History Main / MetaGuy

* Carol and Gustav St. Germain serve this role in ''LightNovel/{{Baccano}}!''. Conversation topics include: [[JigsawPuzzlePlot where]] [[AnachronicOrder is the story supposed to start]], [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters who exactly is]] [[DecoyProtagonist the main character of the series]] and whether or not the [[LeftHanging loose thread]] about [[spoiler:Dallas's missing body]] is a blatant sequel hook.

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[[folder:Anime & Manga]]

[[folder:Pro Wrestling]]

* In ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'', [[JerkAss Caliborn]] takes this roll on occasion, such as when he [[HypocriticalHumor complains about]] the series use of RainbowSpeak WallOfText chatlogs... in a RainbowSpeak WallOfText chatlog.

->'''Jeff:''' Abed, it makes the group uncomfortable when you talk about the group like we're characters in a show you're watching.
->'''Abed:''' That's sort of my gimmick, but we did lean on that pretty hard last week. I can lay low for an episode.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* In EdensBowy we get this amusing dialogue.
-->'''Miss Nyako''': You misread the compass again?! Every time you look at the compass you read it wrong!... why... why why?! Why?!\\
'''Vilogg''': Because Miss Nyako, I *bows* am an idiot.\\
'''Miss Nyako''': *stunned and doesn't respond*

* Chisame the computer geek in ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima''. Ironic since she herself is just as weird as any of the other characters, and getting weirder- the more she struggles to stay normal, the more bizarre stuff happens. Up to the point she becomes a semi-MagicalGirl, whereupon she gives up on the reality she knew and dives headfirst into the abnormal, and gives up the Meta Guy thing except in extreme cases. Such as [[CrazyAwesome Jack Rakan]].
** Rakan himself occasionally acts as a Meta Guy, especially in [[CallingYourAttacks combat]] [[FinishingMove situations]].
*** Everyone towards [[CrazyAwesome Jack Rakan]], because everyone realizes from the get go that he's an outrageously broken video game character.

* Beauty fulfills this role in ''Manga/BoboboboBobobo''. At first, Gasser also performed this role, but in later episodes he seems to slip into bouts of NotSoAboveItAll.
** Gasser's case is strange in that at times, he plays this trope so straight as to loop right back in the series' weirdness. His reactions are usually so far over the top that they play a role similar to the rest of the antics.

* Strangely enough, Suzaku Kururugi becomes the Meta Guy in the ''Anime/CodeGeass'' [[AllThereInTheManual side materials]], especially those related to the second season, sometimes going as far as BreakingTheFourthWall and acting out of character at the whim of the RuleOfFunny.
** And LampshadeHanging. For example, remarking to himself that he gets more attention in side materials than in the main story, and refusing to go along with Milly's orders because he knows that her smiling is a great big warning sign (compare to the show, where he does whatever she asks because it's "[[StudentCouncilPresident President's]] Orders").

* Brainy Smurf from the ''TheSmurfs''. Unsurprisingly, this often made him the most unpopular smurf in his village.
* Oh hey. Nice to see you here. It's me, ComicBook/{{Deadpool}}. Ever since I was told by Loki that I was a comic book character, I do this, sometimes [[BreakingTheFourthWall bashing the fourth wall in]] until [[NoFourthWall it doesn't exist anymore]]. Everbody thinks I'm insane in-universe, though, so no one takes me seriously.

* ''ComicStrip/TheBoondocks'' comic has Michael Caesar, who occasionally makes [[SelfReferentialHumor self-referential]] jokes and comments about the themes of the series, or points out comic strip quirks.
--> '''Caesar:''' "Y'know, you're supposed to be all smart and political, but you always seem to be at least a week behind the news..."
--> '''Huey:''' "Do you have a point?"

* Comicbook/{{Empowered}} regularly breaks the fourth wall when she appears in the title pages of stories; Ninjette and [=ThugBoy=] get confused when they appear and have no idea who she's talking to.
* ''Comicbook/AnimalMan'' is an example of this trope being played mostly for drama. He was less than happy when he realized that he was a fictional character and side characters made the same realization with [[GoMadFromTheRevelation worse reactions.]]
--> Animal Man: Oh my God, I'm important to the plot...

