History HilariousInHindsight / Literature

* The Cthulhu Mythos gives us Yog-Sothoth, a tentacled monstrosity who [[HotSkittyOnWailordAction impregnates a human woman]]. Squicky, yes. But it gets even worse when you consider [[NaughtyTentacles hentai]].

** 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 name isn't in gold print]], but it's so much bigger then the title it makes up for it.
*** Hypocritical humour somewhat, since some covers for Eric itself had raised gold print for Terrys name, larger than the title.

** In ''Discworld/{{Thief of Time}}'' there's a gentleman's club with a Rule 34.
*** It gets better, Rule 34 is that women cannot enter the club except at a certain time and date, therefore any women they see outside of that narrow window of time [[WeirdnessCensor must be figments of their imagination]]. The narration then notes that in Susan's case, with her strict schoolteacher outfit and black high heels, this [[FetishFuel could easily be the case]].

*** ''Making Money'' was also published just as the financial crisis started to break out (and was therefore written before it).
*** There's a bit in ''{{Discworld/Thud}}'' where Colon asks rhetorically [[ShoutOut "War. What is it good for?"]] and Nobbs comes up with several good reasons. Given previous books were ''Regiment'' and ''Jingo'', it's probably a bit of meta-HypocriticalHumor.
** 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 RIAA's recent anti-file-sharing antics.

* 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 authour. "Hello, this is the fat nig-nag calling." ({{Beat}}.) "'Ohmigod, ''Oprah''!'"

** Similarly, Liu Biao has an advistor named Kuai Liang. That won't be too significant for most readers, but any ''MortalKombat'' fans are sure to get a chuckle out of it since ''MortalKombat9'' revealed Sub-Zero's real name to be just that.

* In the seventh ''{{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, [[CharacterDerailment for no apparent reason]], [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope Senna suddenly goes psychotic]] and becomes a ChaoticEvil maniac, presumably for plot purposes.
** Made even funnier when you note that Senna ''can see the future in visions'', talks about her "destiny", and is DangerouslyGenreSavvy. Given [[BlackComedy Senna's sense]] [[DeadpanSnarker of humor]], she had obviously guessed what was going to happen and was trying to warn the readers of the [[LeftHanging disappointing end]] to the series that was coming.

*** 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 Thud!, there is much in the way of unintentional humor if you're at all familiar with ''Literature/{{Twilight}}''.

** In ''The Short Victorious War'', the idea of battle-cruisers trumping ships of the wall is dismissed as impossible. Wait a minute...

* The title of the book The BFG by Roald Dahl has taken a new, wonderful meaning.

* In ''[=~The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy~=]'', 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]].

** At the end of Prisoner of Azkaban, Snape flies into a rage and the Minister of Magic says to Dumbledore - "''Fellow seems quite unbalanced...I'd watch out for him if I were you, Dumbledore''" Possibly the only time Cornelius Fudge displayed sound judgement.

* ''[=~Cat's Cradle~=]'' brings us an element called [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice-9 ice-nine]]. Or should I say, [[{{Touhou}} ice]]-[[MemeticMutation (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).
* [[EdwardGorey Edward Gorey's]] first book, ''The Unstrung Harp'' came out in 1953. In one scene, the main character goes driving near a town named Something Awful.

** Speaking of that, at oe point in LordOfTheFlies Piggy says, "[[ZeroWing What You Say?]]

* 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 then [[JodieFoster a certain someone]] desided to ''[[TransparentCloset finally]]'' [[http://www.afterellen.com/people/2007/12/jodiefoster come out of the closet]], and it [[ActorAllusion reads quite differently.]]
* In the HonorHarrington book ''The Honor of the Queen'', one enemy officer is criticised for trying to rely on weight of fire rather than proper timing to overwhelm Honor's defences, which looks odd in light of the {{Macross Missile Massacre}}s of later books.
** In ''The Short Victorious War'', the idea of battlecruisers trumping ships of the wall is dismissed as impossible. Wait a minute...

* In AlexandreDumas's ''Louise de la Valliere'', one of the sequels to ''TheThreeMusketeers'', we have this paragraph in which a Dutch ambassador tries to apologize to the French king for injuries commited against him; it aquires a whole new meaning now with the FreestateAmsterdam stereotype:

* In the 1990 short horror novel [[TheLangoliers The Langoliers]] by [[StephenKing Stephen King]] 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 [[SnakesOnAPlane filled the plane's luggage compartments with poisonous snakes]] before immediately dismissing it as ludicrous.

*** 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 Thud!, there is much in the way of unintentional humor if you're at all familiar with ''{{Twilight}}''.

** In the fourth book, Cedric earns the DetractorNickname of "Useless Pretty-Boy Diggory". Considering who plays him in the movie (and said actor's [[{{Twilight}} further roles]])...

* In the HonorHarrington book ''Crown of Slaves'', Berry Zilwicki claims that the only two things she would be good at are being a housewife or a queen. Guess what...

* The first book of JohnRingo's PosleenWarSeries, 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; ''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 mens weapons SticksToTheBack.

* The first book of JohnRingo's PosleenWarSeries, 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; ''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 men's weapons SticksToTheBack.

* The first book of JohnRingo's PosleenWarSeries, 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; ''HaloCombatEvolved'', featuring Master Chief Petty Officer John-117 and his AI best friend Cortana, member of the elite group known as Spartans.

*** There's a bit in ''{{Discworld/Thud}}'' where Colon asks rhetorically [[ShoutOut "War. What is it good for?"]] and Nobbs comes up with several good reasons. Given the previous books was ''Regiment'' and ''Jingo'', it's probably a bit of meta-HypocriticalHumor.

*** There's a bit in ''{{Discworld/Thud}}'' where Colon asks rhetorically [[ShoutOut "War. What is it good for?"]] and Nobbs comes up with several good reasons. Given that the previous book was ''Regiment'', it's probably a bit of meta-HypocriticalHumor.