History Irony / LiveActionTV

* ''Series/ControlZ'': In 1.03 Natalia punched [[spoiler:Raul]] unintentionally instead of [[spoiler:Luis]], who everybody thinks is the hacker after his fake confession. A few episodes later, we learn she punched the ''real'' hacker.

* ''Series/PowerRangersTurbo'' is considered one of the worst ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' series ever made, and is oft considered to have almost gotten the series cancelled. Ironically, the Franchise/SuperSentai series ''Turbo'' was based on, ''Series/GekisouSentaiCarranger'', is considered to be the series that saved Super Sentai from cancellation after the unfavorably received ''Series/ChourikiSentaiOhranger'' (which, also ironically, was well-received overseas when adapted into ''Series/PowerRangersZeo'').

** In "Prison Break-In", the Bluths hold a fundraiser for Tobias' hair transplant rejection in the prison for plot related reasons. However, the inmates behave themselves and prove they can throw a benefit dinner [[spoiler: and when it's revealed Tobias' condition already has a cure, the well-to-do attendees prove they can throw a prison riot.]]

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E1DeepBreath "Deep Breath"]]: The Doctor derides the Half-Faced Man for dragging out his existence, endlessly recycling his body as it wears out, not even remembering where he got his new face. [[NotSoDifferent Sound familiar?]]

* On an episode of ''Series/WheelOfFortune'' in 1985, a contestant racked up $62,400 in one round, then lost her turn when she called a wrong letter with only 3 letters missing. The next contestant then solved for a paltry $1,100. The puzzle? THE THRILL OF VICTORY AND THE AGONY OF DEFEAT (only the L's, V and C were missing, and she called S). Since she didn't solve, she ended up missing out on a one-round record that still would've stood more than 25 years later.

%% This page has been alphabetized. Please add new examples in the correct order.

** Gunn calls out Angel in the season 3 episode "The Price" for using dark magic to try and find Connor, which resulted in Fred getting infested by a water-draining slug and nearly dying. The irony is that it's almost word for word what Gunn himself did two seasons later, minus the stuff about Angel's son, that resulted in Fred's death. He let the doctors at Wolfram and Hart alter his mind and when it started to fail, he let it be made permenant in exchange for his signing a document to let an 'antiquity' into the country. He may not have remembered the previous incident due to the mind wipe, but he still should have known better.

** In season two, it's revealed that [[spoiler: Oscar is Buster's real father.]] All throughout the season, he drops subtle hints that Buster repeatedly misses. At one point, Buster finds out through other means, but then forgets due to the trauma of losing his hand to a loose seal and Oscar goes back to subtle hints. In the season finale, Oscar makes a completely unrelated comment which triggers Buster's memory.

** In the fourth season Penny realizes that her love life has tanked (due to both lingering feelings for Leonard and the fact her standards of intelligent conversation jumped significantly) while Leonard, Howard and even ''Sheldon'' are doing better than her.

** [[Recap/BlackMirrorArkAngel "Arkangel"]]: [[spoiler:The privacy-violating Arkangel system Marie installed in her daughter Sara to keep her safe is ultimately what causes her to lose her daughter in the end. [[BookEnds The episode begins and ends with Marie standing in the street, wailing Sara's name]] - the first time Sara is a toddler who wandered off after a cat; the second time Sara is a teenager who has run away from home to get away from her controlling mother, and this time she is not coming back.]]

** In response to Buffy's insistence that she do things her own way rather than follow orders, Kendra cynically retorted, "No wonder you died." In the season 2 finale, her own complete adherence to protocol and inability to ''not'' follow orders makes it all the easier for Drusilla to hypnotize and kill her.

** Straight-laced Annie moves in with man-children Troy and Abed in season three. She starts a subplot in "Foosball and Nocturnal Vigilantism" by accidentally breaking Abed's rare DVD. Instead of admitting it and apologizing, she pretends a burglar stole it, inspiring Abed to dress up as Franchise/{{Batman}} and seek out the culprit. Troy says it best: "You moving in here was supposed to tone us down!"