[[folder:Film]]

* In ''Film/TopSecret'' there wasn't a character consistently the Meta Guy--which was exceedingly odd giving some of the surrealistic jokes (such as Nick and his girlfriend making out while parachuting and the camera panning to... a parachuting fireplace, which itself is [[RunningGag a callback to an earlier gag]] where the camera pans away to a fireplace, and then has to pan away ''again'' to a ''second'' fireplace because Nick and his girlfriend roll back into frame). However, at one point Nick [[ExpoSpeak sarcastically summarizes his girlfriend's life as he knows it as being a little too weird even for a one-man pastiche of Elvis, the Beatles, and the Beach Boys]]. This leads into a [[NoFourthWall fourth wall gag]].

-->"Our evil plan is working."
* The title character in ''WesternAnimation/{{Rango}}'' provides narration to his story, reminiscing about his own role.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

--> '''Jeff:''' Abed! Stop being meta, why do you always have to take whatever happens to us and shove it up its own ass?
* Series/DoctorWho:

** In ''Series/{{The Sarah Jane Adventures}}'', when The Doctor guest stars, as Matt Smith, after a minute Sarah Jane (A Tom Baker-era Companion, who met the David Tennant Doctor) recognizes him, and says, "Don't you see? It's the Doctor." Jo Grant (A Pertwee-era Companion), blurts out "What Doctor? *The* Doctor? *My* Doctor?". A common trope in long term Doctor Who fandom is to refer to the actor who you first connected to in the role as 'my Doctor' (ie, 'my Doctor is Peter Davison').

*** The Curator, another previously unknown incarnation from the distant future, who resembles a fan-favourite old Doctor. Almost all of his dialogue has careful double-meanings relating to the anniversary itself and to the fandom - for instance, his comment about 'visiting old, favourite faces' alludes to fans (re)watching the Classic series.
*** Clara, when she tells the Doctor that the sound of the TARDIS always spreads hope wherever it goes and reminds him of the 'promise he made to himself' (after which the Doctor quotes some beautiful statements actually from the production documents kept by the BBC informing the Doctor's character).

* Wash from ''Series/{{Firefly}}'', who is the AudienceSurrogate and [[WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong often questions the flaws in the other characters' plans]].
** One scene involved his wife joining in on the action though:
--> Wash: "Psychics? Really? That sounds like something out of science fiction."
--> Zoe: "Dear… we live on a spaceship."
--> Wash: "So?"

* Chuck from ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', a prophet who wrote a series of books based on Sam and Dean's adventures without knowing they were real until they found his books and investigated. At first, he thinks he might have actually been [[RealityWarper causing all these things]], and [[TakeThatMe apologises for some of the less popular episodes.]]

[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]

* ''{{VideoGame/Undertale}}'' has Flowey, who is fully aware of your ability to SAVE and LOAD, calling you out on your previous actions, and towards the end of the game [[spoiler:he [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou closes the game and hijacks your SAVE file.]] He also directly talks to the player when they re-open the game after getting the GoldenEnding, begging them not to reset it.]] Notably, none of this is PlayedForLaughs.

[[folder:Web Original]]
* Quincy Archer from ''Roleplay/SurvivalOfTheFittest'' is the resident Meta Guy, writing a blog about the fake SOTF and the tropes it shows, and then commenting through out the stories on the actions of the various villains and heroes. [[spoiler:He commits suicide, but if he hadn't, one of his [[KarmicDeath personal favorite villains]], JR Rizzolo, would have left him to burn.]]

* Practically everybody has been a Meta guy in ''WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries'', but especially Yami, who's often incredulous that his evil opponents take a children's card game [[SeriousBusiness so damn seriously]].
* In ''WebAnimation/ProjectVoicebend'', Amon is aware of the narrative structure and has the power to make his victims aware of it as well. Minor characters become terrified by their insignificance, and Bolin becomes aware of his parents' deaths being nothing more than a plot device.

* Jeff Albertson (better known as Comic Book Guy) on ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' is usually the character who does this, perfectly fitting with his persona of a nerd overanalyzing comic books & cartoons.
--> '''Homer:''' Does anybody ''care'' what this guy thinks?
--> '''Crowd:''' NO!

