History Main / AccidentallyAccurate

->''"The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes."''
-->-- '''[[UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill Sir Winston Churchill]]''', 1941 address to the U.S. Congress

This is a subversion of inaccuracy for ArtisticLicense; the research wasn't done (or wasn't available), but the writer was still correct on at least a few points -- by complete fluke.

This can be hard to tell from ShownTheirWork, and can often only be seen in context with the rest of the work. A work that has ShownTheirWork would be accurate overall, while one that is Accidentally Accurate would only get a few things correct. Alternately, the author could not have known the piece of information in question, and explicitly claimed to be "just guessing", but turned out to be right (as has happened more than once with real life classified information).

If research not available at the time of the writing proves them right, that's a case of ScienceMarchesOn meeting this trope; if the work turns out prophetic, that's DatedHistory meeting this trope. If the theory would never have been accepted by researchers working in whatever field (e.g. Professor [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Abian Alexander Abian]]'s theory that we should blow up the moon to stop Typhus), it's just the writers fertilizing some EpilepticTrees. If the writer was just showing off an obscure fact that they know, that's ShownTheirWork. Compare RightForTheWrongReasons. For the same principle applied to tactics, see StrategySchmategy. Compare: AccidentalTruth, in which an in-story lie by a character turns out to be true after all, and TheCuckoolanderWasRight, for In-Universe examples of something similar.
----
!!Examples