* ''Series/Daredevil2015'': In the season 1 finale, Wilson Fisk finds out that his own accountant Leland Owlsley was responsible for poisoning Fisk's girlfriend Vanessa Marianna. Leland's reasoning is that Vanessa was making Fisk too emotional and erratic to run his criminal empire, and that losing a loved one might just bring him back in shape. He also offers Wilson a deal and says that he's got Carl Hoffman, a corrupt cop that Fisk had earlier forced to kill his own partner Christian Blake, who will go to the police and implicate Fisk in Blake's murder if Fisk kills Leland. Wilson rejects the deal (that would actually allow him to stay in power) and, enraged that Leland tried to kill Vanessa, kills him on the spot. He does send corrupt cops to track down and kill Hoffman, and they almost succeed in finishing him off only for Matt Murdock to arrive and overpower them. Hoffman subsequently rats on Fisk, and Fisk is arrested. Being in love ''did'' result in Fisk being too emotional to run an empire indeed.

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E12DeathInHeaven "Death In Heaven"]]: The Doctor tells Clara that he's going back to Gallifrey so she can stay home with Danny and not worry about him; likewise she tells him she'll be happy with Danny so he can leave her guilt-free to go home. [[spoiler:Both are lying for the sake of the other - Gallifrey is still lost, and Danny is still dead.]]

** In Season 1 Sansa is enamored with Prince Joffrey and believes he's her KnightInShiningArmour, while Arya is disgusted by the whole set up. In Season 2 and 3, Sansa is kept prisoner and relentlessly abused by Joffrey who isn't Robert's son after all, while Arya's closest friend is Robert's actual son who mutually protects her and has more knightly qualities in his little finger than Joffrey does in his whole body.

** Ned absolutely wouldn't let a child being killed and that's the reason he tells Cersei of his plan to expose Joffrey's parentage, so she would leave with her children before he does. He ends up with his head chopped off by the very child he was trying to save.
** Ned fought a war with Robert to get his sister back, avenge his father and brother, and help overturn the Targaryen reign. However, by the time Ned found his sister Lyanna, she was dying after recently giving birth, but before her death, Lyanna begs Ned to save her child - Ned’s nephew - who ''also'' happens to be the last son of the crown prince Rhaegar Targaryen, making Ned’s own nephew the heir (since the Kingsguard itself was guarding the tower with Lyanna and her child inside) to the dynasty Ned helped abolish. Ned honors his sister’s DyingWish and protects his nephew, who he raises and loves as his own, guarding one of the greatest kept secrets in Westeros by presenting him as his own illegitimate son to protect him from Robert’s wrath, the man he originally fought alongside.
** Ghost was the runt of the litter and expected to live the shortest. As of the Season 6 finale, Ghost is the only one still around, as his only other living litter mate (Nymeria) vanished way back in Season 1 and all their other siblings have been killed.
** Most bastard-born children are denied property and inheritance rights in Westeros and face Westerosi prejudice claiming they are disloyal, untrustworthy and are a threat to the inheritance claims of trueborn children because they were conceived out-of-wedlock but these prejudices aren't true of many bastard children. Yet — Ramsay — the bastard we see who is disloyal, untrustworthy and even kills his half-brother so he can be the only heir is the one bastard son we see legitimized.

*** Tywin doesn't seem to understand, even on his deathbed (death toilet?), ''why'' Tyrion's so pissed off at him for taking away Tyrion's first love - despite Tywin hating Tyrion his whole life for that exact thing.

** Jaime killed one insane, inbred king rather than let him burn the capital of Westeros to the ground with Wildfire. He and his twin sister produced the insane idiot whose earliest acts upon taking the Iron Throne started the War of Five Kings. And now said sister has become just as insane and murderous as the king Jaime killed twenty years ago.
** Ser Gregor Clegane was knighted by Prince Rhaegar Targaryen on Tywin's recommendation. One year later, after Rhaegar's defeat at the Trident, Lord Tywin ordered him to kill the Prince's children and Gregor took the extra step of raping and murdering Rhaegar's wife too.

** In the first episode of season 7, Lily is pregnant, and she and her husband want to hide it. Because she's pregnant when she attends a wedding she [[OneDrinkWillKillTheBaby secretly hands her alcoholic drinks to her husband Marshall]], causing him to get drunk and eventually reveal that his wife is pregnant.
* Episode 44 of ''Series/KaizokuSentaiGokaiger'' is a tribute to ''Series/BattleFeverJ'', a team that does not have a yellow ranger, and is the only tribute episode to a team without a yellow ranger[[note]]at the time ''Gokaiger'' aired, there were 2 other teams without yellow rangers - ''Series/JAKQDengekitai'', and ''Series/DengekiSentaiChangeman'' - but of the 3 teams that did not have yellow rangers, ''Battle Fever J'' is the only one that gets a tribute episode[[/note]]. Said episode is focused around Gokai Yellow.

