History UnintentionalPeriodPiece / SpecialCases

* ''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 MediaNotes/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.

[[folder:Jokes]]
* This joke is funny, but the teenage boy in the joke almost certainly has to have been born between the 1970s and 1990s to have a grandfather who served in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, making it dated, sadly. Giving this background kills the surprise.
-->A boy was upstairs playing on his computer when his grandad came in the room and sat down on the bed.\\
"What are you doing?" asked the grandad. "You're 18 years old and wasting your life! When I was 18 I went to Paris, I went to the Moulin Rouge, drank all night, had my way with the dancers, pissed on the barman and left without paying! Now that is how to have a good time!"\\
A week later, the grandfather comes to visit again. He finds the boy still in his room, but with a broken arm in plaster, 2 black eyes and missing all his front teeth.\\
"What happened?" he asked.\\
"Oh Grandfather!" replied the boy. "I did what you did! I went to Paris, went to the Moulin Rouge, drank all night, had my way with the dancers, pissed all over the barman, and he beat the crap out of me!"\\
"Oh dear!" replied the grandad. "Who did you go with?"\\
"Just some friends, why? Who did you go with?"\\
"Oh!" replied the grandad. "The Third Panzer Division."
* The schoolchild in the Soviet joke about a show-and-tell class might be even older: "I didn't know Grandpa had been a military electrician in the war until I found [[https://www.ss-steel-inc.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/20161204_100113-1-2-scaled.jpg this helmet with two lightning bolts]] in the closet."
* Q: How do we know Adam and Eve were computer nerds?\\
A: God gave Eve an Apple and Adam a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wang_Laboratories Wang]].
* A joke that relies on a now over-100-year-old advertising slogan:
-->A man went on a sea trip with his wife, but his wife died on the trip. The captain said they did not have the facilities on board to store a body for burial on shore, they would have to do a BurialAtSea. The husband knew his wife would never stand for it, but understood and allowed it anyway. That night, sleeping in his cabin, the man kept hearing a voice softly repeating "It floats... it floats... it floats". The next night he heard it again, and he knew it must be the ghost of his dead wife. The third night, exasperated, he finally responded to the voice, "''What'' floats? And the voice said, "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivory_%28soap%29 IVORY SOAP!]]"
* Another joke could only be told in the late 1960s to mid 1980s:
--> A Russian dock worker was being interviewed at his retirement party:\\
"In what city were you born?" "St. Petersburg."\\
"In what city did you go to school?" "Petrograd."\\
"In what city did you work?" "Leningrad."\\
"In what city would you like to die?" "St. Petersburg." [[note]]The joke is that [[PleaseSelectNewCityName it's all]] [[UsefulNotes/TheCityFormerlyKnownAs the same city]].[[/note]]
[[/folder]]

[[index]]
* ''UnintentionalPeriodPiece/{{Arthur}}''
* ''UnintentionalPeriodPiece/TheSimpsons''
* ''UnintentionalPeriodPiece/SouthPark''
[[/index]]
----

