Movies and TV shows where somebody memorably plays themselves

Stoner comedy movie “Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle” did a lot of raunchy, so-random humor indicative of the time. That includes a tongue-in-cheek celebrity cameo. Neil Patrick Harris, at a time in his career before things took off again, plays a brash, womanizing version of himself. Later, when Harris would come out as gay, they worked that into the sequels, because of course you couldn’t have Harold and Kumar and not have NPH.

The selling point of this ABC sitcom certainly wasn’t its annoying title. It was the fact that one of the titular B’s best friends was the actor James Van Der Beek. He played a down-on-his-luck version of himself, and while that could have made for a one-note joke, they did actually manage to find some funny stuff for Van Der Beek to do during the two seasons of the show.

Not everybody who plays themselves is an actor. Not everybody who stars in a movie is an actor, either. Michael Jordan got to star with the Looney Tunes in “Space Jam” because he was, at the time, the best basketball player in history and because he was incredibly famous. The fact he could only passably play himself didn’t seem to matter to the “Space Jam” folks.

In that classic Charlie Kaufman way, the script for “Being John Malkovich” straddles the line between “clever” and “annoying.” The presence of Spike Jonze directing helped keep this one largely on track. There is a portal wherein one can enter the consciousness of the actor John Malkovich. And when Malkovich himself does it, well, all hell breaks loose.

“Airplane!” is stuffed to the gills with jokes. It’s an overbooked flight of jokes. One of them is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is, at first, playing Roger Murdock, a member of the flight crew, but then it turns out he is actually Kareem, the basketball player. And he does a better job acting than Michael Jordan, for the record.

To go back to “Space Jam” once more, the best part of that movie is arguably Bill Murray’s turn as himself. That might also be true of “Zombieland,” a perfectly-fine horror-comedy. It turns out that Bill Murray has disguised himself as a zombie so he can hide out and not get eaten. Eventually, though, that plan takes a bit of a turn.

The comedy world of Judd Apatow and Adam McKay and the actors that were fostered under them was built on raunchy grab-assery, and “This is the End” allowed those actors to do that without even having to play fictional characters. Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, writers of the profoundly-unfunny “Superbad,” wrote and directed this movie and hung out with a bunch of their friends just goofing around. It has a ton of actors playing themselves, though.

Speaking of Rogen and Goldberg, they also are co-creators of “The Studio,” an Emmy-winning show that is both good and overrated. Set in Hollywood, the show has offered several actors, and directors, the chance to play themselves. Or, in the case of Ron Howard, the same parody of himself he has been playing for over two decades at this point.

Adam Sandler plays two characters and Al Pacino plays zero. Pacino, the acclaimed actor, does indeed lend his talents to the movie where Adam Sandler plays twins, one male and one female. Pacino does a rap about Dunkin’ Donuts. Really.

Rich and acclaimed thanks to “Seinfeld,” Larry David got the chance to not only be a creative force on a show, but star in it. David plays a heightened version of himself, and of course he is not the only one. Ted Danson and Richard Lewis, in particular shone on “Curb” as takes on themselves.

HBO’s “The Larry Sanders Show” has the juice of three of the best sitcom performances in history from Garry Shandling, Jeffrey Tambor, and Rip Torn, and then a parade of people playing themselves. Sometimes in multiple episodes. A young Jon Stewart, for example, or the recurring David Duchovny, who plays a version of himself who, perhaps, has a crush on Larry.

By this point, hundreds of celebrities have lent their voice to “The Simpsons.” Many of them have played themselves. Including, inexplicably, Elon Musk. In fact, credit to “The Simpsons” for being early to the fake version of Ron Howard we have come to see mined in comedy time and time again. He’s one of the people who has played himself multiple times.

Speaking of Ron Howard as himself! Of course, we’re here to heap praise on Carl Weathers. Weathers’ turn as a version of himself who is a penny-pinching huckster was incredibly funny. In fact, Weathers ended up becoming one of the best recurring characters on the show.

After “Friends,” all the cast members found themselves at different levels of success. Matt LeBlanc had to return to sitcoms, but he had enough cache to play a version of himself at least. “Episodes” is a somewhat-toothless showbiz satire about a British couple who come to America to remake their hit British series. LeBlanc plays a version of himself who is returning to television, but he doesn’t seem to have a ton of fun with it.

Here is a case where somebody got an Emmy nomination for playing themselves, and in a hidden-camera show at that. A non-actor is led to believe that he is serving on a jury, and one of the other members of the jury is the actor James Marsden. “Jury Duty” was successful enough, and Marsden good enough, he got an Emmy nomination for acting.

Actor director John McTiernan, action writer Shane Black, and action star Arnold Schwarzenegger joined forces for a gonzo meta action-comedy that, well, didn’t quite work. “Last Action Hero” has become a cult classic, but the expectation was a down-the-middle hit. Schwarzenegger plays a character from an action movie who enters the real world, but he also plays himself. On top of Arnold playing Arnold, there are a few cameos to be found in “Last Action Hero.”

This movie only exists because Nicolas Cage is in it, and because he’s Nicolas Cage. It’s a film that coasts on the cultural legacy of Cage, delivering a solid action-comedy. Cage plays himself, but a bit more down on his luck, and he takes a big payday to hang out with a superfan, who may or may not be a criminal kingpin as well.

Before he directed “Scream,” the ultimate work of meta horror, Wes Craven did the same thing with “New Nightmare.” Heather Langencamp plays, well, Heather Langencamp, the star of “A Nightmare on Elm Street.” In this world, the Freddy movies are just movies, but then he escapes the movie world to enter the real world to enact violence on those who make the movies about him. Robert Englund also plays himself and Freddy, and naturally Craven is in the movie as well.

Having, somewhat unexpectedly, built something of a cinematic universe, Kevin Smith brought it all together for the meta “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.” Jay and Silent Bob find out that their comic book alter-egos are the main characters in a new movie, and they either want their royalties or to shut the movie down. Naturally, this leads to a lot of cameos. Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, naturally, but also Wes Craven and James Van Der Beek, funnily enough.

Listen to your friend Billy Zane. A delightfully-dumb comedy held back by the fact it was released on September 28, 2001, “Zoolander” has grown into a cult favorite. Ben Affleck and Owen Wilson star as two rock-dumb male models, and the film is packed with cameos. The two largest cameos, though, are Zane and David Bowie, both as themselves.

People love “Ocean’s Eleven,” and then tend to like “Ocean’s Thirteen” quite a bit. “Ocean’s Twelve” has proven more polarizing, in part because of one big swing of a storyline. In the first movie we are introduced to Tess, Danny Ocean’s ex-wife and current paramour of Terry Benedict. She’s back with Danny, and on the crew, for the second film, and as part of the plan they decide she should impersonate Julia Roberts, since she looks like Julia Roberts. Tess is, of course, played by Julia Roberts. In addition to playing Tess playing Julia Roberts, Roberts plays herself as well. Yeah, you’re either on board with that or you aren’t.