History UnintentionalPeriodPiece / SpecialCases

* ''Series/SoulTrain'': Mainly for The70s, but also for The80s, The90s and the early-to-mid-2000s. Watching an old episode of ''Soul Train'' makes for a great time capsule of the culture of whatever period it aired in, especially in regards to which R&B and hip-hop artists were popular at the time the episode originally aired.

** The games, especially ''Call of Duty 4'' and ''Modern Warfare 2'', are in a somewhat unique position as being a turning point for the "modern" FPS genre, and as such other contemporary-set shooters can usually be dated to before and after they came out. ''Call of Duty 4'' and shooters before it typically have slower action sequences with more downtime between them, a willingness to have setpieces that don't just involve loud shootouts (e.g. "All Ghillied Up" is so iconic because a "good" run involves nobody even realizing you're there, whether you silently pick them off or just sneak by them) and more authentic loadouts, e.g. ''[=CoD4=]''[='=]s most recent weapons still being almost a decade old as of its release and having already appeared in several other shooters before then. ''Modern Warfare 2'' set a precedent for much higher-octane and constantly-rolling action, with even intended stealth missions always having every other area punctuated with a big shootout, and featured many more weapons that were much more recent (many of which were still in the prototype phase at the time of the game's release, e.g. the TDI Vector and Bushmaster ACR) or [[RuleOfCool much more cool]] than a more realistic choice (e.g. every Humvee now has a [[GatlingGood minigun]] mounted on it rather than the more ubiquitous M2 machine gun, and the basic pump shotgun is switched from a Winchester 1300 to the more famous Franchi SPAS-12) and which lead further games, in attempts to raise the bar on that front, to frequently feature prototype weapons that ended up being wildly redesigned before they actually entered service at best, or never entering full production at worst; this quickly reached its peak with ''Modern Warfare 3'', which featured a prototype assault rifle from Peru before anyone outside of its designer even knew how it actually ''operated''.

** You can also, more oddly, date certain characters to when they showed up by looking at their movesets. Early additions tend to have much more basic movesets that don't really reference much of their games, sometimes even getting moves made up specifically for ''Smash'', or get updated to match new abilities in more recent games, while late additions tend to have almost ''every'' move in their arsenal being some kind of reference to their games, or are designed to play as they did in their original games as much as possible. Compare [[VideoGame/SuperSmashBros64 the original roster's]] inclusion of [[Franchise/{{Metroid}} Samus]] (a bit heavy on melee[[note]]Samus wouldn't get much in the way of proper melee attacks in her home series until ''VideoGame/MetroidSamusReturns'', which came out almost 20 years after the first ''Smash Bros''[[/note]] and missing some of her tricks like the shinespark, but otherwise relatively accurate -- but only up to ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'', despite every ''Smash'' appearance post-''Melee'' having several more games to draw inspiration from, which they only did in the manner of grabbing newer suit designs for alt colors -- while her [[VideoGame/MetroidZeroMission Zero Suit]] version from ''Brawl'' onward has an entirely made up new moveset) and Franchise/DonkeyKong (he's the only one of the original set who can move while carrying a crate or barrel, as he could do in ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry'', but his moveset is more that of a MightyGlacier focused on a MegatonPunch rather than his much faster, teamwork-centric and [[OneHitPointWonder easily-defeatable]] ''DKC'' style, and only one of his special moves[[note]] His Down special, the Hand Slap[[/note]] originates from his home series while the rest are entirely made up) to [[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosForNintendo3DSAndWiiU the fourth game's]] VideoGame/{{Mega Man|Classic}} (all of his moves are weapons from his series -- his basic attack is even simply firing his buster instead of a melee attack) and [[Franchise/StreetFighter Ryu]] (emulates ''Street Fighter'' game mechanics as closely as possible, including always facing the enemy in 1v1 situations and being able to use his special moves with the same button combos as in ''Street Fighter''). Bowser is an odd one, in that his personality is largely based on the pre-2000s bestial villain Bowser rather than the BoisterousBruiser AntiVillain he'd be written as in most of the games after his ''Smash'' debut -- in his case, it seems to also be that Sakurai [[ArmedWithCanon prefers that version]], an explanation most also feel is the reason Ganondorf continues to play as a slower and less flashy clone of [[VideoGame/FZero Captain Falcon]] rather than more accurately reflecting whichever game his current ''Smash'' appearance comes from.[[note]] until the fourth game, he didn't even have any direct attacks that reflected the fact that he's usually had a sword post-''Ocarina''.[[/note]]

** ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate'' averted this with DownloadableContent and special events that release characters, Spirits, and other assets from games which released after ''Ultimate''[='=]s development, such as [[VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses Byleth]] as a playable fighter, or Peachette from ''[[VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBrosU New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe]]'', Link from the remake of ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaLinksAwakening'', and various Pokémon from ''VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield'' as Spirits. However, the frequent updates and spirit board events lasted until November 2021, with ''VideoGame/MetroidDread'' being the most recent game represented in the series after its respective spirit board event.

