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'''Boy:''' Quite unnecessary, Sir. Everything that can be invented has been invented. }}
* [[Terry Pratchett]]'s ''[[The Dark Side of the Sun]]'' has a dream sequence in which a character explains the course of various potential plots for the story, all of them are the plots of classic SF/fantasy novels (''[[Dune]]'' and ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' are included). The main character dismisses them all as implausible, telling the other "Try the reality next door", suggesting that these events are taking place in one of the many parallel universes hinted at in the novel.
* ''[[Discworld]]'':
** In the ''[[Discworld]]'' novel ''[[Discworld/Wyrd Sisters|Wyrd Sisters]]'', there is a dwarf playwright who swears his ideas come from literal bolts of inspiration from other universes, resulting in his plays showing influences from ''[[The Importance of Being Earnest]]'', ''[[Duck Soup]]'', [[Laurel and Hardy]], [[The Three Stooges]], and [[Charlie Chaplin]]'s "Little Tramp" character. They frustrate him because he knows they should be funny, but can't understand why or how to make the audience ''get it''.
** Pratchett reused the joke with movies in ''[[Discworld/Moving Pictures|Moving Pictures]]'' and with Opera and musical theater in ''[[Discworld/Maskerade|Maskerade]]''.
** And then there is the ''in-universe'' version in ''[[Discworld/Monstrous Regiment|Monstrous Regiment]]'', with Lt. Blouse devising a vast number of foodstuffs in the hope of getting one named after himself... only to learn that each and every one of them already existed.
** And in ''[[Discworld/Soul Music (novel)|Soul Music]]'' there is a thief who attempts to steal the secret of fire from the Gods, only to be informed by everyone that they've already got it.
* One SJ Perelman story has a character describe his idea for [[Sherlock Holmes|a detective in Victorian London whose adventures are documented by his former Army doctor friend]].
* Dorothy Parker had this to say about [[Oscar Wilde]]:
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