History FunnyAneurysmMoment / Literature

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* Listening to a certain children's story by Creator/DickKingSmith is rather uncomfortable with hindsight. Renaming a cat you've found out is female? Okay, yes, female cats are called queens. the cat's a queen. So we get this line:
--> "Or Diana... That's what the Princess of Wales is called, she'll be Queen one day!"
* In Suzanne Brockmann's ''The Unsung Hero'', the main character, a Navy SEAL on medical leave, imagines reporting to his superior officer:
--> "Hi, I think I just saw the international terrorist that I spent four months tracking in '96 taking a cab out of Logan Airport. Yeah, that's in Boston, Massachusetts, that teeming hotbed of international intrigue...."
** Funny in 2000, when the book was published. Much less funny a year later, when two killer planes took off from Logan on 9/11.
* ''Literature/OperationChaos'' opens in the midst of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, in which the "Moslems" invaded America.
** Moslems is more a case of SpellMyNameWithAnS, unless you're talking about the [[HurricaneOfPuns Nation of Islam, who claim the "O...E" stands for "Old English"]].
* Vlad Dracula and Elizabeth Bathory in ''Literature/CountAndCountess'', who write letters to each other across time and have been doing so since childhood. In this story, Elizabeth suffers from chronic epilepsy. When they are children, Vlad lists a number of ancient epileptics to try and cheer Elizabeth up about her disability. Vlad brings up Socrates, Caesar, and Alexander the Great. [[{{Foreshadowing}} Elizabeth quickly retaliates with Caligula.]]
* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': In one of Bran's chapters in the first book, he remarks that "Theon Greyjoy had once commented that [[DumbMuscle Hodor did not know much]], but no one could doubt [[VerbalTicName he knew his name]]." The line appears to just be using Theon's {{Jerkass}}ery to launch a humorous tidbit from Old Nan that his real name isn't even Hodor, it's Walder. In the fifth book, [[spoiler:after Theon is tortured into insanity, he's forced to take on the name Reek. He can't even bear to think the name Theon until well into the novel, and doesn't say it aloud until his very last line.]]
--> '''Theon''': [[MadnessMantra You have to know your]] ''[[MadnessMantra name.]]''
** Also, the sigil of House Frey through the first 3 books is referred to as the Twin Towers of Frey.
* ''Literature/SomeoneElsesWar'': [[FriendToAllChildren Lieutenant Panga]] asks the FiveManBand what they would like to be when they grow up. [[spoiler: [[TheHeart Otto]]'s reply is, "Not dead." He dies in the very next chapter.]]
* Creator/JamesPatterson's ''I Funny'', about a paraplegic middle-schooler [[DisabledSnarker who becomes a stand-up comic]], is set very specifically in Long Beach, NY (a barrier island off Long Island). A month before its' publication date, Superstorm Sandy ''slammed'' that area.
* Diana from ''Literature/{{GONE}}'' gives a reason you suck speech/comfort talk to Caine in the first book...
** '''Diana:''' (In response to Caine's angst over his mother abandoning him) Wow, it's a shame dr. Phil isn't here. Look, she was probably just a ''messed up teenager then.''
*** This was hilarious until the 4th/5th book when Diana ''actually'' [[spoiler: gets herself into this situation ({{teen pregnancy}}) with Caine. Only she's tortured by Drake for it goes insane from having to give birth in a mine whilst getting flogged and having horrible mind tricks played on her for hours.]]
* The autobiography of former Penn State [[UsefulNotes/AmericanFootball football]] assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, released in 2001, was titled ''Touched: The Jerry Sandusky Story''. Needless to say, the title is now VERY disturbing in hindsight—see [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penn_State_child_sex_abuse_scandal The Other Wiki]] for the gory details.
* Literature/TheMoviegoer has a series of crippling TakeThat's against the entire 60's counter culture movement, except that the book came out in 1961 when those things hadn't become popular yet.
* ''Literature/FutilityOrTheWreckOfTheTitan'' was published in 1898 and was about an ocean liner called the ''Titan'' that sinks on its maiden voyage across the North Atlantic when it hits an iceberg. Fourteen years later, the ''UsefulNotes/RMSTitanic'' sank on April 14, 1912, and every circumstance surrounding the ''Titanic's'' sinking (number of lives lost, what started the sinking, lack of lifeboats, triple screw propellers, ship described as "practically unsinkable", ship length, and ship speed) matches something in the descriptions about the ''Titan''.
* ''Literature/VampireAcademy'':
** Early in ''Shadow Kiss'' during the guardian practice exercise, Rose wants Dimitri to have the opportunity to show that he could be a badass Strigoi.
** In ''Blood Promise'', Rose notices that Sydney doesn't seem to eat much of her food, but doesn't think much of it, and actually steals some of her fries. It's later revealed that Sydney has fairly severe body issues.
* Hazel's "you could be an axe murderer" line from ''Literature/TheFaultInOurStars'' becomes a lot grimmer after watching Creator/JohnGreen's video about how he [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=196&v=wQKwwC72BJE went to high school with a soon-to-be axe murderer.]]
* Literature/{{Cinderella}} was finally identified when the prince fit the glass slipper on her foot. Several centuries later, the O. J. Simpson trial used a similar method (fitting a glove onto O. J.'s hand) to determine whether or not O. J. was guilty. Even worse, the saying "if the shoe fits" sounds eerily similar to a phrase used by one of O. J.'s lawyers: "If the glove doesn't fit, you must acquit." This could also be considered HilariousInHindsight depending on how you feel about BlackComedy.
* ''Literature/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'': Viewers might view the Oompa-Loompas in a different light once they learn about the real-life child slavery issue the cocoa industry has (that Mr. Wonka smuggled them into the country doesn't help) -- especially since in the original 1964 text they were just pygmy Africans. (The OrwellianRetcon in TheSeventies was to combat the UnfortunateImplications of that.)
* Radar, who's black, getting a t-shirt with a confederate flag on it that says, "Heritage not Hate", was hilarious in ''Literature/PaperTowns'', which came out in 2008. Fast-forward to 2015, the year [[Film/PaperTowns the movie]] came out... and also the year when the controversy over the Confederate flag, and whether it stands for racism or not, has reached violent levels of protest and conflict. Suddenly the scene isn't so funny.
* Creator/HPLovecraft's horror writings weren't ever meant to be funny, but they were harmless thrills because of their obvious reliance on fantasy. Then you suddenly realise one day that Cthulu and R'yleh work quite well as a metaphor for the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clathrate_gun_hypothesis "methane clathrate gun"]]. [[note]]It's huge, it's been "sleeping" deep under the sea for countless eons, and when it rises, it will cause TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt through runaway climate change and a mass extinction possibly as big as the "Great Dying" at the end of the Permian era. And there are many people (climate scientists) who really do have nightmares about it, and at least a few particularly pessimist dark-green activists have developed mental illness (depression) and even committed suicide.[[/note]]
* Yet another 9/11 reference: Creator/TomClancy's 1994 novel ''Debt of Honor'' ends with a distraught Japan Air Lines pilot flying a 747 into the US Capitol building during a joint session of Congress, killing the President, most of Congress, the Supreme Court, and many others. Unlike the 9/11 terrorists, however, the pilot ensured that no passengers were on board (it was an empty ferry flight) and murdered his copilot prior to the attack so that he alone would bear the blame. The Capitol building was the most likely intended target of United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in a rural Pennsylvania field instead thanks to the actions of its passengers and crew.
* There is an off-hand remark in ''Literature/TheCandidatesBasedOnATrueCountry'' about Creator/BillCosby being a good role model. The book was written in 2011 when Cosby was still considered to be the human embodiment of wholesomeness - you know, before fifty-odd women came forward to accuse him of having drugged and raped them...
* In an earlier part of ''Literature/TheComfortableCourtesan'', when Sandy brings Clorinda the digitalis for Docket (which he believes is for an unhealthy client of Clorinda's who might otherwise be in danger of going OutWithABang), she jokes to him that she's sure Hector, her butler, wouldn't have any hesitations about disposing of a body for her. [[spoiler:This will happen for real in the final arc of the novel, and it will be someone who she premeditatedly murdered.]]
