The 50 Greatest Meta Jokes in Movie History
We’re obviously completely self-aware that we’re publishing this list the Monday after Deadpool & Wolverine made $205 million at the box office. That’s the whole point of being meta, right? Or if you want to get Merriam-Webster involved, something that “shows or suggests an explicit awareness of itself or oneself as a member of its category: cleverly self-referential.”
That said, when it comes to movies, this kind of self-awareness can cover a wide range of narrative devices. A character quietly acknowledging the audience can be meta. Other times, meta scenes can intentionally break apart a film’s reality. Meta doesn’t even necessarily need to be done for the sake of humor either, as plenty of movies — from Frederico Fellini’s 8½ to the horror thriller Funny Games — get meta without much humorous intention.
But for the purposes of this list, which Cracked writers Tim Grierson and Matt Solomon and movie buff and animator Vincent Alexander helped me compile, we purposefully stayed away from serious meta and leaned directly into funny meta — with the caveat that we choose to be pretty liberal with the term “meta” so as to be as expansive as possible. We did, however, limit possible entries to feature-length films, as the list would be overrun with Looney Tunes shorts if we didn’t. We also instituted a one-joke-per-movie rule so as not to just feature endless Muppets, Marx Brothers and Deadpool gags. As for the ranking itself, we tried to balance how funny a joke was with how boldly self-referential it was as well as its cultural impact.
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This is now when we’d look directly into the camera and say something super clever. But short of that, let’s just get started…
Frank Drebin Enters the Lab in ‘The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!’
As much as there was a loose sense of reality in their films, the creative trio of Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker rarely went full-on meta. It did happen on occasion though, and one really good fourth-wall breaking gag was recycled from their TV show Police Squad!. In the first Naked Gun film, when Lt. Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen) enters the crime lab, he casually walks around the set wall as opposed to through the door like the other characters do.
Bluto Looks to the Camera in ‘Animal House’
A perfect example of a quiet meta joke. Bluto (John Belushi) is spying on some sorority sisters, and as one of them is about to remove her bra, he looks at the camera and gives his distinctive eyebrows a wiggle.
Captain America’s Patience PSA from ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’
By 2017, Marvel movies had been doing post-credit scenes for almost a decade and the audience had come to expect them, which is why the post-credits scene of Spider-Man: Homecoming was so funny. Early in the film, Peter Parker (Tom Holland) is forced to watch a couple of corny PSAs presented by Captain America, where the star-spangled Avenger preaches about fitness and doing the right thing. Then, after the credits roll on Spider-Man: Homecoming, when everyone in the audience is awaiting some badass scene teasing the next villain, Captain America pops up to talk about the virtues of patience and how, sometimes, “it leads to very little and it seems like it’s not worth it, and you wonder why you waited for so long for something so disappointing.”
Delivered by Marvel’s least-funny hero, it was a great joke with a decade-long setup.
‘We Open on Charlie Kaufman. Fat. Old. Bald’ from ‘Adaptation’
Adaptation is an extremely meta comedy-drama about screenwriting where most of the mind-bendy meta elements are played straight. One exceptionally funny meta gag, however, is when screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (Nicolas Cage) decides that the screenplay he’s writing — which is also the movie he’s presently in — is going to star himself. Kaufman repeatedly describes himself as old, balding and pathetic, and it gets meaner and funnier each subsequent time.
Genie’s Going to Disneyland in ‘Aladdin’
Genie makes all kinds of pop-culture references, a number of which are to other Disney films. He calls Aladdin a liar and turns into Pinocchio. He offers Aladdin “Alaskan king crab,” and he pulls The Little Mermaid’s Sebastian out of a recipe book. And when he’s set free at the end of the movie, he begins packing his bags to travel the world, donning a Hawaiian shirt and a Goofy hat in the process. This wardrobe choice is based on the outfit Robin Williams wore in a short film he did for Disney four years earlier called Back to Neverland.
Bloopers from ‘A Bug’s Life’
During the closing credits of A Bug’s Life, Pixar included a bunch of fake bloopers. Many of the moments are more cute than funny, but these bloopers did set off a small trend of similar segments at the end of Pixar movies, including for Toy Story 2 and Monsters, Inc.
