History HilariousInHindsight / Literature

* ''HilariousInHindsight/BigNate''

* There was a children's Mickey Mouse mystery novel from 2001 called ''[[Literature/MysteryInMidAir Mystery in Mid-Air]]'', which involved private detectives Mickey and Minnie trying to solve the mystery of a passenger plane which has seemingly vanished in mid-flight without any sign of a crash. The number of the plane that goes missing? ''[[Series/{{Lost}} Flight 815]]''.

* Creator/MindyKaling's 2011 memoir ''[[Literature/IsEveryoneHangingOutWithoutmeAndOtherConcerns Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)]]'' includes a short, hypothetical list of remakes/reboots she's come up with: One is a [[Film/Ghostbusters2016 version of Ghostbusters with women as the main characters]], and she even speculates on how it [[AudienceAlienatingPremise might be a hard sell]] to the mostly-male fan base of [[Film/Ghostbusters1984 the original film]]. Another is an ''Film/Oceans11'' prequel she dubs ''Ocean's 5'', reasoning that the sequels' trend of adding more to the cast was getting out of hand and they needed to scale back a bit. In 2018, she was announced as being part of the main cast of ''Film/OceansEight'', a spinoff of the original franchise (with at least a ''few'' less main characters than the original).

* A recurring bit in ''Literature/AngelsAndDemons'' is how the election of a new Pope is basically ignored. Only a few news crews are around, there's no talk on it and at one point, a reporter does a story before a green screen image of the Vatican. This is all meant to indicate that the very concept of the Pope is considered outdated by 2000. Five years after the novel was published, the election of Benedict XVI was a global event covered live by every news station on the planet with huge discussion of what it meant to the world.

* There is an 18th century childrens book about a "Baron Trump" travelling into hollow earth. Due to the name resemblance to Trumps son Barron and a mentor figure in the book named Don, this became an internet meme.
* Literature/TheBible

* Early in ''The Breath of God'' by Creator/HarryTurtledove (part of the ''Opening of the World'' trilogy), [[MemeticMutation a man gets an arrow to the knee]]. Ulric Skakki resolves this in the same scene with a tool specifically designed to remove arrows. This was three years before ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]''.
* In the second ''Literature/{{Brotherband}}'' book (published in 2012), Barat, the man who's running for office, declares his intention to "make [his town] great again," and wins the election handily. How much of his character parallels that of Creator/DonaldTrump is another matter entirely, but readers, especially those of a certain political bent, will find this hilarious.

* A children's educational book in The Knowledge series called ''Crashing Computers'', published in 1999, talks about policy discussions on the 10 Downing Street website and makes a joke about paying kids to go to school. A few years later, the Government created [[http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/EducationAndLearning/14To19/MoneyToLearn/EMA/DG_066951 the Education Maintenance Allowance]], paying some 16-18 year olds to go to school.
** Some countries (e.g. Finland) had student benefits years before 1999, so it's more of a case of Hilarious When Put Into Multinational Perspective.
* ''Creator/DaveBarry's Book of Bad Songs'' cited "All By Myself" as a member of the bathetic "you-don't-love-me-so-it's-[[ElectrifiedBathtub time-to-jump-into-the-bathtub-with-an-electrical-appliance]] genre". The movie ''Me Myself I'' used the song for that exact dramatic situation.
** Also, this book was published well before [[{{Wangst}} Emo]] became popular...

* In Creator/MichaelCrichton's 1994 novel ''Disclosure'', discussing a computer help program:
-->Don Cherry: "We thought of making it a [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime blue]] [[ExpositionFairy fairy]], but didn't want to [[AnnoyingVideoGameHelper offend anyone]]."

* ''Literature/EncycolpediaBrown'': Encyclopedia's rarely mentioned real first name is Leroy. [[Music/JimCroce That name is the only apparent thing Encyclopedia has in common with another fictional Leroy Brown, who is the focus of a song that came out about ten years after the first book in the series.]]

** 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". [[RecursiveCanon No way THAT one wasn't intentional.]]
** In the fourth book, Harry at one point thinks of Cedric Diggory as a "useless pretty boy". Considering who plays him in the movie (and said actor's [Film/{{Twilight}} further roles]])...

** In Book 6, Harry comments that the Half-Blood Prince is a much better teacher than Snape. [[spoiler: Then he finds out who the Half-Blood Prince is...]]

** Book 2 has a plot twist where [[spoiler:the writer Gilderoy Lockhart, a specialist about monsters,]] is revealed to be a fraud who wrote books in which he gave himself credit for deeds performed by other people. In 2020, French writer Stéphane Bourgoin (expert about serial killers, the closest Muggle equivalent) was outted as a pathological liar and a fraud who wrote books in which he gave himself credit for deeds performed by other people.

* The book ''Literature/LAConfidential'' features the death of a down and out prostitute named Kathy Janeway. The creators of ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' ''probably'' didn't have this in mind when naming their show's captain, but the name was removed from TheFilmOfTheBook nonetheless.

