Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context HilariousInHindsight / HonestTrailers

Go To

1InAWorld where [[Webvideo/HonestTrailers "previews" are filled with snarky jokes]], sometimes the unbelievable happens... [[HilariousInHindsight the asides become predictions!]]
2----
3* In the Honest Game Trailer for ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'', Trevor is referred to as "Series/BreakingBad." Later on, Steven Ogg, Trevor's voice actor, appeared in an episode of ''Breaking Bad''[='=]s SpinOff, ''Series/BetterCallSaul''.
4* ''Series/GameOfThrones'':
5** In the first Honest Trailer for the show (covering seasons 1-3), it is described as "a show that has people on the edge of their seats wondering what will happen next, while the people that have read the books act all smug 'cause they already know". Pretty funny seeing as the show is now [[OvertookTheManga diverging from the books]], meaning those people aren't so smug anymore.
6** In the first Honest Trailer, the narrator gets mad with Joffrey Baratheon, saying Joffrey better die in Season 4. [[spoiler:In the second episode of season 4, Joffrey is KilledOffForReal]]. In the second Honest Trailer (covering seasons 4-5), he remembers this and invokes it again, saying that it worked last time, against Ramsey Bolton, saying Ramsay better die in Season 6. [[spoiler:And then in the ninth episode of Season 6, Ramsay is KilledOffForReal]].
7** When their 2016 Emmys video summed up Season 6 of ''Game of Thrones'', Epic Voice Guy expressed surprise that some of the good guys actually won in that season for a change, and predicted that the writers would make Season 7 even ''more'' depressing to make up for it ([[ThisIsGonnaSuck "Oh man... Next season is gonna be brutal."]]) If anything, Season 7 ended on an even more triumphant note than the previous season, with [[spoiler:the Stark children reunited, Jon and Daenerys joining forces, Jaime joining Jon's side, and the death of Littlefinger]].
8* Their trailer for ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'' described ComicBook/CaptainAmerica as "no one's favorite character, who just kinda has to be there," a sentiment that was repeated in their trailer for ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger''. Then ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'' came out and the vast majority of reviews praised the movie, and in particular agreed that Cap himself TookALevelInBadass. This was acknowledged when they did ''The Winter Soldier''.
9* The "Starring" portion of ''Film/TheWolfOfWallStreet'' has Jordan Belfort (Creator/LeonardoDiCaprio) getting referred to as "Leonardo [=NoOscaro=]". [=DiCaprio=] would finally win an Oscar for his next movie, ''Film/TheRevenant''.
10* In the Honest Trailer for ''Film/MadMaxFuryRoad'', Imperator Furiosa is credited as "[[Film/TheFastAndTheFurious Fast & Furiosa]]." Later on, Creator/CharlizeTheron, Furiosa's actor, was cast in the eighth ''Fast and Furious'' film.
11* The Honest Trailer for ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar'' claims of the ending, "What, you thought there'd be lasting stakes? Come on, this is Marvel we're talking about." And then the end of Season 1 of ''Series/LukeCage2016'' sees the MCU [[spoiler:putting out its first full-on DownerEnding]].
12* A lot of remarks about ''Film/Ghostbusters2016'' across a couple of Honest Trailers before its release were in defense of the movie, and complained about everybody's eagerness to hate the movie in spite of it not being out. When the Honest Trailer for the 2016 movie came out, they admitted that the film was "pretty bad" (even if not as much as everybody said it was gonna be), though they did ask viewers to not harass the cast just because they were in a mediocre movie (indirectly referring to the racist Twitter attacks on star Leslie Jones following the movie's release), and insisted that it wasn't worth getting ''that'' worked up over.
13* In the Honest Trailer for ''Film/TerminatorGenisys'':
14** At one point the narrator shouted at it for "trying to make Creator/JaiCourtney happen," and besides Shailene Woodley's performance, the only good thing the narrator has to say about ''Film/TheDivergentSeriesInsurgent'' in its Honest Trailer is that Jai Courtney's character is killed off. In the ''Film/SuicideSquad2016'' Honest Trailer that was released the next year, he admitted to being pleasantly surprised by Courtney's performance as Captain Boomerang.
15** The narrator ends his description of the cast with Creator/EmiliaClarke, saying "...and [[Series/GameOfThrones Daenerys Targaryen]] as Sarah Connor. Come on, Khaleesi, you're so much better than this!" Around a year after ''Genisys'' was released, Clarke said that [[https://www.comingsoon.net/movies/news/678551-emilia-clarke-terminator-sequels#/slide/1 she would not return for any sequels.]] While it can be HarsherInHindsight for those who liked her in the movie, just the idea that she somehow heard the narrator and took his advice is hilarious.
