# Best Show within a Show **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 20, 2009, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-show-within-a-show/510881 "2009-09-20T22:11:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![FlyingRamenMonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@FlyingRamenMonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingRamenMonster)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-show-within-a-show/510881/41 "2009-09-22T08:20:41Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > Speaking of, “[Worker & Parasite](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIZ4nAprSSE&feature=related)” still cracks me up. Although, to be fair, it’s really Krusty’s reaction. Endut! Hoch hech. ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-show-within-a-show/510881/42 "2009-09-22T10:11:51Z")
> [@Justin Bailey](#): > > We never actually saw an episode of Sick, Sad World. We only saw commercials advertising it. But…but…More geeky nitpicking the nitpick. I think in the Episode “The Lawndale Files” Artie the pizza delivery guy who was abducted by a UFO appears on Sick Sad World being interviewed about his experiences by a SSW reporter and tells his story about the aliens replacing all his skin with a synthetic that stretches. ---
**Author:** ![Ronald\_C.Semone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cc9497/32.png) [@Ronald\_C.Semone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ronald_C.Semone)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-show-within-a-show/510881/43 "2009-09-22T12:09:40Z")
The News with Ted Baxter ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-show-within-a-show/510881/44 "2009-09-22T12:18:39Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > BUT! Geeky nitpicking ahead… > > We never actually saw an episode of Sick, Sad World. We only saw commercials advertising it. > > And while I don’t know if I’d call it “the best”, but I love the Channel 5 News segments on Family Guy. Speaking of commercials and Family Guy, I still want to see an episode of **Slowly Rotating Black Guy**. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-show-within-a-show/510881/45 "2009-09-22T13:19:47Z")
And if movies are indeed permitted, _Storm Saxon_, the white-supremacist dystopic adventure TV show popular in Fascist Britain, is a disturbing little part of _V for Vendetta_. ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-show-within-a-show/510881/46 "2009-09-22T13:35:00Z")
“Ow! My Balls!” from _Idiocracy_. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-show-within-a-show/510881/47 "2009-09-22T13:45:29Z")
_Twitch City_ was a crazed Canadian comedy series starring Don McKellar as Curtis, an agoraphobic TV addict. His favorite: _The Rex Reilly Show_, featured Bruce McCullough as the abrasive talk show host in season one. Mark McKinney was the second Rex Reilly–after a head transplant… One character from _TC_ appeared on _The Rex Reilly Show_ & Rex showed up during a hostage situation at Curtis’s little house. But we mostly saw episodes as backdrop to the action (or non-action) in that house. The rest of the cast consisted of The Usual Canadian Actor Suspects (aka “Three Degrees of Callum Keith Rennie”–three degrees are enough Up North.) ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-show-within-a-show/510881/48 "2009-09-22T13:55:55Z")
In 1976, a film called [\*Drive In \*](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074433/)was released. It portrayed the events at a small-town drive in theatre over the course of an evening. A comedy, it concentrated on the stories of the people who went to the drive in, but not necessarily to watch the movie. Anyway, the show that is playing on the drive in’s screen is _Disaster '76_, which is obviously a parody of all the 1970s disaster movies: planes crash, buildings burn, ships sink, sharks attack, and so on. But this film-in-a-film is itself a sendup of disaster movies, featuring the stereotypes of typical disaster movie characters–the steely-eyed hero, the bumbling authorities, the girl without whom the hero could get nothing done (and with whom the hero rides off into the sunset), among others. You get glimpses of what’s happening onscreen in \*Disaster '76 \*from time to time, and even when you don’t, its soundtrack plays quietly in the background so you can hear the dialog. I’ve seen \*Drive In \*a few times, and it’s funny. But \*Disaster '76 \*is funnier. ---
**Author:** ![Wargamer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/df705f/32.png) [@Wargamer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wargamer)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-show-within-a-show/510881/49 "2009-09-22T14:15:13Z")
_Monster Chiller Horror Theater_ _Farm Film Report Celebrity Blow-up_ _Bob and Doug MacKenzie’s Great White North_ From SCTV. And how can it be no one has mentioned _Weekend Update_ yet??? ---
**Author:** ![Mooch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@Mooch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mooch)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-show-within-a-show/510881/50 "2009-09-22T15:13:46Z")
I always enjoyed the bounty hunter show in **Cowboy Bebop**. Hubba hubba. ---
**Author:** ![Shecky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85e7bf/32.png) [@Shecky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shecky)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-show-within-a-show/510881/51 "2009-09-22T18:06:32Z")
> [@Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](#): > > Meh, it really went downhill after season 6. And this made me fall out of the chair. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-show-within-a-show/510881/52 "2009-09-22T18:35:23Z")
Then, of course, there’s everybody’s favorite edu-tainment puppet show, _Smile Time!_ ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-show-within-a-show/510881/53 "2009-09-22T18:53:29Z")
The Simpsons were mentioned several times in this thread, but if it counts, I’ll add _The Planet of the Apes_ (the musical, **not** the planet). ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-show-within-a-show/510881/54 "2009-09-22T21:34:42Z")
Kramer’s resurrection of the Merv Griffin show on Seinfeld, and the way George looks very slightly excited that he really may be on TV. Was there a The Critic show within the The Critic? “But I have nowhere to go.” ---
**Author:** ![Manwich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e480ec/32.png) [@Manwich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manwich)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2009, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-show-within-a-show/510881/55 "2009-09-29T11:42:05Z")
> [@Icerigger](#): > > But…but…More geeky nitpicking the nitpick. > > I think in the Episode “The Lawndale Files” Artie the pizza delivery guy who was abducted by a UFO appears on Sick Sad World being interviewed about his experiences by a SSW reporter and tells his story about the aliens replacing all his skin with a synthetic that stretches. To continue this important nitpick - you actually see part of an episode of Sick Sad World in the very first episode of Daria - Esteemers. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2009, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-show-within-a-show/510881/56 "2009-09-29T15:53:24Z")
> [@Bytegeist](#): > > You guys obviously haven’t seen **Everybody Loves Hypnotoad** (Futurama). > > Because if you had, you would have voted for Hypnotoad. No questions asked. Actually I thought about that one myself,I think that if IRL boring old governments didn’t make it illegal it would actually be an incredibly successful programme/station. The use of hypnosis and probably subliminals would be very appealing both to those stressed out proffessionals AND the long term unemployed couch potatoes. "You feel relaxed,you have no worries you love your job,you will buy “X” brand coffee,“Y"brand cornflakes,go to bed at 11pm .have a good nights sleep and go to work happy tomorrow morning at 8pm and then when you return home you will watch Hypno toad” Mental health would take a boost,you could include in your message that drugs are bad,too much alcohol is bad,cigarettes are bad. Advertisers would be ecstatic,the economy would boom and crime would go down. Funnily enough I’ve never actually thought about this subject before ,but then it came to me last night when I was watching T.V. I also think that Hypnotoad should be elected God Emperor,IMO,and it should damn well be your opinion as well. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-show-within-a-show/510881.md?page=2)