** It came out over a decade before the ''Franchise/MetalGear'' series became popular. Reading it today, the inclusion of a [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid genetically enhanced super ninja]] named [[Creator/HideoKojima "Hideo"]] is pretty funny.
* In ''Literature/TheGlassKey'', two characters meet in a restaurant named Tom & Jerry's, which is presumably not owned by a cartoon cat and mouse. However, this is likely ''not'' a true example, as the names Tom and Jerry (in the form, specifically, of Jerry Hawthorne, Esq. and Corinthian Tom) have been associated with each other since the early 19th century, and most later combinations are either coincidence (neither is an uncommon name) or deliberate callbacks to ''Literature/LifeInLondon''.
* ''Literature/JohnPutnamThatcher'': In ''Death Shall Overcome'', a grandstanding (in the opinion of the main characters) civil rights activist writes an opera honoring generations of oppressed African-Americans. The title of his work is ''Roots'', [[Literature/{{Roots}} a decade before the release of a generational epic about oppressed Africans with the same title]].
* In the 1998 ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration''/''ComicBook/XMen'' crossover novel ''Planet X'' (which is not a fanfic but rather an officially published, authorized, but non-canonical novel), Captain Picard meets a holodeck simulation of Professor Charles Xavier and is astounded by how similar he looks to him. Two years later the first ''Film/XMen1'' film came out, casting Picard actor Creator/PatrickStewart as Professor Xavier. At the time, this one may have been intended more as a nod to fan buzz than anything else: though the casting wasn't official yet, ''X-Men'' fans had already been clamoring for Creator/PatrickStewart to be cast as Professor Xavier ever since the live-action movie was first announced.
* 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. 10 years later, guess what Creator/RobinWilliams decided to nickname his penis (and [[ICallHimMisterHappy name a trope in the process]])?
* In ''Literature/TheFountainhead'', one of the characters walks past a movie theater advertising a cheapened version of ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'': "Bill Shakespeare's immortal classic! But there's nothing highbrow about it! Just a simple love story. A boy from the Bronx meets a girl from Brooklyn. Just like the folks next door. Just like you and me." Creator/AynRand wrote this description long before ''Theatre/WestSideStory''. [[TrueArtIsAncient Shakespeare wasn't highbrow in Shakespeare's day, either.]]
* ''Literature/DaveBarrySleptHere'' uses the word [[Memes/{{Anime}} "befriend"]] in talking about the United States using GunboatDiplomacy to establish relations with Latin American countries.
* In the original ''Literature/{{Shrek}}'' picture book, there's a scene where the title character has a nightmare about being beloved by children. Flash forward to the fourth installment of the film series, and...
* In ''Literature/GoodOmens'': "She wanted a change. Something with openings. She quite fancied herself as a newspaper journalist." Let's just say that whatever the state of the newspaper industry was in 1990, well, it's worse now.
** Consider this excerpt. One wonders whether Misters [[Creator/TerryPratchett Pratchett]] or [[Creator/NeilGaiman Gaiman]] had access to a time machine:
--> '''Adam''': ''I'' wrote a book once. It was a triffic book. It was nearly eight pages long. It was about this [[Series/{{Sherlock}} pirate who was a famous detective]]. ... I bet it was a lot more excitin' than any book you've lost. [[Series/DoctorWho 'Specially the bit in the spaceship where the dinosaur comes out and fights the cowboys]]. I bet it'd cheer you up, my book. [[Film/MontyPythonsLifeOfBrian It cheered up Brian no end]].
* In ''The Space Traveler's Handbook'', published in the 70s but set in 2061, the second US space colony is called the UsefulNotes/RichardNixon. This is indicated to have been a very popular choice.
* A book of very serious, scholarly articles published in the New York Times in the 1950s had an interview with a Russian scientist just after Sputnik went up. He detailed a whole plan for how he thought humanity would expand into space, landing on the moon "Perhaps as early as the year 2000."
** This is more HarsherInHindsight for many people who deplore the fact that in 2000 we could '''not''' have landed a manned vehicle on the moon, and that our "expansion into space" as far as people (as opposed to robotic probes) are concerned in 2014 consists of dusty relics and ''one'' functioning space station in low Earth orbit.
* In the ''Literature/MalazanBookOfTheFallen'' books ''Literature/MidnightTides'' and ''Literature/ReapersGale'' (the latter published in 2007), one plot thread is Tehol Beddict's plan to destroy the economy of Lether by exploiting everyone's greed. Considering how much of the 2008-2009 economic unpleasantness was caused by unsustainable and shortsighted investment and lending makes it even better.
* Julie Kenner's 2000 novel ''The Cat's Fancy'' is about a cat who becomes human in order to marry her owner. She shows up in her owner's house seemingly with amnesia, and he and others try to find out who she is, in a plot already reminiscent of [[Film/MulhollandDrive a movie that would come out a year later]]... but then we get this line:
-->"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..."
* At the beginning of ''Literature/TheHobbit'' (published in 1937), Thorin describes the mark Gandalf had left on Bilbo's door as indicating a burglar looking for work. "You can say 'expert treasure hunter' instead of 'burglar' if you like. [[InsistentTerminology Some of them do]]." Nearly sixty years later, gamers who played the US release of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'' met one such individual.
* In the 7th ''Literature/{{Everworld}}'' book, Senna Wales decides to stab a Coo-Hatch alien to death with a knife, for no apparent reason, and then acts coldly unmoved by what she did. When the others question her as to ''why'' she had suddenly gone AxCrazy, she ''laughs ruefully, shakes her head to herself'' and replies, "Had to be! There was no avoiding it ... Not over the long haul." In the eleventh book, [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope Senna suddenly goes psychotic]] and becomes a evil maniac, presumably for plot purposes.
** Made even funnier since Senna ''can see the future in visions'' and talks about her "destiny". Given [[BlackComedy Senna's sense]] [[DeadpanSnarker of humor]], she had obviously guessed what was going to happen.
** In the 9th book, Senna also recites a list of reasons [[ThisCannotBe why the adventure must not end with her death]]. Perhaps a certain MagnificentBitch had some [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall awareness of the fourth wall]].
* The title of the book ''Literature/TheBFG'' by Roald Dahl has taken [[{{BFG}} a new, wonderful meaning.]]
* Literature/TheIronDream is a Norman Spinrad book, essentially taking the racial ravings of Adolf Hitler [[AC:[[RecycledInSpace To Space!]]]], taking them to the logical conclusion by having this Hitler be obsessed with the purity of the human genome rather than the human race. Thirty five years later, we learn that [[http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/05/100506-science-neanderthals-humans-mated-interbred-dna-gene/ the only "pure" humans on the planet are those whose ancestors stayed in Africa, while all others mated with neanderthals.]]
* ''Literature/SchoolsOutForever'' has a scene where a kid at Disneyland mistakes Ari for ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} and asks for his autograph. Creator/{{Disney}} bought Creator/{{Marvel|Comics}} several years after the book was released.

* During the climax of ''Literature/AdventuresOfHuckleberryFinn'', an old woman rambles on about [[spoiler: Jim's escape from the Phelps' farm]], [[Manga/RozenMaiden ending every sentence with 'says I'.]]

* The Creator/DaleBrown novel ''Edge of Battle'' has a part where someone is telling a Russian commando to speak [[VideoGame/ModernWarfare No Russian]]. Complete with said Russian supposed to be pretending to be from elsewhere as part of a FalseFlagOperation.
* Creator/EdwardGorey's first book, ''The Unstrung Harp'' came out in 1953. In one scene, the main character goes driving near a town named Website/SomethingAwful.
* Among many other [[BlindIdiotTranslation bad translations]] in the infamous Portuguese-to-English phrasebook "O Novo Guia da Conversação em Portuguez e Inglez" (also known as "English As She Is Spoke") was its translation for "Cômô dizeís ''ôu'' díz Vm?": "[[VideoGame/ZeroWing What you say?]]"
** Speaking of that, at one point in ''Literature/LordOfTheFlies'' Piggy says, "[[VideoGame/ZeroWing What You Say?]]
* In ''Literature/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.
* [[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 the novel ''{{Literature/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 roommate, and Krendel casually speculates that the pair's 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 then [[Creator/JodieFoster a certain someone]] decided to ''[[TransparentCloset finally]]'' [[http://www.afterellen.com/people/2007/12/jodiefoster come out of the closet]], and it [[ActorAllusion reads quite differently.]]
* In ''[[Literature/HonorHarrington The Honor of the Queen]]'', one enemy officer is criticized for trying to rely on weight of fire rather than proper timing to overwhelm Honor's defenses, which looks odd in light of the {{Macross Missile Massacre}}s of later books.
** In ''The Short Victorious War'', the idea of battle-cruisers trumping ships of the wall, even in a missile fight, is dismissed as impossible. Wait a minute...
** In ''Crown of Slaves'', [[spoiler: Berry Zilwicki]] claims that the only two things she would be good at are being a housewife or a queen. Guess what...
** In his non-Honor book ''Literature/TheExcaliburAlternative'', the end involves [[spoiler: an English-based space empire leading an attack on a much larger federation... Which is exactly what's happening in the current Honor books. To make things funnier, the looming enemy in the Honor books is the Solarian League. One of the Space English's '''allies''' in ''Excalibur'' is the '''Solarian Union'''.]]

