Meta-reference
Encyclopedia
Metareference, a metafiction
technique, is a situation in a work of fiction whereby characters
display an awareness that they are in such a work, such as a film, television show or book. Sometimes it may even just be a form of editing or film-making technique that comments on the programme/film/book itself. It is also sometimes known as "Breaking the Fourth Wall", in reference to the theatrical tradition of playing as if there were no audience, as if a wall existed between them and the actors.
Also, an intentionally blank page
makes a meta-reference to itself when it states, "This page is intentionally left blank". This would also be a pseudo-reference, since the page is not in fact blank, but contains a statement to the effect that it is.
There has also been a few references to the kids simply being characters in a comic strip in Peanuts
. Once Charlie Brown told Schroeder to practice his pitching. He does, but it's the piano sort, not the baseball sort. At the end, Schroeder says "Sometimes I think I should put in a transfer to another comic strip!". Another time, Charlie Brown and Linus were very wordily talking about complaints. At the end, Linus says "There has also been complaints about too much talking and too little action in the modern comic strip. What do you think?".
, whose comedy The Frogs
has this dialogue in the underworld:
These asides are an early form of the technique of "breaking the fourth wall
", of which meta-reference is a major form. Several of Shakespeare's plays begin or end with references to the actors and the play itself, most famously A Midsummer Night's Dream
, in which Puck concludes with a speech which includes the lines:
is in the Marx Brothers
' movie Animal Crackers
, in which at one point Groucho speaks directly to the camera, saying, "Pardon me while I have a strange interlude." During the 1940s the Road to...
films starring Bob Hope
and Bing Crosby
frequently spoke to the audience and made references to the studio, the movie, and the actors. A more recent example comes from Fight Club
. A scene near the end of the movie returns to its opening scene, but instead of saying "I can't think of anything," the narrator now says, "I still can't think of anything," demonstrating that he is aware of having been subjected to a cinematic time-shift; another character responds sarcastically with "Ah, flashback humor."
Mel Brooks
has made metareference a directorial trademark in several of his films. In Blazing Saddles
, a fight within the movie spills over into the film studio where it is being filmed
and the characters fight with those from other movies. Several of the main characters flee from the brouhaha to a movie theater to see how their own movie resolves itself. Brooks continued his brand of self-reference in Spaceballs
as several characters attempt to figure out what to do next by watching a bootleg of the very movie in which they appear. Brooks continues in similar fashion in Robin Hood: Men in Tights
during a scene in which the actors, unsure of the rules of an archery contest, check the movie's script. Later in the same film, Dave Chappelle
's character references the plot of Blazing Saddles in his bid to become the new sheriff
.
Meta-humor is prevalent in The Great Muppet Caper
and Muppet Treasure Island
. In the former, these include a scene where Kermit the Frog
critiques Miss Piggy
's acting, and in the latter, references such as a tour group of rats taking pictures of "the actual jungle location for the movie Muppet Treasure Island." Similarly, in the Emperor's New Groove, Kuzco stops the film to address the audience directly. In The Simpsons Movie
, Homer Simpson
opines that everybody who watches movies in theaters is a giant sucker, turns to the audience, and says, "Especially you!" A similar reference is made in Kevin Smith
's Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
when Ben Affleck
's character, Holden McNeil, asks why anyone would pay to see a movie about Jay and Silent Bob and subsequently stares directly at the camera. Espionage-thriller spoof Top Secret!
features a moment where the characters portrayed by Val Kilmer
and Lucy Gutteridge
remark to each other that the ridiculous situation they find themselves in is like something from a bad movie. Then they both turn their heads to face the audience. In Ferris Bueller's Day Off
, Ferris Bueller often turns to the audience, commenting on what was happening in the scene.
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
has a main character who often references the situations he is in; he criticises the placement of two extras in a flashback scene, and at the end of the movie, in a hospital, various dead characters from earlier on in the movie reappear (including Abraham Lincoln
) as the narrator criticises the Hollywood trend of miraculous recovery of certain characters presumed dead. The movie adaptation
of the Hitman
game series, finds Agent 47
crashing through a hotel room window only to discover two children playing the Hitman
game itself on a game console. With a bemused expression on his face, he then makes a hasty exit. Michael Haneke
's Funny Games has the main character consistently addressing the audience. Paul winks at the camera in one scene and asks the audience a question in another.
Michael Palin
coined the term meta comment during the writing of Monty Python
's Flying Circus. It refers to a moment of commentary or dialogue
spoken by an actor
referring to the situation that character is in. For example in Monty Python and the Holy Grail
, following Sir Galahad's discovery of the Castle Anthrax
– Dingo is telling the sad tale of her life... she turns to the camera:
Large use of metareferences is made in Last Action Hero
, where the plot revolves around an action film fan, who is magically transferred into the movie he is watching. There he tries to convince the lead actor that he is, indeed, an action film hero, not a real-life police officer, by pointing out the extravagant cars, office spaces, and female extras, which only ever appear this way in movies, but not in real life, or by asking the lead to pronounce a written word he can't utter, because the movie is rated PG-13. Once convinced, the hero complains about being subjected to a series of – to him real – ordeals "only as a form of entertainment". During the course of the movie, the movie villains learn how to transfer from the movie into real life and the film culminates in a showdown featuring actors meeting roles they have played, Death from Ingmar Bergman
's The Seventh Seal
walking the streets, and the hero being saved from a deadly wound sustained in real life by being transferred back into his movie, where it is – naturally – only a flesh wound.
, and musicians Max Geldray
and Ray Ellington
were occasionally called upon to act as minor characters, and their efforts were often derided on air by the other characters.
was famous for his remarks to the audience, especially in the show Up Pompeii!
in which he would speak to the camera, feigning innocence about an obvious and risqué double entendre while mockingly censuring the audience for finding it funny.
Many jokes in the Warner Bros.
animated series Tiny Toon Adventures
, Animaniacs
, Freakazoid!
, and Histeria!
were meta-references.
George Burns
started talking to his audience early on in his TV show. In his radio show, Burns would occasionally beg the audience for laughs "Please laugh, folks -- that's the only line I got." Later on toward the end of the "Burns & Allen" TV show, George Burns brought in a television set
and literally "watched" the characters on his TV show as if he were at home, and not in the studio.
Rocky and Bullwinkle makes frequent meta-references. These include several instances in which the characters speak directly to the audience, or the narrator, and speak about the show in which they are players. One such example included when Rocky protested being eaten by cannibals because the network did not approve. The cannibals say they just intend to roast him and not eat him, which is acceptable. This incident is a reference to the network complaining about Rocky and Bullwinkle being nearly eaten by human cannibals in a previous episode. Another example features Bullwinkle buying a plane ticket to China and wondering whether the audience ever gets curious how they pay for all their travel.