‘This Scene’s Supposed to Be in a Saloon’ from ‘Never Give a Sucker an Even Break’
The Hays Code, which censored all kinds of “lewd” content in movies, began in 1934, began being enforced in 1934, and for comedians like W.C. Fields, whose comedic persona was that of a drunken scoundrel, it became somewhat commonplace to poke fun at the code’s constraints. For example: In Never Give a Sucker an Even Break, Fields breaks the fourth wall during a scene where he enters a malt shop and orders an ice cream soda. Fields then grins at the camera and says, “This scene’s supposed to be in a saloon, but the censor cut it out.”
The Map in ‘The Emperor’s New Groove’
When the characters are traveling in The Emperor's New Groove, their path is shown via a map with dotted lines. In one crucial scene, the bad guys arrive at a location ahead of the good guys, and Emperor Kuzco (David Spade) asks, “How did you get back here before us?” Genuinely perplexed, the villain Yzma (Eartha Kitt) asks her henchman Kronk (Patrick Warburton) how they pulled it off. Kronk just shrugs his shoulders and pulls down a shade revealing the map with both their dotted paths on it.
Julia Roberts in ‘Ocean’s 12’
In the sequel to the George Clooney/Brad Pitt reboot of the Rat Pack opus Ocean’s 11, there’s a sequence where Julia Roberts’ character Tess impersonates the famous movie star Julia Roberts. Tess even has to navigate an encounter with Bruce Willis, who is also playing himself. Ocean’s 12 is far from the only film to have a gag that mentions an actor who is playing one of the film’s characters, but it’s among the most memorable.
‘Everybody in This Theater Is a Giant Sucker!’ from ‘The Simpsons Movie’
The Simpsons Movie has lots of self-aware jokes that point to the legacy of the TV series, but its best comes early on. After watching the Itchy & Scratchy movie, Homer gets up and shouts, “Boring! I can’t believe we’re paying to see something we get on TV for free. If you ask me, everybody in this theater is a giant sucker!” He then points straight into the camera and says, “Especially you!”
‘If I Had to Sum It Up’ from ‘Kiss Kiss Bang Bang’
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is a modern comedy noir starring Val Kilmer and Robert Downey Jr. Much like classic noir films, it makes liberal use of narration from the protagonist, which turns full meta when the movie ends. In an address to the audience, Downey Jr. tries to summarize the story he’s just told, speculating that it’s about friendship. He’s then interrupted by Kilmer, who tells him to stop narrating and orders the camera to cut to the end credits. “If you’re wondering who the best boy is, it’s someone’s nephew,” Kilmer adds. “Don’t forget to validate your parking, and for all you good people in the Midwest, sorry we said ‘fuck’ so much.”
‘It Might Be Warner’ from ‘It Ain’t Hay’
In 1943, the legendary comedy duo of Abbott and Costello starred in It Ain’t Hay, a comedy that takes place mostly at a racetrack. The movie features a character named Gregory Warner, which becomes the setup of a meta joke later in the film. When Abbott and Costello are in their apartment, there’s a knock at the door. Abbott says, “Go answer the door, it might be Warner.” To which Costello replies, “It won’t do no good, we’re signed up with Universal." The joke was a reference to their long-term contract with Universal Studios, making them unavailable for any Warner Bros. property.
Spidey’s Dancing in ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’
Yet another Spider-Man movie contains a very funny meta gag, as it mocks the webslinger’s own rocky cinematic history. It comes at the beginning of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse when Peter Parker (Jake Johnson) is introducing himself and his past exploits as Spider-Man. The sequence includes a handful of nods to Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man films, including the much-maligned dancing he did in Spider-Man 3. During the dance, Parker says, “We don’t really talk about this,” before quickly moving on.
‘It All Sounds Like Some Bad Movie’ from ‘Top Secret!’
During a tumultuous point in the romance between Nick Rivers (Val Kilmer) and Hillary Flammond (Lucy Gutteridge), Hillary tries to explain herself. In response, Nick says, “Look, I’m not the first guy who fell in love with a girl he met in a restaurant, who then turned out to be the daughter of a kidnapped scientist, only to lose her to her childhood lover who she’d last seen on a deserted island and it turned out, 15 years later, to be the leader of the French underground.”
“I know,” Hillary admits. “It all sounds like some bad movie.”
Both characters then look at the camera, acknowledging the nonsense of the spy parody’s own plot.