* In Creator/PhilipKDick's short story ''Stand-By'', in the future setting, the most important TV news presenter is... [[Series/TheDailyShow a clown]].
* Creator/ScottMcCloud's nonfiction comic, ''ComicBook/ReinventingComics'', talks largely about the future potential of computers as a medium for webcomics, as well the drawbacks of computer technology. Many of these drawbacks include slow loading, poor graphics, and low storage capacity. [[TechnologyMarchesOn The book was written in 2000.]]
* ''Literature/AtlasShrugged'' has a passage that sounds just like the [[StockParody commonly parodied]] Master Card commercials: "The roast turkey had cost $30. The champagne had cost $25....[Several more examples]. But it was held to be unspiritual to think of money and what it represented." If it didn't predate the Master Card commercials by many decades, it would seem like the perfect setup for something like "Thanksgiving dinner with family was priceless" Or "Using the power of reason to produce wealth was priceless." Or "For Rearden's family, the opportunity to make him feel a sense of unearned guilt was priceless."
* The first book of Creator/JohnRingo's ''Literature/LegacyOfTheAldenata'', released in 2000, features Mike O'Neal, initially an NCO, using an experimental suit of PoweredArmor with an AI named "Michelle" in it, part of a military unit that exclusively uses said armor. He and said AI are close friends. See also; ''VideoGame/HaloCombatEvolved'', featuring Master Chief Petty Officer John-117 and his AI best friend Cortana, member of the elite group known as Spartans. And yes, both types of armor have the SticksToTheBack trope
* One 80's {{Gamebook|s}} featured the player as a mage, leaving the reader to determine what type of magic they used. Each type of magic was assigned a colour. [[TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering Of which there were five. Even better, they were white, blue, black, red, and green.]] Of course, red, blue, and green are the primary colors. With the natural addition of white and black, there you go.
* In the 1990 short horror novel ''Literature/TheLangoliers'' by Creator/StephenKing one of the characters is trying to figure out what caused practically all the passengers of a cross country airline flight do disappear and while internally brainstorming considers the idea that someone [[Film/SnakesOnAPlane filled the plane's luggage compartments with poisonous snakes]] before immediately dismissing it as ludicrous.
* In ''Literature/ThePrincessBride'', the old Archdeacon, as part of Buttercup and Humperdinck's marriage ceremony says, "Mawidge is a [[Film/{{Inception}} dweam wiffin a dweam]]. (He was old and deaf and had a speech impediment.)
* One part of ''Literature/RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms'' involves Guan Yu [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guan_Yu#Crossing_Five_Passes_and_Slaying_Six_Generals crossing five passes and slaying six generals]], which sounds awfully like a videogame.
** Similarly, Liu Biao has an advisor named Kuai Liang. That won't be too significant for most readers, but any ''Franchise/MortalKombat'' fans are sure to get a chuckle out of it since ''VideoGame/MortalKombat9'' revealed ([[VideoGame/MortalKombatII the younger]]) Sub-Zero's [[CanonName real name to be just that.]]
** The book also features a RedShirt named "He Man"--while the name is not pronounced anything like [[Franchise/MastersOfTheUniverse He-Man]], it's still funny to see him appear, make a BadassBoast, and then cut down without anyone batting an eye.