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Advertising]]
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhfntLl6xx0 This Snickers commercial]] ends with Eugene Levy (as a crewman) making a quip about Creator/MarilynMonroe's iconic subway grate scene from ''Film/TheSevenYearItch'', saying it'll never make the final cut. Despite the obvious ItWillNeverCatchOn joke, he's 100% correct; the actual scene is far tamer compared to the more well-known publicity stills, precisely because the [[MoralGuardians censorship bureau]] wouldn't allow them to put something so risqué in the film.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* ''Anime/SpaceBattleshipYamato'' had the Yamato encounter a belt of space rocks outside the orbit of Pluto. Modern audiences would recognize this as the Kuiper Belt--except the Kuiper Belt was discovered in 1992 and Yamato is from 1974.
* ''Manga/{{Akira}}'': The film depicted Tokyo about to host the 2020 Olympic games. It came out in 1988, 25 years before IOC confirmed Japan would host the 2020 Summer Olympics.
* The 2006 version of ''Manga/{{Doraemon}}: Nobita's Dinosaur'' featured feathered ''Ornithomimus'' with wings. 6 years prior to [[http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/feathery-ostrich-mimics-enfluffle-the-dinosaur-family-tree-92942719 this study]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Fan Works]]
* ''FanFic/MyImmortal'':
** Many {{Dramatic Reading}}s scoff at the line which says that it was snowing and raining at the same time. This is known as "sleet" in Commonwealth Nations and the United States, and it very much happens in the real world. If you believe one of the people who confessed to writing it as a TrollFic, the author thought it was impossible and put it in as a joke. It has also "rained" slush, which also works.
** And then there's this line, which, [[TheCuckoolanderWasRight if you can make out what Tara's saying]], inadvertently called a major plot twist in ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows The Deathly Hallows]]'' (though to be fair, by this point it was a fairly common fan theory):
-->"nd den hairy wil have 2 [[spoiler:kommit suicide so voldimort will die koz he will rilly be a horcrox]]!!!!!111"
* The ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' fan comic ''HowIBecameYours'' infamously included a scene of [[spoiler:daytime bloodbending]] which was thought to be impossible in the universe of the show, until ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' introduced three characters who were able to do it, not that the author of the fic would have known this at the time. This is especially ironic since it's a fic that more or less personifies CanonDefilement, yet managed to be pretty spot on about the metaphysics of the world.
* ''Fanfic/LightAndDarkTheAdventuresOfDarkYagami'':
** The narrator claims that Wales is "A town in England". In reality, there ''is'' [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wales,_South_Yorkshire a small village in England called Wales]]. However, there is not one called 'whales', as the author persistently spells it.
** Also, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_banana Blood Bananas]] (Blud the shinigami's TrademarkFavoriteFood) are actually a real thing, though they are not normally made of blood.
* The ''Franchise/LegendOfZelda'' story ''Fanfic/TilTheSunGrowsCold and the Stars Grow Old'' was published in 2008, and hinged on the concept that Link and Zelda were the same characters, reincarnated many times over. A few years later, the ''Hyrule Historia'' was published with the revelation that this is (more or less) the case.
* @/LadyNorbert picked her online handle to name herself after the dragon from ''Literature/HarryPotter'', but tacked "Lady" on the front because she's a grown woman. This was in 2000. Ten years later, ''Deathly Hallows'' revealed that the dragon Norbert is, in fact, ''[[SamusIsAGirl Norberta]]''.
* In ''Fanfic/ShadowAndRose'', which was published prior to the release of ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'', Alistair explains to Wynne that he's not good at dancing because Templars never learned how. In ''Inquisition'', a romanced Cullen tells the Inquisitor the same thing at the Winter Palace ball, and his explanation is almost word-for-word the same one as in the fic.
* ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6439871/6/A-Different-Halloween A Different Halloween]]'' has this in-universe, when the chief at the ''Daily Prophet'' takes a few bits of fact and wraps them around a backstory for the recently deceased Voldemort to write a sensationalist piece, not realizing that he and a young Rita Skeeter have accidentally hammered out Voldemort's actual history.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
* The creators of ''WesternAnimation/IceAge'' made Scrat, the sabre-toothed squirrel, as a joke. [[http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/11/03/141997834/scientists-unveil-fossil-of-saber-toothed-squirrel-that-lived-among-dinos But later scientists unearthed a prehistoric sabre-toothed squirrel-like mammal, albeit from the Mesozoic rather than anytime close to the last ice age.]] [[note]][[AnachronismStew All of the characters come from different prehistoric periods]] [[FridgeBrilliance anyway...]] [[/note]]
* Titan's rant in ''WesternAnimation/{{Megamind}}'' includes this little gem: "There is no Easter bunny, there is no tooth fairy, and there is no queen of England!" [[EskimosArentReal The intended joke is clear]], but there actually hasn't been a monarch of England since the Acts of Union 1707 united England, Wales, and Scotland to form Great Britain. Currently, the title is "Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland."
* In ''Disney/{{Fantasia}}'', a double-error caused accuracy in the "Rite of Spring Suite": The famous T-Rex vs Stegosaurus battle was impossible. Tyrannosaurs lived in the Cretaceous period, while Stegosaurus lived in the Jurassic. Furthermore, the T-Rex was drawn with three fingers instead of two. These are both resolved if it's not a T-Rex at all, but an Allosaurus, which did live in the Jurassic and had three fingers. [[note]] Of course, like ''Ice Age'' above, [[AnachronismStew the animals shown come from all different time periods and places in the first place]] [[/note]]
* Creator/EdwardNorton's PlayingAgainstType character in ''WesternAnimation/SausageParty'' is the AmbiguouslyJewish Creator/WoodyAllen-{{Expy}} named [[PunnyName Sammy Bagel Jr.]] While it's obvious that [[Creator/SammyDavisJr the person for whom the character is named]] is black and Norton isn't, something that many people might not know is that Sammy Davis Jr.[[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sammy_Davis_Jr was actually Jewish.]]
* In ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}'', Princess Jasmine has a pet tiger named Rajah, which is often cited as a case of MisplacedWildlife as tigers do not live in the Middle East. At least, they don't ''now''. During the time when ''Aladdin'' takes place, the now-extinct Caspian tiger was found as far west as what is now Iran and Iraq, though the filmmakers didn't necessarily know that. Even if tigers didn't live near Agrabah, royalty had always been known for acquiring exotic pets from distant lands, so Rajah's presence is just as easily explained by assuming he was imported.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* [[ArtisticLicensePaleontology Any paleontologist watching]] ''Franchise/JurassicPark'' could, among other things, [[DanBrowned call out the movie]] for its depiction of [[RaptorAttack velociraptors]] as man-sized monsters when ''real'' raptors were about the size of turkeys. Only two years prior to the movie's release, however, paleontologists discovered ''Utahraptor'', which really ''was'' about the size of the raptors in the movie. And at the time [[Literature/JurassicPark the book]] was written, Gregory Paul had proposed reclassifying ''Deinonychus'' as ''Velociraptor antirrhopus'', believing the species to be similar enough to ''Velociraptor mongoliensis'' to justify it being a different species in the same genus, rather than in its own genus. Crichton chose to follow Paul's nomenclature, rather than the standard. Thus the ''Velociraptors'' in the movie and books are actually ''Deinonychus'' because Paul's theory wasn't disproven until after publishing. This is why Alan Grant is digging up a supposed ''Velociraptor'' in America, where the actual ''Velociraptor'' didn't live, but ''Deinonychus'' did.
** In the years since then, another dromaeosaur has been found matching ''Jurassic Park'''s raptors for size, ''and'' it lived in roughly the same time and place as the raptor Grant was digging up. It's called ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dakotaraptor Dakotaraptor]]''.
* In ''Film/JurassicParkIII'', ''Spinosaurus'' was portrayed as being larger than ''TyrannosaurusRex'' and at that time it was believed to be the other way around. Later in 2006, ''Spinosaurus'' turned out to be not only larger than a ''T. rex'' but also the largest carnivorous dinosaur of them all. A later evidence indicates that ''Spinosaurus'' was also aquatic, making the climatic scene where it rises out of the water while swimming also somewhat accurate (and at the same time its maneuverability on dry land and the dramatic fight from ''Jurassic Park 3'' very unrealistic). [[ScienceMarchesOn Of course, it's now thought that it was quadrupedal or semi-quadrupedal instead of bipedal like in the movie so it kind of cancels itself out]].
* In ''Film/QuatermassAndThePit'' (1967), the protagonists uncover remains of primitive humans from five million years ago. The characters state that no such remains have ever been found that far back in time before. At the time, the oldest known hominids were three million years-old members of the genus ''Australopithecus'', but in 1994, a newly discovered five million years-old hominid, ''Ardipithecus'', was announced.
* While ''Film/AClockworkOrange'' was incorrect in its assumption that mini-cassettes would become a popular audio medium, the record store filled with [=LPs=] would not look out of place today.
* Some have questioned the credibility of the fact that Captain Englehorn in ''Film/KingKong'' is able to translate the language of the islanders, who have apparently never had Western visitors before. He describes it as similar to the language of the Nias islanders. Nias is a real place in Indonesia, but the language of the film is completely fabricated. Nonetheless, Englehorn's ability to translate is not all that implausible; most of the languages of the Pacific share common enough roots to be mutually intelligible to fluent speakers.
* ''Film/{{Ted 2}}'': John asks Ted if he can make a "Non-dick bong", and Ted jokes, "that's the name of the South Korean president." But there was a Dick Bong: American Air Force pilot [[http://www.sbnation.com/2015/8/28/9216197/remember-the-name-of-major-dick-bong-a-true-american-hero Major Dick Bong]].
* ''Film/ThisIsSpinalTap'' goes for a SophisticatedAsHell gag by having one of the band members describe his song as being influenced by [[Music/JohannSebastianBach Bach]] and [[Music/WolfgangAmadeusMozart Mozart]], only to reveal that it's entitled "Lick My Love Pump". Such a title would, in fact, have precedent in Mozart's oeuvre, which contains a vocal canon named "Leck Mich im Arsch" (in German literally "lick me in the arse" resp. "kiss my ass").
* Creator/StanleyKubrick and the ''Film/DoctorStrangelove'' production team got themselves in trouble with the US Air Force because their interior sets for the B-52 bomber were suspiciously accurate, even though the plane's layout was classified. The filmmakers had started with the appearance of a WWII-era B-29 flight deck, along with a single photograph from a book cover, and simply expanded it based on the B-52's exterior dimensions. Evidently they did an excellent job.
* While ''Film/TheWizard'' got many facts wrong, they did properly pronounce ''VideoGame/NinjaGaiden'' (as the ''WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd'' mentioned in his ''VideoGame/NinjaGaiden'' video).
* The infamous "transparent aluminum" of ''Film/StarTrekIVTheVoyageHome'', which sounds like a far-flung sci-fi concept if ever there was one, turned out to be not only real, but very practical a mere thirty years after the movie's timeframe. In 2015, Japanese researchers detailed [[http://www.nature.com/articles/srep15233 a process to create super-strong glass with aluminum dust]].
* In ''Film/TwoThousandTenTheYearWeMakeContact'', When Dr. Heywood Floyd stands in the doorway of his sleeping son's room, on the wall to the left of his bed, is a poster of an Olympic runner, with the text "Beijing 08" on the bottom. The film was made in 1984 and the Olympic Committee did not choose Beijing for the 2008 Olympics until July 2001.
* In ''Film/BladeRunner'', when Batty and Tyrell are arguing about how to prolong a Replicant's lifespan, Batty mentions something called "EMS". Tyrell says they already tried "Ethyl methanesulfonate" unsuccessfully. Ethyl methanesulfonate ''is'' an actual organic compound with mutagenic qualities, used in genetics. The scriptwriter later admitted he did no research for the conversation and the mention of a real compound in the TechnoBabble was coincidental.
* Given Fort Knox is closed for visitors, the art crew of ''Film/{{Goldfinger}}'' had to to make up the vault in a studio from their own ideas. The comptroller of the Depository would later send a complimentary letter saying it was imaginative and very close to the real deal.
* The main character in ''Film/NapoleonDynamite'' spends his time drawing silly fantasy creatures like the liger, "a lion and tiger mix, bred for its skills in magic." Unbeknownst to him (and probably the writer), the liger is a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liger real animal]] and it really is a lion-tiger hybrid that can only exist if it is bred in captivity. Many people who watch the film first and read about the cat later [[AluminiumChristmasTrees assume that it is a hoax]].
* ''Film/DemolitionMan'' is a mixed bag, depending on how much leeway you want to give for hyperbole. However, a blink-and-you-miss-it moment near the beginning of the movie shows Scott Peterson as the name of an inmate incarcerated in the same cryogenic prison as antagonist Simon Phoenix. The movie was released in 1993. Scott Peterson was convicted of murdering his wife in a highly-publicized trial in 2005. The judge in the case sentenced him to death, so putting him on ice is metaphorical in this instance.
* Tatooine, Luke Skywalker's home planet in ''[[Film/ANewHope Star Wars: A New Hope]]'', famously has two suns. In the early 1990s, astronomers theorized (and later confirmed) the existence of a planet in the binary star system PSR B1620-26.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Jokes]]
* A blonde joke (replacing "blonde" with whatever AcceptableTarget you like) tells of one who chose the password "Mickeyminnieplutohueylouiedeweydonaldgoofysacramento", because [[ExactWords it needed to have at least 8 characters and include at least 1 capital]]. The humor comes from the AcceptableTarget being overly LiteralMinded, but a password like this would actually be ''really good'' -- due to its sheer length, it would take about a hojillion years to crack by brute force, and because it's eight [[Creator/{{Disney}} closely-related names]] ([[MyFriendsAndZoidberg plus Sacramento]]), it would also be fairly easy to remember.
** It would also be hard to ''guess'', too. Even if you know which names are in the password, it is significantly more common to say 'Huey, Dewey and Louie' than it is 'Huey, Louie and Dewey', which is the order of their names in the password.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Literature]]
* Improperly used adjectives are all over ''Literature/TheEyeOfArgon'' (amongst other linguistic woes). Surprisingly, "scarlet" emerald isn't one of them: they're also called [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beryl#Red_beryl red beryls]]. It's unlikely that Jim Theis knew this.
* ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'':
** In ''Eclipse'', Bella, Edward, and Jacob hide out in the mountains on the same evening that there is a freak snowstorm. There really was a freak snowstorm in that region of the United States in June of 2006.
** In both ''Eclipse'' and ''Breaking Dawn'', Bella and Jacob get a few laughs out of Bella's made-up term of "beta" to mean the second-in-command of the wolf pack. "Beta" is in fact an [[ScienceMarchesOn outdated]][[note]]The term was retired to more accurately reflect what real wolf packs are like; biologists feel that the word gives people the impression that a pack is a group of wolves vying for dominance with strict rankings won through fighting, instead of the family unit it actually is.[[/note]], but still in ''very'' common use by laypeople, term for such a wolf.
* Many people are quite shocked by the accuracy with which ''Literature/FiftyShadesOfGrey'' depicts an abusive relationship. It could be a case of ShownTheirWork, except that the book is marketed as erotic romance novel and the author vehemently denies any abuse. On top of that, according to [[WebVideo/GameTheory Matthew Patrick's]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VVyh_IM3Ik Film Theory episode on the film adaptation]], it's a scarily accurate depiction of cult indoctrination.
* Creator/JRRTolkien seems to have acquired the gift of prophecy while writing ''[[Literature/TheHistoryOfMiddleEarth The Notion Club Papers]]'' in 1944, given that he gives 1986 as the date of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Challenger_disaster a space programme disaster]], [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster a nuclear disaster]], and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Storm_of_1987 the greatest storm ever to hit England]]. The last one was a few months out -- in RealLife it happened in 1987.
* Creator/TomClancy has actually been detained by the government for suspicion of divulging national secrets in his novels. He was released because he was able to show the research he had done, which was available to the public, and how he had extrapolated from it for the plots he wrote about. In this case, he ''was'' doing his research, and ''was'' trying to be accurate, he just turned out to be much, MUCH closer to reality than he realized he would be.[[note]]Clancy's research was so thorough, and his inferences so accurate, that his novels were required reading for KGB officers.[[/note]]
** In ''Debt of Honor'', published in 1994, Clancy imagines a plane being deliberately crashed into an important building as a terrorist attack.
* ''Literature/BraveNewWorld'':
** It was written before the discovery of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, yet not only did Huxley have the lower classes in the series exposed to alcohol as fetuses to make them stupid, but he also correctly identified the other symptoms as well. However, there were some historical prohibitions of pregnant women drinking alcohol and even symptoms pointed to as being caused by this, so Huxley may have read about it. Given how very obscure it was then though, this is equally impressive.
** Depending how much leeway you give him, you could also say that he predicted modern consumerist culture. Sure, he saw it as random toys and sports with equipment that takes up enough manufacturing resources to keep the economy chugging along, but the constant turnover in smart phones and other electronics, coupled with the amount of money we as a society spend on media and related [[TheMerch merch]], it's not too far off of a prediction.
* The famous incident involving "Deadline", a short story sci-fi pulp written by Cleve Cartmill in 1944 which described how to build a uranium-fission bomb, using information taken from technical articles published before the war. The FBI demanded the issue be removed from the newsstands, but editor Creator/JohnWCampbell convinced them [[RevealingCoverup this would only alert the world]] that the US government was working on building such a weapon. Campbell himself wrote a story in 1936 called "Frictional Losses" that predicted the Japanese use of explosive-laden kamikaze planes (in that case, to fight an AlienInvasion).
* The 1940 anti-isolationist ''Lightning in the Night'' predicted a US War with Japan and Germany would begin with a surprise attack at Pearl Harbor and end with Atomic Bombs (!)
* ''Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' has the equation 6X9=42. This is indeed correct--in ''Base 13'' notation (it's 54 in Base 10, the numbering system we use every day). Douglas Adams responded to the revelation with "I may be a sorry case, but I don't write jokes in base 13."
* The 1898 novella ''Literature/FutilityOrTheWreckOfTheTitan'' became famous after [[UsefulNotes/RMSTitanic a real similarily-named ship, in similar conditions, met the same fate]] [[HarsherInHindsight fourteen years later]].
* Creator/AlFranken's ''The Truth (with jokes)'' ends with a letter to his grandchildren, supposedly written in 2015 (the book was published in 2005) about all the things that have happened in politics since then. Some of his predictions are wrong, and some are just for jokes (Karl Rove goes to prison for punching a cop, but continues to advise the 2008 Republican race). He does correctly predict that [[UsefulNotes/BarackObama a Democrat]] (that he specifically avoids naming) wins in 2008 and again in 2012, and that Al would be elected to the U.S. Senate in 2008.
* In December 1870, Creator/HenrikIbsen wrote a poetic letter from Dresden, making a point of not liking Prussian militarism in the newly united Germany. On the way, he prophecized that this German militarism might get out of hand and spell trouble for everybody. [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI He was damn right!]]. Even more jarring is the mentioning of a certain General von Moltke (being known as the one taking the helm after the battle of Marne). In context, Ibsen referred to Von Moltke the elder, ''also'' a general, who helped defeat the French in 1870. ''If he only knew''...
* In ''Literature/ThreeMenInABoat'', first published in 1889, the narrator muses on how his contemporary Victorians love Ancient Greek pottery and sculpture that would have been very ordinary in its day. He wonders if in the 20th and 21st centuries people will similarly adore very ordinary things from his own period, and place them in museums, and have {{Japanese Tourist}}s coming to take pictures of them—an almost eerily accurate prediction. In ''Literature/ThreeMenOnTheBummel'' he also discusses the national virtues and vices of the Germans, and says that as long as the Germans have a good and competent government, they'll be fine, but if an evil cabal were ever to gain control. . . .
* In the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' book ''Discworld/TheLastContinent'', there's a joke about the snakes of [[LandDownUnder XXXX]] being eaten by the spiders. [[http://www.9news.com.au/old-gallery/2012/09/12/20/44/spiders-snack-on-birds-snakes Meet the Golden Silk Orb-Weaver.]] Australia: 1; hyperbole: 0.
* The 1981 "honorary AlternateHistory" novel ''Literature/TheManWhoBroughtTheDodgersBackToBrooklyn'' predicted many things about the state of baseball in the span of 1985 to 1988, but the most correct prediction was that the Dodgers would go to the World Series in 1988.
* The "Yoggoth" H P Lovecraft's "Fungi From Yoggoth" poetry collection (1913) is a planet out at the rim of the Solar System unknown to astronomy. Guess what was discovered in February 1930?
** [[ScienceMarchesOn A dwarf planet?]]
* Creator/StephenKing's SerialNovel ''Literature/TheGreenMile'' has Percy Wetmore reading a ''ComicStrip/{{Popeye}}'' "Tijuana bible"--a detail completely made up by King. But in his introduction to the single-volume edition, he mentions that one of his readers sent him an off-print of just such an X-rated mini-comic from the 1930s.
* Plato has a passage in ''Literature/TheRepublic'' where Socrates and Glaucon considers what will happen to a man who are considered "truly just". One of the possible outcomes for him is [[Literature/TheFourGospels Crucifixion]]. Whoops.
* Back to the Future, Part II predicted that the Chicago Cubs would win the 2015 World Series. They were one year off, and they also predicted that Miami would get a professional baseball team.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* ''Series/RowanAndMartinsLaughIn'':
** The series made a joke in 1969 about the future news, setting California governor UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan (who had run in the 1968 Republican primaries) as president of the U.S. in 1988.[[note]]His last full year in office, as it turned out[[/note]]
** Likewise, in 1969, they made a joke in their news of the future about the Berlin Wall coming down.[[note]]Sure enough it did twenty years later, in 1989.[[/note]]
* ''Series/SeaquestDSV'' had an episode where a character claims to have found something in the handwriting of the Greek poet Homer. This has to be incorrect, because it would be impossible for a blind man to write something that wasn't written down for many years. While it's not clear whether the writers knew it, there is a significant amount of scholarship debating whether Homer was actually blind and whether ''The Odyssey'' was written, as opposed to an oral narrative.
* ''Se Lo Que Hicisteis'':
** They made a joke where they referred to the Manga/{{Dragon Ball}}s as "Chinese balls", which refers to.... huh, anal beads. ''Manga/DragonBall'' is a Japanese series, but of course, InterchangeableAsianCultures and All of Asia is China, so the show ''must'' hail from China, right? Except the balls are originally named in Gratuitous Chinese (A fact all Spanish dubs removed), so they're technically right. It's unlikely the guys who keep on saying the ManekiNeko is Chinese knew this...
** Even more hilarious (or fitting) if you know that the series was originally loosely based on ''Literature/JourneyToTheWest'', one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature.
* Rachel on ''{{Series/Friends}}'' joins a book club where they discuss ''Literature/JaneEyre'' and she doesn't bother to read the book. When another character asks Rachel what her favorite part was, she immediately outs herself by saying: "The part with... the robot?" In actual fact, the titular character in Jane Eyre has this quite memorable line to Mr. Rochester: "Do you think I am an automaton? — a machine without feelings? And can bear to have my morsel of bread snatched from my lips, and my drop of living water dashed from my cup? Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless?"
* ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'':
** The season 34 episode had a sketch about people who would benefit from the 2008 bailout that happened when the global economic meltdown was still fresh. Darrell Hammond and Casey Wilson played a couple named [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herb_Sandler Herbert]] and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marion_Sandler Marion Sandler]] (no relation to Creator/{{Adam|Sandler}}) who screwed Wachovia Bank out of a lot of money and profited from the economic meltdown. Now, considering that there were two other fictional characters introduced before them, you'd expect Herbert and Marion to be fakes, too, right? Not in this case: turns out Herbert and Marion Sandler were real people who did exactly what the sketch said they did (Creator/LorneMichaels didn't realize this until after the sketch aired), making the brief clip of them being described as "People who should be shot" by a lower-third graphic tasteless (which explains why the NBC website video and the televised reruns got rid of that scene in the "2008 Bailout" sketch. When Netflix aired the sketch as part of their ''Saturday Night Live'' 2000s collection, they aired the scene with Herbert and Marion Sandler, but got rid of the "People who should be shot" lower-third and removed Herbert's line thanking the government for [[KarmaHoudini letting them get away with their crime]]).
** Chevy Chase on ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' had a joke on Weekend Update about the murder of performer "Professor Backwards" (who was able to read, write and speak backwards written words). Chase said he wasn't saved because people ignored his cries of "Pleh Pleh". Chase later apologized, saying he had no idea there was such a performer and that he had actually been murdered.
* On an episode of ''Series/WheelOfFortune'', host Pat Sajak joked that the show had only used the category Fictional Family eight times when it came up in one round. At the end of the show, the research department found out that it actually ''had'' been used only eight times. ([[SubvertedTrope However]], a fan has found out that it was actually the category's 10th appearance.)
* The ABC finale of ''Series/FamilyFeud'' had the question "Tell me how old you think Ronald Reagan looks" and Richard Dawson guessed that he was 74. At the time the episode aired -- June 14, 1985 -- Reagan actually was 74 years old.
* In a game of the original ''Series/TheHollywoodSquares'', Buddy Hackett was asked which country has the most doctors proportional to population, to which he jokingly answered "The country with the most Jews! I would say Israel. you have a doctor in every family, it's a cousin, could be an uncle. Couple of specialists...". The contestant agreed, prompting Buddy to ask "You agree with that?" before host Peter Marshall revealed the correct answer was indeed Israel, much to Buddy's amusement.
* An occasional RunningGag on ''Series/HaveIGotNewsForYou'' is for Paul Merton to give an answer that he clearly doesn't intend to be serious, only for it to turn out to actually be correct.
* Something like this happened in ''Series/TheWire'' with the character Kenard, who's seen briefly in season 3 arguing with some other corner kids about who gets to "play" Omar in their stick-up game, and comes back in season 5 where he [[spoiler:assassinates Omar]]. The writers didn't actually realize that it was the same kid and only found out he'd been cast in both roles later, making it an unintentional case of ChekhovsGunman. Creator/DennisLehane, who wrote that episode, has jokingly said that [[IMeantToDoThat he meant to do that]].
* InUniverse Example: ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' had an episode called "Future Imperfect", in which Riker supposedly woke up sixteen years into his future, but it was actually [[spoiler:a hologram created by a lonely alien orphan named Barash]]. As it turns out...
** ...Riker commented on how odd it felt to have a Ferengi helmsman. [[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Nog became an ensign nine years later (and served as the helmsman of the]] ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Defiant]]'' [[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine in the final battle with the Dominion]].
** ...Riker noted that there were more Klingons in Starfleet, notably a female that he passed on a deck. [[Series/StarTrekVoyager B'Elanna Torres, a female Klingon/Human Hybrid worked as a chief engineer on a Starfleet vessel four years later]].
** ...Picard tells Riker that peace talks with the Romulans began four years ago (from the future that Riker was in), and that Riker's ship was instrumental in doing so. [[Film/StarTrekNemesis It's just that, right down to the date]].
** ...and finally, Troi is seen wearing a Starfleet uniform, although she didn't wear one in the show at the time. [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration She started doing so two years later, although it was during the same series]].
* There are two ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episodes where the ''Enterprise'' travels back in time to the contemporary 1960s. In the first one, "Tomorrow is Yesterday", it's mentioned that three astronauts are taking part in a manned moon shot on Wednesday. Two years after the episode aired, Apollo 11 blasted off on July 16, 1969 (a Wednesday) carrying three astronauts (Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins). In "Assignment: Earth", Spock discusses how chaotic the time period is and mentions that, "there will be an important assassination today." Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated six days after the episode aired. Also, the episode's plot involves stopping the U.S. from launching a nuclear weapon into space, which involves plenty of Saturn V StockFootage. A Saturn V rocket carrying Apollo 6 was launched on the same day that King died.
