Sitcom Homage Episode

Even Evil Has Loved Ones: The Series.

"J.D.'s sitcom fantasy is filmed in front of a live Studio Audience."

— Scrubs

An episode of a show which is not normally in the Sitcom genre that is framed with the tropes and conventions of that genre. A Laugh Track is pretty much required, and probably a Three Cameras format as well. The lighting scheme will often be much brighter and happier. It will also deal with usual sitcom plots such as having Dinner with the Boss or throwing in a mini-Very Special Episode for laughs.

Note that many of these shows, in a broader sense, are also sitcoms, but the subject of parody is specifically the older archetype of one. Sometimes overlaps with Parody Episode in those cases where it's a Whole-Plot Reference to a particular sitcom, and Subverted Sitcom when there's a darker or scarier reason for the show suddenly pivoting to a sitcom aesthetic.

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Examples:

Films — Live-Action

• In Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, the scene after Scott hits on Ramona Flowers was on Wallace's house and references Seinfeld (bass part and laugh tracks included) as seen here.

Live-Action TV

• The second season finale of black•ish has Dre dreaming that he and his family are on an episode of Good Times. While the show is mainly a one-camera sitcom, the dream sequence had a four-camera setup and a live studio audience, to duplicate the feel of the original Good Times.
• In the Everybody Hates Chris episode "Everybody Hates Homecoming", there's one part where Chris Rock visits his homecoming date's house to meet her snobby affluent parents. This whole scene is a parody of older, more cliched black sitcoms such as The Cosby Show, complete with a three-cameras format and a constant laugh track.
• Played with in the Monk episode "Mr. Monk's Favorite Show". Adrian Monk himself was a big fan of a 70s/80s family sitcom titled The Cooper Clan (a likely parody of The Brady Bunch) during his childhood. At one point he has a dream where he's in the show itself and talks to the characters, giving his usual explanation of the episode's murder mystery; while also revealing some very unpleasant truths about what happened to the former cast members after the show ended.
• The widely hated arc in My Name Is Earl, in which Earl slipped in a coma and dreamed that he was the main character in a family sitcom where he was married to Billie.
• Scrubs is already a Work Com Dramedy, but in the episode "My Life in Four Cameras" J.D. has an extended fantasy where he experiences his job at Sacred Heart Hospital in a much more typical sitcom style, including a laugh track, brighter colors, and every problem neatly resolved in the end.
• Supernatural: In the episode "Changing Channels", the Winchester brothers are thrown into TV Land by the Trickster god. One of the shows in which they land is a Supernatural sitcom complete with alternate opening credits and a theme song, catch phrases, an obviously fake stage set, a voice-over telling us that Supernatural is filmed before a live audience, and built-in commercials. The live-studio audience is stereotypically interactive, applauding when characters enter, wolf whistling at sex jokes, and laughing uproariously even at things that aren't funny, like Sam wondering if they'll die in there.
• Wizards of Waverly Place: In "Wizards vs. Vampires", the introduction of Juliet and her vampire family plays out like a cheesy 1960s fantasy sitcom à la The Munsters, complete with jaunty music and lame puns.
• Mr. Robot did an episode where half of it was a parody of '80s sitcoms such as Full House or ALF (complete with the actual ALF). However, as the episode went on it got darker and more in the vein of Too Many Cooks.
• Scorpion did an episode where Cabe, feeling old, is drugged and hallucinates he's a sitcom 'bumbling dad'. Not played for laughs.
• In the It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia episode "Old Lady House: A Situational Comedy", Dennis sets up hidden cameras in the house of Charlie's mother after Charlie is worried about her living situation with Mac's mom. The Gang, being sadistic creeps, end up turning their dysfunctional relationship into a personal sitcom by adding in laugh tracks whenever something they find funny happens. Later on, other characters show up and Dee herself tries to participate as a Drop-In Character with abysmal results.
• WandaVision could be considered this to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a whole. Each episode parodies a sitcom from a different decade, with the titular characters in starring roles. It's eventually revealed that this is all due to Wanda using her powers to create the life with Vision she never got, and she's trapped a whole town with her powers to play out various side characters.

Video Games

• One mission of Saints Row IV re-envisions the Boss' life as a 1950s-style sitcom with a laugh track, inoffensive themes, and simple humor. After a while, the Boss notices something is off and realizes they've been put into a simulation by Zinyak.

Web Animation

• Dorkly Originals: A few Mortal Kombat videos has the cast in a sitcom called "Get Over Here!" with the occasional audience track.
• The first season finale of RWBY Chibi was a sitcom homage complete with obligatory laugh track, a school dance plot, Ruby spouting catch phrases and thanking the studio audience at the end. Borrowing from Friends' convention for naming episodes, the episode was titled "The One With the Laugh Track".