** You can also, more oddly, date certain characters to when they showed up by looking at their movesets. Early additions tend to have much more basic movesets that don't really reference much of their games, sometimes even getting moves made up specifically for ''Smash'', or get updated to match new abilities in more recent games, while late additions tend to have almost ''every'' move in their arsenal being some kind of reference to their games, or are designed to play as they did in their original games as much as possible. Compare [[VideoGame/SuperSmashBros64 the original roster's]] inclusion of [[Franchise/{{Metroid}} Samus]] (a bit heavy on melee[[note]]Samus wouldn't get much in the way of proper melee attacks in her home series until ''VideoGame/MetroidSamusReturns'', which came out almost 20 years after the first ''Smash Bros''[[/note]] and missing some of her tricks like the shinespark, but otherwise relatively accurate -- but only up to ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'', despite every ''Smash'' appearance post-''Melee'' having several more games to draw inspiration from, which they only did in the manner of grabbing newer suit designs for alt colors -- while her [[VideoGame/MetroidZeroMission Zero Suit]] version from ''Brawl'' onward has an entirely made up new moveset) and Franchise/DonkeyKong (he's the only one of the original set who can move while carrying a crate or barrel, as he could do in ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry'', but his moveset is more that of a MightyGlacier focused on a MegatonPunch rather than his much faster, teamwork-centric and [[OneHitPointWonder easily-defeatable]] ''DKC'' style, and only one of his special moves[[note]] His Down special, the Hand Slap[[/note]] originates from his home series) to [[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosForNintendo3DSAndWiiU the fourth game's]] VideoGame/{{Mega Man|Classic}} (all of his moves are weapons from his series -- his basic attack is even simply firing his buster instead of a melee attack) and [[Franchise/StreetFighter Ryu]] (emulates ''Street Fighter'' game mechanics as closely as possible, including always facing the enemy in 1v1 situations and being able to use his special moves with the same button combos as in ''Street Fighter''). Bowser is an odd one, in that his personality is largely based on the pre-2000s bestial villain Bowser rather than the BoisterousBruiser AntiVillain he'd be written as in most of the games after his ''Smash'' debut -- in his case, it seems to also be that Sakurai [[ArmedWithCanon prefers that version]], an explanation most also feel is the reason Ganondorf continues to play as a slower and less flashy clone of [[VideoGame/FZero Captain Falcon]] rather than more accurately reflecting whichever game his current ''Smash'' appearance comes from.[[note]] until the fourth game, he didn't even have any direct attacks that reflected the fact that he's usually had a sword post-''Ocarina''.[[/note]]

Going beyond the setting, Niko's backstory is that of a veteran of UsefulNotes/TheYugoslavWars who is haunted by the atrocities that he and the men he served with committed, pinning the game to a time when the breakup of Yugoslavia was still within recent memory as a blood-soaked symbol of man's inhumanity to man and a veteran of such could still be a reasonably young man (at the time of the game's release, the last of the conflicts considered part of the wars had only ended seven years previously). The technology present is also emblematic of the mid- to late-2000s. Niko uses a big, chunky black cell phone with a monochrome screen for the first part of the game, with the [[https://gta.fandom.com/wiki/Communication?file=Whizcellphone-IV.png color-screen camera phone]] he receives shortly after reaching Algonquin treated as a luxury item, while smartphones are never even mentioned, which means you can only access the Web either at Internet cafès (which would be on their way out after 2010) or a laptop in your Algonquin safehouse, the in-game Internet being filled with parodies of Platform/MySpace, Yahoo!, Classmates.com, Jamster, Platform/YouTube (back when they were first getting embroiled in UsefulNotes/{{DMCA}} takedown controversies), Napster, ''VideoGame/SecondLife'', ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', and many, many Geocities lookalikes.[[labelnote:As for the expansions...]]In ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIVTheLostAndDamned The Lost and Damned]]'', Johnny's [[https://gta.fandom.com/wiki/Communication?file=Mobilephone-TLAD.png older, monochrome cell phone]] symbolizes his rough-hewn, impoverished life as an outlaw biker, while in ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIVTheBalladOfGayTony The Ballad of Gay Tony]]'', Luis has a [[https://gta.fandom.com/wiki/Communication?file=Mobilephone-TBOGT.png fancy camera phone]] to symbolize his comparatively glamorous lifestyle.[[/labelnote]] Niko's cousin Roman, meanwhile, owns a taxi company, and rideshare services, which took off as a serious competitor to taxis a few years after the game's release, are never mentioned with regards to his business.

