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Mimir: I'd also heard you fought in a tournament.
Kratos: I fought in many contests.
Mimir: But this particular one... I heard you did battle with beasts, scoundrels, princesses, the undead, automatons, and history's greatest musician.

This is what happens when one work references or shows a part of another work, both of which are owned by the same company, network or studio.

During The Golden Age of Animation, many studios had cartoon series produced and/or distributed by them play songs from their music library, or caricature movie stars the studios had under contract to them.

Compare Company Cameo, where the company itself is what's being referenced. A subtrope is the Creator's Show Within a Show, where one of a creator's other works appears in one of their works. Contrast Continuity Nod and Mythology Gag. Doubles as intra-company Product Placement. Crossovers don't count, but a Crossover Punchline can. Compare Production Foreshadowing and Production Throwback. See Shout-Out for references to media not owned by the same company.


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Other examples:

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    Cartoon Network 
  • The Amazing World of Gumball: In the episode "The Boredom", as the Wattersons' house is hauled away, it passes by the sets of Clarence, Regular Show, and Uncle Grandpa. Gumball and Darwin, who are inside the house as it is being hauled, fail to notice because they're convinced nothing interesting is happening and are too busy staring at the clock.
  • Ben 10: Omniverse: In one episode about a store that shifts between dimensions, Cow and Chicken make a cameo as alien customers in said store.
  • Ben 10: Alien Force: Gwen is voiced by Ashley Johnson and Kevin is voiced by Greg Cipes, referencing their roles as another teenage superhero couple, Terra and Beast Boy.
  • Ben 10: Ultimate Alien: Ben and Gwen's cousin Sunny is a complete Expy of Blackfire, down to having a black-and-purple color scheme and being voiced by Gwen's voice actor, Ashley Johnson — in Teen Titans, Blackfire and Starfire had the same voice actor, Hynden Walch.
  • Chowder has two references to The Powerpuff Girls (1998):
    • At the end of "The Hot Date", Miss Bellum is initially revealed to be the police chief's blind date, before she realizes she mistook him for her actual blind date a few tables away.
    • In "The Heist", Mung tastes a Sweet Sapphire crystal that's so sweet, his head briefly changes into Bubbles and he speaks in her voice.
  • Clarence:
    • While Clarence is angrily burying his "Lil Buddy" doll in the episode of the same name, a silhouetted Greg and Wirt can be seen walking behind some trees in the background.
    • During his attempts of getting Chad into the "camping spirit" in "Where The Wild Chads Are", Clarence comes across Chad sleeping while a little TV plays an Affectionate Parody of Adventure Time.
  • Codename: Kids Next Door:
  • Dexter's Laboratory: In "Tele-Trauma", Dexter, who is beaming TV shows straight to his brain, is constantly reciting TV quotes, including "Townsville's in trouble!".
  • Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends:
    • Many references to The Powerpuff Girls (1998), given that both shows are created by Craig McCracken.
      • Frankie wears a t-shirt with color-coded silhouettes of Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup.
      • In the pilot movie, Mojo Jojo appears as an "unimaginary" imaginary friend, as an example of friends based on things kids see on TV.
      • In "Cookie Dough", Bloo names off some cities that want shipments of Madame Foster's cookies, including Townsville and Johnny Bravo's Aron City.
      • In "Nightmare on Wilson Way", Frankie dresses as Blossom for Halloween.
    • In one episode, Mac comes up with a theory about every imaginary friend being suddenly adopted before being returned. At one point, Mandy can be seen returning a smiley-faced imaginary friend for being "too happy".
  • The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy:
    • In "Sickly Sweet", Grim is watching Codename: Kids Next Door.
    • The plot of "Modern Primitives" is that Billy digs up and thaws out Fred Flintstone.
    • In "Herbicidal Maniac", Cow gives Skarr a bag of manure for his garden, while Johnny Bravo makes a background cameo at Skarr's party.
    • In "Billy and Mandy vs. the Martians", Billy sees a giant holographic screen and laments "Hey, this isn't Codename: Kids Next Door!"
    • A Ham Being from the I Am Weasel episode "The Magnificent Motorbikini" appears in "The Incredible Shrinking Mandy" as one of three giant beings who were growing infinitely in the Realm of the Infinite.
