played by a different actress than in the first two Mummy movies. Must have asked for too much money!
- Actually, according to Entertainment Weekly, the original actress (Rachel Weisz) had just prior to the commencement of filming had given birth and was uncomfortable with the idea of taking her newborn son to China for filming.
In Thumbtanic, a character blatantly violates the maxim of "Show, Don't Tell" by narrating the sinking of the Thumbtanic, similar to a description of how it is portrayed in the film Titanic. After several seconds of this, he says "Oh, if we were ever to film this it would cost so—much—money!"
In the deliberately (and lovingly) trope-ridden action-fest Shoot 'Em Up, Paul Giamatti's villain Hertz points out exactly what the audience has been thinking, as Clive Owen's gun-toting action hero Mr. Smith takes down literally hundreds of bad guys without suffering a single wound himself, saying, "Do we really suck, or is this guy really that good?"
- "Violence is one of the most fun things to watch."
Looney Tunes: Back in Action attempts to shrug off Product Placement by lampshading it. The heroes, lost in a desert, find a Wal-Mart, after which Daffy Duck proceeds to spout out half a dozen product names which he wants to buy, even remarking that he gets free drinks every time he says "Wal-Mart". One of the human characters remarks that "I think that at this point the viewers won't even notice anything abnormal in the scene".
- Daffy did something similar in Space Jam, another franchise machine — when he mentions that Looney Tunes are the exclusive property of Warner Bros. Inc., he lifts up his tail and mockingly kisses his own WB-emblazoned arse, Bugs Bunny-style.
In I, Robot, Spooner, who has an intense fear of heights, comments on the "messed up" building design that forces the characters to walk out over an incredible drop, across very thin walkways, '''without safety rails''', in order to access the only service terminal to a giant computerbrain.
Played straight in The Core. After discovering that the Earth is doomed, the protagonist is summoned to a meeting at the pentagon to explain the problem to the military. When asked what can be done about it, he dives into a passionate, in-depth explanation of why the basic plot of the movie they're in is impossible.
- In addition, less than five minutes later in the movie, the impossible substance that makes the whole story possible is literally dubbed "Unobtainium".
Top Secret!: "It sounds like the plot of some bad movie!"
- Followed by both of the characters turning to stare directly at the camera.
2006's Love And Other Disasters has several segments where characters discuss what they and their lives would be like if they were actually in a movie.
In Waiting..., Mitch hangs one enormous lampshade on the entire movie during the party at the end.
In the sequel to George of the Jungle, they just say outright that George is being played by a different actor.
- George himself tells the narrator. And is able to explain that it's because Brandon Frasier asked for too much money (actually it was because he was doing Looney Tunes: Back In Action...yeah). And speculates that he was just lucky to get the part instead.
In Boondock Saints, after a gun accidentally goes off, improbably missing everyone but killing the cat, the characters look aghast. Murphy shouts "I cannot believe that just fucking happened!"
- "Is it dead?"
- Also in Boondock Saints when Agent Smecker considers the (true) theory of "assassins rappeling through the ceiling and disposing of nine dangerous mobsters in several seconds". He says "You see such things in bad television". Moments later, in flashback this trope is parodied when brothers seem surprised that all went so quickly and Murphy says that it was very different from shootouts portrayed in the movies.
Scream. Just Scream.
- AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
  - I see what you did there.
In the film version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Ford Prefect is played in an American accent by American actor Mos Def; his mentioning having come "not from Guildford after all" (albeit from the US, rather than a small planet in the vicinity of Betelgeuse) takes on a slightly surreal edge presumably unintended by Douglas Adams. Later, Arthur mentions wondering about Ford's atypical accent.
This is all over Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Specifically the scene where the cartoonist has a heart attack and dies.
- And then there was the bit with coconuts....
There's a scene in the Fantastic Four movie where Jessica Alba's character comments on the the fact that, from a scientific point of view, she should be unable to turn invisible and still see since the cones in her eyes would also be invisible and utterly incapable of reflecting light. In this case, it seems less of a fourth wall breakage, and more an attempt to take the wind out of the sails of any internet nerds likely to bring it up on a blog.
In the third Back to the Future movie, Doc insists that true love at first sight is a ridiculous concept with no scientific basis and can't possibly ever happen in real life. Then he meets Clara.
In Memphis Belle, two military reporters jadedly review the makeup of the titular plane's crew, commenting on how predictable a selection of men they are: "There's always a religious type." "There's always one from Cleveland." This is likely a Lampshading of the stereotypical ensemble casts featured in old WWII films.
Every movie ever made by Mel Brooks.
In Ratatouille, Remy the Rat finds out that he can control Linguini's actions by pulling on his hair like a puppeteer. When Remy experiments with this unlikely technique, Linguini notes with amusement, "That's strangely involuntary."
The 1970s version of King Kong Lampshaded its own lame special effects: "What do you think knocked those trees down? Some guy in an ape suit?"
In Battle For Terra, General Hammer's terraforming device will take seven days to turn the planet Terra into a habitable one for human life, an obvious reference to Genesis. General Hammer reiterates, "Seven days, Jim," then follows it up with, "Very biblical, don't you think?"
In the beginning of Lucky Number Slevin, Bruce Willis's character is explaining the mechanics of a Kansas City Shuffle to a man in a train station. The explanation itself turns out to be part of a Kansas City Shuffle, when Willis gets the man to look right, then goes left, getting out of his wheelchair, and snaps the man's neck. This is also a reference to the fact that the entire plot of the film is, in fact, a Kansas City Shuffle.
Rear Window: More than one character points out what an idiot Thorwald would have to be to leave his blinds open all the time he was covering up his wife's murder.

Captain Underpants does this... often. Case in point, when George and Harold have a discussion about how cliche an axe cutting through the ropes instead of its target is, right before the axe headed for them does this. Their only response is saying absolutely nothing more about it.
- Also, Harold and George have often commented on unlikely plot events with lines like "It's like we're in a badly written children's book."
In the Thursday Next book The Well of Lost Plots, a holesmith in the Bookworld (whose job is to patch up Plot Holes) actually points this out as a new technique.
Llyster: I'm working on a system that hides holes by highlighting them to the reader, that just says, "Ho! I'm a hole, don't think about it!" but it's a little cutting-edge.
Tanya Huff's Smoke and Shadows series (so far, Shadows, Mirrors, and Ashes) features tropes at roughly one-per-page frequency, almost all lampshaded; the protagonist, along with most of his allies, works in television. Making a Vampire Detective Series, no less. Those few tropes that aren't lampshaded tend to be pretty meta already, thus:
"There's six kinds of hell breaking loose and heading this way."
"You've been waiting your whole career to say that, haven't you?" Amy asked, snickering.
He flashed her a broad smile. "Pretty much, yeah."
Mark E. Roger's Samurai Cat books use this trope so extensively that characters end up commenting on the lampshading itself, with lines like "I'm not comfortable with us noticing symbolism in our own stories".
In the Xanth novel Currant Events, an evil clone of Calliope, Muse of the Future mocks the real Calliope with insults about the stories she transcribes in her history tomes; insults that mirror real-life accusations critics have thrown at Piers Anthony (who seems to take a "Who cares if you don't like it" approach to criticisms.)
- Well, let's face it. When you can write a Hurricane Of Puns series whose plots make little to no sense and have it sell well, consistently, for several decades, you don't have to worry what the critics think.
In Night Watch there is a really nice example of lampshading. In the second act, the main character, Anton Gorodietsky has been framed for the unlawful killings of a series of Dark magicians. At a certain point, he is running away, being hunted relentlessly by his enemies, when suddenly a car stops, the door opens so he can climb inside, and then drives away at speed. Anton thinks: "Things like this just don't happen! Heroes only get rescued by passing cars in cheap action movies."
Avoided in the Chronicles of Amber novel Prince of Chaos. At one point Merlin muses, "In a badly plotted story they'd have paused outside the doorway, and I'd have overheard a conversation telling me everything I needed to know about anything." The other characters do not pause, and the snatch of conversation Merlin overhears as they pass by is not useful to him.
In Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Chronicle of a Death Foretold, a judge investigating the murder "never thought it legitimate that life should make use of so many coincidences forbidden in literature."
A Running Gag in Discworld novels is that million-to-one chances pan out nine times out of ten, and the characters are always aware of this. They'll even instruct those less aware that you have to say, loudly and clearly, that "It's a million-to-one chance, but it just might work!"
- This was taken to its ultimate point in Guards! Guards!. When they're trying to shoot the dragon in it's voonerables, the Night Watch observe that particular point. When Carrot reckons that Fred just aiming and shooting at the voonerables has odds significantly better than million-to-one (thus making it a doomed proposition), he and Nobby add absurdity upon absurdity (like standing on one leg or stuffing a handkerchief in his mouth) to Fred's circumstances in order to engineer million-to-one chances of hitting the dragon in the right spot.
  - Part of what caused Colon, Nobby, and Carrot to start futzing the odds using the handkerchief, was Nobby asking, "But, what if by a one in a million chance, this shot in the voonerables doesn't work?" And since it was the first mention of the one in a million rule, it ensured that Colons arrow would miss the dragon's voonerables.
  - Another way of reading it makes it even more painful - from memory, there's a reference to the god of Chance, who received "nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine votes against"... so they were just off from the coveted million-to-one.
  - In the above example, the dragon counter attacks and destroys the brewery they were standing on the roof of. Fortunately, since they'd just used up their one in ten failure, they survived the Million-to-one odds in the ensuing blast.
- Note that "nine times out of ten" becomes important when someone tries for their tenth million-to-one chance.
- Naturally, Discworld is rife with smaller Lampshadings as well, such as Otto's disappointment in The Truth that his ominous remarks weren't followed up by a roll of thunder, as they would've been back home in Uberwald. This is a cross-media Lampshading, as thunder-for-emphasis is typical of the cheesy horror movies by which Uberwald is inspired.
Most of Harry Turtledove's Alternate History novels feature at least one scene of a character musing on how their lives could have turned out differently had history gone the way it did in the real world. They quickly conclude that it's not worth thinking about and they should focus on the world they actually live in.
- Just about every good Alternate History does this and quite a few of the bad ones do as well. You know if you have a good author if when they do this it gives the reader a slight chill instead of looking like it breaks the Fourth Wall.
  - Turtledove in particular does this with his characters musing on a real world alternate, particularly in the Crosstime Traffic novels and the Timeline-191 series. Just in case you didn't get the point of the alternate, it's important to have characters reflecting on the Confederate Holocaust with lines like, "God forbid, it could happen to Jews". One of the Crosstime Traffic novels, The Disunited States of America, ends a chapter with the following: "It seemed very final, like the end of a chapter. What lay ahead?"
  - I remember reading one althistory called something like If Lee Had Lost At Gettysburg which was entirely based on that conceit. A person in an alternate history where Lee had won at Gettysburg, leading to a Southern victory speculates about what events would've changed had Lee not won. Thus, it's essentially an althist-in-an-althist.
  - That would be "If Lee had Won the Battle of Gettysburg" by Winston Churchill (yes, that Churchill) which appeared in If it had Happened Otherwise, a book of alternate history scenarios by actual historians (and Churchill) published in 1931. So yes, alternate history, even clever meta-textual alternate history, is Older Than Television.
The Ciaphas Cain novel Duty Calls has a very subtle lampshadng of Just Between You And Me. The villain, a rogue Inquisitor named Ernst Stavros Killian, goes into a prolonged explanation of his plan to Cain toward the end of the book. Doesn't that name sound a little familiar?
- In The Traitor's Hand, as a squad of Imperial Guardsmen charge an enemy tank, the squad leader tries to motivate his men with, "Come on, men! Do you want to live forever?" Cain's thoughts? "The noncom in charge of the squad must have been on something... Nobody spoke like that outside of badly-written combat novels."
  - Except that it's an actual line spoken by USMC Sergeant Major Daniel Daly during the Battle of Belleau Wood; so yes, people DO speak like that outside badly written combat novels.
  - The issue is that while it was awesome the first time, it has been repeatedly copied in badly-written combat novels.
  - It is a Shout Out, or even a Take That to Dan Abnett's Gaunt's Ghosts novels - colonel-commissar Gaunt, particularily in the first few novels uses this to galvanise his men into action.
The Lord Peter Wimsey series by Dorothy L. Sayers features Harriet Vane, Lord Peter's love interest and a mystery novelist. Harriet and Peter have a number of conversations about how a given situation would be different if it were in a novel, including one in which Lord Peter remarks that no one complains how unlikely coincidences are when they happen in real life, but that fiction has to be plausible.
Agatha Christie's character Ariadne Oliver appears in seven of Christie's Hercule Poirot novels. Like Christie, she is a mystery writer who doesn't much care for her principal hero (vegetarian Finnish detective Sven Hjerson) but has to keep writing about him because he's popular with readers. Christie uses Ariadne to poke fun at the mystery genre, as well as herself and her own mistakes in her stories.
Christie did this a lot. In her novel And Then There Were None, Dr. Armstrong admonishes Blore for thinking that it's normal for Lombard to have a revolver, because "it's only in books people carry guns around".
In his book Be My Enemy, Christopher Brookmyre hangs a lampshade on Lampshade Hanging. After a corporate-type lampshades management-speak, one character notes that: "...taking the piss out of something was often a cheap way of buying your indulgence in it: you make one joke about it and people are less aware of how seriously you're taking it the rest of the time."
The Star Wars Expanded Universe Legacy of the Force story arc frequently alludes to the inexplicable, off-screen changes many characters have gone through since the New Jedi Order novels. In the fifth book of the series, Sacrifice, Mara Jade finally wakes up to the fact that Jacen has turned evil. Throughout the rest of the book, she lampshades her uncharacteristic blindness by constantly asking herself why she failed to notice for so long.
House of Leaves (for proper context, Navidson is exploring his house while burning... why, the same book you're reading! for light and is trying to read the text before the fire catches up to his spot): "Perhaps his reading slows or the paper burns unevenly or he has bungled the lighting of the next page. Or maybe the words have been arranged in such a way as to make them practically impossible to read."
In The Deptford Histories 3: Thomas, Woodget points out that the heroic organisation's plan to defeat Suruth Scarophion was ludicrously complicated and resulted in innumberable deaths. Thomas replies with "Well, they couldn't just give the fragments to the Scale, could they? Would've been downright suspicious."
In Haruki Murakami's The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, the narrator states when his wife disappears that "I felt as if I had become part of a badly written novel, that someone was taking me to task for being utterly unreal. And perhaps it was true."
At the hilariously embarrassing climax of the Alice Munro short story An Ounce of Cure, the main character is left musing on the ridiculousness of her situation: "What was it that brought me back into the world again? It was the terrible and fascinating reality of my disaster; it was the way things happened...the development of events...that fascinated me; I felt that I had had a glimpse of the shameless, marvellous, shattering absurdity with which the plots of life, though not of fiction, are improvised I could not take my eyes off it."
One of the main purposes of Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians is to hang lampshades on various narrative conventions and genre cliches, along with parodying and/or subverting said conventions and cliches. (It also provides a well-deserved Take That to Death By Newberry.)
Louis de Bernieres' The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts sets its second half firmly in the realms of Magical Realism (in which there is a plague of cats, a band of 16th century conquistadors is resurrected, and a burro and a woman separately give birth to cats), but furiously lampshades a wholly mundane sequence of outrageous coincidences in which the military chiefs of staff and the President assassinate each other with exploding coffins as "a heroic farce that stretch[es] credence to a limit".
In Arthur C. Clarke's novel The Sands of Mars the protagonist (a writer) discovers that the cabin boy on his spaceship is actually his son from a disastrous college love affair. He fumes that this is an outrageous violation of the laws of probability, and would never have happened in one of his novels.