‘Well, All the Jokes Can’t Be Good’ from ‘Animal Crackers’
The Marx Brothers started out in vaudeville, where an ongoing dialogue with the audience was par for the course (much like crowd work is for today’s stand-ups). So when Groucho, Chico, Harpo and Zeppo transitioned to motion pictures in 1929, some of that dialogue carried over, particularly with the wisecracking Groucho. While an even funnier Groucho line appears below, this line from the 1930 film Animal Crackers deserves a spot on the list as well. After Groucho delivers a lackluster joke about his attire, he looks to the camera and says, “Well, all the jokes can’t be good, you’ve got to expect that once in a while.”
‘I Loved You in ‘Wall Street’!’ from ‘Hot Shots! Part Deux’
Besides being father and son, Martin Sheen and Charlie Sheen appeared together in 1987’s Wall Street, and later, Martin had a cameo in Charlie’s Hot Shots! Part Deux. In the action movie parody, both Sheens pass each other while on boats as they simultaneously shout, “I loved you in Wall Street!” If that weren’t meta enough, it’s accompanied by dueling voice-overs from their signature films about the Vietnam War, as Martin recycles an Apocalypse Now monologue and Charlie some lines from Platoon.
Harold First Hears the Narrator in ‘Stranger than Fiction’
Stranger Than Fiction isn’t as beloved as many of Will Ferrell’s other movies, but it’s a solid comedy with the very meta premise of a guy going through an existential crisis because of the film’s narrator. Early in the film, Harold (Ferrell) is adjusting his watch as the Narrator (Emma Thompson) simply narrates his mundane actions. At first, Harold disregards her as he continues fixing his malfunctioning watch. A second later, though, the Narrator explains, “Harold’s watch thrust him into the immitigable path of fate. Little did he know that this simple, seemingly innocuous act would result in his imminent death.”
To that, a frightened Harold hilariously screams, “What?” into the sky, kicking off the film’s central conflict between him and the Narrator.
‘That Fella in the Movies’ from ‘His Girl Friday’
As handsome and charming as Cary Grant was in dramatic roles, he was at his best in screwball comedies like Arsenic and Old Lace and His Girl Friday, the latter of which features a fantastic meta gag. In it, Grant plays newspaper editor Walter Burns whose ex-wife Hildy (Rosalind Russell) is marrying a man named Bruce Baldwin. When another character asks Burns to describe Baldwin, Burns says, “He looks like that fella in the movies. You know, Ralph Bellamy.” Bellamy was indeed the actor playing Baldwin.
‘Only When It Was Funny’ from ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’
Besides Tweety Bird and Porky Pig, most of the characters in Who Framed Roger Rabbit aren’t necessarily speaking to the audience, but the toons, Roger included, seem to have some awareness that we’re watching them. Case in point: When Eddie Valiant’s apartment is being raided by weasels, Eddie (Bob Hoskins) is handcuffed to Roger and struggling to hide him from the weasels. A scene later, Eddie is sawing the handcuffs apart when Roger smoothly slips out of them. Eddie, of course, explodes, asking Roger, “You mean to tell me that you could have taken your hand outta that cuff at any time?!?!” To which Roger replies, “No, not at any time. Only when it was funny.”
‘Note to the Filmmakers…’ from ‘Barbie’ (2023)
At her lowest point in the Barbie movie, Barbie (Margot Robbie) breaks down in tears and says, “I’m not pretty anymore.” Immediately afterwards, the narrator (Helen Mirren) chimes in to say what everyone in the audience is thinking: “Note to the filmmakers: Margot Robbie is the wrong person to cast if you want to make this point.”
‘How Are You Doing That with Your Mouth?” from ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’
Director Edgar Wright made some decidedly meta visual choices for his adaptation of the comic book Scott Pilgrim. For instance, every time Aubrey Plaza’s foul-mouthed character says “fuck,” her mouth is blacked-out with a censor bar and the sound is distorted. After a particularly vulgar tirade, Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) addresses the device by asking her, “How are you doing that with your mouth?”
“Never-fucking-mind how I’m doing it!” Plaza replies, with yet another censor bar popping up.