** The show initially makes [[TheStraightMan Twilight]] [[OnlySaneMan Sparkle]] one of these, most obviously in the first episode, where her character is used as a means to [[{{Deconstruction}} deconstruct]] the show's [[MyLittlePony parent franchise]]. Following the {{reconstruction}} that occurs [[DeconReconSwitch in the next episode]], however, this slowly fades in prominence as Twilight develops into a normal resident of Ponyville, though she retains much of it to this day. Spike usually takes this role on the occasions where Twilight drops it entirely.
** Though [[LittleMissSnarker Scootaloo]] is the resident DeadpanSnarker of [[PowerTrio the Cutie Mark Crusaders]], Sweetie Belle is the one to not only question the majority of the trio's insane schemes, but express [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrzAtvpOlLA righteous exasperation]] in response to their [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption various unlikely failures]]. This is most apparent in "One Bad Apple," where she proposes the correct solution to their dilemma (which is shot down by the other two) almost immediately and, upon the revelation at the end that their attempts to solve their problem simply [[HeWhoFightsMonsters made them into what they were trying to fight]], reacts accordingly.
---> '''Sweetie Belle''': Why does life have to be so ''ironic?!''

-->'''Sweetie Belle:''' I do ''not'' like them one bit.

** Xigbar takes on this role in ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance''. At the height of the story's climax, he starts an exposition dump by saying, "Let's hit these plot points in order," and openly lampshades how convoluted and wrapped up in itself the series' plot has become.

** ''Fanfic/WeissReacts'': Quite a lot of people, although [[LoveableSexManiac Yang]], [[{{Yandere}} Velvet]] and [[HotTeacher Cinder]] pull this off the most. [[spoiler:It's even revealed Velvet only keeps up her stalker tendencies to make people laugh, and she loves her job.]]

* The title characters from ''Theatre/RosencrantzAndGuildensternAreDead'' play this role, saddened by their role as ThoseTwoGuys in the [[{{Hamlet}} source material]], but unable to do anything about it, as the play has already been written.

** In ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII'', Lea/Axel fills the shoes of anyone who missed out on crucial story details from any of the nine or so previous games and their various remakes and remasters, complaining about the plethora of {{IdenticalStranger}}s, {{Forgotten First Meeting}}s and {{Artifact Alias}}es, at which point Jiminy Cricket suggests [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall everyone fill themselves in with what he's written in his journal]]. Later on, he and the other heroes barely show up in time for the final showdown because they "had a couple of plot points that needed ironing out".

** In ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII'', Lea/Axel fills the shoes of anyone who missed out on crucial story details from any of the nine or so previous games and their various remakes and remasters, complaining about the plethora of IdenticalStrangers, {{Forgotten First Meeting}}s and {{Artifact Alias}}es, at which point Jiminy Cricket suggests [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall everyone fill themselves in with what he's written in his journal]]. Later on, he and the other heroes barely show up in time for the final showdown because they "had a couple of plot points that needed ironing out".

* Xigbar takes on this role in ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance''. At the height of the story's climax, he starts an exposition dump by saying, "Let's hit all these plot points in order" and openly lampshades how convoluted and wrapped up in itself the series' plot has become.

* ''VideoGame/HuniePop'' has Kyu, the game's [[HeKnowsAboutTimedHit tutorial character]] and mascot, who eventually becomes a dateable character, while still constantly brings up the game's mechanics, or how a certain piece of background music is her favorite in the soundtrack.

* ''Film/FantasticFourRiseOfTheSilverSurfer'' has a (likely) unintentional example in General Hager, who hangs a lampshade on the Fantastic Four's apparent disinterest in preventing TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt.
-->'''General Hager:''' What the hell is wrong with you people?

* In the ''Franchise/{{Scream}}'' movies, Randy was a horror movie buff pointing out various horror movie tropes, including going over the rules for surviving a horror movie -- [[DeathBySex never have sex]], [[TheScourgeOfGod never drink or use drugs]], and [[TemptingFate never say "I'll be right back."]] Naturally, [[TooDumbToLive the characters break all three in record time]]. He expands the rules to sequels and trilogies in [[Film/{{Scream 2}} the second]] and [[Film/{{Scream 3}} third]] films. Given [[Film/{{Scream 4}} the 4th film]] is an assassin "remaking" the original, two {{Suspiciously Similar Substitute}}s to Randy deliver the rules of remakes/reboots. [[spoiler:One of them is part of the BigBadDuumvirate.]]

