List of metafictional works

This is a partial list of works that use metafictional ideas. Metafiction is intentional allusion or reference to a work's fictional nature. It is commonly used for humorous or parodic effect, and has appeared in a wide range of mediums, including writing, film, theatre, and video gaming.

Novels, novellas and short stories[edit]

Animated short films[edit]

Chuck Jones, Duck Amuck (1953) and Rabbit Rampage (1955).

Stage plays[edit]

Pre-20th century plays[edit]

Francis Beaumont, The Knight of the Burning Pestle
Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy
William Shakespeare, Hamlet; A Midsummer Night's Dream; Pericles, Prince of Tyre
Manuel Tamayo y Baus, Un drama nuevo

Modern theater works[edit]

Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot; Endgame
Jackie Sibblies Drury, Fairview; We Are Proud to Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as Southwest Africa, From the German Sudwestafrika, Between the Years 1884–1915
Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt, The Mighty Boosh (1998 stage show)
Federico García Lorca, Play Without a Title / Untitled Play (1935)
Joseph Heller, We Bombed in New Haven
Arthur L. Kopit, End of the World with Symposium to Follow
Ira Levin, Deathtrap
Daniel MacIvor, Never Swim Alone and This Is a Play
Steve Martin, Picasso at the Lapin Agile
Luigi Pirandello, Six Characters in Search of an Author
Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead
Peter Weiss, Marat/Sade (The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat As Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade)
Thornton Wilder, The Skin of Our Teeth
Doug Wright, I Am My Own Wife

Musicals[edit]

Passing Strange
Pippin

Films[edit]

Keith Allen and Peter Richardson's Comic Strip film Detectives on the Edge of a Nervous Breakdown
Woody Allen's The Purple Rose of Cairo, Deconstructing Harry and Midnight in Paris
Robert Altman's The Player
Troy Duffy's The Boondock Saints
Michael Bacall and Jonah Hill's 22 Jump Street
Steve Bendelack's The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse
Ingmar Bergman's Persona, The Magician, Prison, and The Passion of Anna
Colin Trevorrow's Jurassic World
Mel Brooks's Blazing Saddles and Spaceballs
John Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness
Wes Craven's Scream and Wes Craven's New Nightmare
Wyllis Cooper's Quiet, Please scripts
Francis Ford Coppola's Twixt
David Cronenberg's Videodrome, Naked Lunch, and eXistenZ
Tom DiCillo's Living in Oblivion
Federico Fellini's 8½
David Fincher's Fight Club
Marc Forster's Stranger Than Fiction
Bob Fosse's All That Jazz
Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer's Epic Movie
Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless
Peter Greenaway's The Baby of Mâcon
Kirt Gunn's Lovely By Surprise
Michael Haneke's Funny Games
Jim Henson's Muppets franchise (The Muppet Movie, The Great Muppet Caper, The Muppets Take Manhattan, The Muppet Christmas Carol, Muppet Treasure Island, Muppets from Space, The Muppets, and Muppets Most Wanted)
Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman's Adaptation and Being John Malkovich
Charlie Kaufman's Synecdoche, New York and Anomalisa
Buster Keaton's Sherlock Jr.
David Lynch's Inland Empire
John McTiernan's Last Action Hero
Coleman Miller's Uso Justo
John Cameron Mitchell's Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Mike Myers and Michael McCullers's Austin Powers
Andrew Niccol's The Truman Show
Tim Miller's Deadpool, David Leitch's Deadpool 2 and Shawn Levy's Deadpool & Wolverine
Christopher Nolan's Inception
Trey Parker's South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut
Roman Polanski's What?
Robert Pulcini and Shari Springer Berman's American Splendor
Kevin Smith's Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back and Jay and Silent Bob Reboot
Tom Tykwer's Run Lola Run
Lana Wachowski's The Matrix Resurrections
David Wain and Michael Showalter's They Came Together
Shawn Wayans, Marlon Wayans, Buddy Johnson, Phil Beauman, Jason Friedberg, Aaron Seltzer, and Wes Craven's Scary Movie
Quentin Dupieux's Rubber
Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard's The Cabin in the Woods
James Franco's Interior. Leather Bar.
Michael Winterbottom's A Cock and Bull Story, a film adaptation of Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy
Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg's Hot Fuzz
Jaco Van Dormael's Mr. Nobody
Lars von Trier's Epidemic
Gaspar Noe's Lux Aeterna
Saw Teong Hin's You Mean the World to Me
Neill Blomkamp's District 9
Sony Pictures Animation's Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Alejandro Jodorowsky's The Holy Mountain
Shawn Levy's Free Guy
Robert Rodriguez's Shorts
Greta Gerwig's Barbie
Martin McDonagh's Seven Psychopaths
Walt Disney Animation Studios's The Emperor's New Groove

Television shows[edit]

30 Rock
The Amazing World of Gumball
American Dad!
Animaniacs
Arrested Development
The Basil Brush Show
Batman: The Brave and the Bold
The Big O
Black Mirror
Boston Legal
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Central Park
Chowder
The Cleveland Show
Community
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
Doctor Who
Drawn Together
Ed, Edd n Eddy
Entourage
Family Guy
Fleabag
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
Girl Meets World
Girls5eva
The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy
High Fidelity
Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi
How I Met Your Father
How I Met Your Mother
It's Garry Shandling's Show
Lady Dynamite
Looney Tunes
Loki
The Mighty Boosh
Moonlighting
Monty Python's Flying Circus
The Muppet Show
The Muppets
Murder, She Wrote
Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Noel Fielding's Luxury Comedy
The Office (U.S.)
OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes
Phineas and Ferb
The Powerpuff Girls
Princess Tutu
Re:Creators
Red Dwarf: Back to Earth
Rick and Morty
Robot Chicken
Scrubs
Sean's Show
The Simpsons
Smiling Friends
South Park
Space Ghost Coast to Coast
SpongeBob SquarePants
Supernatural
Teletubbies
Tooning Out the News
Ultimate Spider-Man
Velma
WandaVision