  • Johnny Bravo: In "I Dream of Johnny", Johnny tries to use his mind to return his "dream" girl back to her previous hot form. In one of his false tries, she becomes I. M. Weasel.
  • Lamput: In "Super Docs", Slim Doc mixes up his bag of clothes with someone else's at the laundromat. When he gets home, he and Fat Doc use the superhero outfits they find in the bag Slim Doc did bring with him to go after Lamput; Slim Doc wears a blue outfit with a red cape and triangle-shaped Chest Insignia clearly meant to be Superman's costume, and Fat Doc dons a black costume with little pointy ears at the top and a yellow belt, meant to be iconic getup of Batman (both franchises are owned by DC Comics, itself owned by WarnerMedia who also owns Lamput's broadcast channel Cartoon Network India).
  • MAD:
    • In the sketch The Social Netjerk, at one point main character Sean says it's his time... only for Mordecai and Rigby to appear and tell him to hurry up, "'cause in a few minutes it'll be our time". Indeed, at the time this episode originally aired, new episodes of MAD preceded new episodes of Regular Show.
    • "Avenger Time" is a mashup of The Avengers and Cartoon Network's own Adventure Time. In Uatu the Watcher's appearance, he states that what he watches is mainly reruns of Mad, but occasionally throwing in some Adventure Time, which is suggested to be part of how the Avengers ended up there.
  • OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes:
    • In the episode "Mystery Science Fair 201X", Dendy takes K.O. to her secret lab to figure out how to get him to transform into T.K.O. as part of Dendy's science project. The entire sequence in Dendy's lab contains several references to Dexter's Laboratory (among other things, K.O. and Dendy's footsteps make the same sounds to Dexter and Dee Dee's footsteps and the former characters also walk similarly to the latter characters, and Dendy at one point speaks in Dexter's accent, even saying "Get out of my observatory!"). It gets to the point that there's literally a line of text saying "With apologies to the crew of Dexter's Laboratory :)" in the episode's The End tag.
    • "Crossover Nexus". We get cameos from characters from dozens of different Cartoon Network shows, although only four of them play an important role.
  • Near the end of Over the Garden Wall, an overhead shot shows that the layout of Wirt and Greg's town is almost identical to the layout of Aberdale.
  • The Powerpuff Girls (1998):
    • Dexter had background cameos in several episodes. In addition, "Imaginary Fiend" featured a cameo by Dee Dee's imaginary friend, Koosie.
    • Dexter and Dee Dee have a cameo in a concert the girls went to in one of the comic books by IDW Publishing. Dexter is there unwillingly, as he and Dee Dee are forcibly handcuffed together at the time.
  • Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated had Derrick J. Wyatt as a character designer for its first season. One background character in Season 1 was modeled after Sari Sumdac of Transformers: Animated, which Wyatt had worked on before Mystery Incorporated.
  • Steven Universe:
    • "Say Uncle", in addition to being a crossover between the show and Uncle Grandpa, has Uncle Grandpa go through a checklist with the names of nearly every Cartoon Network child character on it (at the time of airing) along with the SWAT Kats.
    • Unleash the Light:
  • Teen Titans Go!:
    • In "Squash and Stretch", the Titans watch a parody of Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner featuring characters who are obviously meant to resemble Gumball and Darwin, with the Gumball lookalike representing Wile E. Coyote and the Darwin lookalike representing Road Runner.
    • "Beast Boy On A Shelf" is a spoof of The Elf On The Shelf, a storybook whose animated adaptations air anually on Cartoon Network.
    • In "The Great Disaster", Robin dons the costume of Freakazoid!, the protagonist of another WB cartoon about superheroes.
    • Not only does "Huggbees" have a crossover with Freakazoid!, but it also has references to fellow WB series Histeria! and Detention.
    • In the episode "P.P.", Beast Boy mistakes the titular initials for the act of using the bathroom, just like the Warner siblings did in the Animaniacs episode "No Pain, No Painting", which was also made by WB.
  • In one episode of Time Squad, Buck and Larry try to find an orphan to replace Otto after a fight. One of them is Dexter, who complains that he's not an orphan.
  • We Bare Bears: In "My Clique", Chloe is watching an actual episode of Adventure Time on TV.