Web Videos

• The Annoying Orange sometimes features "Sitcom" versions of existing episodes, where a Laugh Track gets added in, but otherwise the plot and dialogue remain unchanged.
• Episode 15 of 50% OFF has a Laugh Track as a Running Gag.
  50% OFF is filmed in front of a live Studio Audience.

Western Animation

• Animaniacs (2020): "The Flawed Couple" pays homage to The Brady Bunch, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Cheers.
• The Amazing World of Gumball:
  • "The Test" has Sarah pointing out the show already is a sitcom ("the sitcom of our lives"), but Gumball rejects his role in the story. So Tobias takes his place as the main character and the show becomes like an older (live-action) sitcom—a very bad one. The writing is an amalgam of random cliches, the direction is so nonsensical that sets switch around between shots of individual scenes, and production quality is barely above a home movie. All of this sends the show into a death spiral headed toward cancellation until Gumball reclaims his role of main character by spitting acid that melts a hole through Tobias's head.
  • "The Lady" features what seems to be a group of old women who don't only look and act like The Golden Girls, the scenes they're in have a Laugh Track, washed out colors, and artificial video tape artifacts.
• Avengers Assemble: In the first half of the episode "Avengers: Impossible", the Impossible man summons a lot of enemies of the Avengers, and somehow turns it into a sitcom episode, with laugh tracks, The Door Slams You, couches and similar stuff.
• Played with in Bojack Horseman; the titular protagonist is a washed-up old TV actor, whose most famous role in his career was starring in the popular 80s/90s family sitcom Horsin' Around. Throughout the series, Bojack (out of severely unhealthy nostalgia) frequently rewatches clips from various episodes of this show; though it's only in the episode "Bojack Horseman Christmas Special" do we actually see an entire episode of Horsin' Around (in this case, it's a Christmas episode titled "Sabrina's Christmas Wish"). As expected, it's full of all the saccharine cliches you've probably seen from other sitcoms such as Full House.
• The DuckTales (2017) episode "Quack Pack!" has Scrooge's family acting as if they were in early 90s sitcom, complete with a very domestic plot, stage-style sets, and studio audience. The characters eventually start noticing the changes to reality, and it turns out to be the result of a genie granting Donald's wish for a normal family. Said genie had been stuck in his lamp since 1990, hence the sitcom trappings. For bonus points, the genie is voiced by Jaleel White of Family Matters fame.
• Hailey's On It!: In the episode "Full House (of Bugs)", the Denogas stay with the Banks while their house is being fumigated. The result is a parody of a typical 1980s family sitcom, punctuated by a Laugh Track from Beta, whose newest update comes with a selection of "standard sitcom noises" that activate automatically much to his annoyance as he Head Desks multiple times to shut it off.
• Butch Hartman's cartoons have at least one episode that approaches the idea:
  • The Fairly OddParents! had "Timmy TV", which starts out as Timmy figuring out he's a reality TV star in Fairy World, but with executive push completely changes the hidden camera nature of the original show into a cheesy sitcom.
  • T.U.F.F. Puppy has the agents of TUFF and their mortal enemies at DOOM end up sharing an apartment when both of their offices get blown to smithereens. They even have a special opening sequence referencing The Brady Bunch.
• OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes: "All in the Villainy" revolves around Boxman and Venomous trying to get Darrell and Fink to get along, and is loaded with parodies of sitcom tropes. We even get a double-whammy of sitcom title riffs- the episode's 'actual' title is a parody of All in the Family, while the in-show title "The Voxy Bunch" is a parody of The Brady Bunch.
• ReBoot: The episode "My Two Bobs" opens with a sitcom-inspired scene, complete with canned laughter. The sequence ends with an homage to the The Brady Bunch's title with various characters in boxes. The scene is then reveled to be a dream of Dot's.
• In the Rocko's Modern Life episode "Dirty Dog", the parasites living on Spunky act out a typical sitcom scenario, an Odd Couple planning Dinner with the Boss.
• Steven Universe: "Chille Tid" has a sequence where Steven dreams that his life is an old black-and-white sitcom. Here, his Rubber-Forehead Alien caretakers are normal humans and his struggles revolving around trying to take his crush, Connie, to The Big Dance instead of protecting the world. It ends up being suddenly cut off by Steven's newly manifested Dream Walker powers bringing in Lapis Lazuli, whose face pours out water until the room floods.
• The Teen Titans Go! episode "Dog Hand" opens up with a sitcom theme. Trigon's visit is accompanied by a laugh track and he's portrayed as a Bumbling Dad who makes terrible puns.
• There was an episode of Yin Yang Yo! where Carl the Evil Cockroach Wizard turns the main characters' life into a sitcom reminescent of The Suite Life of Zack & Cody.

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