* In the Literature/SweetValleyHigh book ''Sweet Valley Saga'' Alice (the twins' mother) was engaged to Hank Patman (Bruce's father). When ''Sweet Valley Confidential'' comes out, guess who become a couple at the end of the book? [[spoiler: Bruce and Elizabeth, that's who.]]
* This couplette is from ''The Passionate Pilgrim'', attributed to Shakespeare:
-->Were kisses all the joys in bed,
-->One woman would another wed.
* In ''Through the Looking-Glass'', Creator/LewisCarroll's 1872 sequel to ''Literature/AlicesAdventuresInWonderland'':
** One line of the famous "Jabberwocky" poem mentions a "rath", which WordOfGod defined as "a sort of green pig". 137 years later, [[VideoGame/AngryBirds well ...]]
** The Walrus and the Carpenter spend two stanzas [[Film/AttackOfTheClones whining about sand]].
* [[Literature/TheTwilightSaga Jacob Black]] has an older sister named Rebecca. [[Music/RebeccaBlack Think about that for a second...]][[note]]To clarify, Rebecca Black the character was first mentioned in the original ''Twilight'', released in 2005. The singer Rebecca Black never became famous until 2011.[[/note]]
* Try reading the ''Literature/{{Fablehaven}}'' books during the 2012 election and NOT laughing at Vanessa Santoro's surname, which is only 2 letters away from that of Pennsylvania ex-Congressman Rick Santorum. The name becomes either funnier or more disturbing when you know that, [[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/santorum according to Google, his name basically means "ass juice."]] Also, the whole series is about [[WesternAnimation/GravityFalls two children who visit an older guardian named Stanley and finding out about magical creatures.]]
* At least one translation of ''Literature/{{Beowulf}}'' referred to [[Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail 'great tracts of land']].
* In the 1932 novel ''Literature/WhenWorldsCollide'', the League of the Last Days picked a location in Michigan to build the space arks because of its geological stability; in another universe, [[VideoGame/{{Portal}} so did a certain shower curtain company]].
* The 2008 ''Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse'' novel ''Ghosts of India'' has the Doctor trusting an alien on the grounds the alien is making tea, adding [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E3VictoryOfTheDaleks "The Daleks never made me tea"]].
* The children's novel ''The Twenty-One Balloons'' has the protagonist landing on Krakatoa shortly before the fateful volcanic eruption. He meets a secluded society whose men are named "Mr. (letter)". This naming convention results in two Hilarious In Hindsight moments: 1) the first person the protagonist meets on the island is named [[Series/ArrestedDevelopment Mr. F]] and 2) a later one named man on the island goes by Creator/MrT.
* In ''Mallory and the Mystery Diary'', a relatively early ''Literature/TheBabySittersClub'' book published in 1989, Mallory complains that it feels like she's been 11 for a decade. Cut to 1999, when the books are still being published and poor Mal is still 11...
* Creator/PGWodehouse's early character Mike Jackson, star of several BoardingSchool stories and later DemotedToExtra as Literature/{{Psmith}}'s sidekick. His full name doesn't come up much (he's usually called either "Mike" or "Jackson"), but you still occasionally get lines like, "I never thought to hear those words from Music/MichaelJackson."
* In ''Literature/ATaleOfTimeCity'', the founder of the eponymous time-traveling city [[spoiler: who resolves the plot by reintegrating himself and banishes the villains to separate and unpleasant bits of time and space]] is named [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E9TheFamilyOfBlood John Smith]].
* In the first ''Literature/MaryPoppins'' novel, Michael wishes to be invisible. Jane says they would be, "if we go [[Series/DoctorWho behind the sofa]]."
* From ''Be My Guest'', When Conrad Hilton is preparing to purchase the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, he says "[[Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheFellowshipOfTheRing One does not simply walk]] [[MemeticMutation into and buy the Waldorf.]]"
* In 1963, Morris West's novel ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shoes_of_the_Fisherman The Shoes of the Fisherman]]'' described the election and first part of the reign of a the first [[UsefulNotes/ThePope Pope]] hailing from Eastern Europe (more exactly, Ukraine). 15 years later, the first non-Italian Pope was chosen... and he also hailed from Eastern Europe (Poland, in this case). Made even better because said RealLife Eastern European Pope, Karol Wojtyla aka John Paul II, wasn't ''that'' different from the fictional one, Kiril Pavlovich Lakota aka Kyril I... So JPII [[spoiler: helped to take down the Iron Curtain]]? Kyril I has [[spoiler: to be ''Literature/TheMediator'' between the governments of RedChina and [[UsefulNotes/SovietRussiaUkraineAndSoOn the URSS]] to avert World War III.]]
* ''Literature/TheNightOfWishes'': Beelzebub Preposteror insisted on calling Maledictus Maggot "Mr. Larva", [[AccidentalMisnaming much to Maggot's dismay]]. When [[WesternAnimation/{{Wunschpunsch}} the cartoon]] [[AnimatedAdaptation based on the book]] was translated for Brazilian audiences, his name [[DubNameChange did become]] "Maledictus Larva".
* In ''Literature/BraveNewWorld'', the future society's current fashion trend is an overabundance of zippers on everything, demonstrating how needlessly over-engineered everything is. It's evocative of the costume design stylings that Creator/TetsuyaNomura has become notorious for.
* In ''Chasing Vermeer'', a character refers to someone who annoyed him by never shutting up as "Twitter Man", a nickname which gained another level of appropriateness a few years after the book's publication...
* Creator/RayBradbury's short story ''The Long Rain'' correctly guesses that Venus is inhospitable for humanity, but depicts it as being a tropical climate with a breathable atmosphere but constant downpour that will drive any human being insane if they're exposed for too long. We now know that Venus is really... well... [[ScienceMarchesOn exactly the opposite]].
* In ''Literature/ParadiseLost'', Milton describes a rainbow as having "[[HaveAGayOldTime colours gay]]." Now, more than three centuries later, the rainbow is a symbol of gay pride.
* An encyclopedia of manga classics (I can't remember exactly which one) outlined the plot of ''Manga/FruitsBasket'', and informed the reader that the series' OfficialCouple was [[spoiler:Tohru and Yuki. (Kyo Sohma- third protagonist, one corner of the focal LoveTriangle, and Tohru's eventual husband- is barely mentioned at all.)]] Unfortunately, the encyclopedia was written before certain [[TheReveal plot twists]] in the manga [[ShipSinking sunk that ship]], and Tohru and[[spoiler: Yuki]] remained JustFriends.
* In {{Lawrence Block}}'s ''The Thief Who Couldn't Sleep'', Evan Tanner, who can't resist a lost cause, supports the independence movements of several oppressed regions even as he insists in the narration that he knows that they will never succeed. Following the Soviet collapse, every last one of them is now a nation, causing an unintentional ItWillNeverCatchOn RunningGag.
* Stoo Hample's ''Literature/TheSillyBook'' tells you that the "Silly Secret" will make you giggle like a "gigglecopter", and then says that it will make you "roll on the floor". 43 years later, the [=ROFLcopter=] meme was introduced.
* In ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', there are three rings for the elven kings under the sky, seven for the dwarf-lords in their halls of stone, nine for mortal men doomed to die, and one for the dark lord on his dark throne. These four numbers in reverse order comprise the year that author J.R.R. Tolkien died.
* In ''Literature/ForrestGump'' (the book, not the movie), there is a sequence where Forrest becomes a professional wrestler. One of the wrestlers Forrest wrestles is a super-smart wrestler described as wearing a graduation outfit (Mortarboard, Robe, etc). In 1989, the WWF would debut "The Genius" (Lanny Poffo) who had the exact same gimmick.
* In ''Alexander And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day,'' Alexander considers moving to Australia. Come 2014, [[Film/AlexanderAndTheTerribleHorribleNoGoodVeryBadDay the film adaptation]] [[CastingGag casts Ed Oxenbould, who is from Australia, as Alexander]].
* Creator/CSLewis' 1955 autobiography was entitled ''Surprised by Joy'', in reference to the experience of aesthetic longing that became the first step of his conversion to Christianity, and was edited by his friend, the American poet Joy Davidman. A year later, when Joy was at risk of having to return to the United States, they had a civil marriage so she could stay in England. What started out as a CitizenshipMarriage evolved into one of the most profound love affairs of the 20th century after she was diagnosed with cancer; they were later married in the Church and when she died in 1960, Lewis was heartbroken. His friends would remark in his later life that he really had been "surprised by Joy".
* Speaking of Creator/CSLewis, a few examples appear in ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia'':
** In ''Literature/TheVoyageOfTheDawnTreader'', when the ship is trapped in a fog of nightmares, Eustace says: "Do you hear a noise like...like a huge pair of scissors opening and shutting...over there?" Forty-six years later, giant scissors (representing the threat of a GroinAttack) appeared during ''another'' NightmareSequence in [[Film/TheBigLebowski a certain famous movie]]. After about 2001 or so, it's likely to remind readers of yet ''[[Film/{{Monkeybone}} another]]'' movie with a NightmareSequence featuring big scissors[[note]]or ordinary-sized gardening shears, as the case may be[[/note]] -- this time caused by a nightmare-inducing mist to boot!
** ''Literature/TheSilverChair'':
*** Puddleglum's climactic faith-affirming AuthorFilibuster, directed at an apparent HollywoodAtheist, rings of chain messages about good Christian students trouncing smug secular professors in arguments (though it should be noted that Lewis pulls it off a lot better than the authors of those copypastas do, seeing how he was such a talented wordsmith in general).
*** The deceptively pretty and sweet Green Lady, who bewitches people with her music, is very similar to the media's image of Music/TaylorSwift during TheNewTens, especially since Taylor's haters started calling her a snake after her spat with Music/KanyeWest in 2016. (It doesn't help that the original illustrator Pauline Baynes drew the Lady as blonde.) Moreover, the notion of a shapeshifting LizardFolk invader, lurking within an ElaborateUndergroundBase and subtly acquiring power through governmental infiltration and mind control, is likewise eerily similar to the ReptilianConspiracy theories propounded by the likes of Creator/DavidIcke.
** The {{prequel}} ''Literature/TheMagiciansNephew'' reveals Jadis the White Witch to be the [[LastOfHisKind last surviving member]] of an ancient, decadent species of {{Sufficiently Advanced|Aliens}} HumanAliens, the rest of whom she wiped from existence to prevent a war from ending unfavorably. Fast-forward about half a century, and a similar revelation was made about [[Series/DoctorWho another iconic British children's character]]. This parallel makes the scene in London, where Jadis is unfamiliar with our world and ends up causing a commotion, all the funnier, since that kind of situation happens to the Doctor ''all the freaking time'' -- usually in London too! And in ''Literature/TheLionTheWitchAndTheWardrobe'', the Witch's tactic of charming Edmund with sugary jelly candies becomes funny because it's essentially the Fourth Doctor's ''modus operandi'' for making new friends.
* John Gardner's ''Literature/JamesBond'' novels were never officially acknowledged by the Eon's ''[[Film/JamesBond Bond]]'' films, but there has been a few amusing coincidences:
** Anton Murik, the BigBad of ''Literature/LicenceRenewed'' (1981) cheats at horse races like Max Zorin in ''Film/AViewToAKill''. The same novel also has an action scene in a cargo plane which ends with TheDragon Caber falling to his death, like Necros in ''Film/TheLivingDaylights''.
** ''Literature/RoleOfHonour'' (1984) has a climax in an airship a year before ''Film/AViewToAKill'' was released.'
* In ''Literature/OneFlewOverTheCuckoosNest'', Big Nurse Ratched's name has taken on a funny quality now that "ratchet" has become teen slang used to describe anything with the quality of the ghetto about it.
* There was a children's Mickey Mouse mystery novel from 2001 called "Mystery in Mid-Air", which involved private detectives Mickey and Minnie trying to solve the mystery of a passenger plane which has seemingly vanished in mid-flight without any sign of a crash. The number of the plane that goes missing? ''[[Series/{{Lost}} Flight 815]]''.