The line "Dawn's in trouble. It must be Tuesday," from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Once More with Feeling". (At the time, Buffy was broadcast on Tuesday nights.)
- In the very next episode, "Tabula Rasa", the entire cast loses their memories. Buffy and Spike have the following exchange:
  ~~Spike~~ Randy: How come I don't wanna bite you? And why am I fighting other vampires? I must be a noble vampire. A good guy. On a mission of redemption. I help the hopeless. I'm a vampire with a soul.
  ~~Buffy~~ Joan: A vampire with a soul? Oh my god, how lame is that?
- Giles: 'A vampire in love with a slayer! It's really rather poetic ... in a maudlin sort of way.'
- Episode 1, Season 5: Riley: "I've lived in Sunnydale a couple of years now, and you know what I've never noticed? ... A big, honking castle."
In the Malcolm in the Middle episode "Malcolm Dates a Family", Malcolm engages in a bit of Lamp Shade Hanging when he realizes he's scheduled simultaneous dates: "This is like that episode of... well, everything."
- He even considered how Urkel handled the problem.
In an episode from one of Mork and Mindy's later seasons, an exasperated Mindy exclaimed, "Oh, Mork, what Earth concept have you misunderstood this week?"
Boy Meets World also engaged in quite a bit of this, particular with respect to the character played by William Daniels. Mr. Feeney served as the teacher of almost every class the protagonists took, from elementary school through college, being somehow qualified to teach elementary school, English, history, literature, writing, psychology, mathematics and quantum mechanics. Several times over the series, the Matthews brothers commented that Mr. Feeney had been their teacher an inordinate number of times. Mr. Feeney himself wryly comments that, in addition to being the principal and teaching five different subjects, he is also in charge of the Lost and Found, and other characters comment that Corey somehow brought his own professor with him to college. In the final episode of the fifth season (the last episode before college), a character from the first couple of seasons, Minkus, was briefly reintroduced. Corey asked him why they hadn't seen him for so long if they were in the same school, and he explained he'd been "in that half of the building" for the past couple of years - pointing to the studio audience. Corey grimaced and said, "oh no, we never go over there..."
- Said character also makes reference to an offscreen character who also mysteriously disappeared seasons earlier.
  - Said character was Jonathan Turner, who suffered life-threatening injuries in a motorcycle crash a season earlier. His fate was left unknown, though Shawn insisted he knew Mr. Turner would be okay.
  - In the final episode Corey mentions to Feeney that Feeney hasn't spoken to any other students beside the main characters in seven years.
  - In the same final episode, Corey recites the key points in his life that he hopes his new little brother will have. At one point, he says "Mr. Feeny will probably teach you in every grade you're in.."
In the Community pilot, one of the characters quotes The Breakfast Club and is called on it by another character - while in a "study group" that is rather reminiscent of the movie's detention group. The second episode's cold open also lampshades that it's a TV show...
In the 6th season of One Tree Hill, when Lucas agrees to getting his book turned into a movie, he goes around asking his friends and family who they want to play them. Most name famous celebrities, to which Lucas often points out they the film is based on teenagers/high school students lampshading the fact that all the cast members themselves were all twenty-somethings playing teenagers.
Referred to as "Hanging a lantern on it" in Stargate SG-1, "200", as the characters discuss an unlikely escape in a film script. An example of a show lampshading the act of lampshading.
- In the original movie, O'Neill's name only had one 'l' in it. After the change was noticed, the TV O'Neill would occasionally make a point of the spelling of his name, as if he's been annoyed by having it misspelled before, also providing a Ret Con by implying that the single-L version from the movie was just a mistake.
- He also makes repeated references to a Colonel O'Neil (one L) at the SGC who has "No sense of humour at all", lampshading the personality retool he underwent at the same time.
- The show also occasionally reminds us that the Goa'uld purposely behave like totally cliched villains. Partly to keep their slaves and warriors living in constant fear; partly because most of them lack the ingenuity and creativity to try anything new and different, which proves to be their Achilles Heel.
- In season 6 episode "Disclosure", during a review of the Stargate operation, one senator Kinsey remarks: "Face it General, under your command the Stargate program has lurched from one crisis to the next. Never averting disaster by anything more than the skin of its teeth."
- Wormhole X-Treme and 200, the 100th and 200th episodes, respectively, basically exist to lampshade everything. This includes: the Zats originally vaporizing on the third shot, Daniel being able to sit down when he was out of phase, the ridiculousness of occasionally having touching scenes surrounded by carnage, the introduction of Cam Mitchell, Vala's entire backstory, and even how the 'gate works. And more.
- The heroes frequently comment on Daniel's tendency to die and return from the dead. They also sometimes point out that all of Sam's boyfriends wind up dead.
In the Cop Show spoof Sledge Hammer, the chief declares "Where the hell is he getting all this ammo!" about a hostage taker who has destroyed almost every vase in the room without reloading his revolver.
Doctor Who, "Age of Steel": Mickey and Jake are looking for the transmitter controls, and Mickey asks what it looks like. Jake responds sarcastically that it'll have a sign with "Transmitter Controls" with big red letters on it. After a cut away and a couple of scenes, it cuts back to them, standing next to a metal box with "Transmitter Controls" written on it in big red letters.
- In the earlier Doctor Who episode "Pyramids of Mars", The Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith hide from evil mummies in a priest hole (A hidden chamber). The Doctor rightly points out this is an anachronism, as the house is Victorian while priest holes are a relic of Elizabethan architecture. As he's doing this while attempting to hide, he is quickly shushed by his companion. Then again, Victorian architecture does often borrow from past eras, so it's not entirely far-fetched. (This actually gets mentioned in the story.)
- In "Fury from the Deep", when the Doctor, Victoria, and Jamie land on Earth in England yet again, Victoria points out that they're always landing on Earth, while Jamie points out it's always in England. This happens again in the first season of the new series, which had not yet had any stories set beyond Earth and its immediate satellites - at the beginning of "The Empty Child", the Doctor says to Rose, "Know how long you can knock around space without happening to bump into Earth?" Rose responds, "Five days. Or is that just when we're out of milk?"
- In "The Unicorn and the Wasp", the Agatha Christie episode, Donna notices immediately, saying "There's a murder, a mystery, and Agatha Christie. That's like meeting Charles Dickens, with ghosts, at Christmas!", which had happened in the episode "The Unquiet Dead". The Doctor, hilariously, looks guilty and goes "Well..."
- The Brigadier said, "Just once, I wish we would encounter an alien menace that wasn't immune to bullets!"
  - Even more blatantly, the UNIT captain in "Planet of the Dead": "I can't believe it — guns that work!"
- Many times in the new series, various companions comment on the inordinate amount of running that goes on whilst adventuring with the Doctor, most notably in "The Doctor's Daughter".
- "Wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey."
In the Red Dwarf episode Quarantine, Lister, Cat, and Kryten are running from a deranged hologram who is shooting at them with "hex vision". Lister runs past the camera, surrounded by wild shots and explosions, and shouts, "Why don't we ever meet anyone nice?" Cat runs past behind him and says, "Why don't we ever meet anyone who can shoot straight?"
The episode "Jack-Tor" of 30 Rock has a scene where Liz starts to decry using Product Placement, but is promptly interrupted by the other characters talking about how much they love Snapple (one of the sponsors of 30 Rock at the time).
- 30 Rock does this a lot.
Star Trek The Original Series and unspecified Star Trek Universe:
- "Bread and Circuses" contained some choice lampshades about television production and sportscasting. "You bring this network's ratings down, Flavius — and we'll do a special on you!"
- "Heisenberg compensators" are used to explain how transporters work in spite of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle.
  - Someone asked Star Trek scientific advisor Michael Okuda how the Heisenberg compensators worked. He replied, "They work very well, thank you."
  - This is also rather obvious, since if we KNEW how to get around the various things that make science fiction subject matters impossible, we'd just do that right now and it wouldn't be, you know, fiction.
Star Trek Deep Space Nine:
- In "Trials and Tribble-ations", members of DS9 go back in time and encounter the events of the original series episode "The Trouble With Tribbles". When they are in the space station bar, Worf is asked why he looks different than the Klingons of that era, lampshading the radical changes in Klingon appearance over the years. He merely growls that he doesn't want to talk about it.
- In one episode Rom tries to point out the inconsistencies of the Mirror Universe, such as how there doesn't seem to be any difference between their Chief O'Brien and his Mirrorverse counterpart, and gree worms aren't poisonous in either universe. Quark tells him to shut up.
Star Trek Voyager:
- In "Deadlock", Harry tries to talk about how confusing it is that his real self just died and now his duplicate (created by a Negative Space Wedgie) has taken his place. Janeway cuts him off, telling him to accept that when you're in Starfleet 'weird is part of the job."
Supernatural:
- The Season 2 episode "Hollywood Babylon" mocked several of the show's flaws/deliberate stylistic choices, including this exchange between an actress and two Hollywood producers:
  Tara: Salt. Doesn't that sound silly? I mean why would a ghost be afraid of salt?
  McG: Marty, what do you think?
  Marty: I'm not married to salt. Are we still sticking with condiments?
  McG: Mmm, it just sounds different, not better. What else would a ghost be scared of?
  Marty: Maybe shotguns.
  McG: That makes even less sense than salt.
- In the Season 2 episode "Heart", Madison comments that the Impala is a pretty conspicuous car to have for a stakeout.
- The Season 4 episode "The Monster at the End of this Book", in which a "prophet" is discovered to have been writing stories about the brothers' adventures, is dizzyingly self-referential. While most of the gags poke fun at the writers and fans, three major Lampshade Hangings occur:
  - Chuck the prophet specifically mentions "Bugs" and "Red Sky at Morning" — two real episodes that the show's fan community generally rates as the series' worst — apologizing to Sam and Dean for being "forced to live bad writing... if I would have known it was real, I would have done another pass."
  - An obsessed fan of Chuck's books says at one point "The best part is when they cry", alluding to how these apparently manly men burst into tears more often than a four-year-old watching Dumbo on loop.
  - When Chuck tells Sam that he knows he has been drinking demon blood, he explains that he left it out of the books because no one would relate to him doing something so awful — a reaction to many fans complaining that Sam's behaviour in the most recent season had made him too unsympathetic.
- In "Changing Channels", the Trickster (aka Gabriel) says that he wishes they were in a TV show, complete with easy answers and simple endings. Later, Dean says something to the same effect.
Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip overused this trope at times. The worst example was in "The Harriet Dinner," which was a two-part episode that was nothing but cliches. Jordan and Danny, characters who'd been potential love interests, actually got locked on a roof together, and Danny said it seemed like something out of a bad sitcom. Sorkin's acknowledging it did not change the fact that it did, in fact, seem like a bad sitcom, and was by far the worst episodes of the series.
- Towards the end of the series, Jordan also lists all the things that tv dramas do to boost sagging ratings - a difficult birth where the mother's life is in danger, an unanswered marriage proposal, characters in danger of losing their lives/jobs/loved ones, etc, etc - every single item on her list is currently occurring in the storyline, in a massive Take That from Aaron Sorkin, since by this point the show was already cancelled. It works, though - even after the shameless manipulation of it is pointed out, you still care what happens...
In the "Spanish Inquisition" sketch from Monty Python's Flying Circus:
Cardinal Ximinez: Ha! ha! ha! ha!
Caption: "DIABOLICAL LAUGHTER"
Cardinal Ximinez: (with ridiculous hand gestures) We'll soon change your mind about that!
Caption: "DIABOLICAL ACTING"
- Look no further than the Argument Clinic Sketch, which ends on several recursive lampshades.
- It would be a lot faster to list the examples of Monty Python humor that isn't based on lampshading various tropes. (To be more explicit, this sentence lampshades the fact that more are not needed.) ^*
  ^{Yes, this means you.}
The CSI episode of 2008-05-08, "Two and a Half Deaths", was one long series of lampshades being hung.
- Which is no surprise, considering that the writers of Two and a Half Men were doing the episode. The Two and a Half Men episode that week was also full of lampshade hangings, a result of the CSI guys doing that episode.
The Middle Man and Side Kick Dubbie hang lampshades every chance they get.
In the News Radio episode Stocks Jimmy James gives Beth a stock ticker and then says, "It's just like television, except without all those people doing stupid things to a fake laugh track."
- In the episode Kids Jimmy James is given a 555 phone number by a potential date, only to read the number after she's gone and proclaim, "Wait a minute, 555...that's one of those fake TV numbers!"
Corner Gas: When talking about a mocking radio program called "Dog River Dave", Brent is surprised someone would ever want to watch/listen to a show about him. Another character remarks "You could have some cool star cameos!", and then suddenly, coming in through the door: "Hi! I'm Olympic Gold Medal Winner Cindy Klassen!"
Scrubs points out the constant Will They Or Wont They between Elliot and J.D, as evidenced by the quote on that trope's front page.
- The show seems to be doing a lot of lampshade hanging in season 8, from things like J.D. and Turk's bromance to J.D's often useless (but entertaining) fantasies.
- Also, in episode 7x10:
  Dr. Cox: What in the hell are you talking about?
  J.D.: Oh, I'm just doing this thing where I use a slice of wisdom from someone else's life to solve a problem in my own life.
  Jordan: Seems coincidental.
  J.D.: And yet I do it almost every week.
- At one point in season seven, Carla tells Elliot to pay attention, because she "doesn't want to tell her the same exact thing in two weeks". Two episodes later, Carla tells Elliot the same lesson and brings up that she told her this before, while Elliot claims to have never been told.
- There's also the case of the jingle. In the first few seasons, when something sad or emotional happened, the jingle would play. Its overuse became very tacky, and once the directors realized it, they only used it ironically. In one episode, J.D. comments on it :
  J.D: And then every time I learn a lesson this weird music starts playing in my head, it goes : dadada da dada da daaaaa, dadada da dada da daaaa
  Elliot: You know what J.D, I think you need to grow up
  (music starts playing, J.D starts singing along to it)
At times in Lost's early seasons, characters commented on certain plot points to respond to fan comments, such as Sayid's statement in "The Moth" that no one should have survived the plane crash. In "Dave", Hurley's Imaginary Friend nags him that the island is a hallucination, listing all the unlikely and impossible things that have happened to Hurley since he left a mental institution. Director Jack Bender refers to this dialogue in the DVD commentary as "hanging a lantern on it."
- Leave it to Deadpan Snarker Sawyer to be the one to finally point out what everyone in real life has noticed — Richard Alpert's eyeliner.
  - http://popwatch.ew.com/2009/01/30/richard-alpert/
In The West Wing, which was famous for it's walk-and-talk sequences, in which characters hurry from office to office instead of sitting around, in order to make all the long necessary discussions more interesting, had one scene where Sam and Josh are talking and walking, then find out they have come in a circle and are walking nowhere.
Sam: Where are you going?
Josh: Where are you going?
Sam: I was following you.
Josh: I was following you.
(awkward pause)
Josh: All right, don't tell anyone this happened, okay?
The 100th episode of Monk might as well be called "Mr. Monk Gives an Ode to Lampshades".
Blue Heelers does this twice. In "Piece of Cake", when worrying about an inspection team, Tom Croydon says he wants Mount Thomas to look like the crime capital of Australia. Which, as it turns out, a Carl Williams or Alphonse Gangitano shows up every couple of weeks. In another episode, when police sergeant Ian Goss goes missing as a French filmmaker is filming a documentary, Tom says a police officer going missing is "not a subject for television". Oh yes?
In Dad's Army, one episode focused on Frazer and his acquisition of a large quantity of gold. One character gives his opinion that Frazer is unstable and unpredictable, to which Sergeant Wilson replies that he's actually quite predictable- "whatever we do, he predicts that it will end in horrible tragedy."
In House a lampshade was hung on the Walk And Talk technique, when House tells a documentary crew "Walks look good on camera. They give the illusion of the story moving forward."
- In another episode, he walks out his office with Wilson, talks to him, and they end up... right back at his office. When Wilson points it out, House says "I like to walk." Note that this is a man missing a piece of his leg who regularly pops painkillers.
  - In yet another episode, the same thing happens, save with Wilson in the lead; when House asks him why he did that, Wilson replies on the order of, "Because it hurts you."
- House also did the "It must be Tuesday" variation in season 3 with Chase's weekly reminders to Cameron that he's in love with her.
- Several episodes have lampshaded the fact that the team routinely throws out a differential diagnosis of lupus, but only once (and not until season four) was it ever the correct diagnosis. In the Season 4 opener, House recruits the janitor to replace his missing team, who suggests a number of mechanical failures in his cleaning equipment which House intereprets medically, then simply blurts out "It could be lupus." Also, during the House/Tritter arc, we learn that House has cut out the middle of a lupus reference book to stash his Vicodin because "It's never lupus."
- In the season-three opener, House barges into Cuddy's office demanding permission to run yet another rather ill-advised diagnostic procedure, to which Cuddy replies, "Twenty-four times a year you come into my office, saying you need to... remove a man's pancreas because his... brain is on fire!" Naturally, the patient o' the week turns out to have a malfunctioning hypothalamus which is incapable of correctly regulating body temperature, or as House tells Cuddy, "Yes, his brain's on fire."
- In one episode, Cuddy has shut off cable to all the patient's rooms, and tells House he'll have to make do with network TV. House replies "I'll be fine on Tuesdays." At the time, he show aired on Tuesday nights.
- House's Eureka Moments have also been lampshaded in a number of episodes. For example, in one episode Wilson and House are talking, Wilson says something that gives House the idea that solves the case. House gets 'that look' on his face and Wilson says "You're about to run out of here aren't you?" House does just that, except without the running part.
- Also, shortly afterWilson's girlfriend Amber dies, House seeks out Wilson to have a conversation with him- specifically so that the conversation will spark a Eureka Moment.
From the Jonathan Creek episode "Gorgon's Wood" (and not the only time they've hung a lampshade on the Eureka Moment):
Carla: Aren't you going to make some oddball comment, with no obvious relevence to anything?
Jonathan: Certainly not. But you might want to consider Englebert Humperdink, and the pop group Jethro Tull.
In the last season of Mad About You, Jamie points out the fact that Paul appears to have no friends (outside the regular cast) by referencing Selby, Paul's best friend from season 1 who was later replaced by the similar Cousin Ira:
Jamie: Whatever happened to that guy Selby we used to know?
- In the Season 6 episode "Coming Home", a reference is made to the fact that the actor that originally played Hal (Paxton Whitehead) was replaced in season 2 with Whitehead returning and the following explanation given:
  Maggie: My first husband Hal. Both my husbands have been called Hal. My second husband Hal and I have separated and my first husband Hal and I have rekindled. Alright?
In the pilot of Torchwood, Gwen points out the Fridge Logic in the invisible lift. Jack responds by, basically, telling her "It's just a show, she should really just relax."
Gwen: There's a hole in the floor. Don't people fall in?
Jack: That's so Welsh... I show you something amazing, and you find fault.
Mystery Science Theater 3000's opening theme song:
If you're wondering how they eat and breathe and other science facts
just repeat to yourself, "it's just a show, I should really just relax!"
- Okay, everybody... Chant it together... the MST 3 K Mantra! TWANG!
- One of the greatest examples of lampshading came in the tenth season, during which Joel (who had been Put On A Bus mid season-five) visited the Satellite of Love in order to do some repairs. Mike becomes jealous of Joel, whom he considers to be a better man, to which Tom Servo replies: "Don't compare yourself, man, it ain't healthy." When Mike replaced Joel in season five, it started a massive Flame War over which of them was the better host.
- There was a minor one in "Terror from the Year 5000", when the characters decide to go see a movie and mike says: "So what, we're going to watch people watch a movie? What's up with that?"
The titular hero in the show Kamen Rider Hibiki receives his first major Super Mode near the midpoint of the series. The in-universe reasoning behind needing the power-up is that monsters get stronger during the summer months, and Hibiki wants to be able to save time by blowing them up in one hit. Replace "Hibiki" with "the producers" and you have one of the out-of-universe reasons this is done in every season of Kamen Rider (the other reason being toy sales).
In related lampshading, the third episode of Power Rangers RPM has a character, Dillon, who is being recruited by the team. When their mentor, Dr. K, mentioned the "covert" functions of the suit, he quips, "Yeah. Because nothing says covert like red, yellow and blue spandex." Dr. K gets very angry when somebody calls it spandex.
- RPM looks like it'll make a habit of this. The fifth episode alone has Big Bad Venjix's generals commenting on the ridiculousness of a spray-nozzle robot, asking "do you want to super-size the bot before or after the Rangers beat it?" (Venjix blasts the general for this one) and wondering aloud why they never do a Zerg Rush while the city's defenses are down (Venjix: blasts the general, then orders a Zerg Rush).
- One episode of RPM begins with the Rangers questioning Dr. K about why their zords have eyes, why things blow up when they morph and why they need to shout their morphing call.
  - This is made even better when the Blue Ranger ''uses the post-morph explosion against the enemy''.
- Power Rangers Ninja Storm, a lighthearted season after a long rush of Darker And Edgier, also liked its lampshades. After Cam has been captured by the computer double he created to help him balance his duties as a Ranger and at Mission Control:
  Dustin: Didn't we already do an evil clone story?
The NCIS fifth season finale uses a lampshade hanging very similar to the Buffy example; when Director Vance complains that Gibbs has run off after a clue that nobody knows anything about and nobody can explain it to him, Tony replies, "Sounds like a Wednesday."
- Though admittedly this is very odd, since the show airs on Tuesdays.
  - I know, Dont Explain The Joke, but: Anytime the show ends as a two-parter, there's obviously no one around to explain it on Wednesday.
- Additionally, Gibbs has a known habit of building boats in his basements but no method is ever shown for removing the boat on completion. This is lampshaded in a recent episode where Abby treats it as a mystery on par with the murder they're trying to solve.
- In Jetlag, in the seventh season, at the end of the episode the closing line is that the photo being discussed would look better in black and white. Every segment of the show ends w/ a fade to a black and white of a significant image.
Boston Legal. All the time, on everything, as a consequence of Denny (and other characters, but mostly Denny) being ridiculously Genre Savvy and having No Fourth Wall. In the last-but-one episode, when they finally decide that Alan and Denny will get married, Denny describes it as "Like jumping a shark."
In a third season episode of The Mighty Boosh, "Party", Howard Moon claims to be only ten years older than Vince Noir; then both characters perform an Aside Glance, subtly acknowledging that according to previous canon, Howard and Vince are the same age.
On Entourage, Turtle and Jamie-Lynn Sigler are dating. The other characters on the show constantly make reference to how unlikely such a relationship would be. It is made even funnier by the fact that the actors are dating in real life.
Roseanne exhibits an awful lot of lampshade hanging when it comes to the actor switch of Becky. In "The Clip Show: All About Rosey (Part 1)" an adult DJ has clearly gone insane and is seen muttering something. The psychiatrist finally askes him to speak up and he says, "They say she's the same, but she's not the same." This is followed by back-to-back clips of Lecy Goranson and Sarah Chalke as Becky. Also, in the first episode where Sarah Chalke appears as Becky, Roseanne mentions at the end of the episode that Becky "seems really different." Due to Lecy Goranson's indecision in whether or not she wanted to stay as Becky in season 8 of the show, one week's episode would include Lecy and the next's Sarah. Finally, in the episode "Disney World War II" Sarah Chalke appeared onscreen and the entire cast freeze-framed. A narrator lamp-shaded the whole Lecy-Sarah switch-off by saying, "Sarah Chalke will play Becky in this episode and for the rest of series." To which the audience clapped. Amen, audience.
- In the first episode of Roseanne in which Johnny Galecki appeared as David, he introduced himself as "Kevin", but later they changed the character's name back to its original, "David". Later on, Roseanne comments that Darlene has so much control over David that his name wasn't even originally David — Darlene changed it.
- There's also an episode where the whole family is watching a rerun of Bewitched, and Sarah Chalke comments that she likes the second Darren better.
Episodes of Psych typically begin with flashbacks to Shawn's life as a kid. Corbin Bernsen plays Shawn's father and is made to look younger when he appears in the flashbacks. In one episode Shawn says to his father, "I don't know, Dad. Slap a wig on you, you're a spitting image of yourself when I was a kid."
- There's lampshades in every episode; a especially notable example would be a recursive lampshade hanging: After Lassiter says something about not needing Shawn's help on a case, Shawn states that that just makes it "more dramatic" when he has to ask for his help later on. His girlfriend then lampshades that lampshade by asking "More dramatic for who?"
  Shawn (sheepishly): looks around, points to random extra "To that guy, I guess."
In a Saw parody from Mad TV, the ending points out a common Fridge Logic inducing trend in trailer parodies.
During the infamous "You Fool" episode of Hollywood Squares, the host refers to the show as "The Gilbert Gottfried Hour" and similar titles as the contestants repeatedly fail to take Gilbert's square.
In the season opener of TheFreshPrinceofBelAir after Baby Nicky is born, Jazz walks in the house and sees Nicky at age 5. He gives Will an incredulous look, and Will responds by shrugging his shoulders.
In the final episode of the HBO series John Adams (Peacefield), all of the liberties that the writers took with history are lampshaded in a scene where Adams is taken to see John Trumbull's painting of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. After complaining about the historical inaccuracies in the painting:
Adams: Do not let our posterity be deluded with fictions under the guise of poetical or graphical license.