The comedy show Monty Python's Flying Circus
prominently featured meta-references; examples include:
Meta-references are frequently used on The Simpsons
. Characters often mockingly refer to the show, the writers, the Fox Network, known continuity
errors, or popular memes pertaining to the show as a form of self-parody
.
In the South Park
episode "More Crap
", a trophy appears at the bottom of the screen to announce the fact that South Park won an Emmy for "Make Love Not Warcraft". At the end of "More Crap", Randy is awarded said trophy.
In the South Park
episode "Red Man's Greed
", a new character named Alex Glick is introduced without explanation. Glick had won a charity auction at an AIDS
benefit held by Elton John
in which South Park creators Matt Stone
and Trey Parker
offered a one-time guest spot on the show. Glick makes periodic appearances throughout the episode and serves seemingly no purpose in the plot. He is ignored by the other boys until the end of the episode, when he pontificates on the lessons to be learned from the recent events. Stan asks him, "Dude, who the hell are you?", to which he responds, "I'm Alex Glick. I got to come on and do the voice thingy." Kyle tells him "What?! Get the hell out of here!", and Alex leaves after saying "Hi Mom! Hi Dad! Hi Joe!"
The Red Dwarf
special "Red Dwarf: Back to Earth
" is mostly based on a meta-reference premise whereby the characters enter the "real" (although equally fictional) world in which they are characters in a work of fiction. The characters go on to meet the actors who portray them.
In an episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
in which the Banks family accompanies Will Smith
's character on a visit to his childhood neighborhood in Philadelphia, Smith refers to a bully that he had fought with as "the dude spinning me around on his shoulders in the opening credits
."
Malcolm in the Middle
regularly uses the "breaking the fourth wall" technique as a form of narration, acknowledging, if not to the other characters, than at least to Malcolm, that an audience exists.
30 Rock
frequently uses metahumor; Liz Lemon and other characters often directly address or wink at the camera. Its live episode continued with this type of humor, referencing (in its show within a show, The Girlie Show) a common flaw of live televised events, "breaking
", when actors will laugh unintentionally while they are onscreen.
In season 4
of Seinfeld
, Jerry Seinfeld
's character is asked by NBC executives to pitch them an idea for a TV series. Jerry and George
conceive and pitch an idea for a "show about nothing" in a storyline that closely mirrors the premise of Seinfeld and the development of the idea for the show by Seinfeld and Larry David
.
In the science fiction show Supernatural
season 6 episode 15 "The French Mistake" (a reference to Blazing Saddles
mentioned above), Sam and Dean are sent into an alternate reality where they are actors Jared Padalecki
and Jensen Ackles
who star on a show called Supernatural. Also appearing is Misha Collins
who plays the angel Castiel and Jared's real world wife Genevieve Padalecki, who used to play the demon Ruby in season 4 of the show.
Boston Legal
frequently used meta-humor, with characters often acknowledging their status as fictional characters. In one instance, Alan Shore greets Denny Crane by saying "I've hardly seen you this episode!"
In a 1993 commercial for Doritos
, actor Chevy Chase
is seen trying to save an old lady in danger. Suddenly, a director yells "Cut!" and an advertising executive informs Chase that his Doritos advertising campaign has been cancelled due to poor ratings. Chase remarks, "Tough year. Good chip." The gag is also a reference to the abrupt cancellation of Chase's short-lived late night talk show
.
In season 18
, episode 17 of Saturday Night Live
, an episode of the recurring Hub's Gyros skit ends in a rare meta-reference. After several gags involving variations of the skit's "you like-a the juice, huh?" catchphrase, a customer played by David Spade
asks for the sketch to end. Hub replies, "You like-a the sketch to end, huh? Same thing over and over? Getting very boring, huh?" The customer asks for the camera to pan over to "the blonde guy with the guitar"
, to which Hub replies, "You like-a the blonde guy with the guitar, huh? I show you the blonde guy with the guitar" and points to the band
off stage as the sketch ends.
Contents:
Preface / Introduction by Werner Wolf: Metareference across Media: The Concept, its Transmedial Potentials and Problems, Main Forms and Functions.
Theoretical Aspects of Metareference, Illustrated with Examples from Various Media:
Winfried Nöth: Metareference from a Semiotic Perspective / Andreas Mahler: The Case is ‘this’: Metareference in Magritte and Ashbery / Irina O. Rajewsky: Beyond ‘Metanarration’: Form-Based Metareference as a Transgeneric and Transmedial Phenomenon / Sonja Klimek: Metalepsis and Its (Anti-)Illusionist Effects in the Arts, Media and Role-Playing Games
Metareference in Music:
Hermann Danuser: Generic Titles: On Paratextual Metareference in Music / Tobias Janz: “Music about Music”: Metaization and Intertextuality in Beethoven’s Prometheus Variations op. 35 / René Michaelsen: Exploring Metareference in Instrumental Music – The Case of Robert Schumann / David Francis Urrows: Phantasmic Metareference: The Pastiche ‘Operas’ in Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera / Jörg-Peter Mittmann: Intramedial Reference and Metareference in Contemporary Music / Martin Butler: “Please Play This Song on the Radio”: Forms and Functions of Metareference in Popular Music
Metareference in the Visual Arts:
Henry Keazor : “L’architecture n’est pas un art rigoureux”: Jean Nouvel, Postmodernism and Meta-Architecture / Katharina Bantleon, Jasmin Haselsteiner-Scharner: Of Museums, Beholders, Artworks and Photography: Metareferential Elements in Thomas Struth’s Photographic Projects Museum Photographs and Making Time /
Metareference in Film/Cinema:
Jean-Marc Limoges: The Gradable Effects of Self-Reflexivity on Aesthetic Illusion in Cinema / Barbara Pfeifer: Novel in/and Film: Transgeneric and Transmedial Metareference in Stranger than Fiction
Metareference in Literature:
Hans Ulrich Seeber: Narrative Fiction and the Fascination with the New Media Gramophone, Photography and Film: Metafictional and Media-Comparative Aspects of H. G. Wells’ A Modern Utopia and Beryl Bainbridge’s Master Georgie / Daniella Jancsó: Metareference and Intermedial Reference: William Carlos Williams’ Poetological Poems
Metareference in Various Individual Media:
Ingrid Pfandl-Buchegger, Gudrun Rottensteiner: Metareferentiality in Early Dance: The Jacobean Antimasque / Karin Kukkonen: Textworlds and Metareference in Comics / Doris Mader: Metareference in the Audio-/Radioliterary Soundscape / Fotis Jannidis: Metareference in Computer Games
Metareference in More than One Medium:
Janine Hauthal: When Metadrama Is Turned into Metafilm: A Media-Comparative Approach to Metareference / Andreas Böhn: Quotation of Forms as a Strategy of Metareference / Erika Greber: ‘The Media as Such’: Meta-Reflection in Russian Futurism – A Case Study of Vladimir Mayakovsky’s Poetry, Paintings, Theatre, and Films
Notes on Contributors / Index
Metafiction
Metafiction, also known as Romantic irony in the context of Romantic works of literature, is a type of fiction that self-consciously addresses the devices of fiction, exposing the fictional illusion...
technique, is a situation in a work of fiction whereby characters
Character (arts)
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
display an awareness that they are in such a work, such as a film, television show or book. Sometimes it may even just be a form of editing or film-making technique that comments on the programme/film/book itself. It is also sometimes known as "Breaking the Fourth Wall", in reference to the theatrical tradition of playing as if there were no audience, as if a wall existed between them and the actors.
