Compare/contrast Metafictional Device and Ninja Prop, which also allows characters with Medium Awareness to interact with the story's visual elements, but the elements themselves are usually not treated as an "actual" part of the setting. Compare Background Halo and "Spread Wings" Frame Shot, in which the characters standing in front of a backdrop or other objects that makes them appear to have a Holy Halo or wings for symbolic reasons. See also Prop.
Examples:
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Animation
- BoBoiBoy: When Adu Du publicly announces to the residents of Rintis Island that the recent arson incidents were BoBoiBoy's fault, a Dramatic Spotlight is cast over him, drawing everyone's attention to the Kid Hero. Probe, who's shining a flashlight down on BoBoiBoy, then says "You're done for, BoBoiBoy."
Anime & Manga
- Bang Brave Bang Bravern! turns this into a Running Gag with the titular robot. As a Genre Refugee of the Super Robot Genre, he has all the usual trappings, including flashy backgrounds when he transforms or does something cool, a Theme Music Power-Up, and all manner of other things. However, all these aspects are diegetic—the background is something he projects, and his theme song can be heard by other characters. In one scene, it turns out that when he shows up on a Mission Control radar marked by his name and logo, said radar isn't supposed to have the capacity to display that—he somehow hacked into it to add his name and logo.
- One episode of Fullmetal Alchemist (2003) has Breda dress up like Alex Louis Armstrong as a prank. The costume includes Armstrong's signature Bishie Sparkles as little pink diamond shapes attached to wires, which seems to imply that Armstrong's sparkles are also diegetic (though we never get an explanation as to how).
- The first chapter/episode of Heaven's Design Team has a bunch of pigeons appear as a sign of God's approval when the design for the giraffe is finally passed. In the very next panel, the giraffe ate the pigeon—to Venus's horror—because its leaf diet is insufficient to fulfill its protein requirement. Considering that subsequent approvals don't come with such extravagant "effects", it is possible that God sent the pigeons precisely to fulfill the creature's dietary needs.
- In Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere, a sign frame always appears over Toori's crotch whenever he gets naked. Although it seems to be just a stylized Censor Box, it actually appears in universe as part of his contract with the god of entertainment, allowing him to include nudity in his comedy routines without worrying about public indecency.
- In Ranma ½, when Kodachi Kuno's childhood rival, Asuka Saginomiya, is first introduced, she is wreathed with a bunch of white lilies, which is supposed to reflect her beauty and elegance, and her nickname. When she stands up, it is revealed that she actually has a white lily bouquet tied on her back.
- Skip Beat! has the Kyoko Apparitions (or Kyoko's demons/Grudge Kyokos, depending on the translations), which initially seems to just be an exaggerated expression of Kyoko's thirst for vengeance, but turns out to be actual spirit manifestation that can affect other characters and their surroundings. In several instances, Kyoko uses the apparitions to steal a random stranger's bike, and to haunt/curse Sawara so that he'd let her into the LME talent division. Later on, Reino — who claims to have psychic powers — actually takes one of the apparitions hostage to threaten Kyoko.
Comic Books
- Steven Universe: In Camp Pining Play, when Peridot gets an idea for how to get props, an Idea Bulb appears next to her head. Next panel, it turns out to be an actual light bulb being dangled by Sour Cream.
Comic Strips
- FoxTrot has a story arc where Paige is struggling both to write a school report about Thomas Edison, and to fend off Unwanted Assistance on the subject from her dad Roger. In one strip, an Idea Bulb suddenly appears above her head as she's writing. Then it turns out Roger was just standing behind her, holding a real lightbulb up, as a pretext to rattle off a list of Edison's inventions.
Films — Animation
- The Emperor's New Groove: Kuzco and Pacha running to the palace is shown as a Travel Montage, with a red dotted line to indicate their progress. Cut to Yzma and Kronk following him, where they suddenly notice the red line on the ground. Then they look behind them and see that a blue dotted line is forming behind them. They just shrug it off and continue the chase.
- The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists: We see a red dotted line on the map that's supposedly just there to show where the pirates have traveled... only for the scene to shift into reality and we find out that the albino pirate is creating the dotted line by throwing red items out the back.
Films — Live-Action
- The Muppets (2011) combines this with Left the Background Music On in one scene. It's night when Kermit the Frog makes his first appearance, and from the perspective of obsessive Muppet fan Walter, Kermit is spontaneously bathed in light from behind while an Ethereal Choir sings. Then the light is revealed to be the headlights of a passing bus—with a church choir aboard, practicing. As soon as the bus drives by, the scene returns to normal.
- Who Framed Roger Rabbit: During the opening sequence, Roger gets Circling Birdies after having a refrigerator fall on his head, and is immediately berated by the director because the script calls for stars, not birds. While ranting, the director grabs one of the birds and throws it on the floor, before yelling at the remaining, chirping birds to shut up. As the director storms off, Roger is seen catching the birds and stuffing them back into his pants, suggesting that the birds are stage props for the filming.
Live-Action TV
- Community: When Abed and Troy attempt a "Freaky Friday" Flip (appropriately while holding a copy of the film), the lights begin flickering crazily. A maintenance guy flips them back on and apologizes for the routine light switch check.
- Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide: In "Girls," Ned remarks that when he meets his perfect girl, a golden light will hit her and the angels will sing. Twice in the episode, a light shines on Moze and a chorus of angels sings. However, it's not an actual Bishie Sparkle — Gordy is just fixing up the lights while the choir practices in the hallway, as the lights in the chorus room broke. The third time this happens, however, Gordy fixed the lights and the choir is back in their room, suggesting it's actually in Ned's head that time.