*** The second ExpansionPack for the game, ''The Ballad Of Gay Tony'', heavily revolves around the eponymous Gay Tony's clubs and managing them, at a time when the Hollywood club scene was at its peak. Some of the celebrities that appear are parodies of Nicole Richie, Creator/LindsayLohan, Creator/ParisHilton, and Music/BritneySpears (particularly referencing her breakdown that happened two years prior to the game's release), all of whom were associated with the scene in some way. In addition, the game features a parody of Platform/{{Twitter}} when the site was first growing in popularity.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' [[UnintentionalPeriodPiece/TheSimpsons needed its own page]].
* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' having run for [[LongRunners over twenty years]], is famous for being ''very'' topical in its humor, as its extremely short lead time (with each episode being [[ProductionLeadTime written, animated, and edited in the course of a week]]), allows for ''[[RippedFromTheHeadlines very]]'' [[RippedFromTheHeadlines precise and topical humor]] that often becomes dated in less than a year and, thus, it's easy for even a casual viewer to determine what year any given episode was first aired without viewing the end credits. As such, it has lampooned every hot topic in pop culture, politics, and American (and occasionally Canadian) society as a whole that has cropped up during its run, from Music/BarbraStreisand, ''VideoGame/{{Pokemon}}'' and ''Series/TheXFiles'' in the 1990s to UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror, ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', and Creator/TomCruise's public meltdown in the 2000s to LetsPlay/PewDiePie, safe spaces, ''Literature/TheTwilightSaga'', ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'', ''VideoGame/{{Fortnite}}'' and pop culture nostalgia in the 2010s to the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic in the '20s. That said, being the textbook example of an AnimatedShockComedy, the cartoon's use of [[VulgarHumor raunchy]] and [[BottomOfTheBarrelJoke offensive humor]] rife with [[TheNewRockAndRoll controversial shock value]] that attracted the attention of MoralGuardians, endless celebrity-bashing, nihilistic attitude, [[FilibusterFreefall overly libertarian politics]] and [[BothSidesHaveAPoint "both sides" approach]] to every real-life topic identify it as a cultural product of the late 90s and 2000s.
** ''WesternAnimation/SouthParkBiggerLongerAndUncut'' references "Don't Ask Don't Tell", ''Film/FreeWilly'', ''[[Series/LateNight Late Night With Conan O'Brien]]'', UsefulNotes/SaddamHussein, and the V-Chip.
** Saddam Hussein was a recurring character early in the series (his first episode being "Terrence and Phillip: Not Without My Anus" in April 1998). He abruptly stopped appearing after May 2003 -- he had one episode after that point, "It's Christmas in Canada" (December 2003), which has him being dragged out of a hiding hole in a clear reference to his then-contemporary capture by American soldiers.
** "The Tooth Fairy's Tats 2000" revolves around Cartman wanting to get a Platform/SegaDreamcast, which would be overshadowed by the [=PlayStation=] 2 not long after its original air date, and discontinued close to a year after the episode aired.
** One episode from 2001 tries to show how Tolkien's family is relatively wealthy by having them as the only people in town with a DVD player while everyone else uses VHS tapes. A later 2012 episode has Stan saying that renting [=DVDs=] "is more ancient than Music/{{Madonna}}'s boobs".
** The episode "[[Recap/SouthParkS5E9OsamaBinLadenHasFartyPants Osama bin Laden Has Farty Pants]]" (the first post-9/11 episode) has people worrying about terrorism and anthrax attacks. Plus, with Osama's death in 2011...
** A 2004 episode has the town's girls (with the exception of Wendy) wanting to be "[[BeAWhoreToGetYourMan stupid spoiled whores]]" [[TakeThat just like]] Creator/ParisHilton (and Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and Tara Reid too), skimpy clothes and fake tans included.
** Another episode pokes fun at "zero tolerance" bullying policies at schools ([[BlamingTheVictim by painting the bullied ones as being worse than the bullies]]) at a time these were seen as rather controversial.
** "[[Recap/SouthParkS12E4CanadaOnStrike Canada on Strike]]", aside from the RippedFromTheHeadlines nature of the titular strike attacking the '07-08 writer's strike, features the overall message that [[ItWillNeverCatchOn the internet isn't a proven revenue source and people shouldn't expect to make careers off it]]. It goes so far as to feature a whole bunch of Youtube viral stars, rooted in the "cute animals and weird people singing or getting in slapstick" era of the site, and treats their attempts to make money as idiotic ("theoretically, I'm a millionaire!"). Inside of a few years, streaming through Netflix or other services would become one of the most lucrative revenue sources around, and many Youtubers have managed to leverage the site into profitable ventures and careers--primarily through gaming and LetsPlay streams, which aren't even mentioned. Even at the time, the creators had managed to score a pretty lucrative deal for putting ''South Park'' on streaming sites, so they should probably have recognized that it was about to get big.
** "[[Recap/SouthParkS16E13AScauseForApplause A Scause for Applause]]" ends with Jesus leading the townspeople in a "Free Pussy Riot" rally, which became this after the members of Pussy Riot were freed in 2013.
** [[WordOfGod Matt and Trey]] seem to have become aware of this in recent years, and the 2015 season takes some jabs at the show's 2000ish nature as it mockingly "transitions" into the 2010s with an emphasis on "political correctness".

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'' has this tendency as well, but it's not as obvious as some other shows, mostly because explicit references to ongoing pop-culture were avoided in favor of using {{exp|y}}ies. It's better at this than other series, however early seasons look fairly late '90s-early 2000s with things like how one of the Tough Customers, Molly, dresses in grunge, everyone has boxy computer monitors, and the fact it had a Music/BackstreetBoys episode and the U.S President is based specifically on UsefulNotes/BillClinton.
** "Arthur's Chicken Pox" from season 1 is a ChickenPoxEpisode that mentions it being a normal illness; nowadays, it's not as common thanks to vaccines.
** Mary Moo Cow's status as a KidsShowMascotParody makes her something of a relic of the time when the [[invoked]] PeripheryHatedom of ''Series/BarneyAndFriends'' was starting to hit the mainstream.
** In "Poor Muffy" from 1996, Muffy is shocked and horrified that Francine doesn't own a VCR. It was a status symbol back then to show Muffy's spoiled nature, but watching it now seems laughable, as [=VCRs=] were phased out in the 2000s.
** "Attack of the Turbo Tibbles" features a ''Franchise/PowerRangers''-like TV show. When the Tibbles turn it on at D.W.'s house, her mother quickly warns them against it due to its violent content. This was an actual concern at the time, but by today's standards seems laughable.
** Four-year-old D.W. rides in a booster seat in the family car in newer seasons, but did not in episodes that aired in the 1990s, reflecting a societal shift in child safety.
** "The Contest" features spoofs of many different shows, such as ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'' and ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHead''. Only ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' is still airing, which itself is a LongRunner.
** In "Best of the Nest", Mr. Ratburn has no idea how to use the Internet and has to be shown by Brain. While this wasn't too implausible in 2001 when the episode aired, the idea of an adult his age -- ''especially'' a teacher -- being unfamiliar with the Internet would be downright laughable nowadays.
** "Arthur's T.V. Free Week" aired during a time where the most technology kids had, aside from T.V. itself, were video games, and probably computers. With technology such as smartphones and tablets, not to mention the ''internet'', becoming near-ubiquitous, kids struggling to merely not use a television set seems pretty quaint, as they could easily distract themselves from a T.V. with these things. Each of these also allow a person to watch anything they want at a whim. These days, the concern is that kids (and society) are often too addicted to technology in general, so a more modern take on this episode would likely be something along the lines of "Arthur's Technology-Free Week".
** In the episode "In My Africa", D.W. and Cheikh, her new friend from Senegal, celebrate the cultures of all 54 African countries that existed at the time. Two months after its U.S. premiere, UsefulNotes/SouthSudan declared independence, making 5''5'' African countries.
** "Desert Island Dish" (2006) prominently features the USDA's [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MyPyramid MyPyramid]], even having an animation of the man running up the pyramid. This nutrition guide was phased out in 2011, replaced by [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MyPlate MyPlate]].
** "When Carl Met George", which aired in 2010, specifies that Carl has Asperger's syndrome. Asperger's was removed as a diagnosis three years later in 2013, and is now generally just described as high-functioning autism.
** One episode has him watching an expy of ''Series/BreakingTheMagiciansCodeMagicsBiggestSecretsFinallyRevealed''.
** In "Play It Again, DW", DW loses her Crazy Bus CD and is upset about not being able to listen to the song as a result. These days, DW could likely find the song on the Internet for free, as sites like [=YouTube=] and Spotify allow people to listen to specific songs this way.

