Line #80 Main/YearX


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6	[[quoteright:350:[[ComicBook/MegaManArchieComics https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Year_20XX_127.jpg]]]]
7	[[caption-width-right:350:And the previous year was 200X.]]
8
9	->''"Why is it always X? It's like they couldn't come up with an exact year, so just make it X."''
10	-->-- '''WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd'''
11
12	Setting is important in storytelling, especially when you want to tell what time period that story takes place in. The easiest way to do this is to simply state what year the story takes place in... However, being [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture too exact]] may sometimes narrow down flexibility. So in order to pinpoint the time and [[AmbiguousTimePeriod keep it vague]] at the same time, writers like to give the century number, but replace the year and decade with X.
13
14	For example: 20XX. You know this takes place [[NextSundayAD after the millennium]], but ''when'' after the millennium? 2097? 2030? [[MayanDoomsday December 21, 2012?]] We don't know, and that's the beauty of it.
15
16	It also renders the setting somewhat resistant to the flow of RealLife time, since RealLife will take longer to cross that date and make fans start wondering [[IWantMyJetpack why the future doesn't look anything like fiction depicted it]]. Of course, as the list below shows, years like 199X and 200X have been used and passed, and even 20XX will pass eventually. Inevitably, TimeMarchesOn.
17
18	Commonly seen in Science Fiction, but not limited to it. It is for example popular in older English literature as well, sometimes to add an air of realism to stories, as if to protect the characters' identities. Note that older examples such as ''Literature/{{Frankenstein}}'' or ''Literature/TreasureIsland'' use -- instead of X to denote the uncertain years: Both of the above works are set in "17--".
19
20	Not to be confused with ExtyYearsFromPublication, which is about future dates or intervals being nice round numbers, often based on the work's own release date. Compare SpellMyNameWithABlank, which is similar but with names or locations. Related to LetXBeTheUnknown.
21
22	----
23	!!Examples:
24
25	[[foldercontrol]]
26
27	[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
28	* In ''Manga/AfterschoolCharisma'', main protagonist Shiro Kamiya was born in 2XXX.
29	* ''Crystal Triangle'' is set in the year 198X. The funny thing about this is that the [[OriginalVideoAnimation OVA]] was made in 1987. They were really hopeful for those next two years.
30	* ''Anime/DigimonFusion'' starts in 20XX.
31	* Parodied in ''Manga/ExcelSaga'' during its ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar'' parody episode, which begins with an announcer starting to declare the year as 199X before he's interrupted by a chorus of people telling him that "199X" has already come and gone (it was already 2000 when the episode first aired). The next time the announcer states the year, he retcons it to "The year 2000...X!"
32	* ''Manga/FairyTail'': The story takes place in "X784". [[spoiler:X791 after the first TimeSkip, and X792 after the second.]]
33	* ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar'' is set a few years after a nuclear war destroyed the world in "199X". Series protagonist Kenshiro was born in the similarly vague year 197X.
34	* ''Manga/FutureDiary'''s dates are all shown in the form "29 JULY 20XX".
35	* ''Manga/IchigekiSacchuHoihoiSan'' is set in the year 20XX.
36	* ''Manga/InitialD'' is set in 199X. Its successor ''Manga/MFGhost'' is set in [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture 202X]].
37	* In ''Manga/MarchComesInLikeALion'', the year is revealed to be 20XX on Nikaidou's New Year's postcard. Averted in the anime, where it's indicated to be 2007 and 2008 via background calendars.
38	* ''Manga/NewMazinger'': The action in this ''Anime/MazingerZ'' spin-off begins in 220X.
39	* ''Webcomic/OrangeMarmalade'' starts in "Autumn, 20XX".
40	* Gerald Robotnik's 50+ year old diary from ''Anime/SonicX'' is dated to "20XX".
41	* ''[[Manga/SpiderManManga Spider-Man J]]'' takes place in the year 200X.
42	* ''Manga/WanganMidnight'' is set in the year 20XX to allow for the introduction of newer cars that at the time of the first publishing (1992) did not exist.