* ''Series/{{Community}}'' had a joke where [[ButtMonkey Britta]] is said to have a favourite superhero character called ''[[Comicbook/XMen X-Man]]''. It's presented in-universe as a joke, with Britta either not knowing the names of the actual X-Men character she likes and calling the character X-Man instead. However, there's actually a real character named 'ComicBook/XMan' in the Marvel continuity. The character, X-Man, is an alternate-universe version of Cyclops’ future son, Cable.
* The shortlived 1987 series ''Second Chance'' had a throw away joke involving UsefulNotes/MuammarGaddafi arriving at the Pearly Gates which listed the date of his death as July 29th 2011. Less than three months away from the real date (October 20).
* In the ''Series/StargateSG1'' episode "Orpheus" Jack O'Neill mans a sniper rifle during a rescue operation against a Goa'uld POWCamp. He aims for center of mass. Falls here because the showrunners' reasoning for doing that was because [[PinkMist headshots are messy]] and they didn't want to have to argue with the network censors, but trained snipers in real life aim for center of mass because it's an easier target.
* Show continuity version: One of the ''Series/{{CSINY}}'' tie-in novels had Mac recall that Claire liked opera. Several years later, "Indelible" had Mac surprising her with opera tickets on the morning of 9/11/2001, to her delight.
* On ''{{Series/Hannibal}}'' and [[Literature/RedDragon the book it's based on]] Will Graham's "empathy disorder" as it's called by the writers is stated as being fictional but on the same spectrum as autism and {{UsefulNotes/Aspergers Syndrome}} but being characterized by an ''over''reading of social cues that overwhelms him rather than the difficultly instinctively reading them that occurs in real life. However several newer theories of autism suggest that what's described in Will's case may in fact be true of more people on the autism spectrum than previously thought, something that both the original author Thomas Harris and series writer Bryan Fuller were likely unaware of, the former especially since the book was first published in 1981.
* A much-criticized scene in an episode of ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' had Jayne place his beloved rifle [[ICallItVera Vera]] in a spacesuit in order to fire in space, with the given reason that it needs oxygen to fire. Bullet propellants contain all that's needed for combustion, meaning that normal guns should be able to fire in the airless environment of space. However, there actually is a valid reason for putting an atmosphere around it: exposure to hard vacuum can cause many types of non-specialized lubrication to flash-evaporate, causing the working parts to quickly wear out to inoperable.
* In an episode of ''Series/OneFootInTheGrave'', Victor Meldrew tests positive for blood in the stool after eating black pudding. Obviously this is the sort of crazy contrivance that could only happen to a sitcom character who is the ChewToy of a cruel universe... except that a couple of years after this episode aired, a study discovered that eating black pudding really can and does cause false positives. Nowadays they tell you not to eat black pudding before a colonoscopy for this reason.
* The infamous line uttered by a character from ''Series/{{Baywatch}}''; "I love playing Mario on my Atari!" There were in fact, games featuring Mario available on the Atari 2600, such as Donkey Kong and Mario Bros. The line was outdated, but not inaccurate.
* After the revelation that British Prime Minister David Cameron had maybe stuck his penis into a pig's mouth during a debauched university initiation, many, ''many'' people compared it to the premiere of ''Series/BlackMirror'', where the (fictional) British Prime Minister is blackmailed into having intercourse with a pig. Even series creator Creator/CharlieBrooker was flabbergasted at how close the episode was to reality.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'' had the Doctor refer to a sauropod dinosaur as ''Brontosaurus'' in "Invasion of the Dinosaurs". Although the correct designation at the time was ''Apatosaurus'', the issue of the type specimen's proper genus has recently been re-opened, and this trope will very likely apply if the splitters have their way. Being a time traveler, the Doctor could have already known the name would change when he called the animal that.
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zd7eWKCOk-A This]] ''Series/IveGotASecret'' episode, which had Neil Armstrong's parents with the secret that their son had just been chosen as an astronaut. Host Garry Moore asks how they'd feel if their son became the first man on the moon.
* Some of the [[ShoePhone hidden gadgets]] the writers of ''Series/GetSmart'' came up with for the agents of CONTROL were accidentally close to what was being developed for actual spies, to the point that the CIA called them in demanding to know where the writers were getting their information.
* On ''Series/TheRealONeals'', about teenager Kenny coming out as gay to his Catholic family, this happened because of the episodes being aired OutOfOrder. His mother Eileen would have varying levels of acceptance depending on the episode because of this. Critics noted that it made the depiction of Eileen's struggle to come to terms with having a gay son oddly realistic, as it comes off as a messy hodgepodge of conflicted emotions rather than the straight line to acceptance that had been intended.
* One ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' episode had Crowley, a demon born in the 17th century, mentioning his and Naomi's "time in Mesopotamia". This led to a lot of fan theories involving Crowley being older than he claims, while WordOfGod is that it was just a mistake... except that the name "Mesopotamia" was still sometimes used to refer to the area encompassing most of modern-day Iraq, Kuwait, and parts of Syria until after the Second World War.
* After the ''Series/ERing'' episode "The General" aired in 2006, depicting an American general kidnapped by Basque separatists in Spain, an user in a Spanish forum criticized the lack of research, pointing (among others) that none of the Basque separatists had Basque names, just [[SmallReferencePools common Spanish ones]]. "The leader of the ''Etarras'' is named Miguel Carrera. Not even Mikel Korrika." Four years later, an ETA leader named Miguel Carrera was arrested in France for the murder of a Gendarme.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Mathematics]]
* One theory about UsefulNotes/FermatsLastTheorem is that Fermat's proof was actually wrong, but the results were correct anyway. In fact, this is almost universally believed within the mathematical community. Fermat always ''did'' turn out to have a proof when he said he did, so it's likely that he at least ''thought'' he could prove this. Fermat essentially created several areas of math despite not publishing much of his work, including a general form of integration along with finding a general way to get rates of change, making it possible that far from being mistaken, he did discover a proof for a special case and generalized it incorrectly (the book that he wrote it in was actually the first attempt ever to use a symbolic system to write algebra). Given the insane complexity of Andrew Wiles's proof, very few mathematicians believe that 17th-century mathematics could have produced any solution at all, much less a simple one. Both of the theorems Wiles used to make his proof were twentieth-century in origin. Also, the theorem holds the record for the most ''wrong'' proofs.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Music]]
* It's unlikely that Music/MariaNayler was talking about [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boolean_Logic Boolean logic]] when she sang the line "one and one still is one" in Robert Miles' "One & One", but she hits the nail on the head.
* "Ironic" by Music/AlanisMorissette has been widely lampooned for not being ironic, and Morissette has admitted this. Michael Stevens of ''WebVideo/{{Vsauce}}'' points out that one could interpret the song as being ''dramatically'' ironic, when the significance of something is unknown to a character but known to others. The individual events aren't examples of situational irony, but life is ironic because life knows what we need while what we think we need differs.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Newspaper Comics]]
* ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}'' [[DoesNotLikeSpam hates raisins]]. While this was just because [[AuthorAppeal Jim Davis hates them]], in real life he would have a very good reason not to--they are poisonous to cats.
** Jon once bought a "battery operated battery charger". It turns out such a concept is far from useless and is ''totally real''. Such devices exist as a means to give portable electronics such as cell phones, laptops, and even car batteries juice in the event of an emergency.
* One ''ComicStrip/PearlsBeforeSwine'' strip has Guard Duck at a fancy restaurant ordering "chateaubriand, cooked medium well." In the commentary for that strip, Stephan Pastis admitted that he only used chateaubriand because it sounded fancy without knowing what it was, but he hoped it really was a type of food. It is--it's a type of steak, which can be cooked medium well.
** Guard Duck also orders "a glass of your finest pinot noir", which is in no way a bad wine pairing.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Print Media]]
* ''Magazine/{{MAD}} Magazine'' and its parodies of the ''Franchise/{{Rocky}}'' movies:
** In "Rockhead III", because Rockhead twice stands nose-to-chest with his ring opponents, he remarks, "If this kind of posing keeps up, I want my next match to be with Creator/DollyParton!" Stallone's next film after ''Film/FirstBlood''? ''Rhinestone'', where he acts opposite guess who.
** In "Rockhead IV," during "Appalling Greed's" funeral, "Brawly" muses to "Atrium," "I wonder which one of us gets our ticket punched in 'Rockhead V'?" While it doesn't happen during the events of ''Film/RockyV'', one of them [[spoiler: (Adrian)]] is indeed dead before the events of ''Film/RockyBalboa''.
** MAD also spoofed ''ComicStrip/{{Cathy}}'' with one called ''Amy!'', which depicted Music/AmyWinehouse pulling a vial of cocaine out of her beehive hairdo. Later on, the real Ms. Winehouse was filmed doing exactly that.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
* When Wrestling/{{Mistico}} signed with the Wrestling/{{WWE}} and was rebranded Wrestling/SinCara, Wrestling/JimRoss made mention that as Sin Cara, he'd have the potential to be a global cultural icon. Well, Mistico's style was wildly incompatible with "WWE" style wrestling, and thanks to his propensity for screwing up, became almost synonymous with botching.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Proverbs]]
* "A stopped watch is right twice a day." Taken figuratively, it means that even someone who is wrong all the time is bound to be right sometimes. Depending on the context, this can be implied to be either accidental or one is giving credit where it's due.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Science]]
* The Greek philosopher Leucippus created the atomic theory, as an argument against another philosopher, Parmenides. While Parmenidies argued against the idea that a state of nothingness could exist, Leucippus argued that there were in fact voids and that everything that was not a void was made of small units of matter that assembled to create larger ones. Aristotle scoffed at the argument, stating that in a complete absence of matter, motion would no longer encounter friction and allow for infinite speeds, which he saw as ridiculous. Well, turns out that what Aristotle used to try to discredit the theory is pretty close to what actually occurs to objects in motion in space. Of course, his view of atoms was also confirmed, though there are more particles than he thought.
* Finnish naturalist Immanuel Ilmoni hypothesized in the early 18th century that diseases were actually living beings, not unlike animals. While he was ridiculed, the germ theory of diseases was confirmed less than a hundred years later.
* The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinite_monkey_theorem infinite monkey theorem]] states that a monkey typing randomly at a keyboard will type out the complete works of William Shakespeare given an infinite amount of time. More generally, he'll type out every book that has ever been written or ''ever will be''. There's also a joke that starts this way but ends with "Now, with the invention of the Internet, we know that's not true."
* The rules for heat movement were created based on the idea that heat was a particle called [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phlogiston_theory phlogiston]]. One of the reasons that this theory stuck around so long is that the rules concerning the movement of heat are the same as the movement of diffuse material in a fluid. Thus, as phlogiston was abandoned as a theory, the rules of heat movement were unchanged.
* This apparently happened twice due to correspondence between Galileo and Kepler. Scientists at the time would sometimes write down discoveries with scrambled letters when they weren't ready to publish their findings, but wanted to establish priority of discovery. Galileo wrote two such letters to Kepler, one concerning his discovery of Saturn's rings, the other concerning the phases of Venus. Kepler tried to unscramble them both and ended up with different sentences, one claiming that Mars had two moons and the other that there was a moving red spot on Jupiter. By complete coincidence, both of those claims were correct, but neither would be proven for centuries.
* As to Phobos and Deimos (the two moons of Mars): in 1727, Jonathan Swift mentioned in the third part of ''Literature/GulliversTravels'' that the scientists of Laputa had discovered two satellites of Mars, at distances that were much smaller than those of any known moons at the time, and with rotation speeds that also were out of kilter with any known moons. When Asaph Hall discovered the moons in 1877 these numbers were so close to the real ones that he named them Phobos and Deimos (Fear and Terror). One Soviet spacecraft designer even suggested Swift had found Martian records on Earth that revealed this, although naturally more plausible explanations exist.
* In 1900, the Russian archaeologist Friedrich Zibold discovered the remains of a mysterious domed structure in the Byzantine Crimean site of Theodosia. After studying the ruins and some terracotta pipes found nearby, he proposed that the structure was an air well designed to condensate moisture from the air into water, and built a replica to test it. This replica was successful and became the precursor of modern air wells. However, it was discovered later that the ancient structure was actually a tomb, the pipes were not related to it, Zibold had used the wrong materials for his replica, and weather conditions at the time (which had included thick fog) had exaggerated the results of the experiment. But by sheer coincidence these materials were the right type to make a working air well--had Zibold used the real ones in the tomb his experiment would have been a failure--and had weather conditions been more characteristic of the area (not as much fog), it wouldn't have worked as well as Zibold reported it did. Neither of these problems were discovered until 90 years after Zibold's experiment. In other words, Zibold inadvertently invented a new technology as a result of a failed attempt to replicate a LostTechnology that didn't actually exist in the first place.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Stand Up Comedy]]