** "The Tooth Fairy's Tats 2000" revolves around Cartman wanting to get aPlatform/SegaDreamcast, which would be overshadowed by the [=PlayStation=] 2 not long after its original air date, and discontinued close to a year after the episode aired.

** Pages about niche works are rarely updated to reflect negative developments (whether it's [[SeasonalRot merely poor reaction to later material]] or full-on RoleEndingMisdemeanor on the creator's part), which can lead to an odd dissonance where a given work or creator becomes [[SnarkBait widely mocked and disliked]] but the page and its YMMV items are written as if the thing in question is still popular and universally beloved. This particularly hits online video makers due to how volatile the space is.

* ''WebAnimation/AnimatorVsAnimation'' can more or less be traced year by year, given that the entire concept is a stickman rampaging across a guy's computer and desktop, with programs coming and going as a real-life tech-savvy person would adopt and get rid of them. For instance, the third short is a cavalcade of all things from the late XP era, from bundled games like TabletopGame/{{Solitaire}} and ''VideoGame/{{Minesweeper}}'', to Clippy, to AOL Instant Messenger, to Firefox being the big dog while Chrome was just taking off. The 2014 short has an operating system that looks like Windows 7, Chrome as the main browser, and Facebook and and an [=iPhone=] as significant plot elements.

* ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics'' inevitably ran into this during its 24 year run, being based on a long running video game franchise that has shifted repeatedly in direction and added new concepts and characters as time went on. The series often [[ProductPlacement promote]] the latest game (and prior to 2001, SEGA console), and to start with, since Sonic's lore was [[ExcusePlot threadbare]] in 1993, it cribbed characters from ''WesternAnimation/SonicTheHedgehogSatAM'' while [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness initially]] having a tone closer to ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog'', which both premiered the same year as the comic, with Sonic's TotallyRadical characterization in these works to go with it. The early gag-focused issues frequently make pop culture references to such things as ''Film/JurassicPark'' and lampoon the excesses of UsefulNotes/TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks, which became quite ironic when CerebusSyndrome came in full force a few years later. When ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure'' came out and refreshed the main characters' looks, so did the comic, and the art became more Animesque in look, reflecting the medium's western boom around the same time. This did not stop with Ian Flynn's takeover of the title, as he snuck in references to YoutubePoop in a couple issues in the late 2000s. It is possible to identify when a given issue came out by the art, characters, writers and most of all continuity, due to a [[ScrewedByTheLawyers lawsuit-induced]] CosmicRetcon chucking out decades of continuity in favor of starting from scratch and redesigning the [=SatAM=]-original cast starting with issue 252 of the main title.

** [[http://www.gocomics.com/foxtrot/2010/10/31 This strip]] has Jason dress up as Creator/GeorgeLucas for Halloween, saying that it's horrifying because Lucas plans to rerelease all the ''Franchise/StarWars'' films in [[UsefulNotes/ThreeDMovie 3D]]. Two years after the strip was made, Lucas sold the ''Star Wars'' franchise to Disney, who discontinued the project in favor of releasing new movies, such as ''Film/TheForceAwakens'', leaving ''The Phantom Menace'' as the only one converted to 3D.

Going beyond the setting, Niko's backstory is that of a veteran of UsefulNotes/TheYugoslavWars who is haunted by the atrocities that he and the men he served with committed, pinning the game to a time when the breakup of Yugoslavia was still within recent memory as a blood-soaked symbol of man's inhumanity to man and a veteran of such could still be a reasonably young man (at the time of the game's release, the last of the conflicts considered part of the wars had only ended seven years previously). The technology present is also emblematic of the mid- to late-2000s. Niko uses a big, chunky black cell phone with a monochrome screen for the first part of the game, with the [[https://gta.fandom.com/wiki/Communication?file=Whizcellphone-IV.png color-screen camera phone]] he receives shortly after reaching Algonquin treated as a luxury item, while smartphones are never even mentioned, which means you can only access the Web either at Internet cafès (which would be on their way out after 2010) or a laptop in your Algonquin safehouse, the in-game Internet being filled with parodies of Website/MySpace, Yahoo!, Classmates.com, Jamster, Platform/YouTube (back when they were first getting embroiled in UsefulNotes/{{DMCA}} takedown controversies), Napster, ''VideoGame/SecondLife'', ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', and many, many Geocities lookalikes.[[labelnote:As for the expansions...]]In ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIVTheLostAndDamned The Lost and Damned]]'', Johnny's [[https://gta.fandom.com/wiki/Communication?file=Mobilephone-TLAD.png older, monochrome cell phone]] symbolizes his rough-hewn, impoverished life as an outlaw biker, while in ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIVTheBalladOfGayTony The Ballad of Gay Tony]]'', Luis has a [[https://gta.fandom.com/wiki/Communication?file=Mobilephone-TBOGT.png fancy camera phone]] to symbolize his comparatively glamorous lifestyle.[[/labelnote]] Niko's cousin Roman, meanwhile, owns a taxi company, and rideshare services, which took off as a serious competitor to taxis a few years after the game's release, are never mentioned with regards to his business.
*** The second ExpansionPack for the game, ''The Ballad Of Gay Tony'', heavily revolves around the eponymous Gay Tony's clubs and managing them, at a time when the Hollywood club scene was at its peak. Some of the celebrities that appear are parodies of Nicole Richie, Creator/LindsayLohan, Creator/ParisHilton, and Music/BritneySpears (particularly referencing her breakdown that happened two years prior to the game's release), all of whom were associated with the scene in some way. In addition, the game features a parody of Website/{{Twitter}} when the site was first growing in popularity.

