History LeaningOnTheFourthWall / WesternAnimation

* ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks'': "[[Recap/StarTrekLowerDecksS2E04MugatoGumato Mugato, Gumato]]": When the ship detects a planet-side storm, Captain Freeman tells Shaxs he's got "less than 22 minutes" -- 22 minutes being the length of the episode minus commercials.

* Ensign Brad Boimler of ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks'' briefly hums the theme to ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' in "Temporal Edict".
** In "Cupid's Errant Arrow", Beckett Mariner notes how almost every week, something happens to the Enterprise.

---->'''TV continuity announcer:''' Coming up next, WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones Meet WesternAnimation/TheJetsons.\\

** After the cold open in "The Last Mablecorn", Dipper and Mabel find an [[{{Film/Jumanji}} old, cursed board game]] and decide it could take up the next 21 minutes of their time. They are then are called away for a family meeting and the episode's actual plot of Mabel dealing with a frustrating unicorn.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Ninjago}}'': In "[[Recap/NinjagoS8E75TheMaskOfDeception The Mask of Deception]]", the writers acknowledge the ninjas' Season 8 design changes by having Cole and Jay discuss how [[ForWantOfANail time travel could alter their appearances]].

--->'''Homer:''' [[BitingTheHandHumor It may be on a lousy network]], but The Simpsons are on the air!

** This exchange is particularily good:
--->'''Tails''': Roger!\\
'''Knuckles''': Who's Roger?\\
'''Sonic''':[[note]]voiced by Roger Craig Smith[[/note]] He's talking about me.

** At one point in “The Matchmaker”, the average length of an episode is dropped.

** In the in-between shorts focused on Hater, Hater mentions he’d been angered by Wander and had been trying to destroy him for “like, a year and a half”, which was the runtime of the first season.

-->'''Ebony:''' Robert, you'll be fine. Next week you'll have some crazy adventure with another woman. You won't even remember this little episode.\\

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheBoondocks,'' Bushido Brown tells Huey, "Man, you come straight out of a comic strip" (a ShoutOut to a line from ''Film/EnterTheDragon''). [[AnimatedAdaptation He literally does]].

--->'''Homer:''' It may be on a lousy network, but The Simpsons are on the air!

* In the ''WesternAnimation/UltimateSpiderMan'' TV show, when Creator/StanLee's resident AuthorAvatar for the show hears Spidey's comment on how catchy ''Amazing Spider-Man'' (the original title for the comics in their earliest incarnation) sounds, he promptly writes it down, saying that it could be big. Then Spidey says that it would be less than [[WesternAnimation/TheSpectacularSpiderMan spectacular.]] Not to mention TheReveal that [[spoiler: Stan came up with the name S.H.I.E.L.D]].

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' the titans are TrappedInTVLand. At one point Robin yells at the in-cartoon TV viewers to not watch a show due to a villain modifying it. After a few moments of screaming, Raven says it isn't working, obviously. In the same episode, Cyborg mentions that they are in the first episode of the fourth season of the program they got trapped in. They were indeed on the first episode of the fourth season on their own series.

* ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'':

* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls''' "Best Rainy Day Adventure Ever" has the girls spending a rainy afternoon in their bedroom playing Powerpuff Girls role-playing, narration and everything. Blossom fills the roles of a monster, Miss Bellum and Mojo Jojo while the Professor is cajoled into playing Bubbles.

* The third season of ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'' was infamously cut down from a full 20 episodes to three 44 minute specials. This ends up getting referenced in "O Titan, Where Art Thou" when Eda asks if Luz wouldn't rather spend the day at the beach instead of breaking into the evidence warehouse to get Francois back for King, and Luz responds by saying that she she might if they had time for "20 more adventures"

** The very last line of "[[SeriesFauxnale The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings]]" were "I want to hear how it ends."

** In the episode "The Front", Roger Meyers Jr., talking about [[ShowWithinAShow ''The Itchy & Scratchy Show'']] to Bart and Lisa, says that often, to save time, animators will reuse the same background over and over again. As he says this, the three very obviously walk past the same background again and again. This technique is often used in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' in general.

--->'''TV continuity announcer:''' Coming up next, ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones'' Meet ''WesternAnimation/TheJetsons''.\\

--->'''Jay:''' And if you ever want to visit ''my'' show --\\

** Let's put things into perspective, first: Jay Sherman, a character from ''WesternAnimation/TheCritic'', [[{{Crossover}} crosses over]] with ''The Simpsons'' in "A Star is Burns". ''WesternAnimation/TheCritic'' has him host a ShowWithinAShow. Marge knew of Jay because of this show within another show. The result? This exchange at the end, where the family is bidding farewell to Jay:

** In the first clip show, "So It's Come To This: A Simpsons Clip Show," Bart abruptly sets up a clip of an Itchy and Scratchy episode, which has nothing to do with what is being talked about. After it plays, Marge asks Bart why he brought that up. Bart replies, "It was an amusing episode....''of our lives''."
** In "So It's Come To This: A Simpsons Clip Show," Grandpa Simpson described comas as such: "It's like one of those TV shows where they show a bunch of clips from old episodes."