The new Doctor Who has had a few references to the show’s title. In the pilot ep, the website Rose and her BF look at when they’re trying to learn about the Doctor has the headline “Doctor who?” Jackie asks the same question when she meets the 10th Doctor, David Tennant, and Rose tells her it’s the Doctor.
The same joke was used in the original pilot, when Susan’s teacher mistakenly calls him “Dr. Foreman,” and he responds, “Doctor who?”
(For non-Who fans, the main character is called “the Doctor,” and is never referred to in the show as “Doctor Who” (well, except once, but that was a mistake). Its just the title of the show.)
On The Colbert Report the other night, Stephen either put irony on notice, or claimed it was one of the top five things threatening our nation, or gave it a wag of the finger. Something, but anyway, the point is, he said something like “Saying the exact opposite of what you mean is not clever at all.” That’s pretty much his whole show, though, saying the opposite of what he means. The Word is a common example.
On Boy Meets World, they went to be the live studio audience one time for a show called “Kid Meets Universe” or something. It was kind of a lame episode, as I recall. But there was another one where Cory was talking to his little brother (I think) and he said, “There’s a big huge world out there, and soon, you’re going to have to meet that world, because it’s… oh. Now I get it. Boy meets world. Heh.”
Bonnie: I don’t know if I want to bring a baby into the world with someone like him [Quagmire] running around.
Peter: Ok, Bonnie? You’ve been pregnant now for like, six years. Either have the kid or don’t.
In The Wrong Trousers, one of the headlines in a newspaper that Gromit is reading is “Dog Reads Newspaper”.
And I don’t think anyone’s mentioned Arsenic and Old Lace yet.
“That plastic surgeon made me look like … Boris Karloff”
(for those not in the know … two guesses who originally played the character)
Family Guy also took a couple of jabs at the Fox execs during it’s original run. At one point, Lois cautions Peter “Honey, you’ll make them angry!” and Peter replied with “What are they gonna do, cut our funding?” and then instead of being animated, the rest of the scene is a sort of frame by frame advance of a cutout of Peter moving towards the door.
Simpsons had an episode where the Ivory Hunter was talking about the many cruel things he’d been called, worst of all being “Fox Executive” (accompanied by a disgusted shudder).
Every episode of Futurama begins with a subtitle on the bottom at the begining of the opening credits, each episode’s subtitle being something different and amusing. The series finale had the message: “See you on some other network!” with a little image of all the characters waving.
Oh, and that reminds me, a recent episode of the Simpsons begins with Bart writing on the chalkboard, and the message is “Seriously, does anyone actually do this anymore?”
There’s an episode of Reboot where Enzo and Dot are trapped in a game based on the Evil Dead movies (they are, of course, the zombies). Enzo explains the concept of the game, which basically has the player dismembering all the sprites with a chainsaw. Dot exclaims “What kind of sick bastards find this sort of thing entertaining?”
And then they both turn and look at the camera.
And that’s without even mentioning the summary of the show (for the benefit of new or just horribly confused viewers), in a musical set to the tune of “Modern Major General”, at the end of the third season of the show, with all the characters of the show watching in the audience.
In one episode Johanna dragged Dick to see a marriage cousellor (Melanie Charthoff). Dick didn’t want to go because “I don’t believe in that therapy stuff.” When they finally got there, they met a bitter and abusive patient played by Jack Riley. The therapist apologized for him, explaining that “It’s taken years to undo the damage done to him by some quack from Chicago.”
In the last Bob Newhart series I recall – the one where he co-owns a bookstore on Martha’s Vineyard with Judd Hirsch – one episode was extremely self-referential, with guest stars from their previous series.
And on another episode, Newhart’s “son” tells him about a drinking game where you take a drink every time someone says “Hi, Bob!”, clearly referring to the drinking game based on the original Psychiatrist Bob Newhart Show. Newhart’s reaction: “That’s the silliest thing I ever heard,”
Of course, that makes me think of the last two lines in the movie What’s up, Doc?
Barbara Streisand’s character: “Being in love means never having to say you’re sorry” (Bats eyes seductively)
Ryan O’Neal’s character: (after several beats) “That’s the stupidest thing I ever heard in my life.”
He interviewed Randy Newman on Monday, and Newman said he wrote the song “My Life is Good” from the perspective of an obnoxious rich person. Colbert said nobody would be interested that.
In Spaceballs, Dark Helmet puts a video of Spaceballs in the VCR, and sees himself watching a video os Spaceballs.
In Blazing Saddles, Gene Wilder and Cleavon Little go into Grauman’s Chinese Theater, where Blazing Saddles is playing.
In The Freshman, Marlon Brando’s role was deliberately designed to recall his role of Don Vito Corleone in The Godfather.
In Battle Beyond the Stars – Star Wars crossed with The Magnificent Seven – Robert Vaughn’s role is designed to refer to his part in The Magnificent Seven, including repeating some of the dialog.
Instances of a movie or show referencing something one of its actors has previously done can’t really be said to be SELF-referential. It’s certainly very “meta”, but not really in the parameters of the thread title.
I the play “The Producers” (I haven’t seen the movie to see how they did it) there are at least two self-referential scenes. After the intermission, the office set has been painted white by Ulla. When asked when she had time to do that she says “During the intermission”.
Also the song “Betrayed” where Max relates the story up to that point, one of the steps is “Intermission!”
Boy Meets World had a couple other moments, as well. In the first one or two seasons, Cory had a little sister, then, like shows before it, the sibling vanished because no one liked her. Well, a few years later, she just randomly walks down the stairs at the start of the episode and says,
“I’ve been in my room. I’ve been in my room a looooong time.”
And in the “high school graduation” episode, we see a character getting his diploma. At first we wonder why we care about this random nerd, then we remember he was a character in Cory’s class in the first season and was also never seen again until now.
I’m trying to remember which show it was where one of the younger kids sorta disappeared without much explanation. The last time we see her on the show, the father has just sent her upstairs to clean her room. Periodically after that, the characters will mention that she’s upstairs cleaning her room (apparently not making much progress).
Well, if we’re going to mention plays, there was a school play I was in in 8th grade (Our Miss Brooks, with a play-within-the-play). Well, at the dress rehersal, one of the other kids in my class forgot her line. The line in question? “I’ve forgotten my lines”. The director, who was also the English teacher, had to invent a whole new kind of literary irony for that.
In the movie, Ulla explained by saying “I worked through lunch.” The step was eliminated from Betrayed.
At one point she asks Leo “Why Bloom go so far camera right?” I imagine in the play she asked why he went stage left.
In the movie, at least, Max asked the prison guard who he knew in Brazil. Then he asked “Why am I asking you?” This was done decades before in Blazing Saddles when Harvey Korman asked the same thing of the audience.
At the end of Producers, Mel Brooks tells the audience that it’s over and to go home. I can’t help but think that this is an ode to what Broderick did at the end of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
Why not an ode to Tracy Ullman? She did it as the close of her TV show three years before Bueller.
In Limelight, Buster Keaton is introduced by saying, “I never thought it would come to this,” referring to the fact that this was the first time he and Charlie Chaplin worked together.
In Sunset Boulevard, Gloria Swanson’s Norma Desmond watches scenes from one of her movies. The footage is from Swanson’s Queen Kelly, directed by Erich von Stroheim, who played Desmond’s butler, husband, and former director in the movie.
Also in Sunset Boulevard, the film pans over three has-been actors as part of Desmond’s bridge circle: Buster Keaton, Anna Q. Nillson, and H.B. Warner. All three were considered washed up at the time, though Keaton had a minor revival afterwards (and a major one after his death).
