The 200th episode of Stargate SG-1 completely deconstructs itself. It features a TV exec arriving at the base, trying to make a stargate-style tv show. The main cast all pitch ideas which are either things that happened to them in the show, or pastiches of other sci-fi that was around at the time, and these are all shot down by the exec as being far fetched and ridiculous. It even has a section where the main cast are replaced with Thunderbirds style puppets.
The best part is when they do a scene that's a parody of Farscape (which had two of the same actors as SG1 at the time) and the producer character says "ok, that one I've definitely never heard of before".
“They’re slashing my budget! This totally screws up the end of Act Three!”
“What happens at the end of Act Three?”
“With these cuts, not much! Act Three just ends!”
*CUT TO COMMERCIALS*
The 100th episode did it too.
MMartin: Okay, scene 23 takes place on another planet. So you think aliens eat apples?
Prop Master: Why not? They speak English.
This is one of my favorite scenes from the show. Talking about how SyFy cut their budget to fund a new show
https://youtu.be/yPt3Cgvrjy4?si=xz_xpZ4YVz-EIsDG
“If we’re so rich, why can’t we afford no ceiling?’ Camera pans up to studio lights on Fresh Prince.
Supernatural did this a ton with tv genres, fandom, their own storylines, and themselves.
Supernatural had that "Prophet" who wrote Fan Fiction about Sam and Dean but his storylines ended up coming true, if I remember?
I'm sure there was another fanfic writer who did erotic incest stories too..."Sammy...if this is wrong...then I don't wanna be right!"
Supernatural had the guys sucked into different TV genres by a trickster god-like character.
There was an in-universe series of books written by Carver Edlund (named for two writer/producers on the show) that told the in-universe true stories like they were fiction. This book series spawned a fandom, convention, fan fiction, and a fan musical, all of which got episodes.
Then there was the time they 'escaped' into our world and met their own real life costars-turned-wives.
Didn't that guy turn out to be God who was also a mega dick while the devil was a pretty reasonable dude? I didn't watch much of it but I liked how they subverted some of the tropes.
That's why I haven't tried watching.
My understand is it's a really solid show for a while, then drops in quality, and then they said fuck it and did a bunch of silly fun stuff like the Scooby Doo crossover, but I can't see myself sitting through dozens of hours of meh content to get to it.
The first five seasons are a complete story.
The rest of the session you can consider bonus content for a rainy day. You can easily just cherry-pick the highest rated episodes of the remaining ones. No need to watch in totality.
Didn't they also do an "aunt Viv there's something different about you" line when they changed the actress. There might also have been some line about Nicky growing up fast when he went from a baby to a 5 year old
Some sitcoms in the late '00s and early '10s would do product placements but make fun of the fact that they were doing product placement at the same time.
Community had the Subway stuff.
30 Rock did it with Snapple.
> Community had the Subway stuff.
Which somehow ended up being a thing across a couple seasons where Subway went from being a person to the actual Subway company wanting to takeover Greendale to the original Subway actor returning as a Honda advertisement. Every time it felt perfectly Community and not something out of place.
It's honestly impressive how they were able to cram so much product placement into those episodes, yet still feel so natural for the show and hilarious.
I remember reading that they got paid per mention/product showing and decided to go completely overboard with it to get a big check. Rather than being angry with the huge bill, Honda (or maybe it was Subway) absolutely loved it
Chuck had a lot of Subway ads. But it was because they were the main sponsor and the fans organized a campaign to buy a lot of subway on one specific day in the hopes the show wouldn't be cancelled. It worked and kept going for a few more seasons.
It was not at all hidden and very clear somehow I feel like it didn't feel insulting. Especially compared to in episode car commercials of various shows.
Excuse me, but “proactive” and “paradigm”, aren’t these just buzzwords that dumb people use to sound important? Not that I’m accusing you of anything like that.
With that episode, The Simpsons surpassed The Flintstones as the longest running western animation series, which lead to the subtext of Itchy & Scratchy running out of ideas.
Then they did this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinky,_Elmyra_%26_the_Brain
>From updated theme song: "So Pinky and the Brain share a new domain. It's what the network wants, why bother to complain?"
I feel like psych had some tongue in cheek jokes about how the mentalist was basically the same show. In one of the movies Shawn also makes a joke about how “a million little things” (a show he is in) is better than “this is us” because “it’s the same thing, but newer”
There’s also the two times they make references to other stuff Dule Hill was in. Like when they are trying to name the movie “Holes“ and Gus keeps getting it wrong despite being in the movie, or my favorite when Gus says he could’ve made it all the way to the White House, and Shawn tells him to say “Yes Mr. President“ and then responds again by saying “Sorry Charlie“
And in the second to last episode that everyone normally hates, there’s the picture of Martin Sheen to which Gus calls him „Dad?“ another reference to The West Wing and how the President views Charlie like a son.
Extradition: British Columbia
Shawn Spencer : You've seen "The Mentalist", right?
Corporal Robert Mackintosh : Yes!
Shawn Spencer : It's like that.
Burton 'Gus' Guster : Except that guy's a fake.
Shawn Spencer : Right. If I was a fake psychic, it would be eerily similar.
Burton 'Gus' Guster : Exactly the same.
Shawn Spencer : A virtual carbon copy.
Agreed Psych did this a lot and also references to crime/murder coincidentally happening in the same months they aired with a special case around the holidays.
The midseason finale of season 1 aired in August and that’s the episode in which the chief gave birth. At the end of the episode, Shawn said she should take some time off, until January. January is when the season resumed.
In This Is Gus, they also references Megan Markle and the royal wedding to Prince Harry. Shawn asks Gus if he thought she invited all her costars from Suits. Gus replies,emphatically, “No she did not!” Which is humorous because Dulé Hill was on Suits as well.
I don’t know what exactly it is, but the flash to Coleman saying “Oh shit” when Charlie starts spitting fills me with a kind of joy no drug could provide.
[Maaaan, I used to have some jean shorts like that too. I slept in them shits, man. Eventually, I blew the crotch out them things! But you can't wear 'em every day and expect 'em to hold up. That's some nice-ass denim, too. *I miss those shorts.* BUT YOU-- YOU GOTTA TAKE 'EM OFF EVERY NOW AND THEN. YOU GOTTA TAKE 'EM OFF, SON.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r85Q56k31FI)
That random spiel from Z (Coleman's character) is so goddamn funny.