Comic strips, comic books, graphic novels, and manga[edit]

Aka Akasaka, Kaguya-sama: Love Is War
Berke Breathed, Bloom County, Outland and Opus
Rich Burlew, The Order of the Stick
John Byrne's run on The Sensational She-Hulk and Dan Slott's run on She-Hulk
Mike Carey, The Unwritten, featuring characters coming from, and journeying into, fictional worlds
Paul Cornell, IDW 2013 Doctor Who Special: The Girl Who Loved Doctor Who
Jim Davis, Garfield
Andrew Hussie, Homestuck
Nisio Isin and Akira Akatsuki, Medaka Box
Tatsuya Ishida, Sinfest
Jeff Lemire and Dean Ormston, Black Hammer
Alan Moore, Promethea, Supreme and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, Watchmen
Grant Morrison, Animal Man, Doom Patrol, Flex Mentallo, The Filth, Batman R.I.P., Final Crisis and The Invisibles
Atsushi Ōkubo, Fire Force
Stephan Pastis, Pearls Before Swine
Ryukishi07, Higurashi When They Cry and Umineko When They Cry
Claudio Sanchez, Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Vol. 1, first half of the fourth chapter of The Amory Wars presents a metafictional aspect to the story
Dave Sim, chapters "Minds" and "Guys" from his graphic novel Cerebus
Dan Slott, Spider-Verse
Kristofer Straub, Checkerboard Nightmare
Garry Trudeau, Doonesbury
Adam Warren, Empowered
Mason Williams, 1/0

Interactive media and video games [edit]

Against Gravity, Rec Room
Blooming Buds Studio, Calendula
Toby Fox, Undertale; Deltarune^[4]
Shigesato Itoi, EarthBound; Mother 3
Daniel Mullins, Pony Island,^[4] The Hex, Inscryption
Mystman12, Baldi's Basics Classic Remastered
Hideo Kojima, Metal Gear Solid
Silicon Knights, Eternal Darkness
Little Cat Feet, OneShot
Josh Millard, Ennuigi
Question, The Magic Circle^[4]
Ryukishi07, Higurashi When They Cry and Umineko When They Cry
Team Salvato, Doki Doki Literature Club!
THQ, Saints Row: The Third, Saints Row 4
Keiichiro Toyama, Silent Hill
Davey Wreden, The Stanley Parable; The Beginner's Guide^[4]
Ivan "Mad" Zanotti, IMSCARED
SCA-JI, Wonderful Everyday
Goichi Suda, Flower, Sun, and Rain; No More Heroes
Ice-Pick Lodge, Pathologic
Kazutaka Kodaka, Spike Chunsoft, Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony
Ubisoft Montreal, Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
Hello Games, No Man's Sky

Web videos[edit]

Don't Hug Me I'm Scared
Petscop
The Show About the Show by Caveh Zahedi

Multiple authors[edit]

The Marvel Comics characters She-Hulk, Howard the Duck, Deadpool, Uatu the Watcher, Purple Man, Spider-Ham and Gwen Poole are all aware they are in a comic book.
The DC Comics characters Ambush Bug and The Joker are aware that they are in a comic book.
Penny Arcade frequently features metafiction, particularly their fantasy setting Epic Legends of the Hierarchs: The Elemenstor Saga, which has a detailed wiki devoted to it.
The Ongoing Adventures of Rocket Llama is fiction with a metafictional history.
Triangle and Robert is heavily metafictional.

Artists' books[edit]

Space Opera: The Artist's Book by Michael J. Weller

References[edit]

^ Bonaparte, Felicia. ""Let Other Pens Dwell On Guilt And Misery": The Ordination Of The Text And The Subversion Of "Religion" In Jane Austen's "Mansfield Park"." Religion & Literature 43, no. 2 (2011): 45-67. JSTOR 23347030
^ LaRocca, David (15 August 2017). "Translating Carlyle: Ruminating on the Models of Metafiction at the Emergence of an Emersonian Vernacular". Religions. 8 (8): 152. doi:10.3390/rel8080152. ISSN 2077-1444.
^ Peter Siljedahl (1996). "Bert och Boysen" (in Swedish). Boktips. Retrieved 13 May 2015.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Muncy, Jack (2016-01-18). "The Best New Videogames Are All About … Videogames". Wired. Retrieved 2016-01-18.

[1] Bonaparte, Felicia. ""Let Other Pens Dwell On Guilt And Misery": The Ordination Of The Text And The Subversion Of "Religion" In Jane Austen's "Mansfield Park"." Religion & Literature 43, no. 2 (2011): 45-67. JSTOR 23347030

[2] LaRocca, David (15 August 2017). "Translating Carlyle: Ruminating on the Models of Metafiction at the Emergence of an Emersonian Vernacular". Religions. 8 (8): 152. doi:10.3390/rel8080152. ISSN 2077-1444.

[3] Peter Siljedahl (1996). "Bert och Boysen" (in Swedish). Boktips. Retrieved 13 May 2015.

[wired_mfvg-4] Muncy, Jack (2016-01-18). "The Best New Videogames Are All About … Videogames". Wired. Retrieved 2016-01-18.

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