43	* In ''Manga/YuriIsMyJob'', the results for the Blume election were tallied on "May XX, 20XX." Somewhat unusually, even the day of the month is Xed out (although it's probably some time after Golden Week). Eventually, it's revealed that the year is 2017; Mitsuki was born on July 7, 2001 and turns 16 in Volume 6, with the date in question being shown as a Friday.
44	* ''Manga/ZeroIn'' is set in 20XX.
45	[[/folder]]
46
47	[[folder:Comic Books]]
48	* ''ComicBook/TheAvengers'': The 2015 mini-series ''ComicBook/UltronForever'' introduced a ComicBook/CaptainAmerica from the year 20XX. This same future is sometimes seen in Creator/AlEwing's other ''Avengers'' titles, with Cap seen fighting the Golden Skull. This trope is used presumably to ensure the [[ComicBookTime sliding timescale]] never actually reaches the given date of 20XX (though given [[LegacyCharacter this Cap's]] [[FutureBadass an adult Danielle Cage]], who was an infant in the modern day when the series was released, it logically takes place around twenty-plus years later).
49	* The Creator/ImageComics CrapsackWorld FeudalFuture series ''ComicBook/{{Lazarus}}'' is built entirely around this trope, with "Year X" having been the year that mega-corporations swooped in and took advantage of global political instability to divide the entire world up among themselves. The book begins in X+64, and as of the new ''Risen'' arc, has reached X+68.
50	* ''ComicBook/AtomicRobo'': [[spoiler:Jenkins's]] tombstone gives his birth and death years as [=19XX-20XX=]. Oddly enough the latter is pinned down as 2020 elsewhere on the website.
51	[[/folder]]
52
53	[[folder:Fan Works]]
54	* ''Fanfic/{{FURTHERFELL}}'': The ''Sins of the Father'' branch takes place in the year X022. As the event that instigated the plot of ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'' (and ''Fanfic/{{Underfell}}'' by extension) happened in 201X, this helps emphasize that it's been a ''long'' time since any familiar characters were around.
55	* In ''Fanfic/NeitherABirdNorAPlaneItsDeku'', the setting's year is referred to as 20XX. All Might's car was only manufactured in 198X and the old Beebo cartoon ran in the 19XXs.
56	* ''Fanfic/OniGaShikuSeries'': The year is always referred to with an X at the end, like 201X or 198X. In case a TimeSkip occurs - which is often - then the fic either states "it's been three years since" in the narration or something like that, or states Izuku's age. This is despite of the fact that the ''VideoGame/LikeADragon'' games provide exact dates and their events run parallel to the plot of the fic, so anyone can look up the games and figure out exactly when each event takes place.
57	[[/folder]]
58
59	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
60	* ''Film/InvasionOfAstroMonster'' took place in 196X.
61	* ''Film/TheLastDaysOfDisco'' was set in "the very early 1980s."
62	* ''Film/TimeChanger'': When someone from the 1890's travels over 100 years into the future and looks at the newspaper, the last two years of 20XX were obscured. When he yells the date out loud, the 20XX gets cut off by a car honk. Later, [[TheStinger at the end of the movie]], an attempt is made to send a bible to the future but it will not go if the end of the world already happened by then, so the date keeps being changed to earlier years to see when the end of the world takes place, and the movie cuts off somewhere in the 2000s.
63	[[/folder]]
64
65	[[folder:Literature]]
66	* The first Literature/{{Bony}} novel, ''The Barrakee Mystery'', is set in the late 1920s. The narration avoids mentioning a specific year, and a letter is dated "August 12th, 19--". (However, the first sentence of the letter refers to the events of "Saturday, March 5th", which pins it to 1927.)
67	* In the Brazilian classic ''Captains of the Sands'', the only temporal reference is the death of protagonist Pedro Bala's father, said to have been killed during the 191... strike.
68	* The opening sentence of ''Literature/TheCourtsOfTheMorning'' gives the date as "the August of 192-".