The Swedish song "Värsta schlagern" ("Such a Schlager"), sung by Markoolio and Linda Bengtzing, lampshades a lot of the tropes and clichés appearing in the Eurovision Song Contest. The song itself is written and orchestrated like a typical "schlager", only the lyrics lampshade. Examples include a bridge going (my translation from the Swedish): "What they reward with twelve points, is a sumptuous chorus", part of the chorus going: "There are stars and they're burning, there's the world and it's disappearing, and the title should hit you like a punch in the stomach, it's such a schlager" and one memorable part going: "If you don't want to ruin your chances of winning, you can steal something from ABBA and see the risk disappear."
"Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen contains the line, "It goes like this: the fourth, the fifth, the minor fall, the major lift", referring to the sequence of chords played during that line.
The Cat Empire song "One Four Five" contains a chorus which simply reapeats the phrase "One, four, five." over and over. When each word is sung, the music itself plays that chord progression associated with the song AKA a I-IV-V chord progression.
Britney Spears' "Womanizer" has a conspicuous shot of a Nokia cell phone near the start. One of the appointments just visible in the frame is about a Product Placement meeting.
- The start of the video for If U Seek Amy spells out the 'hidden' message in the lyrics very blatantly before the song begins.
Da Vinci's Notebook's "Title of the Song" is all about this.
In Tower of Power's "Diggin' on James Brown", one of the lyrics goes, "Take it to the BRIDGE..." and upon singing "bridge" the band starts playing the bridge.
- Led Zeppelin includes a similar nod to James Brown in "The Crunge". Robert Plant unsuccessfully attempts to get the band to go to the bridge and says "Has anyone seen the bridge? Where's that confounded bridge?"
Ryan Adams' "Halloweenhead", right before the guitar solo.

