History Main / DiscontinuityNod

* ComicBook/ThePunisher was involved in a better-off-forgotten miniseries called ''[[ComicBook/ThePunisherPurgatory Purgatory]]'', where Frank was killed and turned into an avenging angel who went after demons. It was quietly dropped when Creator/GarthEnnis took over writing for Frank. Years later, in ''ComicBook/{{Thunderbolts}}'', Frank is on death's door when [[ItMakesSenseInContext an angel feather acquired by Deadpool]] is instantly drawn to him, healing all his wounds. When everyone wonders why the feather was drawn to Frank, he just says, "Don't want to talk about it." Olivier, the BigBad of ''Purgatory'', also went on to cameo in ''Nightcrawler'' and ''ComicBook/FearItself''.

-->--''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'', "Stan's Best Friend"

* Creator/{{Capcom}} loves to poke fun at the hideous American boxart for the original ''VideoGame/{{Mega Man|1}}'', starting with a sidequest involving "posters of heroes" in ''VideoGame/MegaManZX Advent'' where it was described as resembling a "colorful coal miner", continuing with the [[{{Retraux}} fake box art they commissioned]] for ''VideoGame/MegaMan9'' and ''VideoGame/MegaMan10'', drawn in a similar art style, and having Bad Box Art Mega Man as a playable character in ''VideoGame/StreetFighterXTekken''. Bad Box Art Mega Man was also set to be a playable character in the cancelled game ''Mega Man Universe''.

*** An early teaser trailer for ''Metal Gear Solid 4'', made using character models from ''Metal Gear Solid 3'', involves Snake sitting down in a Director's chair, standing in for Creator/HideoKojima as director. He then takes off his mask and reveals that underneath, he's Raiden. Canned booing accompanies this. Raiden later fights Snake over a 'Main Character' chair -- he [[FootPopping foot-pops]] as their buttocks touch and then is thrown off the edge of the stage -- Snake then sits down in the main character's chair, gets MickeyMousing to emphasize his sexiness, and the audience cheers ecstatically. At the end of the trailer, Raiden crawls back up, humiliated and bruised.

* In the first season of ''Series/{{The Flash|2014}}'', Eobard Thawne (disguised as Harrison Wells) mentions several people, who were killed as a result of the particle accelerator explosion, one of whom is [[ComicBook/ElongatedMan Ralph Dibny]]. In season 4, we are introduced to Ralph Dibny, who is not only alive and well, but becomes a major character and the hero Elongated Man. The key here is Barry changing the timeline at the end of season 2 by saving his mother. He ends up undoing the Flashpoint timeline, but things are never quite the same again. Apparently, one of the minor changes is Ralph still being alive. In the season 5 opener, Ralph learns about time travel and suggests a possibility of him dying during the particle accelerator explosion in some hypothetical alternate timeline.

*** Just to make things ambiguous, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E12HellBent "Hell Bent"]] treats the half-human theory as a legitimate possibility for the first time in years, although the Doctor (characteristically) confirms nothing.

** An issue of ''[[ComicBook/AvengersTheInitiative Avengers: The Initiative]]'' revealed J. Jonah Jameson also really hates clones.

** Becomes part of an extended gag in a scene from Spider-Man[=/=][[ComicBook/FantasticFour Human Torch]] where Spider-Man and Torch find themselves reminiscing about old times:

** In ''[[ComicBook/EarthX Paradise X]]'', Officer Parker briefly considers the notion that the Comicbook/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy have come to the past to clone something, but immediately backtracks with a "No, don't even say the word 'clone'".

* A very meta BreatherEpisode of ComicBook/SpiderManDeadpool had Deadpool refer to the Green Goblin as "the guy who knocked up your girlfriend then killed her." Peter [[CanonDiscontinuity thankfully]] responded with confusion.
* There've been similar (but far fewer) jokes about the "Teen Tony" era of ''ComicBook/IronMan'', such as this bit from ''ComicBook/AvengersStandoff'':

'''Comicbook/{{Thor|2014}}:''' I thought you said you never wanted to talk about that.\\
'''ComicBook/TheVision:''' You ''did'' say that, Tony.