69	* In ''Literature/{{Frankenstein}}'', in Robert Walton's letters to his sister, the date is given as "Dec. 11th, 17--," making this trope at least OlderThanRadio.
70	* ''Literature/{{Gate}}'' begins in summer of the year 20XX.
71	* "Literature/TheHound1924": Some days into getting haunted by the Dutchman, the narrator gives the date as "the night of September 24, 19—".
72	* ''Literature/LifeTheUniverseAndEverything'': Ford and Arthur time travel from the prehistoric past to the year 198--.
73	* John Barth's "Lost in the Funhouse" sets the date as 19__. This is after giving the main character's home as [[SpellMyNameWithABlank B____ Street in the town of D____, Maryland]], then lampshading it, then lampshading that a young protagonist would be GenreSavvy enough to point this out. This is {{Postmodernism}} after all.
74	* The Filipino novel ''Literature/{{Ninay}}'' literally opens with the sentence: "In 18… the cholera wrought havoc in Manila."
75	* Creator/KimNewman's "Richard Jeperson" stories (part of the Literature/DiogenesClub series) are all mostly set in the 1970s, but are fairly ambiguous as to the precise setting (although careful reading can give a few clues as to roughly when each one is set), and every time a specific year is mentioned it is presented to the reader as 197- (or 195-, in the case of the flashback in "Literature/TheManWhoGotOffTheGhostTrain").
76	* ''Literature/TheStrangeCaseOfDrJekyllAndMrHyde'' happens in 18**.
77	* ''Literature/TreasureIsland'' takes place "in the year of grace 17--." (Various clues in the text narrow it down to somewhere from 1758 to 65.)
78	* ''Literature/VanityFair'' often refers to dates in 18--.
79	* ''Literature/WyldersHand'' has a variation in a scene where Larkin is laying out the key dates in the mystery of Mark Wylder's whereabouts. These cover a range from October of one year to March of the following year, preventing a graceful way of using the traditional "18--", so the narrator assigns them to the years 1854 and 1855 while making it clear that these are not the actual years in question. (Elsewhere, he says that over twenty years have passed since the events of the novel, placing them in the 1840s or even earlier.)
80	[[/folder]]
81
82	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
83	* ''Series/DoctorWho'': [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E2TheEndOfTheWorld "The End of the World"]] takes place in "5.5/Apple/26", although this may be another term for [[ExactlyExtyYearsAgo exactly 5 billion years]] after the characters had left.
84	* ''Series/PowerRangersRPM'' was set in 20XX (between late 2040 and 2096).
85	* ''Series/ThePretender'': In "Toy Surprise", when Miss Parker visits her mother's grave, the shot of the headstone is framed so that the last two digits of the death date are obscured by a floral tribute placed on the grave earlier.
86	* ''Series/ServantOfThePeople'' features a subtle version of this, with a small poster that has the year on it, but the part with the last digit is torn off. The show is basically set in 201X.
87	[[/folder]]
88
89	[[folder:Music]]
90	* Music/TheProtomen open their story in 200X. The second act, a flashback, is set in 197X. Of course, it's a ''VideoGame/MegaManClassic'' rock opera, so obviously it would be set in the same timeframe as the games.
91	[[/folder]]
92
93	[[folder:Radio]]
94	* The Storyteller sketch in ''Radio/JohnFinnemoresSouvenirProgramme'' Series 8, Episode 1, is set in "the year eighteen blank", and goes on to spoof SpellMyNameWithABlank.
95	[[/folder]]
96
97	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
98	* In ''TabletopGame/HaltEvilDoer'', the Near-Future Dystopia (think ''ComicBook/Marvel2099'') is sometimes referred to as taking place in 20XX. Sometimes heroes from the present might learn the actual year, but then they return to the present and change things, and it's XX again. Similarly, the Future of Wonders (think ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'') is sometimes called 2XXX.