* ''Literature/NightWorld'': Poppy's unflagging conviction that she and [[ChildhoodFriends James]] are going to get married someday is already pretty funny ('she said, to distract [her brother] from his stare-out with his future brother-in-law'), but becomes even funnier when it's revealed that one of James' abilities as a vampire is ''reading minds''.
* {{Fairy Tale}}s:
** Literature/{{Cinderella}} was finally identified when the prince fit the glass slipper on her foot (which is where we get the expression "if the shoe fits"). 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 better, the saying "if the shoe fits" sounds amusingly similar to a phrase used by one of O. J.'s lawyers: "If the glove doesn't fit, you must acquit."
** ''Literature/SleepingBeauty'' tells the story of an ethereal, animal-loving adolescent who spent a century in suspended animation only to be awakened by the child of a local ruler. [[WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender Then everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked.]]
* In ''Literature/FiftyShadesOfGrey'', it was always debatable if Christian's tastes are as "singular" as he claims, considering that even before the Internet [=BDSM=] was one of the most common kinks around. Now, when the ''Fifty Shades'' books have sold millions and millions of copies and have legions of fans eager to try the stuff in the book, Christian might as well have the Dark Secret that he likes watching porn movies.
* Fans of ''Literature/TheRavenCycle'' love to point out this little exchange between Gansey, the leader, Ronan, who prides himself on his honesty, and Adam, who is frequently at odds with Ronan.
--> Gansey: From now on I need everyone to be straight with each other.
--> Ronan: I'm always straight.
--> Adam: Oh man, that's the biggest lie you ever told.
** The exchange is funny in its own right, but becomes even better after [[spoiler: we find out that Ronan has a crush on Adam.]]
* Creator/LRonHubbard's short story [[http://tonyortega.org/2016/02/15/chuck-beatty-is-right-l-ron-hubbard-lofted-culty-cosmic-ideas-a-decade-before-dianetics/#more-28592 "One Was Stubborn"]] (Written under the pseudonym of Rene La Fayette) features a man who started his own religion, denying the reality of matter. The same man further seeks to expand his religion through the use of media, and uses freedom of religion as a defense against anyone trying to stop him. Ironically, the character in question is a villain...
** The story also has a funny moment that has nothing to do with Scientology. The villain of the piece is named [[Creator/JohnLeCarre George Smiley]].
* In ''Literature/SpiritBound'', when Sydney gets in contact with Rose to query her about missing Alchemist records she tells Rose that Adrian is cute for an 'evil creature of the night'. [[spoiler:In ''Literature/{{Bloodlines}}'', she ends up falling in love with (and marrying) him]].
* Fans of ''Series/TheOfficeUS'' may be surprised to find Michael Scott in the eighth circle of Dante's ''[[Literature/TheDivineComedy Inferno]]''. (The Michael Scott, or sometimes Scot, in question was actually a famous medieval scholar with a posthumous reputation as a sorcerer, not the regional manager of Dunder Mifflin.)
* In David Nicholl's (author of ''Literature/OneDay'') ''Us'', the main character Douglas says that he and the other biologists at his lab called their pet fruit fly 'Bruce' to show that scientists can have a sense of humour, noting that fruit flies are technically neither and both sexes which they parodied by giving it such a name ([[DontExplainTheJoke but it's not actually funny]]). This event would have taken place in the 1980s, whilst the book was written around 2012. A few years later, Creator/CaitlynJenner -- born Bruce -- became the highest profile celebrity to undergo gender reassignment.
* Creator/IsaacAsimov, as a prolific SF author, made many predictions. [[http://www.images-booknode.com/book_cover/86/full/cher-jupiter-85720.jpg This one]] is merely a translation "accident". (The original title is "Buy Jupiter.")
* In Asimov's"Blind Alley", a man shows what he calls "A Galactic fad of three years ago; which means that it is a hopelessly old-fashioned relic this year". A high-tech ''disco ball'' as an example DiscoSucks. In 1945.
* In the back of each book of the original ''Literature/WitchAndWizard'' trilogy by Creator/JamesPatterson, there is a list of books, celebrities, etc. banned by the New Order, which are all parodies of real-life books and people. There is one parodying the ''[[Literature/WarriorCats Warriors]]'' series by Creator/ErinHunter: ''"THE BRAWLERS: The story of a pack of sentient dogs - some stray, some pets - seeking to fulfull a 'prophecy'."'' Several years later, there actually ''was'' an [[Literature/SurvivorDogs Erin Hunter series about a pack of sentient dogs]].
* ''Franchise/CthulhuMythos'':
** Lovecraft described Azathoth as a mindless EldritchAbomination at the center of the universe, often described as "gnawing" and "chaotic". Scientists now believe that the center of our galaxy (and, by extension, other galaxies), is a supermassive black hole. Perhaps Lovecraft was on to something...
** In the 1931 short story ''The Lair of the Star Spawn'' by Creator/AugustDerleth and Mark Schorer, the characters manage to stop the [[EldritchAbomination Great Old Ones]] Lloigor and Zhar with the aid of the Star Warriors from Orion, described as monstrous-size glowing beings that "shot great beams of annihilation and death".\\
In 1966, Creator/TsuburayaProductions created ''Franchise/UltraSeries'', a {{toku}} franchise about giant heroic aliens of light with many abilities, including shooting powerful beams from their arms. And by sheer coincidence, their homeworld is located in [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messier_78 Nebula M78]] in the Orion Constellation. Gets even more hilarious with the 1996 entry ''Series/UltramanTiga'', which featured Ghatanothoa as the BigBad, as well as Rl'yeh and the [[OurDragonsAreDifferent Lloigor]], er...[[LawyerFriendlyCameo Zoiger]].
* In 1835, Vladimir Odoevsky wrote a novel entitled "The Year 4338: Petersburg Letters", in which he predicted both blogging and the internet: "In each home there is a majordomo who is responsible for publishing the journal once a week or even daily. It’s very easy to do. When the masters of the house instruct him, he simply makes a note of everything they say and then takes a picture of it and prints enough copies to send out to everyone. The newspaper has the usual details of the health or illness of the masters and other domestic news, then various ideas and commentaries, small inventions and also invitations. If there is an invitation to dinner, it will include a section called "Le Menu". {That’s French}. There is a magnetic telegraph system connecting the houses of people who know each other which allows for unplanned communications. People who live miles apart can use it to speak to each other."
* Theatre/CyranoDeBergerac predicted the invention of the audio book in 1650. His book "The Other World: Comical History of the States and Empires of the Moon" describes a pocket-sized box-shaped device which was a book and a musical instrument at the same time, and allowed the listener to select which chapter he wanted to listen to. It also had 'pendants' which could be put on the ears so that the listener could use it while walking.
* In “From The 'London Times' in 1904,” written by Creator/MarkTwain in 1898, in which he predicted the internet, a new and promising device called the Telelectroscope is described as thus: "As soon as the Paris contract released the telelectroscope, it was delivered to public use, and was soon connected with the telephonic systems of the whole world. The improved 'limitless-distance' telephone was presently introduced and the daily doings of the globe made visible to everybody, and audibly discussable too, by witnesses separated by any number of leagues."
* In the first book of L.J. Smith's ''Literature/TheVampireDiaries'' the character Damon utters the phrase: "Winter is coming." This was a good five years before the saying became the most ubiquitous passage in George R.R. Martin's ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' and the tagline of the subsequent television adaptation.
* In the short story [[http://bit.ly/2nyFUih "The Arbitrator"]] by Morley Roberts, first published in 1896, protagonist Gurdon is writing a newspaper piece on seven unlikeable bourgeoisies, who he refers to as the [[Memes/GameGrumps "Seven]] [[https://youtu.be/wntOFj7Sj1U?t=639 Asses"]].
* In the 1992 novelisations of the CBBC series ''Kevin's Cousins'' and ''Kevin & co.'', the protagonist, Kevin, is twelve, and his parents joke that some day soon he'll suddenly turn into a teenager. A couple of years later, Harry Enfield created his [[Series/HarryEnfieldAndChums Kevin the Teenager]] character, who acquired all his teenage mannerisms at midnight on his thirteenth birthday.
* Creator/MindyKaling's 2011 memoir ''Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)'' includes a short, hypothetical list of remakes/reboots she's come up with: One is a [[Film/Ghostbusters2016 version of Ghostbusters with women as the main characters]], and she even speculates on how it [[AudienceAlienatingPremise might be a hard sell]] to the mostly-male fan base of [[Film/Ghostbusters1984 the original film]]. Another is an ''Film/Oceans11'' prequel she dubs ''Ocean's 5'', reasoning that the sequels' trend of adding more to the cast was getting out of hand and they needed to scale back a bit. In 2018, she was announced as being part of the main cast of ''Film/OceansEight'', a spinoff of the original franchise (with at least a ''few'' less main characters than the original).
* From Simon Braund's 2013 book ''Literature/TheGreatestMoviesYoullNeverSee'': The "Not Coming Soon" section mentions that Music/TheBeatles turned down an offer to appear in an adaptation of Joe Orton's ''Up Against It''. It's noted that another abandoned idea would have had them starring in an AnimatedAdaptation of Creator/JRRTolkien's ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' and that Creator/StanleyKubrick thought the book was unfilmable. Creator/PeterJackson, anyone?
* In the 1993 Creator/LeslieNielsen mock autobiography ''The Naked Truth'', Leslie's faux history includes him at one point being a member of the Creator/RatPack. This includes being part of the initial cast of a movie called ''[[Film/{{Oceans 11}} Ocean's 12]]'', which changed its name [[ThePeteBest after he left the group]]. Leslie probably hadn't predicted the success of the remake ''Film/OceansEleven'' within the next decade, let alone that it could have gotten a sequel...
* ''Literature/PeterPan'':
** John mentions fantasizing about becoming a pirate and calling himself Red-handed Jack. In ''Film/{{Hook}}'', Peter's son Jack ''does'' become a pirate, and he dresses up like a miniature Captain Hook. Had he gone the whole nine yards, he would have been Jack with a RedRightHand.
* In 1940, Creator/IanFleming's brother, Peter Fleming, wrote ''The Flying Visit'' where he imagined UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler flying and parachuting to Britain on a foolhardy peace mission with the United Kingdom and its government found itself in a diplomatic situation so awkward they allowed him to return to Nazi Germany to resolve it. In 1941, Hitler's Deputy Fuehrer, Rudolf Hess, did that exact same stunt without authorization ''for real'', and while the British government would never let him go, he was considered a bother to deal with.
* ''Literature/MonsterOfTheMonthClub'': In book 1, Rilla has a series of nightmares in one chapter about future monsters. Most of them aren't accurate, but her dream prediction of the July Selection's gender and diet (a male who eats hot dogs and apple pie, though his beverage choice isn't mentioned) prove to be spot on. Especially hilarious when considering the first book wasn't planned to have sequels, meaning this ''wasn't'' planned foreshadowing.
* The book ''White Oleander'' has a passage where the protagonist's racist foster mother calls Oprah a "nig-nag". When Oprah selected the book for her Book Club, she quoted the passage for her audience, then described her call to the author. "Hello, this is the fat nig-nag calling." ({{Beat}}.) "'Ohmigod, ''Oprah''!'"
* One of the Jewel Fairies in ''Literature/RainbowMagic'' is Emily, who creates visions from the future using her magic emerald. [[WesternAnimation/{{Encanto}} We don't talk about Emily]].
* When ''Literature/AlasBabylon'' was published in 1959, both home canning and breastfeeding were in decline and are portrayed as relics which have all but disappeared, although both have enjoyed a resurgence since then. This leads to dialogue where a character unintentionally sounds sarcastic:
-->'''Helen:''' What happens to babies?\\
'''Doctor:''' Evaporated or condensed canned milk... while it lasts. After that, it's mother's milk.\\
'''Helen:''' That will be old-fashioned, won't it?