    Manga Time Kirara 
  • Bocchi the Rock!: In the tenth episode of season one:
    • One of Bocchi's classmates resembles Yuno, the main character of Kirara's original Breakthrough Hit Hidamari Sketch in the background.
    • Hiyori and Koharu Minagi from Slow Loop appear as keychains for Eliza in the same episode.
  • Slow Loop itself had the Kessoku Band appear in the tenth episode of its anime as an Early-Bird Cameo prior to Bocchi's anime that would air months later. Both series creators are very good friends with each other in real life.
  • Blend-S: In Episode 3, as Dino mentions anime girls with long, flowing hair, Shino of Kiniro Mosaic and Hifumi of New Game! appears in an eyecatch. These three series are all published by Hobunsha under the Manga Time Kirara brand.
  • Kiniro Mosaic itself features a Yuyushiki magazine in the first season, whose anime adaptation also debuted the same year.
  • Hidamari Sketch has a cameo from Mesousa, the rabbit character from Pani Poni Dash!. While Pani Poni is not a Kirara property, it was also animated by Studio Shaft.
  • Laid-Back Camp has its main characters, Rin and Nadeshiko, appear in Mono from the same creator in cameo appearances. A crossover one-shot manga featured Rin getting into online bidding for a rare mug with one of the leads from Mono.
  • During the beach trip in the fifth episode of Comic Girls, Koyume ends up hanging out with Wakaba Girl's Wakaba Kohashi, Moeko Tokita, Mao Kurokawa and Nao Mashiba for a brief time. Wakaba Girl is another Manga Time Kirara series animated by Nexus.
  • Idol Be Back: Kaos, the main character from Comic Girls appears in the background of the first chapter, given its from the same creator.
  • Magic of Stella subtly references Kiniro Mosaic in both the manga and anime; Alice appears in a chapter while the girls discuss voice acting, while Aya appears in the background in one of the last episodes of the anime.
  • While not exactly references, Laid-Back Camp author Afro and The Demon Girl Next Door author Izumo Ito have done special work for Puella Magi Madoka Magica as it is part of the Kirara family; the former doing a Homura-focused Multiverse manga story for Kirara itself and the latter doing in the fifth Madoka manga anthology that released mere days before the start of Ito's manga.

