History HilariousInHindsight / Literature

** In ''Soul Music'', the actions The Musicians' Guild take in trying to stop music from being given away for free seems to be predictive of the current antics of the RIAA.

* In one ''{{Halo}}: Evoulutions'' short story it discusses an incident where UNSC officers board a ship suspected of carrying contrband. The on board crewmen panic after hearing a rumor about impressment and shots are exchanged- people die. Then everybody gets mad at the UNSC, sounds like a certain israli incident to me...

* In the novel ''[[SilenceOfTheLambs Hannibal]]'' they have an early scene where Mason Verger pumps Paul Krendel on info about Clarice Starling. They come to the point where he mentions that Clarice has a female roomate, and Krendel casually speculates that the two womens relationship is sexual in nature. At the time the book was written it was a quick EstablishingCharacterMoment to show us that Krendel is a creep, but cue [[http://www.afterellen.com/people/2007/12/jodiefoster a certain speech]] by JodieFoster, and it comes off as [[ActorAllusion something else entirely.]]

** And in the XWingSeries, years before Captain Panaka's "Coruscant. The whole planet is one big city", newbie Tatooine pilot Gavin Darklighter has a NarmCharm moment.

** When Dumbledore and [=McGonagall=] left Harry with the Dursleys as a DoorstopBaby in the first book, [=McGonagall=] said "This boy will be famous. There won't be a child in our world that won't know his name." [[CashCowFranchise Indeed, there probably isn't]]. She also mentions that "there will be books written about him". No way THAT one wasn't intentional.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_Lewis Sinclair Lewis']] 1947 novel ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingsblood_Royal Kingsblood Royal]]'' features the Sant Tabac, a racist secret society fronting as a cigar club. Flash forward 50 years to the height of the cigar craze, when such clubs were all the rage.

** In ''Discworld/{{Eric}}'', TerryPratchett describes in one passage the ingredients for boredom. These include a book where [[ProtectionFromEditors the author's name is larger than the title]], and probably in raised gold print. [[http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Pratchett.jpg "Terry Pratchett"'s not in gold print]], but it's so much bigger then the title it makes up for it.

** The only logical conclusion is that TerryPratchett is either clairvoyant or a time traveler. (and he did steal Unseen University from [[HarryPotter Hogwarts!]])
*** Actually the Unseen University is a probably a play on the real life Invisible College.

** Discworld/WitchesAbroad predates ThePrincessAndTheFrog, and is partially set in a combination of a DisneyPrincess city and TheBigEasy([[ItsAlwaysMardiGrasInNewOrleans During Fat Lunchtime]], no less) and with [[spoiler:a frog prince]]. Also, [[spoiler:Greebo]] [[DoctorWho always wanted to be ginger]].

* In the fourth ''HarryPotter'' Book, Mad-Eye Moody [[spoiler: the fake one]] repeats "Constant vigilance!" over and over. When this first came out , it was relatively strange and off-world. After 9/11, similar lines said by various officials were so pervasive, that this line can now be viewed as prophetic dark humor.
** Um, in the wake of the revolutionary war (US) people like ThomasJefferson and BenjaminFranklin were saying thing like "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance." Similar sentiments have been shibboleths for people of a certain political stripe ever since.
*** Something played with in both its positive AND negative senses in ''WingCommander IV: The Price of Freedom'' - released a year before the ''first'' Harry Potter book.

* In the second book of ''TheDresdenFiles'', ''Fool Moon'', Harry narrates the following line. "The barrel of the gun looked bigger and deeper than the national debt as it swung to bear on my face." ''Fool Moon'' was written in 2001. To someone who first read the book in 2009, that must have been a very big gun indeed. Straddles the line between HilariousInHindsight and an actual FunnyAneurysmMoment.
** ... except it ''already'' meant "f*** ing huge." It hasn't gained any new meanings it hasn't had since WorldWarII.

-->"Maybe the rain had something to do with why you lost your memory," Deena offered. "A torrential rainstorm. A car speeding down Mulholland Drive. There was a crash, the squealing of brakes, and then —"

** One of ''Discworld/TheWeeFreeMen'' says he's "bigger on the inside" in a straightforward ''DoctorWho'' reference. Then, later on in the book, Tiffany comes across [[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS4E8SilenceInTheLibrary unnatural shadows that]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS4E9ForestOfTheDead
move around without any light source]]...

* Sinclair Lewis' 1948 novel ''Kingsblood Royal'' features the Sant Tabac, a racist secret society fronting as a cigar club. Flash forward 50 years to the height of the cigar craze, when such clubs were all the rage.

* In ''ThePhantomOfTheOpera'', the {{narrator}} refers to Christine's first abduction (the one where she disappeared for two weeks) as "not the infamous abduction" which everyone has heard of. In context, this refers to how famous her second abduction became in the news in-universe, but the story is so famous now through PopculturalOsmosis that this clarification seems to be LeaningOnTheFourthWall.

** One of ''{{Discworld/TheWeeFreeMen}}'' says he's "bigger on the inside" in a straightforward ''DoctorWho'' reference. Then, later on in the book, Tiffany comes across [[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS4E8SilenceInTheLibrary unnatural shadows]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS4E9ForestOfTheDeadthat move around without any light source]]...

** An early Watch book mentions that mass-circulation newspapers hadn't been invented yet in Ankh-Morpork, "leaving the public to fool themselves". Then he gets around to writing ''Discworld/TheTruth''...

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<<|HilariousInHindsight|>>

* ''[=~Cat's Cradle~=]'' brings us an element called [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice-9 ice-nine]]. Or should I say, [[{{Touhou}} ice]]-[[HilariousInHindsight (9)]]; in fact, the recent ''Touhou'' game has a mechanic that operates on a very similar concept ([[BulletHell bullets]] coming into contact with frozen bullets will themselves become frozen).

* ''[=~Cat's Cradle~=]'' brings us an element called [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice-9 ice-nine]]. Or should I say, [[{{Touhou}} ice-(9)]]; in fact, the recent ''Touhou'' game has a mechanic that operates on a very similar concept ([[BulletHell bullets]] coming into contact with frozen bullets will themselves become frozen).

*In one "Halo Evoulutions" short story it discusses an incident where UNSC officers board a ship suspected of carrying contrband. The on board crewmen panic after hearing a rumor about impressment and shots are exchanged- people die. Then everybody gets mad at the UNSC, sounds like a certain israli incident to me...

** Discworld/WitchesAbroad predates ThePrincessAndTheFrog. Also, [[spoiler:Greebo]] [[DoctorWho always wanted to be ginger]].

**No love for Discworld/WitchesAbroad? It predates ThePrincessAndTheFrog. Also, [[spoiler:Greebo]] [[DoctorWho always wanted to be ginger]].

**In the second book, when the trio discussed how T.M. Riddle got an award for special services to school, Ron figured jokingly that [[spoiler: "Maybe he murdered Myrtle; that would've done everyone a favor..."]] Turns out he was right a few chapters later. Might be an in-universe FunnyAneurysmMoment, too.

* The DaleBrown novel ''Edge of Battle'' has a part where someone is telling a Russian commando to speak [[ModernWarfare No Russian]].