One Click Wonder: Self Parody

New Channel 4 sitcom ‘Plus One’ is notable for an inspired turn from ex-boybander Duncan James, playing himself – and so joining a fine tradition of stars sending themselves up on screen with hilarious/humiliating results...

David Duchovny

Duchovny’s guest spot on TV satire ‘The Larry Sanders Show’ saw him develop a crush on the eponymous chat show host, culminating in this memorable moment of ‘Basic Instinct’-style crotch-flashing.

John Malkovich

Existential comedy ‘Being John Malkovich’ sent John Cusack inside the bewildered brain of the ‘Dangerous Liaisons’ star, thus revealing what a good sport lay beneath that famously brooding exterior.

Les Dennis

Stars lined up to appear in Ricky Gervais’ self-reflexive sitcom ‘Extras’, but it was the ex–‘Family Fortunes’ host who stole the show, baring his soul as a cuckolded panto star on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

Steve Coogan

No stranger to playing himself, Coogan has never done it better than in portmanteau film ‘Coffee and Cigarettes’, parodying star egotism as he spurns the friendly advances of less well-known thesp Alfred Molina.

Jean-Claude Van Damme

The Muscles from Brussels undergoes postmodern reinvention in the upcoming ‘JCVD’, a fictional biopic which presents the action star as a burnt out, straight-to-DVD shadow of his former self. Here’s a sneak peek.