Also, an intentionally blank page
Intentionally blank page
An intentionally blank page is a page that is devoid of content, and may be unexpected. Such pages may serve purposes ranging from place-holding to space-filling and content separation...
makes a meta-reference to itself when it states, "This page is intentionally left blank". This would also be a pseudo-reference, since the page is not in fact blank, but contains a statement to the effect that it is.
Fiction
Metareference in fiction is jarring to the reader, but can be comical, as in Jasper Fforde's novel Lost in a Good Book. The character Thursday Next remarks to her husband that she feels uncomfortable having sex in front of so many people, when he is confused because they are alone in their bedroom, she explains, "all the people reading us". There are several occasions of meta-reference in Jasper Fforde's work. In The Fourth Bear two characters lament over a bad joke made by the author, saying, "I can't believe he gets away with that." Some novels with first person narration contain instances of metareference when the narrator addresses the reader directly. Examples include Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, and Philip Reeve's Larklight.There has also been a few references to the kids simply being characters in a comic strip in Peanuts
Peanuts
Peanuts is a syndicated daily and Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz, which ran from October 2, 1950, to February 13, 2000, continuing in reruns afterward...
. Once Charlie Brown told Schroeder to practice his pitching. He does, but it's the piano sort, not the baseball sort. At the end, Schroeder says "Sometimes I think I should put in a transfer to another comic strip!". Another time, Charlie Brown and Linus were very wordily talking about complaints. At the end, Linus says "There has also been complaints about too much talking and too little action in the modern comic strip. What do you think?".
Theatre
Metareference can be traced back to traditional asides to the audience in theatrical productions, a feature of dramatic presentation which dates back at least to the time of AristophanesAristophanes
Aristophanes , son of Philippus, of the deme Cydathenaus, was a comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete...
, whose comedy The Frogs
The Frogs
The Frogs is a comedy written by the Ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes. It was performed at the Lenaia, one of the Festivals of Dionysus, in 405 BC, and received first place.-Plot:...
has this dialogue in the underworld:
- Dionysus: But tell me, did you see the parricides / And perjured folk he mentioned?
- Xanthias: Didn't you?
- Dionsyus: Poseidon, yes. Why look! (points to the audience) I see them now.
These asides are an early form of the technique of "breaking the fourth wall
Fourth wall
The fourth wall is the imaginary "wall" at the front of the stage in a traditional three-walled box set in a proscenium theatre, through which the audience sees the action in the world of the play...
", of which meta-reference is a major form. Several of Shakespeare's plays begin or end with references to the actors and the play itself, most famously A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a play that was written by William Shakespeare. It is believed to have been written between 1590 and 1596. It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta...
, in which Puck concludes with a speech which includes the lines:
- If we shadows have offended, think but this and all is mended
- That you have but slumber'd here while these visions did appear.
Film
One of the earliest metareferences in cinemaFilm
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
is in the Marx Brothers
Marx Brothers
The Marx Brothers were an American family comedy act, originally from New York City, that enjoyed success in Vaudeville, Broadway, and motion pictures from the early 1900s to around 1950...
' movie Animal Crackers
Animal Crackers (film)
Animal Crackers is a 1930 American comedy film, in which mayhem and zaniness ensue when a valuable painting goes missing during a party in honor of famed African explorer Captain Spaulding. The film was both a critical and commercial success upon initial release, and remains one of the Marx...
, in which at one point Groucho speaks directly to the camera, saying, "Pardon me while I have a strange interlude." During the 1940s the Road to...
Road to...
Road to ... refers to a series of seven comedy films starring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and Dorothy Lamour. They are also often referred to as the "Road" pictures or the "Road" series. The movies were a combination of adventure, comedy, romance, and music...
films starring Bob Hope
Bob Hope
Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel...
and Bing Crosby
Bing Crosby
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation....
frequently spoke to the audience and made references to the studio, the movie, and the actors. A more recent example comes from Fight Club
Fight Club (film)
Fight Club is a 1999 American film based on the 1996 novel of the same name by Chuck Palahniuk. The film was directed by David Fincher and stars Edward Norton, Brad Pitt and Helena Bonham Carter. Norton plays the unnamed protagonist, an "everyman" who is discontented with his white-collar job...
. A scene near the end of the movie returns to its opening scene, but instead of saying "I can't think of anything," the narrator now says, "I still can't think of anything," demonstrating that he is aware of having been subjected to a cinematic time-shift; another character responds sarcastically with "Ah, flashback humor."
Mel Brooks
Mel Brooks
Mel Brooks is an American film director, screenwriter, composer, lyricist, comedian, actor and producer. He is best known as a creator of broad film farces and comic parodies. He began his career as a stand-up comic and as a writer for the early TV variety show Your Show of Shows...
has made metareference a directorial trademark in several of his films. In Blazing Saddles
Blazing Saddles
Blazing Saddles is a 1974 satirical Western comedy film directed by Mel Brooks. Starring Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder, the film was written by Brooks, Andrew Bergman, Richard Pryor, Norman Steinberg, and Al Uger, and was based on Bergman's story and draft. The movie was nominated for three...
, a fight within the movie spills over into the film studio where it is being filmed
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
and the characters fight with those from other movies. Several of the main characters flee from the brouhaha to a movie theater to see how their own movie resolves itself. Brooks continued his brand of self-reference in Spaceballs
Spaceballs
Spaceballs is a 1987 American science fiction comedy parody film co-written by, directed by, Mel Brooks and starring Bill Pullman, John Candy, Mel Brooks & Rick Moranis. It also features, Daphne Zuniga, Dick Van Patten, and the voice of Joan Rivers. The film was released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer on...
as several characters attempt to figure out what to do next by watching a bootleg of the very movie in which they appear. Brooks continues in similar fashion in Robin Hood: Men in Tights
Robin Hood: Men in Tights
Robin Hood: Men in Tights is a 1993 French-American adventure comedy film and a parody of the Robin Hood story. Produced and directed by Mel Brooks, the film stars Cary Elwes, Richard Lewis, and Dave Chappelle in his film debut...
during a scene in which the actors, unsure of the rules of an archery contest, check the movie's script. Later in the same film, Dave Chappelle
Dave Chappelle
David Khari Webber "Dave" Chappelle is an American comedian, screenwriter, television/film producer, actor, and artist. Chappelle began his film career in the film Robin Hood: Men in Tights in 1993 and continued to star in minor roles in the films The Nutty Professor, Con Air, and Blue Streak. His...