* In his famous [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdxkVQy7QLM Pachelbel Rant]], Rob Paravonian makes some very inaccurate claims about the piece, such as getting the date wrong by more than a century. However, the one thing that he admits that he doesn't know is the composer's first name, but guesses that it's Johann, since "they're all named Johann". Turns out he's dead right about that one.
* In Weapons of Self Destruction, Creator/RobinWilliams joked that the next pope after Benedict would be from Latin America "or Brazil" (which ''is'' part of Latin America). Come 2013, Pope Francis is elected and hails from Argentina.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Theatre]]
* The play Abigail's Party makes a humorous reference to putting red wine (Beaujolais) in the fridge, as a comment of misguided middle class aspirations in the 70s. However, playwright Mike Leigh later learned that Beaujolais is one of a few red wines that is best when chilled.
* In ''Theatre/TheMikado'', W.S. Gilbert used the name Ko Ko because he thought it was [[InherentlyFunnyWords funny sounding]], and didn't know at the time that it is a legitimate Japanese name. Just ask [[LightNovel/GoldenTime Kouko Kaga]].
* One of the biggest points of academic contention about ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' is whether or not the eponymous Prince of Denmark is ''actually'' mad, or just faking it. The Vikings did allegedly have some sort of taboo against killing a person afflicted with madness, which makes pretending to be one a viable survival trait for the son of a usurped Danish king. Apparently, it's doubtful that Shakespeare would have been aware of this. Even so, it's not entirely a coincidence. While Shakespeare wouldn't have known about this taboo, the authors of his source material would have. He probably kept the ObfuscatingInsanity plot without understanding the societal context of it.
* The play ''Theatre/{{Brand}}'' by Creator/HenrikIbsen made an eerie prophecy concerning the consequences of British pollution reaching Norway, leading to dying forests and lakes. The play was written in 1866, while this problem became apparent in the 1980s. The accuracy of this passage is quite chilling:
-->Britain s smoke-cloud sinks corroding
-->On the land in noisome fume;
-->Smirches all its tender bloom,
-->All its gracious verdure dashes,
-->Sweeping low with breath of bane,
-->Stealing sunlight from the plain,
-->Showering down like rain of ashes
-->On the city of God's doom.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Video Games]]
* In ''VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine'', Mario dies instantly when he falls in lava. When he dies in lava, Mario stays on top of it rather than sinking into it, because the lava is actually just water with a lava texture added to it. This is what would happen in reality since molten rock is incredibly dense, you'd just remain atop it while you quickly and horribly burn to death.
* ''VideoGame/WarioWare'' has a couple.
** In the manual of ''[=WarioWare=], Inc.: Mega Microgame$! '', Wario eats a "healthy" breakfast of [[NutritionalNightmare tons of bacon washed down with bacon grease]]. However, if the movie ''Film/FatHead'' is correct, then fats, especially animal fats, provide needed fuel instead of making you fat. Indeed, Tom Naughton ate a high-fat diet which involved plenty of bacon and other foods cooked in fat, the result being that he could program into the night without getting tired. [[SubvertedTrope There is no excuse for Wario's "healthy" cup of sugar that has only a dash of coffee, though.]]
** In ''[=WarioWare=]: Touched!'', when Wario got a cold, he decided to eat garlic, his favorite food. Garlic is antiseptic and antiviral and therefore used in treating colds, which would explain why Wario never got a cold until that time.
* ''VideoGame/DeusEx'':
** The game came out in 2000, but takes place in 2052; it has, in certain areas, the New York City skyline as background scenery, but missing the Twin Towers. This was due to technical limitations, but the explanation the developers gave is that they were destroyed in a terrorist attack some time in the game's past. This may have been an educated guess on their part, as the World Trade Center had been the target of a terrorist bombing back in 1993, but not nearly on a large enough scale to actually topple any of the buildings. As well, terrorism is a large part of the game's plot, so that explanation fits within the mythology, too.
** Another one that sort of adds a little uneasiness, in the mission where you save someone from a gas station, you can see the prices. At the time it may have represented something far off, as gas prices were on average about $1.20 and the game depicted gas prices at $3.58, for regular. [[HarsherInHindsight Cue 10-12 years later after the game's release and that's exactly where those gas prices are]], although the early 2015 drop in gas prices let us breathe easily.
** Most thought provoking, or perhaps scary, example can be read on government sponsored electronic bulletin boards across the game. One article found at the very beginning of the game tells readers to keep an eye out for terrorists and report any suspicious activities. The messages are clearly intended to be alarming signs of the dystopian state of the current government, both in the fear mongering "everyone can be a terrorist" message used to scare everyone into accepting the {{Big Brother|IsWatching}} level of control the government has, and in the invasion of privacy advocated by suggesting a thorough background search on anyone who is a foreigner or has spent too much time on the net. Thus, it's rather shocking how close this came to actual suggestions put out shortly after 9/11 for 'how to spot a terrorist'. What are you supposed to think when their own government is now repeating word for word the dystopian messages were told to watch out for?
** Its prequel, ''VideoGame/DeusExHumanRevolution'', has the collapse of the Detroit automobile industry and the city's slow descent into financial ruin as part of its story. The game was released in 2011, but the ideas were thought up years earlier. The first occurred not that long after the ideas were written, and the second occurred only a few years later. What's more, real world Detroit has been attempting to reinvent itself as some kind of midwest Silicon Valley as a backup solution to its industrial decline. Considering that Sarif industries and other nanotech-related enterprises are located in Detroit, this trope could apply again in a few years.
*** The prequel also mentions an oil crash in 2015. While we didn't have an oil crash, prices did fall significantly.
* ''VideoGame/NarutoShippudenUltimateNinjaStorm2'' has an Easter egg which in which Naruto and Hinata are declared "secret lovers", despite not being too much canon support for it in the [[Manga/{{Naruto}} original manga]] at the time. [[spoiler:Turned out that Naruto and Hinata [[OfficialCouple ended up married]] and with two children in the canon story]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Web Original]]
* In ''Website/{{Cracked}}'' article "[[http://www.cracked.com/blog/10-brilliant-comedy-gems-hiding-youtube_p2/ 10 Brilliant Comedy Gems Hiding on Youtube]]," the author quips that he hopes the authors of "[[Franchise/StarTrek Jean-Luc Picard]] Doesn't Give a Fuck" only stopped making them "because they became super famous and died from all the sex and money that was thrown at them." As a number of the comments pointed out, the reason they stopped making them was so one of them could work on ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'', this article having been written after the celebrated 2.5 million dollar {{Kickstarter}}.
** The 2012 article [[http://www.cracked.com/article_19146_8-absurd-jokes-that-predicted-real-life-events.html 8 Absurd Jokes That Predicted Real Life Events]] is full of examples of these, but it should now be called ''9'' Absurd Jokes That Predicted Real Life Events, as the joking prediction the author made at the end actually came true: After mentioning the aforementioned Laugh-In prediction of Reagan's presidency, the article goes on to wonder why no one has made a joke about UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump becoming president: "Laugh all you want, it may seem strangely prescient in, say, 2017." [[note]]complete with the note "And we're legitimately sorry if this prediction comes true."[[/note]] Sure enough, Trump became president that year.
* ''WebVideo/GameGrumps'':
** When Arin plays ''VideoGame/KirbySuperStar'' with Jon, he calls a boomerang-wielding enemy "Boomer Man". The enemy's actual name is "Boomer".
** Arin jokingly suggests a line for Blaze in a cutscene of ''[[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006 Sonic '06]]'' seconds before she says it for real.
--->'''Arin:''' She's like "Come back for more, huh?" and he's like "Ah, shut up".
--->'''Jon:''' "Not everything's about sex."
--->'''Arin:''' She's like "Of course it is!" She's all, like, cynical like she's been broken down by the world. And she's like "What else would it be? You're so naive!" and like, walks away.
--->'''Jon:''' And he's just like, "I don't even care anymore. It used to rile me up, and now I realize that, you know..."
--->'''Blaze:''' [[ClicheStorm You're so naive.]]
--->'''Jon:''' [[BigWhat What?!]]
* [[http://www.sonicstadium.org/2012/10/snow-joke-this-is-a-sa2hd-review-by-the-suns-standards/ This]] article from Sonic The Hedgehog fansite The Sonic Stadium about [[http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/fun/gaming/4586437/Sonic-Adventure-2-video-game-review.html/ this terrible review]] from the British tabloid newspaper The Sun decribing that it sounded something like what Fox News would write. In fact both The Sun and Fox News are owned [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_Murdoch by the same guy.]]
* At the end of [[http://duckyworth.deviantart.com/journal/Duckyworth-s-Thoughts-The-Tigger-Movie-2000-479443901 this review]] for ''Disney/TheTiggerMovie'', Duckyworth wonders if the director, Toby Bluth, is related to Creator/DonBluth. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toby_Bluth He is.]]
* During his review of ''Film/TankGirl'', WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic gets repeatedly frustrated with the overuse of comic drawings instead and guesses that the makers simply forgot to shoot several scenes and had to improvise. As it turns out, he was partially correct - in an interview, co-creator Jamie Hewlett said that he and Alan Martin had to animate several scenes because the producers forgot to film them.
* For ''Wiki/TVTropes'' itself, the description of the page InvincibleHero used the PerfectlyCromulentWord "vincible" to mean the opposite of "''in''vincible". Not only is it perfectly cromulent, it's perfectly real as well. And it means exactly what it's suggested to mean: beatable.
* A number of things the players of the Letsplay/{{Persona 4 Endurance Run}} do end up accurately predicting some things. For example, their overuse of God Hand when using Chie accidentally predicts said move being one of her {{Signature Move}}s in VideoGame/{{Persona 4 Arena}} (being one of her Super Moves).
* In WebVideo/InternetPersonalityVangelus' review of a Anime/{{Dancougar}} action figure, he admits that he doesn't know much about the show, but he hopes its CoolSword has an appropriately awesome name, like "Dankuuken". That is in fact the sword's name, and Vangelus' Subtitles (which are pretty shocked themselves) promise that he didn't look the name up before filming.
* When ''WebVideo/TwoBestFriendsPlay'' played an untranslated game in Portuguese called ''Insanidade'', seeing the word "jogo" (game) written in-game several times inspired a long-staying RunningGag of calling things "a mysterious jogo". They all pronounce the word "''joe''-go", which is mostly correct, but state in a much later video that they were ''trying'' to mispronounce it as a joke.
* In an ''Creator/AchievementHunter'' Let's Play video on ''Series/FamilyFeud'', one question asked for characters WesternAnimation/BugsBunny faced off against. Creator/GavinFree claims that Bugs went up against Wile E. Coyote, but the others dismiss it and get the odd answer of "Porky Pig" right. As it turns out, there really were two shorts where Bugs and the Coyote went against each other, but being shorts that are rarely aired, it's not impossible that Gavin, being the {{Cloudcuckoolander}} that he is, could have been wrong.
* One couple on ''[[NotAlwaysRight/SisterSites Not Always Romantic]]'' started mutating "Hey, baby!" until it became "Habibi". Upon realizing that "Habibi" was an actual Arabic word, they looked it up in case they were saying something inappropriate. It means "[[LuckyTranslation my beloved]]".
* Many [[FurryFandom furry artists]], unsure of how to draw the arms of spectacles for characters who wear glasses, omit the arms altogether. Rest assured, ye artistic masses, such glasses exist: They are called [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pince-nez Pince-nez]], and use a spring or clip to pinch the nose, or are made to fit an individual's nose.
* [[https://spongey444.wordpress.com/2013/03/21/ice-age-continental-drift/ This review]] of ''WesternAnimation/IceAge4ContinentalDrift'' ends with the author telling himself that the next sequel will probably have aliens in it. [[WesternAnimation/IceAge5CollisionCourse He was halfway right]].
* When the [=YouTuber=] [[{{LetsPlay/Mangaminx}} Mangaminx]] released her first-ever face reveal video, quite a few comments stated that they were amazed as to how accurate some of the fanart of her was. Downplayed, however, as some of that fanart could have been based off of the artistic depictions of Minx drawn by her own wife, [=KrismPro=].
* When WebVideo/ToddInTheShadows reviewed Nine Days' song "Absolutely (Story of a Girl)," he discovered that the band's lead singer John Hampson later became an English teacher, and jokingly wondered if he teaches the song to his students. Not long after the review was posted, a Twitter user found a video of Hampson doing [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnaKRs_KFEY exactly that]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Web Comics]]
* In the webcomic ''Webcomic/DMOfTheRings'', the players tend to mangle their characters' names. At one point, "Gimli" introduces himself as "Gimli, son of Groin", obviously mispronouncing "Glóin". However, in ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' canon, Gimli actually ''is'' descended from a Gróin[[note]]As is everyone, really[[/note]], who is his grandfather.
* Happens twice in the CampaignComic ''Webcomic/DarthsAndDroids'':
** One of the players explains how the vast hollow shaft inside Cloud City is generating wind power from the air flow that the temperature differential inside such a large space would create. The Game Master [[http://darthsanddroids.net/episodes/1140.html quickly agrees]] rather than, say, point out that BottomlessPits are just cool.
** In [[http://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0150.html an earlier strip]], it's revealed that the GM tapped the geologist playing the game to explain how Naboo could work with its subterranean oceans.
* Somewhat early on in ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'', John uses a Modus Control Deck to convert his [[InventoryManagementPuzzle Sylladex's Fetch Modus]] to a queuestack array by combining a queue, a stack, and an array. While Andrew Hussie was more than likely just making a pun based on Creator/JohnCusack, a queuestack is actually a real data structure, although it's more often referred to as a double-ended queue, or deque (pronounced "deck") for short. And yes, you can in fact make an array of them, although there's not usually much reason to do so.
* In ''Webcomic/{{Nebula}}'', the creators admitted that Ceres' emergence from Black Hole's head wasn't intended to be anything close to realistic or plausible, but some months after the comic's publication NASA actually observed [[http://www.blastr.com/2015-11-4/nasa-just-saw-something-come-out-black-hole-first-time-ever an object coming out of a black hole]].