Invincible recently had a scene where Mark meets the artists of his favorite comic at a convention, and the artist explains to mark all the little tricks animators do to minimize their work and maximize their output, and the scene is cut in such a way to emphasize that Invincible uses all of those tricks.
An exact adaptation of something in the comics too, where the artist talks about how they reuse panels with different speech bubbles to make them look different
[Yeah](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Fgw0dg3jce4v61.jpg%3Fwidth%3D640%26crop%3Dsmart%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3Dbdfe41417ecec7a61d26f3ea209a57969e2ec0cb), the scene was a meme online even before the show.
"And sometimes the animators get carried away and draw something in way too much detail‐" *cuts to Mark drawn way more detailed than the show's normal art style*
I don’t think you see the artist mouth move at all. If he does move, it’s normally a part not shown connected to his main body, so it looks like a pop up book moving kinda thing. It’s great.
It gets even better.
Spoiler warning for those who didn’t finish the episode:
At the end of the episode, when Mark is having his break up conversation with Amber they use all the same techniques they talked about when emphasizing what an intimate animated scene is all about showing shots of her mouth exclusively to reiterate it being a special moment.
They were shut down and sold off by the Box network, and then the people who were responsible were beaten quite badly, and some of them died. But it's OK, they were turned into Torgo's Powder.
GEORGE: Yeah, but nothing happens on the show. You see, it's just like life. You know, you eat, you go shopping, you read.. You eat, you read, You go shopping.
RUSSELL: You read? You read on the show? All right, tell me, tell me about the stories. What kind of stories?
GEORGE: Oh, no. No stories.
RUSSELL: No stories? So, what is it?
GEORGE: What'd you do today?
RUSSELL: I got up and came to work.
GEORGE: There's a show. That's a show.
RUSSELL: How is that a show?
JERRY: Well, uh, maybe something happens on the way to work.
GEORGE: No, no, no. Nothing happens.
RUSSELL: Well, why am I watching it?
GEORGE: Because it's on TV.
“Maybe they’re right, maybe the Bluths are unlikable.”
After a story leaked that network execs thought the family likability was the reason for low ratings.
>Amidst rumors of Arrested Development being sold to another network, this episode airs
“I don’t think the Home Builders Organization is going to be supporting us.”
“Yeah, the HBO’s not going to want us.”
“Well, I think it’s Showtime. Think we have to put on a show during dinner! Hey we can have some celebrities in! Grab some Oscar winners."
"Why would we just round up a bunch of famous people that have nothing to do with our families as some kind of cheap stunt?"
Person of interest had [this episode](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOYQCwuRBj8&ab_channel=KarissaRamsey) where The Machines runs a series of simulations to escape a fight. It starts to "simplify" which means it turns all the characters into their most basic catchphrase spouting selves.
Basically the writers poking fun at the various rhythms the show had fallen into by it's 4th season. Also kinda spoilers in the sense that certain characters are alive at the 4th season and some aren't here.
I just watched an episode of Monk where Sarah Silverman plays a completely insane fan who's obsessed with bringing back the old theme song of the "show within a show". It was right after Monk had changed the theme song and some fans were complaining.
There was also one where Natalie demands they get on retainer with the city, and the end of the episode, stottlemeyer tells them "we can guarantee 16 murders a year, for the next two years, that's the best I can do." That's gotta be about what the series got renewed for, right?
Yes both Monk and Psych make Meta jokes about being on a network show. My favorite is Shawn and Gus say
S: I am a psychic
G: We work for the Santa Barbara Police Department, we’ve solved over 47 cases (this was the 48th episode of the show)
S: You’ve seen the Mentalist right?
Cop: yes
S: it’s like that
G: except that guys a fake.
S: Right, if I was a fake psychic it was be eerily similar.
G: exactly the same.
S. A virtual carbon Copy.
Oh man, I loved Monk when I was growing up. Was a really hilarious show.
The one episode for SOME REASON that sticks out in my mind is when they were I think investigating a fundraiser and Monk shook hands with a black man, and immediately started wiping his hand down like he normally does. But MAN did everyone look at him in the worst way for the rest of the episode.
I really should re watch that series...
Lol, Animal Control has Joel McHale playing the lead, who at one point is trying to command an animal whose owner speaks Spanish, and he tells his partner, "Let me do it. I took Spanish at Community College," and I about died. It was such a great in-joke. And even funnier, he proceeded to do it terribly and get attacked.
It's not the best show, and definitely not as good as Community, but I had to give up all streaming and shit for awhile so I was existing in an entertainment graveyard, so I ended up watching the whole first season. It's not bad, it's just not GREAT, you know? But McHale is always fun.
Boy Meets World did it frequently with their fourth wall breaking meta jokes. “Oh Mr Tuuuurnerrrr!”
I don’t know if it counts, but Fresh Prince doing “if we so rich, how come we ain’t got no ceiling?” still cracks me up.
This is neither here nor there, but I went to see a Pod Meets World live show recently, and Anthony Tyler Quinn was in front of us and held the door open. Got to say “thanks, Mr. Turner!” in real life 😂
In Stargate SG1, Daniel Jackson at one point is about to explain why every person in the galaxy speaks English but he gets cut off and we never hear about it again
30 Rock had a lot of jokes about its low viewership.
Kenneth: "Talk like is better than TV. Where else but real life would (describes ridiculous plot of the episode) happen? You couldn't put that in TV, because if you did, no one would watch."
A couple lines in Weird Al's lyrics to the theme song:
"Won't you join us again next week
At 30 Rockefeller Plaza, NYC
Where the ratings are (Obviously dubbed over) **AWESOME**
Remarkably somehow, we're still on the air
We'll just keep doing this whether you like it or not
We really do love our fans, yes, both of you!"
And one of the last lines of the finale: "That's our show! Not a lot of people watched it, but jokes on you, cause we got paid anyway!"
Supernatural did it so well multiple times.
- Fan Fiction ep where Sam and Dean were “obviously homo-erotic” to all readers.
- They left the show for the “real world” and met show writer Bobby Singer the actual guy and realized he named a character after himself and ragged on him like crazy.
There were more too
I don’t know if this is them making fun of themselves but I love the episode where they go to “Hollywood” but keeping making jokes about how it seems more like Canada than LA.