's character references the plot of Blazing Saddles in his bid to become the new sheriff
Sheriff
A sheriff is in principle a legal official with responsibility for a county. In practice, the specific combination of legal, political, and ceremonial duties of a sheriff varies greatly from country to country....
.
Meta-humor is prevalent in The Great Muppet Caper
The Great Muppet Caper
The Great Muppet Caper is a 1981 mystery comedy film directed by Jim Henson. It is the second of a series of live-action musical feature films, starring Jim Henson's Muppets. This film was produced by Henson Associates, ITC Entertainment and Universal Pictures, and premiered on 26 July 1981. The...
and Muppet Treasure Island
Muppet Treasure Island
Muppet Treasure Island is a 1996 American musical film based on Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island. It is the fifth feature film to star The Muppets and was directed by Jim Henson's son Brian Henson....
. In the former, these include a scene where Kermit the Frog
Kermit the Frog
Kermit the Frog is puppeteer Jim Henson's most famous Muppet creation, first introduced in 1955. He is the protagonist of many Muppet projects, most notably as the host of The Muppet Show, and has appeared in various sketches on Sesame Street, in commercials and in public service announcements over...
critiques Miss Piggy
Miss Piggy
Miss Piggy is a Muppet character who was primarily played by Frank Oz on The Muppet Show. In 2001, Eric Jacobson began performing the role, although Oz did not officially retire until 2002....
's acting, and in the latter, references such as a tour group of rats taking pictures of "the actual jungle location for the movie Muppet Treasure Island." Similarly, in the Emperor's New Groove, Kuzco stops the film to address the audience directly. In The Simpsons Movie
The Simpsons Movie
The Simpsons Movie is a 2007 American animated comedy film based on the animated television series The Simpsons. The film was directed by David Silverman, and stars the regular television cast of Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Hank Azaria, Harry Shearer, Tress...
, Homer Simpson
Homer Simpson
Homer Jay Simpson is a fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons and the patriarch of the eponymous family. He is voiced by Dan Castellaneta and first appeared on television, along with the rest of his family, in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
opines that everybody who watches movies in theaters is a giant sucker, turns to the audience, and says, "Especially you!" A similar reference is made in Kevin Smith
Kevin Smith
Kevin Patrick Smith is an American screenwriter, actor, film producer, and director, as well as a popular comic book writer, author, comedian/raconteur, and internet radio personality best recognized by viewers as Silent Bob...
's Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back is a 2001 American action adventure comedy film written, directed by, and starring Kevin Smith as Silent Bob, the fifth to be set in his View Askewniverse, a growing collection of characters and settings that developed out of his cult favorite Clerks...
when Ben Affleck
Ben Affleck
Benjamin Géza Affleck-Boldt , better known as Ben Affleck, is an American actor, film director, writer, and producer. He became known with his performances in Kevin Smith's films such as Mallrats and Chasing Amy...
's character, Holden McNeil, asks why anyone would pay to see a movie about Jay and Silent Bob and subsequently stares directly at the camera. Espionage-thriller spoof Top Secret!
Top Secret!
Top Secret! is a 1984 comedy film directed by David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker. It stars Val Kilmer , Lucy Gutteridge, Omar Sharif, Peter Cushing, Michael Gough and Jeremy Kemp. The film is a parody of the GDR era and Elvis films...
features a moment where the characters portrayed by Val Kilmer
Val Kilmer
Val Edward Kilmer is an American actor. Originally a stage actor, Kilmer became popular in the mid-1980s after a string of appearances in comedy films, starting with Top Secret! , then the cult classic Real Genius , as well as blockbuster action films, including a supporting role in Top Gun and a...
and Lucy Gutteridge
Lucy Gutteridge
Lucy Karima Gutteridge is an English actress.Gutteridge was born in London, the eldest daughter of Bernard Hugh Gutteridge by his marriage to Nabila Farah Karima Halim, the daughter of Prince Muhammad Said Bey Halim of Egypt and his British second wife, Nabila Malika...
remark to each other that the ridiculous situation they find themselves in is like something from a bad movie. Then they both turn their heads to face the audience. In Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Ferris Bueller's Day Off is a 1986 American teen coming-of-age comedy film written and directed by John Hughes.The film follows high school senior Ferris Bueller , who decides to skip school and spend the day in downtown Chicago...
, Ferris Bueller often turns to the audience, commenting on what was happening in the scene.
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is a 2005 crime/dark comedy film, which engages many conventions of the classic film noir genre in a tongue-in-cheek fashion. It is based, in part, on the novel Bodies Are Where You Find Them by Brett Halliday. The cast includes Robert Downey, Jr., Val Kilmer, Michelle Monaghan...
has a main character who often references the situations he is in; he criticises the placement of two extras in a flashback scene, and at the end of the movie, in a hospital, various dead characters from earlier on in the movie reappear (including Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
) as the narrator criticises the Hollywood trend of miraculous recovery of certain characters presumed dead. The movie adaptation
Hitman (2007 film)
Hitman is a 2007 film directed by Xavier Gens and based on the video game series of the same name. A gun-for-hire "Hitman" is a genetically-engineered assassin known as Agent 47. He is hired by a group, 'The Organization' and becomes ensnared in a political conspiracy. He finds himself pursued by...
of the Hitman
Hitman (series)
Hitman is a stealth game series developed by the Danish company IO Interactive. The series is available on PC as well as several video game consoles, including the Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Xbox 360. The game series has since expanded into a novel, Hitman: Enemy Within written by...
game series, finds Agent 47
Agent 47
Agent 47 is a fictional character and the main protagonist in the Hitman video-game series. Created by IO Interactive, the character was developed around David Bateson, who also provided the in-game voice...
crashing through a hotel room window only to discover two children playing the Hitman
Hitman
A hitman is a person hired to kill another person.- Hitmen in organized crime :Hitmen are largely linked to the world of organized crime. Hitmen are hired people who kill people for money. Notable examples include Murder, Inc., Mafia hitmen and Richard Kuklinski.- Other cases involving hitmen...
game itself on a game console. With a bemused expression on his face, he then makes a hasty exit. Michael Haneke
Michael Haneke
Michael Haneke is a German born Austrian filmmaker and writer best known for his bleak and disturbing style. His films often document problems and failures in modern society. Haneke has worked in television‚ theatre and cinema. He is also known for raising social issues in his work...