    Nickelodeon 

    Nintendo 
Video Games
  • Animal Crossing has become Nintendo's biggest repository of these.
    • Every installment has a collection of items from other games that you can decorate your house with, starting with the Super Mario Bros. set in the first game and expanding to include clothing in Wild World. The fortune cookies introduced in New Leaf exist specifically to reward players with these for walking around with the 3DS in their pocket, and the Welcome Amiibo update allows certain animal characters (such as Epona and Wolf Link) to be brought to life as villagers. The first game even includes functional replicas of the Nintendo Entertainment System that play B-tier games.
    • Gulliver sometimes references other Nintendo franchises in his dialogue, typically sticking to ones with nautical or marine themes:
      • In the first game, he starts telling a story about fighting a Deep Python at Pinnacle Rock — an enemy and location from The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask — before remembering that that wasn't him. He will also mention leaving his goldfish behind in Toad Town and in Hyrule.
      • If you help him New Leaf, he says that he's hasn't met such a noble skipper since Bobbery of Rogueport, referencing Admiral Bobbery from Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. On other occasions, he may mention upon waking up that "this sure is a fuzzy pickle," referencing the Photo Man's catchphrase from EarthBound, "Say 'Fuzzy Pickles!'"
      • Upon waking up in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, he may say "but, verily, it be the nature of dreams to end", quoting the Wind Fish in The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. Your character asks him what that's all about, and he says he heard a fish say it once.
      • If you agree to help him find his communicator parts in New Horizons, he may gush that he hasn't gotten such a sweet reception since he washed up on Coralcola, the starting island from StarTropics. If you choose not to help him, Gulliver will say he hasn't gotten a cold shoulder as icy as this since he brushed with the Snomads, the villains from Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze.
      • Gullivarr can mention a couple of pirate characters from other Nintendo properties. During his half-conscious mumbling he may imagine fighting with the Multi-Armed and Dangerous Cortez from Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. After agreeing to recover his communicator he may compare you to Captain Syrup, the pirate leader from the Wario Land games.
      • In the second and third games, where he's an astronaut instead of sailor, he makes space- rather than sea-based references, and may ask the player if they've seen a space fox or a bounty hunter who can roll into a ball.
    • Unlike most fish, catching a squid in New Horizons can prompt one of a few different quips from your character. For example, they may say they had an "inkling" they would catch one or say it's "off the hook", referencing one of the bands from the Splatoon series, while another asks if squids don't actually "bloop", referring to Super Mario Bros.' Bloopers.
    • If you have Blathers assess a Eusthenopteron fossil in New Horizons, he'll ponder what culture would be like if life had never left the ocean, such as if differences might be resolved through "some sort of ink-squirting contest of champions", again referencing Splatoon.
  • Chibi-Robo! Zip-Lash features a Nintendo reference for how the game is available on the Nintendo 3DS. The description for the banana peel in the trash mentions Telly having a nightmare about a giant gorilla driving near him in a go-kart and throwing a huge banana peel at him. That's almost certainly gotta be Donkey Kong as he would show up in a Mario Kart race.
  • Donkey Kong:
  • In Earthbound Beginnings the Non Player Character directly talk about playing Mario.
  • F-Zero:
    • Mr. EAD is named after the internal Nintendo division that develops the games. His overall shape and moustache resemble those of Mario, and his belt buckle is a star resembling those found in the Super Mario games.
    • James McCloud shares a name with the father of Fox from Star Fox. He also wears the Star Fox uniform, and his vehicle, the Little Wyvern, is modeled after an Arwing.
    • Zoda shares his name with the alien antagonist of StarTropics.
  • Kirby series:
    • In Kirby Super Star, several Super Mario Bros. characters such as Birdo appear in the background of King Dedede's arena and the Megaton Punch minigame. The Great Cave Offensive mode is filled with similar references in the treasures collected, ranging from the Triforce from The Legend of Zelda, to the Falchion sword from Fire Emblem.
    • Kirby's Dream Land 3: Several of the Heart Star missions involve characters from other Nintendo games. For example, one level has you reassembling R.O.B., and another level has you defeating several Metroids for Samus.
    • Kirby & the Amazing Mirror: One of the copy abilities is the Smash ability, which gives Kirby his Super Smash Bros. moveset. The ability is acquired by defeating Master Hand, who appears as both a miniboss and as an actual boss alongside Crazy Hand.
  • The Legend of Zelda:
    • The Legend of Zelda: According to the Japanese instruction booklet, the boss Manhandla a giant Piranha Plant from Super Mario Bros. This is removed from localized manuals.
    • The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past: A portrait of Mario appears at one point in the game, and there are also two Chain Chomps that appear in Turtle Rock.
    • The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening features several cameos from Super Mario Bros. enemies such as Bloopers, Cheep-Cheeps, Goombas and Pokeys, and includes a number of characters based on those of the other series. It also features Kirby as an enemy. The Switch version has a subtle Splatoon reference — if you examine the Blooper figurine after placing it, the message "Squids are all the rage with kids nowadays" will be displayed.
    • The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time has several references to Super Mario Bros.. For example, Malon and Talon have brooches of Bowser's head, and portraits of Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, and Bowser can be found in the Castle Courtyard.
    • The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap includes Lakitus and Bob-ombs, two enemies from the Mario games. Also, the egg-shaped containers unveiling the figurines Link gets in Carlov's gallery have the shape and appearance of Yoshi's eggs.
  • Pikmin:
  • Pilotwings:
    • Pilotwings 64 features Crescent Island, a full 3D recreation of StarTropics' C-Island.
  • Splatoon:
  • Super Mario Bros.:
    • In Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, the various items you can get from making different brews of coffee at the Starbean Cafe represent different Nintendo series. For example, one such item is the Triforce, called the "Great Force" here.note 
    • The Mario Golf series has several. For example, the icon for the "Links" Club in the portable games is a Triforce; when you hit the ball into a flower patch in Toadstool Tour, Pikmin can be seen flying out; and the leaderboard in 64 features several character names from The Legend of Zelda and Star Fox.
    • In Paper Mario: The Origami King, the player can obtain a mask of Samus at Shogun Studios. When Mario tries it on for the first time, Bobby comments it would probably look good on "some other M".
    • Super Mario RPG has a few Nintendo references:
      • Link can be found sleeping at the Rose Town inn at a certain point in the game.
      • A toy of Samus can be found in Booster's toybox at the top of Booster Tower. After you get the fifth Star Piece, you can find the real deal bounty hunter in the Mushroom Castle guest room's bed; if talked to, she'll say she's getting some rest before taking on Mother Brain.
      • The "Hino Mart" store contains figurines of F-Zero's Blue Falcon and Fire Stingray alongside an Arwing from Star Fox atop the crates in the back.
    • Super Mario Maker 2's story mode has levels designed by people using the names Agent 1, Agent 2, Celebrity MC, and Celebrity DJ. If that weren't enough, their descriptions are written in-character as Callie, Marie, Pearl, and Marina, respectively.
  • Almost every WarioWare game features a stage with 9-Volt, sometimes along with his friend 18-Volt and his mother 5-Volt, who are all Nintendo fans. To reflect this, all of their microgames are based around Nintendo and their products, ranging from their earliest titles (such as breaking barrels in Donkey Kong), to their more contemporary releases. A good amount of Nintendo's non-video game output also appears in their microgames, such as Hanafuda cards, the Ultra Hand, the Ultra Machine, and the Custom Gunman. Viewing the Volts' microgame descriptions will also tell you the year the product featured in the microgame released.

    Williams Electronics 

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Wallace the Window Cleaner

Bad Bob fends off a window cleaner who he suspects is trying to burgle Rex and the gang, who is revealed to be Wallace from Wallace and Gromit, another Aardman creation.

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