Examples: Itchy & Scratchy from The Simpsons, The Scary Door from Futurama, or The Grand Inquisitor from Dostoevsky.

  • Stalinwolf@lemmy.ca
    121·
    6 days ago

    The lore books in The Elder Scrolls series, hands-down.

    There is an entire universe of conflicting knowledge, personal bias, and unreliable narrators that leave Tamriel’s history feeling very real, and very open to interpretation. The fun of it is piecing together the truth somewhere in the middle. But I’ll die on the hill that the Arcturian Heresy is absolute horseshit written by a madman, and comparable to the scribbles of a paranoid schizophrenic on an anti-vax forum. Anyone who references that volume in regards to Tiber Septim and the forming of the empire is an impressionable dweeb.

  • Nibodhika@lemmy.world
    10·
    6 days ago

    I haven’t finished the book, but I have to give it to the “Navidson record” in “House of leaves”.

    House of leaves is a book about a guy who finds a manuscript about a movie that doesn’t exist. So there are multiple layers on the narrative, from near to far you have:

    • The editor who’s editing the book
    • The writer of the book (Johnny) who tells his story and what he finds in the manuscript
    • The person who wrote the manuscript (Zampano) and his views on the movie
    • The documentary “The Navidson record” which the manuscript is describing. Filmed by Navidson (who’s, as far as Johnny can tell, a fictional character in a fictional movie that never existed)

    The reason why I have to give it to that particular piece of media within media is that everyone else in the book is a pain in the ass that feels that you have to drag yourself to in order to get to the next chapter of the Navidson record. So in a way it’s a fictional media within a fictional media that’s better than the fictional media it belongs to.

    And in case you haven’t heard of house of leaves, I’ll leave you with a page from the book:

    • HelixDab2@lemm.ee
      1·
      6 days ago

      The book is brilliant, even if it’s difficult to read and follow. The satire of art criticism is just so on point.

      …And it’s hard to know if the Navidson record and house never really existed or not (in the context of the book) because of the way Johnny is slowly unraveling. It’s got strong elements of cosmic horror to it, along with razor-sharp satire, and the delineation in writings styles between Johnny’s personal narrative, Zampano, and the various journal articles are written really sells the entire piece.

  • Eiri@lemmy.ca
    8·
    6 days ago

    I’m a big fan of fake brands/products in anime. I don’t know why, but they bring me joy.

    Marvelsoft Macindows

  • VindictiveJudge@lemmy.worldEnglish
    7·
    7 days ago

    “The Deb of Night” radio show from Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines is consistently hilarious and a great way to relax between the more horrific parts of the game. Bonus points for one of the regular callers guessing the plot of the game by complete chance and one of the main villains calling in to threaten whoever might be listening.

    • Cryophilia@lemmy.world
      3·
      7 days ago

      I occasionally on long drives will queue up the full playlist of The Deb of Night and treat it as real radio.

  • Mac@mander.xyz
    4·
    6 days ago

    i love coming across playable arcade games inside other games.
    the example that comes to mind is Klungo’s Arcade in Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts.

    • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
      2·
      6 days ago

      Back in the day, when I fired up Mortal Kombat 3 for the snes, I’d usually end up spending more time in the space invaders game than playing MK itself, especially since the consoles kept the tuning intended to keep the quarters coming for the arcade version (first fight would be easy, next fight would be hard, then easy after continue, so it wasn’t just pay to play for the arcade but pay to win).

      I’m curious if I’d remember each of the codes required for the secret menus, one of which contained the mini game. Can’t remember them offhand but it might be different with an snes controller in my hand.

      Actually I think I do remember one of them (or maybe it’s the Konami code, or maybe those two are the same code):

      Up, up, down, down, left, right, A, B, A

      Or maybe it was right then left. Lol I also remember usually needing to try several variations before I’d get each code correct.