99	[[/folder]]
100
101	[[folder:Video Games]]
102	* Parodied with ''19YY'', a ShootEmUp MiniGame from the Platform/NeoGeo CD ''ADK World''.
103	* ''19XX'', part of the ''VideoGame/NineteenFortyTwo'' ShootEmUp series by Creator/{{Capcom}}.
104	* ''VideoGame/TwentyXX'' goes so far as to put it in the name, just in case anyone didn't look at the blue platforming robot and think of ''Franchise/MegaMan''. Its sequel, ''VideoGame/ThirtyXX'', [[DistantSequel skips ahead an entire millennium]] ([[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin just like the title indicates]]) and takes even more of an overt ''VideoGame/MegaManX''-esque feel with its presentation. For bonus points, developer Batterystaple Games gave the sequel's release date for Early Access on Platform/{{Steam}} as "30XX" (which was actually early 2021).
105	* ''VideoGame/BombermanGeneration'' takes place in "[[AlternativeCalendar cosmic year]] 200X".
106	* ''VideoGame/TheCliffhangerEdwardRandy'' is an ''Franchise/IndianaJones''-style adventure game set in the '30s, stylized as 193X in-game. That said, finding the true year isn't too difficult. The Japanese version explicitly states it's September 14, and a calendar is shown with that day as a Friday. The only year of the 1930s where Sep. 14 was a Friday was 1934.
107	* ''VideoGame/ContraOperationGaluga'' is set in 26XX as opposed to the original ''VideoGame/{{Contra}}'' being set in [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture 2633]].
108	* The early ''VideoGame/DoubleDragon'' games are set in a post-apocalyptic New York after a Nuclear War occurred in 19XX.
109	* ''E.D.F.: Earth Defense Force'' (not to be confused with Creator/D3Publisher's ''VideoGame/EarthDefenseForce'' series) takes place in 20XX, except in the SNES localization which is set either in 4129 (by the manual) or the 23rd century (by the blurb).
110	* ''Falsion'', a 3D ShootEmUp by Creator/{{Konami}} for the [[Platform/NintendoEntertainmentSystem Famicom]], is set in 21XX.
111	* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII2'' subverts this trope with several [[TimeTravel destination times]]. Whenever Serah and Noel [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong change the future]], the destination year is marked with Xs in place of zeroes in the Historia Crux. However, this is because [[GameplayAndStorySegregation the player retains access to the unchanged futures]], and serves only as a differential. So 400 AF and 4XX AF take place in the same year; [[AlternateTimeline they're just in different timelines]]. [[spoiler:Similarly, when Serah gets trapped in a LotusEaterMachine where everything is perfect back home, it's marked in the Historia Crux as 00X AF, but is confirmed in dialogue to be 3 AF.]]
112	* ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys'' takes place in Year XX, according to the PC's pay check. The sequel subverts this, taking place in 19[[spoiler:87]].
113	* ''VideoGame/GodzillaMonsterOfMonsters'' takes place in "2XXX A.D."
114	* ''VideoGame/HalfLife1'' takes place on May 16, 200X (though it is commonly agreed among fans to be set in 2003).
115	* While not using "Xs", ''VideoGame/KirbySuperStar'''s final subgame in the original takes place in the year ??? (or some time after it). The UpdatedRerelease has it take place in ???? instead.
116	* ''VideoGame/TheLab'' has the mini-game "Xortex", which is set in the year 26XX.
117	* ''Franchise/MegaMan'': ''VideoGame/MegaManClassic'' is a strong example of this trope, starting in 200X and later moving into 20XX (though ''VideoGame/MegaManPoweredUp'' [[{{Retcon}} posits that it's always been 20XX since the beginning]]). The {{sequel series}} and spinoffs are all set relative to this ambiguous date; the ''[[VideoGame/MegaManX X]]'' series takes place in 21XX, and ([[GaidenGame possibly]]) drags on into 22XX, while ''[[VideoGame/MegaManBattleNetwork Battle Network]]'' is in an {{alternate\|Timeline}} 200X. The later games in the main timeline starting with ''VideoGame/MegaManZero'' (which was assumed to take place in 22XX before ''VideoGame/MegaManXCommandMission'' came out) abandoned this and don't specify any dates, possibly because the world has [[AfterTheEnd suffered so many successive apocalypses]] by this point that people don't even remember what year it's supposed to be. According to the ''[[AllThereInTheManual Perfect Memories]]'' [[AllThereInTheManual sourcebook]], the ''[[VideoGame/MegaManLegends Legends]]'' series takes place around 6000 years after the end of the ''X'' series (which would put it circa 81XX or 82XX), but that's about all we know.
