Elaine is is J. Peterman’s office helping him record a series of messages to automatically play over the office PA system in the event of an emergency- “Fire! Prometheus’s gift has turned against it’s masters” You get the idea. The gag is that the messages gradually become for more and more ridiculous and unlikely events. Tsunami, nuclear war, etc. The last message is for if they discover that they are merely characters in an fictional world. “Don’t despair, for as the Bard said, ‘All life’s a Stage, and we are merely players’” Elaine then interrupts him and asks if they all turn out to be fictional, isn’t Shakespeare fictional, too?
I once dreamed I was at Hogwarts. Apparently, in the dream, I was an American-born, presumed Muggle, who somehow saw Hogwarts, and was convinced to join the student body by the kids, with Dumbledore’s support.
I wrote fan fiction about it and shared online, it was uniformly panned by fans. Basically, I was writing this: Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality - Wikipedia which I first heard about in this board years after I wrote my fan fic. But mine was not as well written.
Seriously people, don’t write fan fiction. If you’re good, write your own fiction.
I was watching a Youtube collection of Elaine breaking character (mostly by smiling, laughing! breaking up). It included a Peterman scene around the 6:30 mark that reminded me how great/absurd that character was.
Aside: the Elaine “bloopers” video was also a reminder of the cast “caste system”, in that the stars could collapse with laughter, but the minor characters had to stay focused. John O’Hurley was in the middle ground, and permitted himself a brief smile while Jerry and Julia were snorting.
I would imagine that this is true for most shows. The regulars are pretty secure in their jobs. recurring characters and especially extras are on much thinner ice.