's Funny Games has the main character consistently addressing the audience. Paul winks at the camera in one scene and asks the audience a question in another.
Michael Palin
Michael Palin
Michael Edward Palin, CBE FRGS is an English comedian, actor, writer and television presenter best known for being one of the members of the comedy group Monty Python and for his travel documentaries....
coined the term meta comment during the writing of Monty Python
Monty Python
Monty Python was a British surreal comedy group who created their influential Monty Python's Flying Circus, a British television comedy sketch show that first aired on the BBC on 5 October 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over four series...
's Flying Circus. It refers to a moment of commentary or dialogue
Dialogue
Dialogue is a literary and theatrical form consisting of a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people....
spoken by an actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
referring to the situation that character is in. For example in Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Monty Python and the Holy Grail is a 1974 British comedy film written and performed by the comedy group Monty Python , and directed by Gilliam and Jones...
, following Sir Galahad's discovery of the Castle Anthrax
Anthrax
Anthrax is an acute disease caused by the bacterium Bacillus anthracis. Most forms of the disease are lethal, and it affects both humans and other animals...
– Dingo is telling the sad tale of her life... she turns to the camera:
Oh, wicked, bad, naughty, evil Zoot! She is a bad person and must pay
the penalty... Do you think this scene should have been cut? We were so
worried when the boys were writing it, but now, we're glad. It's better
than some of the previous scenes, I think...
Large use of metareferences is made in Last Action Hero
Last Action Hero
Last Action Hero is a 1993 American action-comedy-fantasy film directed and produced by John McTiernan. It is a satire of the action genre and its clichés, containing several parodies of action films in the form of films within the film....
, where the plot revolves around an action film fan, who is magically transferred into the movie he is watching. There he tries to convince the lead actor that he is, indeed, an action film hero, not a real-life police officer, by pointing out the extravagant cars, office spaces, and female extras, which only ever appear this way in movies, but not in real life, or by asking the lead to pronounce a written word he can't utter, because the movie is rated PG-13. Once convinced, the hero complains about being subjected to a series of – to him real – ordeals "only as a form of entertainment". During the course of the movie, the movie villains learn how to transfer from the movie into real life and the film culminates in a showdown featuring actors meeting roles they have played, Death from Ingmar Bergman
Ingmar Bergman
Ernst Ingmar Bergman was a Swedish director, writer and producer for film, stage and television. Described by Woody Allen as "probably the greatest film artist, all things considered, since the invention of the motion picture camera", he is recognized as one of the most accomplished and...
's The Seventh Seal
The Seventh Seal
The Seventh Seal is a 1957 Swedish film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman. Set during the Black Death, it tells of the journey of a medieval knight and a game of chess he plays with the personification of Death , who has come to take his life. Bergman developed the film from his own play...
walking the streets, and the hero being saved from a deadly wound sustained in real life by being transferred back into his movie, where it is – naturally – only a flesh wound.
Radio
The long-running 1950s and 1960s radio comedy series The Goons frequently made use of meta-reference. In one episode, for example, Eccles reported that he never appeared in a scene with Moriarty because both characters were played by the same actor. The series' announcer, Wallace GreensladeWallace Greenslade
Wallace Greenslade was a BBC announcer and newsreader. He is mainly remembered for being the announcer - and frequently the straight man - for the BBC radio comedy series The Goon Show during most of its run.Greenslade was born at Formby, Lancashire...
, and musicians Max Geldray
Max Geldray
Max Geldray was a jazz harmonica player, usually credited as being the first such.Born Max van Gelder to Jewish parents in Amsterdam, Netherlands, he was best known for his playing and occasional acting on the BBC comedy radio series, The Goon Show before emigrating to the United States...
and Ray Ellington
Ray Ellington
Ray Ellington was a popular English singer, drummer and bandleader. He is best known for his appearances on The Goon Show from 1951 to 1960...
were occasionally called upon to act as minor characters, and their efforts were often derided on air by the other characters.
Television
Frankie HowerdFrankie Howerd
Francis Alick "Frankie" Howerd OBE was an English comedian and comic actor whose career, described by fellow comedian Barry Cryer as "a series of comebacks", spanned six decades.-Early career:...
was famous for his remarks to the audience, especially in the show Up Pompeii!
Up Pompeii!
Up Pompeii! is a British television comedy series broadcast between 1969 and 1970, starring Frankie Howerd. The first series was written by Talbot Rothwell, a scriptwriter for the Carry On films, and the second series by Rothwell and Sid Colin. Two later specials were transmitted in 1975 and...
in which he would speak to the camera, feigning innocence about an obvious and risqué double entendre while mockingly censuring the audience for finding it funny.
Many jokes in the Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
animated series Tiny Toon Adventures
Tiny Toon Adventures
Steven Spielberg Presents Tiny Toon Adventures, usually referred to as Tiny Toon Adventures or simply Tiny Toons, is an American animated television series created by Tom Ruegger and produced by Amblin Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation. It began production as a result of Warner Bros....
, Animaniacs
Animaniacs
Steven Spielberg Presents Animaniacs, usually referred to as simply Animaniacs, is an American animated series, distributed by Warner Bros. Television and produced by Amblin Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation. The cartoon was the second animated series produced by the collaboration of Steven...
, Freakazoid!
Freakazoid!
Freakazoid! is an American animated television series created by Steven Spielberg, Bruce Timm, and Paul Dini for the Kids' WB programming block of The WB. The series chronicles the adventures of the title character, Freakazoid, a manic, insane superhero who battles with an array of super villains....
, and Histeria!
Histeria!
Histeria! is a 1998 American animated series created by Tom Ruegger and produced by Warner Bros. Animation. Unlike other animated series produced by Warner Bros. in the 1990s, Histeria! stood out as the most explicit edutainment program in order to meet FCC requirements for...
were meta-references.
George Burns
George Burns
George Burns , born Nathan Birnbaum, was an American comedian, actor, and writer.He was one of the few entertainers whose career successfully spanned vaudeville, film, radio, television and movies, with and without his wife, Gracie Allen. His arched eyebrow and cigar smoke punctuation became...
started talking to his audience early on in his TV show. In his radio show, Burns would occasionally beg the audience for laughs "Please laugh, folks -- that's the only line I got." Later on toward the end of the "Burns & Allen" TV show, George Burns brought in a television set
Television set
A television set is a device that combines a tuner, display, and speakers for the purpose of viewing television. Television sets became a popular consumer product after the Second World War, using vacuum tubes and cathode ray tube displays...
and literally "watched" the characters on his TV show as if he were at home, and not in the studio.