** Vlad is accused of only liking Agnes because he can't read her mind. Between that, and the odd amount of sparkling that goes on in ''Literature/{{Thud}}'', there is much in the way of unintentional humor if you're at all familiar with ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' or ''Literature/TheSookieStackhouseMysteries'', for that matter.
*** Though, it should be noted, ''Literature/CarpeJugulum'' preceded ''Literature/TheSookieStackhouseMysteries'' by about three years' time, and ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' by about nine.

** In the fourth book, Harry at one point thinks of Cedric Diggory as a "useless pretty boy". Considering who plays him in the movie (and said actor's [[Literature/{{Twilight}} further roles]])...

* [[Literature/{{Twilight}} Jacob Black]] has an older sister named Rebecca. [[Music/RebeccaBlack Think about that for a second...]][[note]]To clarify, Rebecca Black the character was first mentioned in the original ''Twilight'', released in 2005. The singer Rebecca Black never became famous until 2011.[[/note]]

* In 1835, Vladimir Odoevsky wrote a novel entitled "The Year 4338: Petersburg Letters", in which he predicted blogging and the internet: "In each home there is a majordomo who is responsible for publishing the journal once a week or even daily. It’s very easy to do. When the masters of the house instruct him, he simply makes a note of everything they say and then takes a picture of it and prints enough copies to send out to everyone. The newspaper has the usual details of the health or illness of the masters and other domestic news, then various ideas and commentaries, small inventions and also invitations. If there is an invitation to dinner, it will include a section called "Le Menu". {That’s French}. There is a magnetic telegraph system connecting the houses of people who know each other which allows for unplanned communications. People who live miles apart can use it to speak to each other."