* In ''The Black Book and Schwambrania'', an autobiographical novel by Lev Kassil, the narrator and his brother write down some documents for their imaginary country, which are later accidentally discovered by police detectives inspecting a theft and thought to be evidence of an anti-Soviet political plot until the narrator's brother Os'ka (Joseph) explains the matter. This is one of the most comic and lighthearted moments of the book… unless you know that the real-life Joseph Kassil was shot almost two decades later, accused of involvement in an anti-Soviet political plot.
* ''Literature/UnderThePendulumSun'': Ariel the [[ArtificialHuman changeling]] is an indelicately BigEater despite [[EatingOptional not needing food]]. Then she admits that she still feels hunger even though she can't starve. ''Then'' she reveals that she was once sent to a workhouse with her human family, who starved to death around her.
* ''Literature/InCryptid'': In "The Lay of the Land", Mary jokes that Thomas is "doomed" and should "just accept [his] fate now". We later find out that [[spoiler:Mary brokered the DealWithTheDevil between Thomas and the Crossroads, which led to him eventually being TrappedInAnotherWorld]].
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* ''Three Men on the Bummel'' by Jerome K. Jerome is a lighthearted Victorian comedy about a bicycle tour through Germany. The narrator laughs about the German love of order and deference to authority. The last chapter is extended chuckling about totalitarianism and authoritarianism: the German citizen will do anything the police tell him, makes the perfect soldier when you give him a uniform and march him into another country, and just might come into some trouble under a bad government.
* Buzz Aldrin's novel ''Literature/EncounterWithTiber'' has a Space Shuttle failing to make orbit and crashing. This is most assuredly a reference to the Challenger disaster of 1986, but in-story, the event takes place in a period of time that, in real life, saw the 2003 Columbia re-entry breakup happen.
* Creator/PGWodehouse has one tucked away in ''Bachelors Anonymous''. This book, written in the seventies, includes this throwaway joke:
--> Mr Llewellyn's plane was on its way. A complete absence of hijackers enabled it to reach New York...
* The Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse is fond of these. Mostly they deal with Han and Leia's children. First there was Luke's vision of them. The Literature/JediAcademyTrilogy gave us Jacen Solo holding off Exar Kun's minions. Then there was Master Ikrit's view that Anakin Solo would become the greatest Jedi; he gets KilledOffForReal in the Literature/NewJediOrder. More recently, we had Literature/YoungJediKnights have Jacen say "What's the difference between a Jedi Knight and a Jedi Master? Ask me in about twenty years!" Nearly twenty years later, he's a Sith Lord. It also had a fight between Jacen and Jaina while Jacen was manipulated by a dark Jedi to see his opponent as his grandfather, Darth Vader.
* In the novel ''Literature/GoodOmens'', first published in 1990, has a bit that is now not so funny to read anymore... Remember the Horseman of the Apocalypse, Pollution? His favorite disaster was an oil spill? Causing mayhem, destruction of life, and disaster for years to come? Yeah... [[http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gIXWYBTpLtSayJtg41LKXpxSxVPAD9FV8LH81 Ouch.]]
** Though in all fairness, the novel could've been written in the aftermath of or inspired by the then-recent Exxon Valdez oil spill (occurred in 1989), which was until 2010 the worst oil disaster the United States had ever seen, with "destruction of [wild]life" being constantly reported on in the news and "disaster for years to come" predicted by all the experts.
** An off-handed joke about even a demon not being cruel enough to turn someone into Music/FreddieMercury is now a lot less funny, knowing that at the time, he was dying a slow and painful death of AIDS. At the time of the book's publication, there were rumors that he had contracted the disease, but he had repeatedly denied them. The truth came out a little over a year later, shortly before his death.
** In the book, Pollution replaced Pestilence, who retired in defeat after the invention of antibiotics. Fast forward 25 years, and we have scientists worrying about worldwide flu pandemics, there was a big Ebola outbreak killing tens of thousands that was barely kept from spreading to the rest of the world, an entire generation (and their young children) are dying of AIDS in Africa, and we are confronted with an increasing number of multiple-drug-resistant strains of bacterial diseases like tuberculosis. And there haven't been any real breakthroughs in finding new antibiotics in ages. Then, just a few months after the miniseries adaptation was released, a little year called 2020 happened...
* The ''Literature/TalesOfTheCity'' books have many of these. There's just something about cheerful, {{utopia}}n gay-themed romantic comedies written in the 1970s.
** In the eponymous first book, some of the A-Gays are talking about how it would be a great idea to invest in nursing homes geared toward gay men. Michael ridicules the idea, saying, "Are you gonna have a separate wing for drag queens?" A few years later, the idea of gay men in end-of-life care wouldn't seem nearly so funny.
** Particularly uncomfortable is the subplot in ''Further'' where Michael hooks up with an old movie star who is strongly implied to be Creator/RockHudson. A few years later, the real Hudson contracted HIV... and then Michael did, too.
* ''Franchise/StarTrek'':
** ''Literature/StarTrekArticlesOfTheFederation'' ends up having one within the context of the wider Literature/StarTrekNovelVerse. The novel ends with a somewhat upbeat comment from President Bacco's Chief of Staff and prime supporter, Esperanza Piniero, pointing out that while the first year of Bacco's term has had its ups and downs, at least the Federation is still intact. Given that Bacco herself praised a former president earlier in the novel by stating that if you complete a term with the Federation still intact, you've done the job, this is somewhat heartwarming. Two months after this novel (InUniverse), cue Literature/StarTrekDestiny. While Bacco continued to do a fine job through the apocalyptic mayhem of "Destiny" and its aftermath, the destruction in that trilogy does render Piniero's comment a bit painful.
** The ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' novel ''Q-in-Law'' has Lwaxana Troi declaring herself to be in mourning for her daughter. Deanna says she doesn't have a sister that she knows of. The mourning is then explained as an old Betazoid tradition calling attention to daughters who don't marry by a certain age. Four years later in-universe and two in the real world, the episode [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS7E6DarkPage "Dark Page"]] reveals that Lwaxana had another daughter who drowned when Deanna was a baby.
* In the second Literature/{{Temeraire}} novel, there's an amusing little subplot where Laurence hears about a nasty cold going around the English dragons, and many jokes are made about how dragons are such big babies when they're sick. Temeraire comes down with the cold, and it's played largely for laughs. In the fourth novel, it turns out that [[spoiler:the "cold" is a form of dragon tuberculosis that's slowly and painfully killing every dragon in England. If they hadn't stopped at exactly the right port in Africa and prepared exactly the right mushroom for Temeraire on a whim, he and every other English dragon would have died. For that matter, since Temeraire was on his way to China when he came down with the "cold," all of the Chinese dragons would probably have died, too.]]
** In the fourth book, there's also a throwaway line from Riley worrying about getting dragons out of the ocean and back onto the ''Allegiance'': "What the Admiralty will say to me if I get a transport sunk in harbor on a clear day, I should not like to think." [[spoiler: In ''Crucible of Gold'', due to useless sailors getting drunk directly after a long, severe storm, the ''Allegiance'' sinks with only the worst sailors saved. Riley goes down with the ship trying to save it, and Laurence realizes that he'll be remembered as the captain whose ship sank on a clear day.]]
* Reading Creator/PiersAnthony's references to his family life in his early works' Author's Notes, and especially the dedication to his daughter Penny, "Heaven-Cent", becomes a TearJerker when you know that [[spoiler: Penny died of respiratory distress following brain surgery in 2009]].
* In-story example in Sarah Waters's ''Literature/TippingTheVelvet'': a minor character chats up another by saying something along the lines of "Are you Sue Bridehead? I'm Jude Fawley" -a reference to Thomas Hardy's ''Jude the Obscure'', then being serialised. [[spoiler: Jude and Sue both end up having horribly unhappy lives. In context, it's a terrible line.]]
* On the commentary for ''Film/FightClub'', Creator/ChuckPalahniuk comments that a friend of his named Bob ended up getting testicular cancer after he'd written [[Literature/FightClub the book]], "and so the irony of that was just crushing."