118	* The events of [[VideoGame/MetalGear1 the first]] ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' was originally placed in the year 199X before the sequels decided to give it a specific year. The manual for ''VideoGame/MetalGear2SolidSnake'' was inconsistent as to whether the original game was set in 1995 or 1996 (with the in-game dialogue placing the events of the sequel three years later), but ultimately ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' went with the 1995 date.
119	* ''[[VideoGame/{{Metroid 1}} Metroid]]'' is set in 20X5. Like ''Mega Man'' above, the other games in [[Franchise/{{Metroid}} the series]] all take place relative to the ambiguous date of 20X5 in the original.
120	* PlayedForLaughs in ''VideoGame/MobileSuitBaba'', which, according to the intro, takes place in the year ''[=X0XX=]''.
121	* The ''VideoGame/{{Mother}}'' series indulges in this a couple times.
122	** While ''VideoGame/EarthBoundBeginnings'' was originally set in 1988, it was changed to an unspecified point in the early '80s in the English release, before then being listed as 198X in the [=eShop=] description for its Platform/VirtualConsole release.
123	** ''VideoGame/{{EarthBound\|1994}}'' is set in 199X. If you borrow a map from the library and then talk to the librarian again, you are told you don't have to return the map until the year 2001, a year which was in the past by the time most people played the game.
124	* ''VideoGame/{{Mother}}'' fan game-turned-SpiritualSuccessor ''VideoGame/{{Oddity}}'' is set in 197X.
125	* ''VideoGame/OpenSorcery'': The date the "blue", a.k.a "affected by the final foe" version of the Cherry Orchard Rest Home has is Oct. 666 20XX, but it's actually Nov. 1 2014.
126	* According to the intro cinematic of ''VideoGame/Pikmin3'', the game takes place in "Galactic Date 20XX".
127	* ''VideoGame/ProjectArrhythmia'''s story mode takes place in the year 205X.
128	* ''VideoGame/RiverCityRansom'' takes place in the year 19XX. The sequel, ''VideoGame/RiverCityRansomUnderground'', takes place after a TimeSkip of 25 years... in the year 19XX. Which pretty much just puts the first game in 1974 or earlier.
129	* Creator/HamumuSoftware's ''VideoGame/RobotWantsSeries'' game ''Robot Wants Puppy'' had an OpeningScroll about rebels in the year 20XX plotting to liberate Zeta Sector from the iron-tentacled rule of the tyrannical Morgox the Unborn.
130	* [[Platform/PlayStation2 PS2]] game ''VideoGame/SevenSamurai20XX''.
131	* ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei''. Creator/{{Atlus}} seems to be really fond of this trope.
132	** ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiI'' begins in [[NextSundayAD a 199X version of Tokyo]] before jumping ahead to [[AfterTheEnd a post-apocalyptic version of the city]] about thirty years later.
133	** ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiII'' picks up several decades after the first game in 20XX, with [[AllThereInTheManual the manual for the original Famicom version]] providing a timeline that goes from "The Great Cataclysm of Tokyo" in 199X all the way up to the near-completion of Tokyo Millennium in 206X, thereby suggesting "20XX" in this case is, at minimum, somewhere in the 2070s.
134	** Though [[ThematicSeries possibly unconnected to the previous numbered installments]], ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIIINocturne'' is likewise set in Tokyo, 20XX.