16* The Honest Game Trailer for ''VideoGame/Starcraft2'' nicknaming Mengsk "President Donald Trump".
17* The Honest Trailer for ''Film/WillyWonkaAndTheChocolateFactory'' credits Uncle Joe as "Joe Biden His Time", and spends a beat criticizing how he can walk just fine but continues to squat in his bed while Charlie busts his ass trying to help provide for the family. Shortly after the video's release, the Creator/KristenStewart episode of ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' had a sketch mocking this as well.
18* After the Honest Trailer for ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice'' ended with "At least ''Suicide Squad'' looks good!", that movie disappointed enough to lead to a dejected, expecting-the-worst, "At least ''Film/{{Wonder Woman|2017}}'' looks good..." It ultimately delivered, and the opening of the ''Wonder Woman'' Honest Trailer is all about how it broke a rotten streak.
19* The Honest Trailer for ''Film/XMenOriginsWolverine'' points out that it's the "shoutiest movie ever". Fast forward to ''Film/{{Logan}}'', and the Honest Credits actually include "Yelling".
20* Both the "''WebVideo/CinemaSins''" video made by Honest Trailers[[note]]Made as part of a {{Crossover}} that also saw ''[=CinemaSins=]'' do an Honest Trailer for the same film[[/note]] and the actual Honest Trailer for ''Film/TheAmazingSpiderMan2'' jokingly credit the kid dressed up as Spider-Man from the ending as Creator/TobeyMaguire. Around the time the latter video was released, Creator/TomHolland (Spider-Man's actor in the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse) and Kevin Feige announced that the kid dressed up as Iron Man that appears in the climax of ''Film/IronMan2'' was {{revisi|on}}ted into being actually Peter Parker doing an EarlyBirdCameo in the MCU.
21* The Honest Game Trailer for ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'' calls Purrloin "Dark Meowth". In ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'', Meowth's Alolan Form is a dark-type.
22* The Honest Game Trailer for ''Franchise/{{Tekken}}'' has the narrator [[ViewerPronunciationConfusion struggling to pronounce]] Hwoarang's name, and settling on "Howard". And then ''VideoGame/Tekken7'' got a Howard, [[VideoGame/FatalFury Geese]] [[Franchise/TheKingOfFighters Howard]], that is.
23* The Honest Trailer for ''Film/TransformersAgeOfExtinction'' mocked the movie relentlessly for its obvious [[PanderingToTheBase pandering to Chinese audiences]], suggesting that American viewers had caught on to Creator/MichaelBay's tricks and that he would start making movies mainly for China instead. This makes it a bit hilarious (and a little bit satisfying for those who are fed up with the movies) that the next ''Transformers'' movie, ''Film/TransformersTheLastKnight'', not only was panned by American ''and Chinese'' audiences alike, but also [[https://www.forbes.com/sites/robcain/2017/06/30/transformers-stupendous-82-friday-to-friday-collapse-is-one-for-the-record-books/#e2e2fc26fd6e dropped an astonishing 82% in grosses from its first Friday to its second on the Chinese market]].
24* In the ''Film/{{Split}}'' Honest Trailer, after learning the movie is actually a StealthSequel to ''Film/{{Unbreakable}}'', the narrator jokes that all of Creator/MNightShyamalan movies are part of a shared Cinematic Universe. Universal and Disney have announced they are making more movies set in the ''Unbreakable'' universe.
25* In the ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast'' (the animated film) Honest Trailer, during the "Be Our Guest" parody, Lumiére comments about how his friend, the toilet, has only seen the Beast's ass for the ten years passed. In the live-action remake, there ''are'' scenes (albeit deleted) that reveal a servant has been enchanted into a toilet.
26* The ''VideoGame/MarioParty 10'' Honest Trailer gripes that the Platform/WiiU went at least three years without next-gen ''[[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Super Mario]]'', ''[[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Zelda]]'', or ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'' games, and begins its stinger with the narrator hoping, "Maybe Nintendo will get it right with the next console." The Wii U's successor, the Platform/NintendoSwitch, had a new ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild Zelda]]'' game among its launch titles, received a ''[[VideoGame/SuperMarioOdyssey Super Mario]]'' title before the end of the year, and had a new ''Metroid'' game, ''Metroid Prime 4'', announced at that year's E3. Additionally, the Switch sold more units within its first year than the Wii U did in its entire lifetime.