* In Franchise/TheDCU, the ''original'' Bat-Girl, Betty Kane, was retconned Comicbook/PostCrisis into always being called "Flamebird" aka Bette Kane, because writer Marv Wolfman hated that version of the character. But years later, in ''ComicBook/YoungJustice'', Flamebird meets the current Comicbook/{{Batgirl|2000}} and immediately says, "Batgirl? Been there, done that."
* Similarly, Pre-Crisis, one of the 70s-era Comicbook/TeenTitans was Mal Duncan, a BadassNormal who [[LegacyCharacter eventually adopted the name and costume]] of the Golden Age hero the Comicbook/{{Guardian}}. Post-Crisis, this never happened, and Mal instead called himself the Herald, a change that carried over to the ''Comicbook/{{New 52}}''. However, in the ''Comicbook/DCRebirth'' ''Titans'' series, Mal steals a suit of tactical body armor from Characters/{{Nightwing|DickGrayson}} that looks suspiciously like a modernized version of his old Guardian costume, complete with a gold mask.

* ''ComicBook/CountdownToFinalCrisis'' was such a calamitous and controversial series that despite its huge [[TheMultiverse multiversal]] scale, [[CanonDiscontinuity DC chose to ignore most of it within weeks of its completion]] (including, [[{{Irony}} ironically enough]], ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis'' itself). Even while it was being published, Creator/GeoffJohns included a lateral TakeThat in ''Booster Gold Vol. 2 #1'',[[note]]It was released on October 2007 -- ''Countdown'' began in May earlier that year and would end in April 2008[[/note]] where the time-travelling ComicBook/RipHunter wrote down [[TheBigBoard a chalkboard of notes]] to keep track of the current state of TheMultiverse, some of which being "DON'T WORRY ABOUT COUNTDOWN" followed by "focus elsewhere" in huge circles.

** Vegeta slams ''Dragonball Evolution'' in the high-school level of ''VideoGame/{{Scribblenauts}} Unlimited''.
--->'''Vegeta:''' A Saiyan in high school. That's fucking STUPID!
** Creator/TeamFourStar very much dislikes ''Anime/DragonBallEpisodeOfBardock'' for its nonsensical story and alterations to Bardock's character. [[Recap/DragonBallZAbridgedM5 Their abridged version]] of it has Bardock going Super Saiyan because he's enraged by how stupid it is that Freeza's death ball sent him back in time. The whole thing turns out to be a story Goku tells Gohan, who asks his father about things that don't make sense before it's revealed it's AllJustADream of Gohan's.

->'''Francine''': Stan, we had a dog already.\\
'''Stan''': I don't think so.\\
'''Francine''': We did! Five years ago you got Steve an old dog that peed dust and you killed it. We also had another dog named Fussy that you...didn't like or something.\\
'''Stan''': Francine, those were obviously dreams. I refuse to discuss your dreams in the daytime.
-->-- ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'', "Stan's Best Friend"

*** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E13ThePartingOfTheWays "The Parting of the Ways"]]: After it's revealed that the Daleks our heroes are facing were created by the Dalek Emperor from HumanResources, Rose points out that that makes them half-human. The Emperor immediately responds that "THOSE WRDS ARE BLASPHEMY!", followed by Daleks chanting "DO NOT BLASPHEME!"

[[caption-width-right:349:"We remember the ''[[https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/New_Fantastic_Four_(Earth-616) New Fantastic Four]]'', Spidey, [[AudienceAlienatingEra we just wish we didn't]]."]]