* In “From The 'London Times' in 1904,” written by Creator/MarkTwain in 1898, a new and promising device called the Telelectroscope is described thus: "As soon as the Paris contract released the telelectroscope, it was delivered to public use, and was soon connected with the telephonic systems of the whole world. The improved 'limitless-distance' telephone was presently introduced and the daily doings of the globe made visible to everybody, and audibly discussable too, by witnesses separated by any number of leagues." That's right - Mark Twain predicted the internet.

* In Charles Stross' ''Literature/TheAtrocityArchives'', written in 1999, the author was looking for an obscure terrorist who was none the less likely to strike on American soil. In the book this terrorist gets his occult weapon mass destruction from Saddam, and is based in Afghanistan. Originally the terrorist in question was, you guessed right, UsefulNotes/OsamaBinLaden. The book was published in late 2001 and his publisher suggested he change this to some other terrorist who is still obscure, which Stross did.

* Creator/CSLewis entitled his autobiography ''Surprised by Joy'', in reference to the experience of aesthetic longing that became the first step of his conversion to Christianity. A few years after the book was published, he unexpectedly found romance late in life and got married... to a woman named Joy.

** Similarly, Liu Biao has an advisor named Kuai Liang. That won't be too significant for most readers, but any ''Franchise/MortalKombat'' fans are sure to get a chuckle out of it since ''VideoGame/MortalKombat9'' revealed ([[VideoGame/MortalKombat2 the younger]]) Sub-Zero's [[CanonName real name to be just that.]]

* ''Literature/JohnPutnamThatcher'': In ''Death Shall Overcome'', a grandstanding (in the opinion of the main characters) civil rights atavist writes an opera honoring generations of oppressed African-Americans. The title of his work, a decade before the release of [[Literature/{{Roots}} a generational epic about oppressed Africans with the same title]] as the activist's production, is ''Roots''.

* Creator/MindyKaling's 2011 memoir ''Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)'' includes a short, hypothetical list of remakes/reboots she's come up with: One is a [[Film/Ghostbusters2016 version of Ghostbusters with women as the main characters]], and she even speculates on how it [[AudienceAlienatingPremise might be a hard sell]] to the mostly-male fan base of [[Film/Ghostbusters1984 the original film]]. Another is an ''Film/Oceans11'' prequel she dubs ''Ocean's 5'', reasoning that the sequels' trend of adding more to the LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters was getting out of hand and they needed to scale back a bit. In 2018, she was announced as being part of the main cast of ''Film/OceansEight'', a spinoff of the original franchise (with at least a ''few'' less main characters than the original).

** This bit of dialogue from ''Literature/ColdDays'' is either this trope or FunnyAneurysmMoment after [[spoiler:Ebenezar nearly kills Harry in a fit of rage]] in ''Literature/PeaceTalks'':

** This is more of a FunnyAneurysmMoment for many people who deplore the fact that in 2000 we could '''not''' have landed a manned vehicle on the moon, and that our "expansion into space" as far as people (as opposed to robotic probes) are concerned in 2014 consists of dusty relics and ''one'' functioning space station in low Earth orbit.

** Literature/{{Cinderella}} was finally identified when the prince fit the glass slipper on her foot (which is where we get the expression "if the shoe fits"). 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 better, the saying "if the shoe fits" sounds amusingly 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 a FunnyAneurysmMoment depending on how you feel about BlackComedy.

* Before the invention of Internet memes, there were two points in ''Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy'' where Admiral Ackbar brings up traps. In the first book, told that smugglers suspect that alliance with the New Republic is a trap, he says "Because of me, no doubt." Later he says "It appears to be a trap."
** And in the ''Literature/XWingSeries'', years before Ric Olié's "Coruscant. The whole planet is one big city", newbie Tatooine pilot Gavin Darklighter has a NarmCharm moment.
-->"It's just a city, the whole thing, one big, huge, really big city. It's ''all'' city."

* In ''Literature/{{BraveNewWorld}}'', the future society's current fashion trend is an overabundance of zippers on everything, demonstrating how needlessly over-engineered everything is. It's evocative of the costume design stylings that Creator/TetsuyaNomura has become notorious for.

* 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.)

* In a case of either this or a FunnyAneurysmMoment (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. 10 years later, guess what Creator/RobinWilliams decided to nickname his penis (and [[ICallHimMisterHappy name a trope in the process]])?

* In {{Lawrence Block}}'s ''The Thief Who Couldn't Sleep'', Evan Tanner, who can't resist a lost cause, supports the independence movements of several oppressed regions even as he insists in the narration that he knows that they will never succeed. Following TheGreatPoliticsMessUp, every last one of them is now a nation, causing an unintentional ItWillNeverCatchOn RunningGag.

* In the second ''Literature/{{Brotherband}}'' book (published in 2012), Barat, the man who's running for office, declares his intention to "make [his town] great again," and wins the election handily. How much of his character parallels that of Creator/DonaldTrump [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment shall not be discussed here]], but readers, especially those of a certain political bent, will find this hilarious.

[[quoteright:275:[[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/TheSillyBook https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/roflcopterref_9.png]]]]

!!Works with their own pages

----

*** The deceptively pretty and sweet Green Lady, who bewitches people with her music, is very similar to the media's image of Music/TaylorSwift during TheNewTens, especially since Taylor's haters started calling her a snake after her spat with Music/KanyeWest in 2016. (It doesn't help that the original illustrator Pauline Baynes drew the Lady as blonde.) Moreover, the notion of a [[TheReptilians shapeshifting reptilian invader]], lurking within an ElaborateUndergroundBase and subtly acquiring power through governmental infiltration and mind control, is likewise eerily similar to UsefulNotes/ConspiracyTheories propounded by the likes of Creator/DavidIcke.

* In Asimov's"Blind Alley", a man shows what he calls "A Galactic fad of three years ago; which means that it is a hopelessly old-fashioned relic this year". A high-tech ''disco ball'' as an example of InUniverse DeaderThanDisco. In 1945.

* In the novel ''Literature/MakeRoomMakeRoom'' (which the movie ''Film/SoylentGreen'' is based on), the overpopulated future of 1999 had a sweltering population of 7 billion people. In RealLife, the world population in 1999 was 6 billion, with the 7 billion mark passed somewhere around 2011, and as far as we know, we're not recycling human corpses into food yet [[AdaptationDisplacement (although that didn't happen in the book either)]].