27* In the ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' Honest Trailer, the narrator complains about the series rehashing too many classic Disney worlds, and wonders aloud why it hasn't featured any levels from Creator/{{Pixar}} movies yet ("Hold on, doesn't Disney own Pixar?! Where's ''WesternAnimation/FindingNemo'' world? ''Franchise/MonstersInc''? Anything new? Come on!"). A few years after that video was released, it was confirmed that the long-awaited ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII'' would feature a ''Franchise/ToyStory'' level and a ''Franchise/MonstersInc'' level, complete with Sora and co. getting plastic toy forms and monster forms.
28* ''Film/AntMan1'' includes a clip from ''Film/BehindTheCandelabra'' pointing out the amusing coincidence that in that film Michael Douglas has an affair with a younger man named Scott. A few years later, Peyton Reed was brought in to provide commentary on the trailer, and revealed that the crew actually did realize this connection early in the production and were "haunted" by it, including several incidents where Paul Rudd pranked everyone by acting like the other Scott.
29* The Honest Trailer for the 2018 Academy Awards ends with the narrator deliberately naming a bunch of superhero movies for random nonsense awards. Afterwards, the actual Academy decided to create the Outstanding Popular Movie award, which was seen as created to be given to superhero movies, and people were so revolted at the concept the Academy turned around. On the other hand, ''Film/{{Black Panther|2018}}'' did get nominated for Best Picture the following year, meaning it had a spot in the Oscars Honest Trailer.
30* In the Honest Trailer for ''Film/TheGreatestShowman'', Lettie Lutz the Bearded Lady appears in the Honest Credits as "Hairy [[Franchise/{{Frozen}} Elsa]]" (since her and the oddities' big number "This Is Me" is more or less an analogue to "Let It Go"). After the acquisition of Fox's entertainment media by Disney, one of the dozens of jokes that arose was about making Lettie an official Disney Princess, ''alongside the real Elsa.''
31* There was an [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Si9qKzkn-g Honest Trailer parody]] of ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion1'' before [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykF0mxJqZEs an official Honest Trailer for the game was made.]]
32* In TheStinger for ''WesternAnimation/{{Moana}}'', the narrator speculates that Disney is building up ''[[Film/TheAvengers2012 Avengers]]''-like movie with their princesses. Over a year later came ''WesternAnimation/RalphBreaksTheInternet'', where [[spoiler: the princesses team up and use their talents to save Ralph]].
33* Their trailer for ''Franchise/StreetFighter'' refers to Evil Ryu as "Evil-er Ryu" in comparison to Akuma being "Evil Ryu". Now with ''VideoGame/StreetFighterV'', there is a canonical "Evil-er Ryu" in the form of Kage.
34* In the Honest Trailer for ''Film/RobinHood2018'', the narrator points out how actor Creator/BenMendelsohn always seems to play villains, including this movie. A week after that trailer, ''Film/{{Captain Marvel|2019}}'', in which Mendelsohn also stars in, was released, which reveals that his character, Talos, this time is not the BigBad, but is a heroic character. The ''Captain Marvel'' trailer would later express surprise at this asking how Mendelsohn's character can't be evil when his characters are always evil.
35* The Honest Trailer for the Platform/NintendoSwitch has the console referred to as "Wii 3: $300 PSP". Come July 2019, and there's an announcement for the Nintendo Switch Lite, which hovers close to the Platform/PlayStationPortable in terms of portability and is $100 cheaper.
36* In the trailer for ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989'', Sebastian is described as "the closest thing this movie has to a black person". This was a few years before Halle Bailey was cast as Ariel for [[Film/TheLittleMermaid2023 the live-action remake]].
37* The ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate'' trailer calls [[Franchise/StarFox Wolf]] "Fatal Furry". ''VideoGame/FatalFury'''s own protagonist, Terry Bogard, was announced as DLC for the game on September 4, 2019.
38* When they did their trailer for ''WesternAnimation/Frozen2013'' in 2014, they threw a shot at ''WesternAnimation/{{Tangled}}'', saying it was three years since the last Disney musical, and eighteen years since the last ''[[StealthInsult good]]'' [[WesternAnimation/{{Pocahontas}} Disney musical]]. When they finally did a trailer for ''Tangled'' proper in 2019, they open on saying it's better than ''Frozen'' (albeit admitting that ''Tangled'' doesn't have much memorable music). By comparison, the ''Pocahontas'' Honest Trailer released in 2022 was a vicious pan.
