Sitcom Episodes That Seem To Satirize Their Own Grandiosity

Friends, "The One In Massapequa"

I can't find this online but Alec Baldwin guest starred as Phoebe's obscenely cheerful boyfriend

Oh here's one

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=NzQKwnoa0P8&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DNzQKwnoa0P8

Golden girls

Basically an outside character summarizes/mocks/eye rolls the main characters at at least one point, doing a sort if characteriture

I guess that "golden age gang" vs "silver age gang" episode of Seinfeld would qualify in a weird way

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=YW5wmixeK4M&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DYW5wmixeK4M

does frank grimes count

also i really love that episode of eastbound and down when jason sudeikis' character's twin brother shows up after he dies and basically acts the way that a normal person irl would react to kenny powers

more or less every ep with Craig in South Park

What's Frank Grimes?

pretty famous Simpsons ep: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homer's_Enemy

Yeah, Grimey was the first thing that came to mind for me. I keep vaguely remembering some other "You're all horrible people!" sitcom ep, but it's eluding me.

I keep vaguely remembering some other "You're all horrible people!" sitcom ep

This is pretty much every episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

And didn't Idris Elba's character in The Office kind of fit this role?

He did a lot of eye-rolling iirc.

lots of Seinfeld episodes would probably fit this but most obviously the series finale

classic friends ep

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DJblHzEdLw

not a sitcom but LOST kinda did this with Rose and Bernard once or twice

Oh, duh: Community does (did...?) this all the time.

yeah i was trying to think of the weird-looking big-headed character in that one episode. also the Jack Black episode fits.

Todd!

Oh, duh: Community does (did...?) this all the time.

Happy Endings as well, sorta, a little self-allusion every episode. It's common with sitcoms that are decidedly post-Arrested Development.

Maybe the team building episode in the UK office.

Or the Frasier episode where Fraiser and Niles go to a psychiatrist.

Would Waldorf Salad fit in here?

Yeah the Seinfeld with bizarro Jerry and then the whole arc in season 4 with the 'Show about nothing'. The bit where George & Jerry are unsuccessfully trying to write the first lines of the show are a wonderful depiction of creative failure.

Jerry: We're dead.

George: We're not dead.

Jerry: We are dead.

George: Come on. We got all day tomorrow to come up with a story.

Jerry: All day tomorrow? We had a month and a half to come up with something and we didn't do anything.

George: So we'll do it tomorrow.

Pretty much every cop peocedural episode featuring a documentary crew at least winks at this notion

"Jerry: We're dead.
George: We're not dead.
Jerry: We are dead.
George: Come on. We got all day tomorrow to come up with a story.
Jerry: All day tomorrow? We had a month and a half to come up with something and we didn't do anything.
George: So we'll do it tomorrow."

this is great! so much of the world (that i've seen at least) seems to rely on this principle!

the scene where jerry fails to sell the network execs on actual seinfeld plots ('so you're in a chinese restaurant...') and succeeds with george's terrible 'a guy hits your car, and he's broke, so he agrees to become your butler' plot is one of the show's all-time high points.

That entire season is probably one of the top five seasons of any television show ever.