* In ''Series/OnceUponATime'', [[spoiler: Victor Frankenstein]] of all people is leading a mob in the season 2 premiere against Regina.

* Creator/AprilBowlby appeared on ''Series/TwoAndAHalfMen'' as a guest star in ten episodes from season three. In season four, she was promoted to the opening credits and only appeared in five episodes.

* April Bowlby appeared on ''Series/TwoAndAHalfMen'' as a guest star in ten episodes from season three. In season four, she was promoted to the opening credits and only appeared in five episodes.

* ''Series/AFrenchVillage'': Müller relates to a horrified Hortense that he'd made Jews dig their graves before being shot in the Soviet Union, specifically one who obeyed him with alacrity and dug very well, wondering just why the man did that so willingly. He's caught later trying to sneak into Germany with false papers after deserting, and the SS guards make him dig his own grave too (very willingly, in terror). Müller presumably answered his own question about whatever the man's reasons before he gets rescued.

** A new member of the JTP threatened Barry's leadership of the group. He tries to get the new member to quit by embarrassing him at a concert for his favorite band, Music/TheGratefulDead. He does this by trying to get caught recording their next concert, inspired by a similar plot on ''Series/WhatsHappening''. The only problem is that The Dead are one of the few bands that encourage this and the move ends up strengthening his bond with the new guy. [[spoiler:The end reveals the new member of the JTP later became Barry's best friend.]]

* ''Series/TheBarrier'': While trying to play dumb about the possibility that one of the children she's secretly detaining in her research center is the child of her two newest house employees, Alma finds herself alone with the girl's mother. Alma tells the mother that herself, her husband and her children are important due to being part of the country's elite, while a mere maid and her daughter are interchageable with any other mother-daughter pair from the lower classes. Unbeknownst to Alma, the pair she just called "unimportant" carries the two only copies of a plot-important subcutaneous chip.

* ''Series/TheBarrier'': While trying to play dumb about the possibility that one of the children she's secretly detaining is the child of her two newest house employees, Alma finds herself alone with the girl's mother. Alma tells the mother that herself, her husband and her children are important due to being part of the country's elite, while a mere maid and her daughter are interchageable with any other mother-daughter pair from the lower classes. Unbeknownst to Alma, the pair she just called "unimportant" carries the two only copies of a plot-important subcutaneous chip.

** Kirk/Spock {{Slash}} is mentioned under Fanfiction, but it also works without the Slash. Out of all of Kirk's relationships, his longest lasting one has been his friendship with Spock, not any of his romantic ones.

* Lampshaded on ''Series/{{Empire}}''. Hakeem throws a Music/{{Prince}}-themed birthday party for his daughter, and Cookie mentions that Prince, a lifelong Jehovah's Witness, didn't actually celebrate birthdays.

* ''Series/HandOfGod'': Pernell, a born again Christian, tells a Jewish man he'll go to hell if he doesn't accept Jesus as his savior. Creator/RonPerlman, playing Pernell, is Jewish himself.

* The end of the original run of ''Series/{{Roseanne}}'' revealed that Roseanne wrote a book about her life while exaggerating parts of it, as it was a way to help her cope with Dan's death. By the time the revival series reaches ''Series/TheConners'' (with Dan's death revealed to be just part of the book), it focuses on [[spoiler:the very real death of Rosanne herself and how the rest of the family copes without her.]]

* ''Series/{{Star Trek|The Original Series}}'':

* The ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E6TheGame "The Game"]] has the crew of the Enterprise being taken over by a highly addictive game. At the end, Wesley Crusher saves the day. The irony is that Wesley's actor (Creator/WilWheaton) is an avid gamer in real life.
* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': in [[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS01E01E02Emissary the series premiere]], Sisko encounters the Bajoran Prophets in the wormhole to the Gamma Quadrant. The Prophets, being StarfishAliens lacking any physical form and completely divorced from, and thus ignorant of, the concept of time, find Sisko perplexing. This leads Sisko to describe the concept of linear time, and how corporeal species such as humans are bound by it. At the same time, however, the Prophets notice that Sisko himself is ''not'' linear, for his mind and his heart were still trapped in the past, at the Battle of Wolf 359, when he lost his wife to the Borg.