On WWE Monday Night RAW, announcer Jim Ross lampshades the practice of putting weapons underneath the ring for the wrestlers to use, resulting in the page quote.
One of the practices that led to World Championship Wrestling falling apart was its tendency to suspend wrestlers and then continue to pay them ridiculous salaries while they were at home and not working in the slightest. Near the end, in addition to many other Lampshade Hangings the writers threw in a quip about it — the commissoner yelled at two misbehaving competitors that he was going to send them to jail, because, "I'm not going to send you home! If I do, someone at the office might pay you!"
- WCW's problem with lampshade hangings show there can be a fine line between hanging a lampshade and exposing the business even more so than it was at a time when Kayfabe was relatively more alive and well.
In ROH, Samoa Joe would sometimes hang a lampshade onto the... questionability of doing certain diving moves from the top rope, by actually walking out of the way and letting his opponent hit the mat with no ill effect to him. In 2008, Kevin Steen hung his own lampshade this way on Nigel Mc Guinness' infamous rebounding-off-the-ropes lariat.
ECW sometimes did this, by way of showing what would happen if someone used what seemed to be the obvious counter to a finisher- only to have it turn out much worse than if they just took it. (example: Someone avoided a Van Damminator by swinging the chair. RVD ducked, swept the guy's leg, making him fall with the chair over his face and chest- which RVD then did Rolling Thunder onto. Styles: "If you wondered? Now you know."
Kofi Kingston debuted on WWE as the supposedly first Jamaican-Born wrestler in the company's history. His character underwent an overhaul out of nowhere, now being billed from Ghana and dropping his accent completely. How did WWE reconcile this? They had Triple H ask him, "Hey, didn't you used to be Jamaican?"

Sesame Street In the 1989 special, Big Bird in Japan, Big Bird is discussing his being abandoned by his tour group in Tokyo with his new friend, to which she responds aghast: "But that's horrible! What kind of a tour would leave without a bird and his dog?" To which Big Bird responds thoughtfully: "I dunno, probably the kind of tour that would take a bird and a dog in the first place."
Ventriloquist Jeff Dunham and his entourage of puppets often joke about the fact that Jeff is the one who's delivering all the dialogue. Especially in this one moment where Peanut and José Jalapeño start talking to each other in Spanish:
Jeff: What are you doing?
Peanut: I'm speaking to José in his native tongue!
Jeff: Well, don't do that!
Peanut: Why not?
Jeff: Well, it makes me feel... left out.
Peanut: (awkward pause) Huh?
Jeff: Well, I don't speak Spanish!
Peanut: (stares at Jeff)
José: (also stares at Jeff and hums Twilight Zone theme)
Peanut: Picture it if you will...
- Another, from one of his early appearances, where he picks on Stu, a member of the audience:
  Peanut: (to Stu) Gonna come kick my butt?
  (Peanut turns toward Jeff)
  Peanut: Your elbow...
- And again (twice in one bit of banter, actually), with Peanut...
  Peanut: (interrupted by Jeff) What!? We cannot talk at the same time! I am so sick of this crap! I have tried going solo!
  Jeff: What happened?
  Peanut: (looks at the stool he's standing on) Kept falling off this frickin' thing...
- Jeff Dunham really likes this trope. At one point, Peanut keeps trying to "bite" Jeff's face, and Jeff keeps on blocking him.
  Peanut: You're so fast. It's like you know.