Rocky and Bullwinkle makes frequent meta-references. These include several instances in which the characters speak directly to the audience, or the narrator, and speak about the show in which they are players. One such example included when Rocky protested being eaten by cannibals because the network did not approve. The cannibals say they just intend to roast him and not eat him, which is acceptable. This incident is a reference to the network complaining about Rocky and Bullwinkle being nearly eaten by human cannibals in a previous episode. Another example features Bullwinkle buying a plane ticket to China and wondering whether the audience ever gets curious how they pay for all their travel.
The comedy show Monty Python's Flying Circus
Monty Python's Flying Circus
Monty Python’s Flying Circus is a BBC TV sketch comedy series. The shows were composed of surreality, risqué or innuendo-laden humour, sight gags and observational sketches without punchlines...
prominently featured meta-references; examples include:
- A group of people lost in a jungleJungleA Jungle is an area of land in the tropics overgrown with dense vegetation.The word jungle originates from the Sanskrit word jangala which referred to uncultivated land. Although the Sanskrit word refers to "dry land", it has been suggested that an Anglo-Indian interpretation led to its...
, who are rescued when they realize someone is filming them - Characters who think the sketch they are playing is silly and decide to stop
- A TV host who experiences repeatedly shown film clips as déjà vuDéjà vuDéjà vu is the experience of feeling sure that one has already witnessed or experienced a current situation, even though the exact circumstances of the prior encounter are uncertain and were perhaps imagined...
- A man wants to be a lion tamer but confuses lions with anteaterAnteaterAnteaters, also known as antbear, are the four mammal species of the suborder Vermilingua commonly known for eating ants and termites. Together with the sloths, they compose the order Pilosa...
s. His interviewer describes a lion and a clip of a lion is played, causing the would-be tamer to scream in terror. - A judge who warns, "If there is any more stock footageStock footageStock footage, and similarly, archive footage, library pictures and file footage are film or video footage that may or may not be custom shot for use in a specific film or television program. Stock footage is of beneficial use to filmmakers as it is sometimes less expensive than shooting new...
of ladies applauding I shall clear the court!" - Members of the Spanish InquisitionSpanish InquisitionThe Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition , commonly known as the Spanish Inquisition , was a tribunal established in 1480 by Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. It was intended to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms, and to replace the Medieval...
who are in a hurry, because the credits are rolling and the show is about to end - One character remarks that a joke was weak; the other wails, "But it's my only line!"
- A comment that "It's the end of the series, they couldn't make up something funnier"
- Characters consulting the script because they are unsure about what ought to happen next
- A sequence in which characters are aware that exterior shots are on 16mm film and interior shots are videotapeVideotapeA videotape is a recording of images and sounds on to magnetic tape as opposed to film stock or random access digital media. Videotapes are also used for storing scientific or medical data, such as the data produced by an electrocardiogram...
d.
Meta-references are frequently used on The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
. Characters often mockingly refer to the show, the writers, the Fox Network, known continuity
Continuity (fiction)
In fiction, continuity is consistency of the characteristics of persons, plot, objects, places and events seen by the reader or viewer over some period of time...
errors, or popular memes pertaining to the show as a form of self-parody
Self-parody
A self-parody is a parody of oneself or one's own work. As an artist accomplishes it by imitating his or her own characteristics, a self-parody is potentially difficult to distinguish from especially characteristic productions .Sometimes critics use the...
.
In the South Park
South Park
South Park is an American animated television series created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the Comedy Central television network. Intended for mature audiences, the show has become famous for its crude language, surreal, satirical, and dark humor that lampoons a wide range of topics...
episode "More Crap
More Crap
"More Crap" is the 9th episode of the eleventh season of the animated television series South Park. It was originally broadcast on Comedy Central in the United State on October 10, 2007, and is rated TV-MA...
", a trophy appears at the bottom of the screen to announce the fact that South Park won an Emmy for "Make Love Not Warcraft". At the end of "More Crap", Randy is awarded said trophy.
In the South Park
South Park
South Park is an American animated television series created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the Comedy Central television network. Intended for mature audiences, the show has become famous for its crude language, surreal, satirical, and dark humor that lampoons a wide range of topics...
episode "Red Man's Greed
Red Man's Greed
"Red Man's Greed" is episode 707 of the Comedy Central series South Park, first broadcast on April 30, 2003. It is a parody of the Indian removal policies of the 19th century. Alex Glick won a guest voice role in a charity auction.- Plot :...
", a new character named Alex Glick is introduced without explanation. Glick had won a charity auction at an AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
benefit held by Elton John
Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE, Hon DMus is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor...
in which South Park creators Matt Stone
Matt Stone
Matthew Richard "Matt" Stone is an American screenwriter, producer, voice artist, musician and actor, best known for being the co-creator of South Park along with creative partner and best friend, Trey Parker....
and Trey Parker
Trey Parker
Trey Parker is an American animator, screenwriter, director, producer, voice artist, musician and actor, best known for being the co-creator of the television series South Park along with his creative partner and best friend Matt Stone.Parker started his film career in 1992, making a holiday short...
offered a one-time guest spot on the show. Glick makes periodic appearances throughout the episode and serves seemingly no purpose in the plot. He is ignored by the other boys until the end of the episode, when he pontificates on the lessons to be learned from the recent events. Stan asks him, "Dude, who the hell are you?", to which he responds, "I'm Alex Glick. I got to come on and do the voice thingy." Kyle tells him "What?! Get the hell out of here!", and Alex leaves after saying "Hi Mom! Hi Dad! Hi Joe!"
The Red Dwarf
Red Dwarf
Red Dwarf is a British comedy franchise which primarily comprises eight series of a television science fiction sitcom that aired on BBC Two between 1988 and 1999 and Dave from 2009–present. It gained cult following. It was created by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, who also wrote the first six series...
special "Red Dwarf: Back to Earth
Red Dwarf: Back to Earth
Red Dwarf: Back to Earth is a three part TV miniseries continuation of the science fiction sitcom Red Dwarf, broadcast on the British television channel Dave between 10 April and 12 April 2009 and subsequently released on DVD on 15 June 2009 & on Blu-ray on 31 August 2009. It was the first...
" is mostly based on a meta-reference premise whereby the characters enter the "real" (although equally fictional) world in which they are characters in a work of fiction. The characters go on to meet the actors who portray them.
In an episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from September 10, 1990 to May 20, 1996. The show stars Will Smith as a fictionalized version of himself, a street-smart teenager from West Philadelphia who is sent to move in with his aunt and uncle in their...
in which the Banks family accompanies Will Smith
Will Smith
Willard Christopher "Will" Smith, Jr. , also known by his stage name The Fresh Prince, is an American actor, producer, and rapper. He has enjoyed success in television, film and music. In April 2007, Newsweek called him the most powerful actor in Hollywood...