* One edition of ''Uncle John's Bathroom Reader'' includes an article with a list of strange unofficial holidays. One of them is "No News Is Good News Day". Date: September 11. At first you might think it's just a bit of tasteless BlackComedy. But the copyright date is 2000.
** In another edition, published in 2003, there's an article on humourous church bulletins. One of them is "Visitors are asked to stay seated until the end of the recession." Depending on your point of view, that's either this or HilariousInHindsight.
* In Catherine Alliott's 1999 novel ''Rosie Meadows Regrets'', the titular character is wistfully musing that her life would have been much better if she'd married someone else other than her alcoholic, bigoted, mentally abusive, uncaring, and unsupportive husband. The celebrity she specifies? Creator/MelGibson. Hmm.
* Literature/SisterhoodSeries by Creator/FernMichaels: In the book ''Fast Track'', Jack Emery brags to reporters Ted Robinson and Joe Espinosa that the ''Post'' is going to be sold to a new owner. Joe turns green upon hearing this because that means he and Ted could lose their jobs. At that point, it seemed like a brilliant and cool way to upset the apple carts of those reporters, who had been thorns in the Vigilantes' sides. Then, in a later book, ''Under the Radar'', Ted explains to the Vigilantes why they can trust Joe. Joe is the only son out of eight kids. His father died early on, leaving his mother to take care of all of them. He's the youngest in his family. The family managed to get enough money to send Joe to college. He's the only one in the family to have a college education. Joe is a citizen of the United States, and he sends every cent of money he can back to his people in Tijuana. Joe cannot afford anything to live in except a one-room dump, and his immediate family has 37 members in it! Also, his family supports the Vigilantes quite strongly, and his salary combined with some other jobs he moonlights as help his family, but it's not nearly enough. His family is not lazy, but the economy in that area sucks. Boy, that not only explains why Joe turned green at the possibility of losing his job, but it makes Jack's bragging come off as a KickTheDog moment!
* ''Literature/NoCountryForOldMen'' by Creator/CormacMcCarthy: The novel takes place in 1980, and in it, Ed Tom Bell mentions the recent murder of a federal judge in San Antonio, TX. He's referring to the murder of Federal Judge John Howland Wood, who was assassinated outside his townhouse by a contract killer named Charles Harrelson on May 29, 1979. In 2007, Woody Harrelson (yes, the son of Charles) would co-star in the [[Film/NoCountryForOldMen film version of the novel]].

* In one ''Literature/WarriorCats'' book, the young blind apprentice Jaypaw is frustrated that one-eyed Brightheart is assigned to be his mentor (considering her to not be a "real" warrior), even more so when Brightheart announces that Longtail, a blind elder, is going to give Jaypaw tips on how to move around the forest without sight. Jaypaw irritably thinks "''Sure, let's lump all the useless cats together and hope a tree falls on them!''". A few books later, a tree falls into the camp, killing Longtail.

* ''Literature/SpecialCircumstances'': InUniverse. At the beginning of ''Princess of Wands'', Barbara's martial arts sparring partner says, after watching her warm-up exercises, that he was gay. She calls him on it, the narration commenting that he's married and has five children from two different marriages, and that "[i]f he was gay, it was a very closet condition." Fast forward to the end of ''Queen of Wands'', when it's revealed that [[spoiler:her husband, with whom she's had three children]] is having a homosexual affair.

* ''Literature/TheNeanderthalParallax'': In the last book, Mary lists Bill Cosby as one of the men that isn't evil while she thinks about male violence. This was before the accusations against him were well known. It's especially ironic since she's a victim of rape, and this a large part of her character's arc throughout the books.

* Simon Braund's 2013 book ''Literature/TheGreatestMoviesYoullNeverSee'' gave ''The Hot Zone'' a 1/10 chance of ever being made, saying "Unlikely, unless Ebola hits the headlines again." That same year, it [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_African_Ebola_virus_epidemic did hit in West Africa]], and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebola_virus_cases_in_the_United_States then in the U.S. in 2014]].
** And sure enough, 2019 saw a mini-series based on the book premiere on National Geographic's TV channel.