Spike Milligan must have been peddling lampshades when he wrote the latter episodes of The Goon Show.
The Jack Benny Program did this quite a few times with knowing winks about the commercials.
Jack Benny: And now a word from our sponsor. Take it, Don.
Don Wilson, the show's MC: "Jell-o." Take it, Jack.

Shakespeare uses this in Twelfth Night:
Fabian: If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction.
- So this is Older Than Steam.
- Most of the Sweet Polly Olivers tend to lampshade the fact that in those times that a boy is playing a female character that is disguising herself as a boy.
- Hamlet's "Speak the speech I pray you" monologue can be seen as a combination of putting a shade on the common Theater techniques of the era, and a Take That against the overuse of it.
  - "Unaccustomed as I am to public speaking..."
- And let's not forget the prologue of Henry V, quite possibly the purest example of this trope, where the Chorus calls to attention the fact that a stage could never represent a battlefield, then tries to inspire the audiences imagination so that it doesn't matter anyway.
In Spamalot, the Broadway adaptation of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Sir Galahad and The Lady of the Lake sing "The Song That Goes Like This." Every phrase lampshades tropes of show tunes, love songs in particular.
- Furthermore, Sir Robin, when discussing the glamour and beauty of Broadway, dashes King Arthur's dreams of being in a Broadway musical by explaining "You won't succeed on Broadway if you don't have any Jews!" This, being England in the middle of the Crusades, is not likely — what Jew will come out to a heavily armed Christian? The Lady of the Lake resolves this quandary for Arthur by telling him, "You're in a Broadway musical!" as the lights around the stage sparkle. Finally, addressing one of many anachronisms, when Sir Lancelot and Herbert are wed, Lancelot pinches his beloved's cheek and says to him, "Just think, Herbert, in a thousand years' time this will still be controversial."
- Don't forget the great sorceror Tim. Stage direction calls for the strings holding him up to be visible from the back of the theater. King Arthur loudly states his amazement that Tim is flying without any method of support whatsoever.
The Phantom of the Opera: "You'd never get away / With all this in a play / But if it's loudly sung / And in a foreign tongue / It's just the sort of story / Audiences adore / In fact, a perfect opera!"
- Which was both pointed out in-character and basically became a plot point in Terry Pratchett's Discworld novel Maskerade that gave its own spin to the The Phantom of the Opera plot by subverting, double subverting, deconstructing and parodying the hell out of it.
If this trope didn't exist, the musical Urinetown would be about two seconds long.
The play (and later film) Arsenic and Old Lace has a classic moment when one character, who is allegedly an intelligent and erudite theater critic, starts talking about how a character in a play who is supposed to be intelligent does something really stupid. You see, in that play, the allegedly smart guy was in a house with a bunch of murderers, and he doesn't try to leave. He doesn't even have the sense to be scared! Instead, he sits down in a chair and stops paying attention, while one of the murderers sneaks up behind him and ties him up with the curtain cord! Meanwhile, the theater critic, who also happens to be in a house full of murderers and not at all concerned about this, sits down in a chair, and one of the murderers sneaks up behind him and ties him up with, you guessed it, the curtain cord!
- To be fair to our poor theater critic, however, not being scared is understandable because the murderers were all members of his immediate family and he had survived being with them for most of his life, knowing full well some were Ax Crazy the whole time. If they wanted to kill him, wouldn't they have tried it before?
The first act finale of Gilbert and Sullivan's Iolanthe has the chorus point out the use of "a Greek remark, a Latin word, and one that's French."
- Used by Gilbert and Sullivan on many instances, namely in Ruddigore:

Ruth: All baronets are bad; but was he worse than other baronets?

And between Rose Maybud and Mad Margaret:
Margaret: They are all mad — quite mad!
Rose: What makes you think that?
Margaret: Hush! They sing choruses in public. That's mad enough, I think.

Infernum is a D20 system game set in its own unique spin on Fire And Brimstone Hell, with more than a few oddities. One of the strangest is the river Cocytus, a river of "Grinding Uttercold Black Ice"... which happens to emerge from a rift beneath Malebolge, a massive and eternally unstable range of volcanoes. In the rulebooks, it's mentioned that even the demons don't know how something like this can happen, and House Zethu (the House of Mad Scientists) is stated as wanting desperately to solve that little riddle.