39* The Honest Trailer for the 2020 Oscars breezes over ''Film/{{Parasite|2019}}'', dismissing it as simply the Academy's mandatory foreign viewing that year. It ended up winning four Oscars, ''including Best Picture'', becoming the first foreign film to win that award.
40* Crossing over with HarsherInHindsight if you liked him: the ''Film/{{Birds of Prey|2020}}'' Honest Trailer ended with them joking that Harley Quinn voting for Bernie Sanders made her Joker material. Days later, Sanders dropped out of the Democratic primaries, leaving Joe Biden as the presumptive nominee.
41* The 2020 April Fools' Joke Honest Trailer for the "Snyder Cut" of ''Film/{{Justice League|2017}}'' has become this, since it was released for real, as ''Film/ZackSnydersJusticeLeague''.
42** It included a joke about it [[VideoGame/InjusticeGodsAmongUs ending with "the Joker killing Lois Lane and blowing up all of Metropolis" and mentions Superman "going nuts" and killing Shazam]]. [[spoiler: Lois Lane is in fact killed during the "Knightmare" in the epilogue, albeit by Darkseid, but Joker does show up. All the while, a city that may be Metropolis is being destroyed and Superman is [[BrainwashedAndCrazy turned evil]] by Darkseid's Anti-Life equation.]]
43** There's a joke that the Snyder Cut would, in order to fit all the plots it has in it, have to be "longer than ''Film/{{Titanic|1997}}''." Which it actually turned out to be.[[note]]''Titanic'''s runtime is 195 minutes while the Snyder Cut's runtime is ''242 minutes''.[[/note]]
44** Additionally, the narrator speculates that the campaign to release the Snyder Cut might have been a ploy to boost signups for Creator/HBOMax. As it turns out, that's more or less how ''Zack Snyder's Justice League'' came to be: Warner Bros. gave Snyder the resources for him to assemble this version of the film after seeing potential in the buzz for the "Snyder Cut" to bolster the streaming service without it needing as much work to complete as a typical original series or film, especially since the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic had either halted or slowed down the production of many original shows or films the service badly needed to appeal to customers after its underwhelming launch.
45** In the "Starring..." section, the narrator listed [[spoiler:the Martian Manhunter]] as one of the characters. Guess who made an appearance in ''Zack Snyder's Justice League''?
46* In the ''Film/Batman1989'' Honest Trailer, Epic Voice Guy questions why people were so worked up over a shot from the then-most recent trailer for ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice'' where Batman is holding a gun, when Keaton's Batman outright murdered people onscreen. When the movie was released, while Affleck's Batman did controversially kill and use guns in ''Dawn of Justice'', in the shot they were pointing out? [[RightForTheWrongReasons That was just the Grapple Gun]]. Y'know, that thing Batman has ''always'' had in his arsenal?
47* In the episode for ''Series/TheBoys2019'', after showing that three reprehensible people turn out to have children that are treated as their MoralityPet to make them more sympathetic/morally ambiguous, an image of Stormfront from the Season 2 trailer shows up, with the narration "I hear Season 2 has a literal Nazi join the team. But don't worry; I'm sure she wants to have kids someday." Come the show, and we find out that Stormfront did indeed have a kid, but one that wasn't born with [[Really700YearsOld her prolonged youth]] and who has since [[OutlivingOnesOffspring died of old age]].
48* In the episode for ''Film/{{Inception}}'', the narrator refers to Ariadne as "[[LadyLooksLikeADude this small boy]]". [[Creator/ElliotPage Ariadne's actor]] would come out as a trans man in 2020.
49* In the episode for the ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'' pilot movie, Epic Voice Guy states that the show was Creator/DaveFiloni proving that "there's more than enough room for more than one Hollywood nerd in a cowboy hat", and then asking them to give thought to a battle between Film/ElMariachi and Series/TheMandalorian. Less than a year later, Creator/RobertRodriguez ended up directing the 6th episode to ''The Mandalorian'''s second season.
50* In the episode for ''Series/TheMandalorian'''s first season, Epic Voice Guy remarks that the show can be enjoyed by casual ''Star Wars'' fans "who spent eight episodes wondering why [[spoiler:Luke Skywalker]] wasn't in the Boba Fett show". In the second season, [[spoiler:''both'' of them show up]]. The year after that, Boba Fett would actually get [[Series/TheBookOfBobaFett his own show]], [[spoiler:and yes, Luke appears in this one too]].