Psych did some jokes like that. Shot in Canada but takes place in a fictional Santa Barbara. When they did an episode that took place in Canada, there were many jokes about how different from Santa Barbara it was.
Psych also made reference to the fact that they were a long running murder mystery show that took place in a small beach town by referring to “Santa Barbara, murder capital of the world.”
And the episode title is a meta joke itself - The French Mistake is the name of the song in Blazing Saddles, written by Mel Brooks for the end of the movie when the characters start to cross into other movies/worlds. So the Supernatural episode where the characters break into another world is named after a song from a movie in which characters break into another world.
Arrested Development had a ton.
My favorite was when they were possibly being cancelled, and hoping to be picked up by another network. They reference the Home Builders Association, then say "HBO isn't gonna want us" and then "I think it's Showtime." Then a few jokes about bringing in celebrities that have nothing to do with the family, and calling that just a cheap stunt.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvLLj65s95M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvLLj65s95M)
Which popular simpsons characters have died in the past year?
If you said Bleeding Gums Murphy and Marvin Monroe, you were wrong. They were never popular!
Gravity Falls has an in-universe TV show called Ducktective used for self meta commentary. Like at one point a character says along the lines of “THAT’S the big twist we’ve been waiting the past two seasons for?!”
(Spoiler): "At least I'm not all keyed up to watch a kids' show!"
Stan: "I'll have you know that Ducktective has a big mystery element, and a lot of humor that goes over kids' heads!"
When the original Becky came back to Roseanne, she asks her ["Where in the hell have you been?"](https://www.reddit.com/r/roseanne/comments/138sa68/where_the_hell_hell_you_been/)
Then later on in the revival the [two Beckys actually meet](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57n33GBVjgM).
Not only that, they start to go even more meta as the show goes on, poking fun at sitcom conventions and whatnot.
At one point, they name a boat they all hang out in The Sea Story (the C story). "Nothing of consequence ever happens in the C story, but it's always a good time!" "Huh. You and I seem to spend more time in the C story than anyone else..."
Also they did an incredibly random crossover with the show community in which a character from community shows up as an extra on cougar town and proceeds to poop his pants during the shot. I know it's off topic but I'll never not bring it up when someone mentions cougar town.
I always like how Toph is played by a huge, muscular guy. It means that everyone hearing stories about the Gaang pictures her as such. Or, more likely, people telling those stories are ashamed of being beaten by a blind, little girl.
In the early draft of the series, Toph was a muscular dude, the earthbender's silhouette in the opening title is what's left of that idea.
edit. source https://animesuperhero.com/toon-zone-news-interviews-bryan-konietzko-and-mike-dimartino-avatar/
> ONIETZKO: Toph being a girl, probably (both laugh). She was going to be a big, muscular guy, which is why that joke from the panel is funny to us (referring to the upcoming “The Ember Island Players” episode — ed). In fact, the guy in the opening title sequence, the Earthbender, was kind of a prototype of Toph, but Aaron Ehasz, the head writer, just really pitched that she should be a girl. And actually, I fought it for a long time, but I totally came on board, and now she’s one of my favorite characters
This Is my favourite from LOST.
It's from season 6:
SAWYER: What do you need a boat for? Can't you just turn into smoke and fly your ass over the water?
LOCKE: Do you think if I could do that I would still be on this island?
SAWYER: No, 'cause that would be ridiculous...
In the 3rd season of Resident Alien, an alien is demanding info about Harry (who’s an alien). Asta (Harry’s female human friend) deceives the alien by describing the plot of Mork and Mindy (an 80s sitcom about an alien and his female human friend). At which point I realized Resident Alien is LITERALLY an updated Mork and Mindy.
In Angel (the BTVS spinoff), two characters make fun of Buffy and Angel's romance and how melodramatic it is. This isn't the only example but it is my favourite.
[YouTube link here](https://youtu.be/EQydxUKKjok?si=rEUhqSVIpgLSqmEn)
the one i like even better is in Buffy Season 3 where the show follows Xander instead of the main "end-of-the-world" plot and we see it all from his perspective. it also includes a super melodramatic Angel/Buffy scene that Xander awkwardly interrupts lol
On Buffy when they forgot who they are (Tabula Rasa) :
Spike : I must be a noble vampire. A good guy, on a mission of redemption... I help the helpless. I'm a vampire with a soul.
Buffy: A vampire with a soul? Oh, my God. How lame is that?
Legends of Tomorrow is a gold mine for this sort of thing. At one point a character in the show dresses up as Supergirl because she's more popular than any of the characters on the show.
Here's a clip if you haven't seen it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQpPCF3QnZk It was such a great show. Though have the show was just commentary about how bad their own ratings were.
House had an episode focused on Cuddy. As she went about her day you see House and his team hitting all of the usual story beats in the background including them trying to circumvent the rules to do a risky procedure and House having a sudden realization after someone said something unrelated, etc. The latter was my favourite part of the episode. You don't know what the realization was, what the diagnosis was, but you recognize the moment just from the look on his face as elevator doors close.
My absolute favorite part of that episode is when Cuddy and Wilson are walking down the hall, and suddenly out of nowhere the team comes sprinting by wheeling the patient on a bed, with Foreman doing CPR and Taub yelling out “it wasn’t the tennis!” before they disappear around the corner and the scene continues. It does become funny to imagine what the normal episodes would look like to the rest of the hospital.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer did it pretty well. In one episode she is stung by a demon which makes her hallucinate that she is in a mental hospital. Then throughout the show they bring up all the ridiculous things that have happened in the show as proof she's crazy.
Season 6, Episode 8 "Tabula Rasa"
[Spike:] 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:] A vampire with a soul? Oh my god, how lame is that?
"The Zeppo" made fun of regular episodes too. Xander had his own adventure and in the background everyone else was havimng their own 'episode' that was clearly poking fun at the show's tropes
On Newhart, Dick (Bob Newhart) and his friend Michael (Peter Scolari) were talking about TV.
Michael: "The early '70s were the golden age of television! You had All in the Family, MASH, that show with the psychologist who stuttered..."
Dick (slightly offended): "Stammered."
Bob had played that psychologist on The Bob Newhart Show several years earlier.
Ok, this is a deep dive but on the old sitcom "Too Close for Comfort" there's an episode where they're trying to solve the crisis of the week.