In Fire Emblem, there is the support feature, which allows two characters standing close to each other to gain various bonuses. In one such support conversation, Kent and Farina are discussing the reason why they see each other so much lately. "What would anyone have to gain by making us fight together?" ends up being a Lampshade Hanging about the fact that fighting together does, in fact, make them stronger.
Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind featured both beds and a day-night time system but people do not go to bed or lock shops at night. This is lampshaded when you eventually get the dialogue response "People never seem to go to sleep, I wonder what drives them"
This Zelda spoof on Newgrounds centers around Link undergoing a Chain of Deals in order to deliver the mystical Lampshade of No Real Significance to a local temple. (Would it be fair to call this recursive lampshading?)
Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy: at one point, when faced with a Locked Door, Kyle Katarn, who has been in this kind of game before, snidely comments to the player character, "They always lock the doors. You'd think they'd've learned by now." and later, "The console for opening the door is probably hidden in some room twelve floors up... how does that make sense?"
- And let's not forget the dialogue at the beginning of the game:
  Luke: I sense a disturbance in the Force...
  Kyle: You always sense a disturbance in the Force.
At one point in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Raiden asks Solid Snake why he never seems to run out of ammunition. In answer, Snake simply touches his bandanna and says "Infinite ammo." In the game, the bandanna is a secret item which does indeed grant infinite ammunition. While Snake is most likely referring to his mind, the joke is not lost on the player. (It also implicitly said that the "good" ending of Metal Gear Solid was canonical, which was later confirmed in 4.) The Metal Gear Solid series is famous for repeatedly breaking the fourth wall.
- In the original Metal Gear Solid, a lengthy description by Snake's mentor about how to walk without making noise ends with Snake frustratedly saying "I... can't do it!" referencing the fact that even though the game was designed for use with the Playstation's analog joystick-equipped Dual Shock controller, it's not possible to walk slowly in the game. In the Gamecube remake Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, it was possible to walk slowly and thus Snake's response to the instruction is changed accordingly.
- MGS3 perhaps features the most breakages of the forth wall and lampshading, exemplified by a conversation with Sigint regarding Snake's possession of The Boss's unique Patriot gun (acquired by starting a New Game Plus, and which logically should still be with The Boss), which Snake brushes off as "worrying about details."
  - Or in an earlier optional radio conversation with The Boss, she tells Snake that he will have to rely on all his senses, and not to underestimate his sense of smell to stay aware. Snake replies to her that he cannot smell at all. The Boss then says, "Oh, well. You'll just have to rely on your instincts as a gamer then."
  - One of this best Lampshade Hanging moments occurs when Snake finds a Russian Glowcap mushroom and gives Mission Control a call asking whether or not eating glowing mushrooms will recharge the batteries on his equipment - which it does, and upon calling back about this discovery, his Mission Control personnel figure that Snake's just being delusional, but eating the mushrooms is essentially harmless, so they tell Snake to keep eating them.
- MGS4 has Snake dismiss the idea of Vamp's power as being supernatural. Turns out that he's half-right in Vamp's case (his Healing Factor is enhanced by nanomachines and thus negated with the Syringe.), but then Snake says, "This is the real world, not some fantasy video game..." Turns out that he's wrong about the lack of fantasy elements too. (Cue Psycho Mantis' and The Sorrow's reappearances.)
  - There's a certain, bizarre truth to this, as Guns of the Patriots has a much more realistic presentation than most games. Mook soldiers, friendly and enemy alike, and even Snake, all move about like you would expect actual soldiers to move, right down to how they carry their weapons. It's certainly not perfect (moving while prone is a stealth-unfriendly high-crawl instead of a low-crawl, for example) but the attention put into it is still staggering. Mooks also use hand-signals to direct their squads, who then follow the signals. One might say the game is built on reality and then has a lot of weird stuff piled on top.
  - Can't forget a certain point in Act 4 — an Act-wide Shout Out to MGS1 — where in MGS1 it would have been time to swap discs... or Screaming Mantis' superficial resemblance to her counterpart in that game (who is controlling her from beyond the grave) and the game taking advantage of players who attempt to replicate the "counter" to that gimmick.
    Snake: What the hell?! I can't move!
In the Lupino showdown stage of Max Payne, the titular character finds out that Jack Lupino believes himself to be the herald of the end of the world, and this sets him to musing on clichés, both concerning the end of the world and his own persona as "a brooding underdog avenger alone against an empire of evil, out to right a grave injustice." He ends with a musing on how "nothing is a cliché when it's happening to you."
- Later on in the game, as he heads into an abandoned military bunker, Max muses on how he has taken on the role of the "Mythic Detective," with everything that taking on that role entails: "to unravel all the mysteries; following a path of clues to that Final Revelation, even if it would take me down to the cold, cavernous depths of a grave."
- There's also the hallucinatory dream sequence where Max's wife leaves him notes telling him that he's in a graphic novel (which, for the uninitiated, is how the cutscenes in the game are presented) and in a video game.
- In the second game, Max shoots his way through several mooks and exits the garage under a police station, only to have his friend Vlad pull up. He notes that it's one unlikely coincidence. It's not a coincidence.
- The televisions in Max Payne 2 feature a Blaxploitation parody of the original Max Payne called "Dick Justice", where many of the flaws of the first game are lampshaded, such as "having a constipated grimace" and speaking in metaphor.
In the The Bards Tale games, the character is featured repeatedly speaking to the narrator in debate of what he says, or simply because he feels it not necessary, commenting at various points on subjects like why wolves were carrying valuable items, or the ethics of looting other people's belongings.
- The tutorial section is done from the mouth of a character and when told seemingly obvious things like how to jump, the bard mocks him for his ignorance and questions what the x button, etc. are.
- Don't forget the obligatory mention of a PC version of the game:
  Bard: This other bloke kept talking about mice I couldn't see.
In the final chapter of Drakengard, after you are convinced they have no more weird left to shovel in your face, the Final Boss mission's description says "Reality breaks down, and the fantasy begins." And then it gets even weirder.
Before the final boss fight of Final Fantasy VI, all of the main characters deliver a small speech about how love and friendship etc. have changed their lives, to which the villain replies, "This is pathetic! You sound like chapters from a self-help booklet!"
Osmud Saddler, right before mutating into this giant spider-thing:
Saddler: Oh, I think you know. The "American prevailing" is a cliché that only happens in your Hollywood movies.
- And then Leon nukes him.
Zork Grand Inquisitor lampshaded the Hyperspace Arsenal. When the player puts a large vacuum on a vending machine, Dalboz comments "Just where were you keeping that?"
In Gabriel Knight 3, the Hyperspace Arsenal is lampshaded when a jacket Gabriel has squeezed into his jeans forms a suspicious-looking bulge.
In Doom III, the rationale for the player being able to acquire a chainsaw is a series of background logs detailing a shipment of chainsaws that were accidentally sent to Mars. The characters writing the logs draw attention to the fact that no one would ever use a chainsaw on the planet.
In Unreal Tournament 3, the "flag" of CTF is replaced by the "FLaG" - Field-Lattice Generator. They look exactly the same, and one character says something to the effect of "it looks like a flag, it sounds like a flag, and it waves like a flag. It's a flag."
A good example of this is in Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. Being predominately a platform-based game, it pokes fun at the idea that the answers to platform puzzles are rarely in the game itself, which is radically different from RPGs and point-and-click adventure games. During this scene the princess, you are traveling with is trying to read the books in the library while you are hopelessly trying to jump around the walls and move mirrors to direct light. Your character gets so annoyed with her that he asks, "Why don't you just look up the answer to this puzzle?" and she replies "This isn't that kind of game."
- From the previews, the new Prince is actively Genre Savvy. He's noted that he tends to move "toward" the monsters, and when his cohort points out that it "seems quiet", he advises her not to say that.
  - "You had to pick this religion? You couldn't pick one where the embodiment of evil was a really angry sheep or something?"
During one of the missions in Freespace 2, a pilot mutters about how useless their technology had been during the Great War, thirty years before, lampshading the fact that, while in Freespace 2, capital ships will fire all sorts of very large and deadly cannons and lasers, in Freespace 1, during which the Great War takes place, capital ships were for the most part fairly unimpressive moving targets.
In the first case of Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, Apollo lets out a very loud "OBJECTION!", and promptly gets scolded by the judge and his mentor Kristoph: "Excess yelling can damage the judge's ears... and our case."
- You also have Apollo bemoaning how odd all of his clients are and Phoenix making a comment about "presenting" when you try to show him things. Interestingly, characters questioning the trappings of their world is actually a major plot point, as the absurdly unfair justice system which Phoenix previously accepted is now recognized by the characters as in need of change, and that change begins to occur in the final case, with the reintroducion of juries, though admittedly for one case on a test basis.
The Simpsons Game has you collecting these for One Hundred Percent Completion.
Anachronox has its TAC Os, small boxes with radar dishes, that you collect and get various powerups. TACO is explained in-game as being a Totally Arbitrary Collectible Object.
In Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, one mission begins with Sam Fisher saying "Don't tell me... Three alarms and the mission is over." to which his superior, Lambert, replies "Of course not. This is no video game, Fisher." This is taking a jab at the previous games in which missions would frequently end after 3 alarms.
In Crysis: Warhead, a Marine remarks about the alarming number of VTOLs (Sci-fi helicopter things) that get shot down over the course of both games.
In Secret of Evermore, you run into a raving lunatic who shouts about how everyone is under the control of "button pushing overlords". You (the player, not the character) then get the option of punishing him by turning him into a chicken, goat, or gigantic basket.
- If you choose not to do any of the above to him he thanks you (the player) and rewards you with a decent piece of armor.
There's one at the first settlement most players will come across in Fallout 3, Megaton. Above the gate is a guy with a hunting rifle named Stockholm. The player can only reach him using console cheats, and one of the things he says to the player is asking "How the hell did you get up here..."
In Gears of War, whenever you find a door too thick for your Powered Armor-clad steroids-overdosed hero to kick down, you have to call a stealthed bot called Jack to cut it. Then you get a tough encounter while the bot is at his business. Every. Single. Time. At one of these points, it gets to the exchange.
Marcus: I'll call JACK.
Baird: Well, you know what THAT means...
Marcus: (sigh) Yeah...
:: Then Baird gets into a defensive position... and you probably should as well.
Good old J.R. calls it with the page quote, word for word, in the Smackdown vs Raw series.
What about First Encounter Assault Recon? One of the lines in the intro is "You got to be f**king kidding me. This is why nobody takes us seriously. Military clones?"
- Also on the Red Shirt Army treatment of the SFOD-D. F.E.A.R.'s credits include the line "No Delta Force Operatives were harmed in the making of this game.")
  - And learning that Fettel has a tracking device embedded in his head, Jankowski remarks "Seems awfully convenient."
- Project Origin also does this, when Snake Fist introduces his ridiculous codename. Stokes' response is a blunt "... you've got the be fucking kidding me." Made all the more amusing by the fact that the characters would recognize the Snake Fist codename; apparently, its a popular series of action movies in the setting.
  - Snake Fist was originally one of the entries in a competition Monolith ran when licensing problems were stopping them from using F.E.A.R. (someone at the Monolith offices even made a drawing of a snake with it's mouth wide open and a fist coming out of it). Guess it was a bit of a favourite for the devs.
  - Stokes is way too Genre Savvy. Toward the end of the game, on the way to the confrontation with Alma, she remarks that "I hope she doesn't do one of those horror movie things, and throws your biggest fears against you. That would suck."
  - Colonel Vanek lampshades Becket's One Man Army status: "You sure did kill a lot of my guys. You're a goddamn killing machine!"
In what seems to be a prime example of a Message from Fred, the protagonist of the notorious Limbo Of The Lost often complains about annoying NPC's, how boring walking through endless tunnels is, etc.
In Army of Two, Salem and Rios lampshade the ridiculous requirement of two people being needed to open every door in the Veteran Map Pack downloadable content. Rios asks if Salem can ever remember a time he opened a door by himself, to which he responds how he can hardly open his doors at home by himself now.
In Persona 4, part of the extended intro of the game (before you get to your first dungeon) has the protagonist walking home from school with Chie Satonaka and Yukiko Amagi. Chie asks the protagonist, "So, you're in town because your parents are out of the country for a year?" After he agrees, she goes on to say, "Wow. I thought it was something much more serious, like your parents dying mysteriously," after which she looks straight at the camera.
In Legend of Kay the player encounters an archaeologist deep down in the dungeons, who comments on how improbable it is that the machines are still working, and on the mystery what these periodically-retracting-spikes-and-moving-platforms machines might originally have been constructed for.
In Uncharted Drakes Fortune, immediately after we discover that Sullivan survived being shot point-blank by Roman due to the use of a perfectly placed Pocket Protector, Nathan exclaims: "I thought this kinda thing only happened in the movies!"
As far as expansions go, Warhammer 40000: Dawn of War: Soulstorm has been called many things; "Good" not being among them. However, if you play enough of the Space Marine campaign in Dawn of War 2 you will find that even the Blood Ravens agree, saying "The Kaurava campaign did not go so well." They go so far as to calling it "A blight on our history". At the end of the narrative, the scout sergeant Cyrus claims "Kaurava was a huge mistake. I will not speak of it again." Players couldn't agree more.
Several characters in My World My Way does this a lot when they give tutorials to players without knowing why they say what they said (there's a fourth wall for those characters).
The trope itself was lampshaded in the first season of the episodic Sam and Max series. A particular puzzle requires you to improvize your way through an episode of a popular television sitcom called "Midtown Cowboys". (As the theme song informs the audience, "They're probably hiding a cow!") Part of the solution to the puzzle is to take a nearby lampshade and stick it on the cow's head.
- If that's the only disguise you can think of. You can also use a plate and shaving cream.
This is used during a bonus sequence in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The stage is in space and none of the characters wear air masks:
Falco: Fox looks like he's got his hands full.
Krystal: Yes, he's putting up quite a fight, though.
Peppy: You know, he reminds me of his father every day.
Slippy: Hey, this is no time for chitchat guys! Shouldn't we be worried about Fox? He's out there with no air! How's he supposed to breathe?!
Peppy: Bah! Way to go, Slippy. No-one would've even noticed if you hadn't opened up your big yap!
DaCapo: "You call me 'oniichan' but we're in love. That kind of thing normally only happens in erotic games."
In Tales of Hearts, Kunzite, a Ridiculously Human Robot, is nonetheless perfectly capable of being hit with all the Standard Status Ailments such as poison, curse, and petrification. If one of those occurs while The Lancer is in the party, that lancer will question it during the Victory Pose: "How exactly does a machine get poisoned, anyway?" "I am constructed to be very similar to a human being." etc.
Ratchet and Clank example: "Where is he keeping all of these guns? I mean, come on!"
In Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness'', Wakin from Team Snagem says when attempting to take your Snag Machine something along the lines of, "We know you're a great battler. Well, we're not going to have any of that." He then proceeds to put you to sleep with his Gloom.
In The Typing of the Dead, during the battle against Strength (where you have to type really long series of sentences), randomly you might get a series talking about how you have to type long phrases, otherwise the zombies will get you.
The Nancy Drew game series does this frequently, with everything from Nancy's musings as to why in-game phone numbers all start with "555", to a tabloid newspaper's speculation about why she's such a Mystery Magnet, to Bess and George joking about how Nancy could find a secret passacge in a blueberry muffin.
In the first episode of Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People, you can find a Teen Girl Squad page with a metal detector. When you dig it up, he remarks something along the lines of "Hey, one of my super cool Teen Girl Squad ideas! Appearently written on slightly metallic paper!"
Team Fortress 2 has Capture The Flag maps called, actually, "Capture the Flag", even though there are no flags — only intelligence breifcases. The third page of the Classless Update reveals what the intelligence is: "a flag made entirely out of microfilm. Or possibly nylon."
In an early Amiga game the muse cursor was turned into a fly. At one point the player was offered the choice to "ask about the fly". Using the fly pointer to click at this choice starts a dialog where the player's character asks his assistant if he ever gets the impression that "there's a fly buzzing around and making decisions for you". The assistant laughs this off as a bad joke.
The Sims 2 hangs a lampshade on some of the content present in expansions for the original game that isn't to be found in the initial release, such as an off-hand reference to all the house-pets in the neighbourhood having been abducted by aliens.
Paper Mario 2: Thousand Year Door has Gombella, after using her tattle ability on a Hammer Bro, complaining about why her book of neverending character info, which lets you know the HP, Attack, Defense and possible special abilities of an enemy, doesn't answer the real question about the Hammer Bros: where do they keep their infinite supply of hammers? The same also goes for Lakitus.
- Another part of this game features a well known enemy, using a poor disguise to infiltrate Mario's current group of travelling pirates, coming on screen just after Mario left, just to tell the gamer that he really knows how obvious his disguise is, and threatening the gamer to not tell Mario of his real identity.
The color commentators do this all the time in the Backyard Sports series.
The human noble intro stage in Dragon Age: Origins includes fighting giant rats, to which your colleage comments that it reminds him of 'the beginnings of those awful stories Mother used to tell.'
- Also, there's this quote from some adventurers you run in to:
Adventurer: Hey, no need to be pushy! We were just doing it for the experience.
In Assassins Creed II many players were forced to turn on the subtitles due to the incredible amount of Italian spoken. During a present-time conversation with Rebecca she apologizes for it, claiming the translation on the Anumis 2.0 isn't up to par. His response? "Oh, it's no problem, those subtitles really help."
- There's also a comment that Animus 2.0 fixes the fault that Animus 1.0 had regarding water (Ezio can swim; Altair reacted to water like it was concentrated acid).
Being the only normal ones in their workshops, both Vayne and Raze from Mana Khemia games often lampshade the weirdness of their Nakama.
In City Of Heroes when you click on the pamphlet guy in front of City Hall, he tell you what particular cause he's promoting this week.
"Burn down Perez Park! It's full of monsters and impossible to get around!"
- In a passing dialogue, one NPC insists to his obviously disbelieving friends that he actually did manage to snatch a purse.
Soul Calibur III has Seong Mi-na and a rather special throw where she knocks her opponsnt to the ground, jumps on top of them, plunges her zanbatou into their nether regions, and goes "Bye bye," lampshading that she is in fact performing an amature sex change operation.
In Silent Hill 3 when Heather is explaining to Douglas that Harry killed the God summoned by Dahlia she points out that "it must not have been much of a god if it could be killed by a human being".
In Lands of Lore: Guardians of Destiny, the protagonist, Luther, can (without any practical plot reason to do so) wander up to a raving homeless man and try to speak with him. In parody of the typical gameplay habits of RPG gamers, he comments, "Hi. I'm just wandering around, talking to everyone I meet."
In another parody, in Mass Effect 2, the player can ask a Turian bartender at the Citadel about any local news. The bartender stares, then tells the player that if he/she wants local information, go check the news. As the player goes away he starts mumbling to himself about why humans keep asking him that question.

