History Main / NotSoCrazyAnymore

* Several works of fiction that featured black presidents in a contemporary setting were often ridiculed for being unrealistic or overly optimistic about attitudes towards race.

* ''Film/{{Americathon}}'' (1979) predicted several things: the rise of China as an economic superpower, the growth of U.S. public debt, high energy prices, the decline of tobacco and the growing acceptability of marijuana, and the collapse of the USSR.

For InUniverse examples, see ItWillNeverCatchOn.

See also: AccidentallyCorrectWriting, HilariousInHindsight, HarsherInHindsight, SeinfeldIsUnfunny, ScienceMarchesOn, StrawmanHasAPoint, ItWillNeverCatchOn, ValuesResonance, and TheCuckoolanderWasRight.

* ''Film/BackToTheFuture'': InUniverse, Doc Brown ridicules the notion that Ronald Reagan will become President of the United States, which would've been far-fetched in the 1950s but becomes an intentional bit of irony for viewers from the 1980s.

* The ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' story, "The Laughing Fish", where ComicBook/TheJoker tries to declare the titular fish his intellectual property, sounded utterly ridiculous when first released and still did even in the 1990s, [[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE34TheLaughingFish when it was adapted by]] [[WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries the animated series]]. But today, Joker's demand doesn't seem that unreasonable at all on the face of it, considering that many corporations routinely use genetic mapping to patent animal species as a matter of course.[[note]]The ''real'' problem is that (1) He's demanding ''copyright'' for what should be a patent issue, and (2) He's ''not'' using genetics to breed the fish into having smiles, but simply dumping poison onto already-born fish and disfiguring them. You know, like what he usually does to ''people''.[[/note]]

* An even more extreme example is a 1920 British newspaper cartoon which considers the impact of mobile phones, which had just been announced as a possibility in the future, and has them going off during weddings, in theaters, etc.

** Come to think of it, the titular GreatBigBookOfEverything from ''Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' series predicted both Website/TheOtherWiki and ebook readers. About the only thing it got wrong was the Guide being a single-purpose device rather than software installed on a portable computer, although there ''have'' been occasional attempts at making a dedicated "Wikipedia browser" device using obsolete PDA and e-reader parts, and it must be said that even with current technology a handheld device storing a complete offline copy of what's implied to be a truly ''enormous'' amount of data wouldn't have the storage space to be useful for much else anyway.[[note]]To put it in perspective, a complete data dump of every English-language article on Wiki/TheOtherWiki at time of writing is about 200GB including the browser app. Most tablets don't even have half that much internal storage even before being imaged with an operating system.[[/note]] The prop used in the TV series even looks a bit like the early laptop and handheld computers that would become available in the late 80s and early 90s.

** Come to think of it, the titular GreatBigBookOfEverything from ''Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' series predicted both Wiki/TheOtherWiki and ebook readers. About the only thing it got wrong was the Guide being a single-purpose device rather than software installed on a portable computer, although there ''have'' been occasional attempts at making a dedicated "Wikipedia browser" device using obsolete PDA and e-reader parts, and it must be said that even with current technology a handheld device storing a complete offline copy of what's implied to be a truly ''enormous'' amount of data wouldn't have the storage space to be useful for much else anyway.[[note]]To put it in perspective, a complete data dump of every English-language article on Wiki/TheOtherWiki at time of writing is about 200GB including the browser app. Most tablets don't even have half that much internal storage even before being imaged with an operating system.[[/note]] The prop used in the TV series even looks a bit like the early laptop and handheld computers that would become available in the late 80s and early 90s.

* ''Film/ShockTreatment'' is a strange 1981 film and sequel to ''Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow'' dealing with an everyday man being put through televised therapy and his girlfriend going fame mad after appearing on it. While there's something of a game show feel to the whole thing, it is otherwise a freakishly close to home prediction of reality TV, especially shows like Dr Phil.

* One installment of ''WesternAnimation/DocMcStuffins'' revolves around a toy who doesn't want to be taken to the toy hospital because she's afraid she'll get sick there. The other toys reassure her that she has nothing to worry about, as a hospital is a place to help you get better, not someplace where you'll get sick. However, in the real world there's been a deepening public health crisis involving antibiotic-resistant infections people have picked up while staying in hospitals, and the Center for Disease Control estimates there are as many as 90,000 deaths a year from diseases acquired in hospitals. Given this, adult viewers in the know could easily see this toy's concern as being legitimate, especially given that they're taking her to a hospital she hasn't been able to personally check into to see if it's up to standard.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXKqdi0Wp0E One]] of the "Why haven't you called Advertising/{{GEICO}}?" ads from 2004 featured a fake reality show called ''Tiny House''. The ad was a good take on typical ads for reality shows of the time and probably fooled many people. The concept presented was two newlyweds who have to live together for one year in the titular tiny house. "The drama will be real... but it won't save you any money on car insurance." However, just look at the related videos on [=YouTube=] and you'll see a bunch of listings about actual tiny houses. Since the airing of the ad, an actual "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiny_house_movement tiny house movement]]" has gained a lot of traction, as well as ''actual'' reality shows such as ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiny_House_Nation Tiny House Nation]]''.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXKqdi0Wp0E One]] of the "Why haven't you called Advertising/{{GEICO}}?" ads from 2004 featured a fake reality show called ''Tiny House''. The ad was a good take on typical ads for reality shows of the time and probably fooled many people. The concept presented was two newlyweds who have to live together for one year in the titular tiny house. "The drama will be real... but it won't save you any money on car insurance." However, just look at the related videos on [=YouTube=] and you'll see a bunch of listings about actual tiny houses. Since the airing of the ad, an actual "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiny_house_movement tiny house movement]]" has gained a lot of traction.