* Literature/DirkPittAdventures has this happen a few times.
** Crossed with DatedHistory, ''Literature/RaiseTheTitanic'' has the ''Titanic'' in one piece and, aside from the iceberg gash, in good enough shape to be salvaged. When the ship was found in 1985 (two years before the date the novel is set in), it was in two pieces and falling apart, in no condition to be salvaged.
** ''Treasure'' was written in 1988 and set in 1990 and imagines that Muammar Gaddafi died of cancer while Ayatollah Khomeini was still alive. By 1990, Khomeini had been dead for a year while Gaddafi would live until 2011.
** ''Cuban Storm'' focuses on the death of UsefulNotes/FidelCastro in June of 2016. Cussler was off by just five months.
* Creator/ChristopherBrookmyre's book ''Literature/ABigBoyDidItAndRanAway'' describes an attempted terrorist attack on the 6th of September 2001. While the book was published on October 4th of the same year, the writing took place before the events of September 11th. To make this even more cringeworthy, the tagline of the book was "Terrorism, it is the new Rock'N'roll". Needless to say that some re-wrapping was needed after that. Brookmyre's universe tends to incorporate real-world events into the canon established by his previous titles; thus, more recent titles, such as 2008's ''Literature/ASnowballInHell'', consider the unfortunate coincidence of timing and the resultant impact this has on the characters involved.
** Also, in his first book, ''Literature/QuiteUglyOneMorning'', a character reflects that a doctor character who has quietly been killing elderly patients for years (and who is finding it hard to tell which of the doctor's patients have died naturally and which were murdered, or even for how long this has been going on) whose death toll is in the double if not triple figures is the worst serial killer in British history. And then, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Shipman just two years later...]]
* While editing her Literature/KieshaRa series, Author Amelia Atwater-Rhodes had a webcomic series called [=ihme*=] (Short for I Hate My Editor), which parodied the events of Kiesha'ra. It delved into possible alternative skylines, freely played with {{flanderization}}, and makes humorous events out of what would actually be traumatic and disastrous in the series' canon.
* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}''
** ''Literature/LordsAndLadies'' has a segment where Esmeralda Weatherwax, strongest and most focused of witches, thinks she is losing her mind, remembering parts of the house that she doesn't have. In light of Sir Terry's... ''embuggerance'', that was painful to read.
** In ''Literature/{{Maskerade}}'' and ''Literature/TheTruth'', several characters agree that multiple exclamation marks are a sign of a diseased mind. In ''Literature/{{Thud}}'', the text uses them for [[spoiler:Vimes's PunctuatedForEmphasis moment]]. As said above, Terry Pratchett later announced he had Alzheimer's, making reading the latter passage nearly ''physically painful.'' There are also the passages in ''Literature/SmallGods'' where Om worries about losing his memories (again), how it would feel to have the knowledge drain away and how a part of him would be there, helpless, as he dwindled. The despair of the Great God takes on an even more moving and depressing tone in light of the above.
*** ''Literature/{{Snuff}}'' is even worse for this. In ''Thud'' the multiple exclamation marks tend to be used with precision. In ''Snuff''... less so. And other aspects of the style and technique show similar changes.
** It's not as horrible as Sir Terry's current condition, but descriptions of the lack of rain in ''Literature/TheLastContinent'' hit a little too close to home in certain parts of Australia of late. Like the towns that are ''completely out of water''. Some inhabited places in Australia have not seen rain in six years.
*** Um, [[AMillionIsAStatistic that one might become as horrible]] if it keeps up.
*** At least that one has a happy ending when Rincewind and the Librarian finally summon the rain. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queensland_floods_2010-2011 Thousands of years worth all at once.]] Gets you coming and going, doesn't it?
** ''Literature/{{Jingo}}'' was written in 1997 and, in addition to parodying ''Film/LawrenceOfArabia'', it contained a number of satirical observations on mindless patriotism and xenophobia against Arabs. Reading it after the start of the Iraq/Afghanistan wars in the 2000s feels a bit awkward in how accurate it gets.
** In ''Literature/GuardsGuards'', Vimes [[OhCrap nearly panics]] when he sees Constable Carrot is about to try and arrest ''the Patrician'', Havelock Vetinari, for a minor traffic violation. Near the end of ''Literature/{{Jingo}}'', several books later, Vimes is tasked with arresting Vetinari on charges of treason, for turning Leshp over to the Klatchians without consulting the guilds or the nobles, and Vimes has a whole dramatic InnerMonologue about how leaders can't be placed above the law. It somehow manages to be HilariousInHindsight at the same time when Vetinari ''insists'' that he be placed under arrest, including "being run out of town on a rail" and all that, and the whole business with Leshp [[ThePlan turns out to be part of his plan]].
* In ''Literature/{{Grendel}}'' by John Gardner, the work ends with the words, ''"Poor Grendel's had an accident. So may you all."'' Eleven years later, Gardner died in a motorcycle accident (days before his wedding, no less).
* ''Gaudy Night'' (1935), one of Creator/DorothyLSayers's Literature/LordPeterWimsey novels, features a scene where a few of the characters discuss politics. An ex-soldier who served under Wimsey, and is now working as the college porter, makes an approving offhand mention of Hitler doing "interesting social experiments" in Germany. There are also some mentions of German policies by the dons, especially the Nazi idea of keeping women “in their place”. [[note]]If you follow these references carefully, you’ll find that Sayers was (presciently) using lack of disapproval of the Nazis as an indication that a character is either naïve, or opposed to Harriet’s (and Wimsey’s, and clearly Sayers’s) position on gender relations.[[/note]]
%% ** For an in-story example, in ''Unnatural Death'' Wimsey becomes rather annoyed at Parker after being stuck in a car with him for some time and warns him that there's a heavy spanner under his seat "and Bunter can help to bury the body". Later in the same book, [[spoiler:a woman is found with her skull smashed in by a spanner]].
* In ''The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest'' from Stieg Larsson's ''Literature/TheMillenniumTrilogy'', there is an incident where a newspaper editor [[spoiler: drops dead of a heart attack at his desk]]. It's very difficult to read the passage for anyone who knows how Stieg Larsson died.
* In ''Literature/TheGreatGatsby'', written and set in TheRoaringTwenties, features a Jew named Wolfsheim who owns "The Swastika Holding Company".
** In addition, [[spoiler: upon (the possibly Jewish) Gatsby's death from a madman]], the narrator ends the description of the scene with "...and the holocaust was complete."
** Fitzgerald seems to be astonishingly unlucky with these. In ''The Beautiful and Damned'', Anthony meets a disagreeable character who happens to be Jewish:
-->I detest these underdone men, he thought coldly. Boiled looking! Ought to be shoved back in the oven; just one more minute would do it.
* In Creator/AlbertCamus' ''Literature/ThePlague'', Tarrou says, "In fact one might go farther; have you ever heard of a man with cancer being killed in an auto smash?" Camus had a life-long struggle with Tuberculosis. He died in a car crash.
* An InUniverse one in the original ''Literature/StarshipTroopers'' novel: Johnnie Rico and his campmates had been joking about the 31 capital offenses in the Terran military, which they called "crash landings". When it came out that one of his comrades was facing a possible crash landing, he finds the jokes of old a lot less funny.
* In a case of either this or HilariousInHindsight, depending on how you handle your childhood memories being perverted: In 1971, Roger Hargreaves started the ''Mr. Men'' book series, the third of which was titled "Mr. Happy". The titular character was a very happy little yellow man. Ten years later, guess what Creator/RobinWilliams decided to nickname his penis? (And his action [[ICallHimMisterHappy became a]] TropeNamer.)
* The last word that Will Rogers wrote before he died was the word "death".
* At the end of Emily Neville's ''It's Like This, Cat'', troubled college drop-out Tom decides to enlist in the Army for three years as a way of getting his life back on track, finding stability and, with some luck, making money to continue his education and marry his girlfriend. He even speculates that he'd be drafted in a year or two, anyway, but seems very convinced, and no one contradicts this, that he can be stationed in New York throughout his three years of service. Well, the book was published in 1963, and guess what happened in 1965...
* In 1973, one year after the last Apollo moon mission, Creator/CarlSagan wrote a book showing one of the landing sites on the moon with the caption "The party is over and the guests have gone home." Nobody has been back to the moon since.
* ''A Man in Full'' by Creator/TomWolfe has a sex scene in which the characters do "that thing with the cup". Wolfe has admitted that he himself [[NoodleImplements has no idea what they're doing.]] Nowadays, an [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Girls_One_Cup infamous]] ShockSite turns this into NauseaFuel.
* Saki's story "The Unrest-Cure" involves a practical joker in pre-WWI England (near Saki's "present day") convincing a sedate gentleman that he's planning to "massacre every Jew in the neighborhood." The gentleman exclaims that it will be "a blot on the Twentieth Century!" but the story ends with the century "unblotted." Later on, the century got good and blotted.
* Prior to the release of the fifth ''Literature/HarryPotter'' book, a filk of "Cell Block Tango" from ''Theatre/{{Chicago}}'' that contained various fans' predictions on who would die in that book was posted on the [[https://web.archive.org/web/20111002155318/http://www.harrypotterfilks.com/ Harry Potter Filks]] website. The irony of the filk lies not so much in the fact that the character that ''did'' die in that book was not among those listed, but that two books later, three of the ones listed did after all. [[https://web.archive.org/web/20111002155318/http://www.harrypotterfilks.com/places/theorybay.htm#Death_Row_Tango Read at your own risk]] if you haven't finished the series yet.
** Another Potter one: Back in ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix Phoenix]]'', Moody goes on and on about the possibility of death while flying to Headquarters, and is told nobody is going to die, and the whole thing is played for laughs. [[spoiler: Guess what happens in ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows Hallows]]'' while ''flying to HQ?'' Yeah.]]
** Early in HBP, Ron and Harry are talking about hoping that the new DADA teacher, [[spoiler: Snape]], will succumb to the trend of DADA teachers leaving after only one year. Harry flippantly says something along the lines of "I'm hoping for another death". Well, [[spoiler: Snape]] certainly leaves the post after another death...
*** Ron very often predicted future events with his jokes--more often than not becoming these.
** Almost every scene with [[spoiler:Sirius]] and [[spoiler:Dumbledore]].
*** Especially then scene with the Mirror of Erised in the first book. Warm pair of socks, anyone?
** And, with Fred. "When I get married, I won't be bothering with any of this nonsense. You can all wear what you like and I'll put Mum in a full Body-Bind Curse until it's over." Except, he doesn't get married, does he?
*** Same with [[spoiler:Cedric]] "That'll be something to tell your grandkids Ced. You beat Harry Potter!"
*** Everything Amos Diggory says to or about Cedric involves him [[spoiler:living to a ripe old age]]. One can only assume Rowling did that on purpose.
** In Goblet of Fire "If the Hogwarts Express crashed tomorrow and [[spoiler: George and I]] died, how would you feel knowing the last thing we heard from you was an unfounded accusation?" [[spoiler: As of Deathly Hallows, jokes about Fred dying are rather unfortunate...]]
*** Even worse, the last thing [[spoiler: Fred]] heard from [[spoiler:Molly]] before he died was her yelling at him for letting [[spoiler:Ginny]] come to the battle... not exactly an '''unfounded''' accusation, but close enough.
** For that matter, later on in Goblet of Fire, Fred and George temporarily grew long white beards when their attempt to fool Dumbledore's Age Line with an Aging Potion backfired. [[spoiler:That's the closest Fred ever got to true old age...]]
** One that wasn't even funny in the first place: ''Order of the Phoenix'' has Molly trying to face a boggart, which keeps turning into the corpses of her children. She sobs that she thinks of them dying all the time, and worries that it'll happen before they can reconcile with Percy. [[spoiler:So of course, when Percy shows up for the Battle of Hogwarts in the next book, he makes amends to his family and fights alongside them... and then ''Fred'' is killed.]]
** Harry near the end of ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets Chamber of Secrets]]'': "Just promise me one thing...Never try to save my life again." [[spoiler: [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows Alas, poor Dobby...]]]]
** In ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban Prisoner of Azkaban]]'', the Marauder's Map insulting Snape is seemingly hilarious until you reach a [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix certain moment in Book 5]].
** After the anthrax scare following 9/11, it's more than likely that more than a few insensitive fans have made at least one inappropriate joke about Rita Skeeter sending prank mail infested with anthrax spores to Hermione (kind of like that one "curse mail" incident from Goblet of Fire).
** Near the end of ''Prisoner of Azkaban'', while Snape is in a rage about the escape of Sirius Black, Fudge comments to Dumbledore that he seems quite unstable and that the Headmaster should watch out for him.
** In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets'', they're trying to figure out who Tom Marvolo Riddle is and why he won an award for Special Services to the School, and Ron jokes that it is because [[spoiler:he killed Moaning Myrtle]]. At the end, it is revealed that Tom Marvolo is [[spoiler:Lord Voldemort]], and he ''did'' in fact [[spoiler:murder Moaning Myrtle]] when he opened the Chamber of Secrets. It is also shown that he turned in Hagrid for the murder. It is taken UpToEleven in the penultimate book when it's discovered that he [[spoiler: used Myrtle's death to create one of his horcruxes!]]
** In ''Goblet of Fire'', there's a brief scene before the Quidditch World Cup where a wizard named Archie is wearing a woman's flowery nightgown and refuses to wear men's trousers, even with a Ministry official scolding him for not properly blending in with the Muggles. This little sequence becomes less funny in light of J.K. Rowling's transphobic comments twenty years after the book was published, especially with her infamous June 2020 essay where she claimed men would try to dress as women to enter female changing rooms and bathrooms.
* In ''Sewer, Gas and Electric'', a TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture CyberPunk parody from 1997, the Empire State Building has been replaced by a mile-high skyscraper called the Phoenix. The original building had been destroyed by a colliding airliner. No longer funny in hindsight.
** Given how the building had already had a plane crash into it in the past, it probably had this effect on some at the time it was written too.

