History Main / AnimatedActors

-->'''BatMan''': The directors were great, Phil and Chris, really talented guys. ...Big, though. Like, they towered over us. [[HumansAreCthulu Basically freaks.]]\\

* The bygone ''Inc'ed'' was all about the lives of actors in a comic strip.

* The end credits of the '90s {{Sierra}} AdventureGame ''FreddyPharkasFrontierPharmacist'' were broken up into chunks, alternating between real credits, and then scenes where the actors got out of character and complained go the game's director. Interestingly enough, the "actors" playing the characters had different names than those of the characters' own voice actors.

* In ''VideoGame/PokerNightAtTheInventory'', [[VideoGame/SamAndMaxFreelancePolice Max]] and [[VideoGame/StrongBadsCoolGameForAttractivePeople Strong Bad]] occasionally discuss TelltaleGames, who made episodic adventure games for both franchises (as well as ''Poker Night''); Max is happy with his games, Strong Bad is not. Also played with for the [[VideoGame/TeamFortress2 Heavy Weapons Guy]], as [[PennyArcade Tycho]] recognizes him as a video game character while the Heavy himself seems to be unaware.

* In the ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' anthology "Black and White", a story by NeilGaiman and Simon Bisley called "A Black & White World" shown Batman and the Joker working on a movie set, reading over their lines and commenting on the corniness of the dialogue, as well as the general way characters in comic books are treated and/or mistreated; the Joker comments that he never gets big dramatic splash panels like Batman, while Batman retorts that he is the one who gets to make all the big speeches. Oddly enough, Lobo is their director.

* ''Anime/AdventuresOfMiniGoddess'' has an episode where the characters think they have day off, only to find that the camera's running and they need to set up something to show. Another episode has them answering viewer mail.

[[folder:WesternAnimation]]
* unsurprisingly perhaps, FamilyGuy does this regularly
* We discover in one episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Beetlejuice}}'' that the cartoon is actually a (reality??) show on the Neitherworld Network, where Mr. Monitor works. After Mr. Monitor cancels BJ's show, BJ goes to work in the mailroom. He quickly takes the opportunity to steal some show ideas from a colleague and is rapidly promoted to Mr. Monitor's supervisor. He eventually gets demoted after running out of ideas, and ultimately [[StatusQuoIsGod gets his old "show" back]].
** Subsequent episodes sometimes came back to this idea and featured BJ hosting shows on the Neitherworld Network like [[MasterPieceTheatre MonsterPiece Theatre]].
* [[VeggieTales VeggieTales]] tends to begin with actors!Bob and Larry, have fifteen minutes of story with in-character!Larry, a silly song with a different in-character!Larry, another fifteen minutes of (possibly different) story with in-character!Larry, followed by the actor! Larry and Bob wrapping up the show with AnAesop
[[/folder]]

** A similar doujin exists for ''BlackLagoon'', drawn by Rei Hiroe.

* The ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' music album ''Neon Genesis Evangelion Addition'' has a track entitled "After the End". This is in fact an AudioAdaptation where the ''Evangelion'' cast discuss how to make the show more popular while {{lampshading}} some criticisms of their own series. Highlights include {{Sentai}}, MotorMouth Pen-Pen, and HideakiAnno as '''[[CreatorCameo Black Space God]]'''...well maybe, no official source ever confirmed it. The whole thing ends in a "sound only" version of Episode 1 where "The Beast" is sung a cappella.

** Subsequent episodes sometimes came back to this idea and featured BJ hosting shows like [[MasterPieceTheatre MonsterPiece Theatre]].

* We discover in one episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Beetlejuice}}'' that the cartoon is actually a (reality??) show on the Neitherworld Network, where Mr. Monitor works. BJ's show is cancelled at the beginning of this episode. He spends the rest of the episode getting a job in the mailroom, getting promoted to executive when he steals someone's ideas, getting demoted after running out of ideas, and ultimately [[StatusQuoIsGod getting his old "show" back]].

** Anime Director ShinichiWatanabe (a.k.a Nabashin) and original manga author Koshi Rikudo are quickly shown to not only both portray their real selves (Nabaeshin's connection to either side is questionable at best, depending on his scene however), and yet both in-canon with the Anime's story and relation to Excel Saga's characters.

--> Alright, cut! Where's the director? I can't work like this.\\
* Also displayed in the credits of Jak 2 and 3 as the characters talk about their work on the game.

* The premise of ''GreystoneInn'' is that comic strips are produced like television shows, a la Roger Rabbit. The webcomic follows the behind-the-scenes business of the [[ShowWithinAShow fictional]] syndicated comic of the same name, of which we are shown very little.

* In an official Yu Yu Hakusho doujinshi written by the author Yoshihiro Togashi himself, it is revealed that Yu Yu Hakusho is in fact "filmed", and several of the actors possess drastically different personalities than the characters they portray, such as Kuwabara being a very calm and serious person who wears glasses. Notably, older Koenma and Yoko Kurama are played by the same actor.

* In the ''Comicbook/{{Batman}}'' anthology "Black and White", a story by NeilGaiman and Simon Bisley called "A Black & White World" shown Batman and the Joker working on a movie set, reading over their lines and commenting on the corniness of the dialogue, as well as the general way characters in comic books are treated and/or mistreated; the Joker comments that he never gets big dramatic splash panels like {{Batman}}, while Batman retorts that he is the one who gets to make all the big speeches. Oddly enough, Lobo is their director.

* [[VeggieTales]] tends to begin with actors!Bob and Larry, have fifteen minutes of story with in-character!Larry, a silly song with a different in-character!Larry, another fifteen minutes of (possibly different) story with in-character!Larry, followed by the actor! Larry and Bob wrapping up the show with AnAesop