Self-parody

A self-parody is a parody of oneself or one's own work. As an artist accomplishes it by imitating his or her own characteristics; a self-parody is potentially difficult to distinguish from especially characteristic productions.

Sometimes critics use the word figuratively to indicate that the artist's style and preoccupations appear as strongly (and perhaps as ineptly) in some work as they would in a parody. Such works may result from habit, self-indulgence, or an effort to please an audience by providing something familiar. Ernest Hemingway has frequently been a target for such comments. An example from Paul Johnson: