[Leo Keichi]

Haruhi theater does look like a self-parody. But, otoh, Haruhi's mind is so crazy that they could have all been transported into some kind of dreamworld created by her (or alternate universe, or something of the sort). I agree that these stories would make very nice special episodes.

Originally Posted by quigonkenny

Or a shout-out/in-joke. Come on people. Not everything in this series has to have 15 different deep hidden meanings...

Speaking about different meanings, I found this in the translated text:

Spoiler for Theater Act 2:

In the previous RPG world, Koizumi, who likes to deduce, said "It's some sort of game." Nagato, as our brains, remarked "It's probably simulated space." While Asahina-san, who apparently didn't really care about the odd situation, thought "It's just an attraction in a theme park." Of them all, Nagato's remark seems to be the closest to the truth.