‘Please Eat Some Shit’ from ‘Austin Powers in Goldmember’
The Austin Powers series is so jam-packed with jokes that there’s bound to be a couple of meta ones in there. In Austin Powers in Goldmember, Austin and Foxxy Cleopatra (Beyoncé) meet with the Japanese-speaking Mr. Roboto (Nobu Matsuhisa), and as he speaks, white-lettered subtitles appear on the screen. At one point, a plate of white bowls is placed on a table between them, and Mr. Roboto offers Austin some food. The subtitles read, “Please eat some shit,” which causes Austin to react in disgust. Cleopatra then moves the bowls, revealing obscured subtitles that read, “Please eat some shitake mushrooms.”
‘I Am the Famous Comedian Arnold Braunschweiger” from ‘Last Action Hero’
Arnold Schwarzenegger is a vastly underrated comic actor, and Last Action Hero is an even more underrated comedy. The movie is stuffed with meta humor (just get a load of the plot: Jack Slater, an archetypal Schwarzenegger grizzled cop character, enters the real world where Arnold Schwarzenegger is a huge movie star), most of which is at Schwarzenegger’s expense. But the funniest quip comes when the kid in the movie (Austin O’Brien) asks Jack, “You think you’re funny, don’t you?”
“I know I am,” Jack replies. “I’m the famous comedian Arnold Braunschweiger.”
“Schwarzenegger,” Danny corrects him.
“Gesundheit,” Jack immediately offers in return, Schwarzenegger playfully taking the piss out of his own mouthful of a last name.
A Break for TV Fans in ‘Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?’
Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? is a 1957 comedy that lampoons the advertising industry and what it meant to the television industry specifically. At one point, in fact, the movie stops, and Rock Hunter (Tony Randall) steps out from behind a curtain and says, “This break in our motion picture is made out of respect for the TV fans in our audience, who are accustomed to constant interruptions in their programs for messages from sponsors.” The gag is admittedly very “of the moment,” but there are some parallels to our present state of media consumption where movie theaters have taken a backseat to TikTok and YouTube.
‘The Tingler Is Loose in This Theater!” from ‘The Tingler’
A meta joke can also be a practical joke on the audience. Such was the case with the schlocky 1959 horror film The Tingler, which was about giant centipede-like creatures that are parasitic to humans. Toward the end of the movie, the screen goes white and a silhouette of the creature crawls across the screen. The screen then goes black as the scientist, Dr. Chapin (Vincent Price), shouts, “The Tingler is loose in this theater,” and encourages everyone to “scream for your lives.” The installation of electronic vibrating devices in the seats of many theaters made the gag even more real/effective.
The Princesses Scene in ‘Wreck-It Ralph 2: Ralph Breaks the Internet’
In Disney’s Wreck-It Ralph 2, Ralph (John C. Reilly) and Princess Vanellope von Schweetz (Sarah Silverman) journey into the internet where they encounter all sorts of self-aware jokes, many of which are about Disney films and Disney-owned properties. The best of the bunch is when Vanellope finds all the Disney princesses hanging out together. The scene features wall-to-wall jokes about the tropes of being a Disney princess, and it ends with the other princesses encouraging Vanellope to sing a song about her dream, which is to relocate into a violent Grand Theft Auto-like video game. A few scenes later, Vanellope follows their advice and sings the hilarious Disney princess parody song “A Place Called Slaughter Race.”
The Pie Fight in ‘Blazing Saddles’
The end of Blazing Saddles is one meta joke after another. During a big fight scene, the action spills outside of the film’s soundstage and into a neighboring set where a musical is being filmed. The cast members of the musical join in the melee, which then overflows into the commissary of the studio lot, resulting in a giant pie fight. Once he’s in the real world, the main villain, Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman), hails a cab to escape. He gets a ride to the premiere of Blazing Saddles, where he’s gunned down by the film’s heroes before they go into the theater to check out the movie’s ending.
Jay and Silent Bob Beat Up Their Critics in ‘Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back’
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back is a movie about Jay and Silent Bob trying to stop the production of a movie about Jay and Silent Bob. Naturally then, it’s full of self-aware humor about Kevin Smith and all of his films up until that point. It also served as a way for Smith to work out his frustration with his critics. Or at least that’s what it seems like he’s getting at when Jay and Silent Bob use the money from their film royalties to fly all over the country to individually beat up everyone who criticized them online. Who knows if the bit made Smith feel better, but it’s undeniably funny.
