self-parody

noun

self-par·​o·​dy ˌself-ˈper-ə-dē 

-ˈpa-rə-

plural self-parodies

: representation of oneself or itself that has the character or appearance of a parody

Detractors accused him … of relying on a sneaky humor and swagger that approached self-parody.

—New York Times

… the lack of ideological diversity on campuses is a disservice to the students and to liberalism itself, with liberalism collapsing on some campuses into self-parody.

—Nicholas Kristof

self-parodist

ˌself-ˈper-ə-dist 

-ˈpa-rə-

noun

plural self-parodists

Artists seem to have more of a sense of humor about themselves today than they did 10 or 20 years ago. Eminem is practically a self-parodist.

—Mikael Wood

Examples of self-parody in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

To the point where the genre itself has become sort of self-parody. —Patrick Frater, Variety, 27 Mar. 2024

Though The Daily Show was meant to be a parody of cable news, over Stewart’s tenure the actual versions began to feel so much like self-parody that many younger viewers began treating Stewart as their primary news source. —Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 12 Feb. 2024

But there is just enough humor, and just enough puncturing of the intense personae adopted by the two leads, for the show to avoid the relentless commitment to grimness that had even the best stretches of the Pizzolatto years verging on self-parody. —Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 15 Jan. 2024

And there are multiple factors and distinctions to consider, including the love of performing at any age versus the risk of self-parody as one’s abilities audibly and visibly decline. —George Varga, San Diego Union-Tribune, 10 Dec. 2023

That may be a good strategy, since some classic horror movie tropes have been overused to the point of self-parody. —Shelly Tan, Washington Post, 20 Oct. 2023

In light of Streep’s late-career starring roles, there’s a hint of self-parody in Loretta’s urge to go big. —Alison Herman, Variety, 8 Aug. 2023

But to paraphrase Perd Hapley, a lot of it is Arnold self-parody that only has the cadence of a joke, like a running gag where Luke dislikes the idea of Emma getting engaged to the geeky Carter (Jay Baruchel). —Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 25 May 2023

There is perhaps a more tonally balanced version of Mrs. Davis that manages to give equal weight to both the self-parody of strutting rebel leader JQ (Chris Diamantopoulos, hilarious) and to its discussions of faith in God versus faith in technology. —Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 18 Apr. 2023

Word History

First Known Use

1840, in the meaning defined above