The technology has also advanced with the times. ''All'' of the main characters, even the [[LowerClassLout white-trash]] Trevor and the {{gang banger|s}} Franklin, have smartphones with full internet access,[[labelnote:*]]It's especially highlighted when you go back to the opening tutorial mission, which is [[TwentyMinutesIntoThePast set in 2004]] and has Michael carrying [[https://gta.fandom.com/wiki/Communication?file=CelltowaCellphone-GTAV-Contacts.png an old-fashioned, text-only device with physical buttons]] much like what Niko, Johnny, and Luis used in ''GTA IV''.[[/labelnote]] and on that internet, one now finds parodies of Website/{{Twitter}}, Tinder, Kickstarter, and most notably Website/{{Facebook}}, whose CEO and headquarters show up in the game in a vicious TakeThat at contemporary Silicon Valley tech culture. The Website/MySpace parody [=MyRoomOnline=] is still around, but has been rendered "the ghost town of the internet" by the Facebook parody [=LifeInvader=], with its site still up almost solely to announce that its domain name is for sale. Beyond that, the [[Radio/GTARadio in-game media]] is filled with parodies of such late '00s/early '10s touchstones as ''Literature/FiftyShadesOfGrey'', ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'', the New Atheism movement, "cash for gold" websites, vaping, Whole Foods, American Apparel, freeganism, and the push for marijuana legalization.

** Other entries or even pages can be dated with changes in naming conventions (Administrivia/NoNewStockPhrases, tropes named after a character or a then-recent pop culture reference, etc.). While most have been renamed, the [[Administrivia/RenamedTropes rename history]] and redirects still show the tendencies of the time. Alternatively, there's even the style in which they're edited, even if you have to look at the page source itself to see it -- for instance, an older link to a work's sequel, before it got its own page, will frequently have a pothole to the main work's page consisting of... the main work's name typed out again, just with a number added, to say nothing of how quickly dated locked pages become, either from tropes that have since been renamed (e.g. a reference to "The Yoshi" rather than PowerupMount), memes that have since fallen out of style (such as the prevalence of linking to EpicFail before about 2011), or massive shake-ups in the subject itself that would be impossible to go unmentioned if the page were unlocked (e.g. Website/{{Tumblr}}'s infamous porn ban in late 2018, which saw one whole ''third'' of its userbase leaving the platform, gets little more than a passing mention).

* The [[https://fanlore.org/wiki/Fandom_Wank_Wiki Fanlore wiki]] is an inherently dated concept; cataloging fandom drama in a snarky way was seen as a way to teach people what not to do in a fandom at the time, but once people seriously began reckoning with cyberbullying and online harassment, the idea largely became seen as completely unacceptable and a way of making a problem worse. Besides that, the website mostly owes itself to Platform/{{Livejournal}} fandom culture, which was a dominant force in the aughts and early tens, but almost completely evaporated due to Website/{{Tumblr}}, and later on Website/{{Twitter}} and Platform/{{DeviantArt}}, stealing most of its userbase. Quite a few articles on the site talk about controversies that are now mostly forgotten or fandom trends that have long since evaporated, such as Creator/CassandraClare's various dramas or Creator/AnneRice's crusades against fanfiction. There's also a heavy focus on ''Franchise/HarryPotter'', which was at its peak in that period. While there are still a good number of people keeping the lights on and making pages for more modern fandoms and controversies, it's clear that the vast majority of activity on the site is over a decade old.
* The failure of Website/MySpace was largely because the website didn't innovate in time. The design during its zenith (2005-2006) was largely what one could expect of most websites in the early 2000s. The problem was that the internet moved on from that. The bulky, cumbersome, and unintuitive design of flash over substance that [=MySpace=] reeked of was quickly supplanted by sites like Facebook, which went for quick, efficient access, and sleek design. [=MySpace=] often had an air of a very high-end Website/GeoCities type of website. And that was further hurt by profile customization: Anyone with the power to create a [=MySpace=] profile had the power to show everyone just how terrible they were at web design. In the age of easy access with simplified layouts (which is especially a MUST for the mobile aspect of the internet, which was another failure on [=MySpace=]'s behalf), [=MySpace=] clung to a bulky, unintuitive interface (that was still very buggy to boot) for too long. And once it stagnated as the once popular party that most people abandoned, it especially couldn't shake the stigma of being "so 2005".