* In ''Literature/OurMutualFriend'' (written in the 1860s) Mr. Boffin mistakenly thinks ''The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'' is ''The Decline and Fall of the '''Russian''' Empire''. During Dickens' lifetime the Russian empire still existed and was in relatively good shape, but over the next fifty-odd years it really did [[UsefulNotes/RomanovsAndRevolutions decline]] and [[UsefulNotes/RedOctober fall]].
* In his 2009 ''Radio/TheVinylCafe'' book, ''Extreme Vinyl Cafe'', Stuart [=McLean=] prefaced each of the stories with a letter, purportedly from a fan asking his advice. One letter writer couldn't decide if he should be buried or cremated, and what Stuart's thoughts on the matter were. [=McLean=] replied, "Personally, I plan never to die." The book was published six years before the author would be diagnosed with skin cancer, and eight years before he passed away.
* In the novel ''Literature/{{Jumper}}'', the main character [[spoiler: drops a terrorist from the World Trade Center. He catches him before the man can die, but still...]] 9/11, anybody?
* Early on in ''Literature/TheCatcherInTheRye'', the main character Holden quips "This is my people shooting hat. I shoot people in this hat." This was a harmless bit of sarcasm for decades until the book became associated with Mark David Chapman and John Hinckley, John Lennon's assassin and the attempted assassin of Ronald Reagan, respectively.
* This happens in (of all things) ''Creator/DaveBarry's Guide to Guys''. While talking about a mechanic he knew who was ''deeply'' into fireworks, Dave writes, "If those radical Muslim fundamentalist terrorists had had Ed on their team in 1992, the World Trade Center would now be referred to as the World Trade Pit." This was probably funnier in 1995, when the book was written, before a pair of precision-aimed airplanes created a World Trade Pit. Hey, those skyscrapers collapsed all the way down -- and had underground levels and a subway connection. Their footprints are now filled by two sunken pools with water fountaining down the sides, an enduring memorial to where the Twin Towers once stood.
** Another moment based around the same event: The movie ''Film/BigTrouble'', based on another of Dave Barry's books, was one of several that had their release delayed because of 9/11, due to the plot involving hijackers breezing through airport security. With a bomb. And the Air Force being sent to shoot the hijacked plane down. Did we mention that it was scheduled for release on Tuesday, September 11th, 2001?
** Dave predicts the future again, albeit on a smaller scale, in his 1991 book ''Dave Barry's Only Travel Guide You'll Ever Need''. He talks about how on a road trip through South Dakota, there was a hyped store called "Wall Drug", advertised on the side of the road for hundreds of miles on billboard after billboard ("153 miles to go", "146 miles to go", etc). His wife, Beth Barry, wanted desperately to go there, but he drove right past it, much to her chagrin. At the end of the story, he laments jokingly, "You know how certain incidents become permanent sore points in a marriage?...That's the status that the Wall Drug Incident has achieved in our marriage... If she ever files for a divorce, this is the first incident she'll mention to the lawyer." Dave must have a jinx or something because they divorced in 1993. Whether she did, in fact, bring up "The Wall Drug Incident" to the lawyers is unknown.
* In the late Creator/DouglasAdams's books:
** There's the scene towards the end of the fourth ''Hitchhiker's'' book, ''So Long and Thanks For All the Fish'', in which Marvin reads God's Final Message To His Creation ... which turns out to be 'We apologize for the inconvenience'. Given Douglas Adams' [[DiedDuringProduction sudden death from a heart attack]], leaving the sixth book unfinished (and eventually written as a posthumous sequel called ''And Another Thing...'' by Eoin Colfer), that message takes on a whole new meaning.
** From ''Literature/DirkGentlysHolisticDetectiveAgency'' is the line, 'I think a ghost is someone who died either violently or unexpectedly with unfinished business on his, or her - or its - hands. Who cannot rest until it is finished or until it is put right'. Between the unfinished nature of ''The Salmon of Doubt'' and the author's own dissatisfaction with the DownerEnding of ''Mostly Harmless'' it seems terribly apt.
*** There is also a bit in the same book about Dirk and the police officer experiencing 'a chill as the dead man's voice filled the room' while listening to an answering machine message. Not too bad... except when the author reads those lines on the audiobook.
** His final Hitchhiker's Guide book ''Mostly Harmless'' introduced The Guide Mark II, an effectively omniscient and omnipotent version of The Guide, existing singularly in the entire multiverse. (The rest of this entry is a spoiler for Mostly Harmless, a Funny Aneurysm Moment, and FridgeBrilliance all rolled into one. You have been warned.) The device is revealed as a Vogon plot to destroy Earth once and for all, and prevent its resurrection in any parallel universe by the expedient of collapsing quantum timelines so that its final destruction is truly final. Anyone that The Guide Mark II can use to further its goals will think their life to be going swimmingly until the Guide has finished using them, at which point they'll probably be killed. The author's most spectacular example is Agrajag the Ever-Murdered, who trapped Arthur Dent before Arthur Dent visited Stavromula Beta (actually Stavro Mueller's "Beta" nightclub) and ducked an assassin's bullet which slew Agrajag yet again. This ensured that Arthur Dent would survive anything the universe threw at him until this event happened. This was orchestrated by The Guide Mark II to ensure Arthur Dent was on Earth when it actually blew up. Did The Guide Mark II ensure Douglas Adams would complete and publish this and then ensure Douglas Adams would not alter the fate of Earth?
* The novel ''A Planet For the President'' talks of New Orleans being wiped out by a massive hurricane. The book was published in 2004, a year ''before'' Katrina.
* ''Literature/TheGreatPacificWar'' by Hector Bywater has a major one of these because, even though it was written in 1925 and is set in 1930-1933, it contains a Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.
* Robert Jordan of ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' fame's biography stub in most of his books included a line that he intended to keep writing "until they nail his coffin shut" -- and so he did, since he passed away in September 2007, [[DiedDuringProduction leaving the last book unwritten]].
** There was also a joke among certain internet fansites that goes along with the stub stating something similar to that. Thus, some people initially thought that Jordan's real obit was a joke.
** This is an odd, creepy sort of subversion- he ''meant'' that the last few times he included it. He knew his health was on the decline but stayed at work until the end. He went out of his way to make sure there were enough notes for somebody else to finish ''[[Literature/TheWheelOfTime Wheel of Time]]'' if he didn't quite make it. Brandon Sanderson was chosen to finish the final book.
** Like with any author of a long series of {{DoorStopper}}s, there were plenty of jokes about Jordan dropping dead before finishing the series. They all became suddenly much less funny when he was diagnosed as fatally ill.
* From ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'': in #46, Marco gives a rant on the state of events. Tobias concurs with an unintentionally sad comment.
--> '''Tobias''': Marco has a point. Particularly Americans. I mean, we've got no enemies at sea, not many on land, and those aren't exactly real scary. The country's just not ready for war. Maybe it's arrogance, maybe a combination of things, but the average person on the street just doesn't think another World War is possible.
** In book 37, the Animorphs hijack a (private) plane and fly it into a large building full of Yeerks. Remind you of something?
* In Creator/StephenKing's book ''Literature/TheRunningMan'', the final scene has the hero [[spoiler:deliberately crashing his hijacked jet into the Games building]].
** Also his first book under the Bachman pseudonym ''Literature/{{Rage}}'', which was about a boy shooting students and teachers at school. King pulled the book out of print because of RealLife school shootings when copies of the book were found amongst the gunmen's possessions.
** Literature/MrMercedes features a madman [[http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Man-Plows-Car-Into-Crowd-at-Venice-Boardwalk-218400411.html driving a car]] into a [[http://metro.co.uk/2017/05/18/speeding-car-drives-into-crowd-of-people-in-new-york-city-6646439/ crowd of people]], and the ending has a bomb being set up to explode at a [[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/05/24/manchester-arena-terror-attack-salman-abedi-ariana-grande-victims/ concert filled with tweens]]. Not sure if Mr. King is psychic or just aware of the capacity humans have for crazy.
* In the "appreciation by Creator/MauriceSendak" that accompanies the Yearling edition of ''Literature/ThePhantomTollbooth'', Sendak notes how the monsters and obstacles in the book are "prophetic and scarily pertinent" to modern living and how Juster's "allegorical monsters have become all too real".