135	** Officially, ''[[VideoGame/DevilSummoner Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner]]'' is set in the year "199X", with an exchange between Madame Ginko and the protagonists of ''VideoGame/SoulHackers'' establishing that the events of ''Devil Summoner'' took place three years prior to ''Soul Hackers''. Seeing as one character from ''Devil Summoner'' ([[spoiler:Kyouji Kuzunoha]]) makes an appearance in ''VideoGame/Persona2: Innocent Sin'', which ''is'' given a definite date in-game (1999), and is implied to be [[spoiler:possessing the body of Daisuke Todoroki due to Kyouji's death early on in ''Devil Summoner'']], the common assumption is that ''Devil Summoner'' cannot take place any later than 1999 (which would therefore place ''Soul Hackers'' circa 2002 at the latest).
136	** ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiNINE'' for the Platform/{{Xbox}} is set in (a possibly {{alternate\|Timeline}}) 202X, focusing on the survivors of the nuclear holocaust caused by [[spoiler:Ambassador Thorman]] in the original ''Shin Megami Tensei''.
137	** There's also cellphone title ''Shin Megami Tensei: 20XX'', [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin which happens to take place during the year 20XX]]. Specifically, it's an interquel to ''SMT I'' and ''II'', set 30 years after the destruction of Tokyo in 199X and setting up/fleshing out a few plot points in the latter, such as the Messian Order's rise to power and the possible origins of [[PlayerCharacter Aleph]].
138	** ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiStrangeJourney'' is another entry set in 20XX. It at least bears the distinction of being one of the rare few times a ''SMT'' game ''isn't'' [[TokyoIsTheCenterOfTheUniverse centered around Tokyo]] or Japan in general, taking place at [[MysteriousAntarctica the South Pole]].
139	** ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiImagine'', the series' [[MassivelyMultiplayerOnlineRolePlayingGame MMORPG]] offshoot, takes place sometime in the 21st century, either 202X or 203X depending on the source. Like ''NINE'' above, the game chronicles an alternate future in the aftermath of the Great Cataclysm.
140	** ''VideoGame/Persona5'' doesn't give us the exact year other than "20XX", in contrast to the previous ''Franchise/{{Persona}}'' games, but the in-game calendar is identical to the 2016 calendar, meaning the game takes place 4 years after the end of ''VideoGame/Persona4''. The nonspecific year can be likely attributed to Creator/{{Atlus}} originally intending to release ''Persona 5'' in 2014 and presumably have it take place in 2016, which would fit the NextSundayAD time frames of ''VideoGame/Persona3'' and ''4''. {{Schedule Slip}}s led to ''5'' not actually releasing until 2016 -- the year it takes place, rather than shortly in the future like previous games. In ''VideoGame/PersonaQ2NewCinemaLabyrinth'', when the female protagonist of ''Persona 3 Portable'' says she came from 2009, and the cast of ''Persona 4'' say they're from 2011, the Phantom Thieves only say that they didn't come from either of those times.
141	** The first ''VideoGame/MajinTensei'' takes place in 202X, decades after international tension in the late 90s turned incredibly violent. Subsequent entries in the ''Majin Tensei'' series would forgo this trope, with 1995's ''[[VideoGame/MajinTenseiIISpiralNemesis Spiral Nemesis]]'' [[NextSundayAD being set in 1996]] and 1997's ''VideoGame/{{Ronde}}'' [[ExtyYearsFromNow being set in 2008]]. [[ZigZaggingTrope On the other hand]], the abundance of {{Mythology Gag}}s to ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiI'' found in ''Spiral Nemesis'' [[AmbiguousSituation may suggest]] [[AlternateTimeline branching timelines]] are in play, possibly dating ''SMT I'' as a result.
142	** Lesser-known ''SMT'' spin-off ''VideoGame/GitenMegamiTensei'' has this as part of its backstory, with the year 199X seeing Tokyo destroyed by [=ICBMs=] in what would later be known as the Great Cataclysm (presumably the events of ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiI''). Humans are forced to go underground and live in fallout shelters to survive not only the ensuing nuclear apocalypse but also demons running amok on the surface, with the game picking up roughly twenty years down the road.