's character on a visit to his childhood neighborhood in Philadelphia, Smith refers to a bully that he had fought with as "the dude spinning me around on his shoulders in the opening credits
Opening credits
In a motion picture, television program, or video game, the opening credits are shown at the very beginning and list the most important members of the production. They are now usually shown as text superimposed on a blank screen or static pictures, or sometimes on top of action in the show. There...
."
Malcolm in the Middle
Malcolm in the Middle
Malcolm in the Middle is an American television sitcom created by Linwood Boomer for the Fox Network. The series was first broadcast on January 9, 2000, and ended its six-and-a-half-year run on May 14, 2006, after seven seasons and 151 episodes...
regularly uses the "breaking the fourth wall" technique as a form of narration, acknowledging, if not to the other characters, than at least to Malcolm, that an audience exists.
30 Rock
30 Rock
30 Rock is an American television comedy series created by Tina Fey that airs on NBC. The series is loosely based on Fey's experiences as head writer for Saturday Night Live...
frequently uses metahumor; Liz Lemon and other characters often directly address or wink at the camera. Its live episode continued with this type of humor, referencing (in its show within a show, The Girlie Show) a common flaw of live televised events, "breaking
Breaking character
Breaking character, "to break character", is a theatrical term used to describe when an actor, while actively performing in character, slips out of character and behaves as his or her actual self...
", when actors will laugh unintentionally while they are onscreen.
In season 4
Seinfeld (season 4)
Season four of Seinfeld, an American comedy television series created by Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David, began airing on August 12, 1992, and concluded on May 20, 1993, on NBC.-Production:...
of Seinfeld
Seinfeld
Seinfeld is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, lasting nine seasons, and is now in syndication. It was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, the latter starring as a fictionalized version of himself...
, Jerry Seinfeld
Jerry Seinfeld
Jerome Allen "Jerry" Seinfeld is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and television and film producer, known for playing a semi-fictional version of himself in the situation comedy Seinfeld , which he co-created and co-wrote with Larry David, and, in the show's final two seasons,...
's character is asked by NBC executives to pitch them an idea for a TV series. Jerry and George
George Costanza
George Louis Costanza is a character in the American television sitcom Seinfeld , played by Jason Alexander. He has variously been described as a "short, stocky, slow-witted, bald man" , "Lord of the Idiots" , and as "the greatest sitcom character of all time"...
conceive and pitch an idea for a "show about nothing" in a storyline that closely mirrors the premise of Seinfeld and the development of the idea for the show by Seinfeld and Larry David
Larry David
Lawrence Gene "Larry" David is an American actor, writer, comedian and producer. He is best known as the co-creator , head writer, and executive producer of the television series Seinfeld from 1989 to 1996, and for creating the 1999 HBO series Curb Your Enthusiasm, a partially improvised sitcom in...
.
In the science fiction show Supernatural
Supernatural
The supernatural or is that which is not subject to the laws of nature, or more figuratively, that which is said to exist above and beyond nature...
season 6 episode 15 "The French Mistake" (a reference to Blazing Saddles
Blazing Saddles
Blazing Saddles is a 1974 satirical Western comedy film directed by Mel Brooks. Starring Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder, the film was written by Brooks, Andrew Bergman, Richard Pryor, Norman Steinberg, and Al Uger, and was based on Bergman's story and draft. The movie was nominated for three...
mentioned above), Sam and Dean are sent into an alternate reality where they are actors Jared Padalecki
Jared Padalecki
Jared Tristan Padalecki is an American actor. He grew up in Texas and came to fame in the early 2000s after appearing on the television series Gilmore Girls as well as in several Hollywood films, including New York Minute and House of Wax...
and Jensen Ackles
Jensen Ackles
Jensen Ross Ackles is an American actor. He is known for his roles in television as Eric Brady in Days of our Lives, which earned him several Daytime Emmy Award nominations, as well as Alec/X5-494 in Dark Angel and Jason Teague in Smallville...
who star on a show called Supernatural. Also appearing is Misha Collins
Misha Collins
Misha Collins is an American actor and producer. He is best known for his role as the angel Castiel on the CW television series Supernatural.-Personal life:...
who plays the angel Castiel and Jared's real world wife Genevieve Padalecki, who used to play the demon Ruby in season 4 of the show.
Boston Legal
Boston Legal
Boston Legal is an American legal dramedy created by David E. Kelley, which was produced in association with 20th Century Fox Television for the ABC...
frequently used meta-humor, with characters often acknowledging their status as fictional characters. In one instance, Alan Shore greets Denny Crane by saying "I've hardly seen you this episode!"
In a 1993 commercial for Doritos
Doritos
Doritos is a brand of seasoned tortilla chips created by Arch West and produced since 1964 by the American food company Frito-Lay ....
, actor Chevy Chase
Chevy Chase
Cornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase is an American comedian, writer, and television and film actor, born into a prominent entertainment industry family. Chase worked a plethora of odd jobs before moving into comedy acting with National Lampoon...
is seen trying to save an old lady in danger. Suddenly, a director yells "Cut!" and an advertising executive informs Chase that his Doritos advertising campaign has been cancelled due to poor ratings. Chase remarks, "Tough year. Good chip." The gag is also a reference to the abrupt cancellation of Chase's short-lived late night talk show
The Chevy Chase Show
The Chevy Chase Show was an American late night talk show hosted by actor, comedian and Saturday Night Live alumnus Chevy Chase that aired in 1993 on Fox...
.
In season 18
Saturday Night Live (Season 18)
Saturday Night Live aired its eighteenth season during the 1992-1993 television season on NBC. The eighteenth season began on September 26, 1992, and ended on May 15, 1993....
, episode 17 of Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
, an episode of the recurring Hub's Gyros skit ends in a rare meta-reference. After several gags involving variations of the skit's "you like-a the juice, huh?" catchphrase, a customer played by David Spade
David Spade
David Wayne Spade is an American actor, comedian and television personality who first became famous in the 1990s as a cast member on Saturday Night Live, and from 1997 until 2003 when he starred as Dennis Finch on Just Shoot Me!. He also starred as C.J...
asks for the sketch to end. Hub replies, "You like-a the sketch to end, huh? Same thing over and over? Getting very boring, huh?" The customer asks for the camera to pan over to "the blonde guy with the guitar"
G. E. Smith
George Edward "G. E." Smith is an American guitarist. He was the lead guitarist in the band Hall & Oates and the musical director of Saturday Night Live. Smith was lead guitarist of Bob Dylan's touring band from June 7, 1988 to October 19, 1990...