** In ''Goblet of Fire'', there's a brief scene before the Quiddich World Cup where a wizard named Archie is wearing a woman's flowery nightgown and refuses to wear men's trousers, even with a Ministry official scolding him for not properly blending in with the Muggles. This little sequence becomes less funny in light of J.K. Rowling's transphobic comments twenty years after the book was published, especially with her infamous June 2020 essay where she claimed men would try to dress as women to enter female changing rooms and bathrooms.

* Not as bad as most of the things on here, but bad enough. In 1973, one year after the last Apollo moon mission, Creator/CarlSagan wrote a book showing one of the landing sites on the moon with the caption "The party is over and the guests have gone home." Nobody has been back to the moon since.

** There's the scene towards the end of the fourth ''Hitchhiker's'' book, ''So Long and Thanks For All the Fish'', in which Marvin reads God's Final Message To His Creation ... which turns out to be 'We apologize for the inconvenience'. Given Douglas Adams' [[AuthorExistenceFailure sudden death from a heart attack]], leaving the sixth book unfinished (and eventually written as a posthumous sequel called ''And Another Thing...'' by Eoin Colfer), that message takes on a whole new meaning.

* Robert Jordan of ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' fame's biography stub in most of his books included a line that he intended to keep writing "until they nail his coffin shut" -- and so he did, since he passed away in September 2007, [[AuthorExistenceFailure leaving the last book unwritten]].

* Early on in ''Literature/TheCatcherInTheRye'', the main character Holden quips "This is my people shooting hat. I shoot people in this hat." This was a harmless bit of sarcasm for decades until the book became associated with John Lennon's assassin and John Hinckley, attempted assassin of Ronald Reagan, respectively.

** Dave predicts the future again, albeit on a smaller scale, in his 1991 book ''Dave Barry's Only Travel Guide You'll Ever Need''. He talks about how on a road trip through South Dakota, there was a hyped store called "Wall Drug", advertised on the side of the road for hundreds of miles on billboard after billboard ("153 miles to go", "146 miles to go", etc). His wife, Beth Barry, wanted desperately to go there, but he drove right past it, much to her chagrin. At the end of the story, he laments jokingly, "You know how certain incidents become permanent sore points in a marriage?...That's the status that the Wall Drug Incident has achieved in our marriage... If she ever files for a divorce, this is the first incident she'll mention to the lawyer." Dave must have a jinx or something, because they divorced in 1993. Whether she did, in fact, bring up "The Wall Drug Incident" to the lawyers in unknown.

** His final Hitchhiker's Guide book ''Mostly Harmless'' introduced The Guide Mark II, an effectively omniscient and omnipotent version of The Guide, existing singularly in the entire multiverse. (The rest of this entry is a spoiler for Mostly Harmless, a Funny Aneurysm Moment, and FridgeBrilliance all rolled into one. You have been warned.) The device is revealed as a Vogon plot to destroy Earth once and for all, and prevent its resurrection in any parallel universe by the expedient of collapsing quantum timelines so that its final destruction is truly final. Anyone that The Guide Mark II can use to further its goals will think their life to be going swimmingly, until the Guide has finished using them, at which point they'll probably be killed. The author's most spectacular example is Agrajag the Ever-Murdered, who trapped Arthur Dent before Arthur Dent visited Stavromula Beta (actually Stavro Mueller's "Beta" nightclub) and ducked an assassin's bullet which slew Agrajag yet again. This ensured that Arthur Dent would survive anything the universe threw at him until this event happened. This was orchestrated by The Guide Mark II to ensure Arthur Dent was on Earth when it actually blew up. Did The Guide Mark II ensure Douglas Adams would complete and publish this, and then ensure Douglas Adams would not alter the fate of Earth?

** Also his first book under the Bachman pseudonym ''Literature/{{Rage}}'', which was about a boy shooting students and teachers at school. King pulled the book out of print because of RealLife school shootings, when copies of the book were found amongst the gunmen's possessions.

** ''Treasure'' was written in 1988 and set in 1990 and imagines that Muammar Gaddafi died of cancer while the Ayatollah Khomeni was still alive. By 1990, Khomeni had been dead for a year while Gaddafi would live until 2011.

* Creator/ChristopherBrookmyre's book ''Literature/ABigBoyDidItAndRanAway'' describes an attempted terrorist attack on the 6th of September 2001. While the book was published on October 4th of the same year, the writing took place before the events of September 11th. To make this even more cringeworthy, the tagline of the book was "Terrorism, it is the new Rock'N'roll". Needless to say that some re-wrapping was needed after that. Brookmyre's universe tends to incorporate real-world events into the canon established by his previous titles; thus, more recent titles, such as 2008's ''Literature/ASnowballInHell'', consider the unfortunate co-incidence of timing and the resultant impact this has on the characters involved.