* The UsefulNotes/{{Golden Raspberry Award}}s are a long-term, unapologetic victim of this trope. Many of the "winners" and "nominees" are [[ItsPopularNowItSucks whatever's "hot" to hate on at the time]]--and in hindsight, many of the choices can reek of ValuesDissonance (for example, they've been known to heavily target films starring and aimed at women, African-Americans, and the LGBTQ+ community). Many films that Golden Raspberry fans and voters once tended to push as "the worst movies ever made" are now either mostly forgotten (even by cinephiles at large), or ended up VindicatedByHistory in the long run. Case in point: Creator/StanleyKubrick was nominated for Worst Director for ''Film/TheShining'', which is now considered a beloved horror classic. This goes back to the very first Worst Picture "winner", ''Film/CantStopTheMusic'', which got targeted for ridicule simply for being a celebration of disco. But disco has been largely re-embraced by the general public since then, and the anti-disco backlash of the '70s and '80s is now widely recognized as being borne from racism and homophobia.

** The show was released between 1999 and 2007, but the show rarely mentions dates. Nonetheless, the time of the setting is made easily apparently by late '90s/early '00s conventions like [=RadioShack=], Blockbuster Video, Music/{{Slipknot}}, pagers (in earlier episodes), flip cellphones (in later episodes), CRT televisions, the UsefulNotes/PlayStation2, Platform/Nintendo64, UsefulNotes/TheYugoslavWars, and of course a prominent shot of the Twin Towers in the opening. Episodes filmed after 9/11 removed the shot from the opening and had characters make references to the event (sort of inevitable, as the show is set near New York).

* Most political jokes really date the work they are in. After a few years out of office, any jokes about President or Prime Minister (insert name here) aren't going to be relevant and have the added downside of showing what political biases the author had.

** You can also, more oddly, date certain characters to when they showed up by looking at their movesets. Early additions tend to have much more basic movesets that don't really reference much of their games, sometimes even getting moves made up specifically for ''Smash'', or get updated to match new abilities in more recent games, while late additions tend to have almost ''every'' move in their arsenal being some kind of reference to their games, or are designed to play as they did in their original games as much as possible. Compare [[VideoGame/SuperSmashBros64 the original roster's]] inclusion of [[Franchise/{{Metroid}} Samus]] (a bit heavy on melee[[note]]Samus wouldn't get much in the way of proper melee attacks in her home series until ''VideoGame/MetroidSamusReturns'', which came out almost 20 years after the first ''Smash Bros''[[/note]] and missing some of her tricks like the shinespark, but otherwise relatively accurate -- but only up to ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'', despite every ''Smash'' appearance post-''Melee'' having several more games to draw inspiration from, which they only did in the manner of grabbing newer suit designs for alt colors -- while her [[VideoGame/MetroidZeroMission Zero Suit]] version from ''Brawl'' onward has an entirely made up new moveset) and Franchise/DonkeyKong (he's the only one of the original set who can move while carrying a crate or barrel, as he could do in ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry'', but his moveset is more that of a MightyGlacier focused on a MegatonPunch rather than his much faster, teamwork-centric and [[OneHitPointWonder easily-defeatable]] ''DKC'' style) to [[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosForNintendo3DSAndWiiU the fourth game's]] VideoGame/{{Mega Man|Classic}} (all of his moves are weapons from his series -- his basic attack is even simply firing his buster instead of a melee attack) and [[Franchise/StreetFighter Ryu]] (emulates ''Street Fighter'' game mechanics as closely as possible, including always facing the enemy in 1v1 situations and being able to use his special moves with the same button combos as in ''Street Fighter''). Bowser is an odd one, in that his personality is largely based on the pre-2000s bestial villain Bowser rather than the BoisterousBruiser AntiVillain he'd be written as in most of the games after his ''Smash'' debut -- in his case, it seems to also be that Sakurai [[ArmedWithCanon prefers that version]], an explanation most also feel is the reason Ganondorf continues to play as a slower and less flashy clone of [[VideoGame/FZero Captain Falcon]] rather than more accurately reflecting whichever game his current ''Smash'' appearance comes from.[[note]] until the fourth game, he didn't even have any direct attacks that reflected the fact that he's usually had a sword post-''Ocarina''.[[/note]]

** You can also, more oddly, date certain characters to when they showed up by looking at their movesets. Early additions tend to have much more basic movesets that don't really reference much of their games or get updated to match new abilities in more recent games, while late additions tend to have almost ''every'' move in their arsenal being some kind of reference to their games, or are designed to play as they did in their original games as much as possible. Compare [[VideoGame/SuperSmashBros64 the original roster's]] inclusion of [[Franchise/{{Metroid}} Samus]] (a bit heavy on melee[[note]]Samus wouldn't get much in the way of proper melee attacks in her home series until ''VideoGame/MetroidSamusReturns'', which came out almost 20 years after the first ''Smash Bros''[[/note]] and missing some of her tricks like the shinespark, but otherwise relatively accurate -- but only up to ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'', despite every ''Smash'' appearance post-''Melee'' having several more games to draw inspiration from, which they only did in the manner of grabbing newer suit designs for alt colors -- while her [[VideoGame/MetroidZeroMission Zero Suit]] version from ''Brawl'' onward has an entirely made up new moveset) and Franchise/DonkeyKong (he's the only one of the original set who can move while carrying a crate or barrel, as he could do in ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry'', but his moveset is more that of a MightyGlacier focused on a MegatonPunch rather than his much faster, teamwork-centric and [[OneHitPointWonder easily-defeatable]] ''DKC'' style) to [[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosForNintendo3DSAndWiiU the fourth game's]] VideoGame/{{Mega Man|Classic}} (all of his moves are weapons from his series -- his basic attack is even simply firing his buster instead of a melee attack) and [[Franchise/StreetFighter Ryu]] (emulates ''Street Fighter'' game mechanics as closely as possible, including always facing the enemy in 1v1 situations and being able to use his special moves with the same button combos as in ''Street Fighter''). Bowser is an odd one, in that his personality is largely based on the pre-2000s bestial villain Bowser rather than the BoisterousBruiser AntiVillain he'd be written as in most of the games after his ''Smash'' debut -- in his case, it seems to also be that Sakurai [[ArmedWithCanon prefers that version]], an explanation most also feel is the reason Ganondorf continues to play as a slower and less flashy clone of [[VideoGame/FZero Captain Falcon]] rather than more accurately reflecting whichever game his current ''Smash'' appearance comes from.[[note]] until the fourth game, he didn't even have any direct attacks that reflected the fact that he's usually had a sword post-''Ocarina''.[[/note]]