In Irregular Webcomic, David Morgan-Mar describes this trope and does it himself to the unfunniness of the comic, thus applying Lampshade Hanging to Lampshade Hanging itself.
- He does it again in the "Space" theme. Actually, he lampshades lampshading — and references us as well.
  - Could it be that he lampshades lampshading lampshading?
  - Dear God, he was right!
The Order of the Stick lampshades Tabletop Games tropes endlessly. Strip #546 refers to Lampshade Hanging by name (as seen in this page's image) and thus lampshades Lampshade Hanging.
- And it's not even the first time the comic did so. "Will you stop pointing out the repetitiveness of the B-plots and hurry up?!?"
Ninja Burger: Max ninja tell Steve ninja something every ninja already know about shadow clone technique. Steve ninja is understandably confused.
El Goonish Shive: "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm out of exposition."
- "I thought you were out of exposition." "I am an ENDLESS BARREL of exposition!"
"Merciless" is the best word to describe the manner in which Exterminatus Now applies this trope, usually while subverting or justifying the trope being lampshaded. See Team Pet and The Smurfette Principle.
Pretty much any comic by S. Sakurai (Muertitos, Gorgeous Princess Creamy Beamy, Intragalactic) will be so crawling with lampshade hangings that choosing specific examples would be pretty hard.
Turns up plenty in Sluggy Freelance. Just take a look at this strip:
Torg: Nothing can save us now!
Zoe: What was that about?
Torg: It's a classic cliché! In this type of situation, when someone says "Nothing can save us now," it's followed by someone showing up to save us.
Zoe: You mean like "It can't get any worse"?
K'z'k the Soul Collector: (suddenly appears) Hi kids!
- Or this strip:
  Riff: A dynamic character with an ability to survive certain death, and a questionable death scene leaving no corpse? Face it, we'll never see her again!
T-rex explains in this comic.
Something Positive hangs a lampshade on one of its longest-running elements in this strip:
Pee-Jee: How'd he get into your ice cream? That makes no sense.
Davan: He's a 30+ year old pudding cat who can travel through drains but this is where your ability to believe is gonna be taxed?
In Abe&Kroenen, Abe lampshades two of the comics' most common gags (characters pulling a stealth Batman-esque appearance and Kroenen's thick German accent) at the same time. To be fair, he was pretty pissed off at the time.
Abe: Are you people in a club or something?
8-Bit Theater does this on a regular basis, and even hung a lampshade on itself in May 2009 courtesy of Black Mage:
Black Mage: That's it, I've had enough. This whole goddamn adventure has been nothing but pointless build ups toward pay offs that never happen.
Real Life Comics lampshades lampshading here.
I Was Kidnapped by Lesbian Pirates from Outer Space does so in these two strips. This may also prove to be a case of unintentional genre savvy as well on the part of Marge.
Ansem Retort gives us this beauty.
Aerith: I feel like I'm in a bad TV show, which is ironic since I am in a bad TV show.
"How did you even print those banners?"◊

In the lonelygirl15 video "Truth Or Dare", the "random girl" asks, "Do you guys film everything?"
- Then there's Bree in "New Girl": "You know, you'd think that maybe, just, just, just maybe, the Order would crack down on webcams. Idiots."
This exchange from the KateModern mid-season 2 episode "Who Killed Kate?":
Alice: Yeah, it's a bit far-fetched, isn't it?
Sophie: Well, no more than life-extending blood drinking rituals and secret world-controlling societies!
This happens a lot in Homestar Runner. For example, Strong Bad has referred to Homestar as a no-armed whitey with a speech impediment, and seems to be the only character aware that everyone (except him) is walking around with no pants on.
Homestar: What awe you talking about, Stwong Bad? I weaw wong pants.
Strong Bad: Umm, no. From what I can tell, you wear no pants, and have blue soles glued to the bottoms of your feet.
- Perhaps most present in the "Compy Catalog" short; the catalog contains several examples of Videlectrix's poor communication skills, which are immediately lampshaded by Strong Bad. One involves an attempt to turn 'Same' into a color.
Catalog: The Roomy-Vac is a real powerHOUSE...get it? Oh, you don't? Well, because it's the size of a... Oh, you were kidding? You do get it? Pretty good, huh? No?
Strong Bad: Why would they print that whole exchange?
Jonathan Pruitt, near the end of Six In The Morning.
Jonathan: Wait, that makes him a supervillain.
Travis: ... Actually, that's true. Which is pretty cool — I hadn't thought of that. I guess that makes us superheroes.
Every episode of Ask That Guy With The Glasses begins with a greeting in a different language, eventually leading to "Oh, hello-in-a-language-you've-never-heard-of-and-won't-bother-to-look-up, didn't hear you come in."
- The Nostalgia Critic performs a lampshade in the Captain N episode. "I mean, who would be so lazy as to show nothing but a white background the entire time?" after a short silence to let the viewers figure out the joke, he adds "They'd be fucking idiots".
This is a relatively common occurrence in Survival of the Fittest, both in and out of character, this exchange shows an example of (IC) lampshading.
Melina Frost: (leader of a group called the "Poison Angels") Go on then... show him why we're called the Poison Angles [sic].
Jeff Marontate: (a character facing the group) Poison Angles, huh? Oh, I'll give you a whole new set of angles in a minute, my darling.
Whateley Universe as well is fond of these
"he spread his arms wide WOMP-CRACK!, and I really couldn't let you rush in and pull a Deus Ex, how lame would that be?"
Sara glared as the boy leant against a tree, standing on a branch ten feet in the air, "This isn't some stupid story. Someone could be killed out there!"
- Hat Trick as well, though one is a subversion... Genre Savvy for the win.
Common in the web fiction serial Dimension Heroes.
"Oh, again with the alleyways! I'm getting sick of them!"
Redvs Blue loves its lampshades, a good example is Church noticing the episode timing:
"How is it that something dramatic happens every five minutes? Come on, I can´t be the only one who noticed that!"
From the Evil Is Sexy article on This Very Wiki:
(Okay, maybe that last Pot Hole went too far...)
Also, the TV Tropes logo!