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Western Animation]]
* Examples from ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
** In the commentary for "The Crepes of Wrath", the writers note that the bit about adding antifreeze to wine was a parody of an incident where some wine was found contaminated with antifreeze, but that, obviously, the contamination wasn't deliberate. Except that the contamination was discovered when a winery started listing antifreeze as a business expense, and it was very deliberately added to make the wine sweeter.[[note]]This is definitely dangerous, though not as dangerous as it sounds. Ethylene glycol is indeed poisonous, but when mixed with sufficient quantities of ethanol, it passes harmlessly into urine. It's still more expensive than sugar or corn syrup, though..[[/note]]
** While the writers may have known that a torus is one of the contenders for the shape of the universe, Homer certainly didn't know that when he told Creator/StephenHawking about his theory of a doughnut-shaped universe.
** Abe Simpson once recalls his father talking about America being the greatest thing since sliced bread. He then says that sliced bread had been invented the previous winter. It was just meant as an "old fart" joke, but given that he served in WWII and the first commercial bread-slicing machine was invented in 1928, the writers were surprisingly accurate with this one.
** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E13TwoBadNeighbors Two Bad Neighbors]]", Homer attempts to prank UsefulNotes/GeorgeHWBush with cardboard cut-outs he identifies as "your sons, George Bush Jr. and Jeb Bush". In the audio commentary for that episode, it's said that the writers had no idea that there really ''is'' a "[[UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush George Bush Jr.]]" and the line was supposed to be an example of Homer being stupid. Stupider like a fox, it seems.
** In the episode ''Bart To The Future'' (airdate March 19, 2000), President Lisa makes a reference to President UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump--who, 16 years later, would indeed be elected the 45th [[UsefulNotes/ThePresidents President of the United States of America]].
* Dolphins are frequently given an AlternativeCharacterInterpretation as violent, venal and murderous animals, unlike their "actual" gentle and caring personality. As anyone who has studied dolphin behavior can tell you, [[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1200/is_n3_v154/ai_21003387/ this interpretation is truer]] [[http://www.miaminewtimes.com/1993-09-01/news/the-flap-over-flipper/ than you might believe]]. It's not clear which, if any, writers knew this when they used it.
** ''The Simpsons'' did this in "Treehouse of Horror XI".
** ''The Pet Professional'' also did this.
** As did ''Webcomic/TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja''.
** ''[[Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000 MST3K]]'' also plays on this, as dolphins attack the Satellite of Love with interplanetary dolphin warships.
** ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' did it with Hank getting raped by the dolphin at the La Grunta resort.
** ''WesternAnimation/ThePenguinsOfMadagascar'' gives us another evil dolphin, Dr. Blowhole.
** ''ComicStrips/PearlsBeforeSwine'' has killer dolphins in one arc.
** ''WesternAnimation/LeagueOfSuperEvil'' showed that dolphins are actually super villains in one episode.
* The ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "The Cyber House Rules" features the line, "This jigsaw of a pacifier factory makes me want to have children with you even more." Originally the line was "This jigsaw of a barn makes me want to have children with you even more." By coincidence, the Swedish word for children is ''barn'', a cognate of the archaic English "bairn" when means "children" (and found in the Scots language). "Bairn" is etymologically related to "born". Maybe the joke was cut because it was esoteric, even for a show that often has jokes about science and math that no one would get unless they were college or grad school-educated.
** The Scottish terrier from "Disney/{{Lady and the Tramp}}" refers to the new baby as a "wee bairn," so obscure but not unknown.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius'': In ''Sorry, Wrong Era'', Jimmy needs a diamond to use as a catalyst for a BambooTechnology time travel remote, since he's stuck in prehistoric times with Sheen and Carl. Finding a diamond proves easy; the problem is that it's about the size of a hill, which obviously makes it too big to use. So how does he get a small enough diamond out of that? By baiting a tyrannosaurus rex into charging into it head-first, of course. This isn't as unrealistic a solution as it seems on the face of it. Diamond is the hardest natural substance on earth, sure, but one thing most people don't know is that it's also brittle enough to shatter. Most of the "science" on the show is of the jokey ItRunsOnNonsensoleum kind, so the writers probably didn't know this either.
* A similar joke occurs in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/JohnnyBravo'': a thief is trying to steal the world's largest cubic zircon, but when she tries to cut the glass case with a small buzzaw the blade dulls since the case is actually made out of diamond. She then smashes Johnny's head into the case and it breaks. Not only is this exactly what would happen in real life (diamond is extremely hard, and therefore resistant to cutting, but is also brittle and will shatter if hit hard enough), the way the case shatters is pretty accurate too (it doesn't break into shards like glass, but seems to crumble to dust: when diamond shatters it breaks along crystal planes into multiple tiny diamonds rather than shattering like glass).
* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' did an episode with a character called Sexual Harassment Panda that satirized how difficult subjects (like sexual harassment) are often presented to children in a sugar-coated manner. Turns out [[http://www.deltadentalnj.com/company/panda.shtml there is a program called P.A.N.D.A.]] that deals with how to deal with sexual harassment at both school and work.
** That same season included a ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' parody "Chinpokomon." One of the various characters resembles Skarmory, who debuted in the Gold and Silver games released in Japan only two weeks after the episode aired.
* In ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'', Perry the platypus makes a strange growling sound by chattering his teeth. It turns out platypuses really do make such a noise, though they don't make it by chattering (Platypuses don't have teeth, after all).
** Before they leave the breeding burrow, young platypus do actually have teeth. They lose them at maturity.
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePony'' has a predominantly female cast. Of course this because it is a show marketed to girls, but in real life groups of horses are almost all female with sometimes a 'herd stallion'. In contrast, [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Generation 4]] has the most male characters and happens to have had the most [[ShownTheirWork research put into it]].
* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' had a CutawayGag of a cow ''really'' enjoying getting milked. This is actually true for cows and other dairy animals as it relieves pressure on their udders, and can sometimes be quite erotic to them as well. ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' also does the same thing in one of their Treehouse of Horror episodes, where Ned Flanders takes pleasure and relief in getting milked when his lower half got transformed into the body of a cow.
* The [[UsefulNotes/TheWorldCup 2014 FIFA World Cup]] was accompanied by a German parody show called ''Hoeggschde Konzentration''. The episode right before the match against Brazil had the Germans completely ridicule their opponents, expecting to win 6-0 (yes, this is ridiculously high by soccer standards). The writers certainly didn't expect them to win 7-1 in RealLife.
* An eerie example of this with ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers'': In the episode "I Get a Psychic Out of You", Linda, convinced that she has psychic powers, tells her friend Gretchen to stay away from trains on her trip to Philadelphia. In RealLife about a year after the episode aired, an Amtrak train derailed in Philadelphia, resulting in several deaths.
* ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'':
** Once sketch portrays ''Franchise/AlvinAndTheChipmunks'' with deep voices that Dave hates so much he tries to kill them over. He fills their booth with helium, [[HeliumSpeech giving them their signature high-pitched voices]] and Dave's approval right before it kills them. The canister being labelled "deadly helium" suggests the writers thought the idea wasn't supposed to make sense, but that much helium really ''would'' be fatal: even if it isn't poisonous, displacing that much oxygen [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asphyxiant_gas would cause asphyxiation]].
** Another sketch involves Mickey trying to ban mixed species Disney couples, which eventually gets into a pretty obvious metaphor for homophobia. It's funnier when you remember [[http://duckcomicsrevue.blogspot.com/2011/06/mickey-mouse-vs-kat-nipp.html this comic]] actually exists.
* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' had an episode that revealed that George Washington Carver didn't invent peanut butter and that the US government had credited him with the discovery in order to help ease race relations after the Civil War. In reality, George Washington Carver actually ''didn't'' invent peanut butter. Peanut butter actually dates back to the Aztecs and Incas, and the first patent was issued to Marcellus Gilmore Edson in 1884.
* A ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' example: near the end of ''Falling Hare'', as the plane is rapidly plummeting to the ground, Bugs makes loud, rapid screams of panic. That apparently originated as a studio in-joke, but real-life rabbits really ''do'' scream rapidly when they're distressed. And it's not so much "goofy shouting" as "blood-curdling shrieking."
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Other]]
* Averted: a newspaper crossword-puzzle editor was once briefly arrested for using the words "Overlord," "Utah," "Omaha," "Mulberry" and "Neptune" in a number of puzzles in the weeks leading up to D-Day.[[note]]"Mulberry" was the codename for the portable harbors that the Allies brought over until the port cities of Cherbourg and Le Havre could be taken and repaired enough to allow supply ships to dock, while "Neptune" was the codename for the actual D-Day landings on the Norman coast that established the beach head -- "Overlord" was the umbrella name for the entire operation, which lasted from June 6 until August 25.[[/note]] The same editor, Leonard Dawe, had previously been investigated for having put "Dieppe" as an answer -- on August 18, 1942, the day before the disastrous Allied raid on Dieppe was to launch. An investigation at the time could only conclude that it was a bizarre and astonishing coincidence. Only in the 1980s did the answer come out -- the crossword-puzzle editor was a teacher, and he used his students to collect odd words. One of those students had hung around military camps and bases enough to overhear the unusual words being spoken, and promptly turned them over.
* Averted and played straight in at least one investigation. The FBI received a tip regarding an American in Mexico who was believed to be a fugitive responsible for murdering his family. The FBI and Mexican authorities questioned him, but he did not cooperate. [[https://www.fbi.gov/baltimore/press-releases/2015/agents-investigators-search-underground-across-the-country-and-around-the-world-for-fbi-ten-most-wanted-fugitive The next day it was found that he WAS a fugitive from US justice, but not the man they were looking for.]]
** This is actually a very common thing in regard to investigations of various criminal activity: the initial cause for the investigation may be something entirely different from where the investigation actually leads. Patrol officers investigating a noise complaint or domestic fight have encountered attempted rape or attempted murder, and often massive corruption and/or scams are unearthed by investigating seemingly odd tax filings or financial statements.
[[/folder]]
----