* This also occurs with works that don't make real world references. In ''[[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Super Mario]]'' spin-offs, there would always be elements from the then-latest main game which were not retained after the next main game came out. Platform/{{S|uperNintendoEntertainmentSystem}}NES-era spinoffs took a lot of influence from ''VideOGame/SuperMarioWorld'', with ''VideoGame/SuperMarioKart'' having Donut Plains, Vanilla Lake and Chocolate Island tracks being a prime example. Meanwhile, Platform/{{N|intendo64}}64-era ones took influence from ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'' (note all the blue Thwomps in spinoffs of the time, and ''VideoGame/MarioKart64'' included a recreation of the front of Peach's castle off the beaten path of Royal Raceway). [[Platform/NintendoGameCube GameCube-era]] games took a lot of inspiration from ''VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine'', notably with the constant undercurrent that they were set in the tropics rather than in the Mushroom Kingdom (especially noticeable in ''VideoGame/MarioKartDoubleDash'' with Peach Beach, which is heavily based off Isle Delfino, even featuring Piantas as audience members and Cataquack enemies as obstacles), while also taking some cues from ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion'' (like Luigi's frequent use of the Poltergust 3000 and King Boo starting to appear as a playable character). [[Platform/NintendoWii Wii-era]] ones would in turn drop that tropical setting as they looked to ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy'' (Rosalina and the Lumas showing up everywhere) and ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBrosWii'' (bringing the setting back to the Mushroom Kingdom) for inspiration. The Platform/NintendoSwitch era often looks into ''VideoGame/SuperMario3DWorld'' and ''VideoGame/SuperMarioOdyssey'' for inspiration, with Pauline starting to become a regular in Mario spin-offs and stages inspired in both games starting to show up everywhere.

** In one 1970s strip, Lucy and Sally talk about how little a bug knows, and cites Creator/FarrahFawcett and Creator/MaryTylerMoore as examples of its ignorance. Nowadays, it's hard to imagine children their age knowing who those two are (or rather, were).

* The UsefulNotes/{{Golden Raspberry Award}}s are a long-term, unapologetic victim of this trope. Many of the "winners" and "nominees" are [[ItsPopularNowItSucks whatever's "hot" to hate on at the time]], and in later years some of the "nominations" can reek of ValuesDissonance (for example, deeming the LGBTQ+ community, films starring and aimed towards women or films starring and aimed towards African-Americans as acceptable to mock). This is to the point where some of the films the ceremony's defenders, foundation members and fans try to push as "the worst movies ever made" are either mostly now forgotten, even by [=cinephiles=] at large, or ended up vindicated in some way or another by the general public. This status goes back to the ''very first "winner"'', ''Film/CantStopTheMusic'', which is a celebration of disco--a genre that has been VindicatedByHistory and its backlash re-evaluated as born out of racism and homophobia.

Going beyond the setting, Niko's backstory is that of a veteran of UsefulNotes/TheYugoslavWars who is haunted by the atrocities that he and the men he served with committed, pinning the game to a time when the breakup of Yugoslavia was still within recent memory as a blood-soaked symbol of man's inhumanity to man and a veteran of such could still be a reasonably young man (at the time of the game's release, the last of the conflicts considered part of the wars had only ended seven years previously). The technology present is also emblematic of the mid- to late-2000s. Niko uses a big, chunky black cell phone with a monochrome screen for the first part of the game, with the [[https://gta.fandom.com/wiki/Communication?file=Whizcellphone-IV.png color-screen camera phone]] he receives shortly after reaching Algonquin treated as a luxury item, while smartphones are never even mentioned, which means you can only access the Web either at Internet cafès (which would be on their way out after 2010) or a laptop in your Algonquin safehouse, the in-game Internet being filled with parodies of Website/MySpace, Yahoo!, Classmates.com, Jamster, Website/YouTube (back when they were first getting embroiled in UsefulNotes/{{DMCA}} takedown controversies), Napster, ''VideoGame/SecondLife'', ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', and many, many Geocities lookalikes.[[labelnote:As for the expansions...]]In ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIVTheLostAndDamned The Lost and Damned]]'', Johnny's [[https://gta.fandom.com/wiki/Communication?file=Mobilephone-TLAD.png older, monochrome cell phone]] symbolizes his rough-hewn, impoverished life as an outlaw biker, while in ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIVTheBalladOfGayTony The Ballad of Gay Tony]]'', Luis has a [[https://gta.fandom.com/wiki/Communication?file=Mobilephone-TBOGT.png fancy camera phone]] to symbolize his comparatively glamorous lifestyle.[[/labelnote]] Niko's cousin Roman, meanwhile, owns a taxi company, and rideshare services, which took off as a serious competitor to taxis a few years after the game's release, are never mentioned with regards to his business.