** In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets'', they're trying to figure out who Tom Marvolo Riddle is and why he won an award for Special Services to the School, and Ron jokes that it is because [[spoiler:he killed Moaning Myrtle]]. At the end it is revealed that Tom Marvolo is [[spoiler:Lord Voldemort]], and he ''did'' in fact [[spoiler:murder Moaning Myrtle]] when he opened the Chamber of Secrets. It is also shown that he he turned in Hagrid for the murder. It is taken UpToEleven in the penultimate book when it's discovered that he [[spoiler: used Myrtle's death to create one of his horcruxes!]]

** In the book, Pollution replaced Pestilence, who retired in defeat after the invention of antibiotics. Fast forward 25 years, and we have scientists worrying about world-wide flu pandemics, there was a big Ebola outbreak killing tens of thousands that was barely kept from spreading to the rest of the world, an entire generation (and their young children) are dying of AIDS in Africa, and we are confronted with an increasing number of multiple-drug-resistant strains of bacterial diseases like tuberculosis. And there haven't been any real breakthroughs in finding new antibiotics in ages. Then, just a few months after the miniseries adaptation was released, a little year called 2020 happened...

* In Catherine Alliott's 1999 novel ''Rosie Meadows Regrets'', the titular character is wistfully musing that her life would have been much better if she'd married someone else other than her alcoholic, bigoted, mentally abusive, uncaring and unsupportive husband. The celebrity she specifies? Creator/MelGibson. Hmm.
* Literature/SisterhoodSeries by Creator/FernMichaels: In the book ''Fast Track'', Jack Emery brags to reporters Ted Robinson and Joe Espinosa that the ''Post'' is going to be sold to a new owner. Joe turns green upon hearing this, because that means he and Ted could lose their jobs. At that point, it seemed like a brilliant and cool way to upset the apple carts of those reporters, who had been thorns in the Vigilantes' sides. Then, in a later book, ''Under the Radar'', Ted explains to the Vigilantes why they can trust Joe. Joe is the only son out of eight kids. His father died early on, leaving his mother to take care of all of them. He's the youngest in his family. The family managed to get enough money to send Joe to college. He's the only one in the family to have a college education. Joe is a citizen of the United States, and he sends every cent of money he can back to his people in Tijuana. Joe cannot afford anything to live in except a one-room dump, and his immediate family has 37 members in it! Also, his family supports the Vigilantes quite strongly, and his salary combined with some other jobs he moonlights as help his family, but it's not nearly enough. His family is not lazy, but the economy in that area sucks. Boy, that not only explains why Joe turned green at the possibility of losing his job, but it makes Jack's bragging come off as a KickTheDog moment!
* ''Literature/NoCountryForOldMen'' by Creator/CormacMcCarthy: The novel takes place in 1980, and in it Ed Tom Bell mentions the recent murder of a federal judge in San Antonio, TX. He's referring to the murder of Federal Judge John Howland Wood, who was assassinated outside his townhouse by a contract killer named Charles Harrelson on May 29, 1979. In 2007, Woody Harrelson (yes, the son of Charles) would co-star in the [[Film/NoCountryForOldMen film version of the novel]].

** '''Diana:''' (In response to Caine's angst over his mother abandoning him) Wow, it's a shame dr.Phil isn't here. Look, she was probably just a ''messed up teenager then.''
*** This was hilarious until the 4th/5th book, when Diana ''actually'' [[spoiler: gets herself into this situation ({{teen pregnancy}}) with Caine. Only she's tortured by Drake for it goes insane from having to give birth in a mine whilst getting flogged and having horrible mind tricks played on her for hours.]]

* ''Literature/FutilityOrTheWreckOfTheTitan'' was published in 1898 and was about an ocean liner called the ''Titan'' that sinks on its maiden voyage across the North Atlantic when it hits an iceberg. Fourteen years later, the ''UsefulNotes/RMSTitanic'' sank on April 14, 1912 and every circumstance surrounding the ''Titanic's'' sinking (number of lives lost, what started the sinking, lack of lifeboats, triple screw propellers, ship described as "practically unsinkable", ship length, and ship speed) matches something in the descriptions about the ''Titan''.

* ''Literature/SpecialCircumstances'': InUniverse. At the beginning of ''Princess of Wands'', Barbara's martial arts sparing partner says, after watching her warm-up exercises, that he was gay. She calls him on it, the narration commenting that he's married and has five children from two different marriages, and that "[i]f he was gay, it was a very closet condition." Fast forward to the end of ''Queen of Wands'', when it's revealed that [[spoiler:her husband, with whom she's had three children]] is having a homosexual affair.

* Creator/HPLovecraft's horror writings weren't ever meant to be funny, but they were harmless thrills because of their obvious reliance of fantasy. Then you suddenly realise one day that that Cthulu and R'yleh work quite well as a metaphor for the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clathrate_gun_hypothesis "methane clathrate gun"]]. [[note]]It's huge, it's been "sleeping" deep under the sea for countless eons, and when it rises, it will cause TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt through runaway climate change and a mass extinction possibly as big as the "Great Dying" at the end of the Permian era. And there are many people (climate scientists) who really do have nightmares about it, and at least a few particularly pessimist dark-green activists have developed mental illness (depression) and even committed suicide.[[/note]]

* There is an off-hand remark in ''Literature/TheCandidatesBasedOnATrueCountry'' about Creator/BillCosby being a good rolemodel. The book was written in 2011, when Cosby was still considered to be the human embodiment of wholesomeness - you know, before fifty-odd women came forward to accuse him of having raped them...

* In ''The Black Book and Schwambrania'', an autobiographical novel by Lev Kassil, the narrator and his brother write down some documents for their imaginary country, which are later accidentally discovered by police detectives inspecting a theft and thought to be evidence of an anti-Soviet political plot, until the narrator's brother Os'ka (Joseph) explains the matter. This is one of the most comic and lighthearted moments of the book… unless you know that the real-life Joseph Kassil was shot almost two decades later, accused of involvement in an anti-Soviet political plot.

** There's the scene towards the end of the fourth ''Hitchhiker's'' book, ''So Long and Thanks For All the Fish'', in which Marvin reads God's Final Message To His Creation ... which turns out to be 'We apologize for the inconvenience'. Given Douglas Adams' [[AuthorExistenceFailure sudden death from a heart attack]], leaving the sixth book unfinished (now being written as a posthumous sequel called ''And Another Thing...'' by Eoin Colfer), that message takes on a whole new meaning.

** In ''Goblet of Fire'', there's a brief scene before the Quiddich World Cup where a wizard named Archie is wearing a woman's flowery nightgown and refuses to wear men's trousers, even with a Ministry official scolding him for not blending in with the Muggles. This little sequence becomes less funny in light of J.K. Rowling's transphobic comments twenty years after the book was published, especially with her infamous June 2020 essay where she claimed men would try to dress as women to enter female changing rooms and bathrooms.

* ''Literature/StarTrekArticlesOfTheFederation'' ends up having one within the context of the wider Literature/StarTrekNovelVerse. The novel ends with a somewhat upbeat comment from President Bacco's Chief of Staff and prime supporter, Esperanza Piniero, pointing out that while the first year of Bacco's term has had its ups and downs, at least the Federation is still intact. Given that Bacco herself praised a former president earlier in the novel by stating that if you complete a term with the Federation still intact, you've done the job, this is somewhat heartwarming. Two months after this novel (InUniverse), cue Literature/StarTrekDestiny. While Bacco continued to do a fine job through the apocalyptic mayhem of "Destiny" and its aftermath, the destruction in that trilogy does render Piniero's comment a bit painful.