See also: HilariousInHindsight, HarsherInHindsight, SeinfeldIsUnfunny, ScienceMarchesOn, StrawmanHasAPoint, ItWillNeverCatchOn, ValuesResonance, and TheCuckoolanderWasRight.

* ''Film/BackToTheFuture'': InUniverse, Doc Brown ridicules the notion that Ronald Reagan will become President of the United States, which would've been far-fetched in the 1950s but becomes an intentional bit of irony for viewers from the 1980s ([[ActuallyPrettyFunny Reagan himself thought it was hilarious]]).

See also: HilariousInHindsight, HarsherInHindsight, ScienceMarchesOn, StrawmanHasAPoint, ItWillNeverCatchOn, ValuesResonance, and TheCuckoolanderWasRight.

See also: FunnyAneurysmMoment, HilariousInHindsight, HarsherInHindsight, ScienceMarchesOn, StrawmanHasAPoint, ItWillNeverCatchOn, ValuesResonance, and TheCuckoolanderWasRight.

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheCritic'', from 1994, includes a quick joke about RidiculousFutureSequelisation. The film series in question? ''Film/HomeAlone 5''. ''Home Alone'' (which at the time only had one sequel) hit it's fifth installment in 2012, and released a ''sixth'' film in 2021.

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheCritic'', from 1994, includes a quick joke about RidiculousSequelEscalation. The movie in question? ''Film/HomeAlone 5''. ''Home Alone'''s SIXTH film came out in 2021.

* In a 1998 installment of the web humor column ''[[http://www.bookofratings.com/ The Book of Ratings]]'', the "Mystical Creatures" rating contains a sarcastic quip about vampires going the way of the unicorn: "If it hasn't happened already, in a few months look for airbrushed posters of sad vampires in Wal-Marts everywhere, and in a decade look for female college students saying to each other "Were you into vampires when you were nine? Me too! We were such dorks!" Yeah, [[Literature/{{Twilight}} about that...]]

* ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}'': In one cartoon, Jon buys a "battery-powered battery charger", which is presented as a typical example of his [[TheDitz gullibility]]. Nowadays, it's fairly common for people to carry portable battery packs with which to recharge cell phones and other portable electronics when there's no electrical outlet handy.

* The ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' story, "The Laughing Fish", where ComicBook/TheJoker tries to declare the titular fish his intellectual property, sounded utterly ridiculous when first released and still did even in the 1990s, [[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE34TheLaughingFish when it was adapted by]] [[WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries the animated series]]. But today, Joker's demand doesn't seem that unreasonable at all on the face of it, considering that many corporations routinely use genetic mapping to patent animal species as a matter of course.[[note]]The ''real'' problem is that (1) He's demanding ''copyright'' for what should be a patent issue, and (2) He's ''not'' using genetics to breed the fish into having smiles, but simply dumping poison onto already-born fish and disfiguring him. You know, like what he usually does to ''people''.[[/note]]

* The ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' story, "The Laughing Fish", where ComicBook/TheJoker tries to patent a fish, sounded utterly ridiculous when first released and still did even in the 1990s, [[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE34TheLaughingFish when it was adapted by]] [[WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries the animated series]]. But today, Joker's demand for a patent doesn't seem that unreasonable at all, considering that many corporations routinely use genetic mapping to patent animal species as a matter of course.

* ''Film/ShockTreatment'' is a strange 1981 film and sequel to ''Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow'' dealing with an everyday man being put through televised therapy and his girlfriend going fame mad after appearing on it. While there's something of a game show feel to the whole thing, it is otherwise a freakishly close to home prediction of reality TV.

* A [=GameSpot=] [[https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/alien-resurrection-review/1900-2637344/ review]] of ''Alien Resurrection'' on the UsefulNotes/{{Playstation}}, written in the year 2000, declares that "the game's control setup is its most terrifying element. The left analog stick moves you forward, back, and strafes right and left, while the right analog stick turns you and can be used to look up and down." This exact control scheme would go on to become almost universal for video games in the coming decades.