143	* The original ''VideoGame/StreetsOfRage'' games for the Platform/SegaGenesis are set in 199X. ''Streets of Rage 4'' [[TimeSkip jumped ahead ten years]] to partially reflect the SequelGap between ''3'' and ''4'' (which was almost ''three times'' as long at 26 years).
144	* A popular in-joke about ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosMelee'' describes the year 20XX, where everyone plays [[VideoGame/StarFox Fox]] (the top-tier character, yet one who is [[DifficultButAwesome incredibly difficult to play well]]) to TAS levels of perfection. Because of this, the only way to decide matches is through port priority which can only be decided by rock-paper-scissors. A somewhat popular GameMod of ''Melee'' is even named after this joke, called the ''20XX hack pack''.
145	* ''VideoGame/TonightWeRiot'' is set in 20XX.
146	* The opening cutscene of ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'' states that the year is 201X, as part of its many, ''many'' homages to the ''VideoGame/{{Mother}}'' series.
147	* The ''VideoGame/WarioWare'' games take place in 20XX.
148	* The events of ''VideoGame/WorldOfHorror'' take place in 198X.
149	* Platform/{{Xbox}} game ''Zombies and Pterodactyls 20XX''.
150	[[/folder]]
151
152	[[folder:Web Animation]]
153	* ''WebAnimation/DeathBattle'': "[[Characters/MarvelComicsUltron Ultron]] vs. [[VideoGame/MegaManX Sigma]]" mocks ''Franchise/MegaMan''[='=]s use of this trope in the latter's rundown.
154	-->'''Wiz:''' In the year 21ahem...
155	* In ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'', the anime counterparts of the main cast hail from the year 20X6. Which they pronounce as [[ExtyYearsFromPublication "Twenty exty-six"]].
156	[[/folder]]
157
158	[[folder:Webcomics]]
159	* WordOfGod says that ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'' takes place in the year 20XY.
160	* The number of the year is pixeled in ''Webcomic/LuminaryChildren''.
161	[[/folder]]
162
163	[[folder:Web Original]]
164	* The ''Website/SCPFoundation'' often redacts dates, but sometimes the century or decade is left uncensored, leading to a similar effect but with {{Censor Box}}es instead of X's.
165	[[/folder]]
166
167	[[folder:Western Animation]]
168	* ''WesternAnimation/JorelsBrother'': In the episode "Shostners Cable", a presidential debate is shown on television, with the interviewer's soapbox having the year 201∞ written on it.
169	* ''WesternAnimation/OKKOLetsBeHeroes'' takes place in the year 201X ("Twenty One-Ex").
170	* In ''WesternAnimation/RudolphsShinyNewYear'', the new year is "19-Wonderful".
171	[[/folder]]
172
173	[[folder:Real Life]]
174	* In the Philippines the colloquial phrase "19-''kopong-kopong''" generally indicates "a long time ago." Precisely when is usually unspecified, but some online sources will make a more specific case by pointing out that ''kopong'' is an Old Tagalog word for "zero", hence, the year 1900.\
175	The Scottish phrase "nineteen oatcake" (or sometimes "nineteen canteen") means much the same thing. The non-number words seem intended to create the sound of "190X" or "191X".\
176	In Brazil there is a similar phrase, "mil novecentos e guaraná com rolha", roughly "19-soda with a cork".
177	* The [[http://www.loc.gov/standards/datetime/ Extended Date Time Format]] used by the Library of Congress uses X to denote unspecified digits. The 2019 revision of the international standard [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601 ISO 8601]] incorporates the same notation.
178	* With X being the Roman numeral for 10, and XX meaning 20, people on the internet in 2020 sometimes joked (especially at the start and end of that year) that 2020 is the only year one could say it's 20XX and could be considered right, and yet not because of the vagueness 20XX is supposed to convey.
179	[[/folder]]

Context Main / YearX