** In the book, Pollution replaced Pestilence, who retired in defeat after the invention of antibiotics. Fast forward 25 years, and we have scientists worrying about world-wide flu pandemics, there was a big Ebola outbreak killing tens of thousands that was barely kept from spreading to the rest of the world, an entire generation (and their young children) are dying of AIDS in Africa, and we are confronted with an increasing number of multiple-drug-resistant strains of bacterial diseases like tuberculosis. And there haven't been any real breakthroughs in finding new antibiotics in ages.

*** ''Snuff'' is even worse for this. In ''Thud'' the multiple exclamation marks tend to be used with precision. In ''Snuff''... less so. And other aspects of the style and technique show similar changes.

* The ''Literature/DeltoraQuest'' series (including ''Dragons of Deltora'') has not one, but two indirect references to Coronavirus thing.
** There is the town of Noradz, which has upended their lives in order to remain clean and tidy. It turns out they don't even know the reason for most of their customs, which are gleaned from their name (they had a rat problem) but also [[spoiler: they are betraying their country to the enemy by sending them food and supplies. UnfortunateImplications about martial law and [[https://townhall.com/columnists/chadsavage/2020/03/29/beware-limitations-of-freedom-imposed-to-battle-coronavirus-n2565915 loss of freedoms]] in infected countries are enough to make this passage ''very creepy''.]]
** The Masked Ones arc in ''Dragons of Deltora'' is scary enough, what with masks that [[spoiler: attach to your face and make you obedient to the cult]]. But reading this book during the Coronavirus, when many towns have mask rules inside businesses makes it unnerving.

* ''Literature/AManInFull'' by Tom Wolfe has a sex scene in which the characters do "that thing with the cup". Wolfe has admitted that he himself [[NoodleImplements has no idea what they're doing.]] Nowadays, an [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Girls_One_Cup infamous]] ShockSite turns this into NauseaFuel.

** ''Discworld/LordsAndLadies'' has a segment where Esmeralda Weatherwax, strongest and most focused of witches, thinks she is losing her mind, remembering parts of the house that she doesn't have. In light of Sir Terry's... ''embuggerance'', that was painful to read.
** In ''Discworld/{{Maskerade}}'' and ''Discworld/TheTruth'', several characters agree that multiple exclamation marks are a sign of a diseased mind. In ''Discworld/{{Thud}}'', the text uses them for [[spoiler:Vimes's PunctuatedForEmphasis moment]]. As said above, Terry Pratchett later announced he had Alzheimer's, making reading the latter passage nearly ''physically painful.'' There are also the passages in ''Discworld/SmallGods'' where Om worries about losing his memories (again), how it would feel to have the knowledge drain away and how a part of him would be there, helpless, as he dwindled. The despair of the Great God takes on an even more moving and depressing tone in light of the above.

** It's not as horrible as Sir Terry's current condition, but descriptions of the lack of rain in ''Discworld/TheLastContinent'' hit a little too close to home in certain parts of Australia of late. Like the towns that are ''completely out of water''. Some inhabited places in Australia have not seen rain in six years.

** ''Discworld/{{Jingo}}'' was written in 1997 and, in addition to parodying ''Film/LawrenceOfArabia'', it contained a number of satirical observations on mindless patriotism and xenophobia against Arabs. Reading it after the start of the Iraq/Afghanistan wars in the 2000s feels a bit awkward in how accurate it gets.
** In ''Discworld/GuardsGuards'', Vimes [[OhCrap nearly panics]] when he sees Constable Carrot is about to try and arrest ''the Patrician'', Havelock Vetinari, for a minor traffic violation. Near the end of ''Discworld/{{Jingo}}'', several books later, Vimes is tasked with arresting Vetinari on charges of treason, for turning Leshp over to the Klatchians without consulting the guilds or the nobles, and Vimes has a whole dramatic InnerMonologue about how leaders can't be placed above the law. It somehow manages to be HilariousInHindsight at the same time when Vetinari ''insists'' that he be placed under arrest, including "being run out of town on a rail" and all that, and the whole business with Leshp [[ThePlan turns out to be part of his plan]].

* The ''Literature/TalesOfTheCity'' books have many of these. There's just something about cheerful, {{utopia}}n gay-themed romantic comedies written in the 1970s. Particularly uncomfortable is the subplot in ''Further'' where Michael hooks up with an old movie star who is strongly implied to be Creator/RockHudson. A few years later, the real Hudson contracted HIV... and then Michael did, too.

* The Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse is fond of these. Mostly they deal with Han and Leia's children. First there was Luke's vision of them. The Literature/JediAcademyTrilogy gave us Jacen Solo holding off Exar Kun's minions. Then there was Master Ikrit's view that Anakin Solo would become the greatest Jedi; he gets KilledOffForReal in the Literature/NewJediOrder. More recently, we had Literature/YoungJediKnights have Jacen say "What's the difference between a Jedi Knight and a Jedi Master? Ask me in about twenty years!" Nearly twenty years later, he's a Sith Lord.

* ''Literature/FutilityOrTheWreckOfTheTitan'' was published in 1898 and was about an ocean liner called the ''Titan'' that sinks on its maiden voyage across the North Atlantic when it hits an iceberg. Fourteen years later, the ''UsefulNotes/RMSTitanic'' sank on April 14, 1912 and every circumstance surrounding the ''Titanic's'' sinking (number of lives lost, what started the sinking, lack of lifeboats, triple screw propellers, ship described as "practically unsinkable", ship length, and ship speed) matches something in the descriptions about the ''Titan'', making this trope OlderThanRadio.

* In ''[[ComicBook/XWingSeries Wraith Squadron]]'', Wedge Antilles beats one of his pilots in a race. She complains that he cheated, and he responds by laughing and saying
--> "When an Imperial laser cuts through your canopy and hits you, the energy will superheat the water in your tissues. They will literally explode. If there's enough of your X-wing to retrieve, they'll have to hose down the inside. When that happens, will you complain that the TIE fighter pilot cheated?"
--> "No, sir."
--> "What will you say?"
--> "I won't say anything. I'll be dead."
** And, in the climactic battle at the end, guess how she dies?
** Well, it wasn't a laser...[[spoiler: it was the Star Destroyer she was flying around inside of dropping onto the moon and self-destructing.]]
** The Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse is fond of these. Mostly they deal with Han and Leia's children. First there was Luke's vision of them. The Literature/JediAcademyTrilogy gave us Jacen Solo holding off Exar Kun's minions. Then there was Master Ikrit's view that Anakin Solo would become the greatest Jedi; he gets KilledOffForReal in the Literature/NewJediOrder. More recently, we had Literature/YoungJediKnights have Jacen say "What's the difference between a Jedi Knight and a Jedi Master? Ask me in about twenty years!" Nearly twenty years later, he's a Sith Lord.

** In the book, Pollution replaced Pestilence, who retired in defeat after the invention of antibiotics. Fast forward 25 years, and we have scientists worrying about world-wide flu pandemics, there was a big ebola outbreak killing tens of thousands that was barely kept from spreading to the rest of the world, an entire generation (and their young children) are dying of AIDS in Africa, and we are confronted with an increasing number of multiple-drug-resistant strains of bacterial diseases like tuberculosis. And there havsn't been any real breakthroughs in finding new antibiotics in ages.
* The ''Literature/TalesOfTheCity'' books have many of these. There's just something about cheerful, {{utopia}}n gay-themed romantic comedies written in the 1970s.

* In the second Literature/{{Temeraire}} novel, there's an amusing little subplot where Laurence hears about a nasty cold going around the English dragons, and many jokes are made about how dragons are such big babies when they're sick. Temeraire comes down with the cold, and it's played largely for laughs. In the fourth novel, it turns out that [[spoiler: the "cold" is a form of dragon tuberculosis that's slowly and painfully killing every dragon in England. If they hadn't stopped at exactly the right port in Africa and prepared exactly the right mushroom for Temeraire on a whim, he and every other English dragon would have died. For that matter, since Temeraire was on his way to China when he came down with the "cold," all of the Chinese dragons would probably have died, too.]]