- Doctor Who: In "Voyage of the Damned", an in-universe advertisement featuring business owner Max Capricorn has a Twinkle Smile with Audible Gleam when he gives the tagline "My name is Max". The Doctor is rather bemused when he meets him in person and finds out it really does that.
- In this
Saturday Night Live sketch, the Big Man on Campus and the Head Cheerleader enter via a Slow Walk, much to the awe and bafflement of the new kid. The principal clarifies that this is a magic hallway where everything moves in slow motion.
Webcomics
- Bug Martini has "Cartoon Generated Imagery", speculating about the downsides of various cartoon visual effects appearing in real life. Patent thieves would stalk anyone with a light bulb floating above their head, stink lines would make it impossible to hide when you fart, and stray soap bubbles would get mistaken for drunk bubbles, leading to false drunk-driving charges.
- Freefall does this twice with Censor Boxes:
- The young Robot Helix's view is censored when Florence undresses near him because his vision system's parental controls are enabled.
- One scientist equips hordes of small robots with vantablack panels to confound an automated security system. Conveniently, they all start running around when Florence and Henri need to take a shower.
Florence: He must have run out of panels. That one is carrying a lamp shade.
- The young Robot Helix's view
- Paranatural: This is a common gag:
- In the first chapter, people in the background are colored purple and slowly begin to crowd the hallway, making it difficult for Max to follow Suzy. When he mentions the problem, she wonders what he's talking about, as the hallway is empty. The people were really shades that Max was seeing as he became a spectral. Actual background characters are colored like normal people.
- Mr. Spender is fond of adjusting his glasses to create a shine. It then turns out the flash effects are real, and with his light manipulation powers, he can use them as throwing stars.
- During the hitball game, the teams are briefly likened to a tiger and a dragon, with the creatures appearing in the background behind the teams. It turns out to be a tiger and a dragon spirit crossing in the middle of the game who are reprimanded and forced to move off the court.
- Isaac has oddly styled hair which initially appears to just be an effect for his Animesque design. It then turns out to be a side effect of being possessed by a spirit.
- In one strip, Ollie and later Johnny get Bishie Sparkle while they're doing a Good Cop/Bad Cop routine to bully information from Jeff. In the background, RJ is throwing glitters on them.
- Scandinavia and the World: Iceland is constantly accompanied by Bishie Sparkle. In one strip, it turns out that this is a physical substance, and other characters can borrow it to look more bishie themselves.
- In The Order of the Stick, the background goes dim when Genre Savvy Tarquin makes a foreshadowing. Apparently it's because he had dimmers installed for dramatic effect.
Western Animation
- American Dad!: In "Now and Gwen", an argument between Francine and Hayley is punctuated by a lightning strike, which turns out to be Roger flicking the lights off and on while shaking a metal sheet for the sound of thunder. When Roger gets busy with his own subplot, Klaus tries to continue the gag in later scenes but always gets the timing wrong.
- Chowder: "The Flibber Flabber Diet" has Chowder leading Truffles in a random route around the town to get her out of the house so that Schnitzel and Mung can work on making the house bigger. We get an aerial map view with red dots following behind icons of the duo, which end up being actual red dots physically following them.
Truffles: Why do these strange dots keep following us? Run Chowder!
- Futurama:
- "Bendless Love": When Bender first sees Anglelyne, she first appears as a Gaussian Girl. Then the workers remove the dirty glass they had placed in front of her.
- "A Leela of Her Own": Several Blernsball players are naked in a locker room, censored by black bars. Bender accidentally unplugs the "black bar generator" in the corner, making the bars vanish and the guys have to cover up with towels (except for one apparently hung player who proudly looks around and declares, "I win!")
- Gravity Falls:
- When the town celebrates Pioneer Day in "Irrational Treasure", its redecorated downtown is shown in sepia at first, but then the men selling "dirty glass" move out of the way of the camera and color returns.
- In "Fight Fighters", when Dipper takes Rumble's attention away from killing Robbie, the view shifts to a letterboxed close-up on Dipper's face. Then the camera zooms out to reveal the effect is from Dipper holding up a pair of black-colored planks, which he throws away.
- Kaeloo: In season 5, Mr. Cat's Stalker with a Crush, Pretty, realizes that Mr. Cat will never see her as anything more than an Abhorrent Admirer and she should just give up on him. In the 13th episode of this season, the characters have a discussion about love, and the camera pans to Pretty gloomily talking about heartbreak while staring out of the window as rain pours down. The camera zooms out to reveal that it wasn't raining, there was just a guy with a watering can standing on the roof and pouring water down for... some reason.
- Kim Possible: In "Bonding", Professor Dementor's face is tinged red as he declares that there is nothing Kim can do to stop him. Bonnie (currently stuck to Kim and dragged along on the adventure) mocks the whole idea of Evil Gloating and asks him why he's holding a red flashlight.
- The Simpsons:
- "Treehouse of Horror VI": In "Homer³", Frink announces Homer has fallen into "The Third Dimension!" and the room goes dark. We then see that Lisa accidentally leaned on the light switch.
- In an episode where Homer goes on a sea voyage, this is montaged by a dotted line traveling across a map sprinkled with sea monsters and other decorations. Homer crashes into the compass rose, and avoids a sea serpent outright.
- SpongeBob SquarePants:
- "Wet Painters": SpongeBob is taking a ridiculously long time starting to paint Mr. Krabs' living room, indicated by title cards saying "Two hours later", "Three hours later", and so on. The last one is revealed to be held by Patrick, who complains that he's out of time cards, implying that he held up the other cards as well.
- "New Student Starfish": After Mrs. Puff sentences SpongeBob and Patrick to detention, she is lit from below as she says "May Neptune have mercy on your souls!" Camera pulls back to show that Mrs. Puff is holding a flashlight under her chin.