* ''ComicBook/CountdownToFinalCrisis'' was such a calamitous and controversial series that despite its huge [[TheMultiverse multiversal]] scale, [[CanonDiscontinuity DC chose to ignore most of it within weeks of its completion]] (including, [[{{Irony}} ironically enough]], ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis'' itself). Even while it was being published, Creator/GeoffJohns included a lateral TakeThat in ''Booster Gold Vol. 2 #1''[[note]]It was released on October 2007 -- ''Countdown'' began in May earlier that year and would end in April 2008[[/note]], where the time-travelling ComicBook/RipHunter wrote down [[TheBigBoard a chalkboard of notes]] to keep track of the current state of TheMultiverse, some of which being "DON'T WORRY ABOUT COUNTDOWN" followed by "focus elsewhere" in huge circles.

** It does this from time to time in regard to ''Anime/DragonBallGT''. The series' original pre-episode disclaimer[[note]]Before ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' was officially licensed[[/note]], which is read by a different character every time, read: "The following is a non-profit fan-based parody. ''Manga/DragonBall'', ''Anime/DragonBallZ'' and ''Dragon Ball GT'' are all owned by Creator/{{Funimation}}, Creator/ToeiAnimation, Fuji TV and Creator/AkiraToriyama. [[DigitalPiracyIsEvil Please support the official release]]." When Guru reads the disclaimer he sounds audibly shocked and/or disturbed by ''GT'''s presence, and when Mecha-Freeza reads it he [[VillainousBSoD glitches out]] over ''GT'', forcing his father King Cold to read the rest.

* ''Fanfic/ThereWasOnceAnAvengerFromKrypton'': The author's notes in Chapter 34 of ''The Girl Who Could Knock Out the Hulk'' addresses how the big reveal in that chapter connects to a couple of the author's earlier discontinued stories: [[spoiler: specifically, they are actually previous "iterations" of the Kryptonverse that Doom and original Reed tried with their {{Retconjuration}} alterations before reaching the one with Kara, and they show her glimpses of them when trying to convince her to join them.]]

*** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E13ThePartingOfTheWays "The Parting of the Ways"]]: After it's revealed that the Daleks our heroes are facing were created by the Dalek Emperor from HumanResources, Rose points out that that makes them half-human. The Emperor immediately responds that "[[AC:Those words are ''blasphemy!'']]", followed by Daleks chanting "[[AC:Do not blaspheme!]]"

** A couple of episodes parodied Carter's infamous "reproductive organs" speech from the pilot. ('''Carter:''' "God that's horrible! Who'd ''ever say that? "'')

** When Sam and Dean meet the prophet Chuck, he initially thinks he's a god, and that he caused it all, rather than just writing it down. He apologizes for all the pain and suffering, "the bugs", as well as "that ghost ship." Turns out [[spoiler: Chuck IS God]].
** In the 200th episode, Dean recaps to a ''Supernatural'' fangirl everything that happened since season 5 (in this universe the author stopped publishing books after "Swan Song"). The girl replies, "Wow... That is some of the [[SeasonalRot WORST fanfictions I have ever heard!]]".

* Doubles a ContinuityNod, but in the the japanese version of ''VideoGame/TeamSonicRacing'', Sonic brings up his first encounter with Silver during ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006''. Silver has no idea what he’s talking about [[spoiler: because the game’s ResetButtonEnding means those events technically never happened and Sonic is one of the only two people who remember it]].

* At the end of the first hand-drawn phase of ''Webcomic/BobAndGeorge'', George makes his debut in his superhero persona and [[http://www.bobandgeorge.com/archives/000610c introduces himself]] as "Spark", saying, "[[NoFourthWall It's the best the author could come up with.]]" When the hand-drawn comic was re-launched and [[http://www.bobandgeorge.com/archives/001004c George's superhero introduction is revisited]], he now calls himself "Blitz". When Bob/Napalm points out that this was not the name he gave out originally, George/Blitz claims that they never did that joke.