51* In the episode for ''Film/WonderWoman2017'', Epic Voice Guy suggests that the Amazons send out scouts to the outside world after suffering casualties at the hands of the Germans, "or at least deploy some of [their] invisible jets". Come [[Film/{{WonderWoman1984}} the sequel]], [[spoiler: Wonder Woman casts an invisibility spell on the plane Ghost!Steve is flying, creating the DCEU's version of Wonder Woman's invisible jet]].
52* In the episode for ''Series/CobraKai'', on Miguel Diaz's entry, the narrator says "Franchise/{{Marvel|CinematicUniverse}}, cast this boy as Nova immediately." It ended up being the opposite, as his actor, Xolo Maridueña, was cast as [[ComicBook/BlueBeetle the titular superhero]] for [[Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse DCEU]]'s ''Film/BlueBeetle2023''.
53* In the episode for ''Series/{{Iron Fist|2017}}'':
54** The narrator mentions none of the Marvel-Netflix shows are canon to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, due to Creator/KevinFeige rarely mentioning about them and how those characters never appear in the movies and TV shows produced by Marvel Studios. The narrator would be later proven wrong when both Matt "Daredevil" Murdock and Wilson "Kingpin" Fisk appear in ''Film/SpiderManNoWayHome'' and ''Series/{{Hawkeye|2021}}'' respectively, confirming the Marvel Netflix shows are still canon, followed by the announcement that Daredevil's story would even be continued in the limited series ''Daredevil: Born Again''.
55** Also, Epic Voice Guy concedes that the Marvel Netflix shows [[DamnedByFaintPraise at the very least allow time for sex scenes]], because "Marvel won't do them anymore"... that is, until ''Film/{{Eternals}}'', which features a sex scene between Ikaris and Sersi in the opening minutes of the film.
56* In the episode for ''Series/TigerKing'', the narrator snarks at the possibility of Joe Exotic being pardoned by then-president UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump, to the point of hiring him as the head of the EPA. In real life Joe has lobbied hard for Trump to pardon him, even as to go so far as [[https://www.cbsnews.com/news/joe-exotic-no-trump-pardon-tiger-king-zoo/ order a limo]] on the day of Trump's mass pardon on his final day in office, but to no avail.
57* In the 2022 Oscars video, the narrator jokes that Creator/WillSmith talks like Creator/MikeTyson but can't fight like him, proceeded with a montage of Richard having his ass kicked. During the Oscars, Smith slapped Creator/ChrisRock for making a joke about his wife.
58* In the episode for ''WesternAnimation/XMenTheAnimatedSeries'', the narrator mentions that if [[Characters/MarvelComicsProfessorX Professor X]] was real [[EarWorm he'd still hear]] the show's ThemeTune. Come ''Film/DoctorStrangeInTheMultiverseOfMadness'', this became the character's {{Leitmotif}} as a MythologyGag.
59* The trailer for ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger'' refers to Cap as [[Film/TheFortyYearOldVirgin the 90-Year-Old Virgin]]. As ''Series/SheHulkAttorneyAtLaw'' reveals, he actually lost his virginity in 1943 during his USO tours.
60* At one point during the trailer for ''Film/SonicTheHedgehog2020'', the narrator dreads a recreation of Sonic drowning from the Sonic games in [[Film/SonicTheHedgehog22022 the sequel]]. That's pretty much what happens.
61* In the trailer for ''VideoGame/StarWarsBattlefront2015'', the narrator laments that Creator/ElectronicArts would probably never make a modern single-player ''Franchise/StarWars'' game in the vein of the ''[[VideoGame/DarkForcesSaga Jedi Knight]]'' games. [[VideoGame/StarWarsJediFallenOrder Guess again!]]
62* The trailer for the 2023 Oscars' Best Movie nominees deliberately keeps it brief for ''Film/AvatarTheWayOfWater'', claiming that they're saving their jokes for a proper Honest Trailer later. Instead, the first nominee to get an Honest Trailer is the eventual winner, ''Film/EverythingEverywhereAllAtOnce''.
63* In the AprilFoolsDay Honest Game Trailer for ''Half-Life 3'', the narrator claims one of the game's features is the player's ability to interact with the [=NPCs'=] endless dialouge options with their own voice, which, combined with the game's VR features, would serve as the basic premise for the series ''WebVideo/HalfLifeButTheAIIsSelfAware''.

Top