The Sequels Sequence in ‘22 Jump Street’
The whole premise of the Jump Street movies is pretty meta — the clearly not-at-all-teenage Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum posing as high schoolers — but the sequel’s ending sequence is sublimely so. After having completed their undercover mission, a four-and-a-half minute sequence catalogs a bunch of fake additional sequels — from 23 Jump Street: Medical School to 43 Jump Street: Mariachi School and beyond. The most inspired one, though, is when Hill is briefly recast with Seth Rogen in 29 Jump Street: Sunday School due to a contract dispute.
‘I Decided to Cut Out All of the Baloney’ from ‘Man on the Moon’
The 1999 Andy Kaufman biopic Man on the Moon begins with Kaufman (Jim Carrey) talking to the audience as his Foreign Man character. In his sweet, indeterminate accent, he explains that the movie you’re about to watch is a huge disappointment and that it changed all of the facts of Kaufman’s life for dramatic purposes. Because of that, he cut the movie down to just this one scene. He then puts on a record as he awkwardly stands there and the credits roll.
A full minute into the gag, Kaufman shuts off the record player, and the screen cuts to black. A few seconds later, he slowly creeps back on-screen to explain that he just did that to get rid of the audience members who wouldn’t understand him, and that the actual movie they’re about to watch is a lot of fun.
While Carrey’s performance in the movie is excellent, Man on the Moon is mostly a straightforward biopic that could have used a lot more meta comedy like this to better honor its subject.
The Multiple Endings from ‘Wayne’s World’
Another ending, another great sequence of meta jokes. Wayne’s World first ends with Wayne’s house burning down and Garth dying. But then Wayne (Mike Myers) and Garth (Dana Carvey) appear again and criticize the decision to end the film this way. That’s when Garth says, “Let’s do the Scooby-Doo ending,” and they go into a second ending that’s exactly like an episode of Scooby-Doo, complete with the villain wearing a rubber mask. Ultimately, though, they decide to try for a third, more traditional happy ending. Altogether, it’s pretty perfect.
‘We’re Off on the Road to Morocco’ from ‘Road to Morocco’
The Road to… movies are a series of seven buddy films starring Bob Hope and Bing Crosby. Road to Morocco was the third one, and it begins with a meta musical number that outlines the plot and offers up lyrics like, “I hear this country’s where they do the dance of the seven veils / We’d tell you more, but we would have the censor on our tails,” and “For any villains we may meet, we haven’t any fears / Paramount will protect us ‘cause we’re signed for five more years!”
The Dick Pic in ‘Fight Club’
Speaking of censors, a very dirty meta joke from Fight Club would have been unfathomable in 1942. Early on, Edward Norton’s character explains that, in his job as a projectionist, Tyler Durdin (Brad Pitt) enjoys slipping single frames of porn into family films. The meta payoff arrives at the end of Fight Club when the film begins to shake and a single frame featuring a penis pops up before the screen cuts to black.
‘Sell All My Warner Bros. Stock’ from ‘Looney Tunes: Back in Action’
For the greatest-ever meta scene starring Daffy Duck — and some of the best meta comedy ever — I recommend the 1953 animated short Duck Amuck. But since we’re sticking strictly with feature-length films, check out the scene from Looney Tunes: Back in Action when Daffy and Bugs are plummeting to Earth in a malfunctioning flying car. While Bugs is screaming in terror, Daffy makes a phone call to his stockbroker. “Sell all my Warner Bros. stock,” he orders. “I got an inside tip that Bugs Bunny is about to die!”
‘Aren’t You Over-Acting a Little Bit?’ from ‘The Patsy’
Jerry Lewis loved talking to the audience in his comedies, and sometimes he took things even further than that. The Patsy ends with his love interest (Ina Balin) backing him up against a balcony and Lewis falling over the edge. As Balin begins crying, Lewis casually strolls back onto the set and asks, “Aren’t you overacting a little bit, Ms. Balin? It’s a movie, see? I’m fine.” He then reveals the set’s backdrop and tells her, “I’m gonna make more movies, so I couldn’t die.”
‘McAvoy or Stewart?’ from ‘Deadpool’
The Deadpool movies are nonstop meta comedy. So choosing just one joke from the first movie is a tall task, but let’s go with the moment when Colossus drags Deadpool away from a fight and tells him he’s bringing him to meet Professor X. Hilariously, Deadpool asks, “McAvoy or Stewart? These timelines are so confusing,” referring to James McAvoy and Patrick Stewart, the two actors who have played Professor X in the deeply convoluted X-Men film continuity.