* ''Webcomic/{{Drowtales}}'' has been radically remade twice, so a few of these have come in to the new chapters. In chapter 1 Ariel has [[http://www.drowtales.com/mainarchive.php?sid=6136 a plushie of Syphile wearing her original all-red and black costume]], and in chapter 13 Ariel wonders aloud if she should try to shape change into a drider, causing Kyo'nne to comment on all the "[[http://www.drowtales.com/mainarchive.php?sid=5284 icky legs]]" at which point Ariel dismisses the idea. In the very early version of the story she turned into a drider a few times, but now it's explicitly stated that she doesn't have enough mass to pull that off.
* The "Second Eaton" story arc in ''Webcomic/{{Shortpacked}}'' was utterly loathed by the readers for a multitude of reasons, and was not referenced for years... until [[http://www.shortpacked.com/comic/citizen-dinobot 2010]].

** What makes it even more of a Discontinuity Nod is that we don't even see the real Team Avatar's reaction to this scene. Perhaps they decided to [[LetUsNeverSpeakOfThisAgain never speak of the actual incident again]][[note]]Since Aang was forced to lie in order for the two groups to stop fighting[[/note]].

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' had a SophomoreSlump, with the season's BigBad, Unalaq, being seen as a large part of the problem. The ClipShow "Remembances" has [[CrazyAwesome Varrick]] recap the show like an AbridgedSeries, during which he calls Unalaq "boring and unpopular" and has the other villains exclude him from their LegionOfDoom. This is in-character, given that Unalaq conquered Varrick's homeland, but also summarizes how most fans feel about him.

** The Disney-canon book "The Princess and the Scoundrel," about Han and Leia's wedding, includes a scene where Han realizes that the battle with the Empire's remnant will be going on for years and Leia will be right in the middle of it and her life will continue to be in danger. He momentarily thinks about grabbing her and flying off with her to some remote planet for them to spend the rest of their lives away from the war, but quickly decides against it on the grounds that Leia "would never forgive him" and "would probably shoot him" before he'd be able to carry out such a plan. This is possibly a shot at the much-maligned Legends-canon book about Han and Leia's wedding, "The Courtship of Princess Leia, in which Han DOES kidnap Leia and fly her off to a remote planet in an attempt to get her to marry him.

** In ''Anime/BardockTheFatherOfGoku Abridged'', as per the original special, Bardock has a DyingDream of Goku confronting Freeza. However, he then has visions of Cell and Majin Buu, to his confusion. And then he sees Goku and friends dealing with the Parapara Brothers from ''GT'', at which point he says "And now I welcome the sweet embrace of death."

* In the 1994 version of ''VideoGame/JumpStart Kindergarten'', there's a [[ShowWithinAShow video game within a computer game]] called "Pattern Blaster" which stars a mouse named Roquefort. In the 1998 version, however, Roquefort exists in the "real world" and there's a different mouse in Pattern Blaster named Brie. Sometimes, as Brie is eating a hunk of cheese, Roquefort comments, "Boy, I wish I was Brie right now."

** Another nod was made to the New Fantastic Four in the Venom arc, Circle of Four, with spin off characters of those that made the New FF (Spidey, Wolverine, Hulk and Ghost Rider) forming the circle of four to stop Earth from being swallowed by Hell; namely, Comicbook/{{Venom}}, [[Characters/MarvelComicsGammaMutates Red Hulk]], [[Characters/X23LauraKinney X-23]] and the [[LegacyCharacter third Ghost Rider]].

'''[[Characters/Avengers60sMembers The Vision]]:''' You ''did'' say that, Tony.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' had a SophmoreSlump, with the season's BigBad, Unalaq, being seen as a large part of the problem. The ClipShow "Remembances" has [[CrazyAwesome Varrick]] recap the show like an AbridgedSeries, during which he calls Unalaq "boring and unpopular" and has the other villains exclude him from their LegionOfDoom. This is in-character, given that Unalaq conquered Varrick's homeland, but also summarizes how most fans feel about him.

--->'''Goku:''' Man, this is worse than that time I was in high school, and all the guys called me "Geeko", and I was Piccolo's slave, I couldn't get Chi Chi to like me, and... Oh wow, I hit that rock harder'n I thought.

