What is meta? Wikipedia says the prefix is used to mean about (its own category). So a blog post about blogging. Or a song about songs.

Or a TV show about TV shows.

Sometimes such exercises in meta don’t work – remember Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip? But other times, they’re done beautifully. The two best examples of meta air on Thursdays on NBC: 30 Rock and Community.

Last week, 30 Rock’s 100th episode was commemorated by a plot revolving around the 100th episode of the show’s “show within a show,” The Girlie Show. (Got that?)

It could have been confusing. It could have been a hokey tie-in. But it was neither – it was a great hour of television. It was full of references to things that other shows do on milestone shows – remember moments past, bring back characters that haven’t been seen in a while, throw in a pregnancy and a death to amp up the drama. (Of course, on 30 Rock the pregnancy was hysterical and the death was of a one-off character that we pretty much assumed form his first scene was going to die.)

Earlier that night, Community did a meta episode of its own. Remember “flashback” episodes, when sitcoms would do a “new” episode that basically consisted of the characters remembering things that happened earlier in the season/series? Shows don’t do that anymore, given that in a world of syndication, DVDs, and shows that can be watched online, there really isn’t much of a point. So Community – which has paid homage to plenty of TV and film tropes before – did its own flashback show, full of entirely original flashbacks. The group remembered the time they were in a Glee club, the time they were sent to a mental institute, and – of course – their adventures in an Old West town. Again, this could have been pointless gags, but the parody was spot on, and the show managed to use the plot device as a way to advance a story by way of showing us new past events. (Still with me?) Behold:

Some people are turned off by meta – who wants to see a movie about a movie? Or watch a comedy that makes you analyze old comedies? I get that it can be frustrating. But I look at good meta as a bonus – if you don’t “get it,” it should still be entertaining. But if you do appreciate all of the layers, it’s that much better.

Or, put another way, meta makes it betta!