The Kragle in ‘The Lego Movie’
This is another movie that’s full-on meta and difficult to cite just a single joke from. But the reveal of “The Kragle” is certainly up there. For the first half hour of the film, “The Kragle” is built up as this horrific weapon that could destroy the entire Lego universe. But when the weapon is revealed, it’s a completely ordinary, half-filled tube of Krazy Glue with some of the letters scratched off. The reveal is laugh-out-loud funny, but it also gets at the film’s deeper meaning about creativity and preserving one’s childhood.
The Betting Scene in ‘Cabin in the Woods’
The meta nature of Cabin in the Woods, which is a commentary on horror movie tropes, isn’t always played for laughs, but it contains plenty of solid jokes as well, most of which are delivered via the engineers who are secretly controlling the goings-on in the titular cabin inhabited by a bunch of teens. The funniest such scene is when the engineer named Gary (Richard Jenkins) collects money from laboratory employees who are betting on what kinds of horror tropes the teenage cabin-dwellers will encounter, which results in a hilarious conversation about the difference between “zombie” movies and “zombie redneck torture family” movies.
Dr. Teeth Reads ‘The Muppet Movie’ Script in ‘The Muppet Movie’
The Muppet Movie is overflowing with fourth-wall-demolishing gags, including several that other films later emulated, like when the film breaks in the middle thanks to the Swedish Chef working as the film’s projectionist, or when Animal tells everyone to “Go home!” after the credits roll. Another is a little less original — the classic “let me check the script” bit — but it’s done impeccably well.
When Kermit and Fozzie Bear first meet Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem, Fozzie begins to tell them why he and Kermit are there. But Kermit quickly stops him, telling Fozzie, “You’ll bore the audience.” Kermit then encourages Fozzie to “let them read the screenplay,” which Fozzie hands over to Dr. Teeth. It’s all great stuff, but the best part is Dr. Teeth’s careful reading of stage directions like “EXTERIOR SWAMP — DAY.”
The Projectionist’s Dream in ‘Sherlock Jr.’
This one’s a piece of movie history as it’s probably the first ever meta joke in a feature-length film (even though Sherlock Jr.’s runtime was just 45 minutes). In the movie, Buster Keaton plays a projectionist who moonlights as a private eye. While working his day job, he falls asleep and his dream self steps out of his body and into the movie that he’s projecting. From there, all kinds of hilarious disasters befall him in several different film genres.
Marshall McLuhan in ‘Annie Hall’
There are numerous moments in Annie Hall that could be interpreted as meta, but the most out-of-left-field one comes when Alvy Singer (Woody Allen) is stuck in line for a movie with a pretentious academic who is loudly criticizing Frederico Fellini. After two minutes of this diatribe, the academic begins quoting Marshall McLuhan, a philosopher considered to be the “Father of Media Studies.” Fed up, Alvy begins complaining to the audience about the academic, who eventually starts to defend himself. To finally prove the academic wrong once and for all, Alvy pulls McLuhan out from behind a sign. “You know nothing of my work,” McLuhan proceeds to tell the academic.
Everyone Gets Arrested in ‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail’
Throughout Monty Python and the Holy Grail, King Arthur is gathering knights to join his round table and to assist him with finding the Holy Grail, which is being held by French occupiers. The entire story builds up to a war with the French, but just as everyone is charging into battle, modern-day police cars show up and arrest everyone for the murder of an historian who was killed earlier in the film. In the confusion of the mass arrest, a police officer puts his palm to the camera, and the movie abruptly ends. It was a boldly meta ending that helped to make Monty Python and the Holy Grail one of the most beloved comedies of all time.
The Projectionist Fight Scene in ‘Hellzapoppin’’
Other meta comedies may feature a joke or a scene with the film’s projectionist — as this list has doubtlessly already proven — but 1941’s Helzapoppin’ had an entire comedic subplot dedicated to the movie’s projectionist (played by none other than Shemp Howard of the Three Stooges).
