Characters Who, the Actor is Part of the Meta Joke

[Cranjis McBasketball]

Confusing title, I know.

What I mean is, for example, on the Big Bang Theory, Amy Farrah Fowler's dad is played by Teller. When he is originally appears, he goes to speak, but it gets shouted down by his wife. So the joke is, Amy's mother is overbearing and won't let him speak, haha. But the meta joke is, Teller doesn't speak...which he does. Constantly, all the time, but his "gimmick" such as it were is, Teller doesn't speak. A few episodes later, Sheldon is meant to be bonding with him, but he's too fascinated by Howard's terrible magic tricks and is fooled by every single one of them. It's fine enough on it's own, but it's Teller IRL, so it's another layer.

So what are other examples of characters, who the person portraying them, adds a level of meta humour?

[El Pollo Guerrera]

In "The Magnificent Seven" (1960), Robert Vaughn was Lee, haunted veteran plauged by memories.

In "Battle Beyond The Stars" (1980), Robert Vaughn was Gelt, haunted assassin plagued by memories.

[Sir Woodrow]

Jan 16, 2024 1:05:04 GMT -5 El Pollo Guerrera said:

In "The Magnificent Seven" (1960), Robert Vaughn was Lee, haunted veteran plauged by memories.

In "Battle Beyond The Stars" (1980), Robert Vaughn was Gelt, haunted assassin plagued by memories.

I watched Battle Behind The Stars The other day for the first time since I was a kid and let me tell you, it really does Rebel Moons whole story in half the time and ten times the fun

[Futureraven: Beelzebruv]

Jan 16, 2024 1:05:04 GMT -5 El Pollo Guerrera said:

In "The Magnificent Seven" (1960), Robert Vaughn was Lee, haunted veteran plauged by memories.

In "Battle Beyond The Stars" (1980), Robert Vaughn was Gelt, haunted assassin plagued by memories.

Also related to "The Magnificent Seven", Yul Brenner as the gunman in "Westworld" basically being a robot version of his character in that. Same costume, the town is set up to look very similar too.

["Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay]

This is called a Casting Gag

[Feyrhausen]

Teller also played a man who lived as a cat on Dharma and Greg. So no talking either.

[JoDaNa1281]

Jack Slater in Last Action Hero, being played by Arnold Schwarzenegger.

[tafkaga]

John Wayne in The Shootist, his last movie before he died from cancer, about a gunfighter dying from cancer.

[tirtefaa]

Christopher Walken in just about every movie he's been in from the mid 90's onward.

[Fundertaker]

Kinda different thing, so I don't if it counts but...

In the Super Robot Wars games of old (nowadays not so much), the character of Amuro Ray from Mobile Suit Gundam would always flirt with characters voiced by Kotono Mitsuichi (like Misato Katsuragi from Neon Genesis Evangelion, Murrue Ramius from Gundam SEED or Tonyia Malme from Gundam X). This is because Amuro's voice actor, Toru Furuya, was the the VA for Tuxedo Mask in Sailor Moon, where Kotono Mitsuichi played the Usagi Tsukino/the titular Sailor Moon.

So... I guess this is a double meta joke?

[Push R Truth]

I'm a bit confused, but then again I'm kind of an idiot when it comes to meta and it's varying definitions... but does Danny Glover in Maverick count?

[karl100589]

Jan 16, 2024 0:00:00 GMT -5 Cranjis McBasketball said:

Confusing title, I know.

What I mean is, for example, on the Big Bang Theory, Amy Farrah Fowler's dad is played by Teller. When he is originally appears, he goes to speak, but it gets shouted down by his wife. So the joke is, Amy's mother is overbearing and won't let him speak, haha. But the meta joke is, Teller doesn't speak...which he does. Constantly, all the time, but his "gimmick" such as it were is, Teller doesn't speak. A few episodes later, Sheldon is meant to be bonding with him, but he's too fascinated by Howard's terrible magic tricks and is fooled by every single one of them. It's fine enough on it's own, but it's Teller IRL, so it's another layer.

So what are other examples of characters, who the person portraying them, adds a level of meta humour?

Ironically Teller’s partner Penn Gillette fits the bill in Sabrina, the head of the witches council being played by a famous magician.

[Bo Rida]

Brad Pitt in friends.

He and Jennifer Antison were still a couple at the time so him hating Rachel was funny. Doesn't work so well if you watch it these days.

[Celexa Bliss 54]

Jan 16, 2024 11:41:08 GMT -5 Bo Rida said:

Brad Pitt in friends.

He and Jennifer Antison were still a couple at the time so him hating Rachel was funny. Doesn't work so well if you watch it these days.

Well, it does work if look at it from a cynical viewpoint...

[Cyno]

In the Star Trek Lower Decks and Strange New Worlds crossover, Commander Ransom made a comment on Boimer's Una poster about how hot she was. Ransom and Una are played by husband and wife Jerry O'Connell and Rebecca Romijn.

[The Legendary Ring Troll {BLM}]

The Rock played an alien on Star Trek Voyager who was a fighter and gave someone a Rock Bottom.

[James Fabiano]

Jan 16, 2024 17:08:31 GMT -5 The Legendary Ring Troll {BLM} said:

The Rock played an alien on Star Trek Voyager who was a fighter and gave someone a Rock Bottom.

Goldberg spears someone in Santa's Slay, similarly.

[wildojinx]

Speaking of The Rock, in Hobbs and Shaw he does the people's eyebrow and almost gets in one of his old catchphrases as well.

[peaches1]

Henry Winkler as Barry Zuckercorn on Arrested Development did a couple of callbacks to his Fonzie character, including

[Hit Girl]

Tori Spelling appearing in Scream 2.