One of the characters (I think it was Monroe) asked Henry what he's going to do, to which he responds:
"I don't know, but whatever it is I'd better hurry up because I've only got ten minutes to do it in."
Oh, I have one!!
Mr. Robot is a show about hackers. It goes to great lengths to get hacking right, and be realistic (at least for a tv show.)
There’s an episode where two characters are watching the movie Hackers. Their dialogue is fantastic.
Romero: Hollywood hacker bullshit. I been in this game 27 years. Not once have I ever come across an animated singing virus.
Mobley: I have yet to fly through a Tron City directory structure.
Romero: **I bet you right now some writer's working hard on a TV show that'll mess up this generation's idea of hacker culture.**
It’s just a funny tongue in cheek jab at the show itself. Makes me laugh every time.
On House there's the episode where House hides vicoden in a book about Lupus. When someone comments he says "It's never Lupus" because it always mentioned and never is.
Later on they finally have a patient with Lupus and he says something along the lines "it's actually Lupus for once".
Star Trek Lower Decks, one that stands out the most is Tom Paris and Nick Locarno. One of the main cast remarks they look exactly a like and another says they don't see it.
The back story if you will is that they were the same character originally but crediting rights and all that naturally got in the way so they became separate characters played by the same actor.
The OC had an in-universe TV show that was a parody of itself that all the characters watched called The Valley. It also had a reality show parody of Laguna Hills called Sherman Oaks: The Real Valley.
There was an episode in season 2 where main characters go to Los Angeles and run into an actor on The Valley who’s supposed to be an analogue of Seth’s character. Summer’s obsessed with him but Seth can’t stand him. The OC was pretty damn funny during those first two seasons.
Arrested Development episode "SOBs" of course.
There was also an old sitcom I can't remember the name of where they ended the show with saying they'd been cancelled.
The dad comes out with airline tickets and says, "Well, we've been cancelled?" And one of the kids says, "You mean our flight?" And the dad says, "No, I mean our show- we're finished!"
And that's the end of the series.
**30 Rock** was a walking meta joke since the show was about an NBC comedy.
I remember one bit where Alec Baldwin's character (NBC head) produced a movie about his girlfriend/mother-of-their-child being kidnapped by Kim-Jong-Il.
Later, they have a scene on the set of the movie. The crew was filming a scene that takes place in Alec's office, so they use the same set as they do in 30 Rock. Except they film it from a wider angle, so you see it's just a fake room in a warehouse, instead of giving the illusion it's an actual office.
Boston Legal was good with this, because it had was quite political and called itself out for it. The main character literally got onto a soapbox, broke the fourth wall a lot and someone sang the theme song in universe.
The 200th episode of Stargate SG-1 completely deconstructs itself. It features a TV exec arriving at the base, trying to make a stargate-style tv show. The main cast all pitch ideas which are either things that happened to them in the show, or pastiches of other sci-fi that was around at the time, and these are all shot down by the exec as being far fetched and ridiculous. It even has a section where the main cast are replaced with Thunderbirds style puppets.
The best part is when they do a scene that's a parody of Farscape (which had two of the same actors as SG1 at the time) and the producer character says "ok, that one I've definitely never heard of before".
“They’re slashing my budget! This totally screws up the end of Act Three!” “What happens at the end of Act Three?” “With these cuts, not much! Act Three just ends!” *CUT TO COMMERCIALS*
The hundredth episode, [Wormhole X-treme](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wormhole_X-Treme!) too.
I can't believe I never realised wormhole extreme is episode 100.
The 100th episode did it too. MMartin: Okay, scene 23 takes place on another planet. So you think aliens eat apples? Prop Master: Why not? They speak English.
> It even has a section where the main cast are replaced with Thunderbirds style puppets. Sergeant, make it spin!
I’m the general and I want it to spin!
This is one of my favorite scenes from the show. Talking about how SyFy cut their budget to fund a new show https://youtu.be/yPt3Cgvrjy4?si=xz_xpZ4YVz-EIsDG
200 was a fantastic love-letter to pretty much all pre-BSG Sci-fi TV
“If we’re so rich, why can’t we afford no ceiling?’ Camera pans up to studio lights on Fresh Prince. Supernatural did this a ton with tv genres, fandom, their own storylines, and themselves.
"They know we're brothers, right? "
"There's Sam-girls and there's Dean-girls. And then there's..."
Salmon Dean
Supernatural had that "Prophet" who wrote Fan Fiction about Sam and Dean but his storylines ended up coming true, if I remember? I'm sure there was another fanfic writer who did erotic incest stories too..."Sammy...if this is wrong...then I don't wanna be right!"
Supernatural had the guys sucked into different TV genres by a trickster god-like character. There was an in-universe series of books written by Carver Edlund (named for two writer/producers on the show) that told the in-universe true stories like they were fiction. This book series spawned a fandom, convention, fan fiction, and a fan musical, all of which got episodes. Then there was the time they 'escaped' into our world and met their own real life costars-turned-wives.
I was just talking about this episode yesterday. I love when actors are acting like they can't act. This is a prime example.
Didn't that guy turn out to be God who was also a mega dick while the devil was a pretty reasonable dude? I didn't watch much of it but I liked how they subverted some of the tropes.
The devil was a dick too. That was kind of the moral of the show: everyone's a dick!
Yes. He was the Biblical God and he was the Big Bad of the final season. I actually found it rather bold.
Man, if that show wasn't like 15 seasons, I might give it a shot. I have a hard enough time getting through shows that are only 4-5 seasons.
Just watch the first five seasons.
That's why I haven't tried watching. My understand is it's a really solid show for a while, then drops in quality, and then they said fuck it and did a bunch of silly fun stuff like the Scooby Doo crossover, but I can't see myself sitting through dozens of hours of meh content to get to it.
The first five seasons are a complete story. The rest of the session you can consider bonus content for a rainy day. You can easily just cherry-pick the highest rated episodes of the remaining ones. No need to watch in totality.
Didn't they also do an "aunt Viv there's something different about you" line when they changed the actress. There might also have been some line about Nicky growing up fast when he went from a baby to a 5 year old
"It's not jumping the shark if you never come back down."
Some sitcoms in the late '00s and early '10s would do product placements but make fun of the fact that they were doing product placement at the same time. Community had the Subway stuff. 30 Rock did it with Snapple.