** In "The Apocalypse Element", the TARDIS opening to human eyes is apparently revealed to be due to the Sixth Doctor changing the Gallifreyan retinal systems to that of his companion to slow down a Dalek invasion. At the end he says this might linger on... and it's still there in the film.

** Becomes part of an extended gag in a scene from Spider-Man[=/=]ComicBook/HumanTorch where Spider-Man and Torch find themselves reminiscing about old times:

** ComicBook/{{Deadpool}} has been known to remark that he'd "be crucified if there was a clone in [[MediumAwareness this book]]".

** Another nod was made to the New Fantastic Four in the Venom arc, Circle of Four, with spin off characters of those that made the New FF (Spidey, Wolverine, Hulk and Ghost Rider) forming the circle of four to stop Earth from being swallowed by Hell; namely, Comicbook/{{Venom}}, Comicbook/RedHulk, Comicbook/{{X23}} and the [[LegacyCharacter third Ghost Rider]].

** One of the tidbits of advice that Peter gave ComicBook/MilesMorales during the ''ComicBook/SpiderMen'' crossover was to never ''ever'' allow anyone to clone him. Also never lend any money to ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} or ComicBook/{{Mockingbird}}.

'''Comicbook/TheVision:''' You ''did'' say that, Tony.

* Similarly, Pre-Crisis, one of the 70s-era Comicbook/TeenTitans was Mal Duncan, a BadassNormal who [[LegacyCharacter eventually adopted the name and costume]] of the Golden Age hero the Comicbook/{{Guardian}}. Post-Crisis, this never happened, and Mal instead called himself the Herald, a change that carried over to the ''Comicbook/{{New 52}}''. However, in the ''Comicbook/DCRebirth'' ''Titans'' series, Mal steals a suit of tactical body armor from Comicbook/{{Nightwing}} that looks suspiciously like a modernized version of his old Guardian costume, complete with a gold mask.

* In the third issue of the ''VideoGame/StarCraft'' comic, a ghost slaughters the inhabitants of Bhekar Ro. This was the planet that was featured in ''Shadow of the Xel'Naga'', a book by the oft-reviled Kevin J. Anderson that featured many aspects of things never seen before or since and full-blown continuity errors. While dark and depressing, fans were pleased.

* In ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcomInfinite'', ComicBook/WinterSoldier's intro dialog if he fights ComicBook/CaptainAmerica is "'Captain Hydra'? Gimme a break, Steve!", referring to [[ComicBook/SecretEmpire the infamous 2016 comic storyline]] where Cap was revealed to be a lifelong HYDRA supporter (which was quickly {{retcon}}ned away due to the immense public backlash).

** In ''VideoGame/MortalKombat9'', [[EvilSorceror Shang]] [[ShapeShifting Tsung's]] first fatality has him transform into a MonsterClown and [[BoomHeadshot blast the top of his opponent's head off with a gun]]. The fatality trainer mentions that Tsung "picked up a few tricks from previous opponents". Aside from the [[CaptainErsatz changed model]] (and the [[BloodierAndGorier lack of censorship]]), this fatality is the exact same as one of ComicBook/TheJoker's in ''VideoGame/MortalKombatVsDCUniverse'', which takes place outside of series continuity.

* ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner''

* Creator/{{Capcom}} loves to poke fun at the [[ContemptibleCover hideous American boxart]] for the original ''VideoGame/{{Mega Man|1}}'', starting with a sidequest involving "posters of heroes" in ''VideoGame/MegaManZX Advent'' where it was described as resembling a "colorful coal miner", continuing with the [[{{Retraux}} fake box art they commissioned]] for ''VideoGame/MegaMan9'' and ''VideoGame/MegaMan10'', drawn in a similar art style, and having Bad Box Art Mega Man as a playable character in ''VideoGame/StreetFighterXTekken''. Bad Box Art Mega Man was also set to be a playable character in the cancelled game ''Mega Man Universe''.