* ''Literature/{{Neuromancer}}'': "The sky above the port was the color of a television tuned to a dead channel". Some years after this was published, new television sets with sophisticated electronics began replacing "snow" on dead channels with a blank, sky-blue, screen.
** Which is why, in Creator/NeilGaiman's novel ''Literature/{{Neverwhere}}'', he describes a perfectly clear sky as being the color of "a television tuned to a dead channel," in both a homage to ''Literature/{{Neuromancer}}'' and a [[LampshadeHanging nod]] to the changes in technology.
** Speaking of CyberPunk novels, it's hard to wonder if Neal Stephenson is a dead-on prophet when reading the descriptions of the "Metaverse", considering how many [=MMORPGs=] it resembles... then again, this may be a "Which came first" kind of situation.
** The intro can by now be interpreted as at least 4 types of sky. Overcast (the intended), a clear black sky, a rainbow, and a clear blue sky.
*** Another interpretation would be a black sky with enough ambient light from surrounding structures/buildings/etc. to make it appear to be luminescent at the edges, much like a CRT that is on but does not have any input (like at a command prompt).
** It came out over a decade before the ''Franchise/MetalGear'' series became popular. Reading it today, the inclusion of a [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid genetically enhanced super ninja]] named [[Creator/HideoKojima "Hideo"]] is pretty funny.
* A children's educational book in The Knowledge series called ''Crashing Computers'', published in 1999, talks about policy discussions on the 10 Downing Street website and makes a joke about paying kids to go to school. A few years later, the Government created [[http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/EducationAndLearning/14To19/MoneyToLearn/EMA/DG_066951 the Education Maintenance Allowance]], paying some 16-18 year olds to go to school.
** Some countries (e.g. Finland) had student benefits years before 1999, so it's more of a case of Hilarious When Put Into Multinational Perspective.
* ''Creator/DaveBarry's Book of Bad Songs'' cited "All By Myself" as a member of the bathetic "you-don't-love-me-so-it's-[[ElectrifiedBathtub time-to-jump-into-the-bathtub-with-an-electrical-appliance]] genre". The movie ''Me Myself I'' used the song for that exact dramatic situation.
** Also, this book was published well before [[{{Wangst}} Emo]] became popular...
* The book ''Literature/LAConfidential'' features the death of a down and out prostitute named Kathy Janeway. The creators of ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' ''probably'' didn't have this in mind when naming their show's captain, but the name was removed from TheFilmOfTheBook nonetheless.
** The original name of the character was Elizabeth Janeway. That had to be changed after the producers learned that a rather strident (and litigious) professor shared that name. They then went with Nicole, which went out the door when French-Canadian actress Genevieve Bujold walked off the production. Kathryn was a last-minute choice, picked when Irish-American Katherine Kiernan "Kate" Mulgrew got the part.
* In ''Literature/TheGlassKey'', two characters meet in a restaurant named Tom & Jerry's, which is presumably not owned by a cartoon cat and mouse. However, this is likely ''not'' a true example, as the names Tom and Jerry (in the form, specifically, of Jerry Hawthorne, Esq. and Corinthian Tom) have been associated with each other since the early 19th century, and most later combinations are either coincidence (neither is an uncommon name) or deliberate callbacks to ''Literature/LifeInLondon''.
* In the 1998 ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration''/''ComicBook/XMen'' crossover novel ''Planet X'' (which is not a fanfic but rather an officially published, authorized, but non-canonical novel), Captain Picard meets a holodeck simulation of Professor Charles Xavier and is astounded by how similar he looks to him. Two years later the first ''Film/XMen1'' film came out, casting Picard actor Creator/PatrickStewart as Professor Xavier. At the time, this one may have been intended more as a nod to fan buzz than anything else: though the casting wasn't official yet, ''X-Men'' fans had already been clamoring for Creator/PatrickStewart to be cast as Professor Xavier ever since the live-action movie was first announced.
* In Charles Stross' ''Literature/TheAtrocityArchives'', written in 1999, the author was looking for an obscure terrorist who was none the less likely to strike on American soil. In the book this terrorist gets his occult weapon mass destruction from Saddam, and is based in Afghanistan. Originally the terrorist in question was, you guessed right, UsefulNotes/OsamaBinLaden. The book was published in late 2001 and his publisher suggested he change this to some other terrorist who is still obscure, which Stross did.
* ''Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy''
** In ''Literature/LifeTheUniverseAndEverything'', a Someone Else's Problem field is set up to stop people noticing a spaceship parked at Lords' Cricket Ground. A couple of decades later, they built [[http://www.shrimpsonthebarby.com/images/graphics/mediacentre.jpg this]].
** Another example: at the beginning of [[Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy the first book]] a demolition foreman is described as being a descendant of Genghis Khan to set up an amusing aside where he has visions of his ancestor's life. Later, it was discovered that 0.5% of the world's male population are indeed descended from Genghis Khan.
** In ''Literature/MostlyHarmless'', various forms of identity verification (passwords, PINs, biometrics) were decided to be too much of a hassle, and all ID confirmation is done by carrying around a single card, one of which Ford steals and uses to great advantage. Now, take a look at [[http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2013/01/google-password/all/ this.]] A choice quote:
-->"...if someone steals your card or your smart-ring, you’d better report it stolen pretty quickly."

* In the fourth ''Literature/{{Harry Potter|and the Goblet of Fire}}'' book, Mad-Eye Moody [[spoiler: (the fake one)]] repeats "Constant vigilance!" over and over. When this first came out, it seemed outdated. After 9/11, similar lines said by various officials were so pervasive that this line can now be viewed as prophetic dark humor.

* The book ''White Oleander'' has a passage where the protagonist's racist foster mother calls Oprah a "nig-nag". When Oprah selected the book for her Book Club, she quoted the passage for her audience, then described her call to the author. "Hello, this is the fat nig-nag calling." ({{Beat}}.) "'Ohmigod, ''Oprah''!'"

* In ''Literature/TheCatcherInTheRye'', Holden says that if he ever gets drafted, he'll volunteer to [[RidingTheBomb sit on a nuclear bomb as it is dropped]]. [[Film/DoctorStrangelove Twelve years later]]...

* In the [[Literature/TheBible Book of Exodus]], God lets Aaron speak for his brother Moses because the latter stutters when he speaks. Come 1998, Creator/DreamWorksAnimation decides to [[WesternAnimation/ThePrinceOfEgypt adapt Exodus into an animated film]], and who do they cast as Aaron? Creator/JeffGoldblum.

* In Literature/TheBible, [[http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+25:8-9 Matthew 25:8-9]] has become [[BlackComedy "funnier and funnier"]] from UsefulNotes/WorldWarII to this day. Also doubles as HarsherInHindsight.

* In the second ''Literature/{{Brotherband}}'' book (published in 2012), Barat, the man who's running for office, declares his intention to "make [his town] great again," and wins the election handily. How much of his character parallels that of Creator/DonaldTrump [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment shall not be discussed here]], but readers, especially those of a certain political bent, will find this hilarious.
* There is an 18th century childrens book about a "Baron Trump" travelling into hollow earth. Due to the name resemblance to Trumps son Barron and a mentor figure in the book named Don, this became an internet meme.

* Early in ''The Breath of God'' by Creator/HarryTurtledove (part of the ''Opening of the World'' trilogy), [[MemeticMutation a man gets an arrow to the knee]]. Ulric Skakki resolves this in the same scene with a tool specifically designed to remove arrows. This was three years before ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]''.
* Vampires becoming sex symbols in modern media makes it kinda hilarious how it's brought up in ''Literature/{{Dracula}}'' (although there blood transfusions is noted in-universe as a metaphor for marriage, not sex), where Van Helsing laughs at how ridiculous it is.

* In the novel ''Literature/MakeRoomMakeRoom'' (which the movie ''Film/SoylentGreen'' is based on), the overpopulated future of 1999 had a sweltering population of 7 billion people. In RealLife, the world population in 1999 was 6 billion, with the 7 billion mark passed somewhere around 2011, and as far as we know, we're not recycling human corpses into food yet (although that didn't happen in the book either).