* Noah in the TV adaptation of ''Series/{{Scream}}'', taking the place of Randy from [[Franchise/{{Scream}} the original movies]] (see above). His wit is aimed more at horror TV series this time instead of movies, but otherwise, he fills pretty much the same role.

** [[Franchise/MetalGear Snake]], one of ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros Brawl'''s third-party characters, plays this trope fully. His mission briefings usually consist of his complete boggling of how incredibly strange the Nintendo universe actually is. Given that he's the only character whose home franchise is remotely grounded in reality (and then it's borderline NoFourthWall), it fits him quite well.

* ''Franchise/MetalGear'' has NoFourthWall but some characters take this role more than others:

* Relatedly (sort of), Ardam in ''Webcomic/{{Adventurers}}'' does this all the time, with most other characters doing it once or twice. Eventually, he manages to turn this into a dramatic speech.

* ''FanFic/PinkieTales'' has Applejack of all ponies in this role,as she often breaks character to point out various oddities, like how her "mother" Mrs. Sparkle doesn't just use her Alicorn Magic to help out in the ''Applejack and the Beanstalk'', despite clearly being an Alicorn or that part of the Beanstalk conveniently spirals around it like a ramp, or how Pinkie pretends like they are complete strangers, despite the fact that she obviously knows who Applejack is.

* This describes Guy to a G in Film/GalaxyQuest. It comes with being an AffectionateParody of Franchise/StarTrek.
* In ''Film/TopSecret'' there wasn't a character consistently the Meta Guy--which was exceedingly odd giving some of the surrealistic jokes (such as Nick and his girlfriend making out while parachuting and the camera panning to...a parachuting fireplace, which itself is [[RunningGag a callback to an earlier gag]] where the camera pans away to a fireplace, and then has to pan away ''again'' to a ''second'' fireplace because Nick and his girlfriend roll back into frame). However, at one point Nick [[ExpoSpeak sarcastically summarizes his girlfriend's life as he knows it as being a little too weird even for a one-man pastiche of Elvis, the Beatles, and the Beach Boys]]. This leads into a [[NoFourthWall fourth wall gag]].

* Han Solo tends to fill this trope in the original ''StarWars'' trilogy. Some critics have complained that one of the weaknesses of the prequels is the lack of a similar character to act as the audience proxy.

** In "Robot", the Doctor's recent regeneration (into Fourth Doctor) have him making critical commentary on the SpyFiction tropes of the Pertwee era, while alluding to a need for RevisitingTheRoots.

** Donna is a brash, gobby thirtysomething woman. She [[LampshadeHanging comments on how fantastic]] things like a "translation circuit" are, calls the Doctor out on his TechnicalPacifist traits and knew the best place to find him was where there was [[WeirdnessMagnet anything weird going on]].

* ComicBook/SheHulk turned into this when her comic book was retooled to be DenserAndWackier, especially with her famous [[WhoWritesThisCrap rants against Stan Lee]].

* Brainstorm and Chromedome take on these traits under [[ComicBook/TransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye James Roberts]], commenting on story pacing, infodumps, and how often their titular race is called on to save the universe from destruction.

* The title character in ''WesternAnimation/{{Rango}}.''

* WebVideo/{{Phelous}} of ''Website/ThatGuyWithTheGlasses'', a notorious DeadpanSnarker who constantly [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] ''everything''. All of his reviews include a few jabs at the whole review show format, but it tends to be played up even more in crossovers.

->''"Ah, another one of the puzzles which the Freeman is famed for swiftly solving. I eagerly await the Freeman's solution."''
-->-- '''Vortigaunt''', ''[[Videogame/HalfLife2 Half-Life 2: Episode 2]]''

* {{Spider-man}} is a more "classical" type, as he often comments on the unlikely events of the plot, how his actions go against rationality, and makes pop culture references, but he's still completely unaware of the FourthWall. [[DependingOnTheWriter Usually]] [[WesternAnimation/UltimateSpiderMan anyway]].