Hellzapoppin’ is an absolutely insane comedy about stage comedians Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson (playing themselves) trying to make their own movie. Along the way, everything goes wrong, including the stars having fights with the film’s director and its projectionist. In fact, less than five minutes into the movie, Ole and Chic demand that the projectionist rewind a scene. The antics only get crazier from there. Halfway through the movie, the projectionist gets into a fight with his girlfriend, which results in the film running off track, being put in upside-down and even changing to entirely different footage. The whole thing is almost too meta for its own good.
Randy Explains the Rules in ‘Scream’
Scream, of course, tears down the tropes of slasher flicks. Most of this meta commentary is provided by the franchise’s funniest character Randy (Jamie Kennedy), who, while watching Halloween, tells Jamie Lee Curtis to “Look behind you!” as there’s a killer right over his own shoulder, and who, in Scream 2, explains how to make a successful horror franchise. Neither of those moments, though, can top the iconic scene in the first Scream when he lists out the rules of horror movies, all of which Scream goes on to follow.
Groucho Encourages the Audience to Go to the Lobby in ‘Horse Feathers’
On the surface, this joke is pretty basic. During a piano number with his brother Chico, Groucho says to the camera, “I’ve got to stay here, but there’s no reason why you folks shouldn’t go out into the lobby until this thing blows over.” But it’s really a clever dig at the mandate studios placed on films back in the 1930s to include musical numbers, which often bog down Marx Brothers movies for modern audiences, making this particular joke even more trenchant with age.
‘Hey a Movie!’ from ‘The Great Muppet Caper’
Yep, the Muppets again. In The Great Muppet Caper, they dedicate an entire musical number, “Hey a Movie!,” to explaining that they’re starring in another movie and introducing all the people who are going to be in it. The bit was so good that 2014’s Muppets Most Wanted included a follow-up, “We’re Doing a Sequel,” all about sequel-making.
Deadpool Kills Deadpool in ‘Deadpool 2’
The best meta bit in Deadpool 2 is much more clear-cut than with Deadpool. Said bit: Deadpool uses Cable’s time-travel machine to right some past wrongs, and for one of them, he returns to the 2009 film X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which featured a much-maligned take on Deadpool. The present day Deadpool shoots Origins Deadpool in the head in the name of “cleaning up the timeline” as well as rewarding all the X-fans who hated that Deadpool.
‘Spaceballs’ on VHS in ‘Spaceballs’
In the middle of Spaceballs, when Lord Dark Helmet (Rick Moranis) is trying to track the whereabouts of the hero’s ship, Colonel Sandurz (George Wyner) suggests watching Spaceballs on cassette to find out where they went. Sandurz goes on to explain that a new breakthrough in home-video marketing has allowed VHS tapes to exist of a movie while it’s being made. They then put in the tape and fast-forward until they get to the present scene, where what’s happening on the screen they’re watching is mirrored into infinity. It’s not just Mel Brooks at his finest, but Moranis, too.
Gremlins Break the Movie in ‘Gremlins 2’
After the success of Gremlins, Warner Bros. was determined to make a sequel — with or without director Joe Dante, who was famously reluctant to return. Eventually, though, Dante agreed to make Gremlins 2 as a way to lampoon sequels. The result is an entirely meta movie that parodies all kinds of sequel tropes.
If anything, it’s almost as much performance art as it is a movie. Here’s a prime example: As the gremlins are running out-of-control, the film’s frames begin to flip out of control. The film then burns and is replaced by a white screen. Next, silhouettes of gremlins begin to play with the projector and eventually replace the movie with an old reel of naked volleyball until an audience member complains to an usher. The usher asks for help from none other than Hulk Hogan, who happens to be sitting in the audience, and Gremlins 2 resumes as normal.
Or as normal as this absolutely bonkers movie can get.
‘You’re Still Here?’ from ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’
From the very beginning of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, when Ferris explains to us how to get out of a day of school, the movie has a meta component to it. But it famously saves its most meta gag for last. After the credits have rolled, Ferris comes out of his bedroom, looks into the camera and chides, “You’re still here? It’s over. Go home. Go!”
Not only has the scene been parodied by the likes of Deadpool, Porky Pig and Michael Scott, but Kevin Feige has explained that it inspired the use of post-credits sequences in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a trend that many other films have since followed. It’s a meta joke that basically changed how we think of structuring movies. That makes it awfully hard to top.
Now, the list is over. Go home. Go!