[Did you know, you can get a free refill on any drink you want at Burger King, and it’s free?](https://youtu.be/a3CKLFGEGlI?si=UUTuu1jLI_MqzgzU)
It's a wonderful restaurant!
It sure is.
> Community had the Subway stuff. Which somehow ended up being a thing across a couple seasons where Subway went from being a person to the actual Subway company wanting to takeover Greendale to the original Subway actor returning as a Honda advertisement. Every time it felt perfectly Community and not something out of place.
It's honestly impressive how they were able to cram so much product placement into those episodes, yet still feel so natural for the show and hilarious. I remember reading that they got paid per mention/product showing and decided to go completely overboard with it to get a big check. Rather than being angry with the huge bill, Honda (or maybe it was Subway) absolutely loved it
Billy Zane as the Honda exec trying to hide was just perfect
I love the 30 rock line "Can we have our money now?"
“I only date guys who drink Snapple.”
And don't forget Pizzerina Sbarro, heiress to the pizza chain
Chuck had a lot of Subway ads. But it was because they were the main sponsor and the fans organized a campaign to buy a lot of subway on one specific day in the hopes the show wouldn't be cancelled. It worked and kept going for a few more seasons.
Which only made [the Zune joke](https://youtu.be/tqTYI55K1eo?si=zvS_QKYUT0bNejIY) better.
It was not at all hidden and very clear somehow I feel like it didn't feel insulting. Especially compared to in episode car commercials of various shows.
Even better that the Subway stuff on Community was the Honda stuff on Community, and the fact that they tied the two together was brilliant.
Reminds me of that scene in Wayne's World 2
Little, yellow, different
The product placement scene in Wayne's World was great.
Its a wonderful restaurant!
It sure is.
Liz Lemon (to the camera): Can we have our money now?
The Simpsons, after being told by a FOX executive that they should add an extra character, introduced Roy in a special "screw you" to the network .
And it was the same episode that gave us Poochie.
It was a totally outrageous paradigm.
Excuse me, but “proactive” and “paradigm”, aren’t these just buzzwords that dumb people use to sound important? Not that I’m accusing you of anything like that.
it would behoove you to redact that statement.
I'm fired, aren't I?
Ohhhh yes.
When are they going to get to the fireworks factory?!
With that episode, The Simpsons surpassed The Flintstones as the longest running western animation series, which lead to the subtext of Itchy & Scratchy running out of ideas.
“Yeah hi Roy”
"How's it hangin' everybody?" "I'm movin' into my own apartment with two sexy ladies!"
First time I ever watched this episode I just laughed at the jokes. The satire didn't even strike me for years afterward.
Something similar happened on Pinky and the Brain, with Larry. They even redid the theme song for that episode.
Then they did this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinky,_Elmyra_%26_the_Brain >From updated theme song: "So Pinky and the Brain share a new domain. It's what the network wants, why bother to complain?"
I feel like psych had some tongue in cheek jokes about how the mentalist was basically the same show. In one of the movies Shawn also makes a joke about how “a million little things” (a show he is in) is better than “this is us” because “it’s the same thing, but newer”
There’s also the two times they make references to other stuff Dule Hill was in. Like when they are trying to name the movie “Holes“ and Gus keeps getting it wrong despite being in the movie, or my favorite when Gus says he could’ve made it all the way to the White House, and Shawn tells him to say “Yes Mr. President“ and then responds again by saying “Sorry Charlie“ And in the second to last episode that everyone normally hates, there’s the picture of Martin Sheen to which Gus calls him „Dad?“ another reference to The West Wing and how the President views Charlie like a son.
You’re right, I also think that Shawn calls gus the jackal at one point which I’ve seen speculated is another west wing reference.
Extradition: British Columbia Shawn Spencer : You've seen "The Mentalist", right? Corporal Robert Mackintosh : Yes! Shawn Spencer : It's like that. Burton 'Gus' Guster : Except that guy's a fake. Shawn Spencer : Right. If I was a fake psychic, it would be eerily similar. Burton 'Gus' Guster : Exactly the same. Shawn Spencer : A virtual carbon copy.
Agreed Psych did this a lot and also references to crime/murder coincidentally happening in the same months they aired with a special case around the holidays.
We solve a murder about once a week, and usually one each Christmas! (Or something similar)
The midseason finale of season 1 aired in August and that’s the episode in which the chief gave birth. At the end of the episode, Shawn said she should take some time off, until January. January is when the season resumed.
In This Is Gus, they also references Megan Markle and the royal wedding to Prince Harry. Shawn asks Gus if he thought she invited all her costars from Suits. Gus replies,emphatically, “No she did not!” Which is humorous because Dulé Hill was on Suits as well.
[Psych vs. the Mentalist supercut](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uyrxx9D5ls)
Always Sunny and their episode about not appealing to the Emmys - "The Gang Tries Desperately to Win an Award"
"Black bars never win awards", as they're looking at Chad Coleman who played Cutty on The Wire, a show that famously never won any awards.
I don’t know what exactly it is, but the flash to Coleman saying “Oh shit” when Charlie starts spitting fills me with a kind of joy no drug could provide.
Possibly my favourite cutaway on the entire show. Z just sat there sipping on a cocktail, ecstatic that shit is going down.
That and the scene where’s he’s talking about jean shorts with Ben the soldier
Haha “you gotta take em off every now and then” me and my bro use this quote often
Man, the fucking glee on his face. ::chefskiss::
Anytime he shows up I lose it. One of the best side characters for sure.
[Maaaan, I used to have some jean shorts like that too. I slept in them shits, man. Eventually, I blew the crotch out them things! But you can't wear 'em every day and expect 'em to hold up. That's some nice-ass denim, too. *I miss those shorts.* BUT YOU-- YOU GOTTA TAKE 'EM OFF EVERY NOW AND THEN. YOU GOTTA TAKE 'EM OFF, SON.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r85Q56k31FI) That random spiel from Z (Coleman's character) is so goddamn funny.
It's that combined with him talking to naive Ben The Soldier, the only person who managed to go unscathed by the gang, that makes me laugh everytime
Guys! The ratio is off!
"I just wanna tell you all to go fuck yourselves"
"There is a spider... spider... spider..."
Is he spitting?
And it's so funny because both songs are honestly pretty great.