Samurai Jack, "Jack versus Aku":
Aku: (appears before Jack)
Jack: Aku!
Aku: (droll) Yes, it is I, Samurai Jack. How incredibly observant you are.
Jack: (draws sword and runs at Aku, screaming)
Aku: Put that thing away, Samurai. We all know what's gonna happen.
Jack: (comes to a stop and watches Aku warily, sword still drawn)
Aku: You'll swing your sword, I'll fly away and probably say something like "I'll be back, Samurai!" And then I'll flutter off over the horizon and we won't see each other for about a week and then we'll do the same thing all over again.
Jack: (looks guilty, then gets mad) Your word play will not trick me, villain! (lunges at him)
Aku: (turns into a bird and flutters off into the sky) I'll be back again, Samurai, you'll see!
Jack: (rubs chin in thought)
Aku: (reappears before Jack) See what I mean?
Winx Club, "Homesick": Pixie Digit always thinks logically, so it's illogical for her to want to return to the pixie village (with the others), when it is part of a Big Bad plan designed to find the village. Tecna (her bonded fairy) addresses this, but the show never explains it.
This happens many times in Family Guy, one example being in the episode "Believe It or Not, Joe's Walking on Air". Peter points out that his doctor's voice sounds an awful lot like his father-in-law's (the two characters share a voice actor). Mr. Pewterschmidt then enters the room from nowhere and proceeds to talk to Dr. Hartman, commenting on how they do have very similar voices, and how no one has ever noticed since they have not had any previous extended interaction.
- More recently in Season 8, Stewie brought up this point upon meeting Brian's son, "How can you have a thirteen year old son when you yourself are only seven?" Brian immediately lampshades it with, "Well Stewie, if you don't like it, go on the internet and complain." They also break the fourth wall several more times than usual in this season, for the sole purpose of hanging lampshades.
Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends, "Foster's Goes to Europe": The show addresses why Mac should be going to Europe with his imaginary friends instead of his family. Coco gives the explanation, which makes it unintelligible.
Jimmy Neutron, "The Junkman Cometh": The show treats the fact that you can't breathe in space this way. See The Un Reveal.
Several episodes of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles revolved around adding a new mutant to the cast (such as the Frogs), and the main characters, who were notorious for breaking the Fourth Wall, would comment on the seemingly unending stream of mutated characters they seemed to run into.
- One episode had one of the Turtles hang a lampshade on the fact that the episode's plot had meandered for about 20 minutes without bringing it any closer to a resolution, by telling the rest of the team "We'd better do something soon, or we'll have to show our first two-part episode!"
- Another episode had the turtles mention Shredder stealing energy for the Technodrome, to which Michelangelo would say "Duh, they do that every episode."
- And yet another episode near the final seasons (after countless episodes where the Turtles have shut down the Technodrome) had the Turtles sigh and say "we know, we know" step-by-step how they'll sneak inside and shut down the Technodrome, the same way they've had so many times before at this point.
- Another example has Shredder mention they kidnap April O'Neil... "We've done it so many times before."
- One of the best examples of Breaking The Fourth Wall in the entire series. In an episode, Michaelangelo watches many buildings falling to their ruin to which he reacts with the comment "The animators must have spent the entire season's budget on this single episode!" or something along those lines.
- And of course from the episode where Usagi Yojimbo is introduced; "He's from ancient Japan in an alternate reality. So naturally, he speaks English."
Quite popular in The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, usually accompanied by "this raises a lot of questions that we don't need to talk about," and "It's best not to think about it."
A list of all of the Lampshade Hangings that The Simpsons has done — particularly in later seasons — could probably be a website in and of itself. The Simpsons Archive has a long list of "meta-references."
Futurama almost takes pride in doing this:
- In the Futurama episode "The Deep South", Zoidberg's house burns to the ground... underwater. Zoidberg wails "How could this have happened?" and Hermes notes, "That's a very good question." Implicitly claiming responsibility, Bender picks his still-lit cigar out of the ruins and puffs on it — eliciting a cry of, "That just raises further questions!"
- In the episode "Why I Must Be a Cruscatean In Love", Leela and Amy harp on Fry and Bender for being lazy, Leela making a point of Fry's beer belly. Amy points out that Bender's "belly" is bloated and his door won't close. She pauses, then adds, "...and that doesn't even make sense."
- The Professor offers a long, elaborate, technically dubious, and absurd explanation for the appearance of "robot ghosts" in a castle, to which Hermes responds: "Of course! It was SO obvious!"
  - "Yes, that sequence of words I said made perfect sense."
- In the episode "Godfellas", after Bender is lost in space and hurled back to Earth by a god-like entity, he lands, unharmed, directly in front of Fry and Leela, who have been looking for him in the Himalayas. After Bender stands up, Leela announces that it is "by a wide margin the least likely thing that has EVER happened". (In the DVD commentary, the crew makes explicit reference to this being a lampshade hanging. "...And that's how we wrote our way out of THAT.")
- In fact, there's a Lampshade Hanging in the very first episode: when both of Bender's arms fall off and he somehow puts them both back on, Fry simply comments, "I don't know how you did that."
- After Bender is kidnapped and asks Fry and Leela for help, Leela is indecisive, saying she wishes they had two or three minutes to think about what to do. Cue commercial break.
Happens several times in South Park:
- In the episode "Butt Out" the boys smoke, and Kyle says that they should just confess, otherwise the towns folk would grab pitchforks and torches and riot. Kyle then goes on to say that they are following a very specific storyline formula.
- In both episodes "Pandemic" and "Pandemic 2" Craig gets mad at the boys for dragging him into a bad situation. Craig says that normal kids don't get arrested by the government, sent to Peru to take out the goverment and then accidentally wind up in the land of the giants.
- In the South Park episode Cartmanland, Cartman says, "You mean Kenny? He dies all the time!"
- Also happens when Kenny berates Stan for crying over Kyle's imminent death, saying he dies all the time and no-one cares. He is then promptly killed, and Stan doesn't seem to give a damn.
  - Of course, in the first Christmas episode, Kenny is alive at the end of the episode - the cast stands around silent and wonder aloud that something seems amiss. "THE END" appears and Kenny jumps for joy.
  - Kenny is afraid of going into a wood shop class, despite the fact that "very few students are severly injured in shop class."
- In the "Cartoon Wars" Episodes the boys repeatedly take a break from making fun of Family Guy to say, "At least it's not all preachy and up its own ass." Poking fun at the newer South Park episodes, which are just that. The lampshade managed to make the withering assessment of Family Guy elsewhere in the episode seem less mean spirited, which is sadly undercut by Matt and Trey's remarks about it in real life, often without the qualifier that they know their show is sometimes nowhere near as deep as they like to think, if it ever was.
In a certain Looney Tunes short, Bugs Bunny, while falling towards water after being blasted into the sky by a non-fatal explosion, says "I hope that's Soft Water down there".
- In the Looney Tunes short "The Scarlet Pumpernickel", Daffy tries to jump from a window onto his horse's saddle, but falls on the ground with a crash. He comments, "That never happens to Errol Flynn."
Rocky and Bullwinkle:
Rocky: (recognizing Boris' voice) That voice. Where have I heard that voice before?
Bullwinkle: In about 365 other episodes. But I don't know who it is either.
After Marty McFly keeps running into various ancestors of Biff Tannen (traveling not only through time, but space as well!) in Back to the Future the Animated Series, he exclaims: "Is there a Tannen in every century?"
The Animaniacs character Slappy Squirrel kept doing that, as part of her "retired toon actor" personality.
Venture Bros frequently points out the fact that henchmen #21 and #24 never die. For example; in the episode "Lepidopterists", #21 and #24 point out to Henchman #1 that they would never die, unlike the other henchmen. Also, in the same episode, Dr. Girlfriend asked Monarch why he keeps using 21 and 24, he replied "I know it sounds crazy, but they both have that rare blend of 'expendable' and 'invulnerable' that makes for a perfect henchman."
Megas XLR loves doing this through the use of signs, particularly with buildings about to be destroyed. Several include "Conveniently Empty Building," "This Building is Scheduled for Demolition Anyway," and "Explosions and Shrapnel Factory".
- Not to mention Coop's megaweapon button, which always reads something along the lines of: "Super Destructor Mode" or "Being Hit With A Giant Taser? Press Here". In one case the lampshade hanging is enormous: the same thing happens, and then a bit later during the same fight, Coop presses the button again, it reads: "Exactly the same button Coop just used like five minutes ago", but for an entirely different effect.
Drawn Together is literally full of these types of jokes, frequently insulting the show itself for comedic effect. An example is in the episode "Little Orphan Hero", where Spanky, Princess Clara, Foxy, Toot, and Ling Ling try to help a suicidal quadriplegic end his miserable life. When said man reveals himself to be an undercover cop intending to arrest them for attempting to 'murder' him and that the entire area is surrounder by similar quadriplegic cops (importantly for the joke, all with horrible pun names, like Bob, who's waiting in the water) intending to arrest them, Spanky sighs and says, "This is so stupid, it's like some retarded 3rd grader wrote this."
Buzz Lightyear of Star Command does this on occasion.
Buzz: Of course, I should have known... the butler always did it.
In Gargoyles, David Xanatos needed some way to lure the magical Coyote to him. To do this, he puts Goliath, Angela, Elisa and Bronx in a Death Trap to make the being intervene to save them. Xanatos and his robot lovingly describe the trap to the heroes and Xanatos cannot resist noting "It's my first stab at clichéd villainy; how am I doing?"
- Does that qualify as a Xanatos Gambit?
- In another episode he and Demona created a new Gargoyle, by putting the remains of three back together, who where destroyed in stone form. When the Gargoyle mixup began to live again, Xanatos shouted with great joy: "It's alive! IT'S ALIVE!" Followed by: "I always wanted to say that."
Phineas and Ferb has a running gag based around this:
Random Person X: Aren't you a little young to be [Y]?
Phineas: Yes. Yes I am.
- The lampshade hanging really takes off starting with "Leave the Busting to Us!", in which Candace notes how the same thing seems to happen every day, and exclaims "My life is like a bad sitcom!"
- Dr. Doofenshmirtz does this frequently, too... like in "It's About Time!" discussing how he wants to hurt Perry the Platypus the right way, with cartoonish acts of violence and hare-brained schemes.
Ed Edd N Eddy did this a few times, with Edd making a remark about Ed's "badly drawn fingers", and later with Eddy shouting, "Who writes his material?"
- In fact, the main characters spent an entire episode realizing and exploiting the various cartoon laws that govern their world. For example, Eddy removes Jimmy's outline; Jimmy turns into a puddle of color and flows down a drain.
Avatar the Last Airbender:
Katara: I need to borrow Appa.
Aang: Why? Is it your turn to take a field trip with Zuko?
Katara: Yes, it is.
Aang: Oh...
- In the series finale, Toph hangs her own lampshade on this by wanting to go with Zuko for her Character Development "field trip". And after trying to do so, but having Zuko out-angst her parent-wise, she mutters "Worst. Field trip. Ever."
- Additionally, virtually the entire episode "The Ember Island Players" qualifies under this trope, to the extent of lampshading the lampshade. When Katara asks if it's really wise to go see a play about themselves, Sokka responds, "Come on, a day at the theater? This is the kind of wacky, time-wasting nonsense I've been missing!"
  - "Did Jet just die?" "I don't know, it was really unclear."
- In one episode, the main characters get invited to a party for the Earth King's bear, and are surprised that it is just a bear and not a bear crossed with another animal.
- Hammerspace does not make sense to Katara. "Where'd you get that?"
Mighty Ducks: The Animated Series had a scene where after two of the six main characters have been captured by the Villain of the Week and a third has been sucked through the TV into an alternate dimension, one of the remaining characters says, “If we keep losing teammates, this show's gonna be called ''The Mighty Duck.” (Or words to that effect.) Nosedive also tends to cross the line into No Fourth Wall territory, as he’s been shown to hear flashback music and have enough Genre Savviness to recognize a really friggin' obvious trap.
SpongeBob SquarePants had SpongeBob annoying Squidward in Squidward's house. Randomly, Patrick just appears in the room. When Squidward asks why Patrick's there, he simple goes "I'm funny." Rule Of Funny, much?
- Patricks hangs yet another lampshade when he and SpongeBob are sitting by a campfire:
SpongeBob: At least it's warm by the fire.
Patrick: Hey, if we're underwater, how can there be a— (fire promptly goes out) I'm cold.
In another episode, Patrick is wearing SpongeBob's hat (Squidward only sees the hat and thinks it's him). When asked why he's wearing it, he simply says, "I don't know."
Dave the Barbarian features this frequently. An example:
The Narrator: Suddenly, Ned's zipper is hit by a meteor, bitten by radioactive bugs, bombarded with unknown nuclear energies and struck with the power of the Norse Gods!
Ned: Wow. That almost never happens.
Kim Possible constantly lampshades itself during most of its run. For example:
- The will-they-or-won't-they relationship between Kim and Ron is lampshaded by commenting on a similar couple in the show before the fake Grand Finale.
  Kim: Like that would ever happen. It would end the series!
- Team Impossible questioned about Ron's lack of Badass Mystical Monkey Power:
  Dash: I thought you were supposed to be some master of monkey kung-fu.
  Ron: You know, it's funny. It comes and goes.
- Loony Fan Joss Possible both commented about Ron's hero-ness and Shego's lack of evilness:
  Joss: I mean, I know Dr. Drakken is your arch foe, but it seems to me Shego's the really dangerous one. I mean, if she put her mind to do it, she could be the toughest villain out there, don't you think?
  Joss: Ron here is afraid of practically everything, but does he let his fears keep him from sidekickin'? Let's face it, Kim. You can do anything. So facing all those dangers and villains, well, it's just like you say. No big. A fella filled with that much fear always chargin' into action with you? Seems to me that's a true hero.
Once on Beavis and Butthead, Beavis asked Butthead to change the channel on a video they particularly disliked. Butthead responded "Why bother? All we seem to get on this TV is bad videos."
In an episode of Darkwing Duck titled "Twin Beaks", alien plants are creating clone duplicates of everyone, exactly as in Invasion of the Body Snatchers, only sillier.
Gosalyn: That plot doesn't sounds so cliché when it's happening to you!
Lilo & Stitch: The Series, episode "Poxy": Jumba brings the heavily modified dune buggy into his and Pleakley's room to prepare for Lilo and Stitch's journey inside of Pleakley to retrieve the experiment making him sick. While Jumba is explaining the plan, Lilo asks, "Hey, how'd you get the buggy in here?" Jumba responds, "Oh, simple... um, is not important."
Danny Phantom has done this at least twice, once hanging the lampshade at how things were getting predictable ("... we learn some [moral]... or some nonsense and then we go home..") and more brilliantly Dark Danny pointing out how obvious his Paper Thin Disguise was. Also in the same one where Clockwork points out Dark Danny (in disguise as his younger, non-evil self) and says something like "See? He's back to his proper time and apparently not evil." David Carradine, you rock.
Duck Tales did this all the time, even in the Five Episode Pilot. For example, Scrooge jumps into a pile of coins and starts swimming through it like usual, and his nephews try to do the same but just land on top of the pile, then wonder how he does it.
- In the very first episode, Scrooge tells his nephews to "Give him four"
The Fairly Oddparents occasionally uses this trope. In one particular episode, Cosmo and Wanda (while in goldfish form, inside their bowl) are preparing for a romantic dinner, and Cosmo attempts to light the candles on the dinner table by rubbing two magic wands together. Timmy walks into the room and asks the couple, "What's new?" just as Cosmo succeeds in lighting the candle. Wanda glances at the flame skeptically, then answers, "Um, the laws of physics?"
In an episode of Superman: The Animated Series three members of The Legion of Super Heroes follow Brainiac back a thousand years in time to stop him killing a teenaged Clark. Saturn Girl says Clark will need a disguise, to which Clark says "like a pair of glasses would fool anyone". Chameleon Boy a few moments later shapeshifts into Superman to illustrate what they were saying Clark was going to become, to which Clark says "Red underpants? Now I know you are crazy!"
In the adult animated series Mission Hill's first episode, Andy's sometime girlfriend Gwen comments on Andy's old plan for an animated series for adults: "Oh God, not another animated series."
Happened a couple of times in Static Shock, as both main characters are fairly Genre Savvy.
In Batman The Brave and the Bold, as Batman's telling Robin about the villain of the week's plans, they pass a building prominently labeled "Exposition Hall".
In an episode of Justice League, Wonder Woman blocks a lightning bolt with her reflective (metal) wristbands. The Flash is quick to point out: "There are so many reasons why that shouldn't have worked."
In the episode of The Batman called "Q&A", the villain is re-enacting a game show he lost at years before with the people who were hosting the game being forced to play it, with death the penalty for losing. Right after he tells them the rules of the game, he says "At this point in the show we would usually break for a word from our sponsor... don't you wish." Cut to real-life commercial.

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