A Story of a Story of Recursion

When I was a child, one time my dad told me a story about a group of robbers sitting under a blade of grass. The story went something like this:

In the depth of night, seven robbers sat hidden in the shadow of a blade of grass. The leader of the group stood up and said "Pedro, tell us a story."
Pedro stood up and started speaking: "In the depth of night, seven robbers sat hidden in the shadow of a blade of grass..."

I loved this story and the recursive nature of it. My dad would take a lot of joy in making the story, which apparently is an old joke from the 50s, more and more elaborate, and turn it from three sentences into a 20 minute tale.

This is not just repetition – each time you actually go a level deeper. You could imagine the story ending like this:

He finished his story, sat down, and took a swig of his ale." Pedro finished his story, sat down, and took a swig of his ale.

Recursion in storytelling still really grabs me. I found another example this morning, in the lyrics of a song by RUBII called BOTB that I really like:

I've got some big bossin' b's, and some boys on the block
I call them a couple G's, and they think that I'm hot
...
There's no debating, the consensus is
I've got some big bossin' b's, and some boys on the block
...

Makes an already great song even better!