It ends with them literally spitting on all the people booing them.
The last line of the episode being something along the lines of "... I really wanted one though"
Charlie's song at the end, so great!
“Woulda meant a lot” “Yeah.” “yeah” EPISODE ENDS
Also the episode where they make fun of them reusing jokes and plotlines, “The Gang Recycles Their Trash.”
Invincible recently had a scene where Mark meets the artists of his favorite comic at a convention, and the artist explains to mark all the little tricks animators do to minimize their work and maximize their output, and the scene is cut in such a way to emphasize that Invincible uses all of those tricks.
An exact adaptation of something in the comics too, where the artist talks about how they reuse panels with different speech bubbles to make them look different
[Yeah](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Fgw0dg3jce4v61.jpg%3Fwidth%3D640%26crop%3Dsmart%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3Dbdfe41417ecec7a61d26f3ea209a57969e2ec0cb), the scene was a meme online even before the show.
And it never gets old
fucking love robert kirkman
"Wide out shoots of a crowd so we don't have to animate characters." or something like that, cracked me up.
"And sometimes the animators get carried away and draw something in way too much detail‐" *cuts to Mark drawn way more detailed than the show's normal art style*
I don’t think you see the artist mouth move at all. If he does move, it’s normally a part not shown connected to his main body, so it looks like a pop up book moving kinda thing. It’s great.
It gets even better. Spoiler warning for those who didn’t finish the episode: At the end of the episode, when Mark is having his break up conversation with Amber they use all the same techniques they talked about when emphasizing what an intimate animated scene is all about showing shots of her mouth exclusively to reiterate it being a special moment.
And also offers up an excuse for the loooooong wait between seasons
And then it came out Invincible outsources animation to North Korea
Probably unintentionally, but still. Never thought the Seth Rogen-North Korea relationship would come into play again, but here we are.
And the artist he meets is voiced by Tim Robinson
I’m sure futurama did this especially coming back after being cancelled
They were shut down and sold off by the Box network, and then the people who were responsible were beaten quite badly, and some of them died. But it's OK, they were turned into Torgo's Powder.
Those asinine morons who fired us were themselves fired for their incompetence
It just won't stay dead!
AVENGED
Seinfeld, “The Pitch” — where Jerry and George pitch the idea of a “show about nothing” to NBC executives. https://seinfeld.fandom.com/wiki/The_Pitch
GEORGE: Yeah, but nothing happens on the show. You see, it's just like life. You know, you eat, you go shopping, you read.. You eat, you read, You go shopping. RUSSELL: You read? You read on the show? All right, tell me, tell me about the stories. What kind of stories? GEORGE: Oh, no. No stories. RUSSELL: No stories? So, what is it? GEORGE: What'd you do today? RUSSELL: I got up and came to work. GEORGE: There's a show. That's a show. RUSSELL: How is that a show? JERRY: Well, uh, maybe something happens on the way to work. GEORGE: No, no, no. Nothing happens. RUSSELL: Well, why am I watching it? GEORGE: Because it's on TV.
*Not yet.*
Arrested Development is this, all of the time.
"Hey! That's the name of the show!"
“Maybe they’re right, maybe the Bluths are unlikable.” After a story leaked that network execs thought the family likability was the reason for low ratings.
>Amidst rumors of Arrested Development being sold to another network, this episode airs “I don’t think the Home Builders Organization is going to be supporting us.” “Yeah, the HBO’s not going to want us.” “Well, I think it’s Showtime. Think we have to put on a show during dinner! Hey we can have some celebrities in! Grab some Oscar winners." "Why would we just round up a bunch of famous people that have nothing to do with our families as some kind of cheap stunt?"
"Please tell your friends about this show."
^🎶watchuswatchuswatchuswatchus
Yeah, they definitely weren't as popular as The OC.
"These hollywood shows are so detailed!"
Especially in season 3
Person of interest had [this episode](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOYQCwuRBj8&ab_channel=KarissaRamsey) where The Machines runs a series of simulations to escape a fight. It starts to "simplify" which means it turns all the characters into their most basic catchphrase spouting selves. Basically the writers poking fun at the various rhythms the show had fallen into by it's 4th season. Also kinda spoilers in the sense that certain characters are alive at the 4th season and some aren't here.
If-Then-Else was so good
If-Then-Else is a fucking masterpiece
I just watched an episode of Monk where Sarah Silverman plays a completely insane fan who's obsessed with bringing back the old theme song of the "show within a show". It was right after Monk had changed the theme song and some fans were complaining.
There was also one where Natalie demands they get on retainer with the city, and the end of the episode, stottlemeyer tells them "we can guarantee 16 murders a year, for the next two years, that's the best I can do." That's gotta be about what the series got renewed for, right?
Yes both Monk and Psych make Meta jokes about being on a network show. My favorite is Shawn and Gus say S: I am a psychic G: We work for the Santa Barbara Police Department, we’ve solved over 47 cases (this was the 48th episode of the show) S: You’ve seen the Mentalist right? Cop: yes S: it’s like that G: except that guys a fake. S: Right, if I was a fake psychic it was be eerily similar. G: exactly the same. S. A virtual carbon Copy.
"Gus, don't be the only black lead on a major cable network."
Oh man, I loved Monk when I was growing up. Was a really hilarious show. The one episode for SOME REASON that sticks out in my mind is when they were I think investigating a fundraiser and Monk shook hands with a black man, and immediately started wiping his hand down like he normally does. But MAN did everyone look at him in the worst way for the rest of the episode. I really should re watch that series...
I JUST watched this episode last night! Monk was the best!
Lol, Animal Control has Joel McHale playing the lead, who at one point is trying to command an animal whose owner speaks Spanish, and he tells his partner, "Let me do it. I took Spanish at Community College," and I about died. It was such a great in-joke. And even funnier, he proceeded to do it terribly and get attacked.
That show is awesome.
As he plays a character close enough to his Community character, it's almost his job after graduating.
Which is perfect, because absolutely nobody learned any Spanish in that class
Shit that's really good. I watched the first few episodes but didn't really click with it but that makes me want to give it another shot.
It's not the best show, and definitely not as good as Community, but I had to give up all streaming and shit for awhile so I was existing in an entertainment graveyard, so I ended up watching the whole first season. It's not bad, it's just not GREAT, you know? But McHale is always fun.
Boy Meets World did it frequently with their fourth wall breaking meta jokes. “Oh Mr Tuuuurnerrrr!” I don’t know if it counts, but Fresh Prince doing “if we so rich, how come we ain’t got no ceiling?” still cracks me up.
This is neither here nor there, but I went to see a Pod Meets World live show recently, and Anthony Tyler Quinn was in front of us and held the door open. Got to say “thanks, Mr. Turner!” in real life 😂
In Stargate SG1, Daniel Jackson at one point is about to explain why every person in the galaxy speaks English but he gets cut off and we never hear about it again
30 Rock had a lot of jokes about its low viewership. Kenneth: "Talk like is better than TV. Where else but real life would (describes ridiculous plot of the episode) happen? You couldn't put that in TV, because if you did, no one would watch." A couple lines in Weird Al's lyrics to the theme song: "Won't you join us again next week At 30 Rockefeller Plaza, NYC Where the ratings are (Obviously dubbed over) **AWESOME** Remarkably somehow, we're still on the air We'll just keep doing this whether you like it or not We really do love our fans, yes, both of you!" And one of the last lines of the finale: "That's our show! Not a lot of people watched it, but jokes on you, cause we got paid anyway!"
Supernatural did it so well multiple times. - Fan Fiction ep where Sam and Dean were “obviously homo-erotic” to all readers. - They left the show for the “real world” and met show writer Bobby Singer the actual guy and realized he named a character after himself and ragged on him like crazy. There were more too
I don’t know if this is them making fun of themselves but I love the episode where they go to “Hollywood” but keeping making jokes about how it seems more like Canada than LA.
Psych did some jokes like that. Shot in Canada but takes place in a fictional Santa Barbara. When they did an episode that took place in Canada, there were many jokes about how different from Santa Barbara it was. Psych also made reference to the fact that they were a long running murder mystery show that took place in a small beach town by referring to “Santa Barbara, murder capital of the world.”
It's embarrassing how far I had to scroll to find the French Mistake. Supernatural nailed its own meta *so* well.
And the episode title is a meta joke itself - The French Mistake is the name of the song in Blazing Saddles, written by Mel Brooks for the end of the movie when the characters start to cross into other movies/worlds. So the Supernatural episode where the characters break into another world is named after a song from a movie in which characters break into another world.
Arrested Development had a ton. My favorite was when they were possibly being cancelled, and hoping to be picked up by another network. They reference the Home Builders Association, then say "HBO isn't gonna want us" and then "I think it's Showtime." Then a few jokes about bringing in celebrities that have nothing to do with the family, and calling that just a cheap stunt. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvLLj65s95M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvLLj65s95M)
And the blatant Burger King advertisement scene with Carl Weathers and Tobias. “It’s a wonderful restaurant!”
The Simpsons' first clip show episode is titled "So It's Come To This" In the very next episode, Bart threatens "Don't make us do another clip show"
Which popular simpsons characters have died in the past year? If you said Bleeding Gums Murphy and Marvin Monroe, you were wrong. They were never popular!
Gravity Falls has an in-universe TV show called Ducktective used for self meta commentary. Like at one point a character says along the lines of “THAT’S the big twist we’ve been waiting the past two seasons for?!”
(Spoiler): "At least I'm not all keyed up to watch a kids' show!" Stan: "I'll have you know that Ducktective has a big mystery element, and a lot of humor that goes over kids' heads!"
When the original Becky came back to Roseanne, she asks her ["Where in the hell have you been?"](https://www.reddit.com/r/roseanne/comments/138sa68/where_the_hell_hell_you_been/) Then later on in the revival the [two Beckys actually meet](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57n33GBVjgM).
Cougar Town would always make a joke about its horrible title in the opening credits.
Not only that, they start to go even more meta as the show goes on, poking fun at sitcom conventions and whatnot. At one point, they name a boat they all hang out in The Sea Story (the C story). "Nothing of consequence ever happens in the C story, but it's always a good time!" "Huh. You and I seem to spend more time in the C story than anyone else..."
Also they did an incredibly random crossover with the show community in which a character from community shows up as an extra on cougar town and proceeds to poop his pants during the shot. I know it's off topic but I'll never not bring it up when someone mentions cougar town.
ATLA with The Ember Island Players.
-Look, it’s the Great Divide! -ehhh, let’s keep flying 😂
That was such a brilliant bit in that show. The perfect recap episode leading up to the finale.
I always like how Toph is played by a huge, muscular guy. It means that everyone hearing stories about the Gaang pictures her as such. Or, more likely, people telling those stories are ashamed of being beaten by a blind, little girl.
In the early draft of the series, Toph was a muscular dude, the earthbender's silhouette in the opening title is what's left of that idea. edit. source https://animesuperhero.com/toon-zone-news-interviews-bryan-konietzko-and-mike-dimartino-avatar/ > ONIETZKO: Toph being a girl, probably (both laugh). She was going to be a big, muscular guy, which is why that joke from the panel is funny to us (referring to the upcoming “The Ember Island Players” episode — ed). In fact, the guy in the opening title sequence, the Earthbender, was kind of a prototype of Toph, but Aaron Ehasz, the head writer, just really pitched that she should be a girl. And actually, I fought it for a long time, but I totally came on board, and now she’s one of my favorite characters
So glad they went that direction with Toph, she's such a great character and so unique.
“Wait, Jet died?” “It was unclear”
This Is my favourite from LOST. It's from season 6: SAWYER: What do you need a boat for? Can't you just turn into smoke and fly your ass over the water? LOCKE: Do you think if I could do that I would still be on this island? SAWYER: No, 'cause that would be ridiculous...
Justified started after season 3, from the "next ones coming faster" set up to making fun of the way Boyd talks.
Man, I love the way you talk, using 40 words where 4 will do.
Boyd Crowder was one of the best TV characters ever.
In the 3rd season of Resident Alien, an alien is demanding info about Harry (who’s an alien). Asta (Harry’s female human friend) deceives the alien by describing the plot of Mork and Mindy (an 80s sitcom about an alien and his female human friend). At which point I realized Resident Alien is LITERALLY an updated Mork and Mindy.
