Meta-reference
Meta-reference describes a situation in a form of media whereby fictional characters display an awareness that they are in 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.
Early uses of meta-reference
Meta-reference 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 William Shakespeare. 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:
- If we shadows have offended, think but this and all is mended
- That you have but slumber'd here while these visions did appear.
The oldest use of meta-reference in cinema is possibly 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".
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 Greenslade 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.
The oldest meta-references in television are probably in the comedy show Monty Python's Flying Circus, which prominently featured them. Meta-references in Flying Circus include:
- a group of people lost in a jungle, 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 deja vu
- a group of inquisitioners who are in a hurry, because the show is about to end (they are aware of the rolling credits)
Other examples
Examples in television
- The Simpsons features meta-references quite frequently, and the Usenet group alt.tv.simpsons features a Meta reference watch for each episode. A classic example is when Homer Simpson - in the style of a Road Runner cartoon - gets stuck in a hole in the ground of a narrow ledge jutting from the edge of a tall cliff. Homer declares "If this were a cartoon, this cliff would break off now." Sure enough, it does.
- In the South Park episode "The Quest For Ratings", the main characters run an amateur news show as a school project, but when ratings drop they decide to make news stories up. During a brainstorming session, Eric Cartman suggests a storyline feature 'Crab People'. This is immediately derided as a ludicrous and implausible idea for a television show. 'Crab People' were themselves featured in a previous South Park episode.
- In Seinfeld, there is a running joke that the show is "about nothing". A series of episodes played on this theme. The Seinfeld and George characters write a sitcom called Jerry, where the main characters are all similar to characters in the main show, and the stories are about nothing.
- In one episode of The Monkees, a comment that "we seem to have passed this place before" is met with "Don't worry - they're filming this on a small set".
- In Moonlighting, the lead characters would frequently directly address the audience.
- Many movies have a narration role deliberately to break down the barrier between the action of the plot and the audience. These range from the introductiry asides of American Beauty to the role of the narrator as a major character in The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Examples in cinema
- The film Adaptation, in which the writer Charlie Kaufman writes himself into his own movie. The movie itself is a story about the writing of the movie.
- In the Woody Allen film Annie Hall, Woody Allen interrupts an argument about Marshall McLuhan to introduce McLuhan himself, commenting to the cinema audience that he wishes arguments in real life could be as easily solved.
- In Natural Born Killers, whilst editing a programme, television presenter Wayne Gale argues that it is okay to have segments repeated within the same show, claiming "Repetition works!" The piece of dialogue is immediately looped, so we hear him say "Repetition works!" a few seconds later.
- In the 1987 movie Spaceballs, written and directed by Mel Brooks, the main characters watch a video of the movie to find out what is happening next.
- The Monkees' movie Head was an extended experiment in meta-reference, with many of the features in the movie referring back to the fact that nothing in it was real.
Examples in theatrical drama
- There are many instances of meta-reference in theatrical drama, most notable of which is perhaps Thornton Wilder's play Our Town, in which a leading role is played by the stage manager.
Examples in written media
- In Robert Anton Wilson's surreal Schrödinger's Cat trilogy, a character named Dr. Dashwood tries to explain to someone that humans are primates, but none of us consciously realize this. He argues "If I were to write a novel...and mentioned on every one of the first hundred pages that all of us are primates, we would find it funny or satirical. Even stranger, if I stopped mentioning it for about two hundred pages, the readers would all forget it quickly, and be startled if I mentioned it again on page 515." In the first hundred pages of the novel humans are constantly referred to as 'primates', and Dr. Dashwood's above quote is indeed on page 515.
- In the first volume of Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time, the narrator's inspiration to write stems from memories of childhood triggered by his tasting a petite madeleine (a type of small sponge cake) dipped in tea. In the final volume he says "If it is accepted that the author and the main character of this book are one and the same, then my name is Marcel, but this is not necessarily true." Also in the final volume, the narrator begins to write his book, which mimicks Proust setting out to write In Search of Lost Time itself.
- In Amos Oz's novel The Same Sea, Oz himself is a character who meets and interacts with the other characters.
- In weekly children's comic, The Beano, the characters sometimes actually read The Beano. Some even turn to their own strip and comment how funny they are that week.
Examples in interactive entertainment
- In The Curse of Monkey Island, the protagonist encounters a character with a massive collection of cheap pulp novels. When asked, "Why are you wasting all your money on this bad fiction?", the character replies "At least my bad fiction does not require $1000 worth of hardware."