* This may have contributed to why ''Website/GoAnimate'' was updated and retooled to an [=HTML 5=] business-friendly animation site in 2015. Back when the site was released in 2007, it featured then-popular crazes such a parody of the ''Advertising/GetAMac'' campaign, caricatures of figures such as candidates of the 2008 US election, Music/BritneySpears, Creator/ParisHilton, and jokes about Osama bin Laden's hiding. The site's next change in 2010, while keeping the past themes, incorporated a newer Flash software. It also introduced the famous Comedy World (based on adult animation, especially ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy''), Anime and 2012 US election themes, text-to-speech voices, which led to the "grounded video" trend the site has become famous for and a larger following. However, as the site started to lose relevance and losing out to competitors in 2015, CEO Alvin Hung retooled the site to remove the outdated Flash themes and focus the site entirely on business animation aspects. Despite the outcry at first, past users have since moved to other animation sites, and some have accepted the changes.

* Many ''[[WebAnimation/Supermarioglitchy4sSuperMario64Bloopers SMG4]]'' videos have a tendency of [[ReferenceOverdosed referencing various memes and franchises]] that were popular at the time they were uploaded. Because of this, it can be easier to tell when a video was made. This is ''especially'' evident with "breaking walls", which featured Website/YouTube the way it was when the video was uploaded in 2012.

* The [[https://fanlore.org/wiki/Fandom_Wank_Wiki Fanlore wiki]] is an inherently dated concept; cataloging fandom drama in a snarky way was seen as a way to teach people what not to do in a fandom at the time, but once people seriously began reckoning with cyberbullying and online harassment, the idea largely became seen as completely unacceptable and a way of making a problem worse. Besides that, the website mostly owes itself to Website/{{Livejournal}} fandom culture, which was a dominant force in the aughts and early tens, but almost completely evaporated due to Website/{{Tumblr}}, and later on Website/{{Twitter}} and Website/{{DeviantArt}}, stealing most of its userbase. Quite a few articles on the site talk about controversies that are now mostly forgotten or fandom trends that have long since evaporated, such as Creator/CassandraClare's various dramas or Creator/AnneRice's crusades against fanfiction. There's also a heavy focus on ''Franchise/HarryPotter'', which was at its peak in that period. While there are still a good number of people keeping the lights on and making pages for more modern fandoms and controversies, it's clear that the vast majority of activity on the site is over a decade old.

* Any Website/YouTube video that pokes fun at, really, ''anything'' about the site itself, as it changes constantly and extensively. References to one-to-five-star ratings make no sense after the site switched to a simple like/dislike rating system, and later the counter showing "dislikes" disappeared completely. Any video [[PleaseSubscribeToOurChannel asking you to subscribe]] and pointing out where the subscribe button is will invariably point in the wrong direction because, as soon as video creators start getting clever about that (or start thinking little enough of their viewers that they find it necessary, depending on your interpretation), it moves to a completely different spot. Depictions of the site itself look noticeably off when the entire site layout changes seemingly for no other reason than an aversion to being depicted as it currently appears. And so on.

* Unless your AbridgedSeries is particularly clever, the shelf life of several jokes can really suffer when they hinge on the current state of Website/YouTube, internet drama, and which acceptable targets are in vogue. ''WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries'' is very dated, but due to the GrandfatherClause of founding the entire genre to begin with, it's largely given a pass or only gently mocked at worst. As an example, the famous Creator/FourKidsEntertainment jokes have long since stopped being current, as their dubbing practices have faded with the times, but the fact that they're such iconic jokes, and that [=4Kids=]' reputation will outlive them for some time, still keeps them funny.

* Pro wrestling has traditionally tried to avoid this, not because it would cause their matches to become dated (only since the age of television have the matches actually been recorded for posterity, the wrestling companies pride themselves on never showing reruns, and much of the match's story content is [[SevenYearRule pretty interchangeable anyway]]), but because wrestling is supposed to exist in its own peculiar fantasy world of {{Kayfabe}}, and allowing too much of the real world to seep through would spoil this illusion. At least, that was the case until the late 1990s, when the Wrestling/{{WW|E}}F (and, to a lesser extent, Wrestling/{{WCW}}) developed a ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark''-like fascination with "hip" topical humor, such as openly mocking the UsefulNotes/BillClinton[=/=]Monica Lewinsky scandal, or airing a fake home movie called ''[[Film/TheBlairWitchProject The Blonde Bytch Project]]''. [=WWE=] still occasionally made refrence to current events in storylines during the Ruthless Aggression era and the [=PG=] era; such as an instance where Wrestling/VickieGuerrero parodied Creator/ClintEastwood's addressing of an empty chair at the 2012 Republican National Convention.

** From the first chapter, ''Theatre/LesMiserables'' is present in the form of bus ads, discarded playbills floating in the wind, and instrumental versions of songs playing in restaurants as characters try to debate which cast version it is. At the time the book is set, ''Les Mis'' was the trendiest Broadway show and getting the rare and expensive tickets was a sign of your wealth and influence. A show set in modern day would use ''Theatre/{{Hamilton}}'' as the comparative equivalent.

* Starting in the 2000's, many music videos would also have prominent ProductPlacement for latest cell phones, especially in the ringtone era.

** One episode has him watching an expy of ''Breaking the Magician's Code: Magic's Biggest Secrets Finally Revealed''.

** [=AndreTXH's=] [[Website/{{Neopets}} Hakktan the Xweetok]] has an attack where he dresses up as Misuzu and splashes her juice. Hakktan was made in the 2000s, Misuzu's heyday.

* As of April 15, 2019, any work that features an undamaged Notre Dame Cathedral, for the EiffelTowerEffect or otherwise. (outside of period pieces like ''Literature/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame'' and its various adaptions).