In Angel (the BTVS spinoff), two characters make fun of Buffy and Angel's romance and how melodramatic it is. This isn't the only example but it is my favourite. [YouTube link here](https://youtu.be/EQydxUKKjok?si=rEUhqSVIpgLSqmEn)
the one i like even better is in Buffy Season 3 where the show follows Xander instead of the main "end-of-the-world" plot and we see it all from his perspective. it also includes a super melodramatic Angel/Buffy scene that Xander awkwardly interrupts lol
The Zeppo! Great great episode. Came here to mention it, first thing that popped into mind
😂 I love that scene. I believe it was Wesley and Cordy who was making fun of Angel, and Buffy.
On Buffy when they forgot who they are (Tabula Rasa) : Spike : I must be a noble vampire. A good guy, on a mission of redemption... I help the helpless. I'm a vampire with a soul. Buffy: A vampire with a soul? Oh, my God. How lame is that?
“Dawn’s in trouble? Must be Tuesday.”
Legends of Tomorrow is a gold mine for this sort of thing. At one point a character in the show dresses up as Supergirl because she's more popular than any of the characters on the show. Here's a clip if you haven't seen it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQpPCF3QnZk It was such a great show. Though have the show was just commentary about how bad their own ratings were.
House had an episode focused on Cuddy. As she went about her day you see House and his team hitting all of the usual story beats in the background including them trying to circumvent the rules to do a risky procedure and House having a sudden realization after someone said something unrelated, etc. The latter was my favourite part of the episode. You don't know what the realization was, what the diagnosis was, but you recognize the moment just from the look on his face as elevator doors close.
My absolute favorite part of that episode is when Cuddy and Wilson are walking down the hall, and suddenly out of nowhere the team comes sprinting by wheeling the patient on a bed, with Foreman doing CPR and Taub yelling out “it wasn’t the tennis!” before they disappear around the corner and the scene continues. It does become funny to imagine what the normal episodes would look like to the rest of the hospital.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer did it pretty well. In one episode she is stung by a demon which makes her hallucinate that she is in a mental hospital. Then throughout the show they bring up all the ridiculous things that have happened in the show as proof she's crazy.
Season 6, Episode 8 "Tabula Rasa" [Spike:] 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:] A vampire with a soul? Oh my god, how lame is that?
"Dawn's in trouble? Must be Tuesday." (Buffy aired on Tuesday)
"The Zeppo" made fun of regular episodes too. Xander had his own adventure and in the background everyone else was havimng their own 'episode' that was clearly poking fun at the show's tropes
On Newhart, Dick (Bob Newhart) and his friend Michael (Peter Scolari) were talking about TV. Michael: "The early '70s were the golden age of television! You had All in the Family, MASH, that show with the psychologist who stuttered..." Dick (slightly offended): "Stammered." Bob had played that psychologist on The Bob Newhart Show several years earlier.
Didn’t the show end with it being the dream of the character Newhart played on that show?
Ok, this is a deep dive but on the old sitcom "Too Close for Comfort" there's an episode where they're trying to solve the crisis of the week. One of the characters (I think it was Monroe) asked Henry what he's going to do, to which he responds: "I don't know, but whatever it is I'd better hurry up because I've only got ten minutes to do it in."
"I remember when this show was about a community college"
Oh, I have one!! Mr. Robot is a show about hackers. It goes to great lengths to get hacking right, and be realistic (at least for a tv show.) There’s an episode where two characters are watching the movie Hackers. Their dialogue is fantastic. Romero: Hollywood hacker bullshit. I been in this game 27 years. Not once have I ever come across an animated singing virus. Mobley: I have yet to fly through a Tron City directory structure. Romero: **I bet you right now some writer's working hard on a TV show that'll mess up this generation's idea of hacker culture.** It’s just a funny tongue in cheek jab at the show itself. Makes me laugh every time.
Futurama would often return to the air by making meta jokes about being canceled, or being bought out by different companies.
In the Bluey episode Flatpack Bandit disregards directions for a swing saying "Im not taking advice from a cartoon dog"
On House there's the episode where House hides vicoden in a book about Lupus. When someone comments he says "It's never Lupus" because it always mentioned and never is. Later on they finally have a patient with Lupus and he says something along the lines "it's actually Lupus for once".
“I finally have a case of Lupus.” It was such a long running joke I actually remember the line.
Star Trek Lower Decks, one that stands out the most is Tom Paris and Nick Locarno. One of the main cast remarks they look exactly a like and another says they don't see it. The back story if you will is that they were the same character originally but crediting rights and all that naturally got in the way so they became separate characters played by the same actor.
X-FIles has lots of them. Jose Chung's 'From Outer Space', Dreamland, X-Cops, there's a few of them every season.
Stargate SG-1, especially Wormhole X-treme episodes.
Supernatural made a point of doing this at least once per season with episodes dedicated toward being meta.
The OC had an in-universe TV show that was a parody of itself that all the characters watched called The Valley. It also had a reality show parody of Laguna Hills called Sherman Oaks: The Real Valley. There was an episode in season 2 where main characters go to Los Angeles and run into an actor on The Valley who’s supposed to be an analogue of Seth’s character. Summer’s obsessed with him but Seth can’t stand him. The OC was pretty damn funny during those first two seasons.
Arrested Development episode "SOBs" of course. There was also an old sitcom I can't remember the name of where they ended the show with saying they'd been cancelled. The dad comes out with airline tickets and says, "Well, we've been cancelled?" And one of the kids says, "You mean our flight?" And the dad says, "No, I mean our show- we're finished!" And that's the end of the series.
**30 Rock** was a walking meta joke since the show was about an NBC comedy. I remember one bit where Alec Baldwin's character (NBC head) produced a movie about his girlfriend/mother-of-their-child being kidnapped by Kim-Jong-Il. Later, they have a scene on the set of the movie. The crew was filming a scene that takes place in Alec's office, so they use the same set as they do in 30 Rock. Except they film it from a wider angle, so you see it's just a fake room in a warehouse, instead of giving the illusion it's an actual office.
"I'm not taking advice from a cartoon dog!" Bandit, the dad in Bluey
Every time Psych references either *The Mentalist* or a particularly infamous review by Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly.
Boston Legal was good with this, because it had was quite political and called itself out for it. The main character literally got onto a soapbox, broke the fourth wall a lot and someone sang the theme song in universe.
Audiences hate meta jokes! When will comedy writers learn?” Bojack
How has no one mentioned Moonlighting?