* Creator/EdwardNorton's PlayingAgainstType character in ''WesternAnimation/SausageParty'' is the AmbiguouslyJewish Creator/WoodyAllen-{{Expy}} named [[PunnyName Sammy Bagel Jr.]] While it's obvious that [[Creator/SammyDavisJr the person for whom the character is named]] is black and Norton isn't, something that few people may not know is that [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sammy_Davis_Jr he was actually Jewish.]]
* In ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}'', Princess Jasmine has a pet tiger named Rajah, which is often cited as a case of MisplacedWildlife as tigers do not live in the Middle East. At least, they don't ''now''. During the time when ''Aladdin'' takes place, the now-extinct Caspian tiger was found as far west as what is now Iran and Iraq. It is unlikely, though, that the filmmakers knew this.

** This is actually a very common thing in regard to investigations of various criminal activity: the initial cause for the investigation may be something entirely different from where the investigation actually leads. Patrol officers investigating a noise complaint or domestic fight have encountered attempted rape or attempted murder, and often massive corruption and/or scams are unearthed by investigating seemingly odd tax filings or financial statements.

* ''Film/ThisIsSpinalTap'' goes for a SophisticatedAsHell gag by having one of the band members describe his song as being influenced by [[Creator/JohannSebastianBach Bach]] and [[Creator/WolfgangAmadeusMozart Mozart]], only to reveal that it's entitled "Lick My Love Pump". Such a title would, in fact, have precedent in Mozart's oeuvre, which contains a vocal canon named "Leck Mich im Arsch" (in German literally "lick me in the arse" resp. "kiss my ass").