, to which Hub replies, "You like-a the blonde guy with the guitar, huh? I show you the blonde guy with the guitar" and points to the band
Saturday Night Live Band
The Saturday Night Live Band is the house band of the NBC television program Saturday Night Live .-Noteworthy members:...
off stage as the sketch ends.
Research
Metareference across Media: Theory and Case Studies. Dedicated to Walter Bernhart on the Occasion of his Retirement. Wolf, Werner (Ed.), Katharina Bantleon and Jeff Thoss (Collaborators). Amsterdam/New York, NY, 2009.Contents:
Preface / Introduction by Werner Wolf: Metareference across Media: The Concept, its Transmedial Potentials and Problems, Main Forms and Functions.
Theoretical Aspects of Metareference, Illustrated with Examples from Various Media:
Winfried Nöth: Metareference from a Semiotic Perspective / Andreas Mahler: The Case is ‘this’: Metareference in Magritte and Ashbery / Irina O. Rajewsky: Beyond ‘Metanarration’: Form-Based Metareference as a Transgeneric and Transmedial Phenomenon / Sonja Klimek: Metalepsis and Its (Anti-)Illusionist Effects in the Arts, Media and Role-Playing Games
Metareference in Music:
Hermann Danuser: Generic Titles: On Paratextual Metareference in Music / Tobias Janz: “Music about Music”: Metaization and Intertextuality in Beethoven’s Prometheus Variations op. 35 / René Michaelsen: Exploring Metareference in Instrumental Music – The Case of Robert Schumann / David Francis Urrows: Phantasmic Metareference: The Pastiche ‘Operas’ in Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera / Jörg-Peter Mittmann: Intramedial Reference and Metareference in Contemporary Music / Martin Butler: “Please Play This Song on the Radio”: Forms and Functions of Metareference in Popular Music
Metareference in the Visual Arts:
Henry Keazor : “L’architecture n’est pas un art rigoureux”: Jean Nouvel, Postmodernism and Meta-Architecture / Katharina Bantleon, Jasmin Haselsteiner-Scharner: Of Museums, Beholders, Artworks and Photography: Metareferential Elements in Thomas Struth’s Photographic Projects Museum Photographs and Making Time /
Metareference in Film/Cinema:
Jean-Marc Limoges: The Gradable Effects of Self-Reflexivity on Aesthetic Illusion in Cinema / Barbara Pfeifer: Novel in/and Film: Transgeneric and Transmedial Metareference in Stranger than Fiction
Metareference in Literature:
Hans Ulrich Seeber: Narrative Fiction and the Fascination with the New Media Gramophone, Photography and Film: Metafictional and Media-Comparative Aspects of H. G. Wells’ A Modern Utopia and Beryl Bainbridge’s Master Georgie / Daniella Jancsó: Metareference and Intermedial Reference: William Carlos Williams’ Poetological Poems
Metareference in Various Individual Media:
Ingrid Pfandl-Buchegger, Gudrun Rottensteiner: Metareferentiality in Early Dance: The Jacobean Antimasque / Karin Kukkonen: Textworlds and Metareference in Comics / Doris Mader: Metareference in the Audio-/Radioliterary Soundscape / Fotis Jannidis: Metareference in Computer Games
Metareference in More than One Medium:
Janine Hauthal: When Metadrama Is Turned into Metafilm: A Media-Comparative Approach to Metareference / Andreas Böhn: Quotation of Forms as a Strategy of Metareference / Erika Greber: ‘The Media as Such’: Meta-Reflection in Russian Futurism – A Case Study of Vladimir Mayakovsky’s Poetry, Paintings, Theatre, and Films
Notes on Contributors / Index
See also
- Self-referenceSelf-referenceSelf-reference occurs in natural or formal languages when a sentence or formula refers to itself. The reference may be expressed either directly—through some intermediate sentence or formula—or by means of some encoding...
- Meta-MetaMeta- , is a prefix used in English to indicate a concept which is an abstraction from another concept, used to complete or add to the latter....
- MetafictionMetafictionMetafiction, also known as Romantic irony in the context of Romantic works of literature, is a type of fiction that self-consciously addresses the devices of fiction, exposing the fictional illusion...
- MetatheatreMetatheatreThe term "metatheatre", coined by Lionel Abel, has entered into common critical usage; however, there is still much uncertainty over its proper definition and what dramatic techniques might be included in its scope...
- MetafilmMetafilmSimilar to metafiction in technique, metafilm is a style of film-making which presents the film as a story about film production.Examples of films of this type include:* 8½ * Adaptation....
- MetalanguageMetalanguageBroadly, any metalanguage is language or symbols used when language itself is being discussed or examined. In logic and linguistics, a metalanguage is a language used to make statements about statements in another language...
- Meta-discussionMeta-discussionThe term meta-discussion means a discussion whose subject is a discussion. Meta-discussion explores such issues as the style of a discussion, its participants, the setting in which the discussion occurs, and the relationship of the discussion to other discussions on the same or different topics....
- Meta-jokeMeta-jokeMeta-joke refers to several somewhat different, but related categories: self-referential jokes, jokes about jokes , and joke templates.-Self-referential jokes:...
- MetaknowledgeMetaknowledgeMetaknowledge or meta-knowledge is knowledge about a preselected knowledge.For the reason of different definitions of knowledge in the subject matter literature, meta-information is or is not included in meta-knowledge. Detailed cognitive, systemic and epistemic study of human knowledge requires a...
- Story within a storyStory within a storyA story within a story, also rendered story-within-a-story, is a literary device in which one narrative is presented during the action of another narrative. Mise en abyme is the French term for a similar literary device...
- Fourth wallFourth wallThe fourth wall is the imaginary "wall" at the front of the stage in a traditional three-walled box set in a proscenium theatre, through which the audience sees the action in the world of the play...
- AsideAsideAn aside is a dramatic device in which a character speaks to the audience. By convention the audience is to realize that the character's speech is unheard by the other characters on stage. It may be addressed to the audience expressly or represent an unspoken thought. An aside is usually a brief...
- ProloguePrologueA prologue is an opening to a story that establishes the setting and gives background details, often some earlier story that ties into the main one, and other miscellaneous information. The Greek prologos included the modern meaning of prologue, but was of wider significance...
- EpilogueEpilogueAn epilogue, epilog or afterword is a piece of writing at the end of a work of literature or drama, usually used to bring closure to the work...
- InductionInduction (play)An Induction in a play is an explanatory scene or other intrusion that stands outside and apart from the main action with the intent to comment on it, moralize about it or in the case of dumb show to summarize the plot or underscore what is afoot. Inductions are a common feature of plays written...
- Frame storyFrame storyA frame story is a literary technique that sometimes serves as a companion piece to a story within a story, whereby an introductory or main narrative is presented, at least in part, for the purpose of setting the stage either for a more emphasized second narrative or for a set of shorter stories...