** The 2012 article [[http://www.cracked.com/article_19146_8-absurd-jokes-that-predicted-real-life-events.html 8 Absurd Jokes That Predicted Real Life Events]] is full of examples of these, but it should now be called ''9'' Absurd Jokes That Predicted Real Life Events, as the joking prediction the author made at the end actually came true: After mentioning the aforementioned Laugh-In prediction of Reagan's presidency, the article goes on to wonder why no one has made a joke about Creator/DonaldTrump becoming president: "Laugh all you want, it may seem strangely prescient in, say, 2017." [[note]]complete with the note "And we're legitimately sorry if this prediction comes true."[[/note]] Sure enough, Trump became president that year.

* When WebVideo/ToddintheShadows reviewed Nine Days' song "Absolutely (Story of a Girl)," he discovered that the band's lead singer John Hampson later became an English teacher, and jokingly wondered if he teaches the song to his students. Not long after the review was posted, a Twitter user found a video of Hampson doing [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnaKRs_KFEY exactly that]].

* When WebVideo/ToddintheShadows reviewed Nine Days' song "Absolutely (Story of a Girl)," he discovered that the band's lead singer John Hampson later became an English teacher, and jokingly wondered if he teaches the song to his students. Not long after the review was posted, a Twitter user found a video of Hampson doing [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnaKRs_KFEY exactly that]].

* In ''Disney/{{Fantasia}}'', a double-error caused accuracy in the "Rite of Spring Suite": The famous T-Rex vs Stegosaurus battle was impossible. Tyrannosaurs lived in the Cretaceous period, while Stegosaurus lived in the Jurassic. Furthermore, the T-Rex was drawn with three fingers instead of two. These are both resolved if it's not a T-Rex at all, but an Allosaurus, which did live in the Jurassic and had three fingers.

* In ''Film/JurassicParkIII'', ''Spinosaurus'' was portrayed as being larger than ''TyrannosaurusRex'' and at that time it was believed to be the other way around. Later in 2006, ''Spinosaurus'' turned out to be not only larger than a ''T. rex'' but also the largest carnivorous dinosaur of them all. A later evidence indicates that ''Spinosaurus'' was also aquatic, making the climatic scene where it rises out of the water while swimming also somewhat accurate (and at the same time its maneuverability on dry land and the dramatic fight from ''Jurassic Park 3'' very unrealistic).

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius'': In ''Sorry, Wrong Era'', Jimmy needs a diamond to use as a catylist for a BambooTechnology time travel remote, since he's stuck in prehistoric times with Sheen and Carl. Finding a diamond proves easy; the problem is that it's about the size of a hill, which obviously makes it too big to use. So how does he get a small enough diamond out of that? By baiting a tyrannosaurus rex into charging into it head-first, of course. This isn't as unrealistic a solution as it seems on the face of it. Diamond is the hardest natural substance on earth, sure, but one thing most people don't know is that it's also brittle enough to shatter. Most of the "science" on the show is of the jokey ItRunsOnNonsensoleum kind, so the writers probably didn't know this either.

* ''VideoGame/HotelMario'' is [[MemeticMutation infamous]] for "All Toasters Toast Toast", [[FountainOfMemes among other things]]. Yes, toasters usually toast ''bread''. They also re-toast toast and finish toasting toast. The toaster toasts one's bread but doesn't toast it to one's preference, the now-toast will be put back into the toaster to toast some more. Also, somewhere between the bread entering the toaster and the toast leaving the toaster the bread must have become toast, all but guaranteeing that at least some of the time it is being toasted in the toaster it is already toast.[[note]]We apologize if the word "toast" [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_satiation no longer sounds like a real word]].[[/note]] Alternatively, all toasters toast bread that will eventually ''become'' toast.

** In the manual of ''WarioWare Inc: Mega Party Game$'', Wario eats a "healthy" breakfast of [[NutritionalNightmare tons of bacon washed down with bacon grease]]. However, if the movie ''Film/FatHead'' is correct, then fats, especially animal fats, provide needed fuel instead of making you fat. Indeed, Tom Naughton ate a high-fat diet which involved plenty of bacon and other foods cooked in fat, the result being that he could program into the night without getting tired. [[SubvertedTrope There is no excuse for Wario's "healthy" cup of sugar that has only a dash of coffee, though.]]
** In ''WarioWare: Touched!'', when Wario got a cold, he decided to eat garlic, his favorite food. Garlic is antiseptic and antiviral and therefore used in treating colds, which would explain why Wario never got a cold until that time.

* The creators of ''WesternAnimation/IceAge'' made Scrat, the sabre-toothed squirrel, as a joke. [[http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/11/03/141997834/scientists-unveil-fossil-of-saber-toothed-squirrel-that-lived-among-dinos But later scientists unearthed a prehistoric sabre-toothed squirrel-like mammal, albeit from the Mesozoic rather than anytime close to the last ice age.]] [[note]][[AnachronismStew All of the characters come from different prehistoric periods]] anyway...[[/note]]

* In ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}'', Princess Jasmine has a pet tiger named Rajah, which is often cited as a case of MisplacedWildlife as tigers do not live in the Middle East. At least, they don't ''now''. During the time when the original story took place, the now-extinct Caspian tiger was found as far west as what is now Iran and Iraq. It is unlikely, though, that the filmmakers knew this.

** And then there's this line, which, [[TheCuckoolanderWasRight if you can make out what Tara's saying]], inadvertently called a major plot twist in ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows The Deathly Hallows]]'':

This can be hard to tell from ShownTheirWork, and can often only be seen in context with the rest of the work. A work that has ShownTheirWork would be accurate overall, while one that is Accidentally Accurate would only get a few things correct.

** In the episode ''Bart To The Future'' (airdate March 19, 2000), President Lisa makes a reference to President UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump--who, 16 years later--would indeed be elected the 45th [[UsefulNotes/ThePresidents President of the United States of America]].

This is a subversion of inaccuracy for artistic license; the research wasn't done, but the writer was still correct on at least a few points -- by complete fluke.

** Even more disturbing: Isn´t the "rain of ashes" part reminiscent of a nuclear explosion?

** Even more hilarious if you know that the series was originally loosely based on ''Literature/JourneyToTheWest'', one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature.

* ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}'' [[DoesNotLikeSpam hates raisins]]. While this was just because [[AuthorAppeal Jim Davis hates them]], in real life they are poisonous to cats.

This can be hard to tell from ShownTheirWork, and can often only be seen in context with the rest of the work--ShownTheirWork would prove to have all research shown, Accidentally Accurate is hit and miss.

* The ''Franchise/LegendOfZelda'' story ''Fanfic/TilTheSunGrowsCold and the Stars Grow Old'' (written by @/LadyNorbert) was published in 2008, and hinged on the concept that Link and Zelda were the same characters, reincarnated many times over. A few years later, the ''Hyrule Historia'' was published with the revelation that this is (more or less) the case.
* @/LadyNorbert herself picked her online handle to name herself after the dragon from ''Literature/HarryPotter'', but tacked "Lady" on the front because she's a grown woman. This was in 2000. Ten years later, ''Deathly Hallows'' revealed that the dragon Norbert is, in fact, ''Norberta''.
* ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6439871/6/A-Different-Halloween A Different Halloween]]'' has this in character, when the chief at the Daily Prophet takes a few bits of fact and wraps them around a backstory for the recently deceased Voldemort to write a sensationalist piece, not realizing that he and a young Rita Skeeter have accidently hammered out Voldemort's actual history.

* Rachel on ''{{Series/Friends}}'' joins a bookclub where they discuss ''Literature/JaneEyre'' and she doesn't bother to read the book. When another character asks Rachel what her favorite part was, she immediately outs herself by saying: "The part with... the robot?" In actual fact, the titular character in Jane Eyre has this quite memorable line to Mr Rochester: "Do you think I am an automaton? — a machine without feelings? And can bear to have my morsel of bread snatched from my lips, and my drop of living water dashed from my cup? Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless?"

** It's worth noting that the Dolfury from ''TabletopGame/{{Mortasheen}}'' is almost definitely ''not'' a case of this. The setting and monsters are created by a biology enthusiast fascinated with the so-called "dark side" of nature, and who often seems to hold "cutesy critters" like dolphins in open contempt. The chances that he ''didn't'' know that making his dolphin-derived monsters violent sadists who are popularly (and not necessarily incorrectly) regarded as one of the only monsters that are genuinely evil was TruthInTelevision to some degree closely approaches zero.