[[folder:Other]]
* Any work released before the rise of cell phones, especially smartphones, unintentionally dates itself. [=iPhones=] came out in 2007, [=iPads=] in 2010, and both have dramatically changed the way people behave in a way nobody could have expected. The cultural shift was so sudden and fast-acting that most media released in the mid-aughts became dated after only a few years.
** To a lesser extent, the phone's design language and capabilities can also be pinpointed to a specific era, especially if the character is carrying the latest and greatest model that is outdated just a few years after release. Mostly this is a visual trope, but the writer might feel the need to explain a (now ubiquitous) feature for the then-current reader.
* ''Magazine/{{MAD}}'', due to its LongRunner nature and focus on critiquing pop culture, can veer into this territory from time to time. What seemed popular enough to be spoofed on their cover at one time might have been forgotten within a few years -- and sometimes, due to a delay in publishing, what it parodied may have already been old news by the time the issue came out. Reading an old issue of ''MAD'' makes for a great time capsule of current events and what was popular or considered "hip" in the year it was published, especially if the media or celebrities spoofed have fallen into obscurity, or if the media subject to harsher parodies were VindicatedByHistory. This is to the point that compilation books from each decade since it began in The50s have been made.
* Any map, due to changing political borders, countries or cities [[IstanbulNotConstantinople changing]] [[{{Egopolis}} their names]], things like empires and nation-states falling, etc.
** Even just a road map of an individual city or state can become a period piece due to new roads being built, existing roads being realigned or obliterated during reconstruction, highway numbers being decommissioned or moved to different routings, etc. This is especially noticeable in the 1960s and 1970s while the construction of new Interstates was at its peak -- they were often built in segments, and many had significant gaps in their routing. (For instance, the designation of Interstate 75 has existed since the Interstate Highway system was first planned in the mid-1950s, but it had a gap in mid-Michigan that was not filled until 1973, and the routing from Tampa to Miami, Florida was not complete until 1993.)
* Highway design as a whole. Freeways themselves were initially more linear and tended to cut through neighborhoods directly. Over time, on- and off-ramps, as well as transition roads between freeways, generally became larger and more sweeping, and the main routings of the freeways became more curved -- most often done to lessen the displacement of neighborhoods or landmarks. Ramps used to be designed much smaller and tighter, due to a combination of space limitations, lower speeds on the freeways proper (many exits were designed in an era when 55 was the fastest speed limit), and less concern for things such as traffic patterns. (Few early exits provided complete access in every direction, had little acceleration/deceleration room [to the point that some ramps had yield or stop signs where they met the freeway, making it more like a hard right turn than a merge], or had entering/exiting traffic crossing over very closely.) Notably, entrance and exit ramps from the left sides of freeways were used in the past, but are being replaced wherever space allows due to the dangerous mix of speedy "fast-lane" traffic and slower merging traffic (some exceptions include I-290 west of downtown Chicago, and I-244 in Tulsa). Even the once-common "cloverleaf" exit is being phased out, due to a major design flaw where merging and exiting traffic are forced to cross over each other's paths at the center (made even worse by the fact that the inner ramps that cross over are often signed at 25 MPH or slower). It's often easy to gauge the approximate age of a freeway, particularly if it has not been extensively rebuilt (particularly in California, where many of the older freeways still feature ridiculously sharp exit ramps).
** The Arroyo Seco Parkway between Los Angeles and Pasadena is now an intentional PeriodPiece; as the first freeway in the region, it's a designated historic landmark and will likely never be updated. Many of its ramps are more like hard turns onto/off the freeway, and are signed as slow as ''5'' mph due to the extremely tight curvature.
* Certain neighborhoods, often in smaller towns, tend to come off as products of their time. Architecture may remain from certain decades without being rebuilt, as with designs of certain houses, style of sidewalk (or the lack thereof), or something as seemingly trivial as the width of roads. With today's wider cars, it's not hard to guess which street was built when.
** UsefulNotes/{{Berlin}} is an extreme case in this regard. After UsefulNotes/WorldWarII ended and the city was mostly in ruins after allied bombings, and the city itself being split into East and West soon after, its sectors underwent radically different development. In the West, more old and ruined buildings were just replaced, with those deemed mostly undamaged kept in place and sometimes restored. In the East, lack of resources meant the more functional buildings were refurbished in Soviet style, while ruins were more likely just left alone. The end result is that it is easy to identify buildings from any time period if one looks close enough, as well as being reasonably able to figure out if one is in former East or West (though [[UsefulNotes/TheBerlinRepublic since the Reunion]], the differences have become much weaker due to efforts to modernise former GDR territory).
** Napier, New Zealand is an example of this, due to natural disaster. A major earthquake in 1931 destroyed much of the town and radically altered the terrain around it. Since it was all rebuilt at roughly the same time, and few of the buildings have been replaced since, the town is well-preserved showcase of early 1930s Art Deco architecture and has been designated as a World Heritage Site for that reason.
* According to Creator/OrsonScottCard, ''all'' fiction is this way to one degree or another, bearing identifying characteristics of its writer(s)'s time and culture. This assertion was made in reference to ''Literature/TheBookOfMormon'', which Card declared could not have been a hoax written by Joseph Smith because the way it is written differs too greatly from contemporary writers of Smith's time. Those whose sympathies are not resolutely with the [[UsefulNotes/{{Mormonism}} LDS Church]] may want to take this theory with a grain of salt[[note]]Indeed, many critics of Mormonism make the same argument from the opposite perspective; that the writing of the ''Book of Mormon'' bears many more hallmarks of an early 19th century text rather than an ancient work like Joseph Smith purported it was, up to and including plagiarizing other works from the same time period[[/note]]. That said, the changes in language over time and this trope ''are'' often quite usable to determine when a work was written -- sometimes even to [[AnachronisticClue identify something as a forgery]], as it simply isn't using the language and conventions of the period it allegedly was written in.
* While any extraterrestrial life that may find it certainly won't care, the images encoded on the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contents_of_the_Voyager_Golden_Record Voyager Golden Record]] attached to both Voyager Space Probes certainly portrays the world as it appeared in the 1970s.
** Depiction of real-world space technology in media can cause this for those familiar with it -- works where Mars rovers all look like Sojourner looked strange after Spirit and Opportunity landed and even more so after Curiosity. The space shuttle's 30 years of service are a bit of an exception -- of course, other things like the [[EightiesHair hair]] of the people seen onboard said shuttle can make it pretty easy to tell the 1980s from the 2010s.
* Any work featuring performing elephants and lions in circuses, and performing orcas in marine parks, since these practices were discontinued due to animal welfare concerns.
* Ever since the 9/11 attacks on the original World Trade Center, any work set in New York City created prior to September 2001 is going to date itself if it depicts the Twin Towers in any way. Subsequently, numerous films and TV shows set (and filmed) in New York City from 2002 to roughly 2013 will not feature any or all of the current (rebuilt) World Trade Center.
* [[https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/8e/64/e4/8e64e45fb47269ca4e5353523a5f5b7f.jpg This]] (SFW) Brazilian ad for {{Magazine/Playboy}} contrasts 1975 and 2006.
* [[DrugsAreBad Anti-drug crusades]] are dated to particular eras due to the drugs MoralGuardians are worried about. In the '60s and early-mid '70s, it was marijuana and LSD. In the late '70s and '80s, it was crack cocaine. In the '90s and '00s, it was methamphetamine. In TheNew10s, the main worry was opioids (prescription painkillers and heroin), as well as research chemicals (particularly synthetic cannabinoids), and in TheNew20s, it's fentanyl.
* You can tell the decade by those recyclable jokes about famine-stricken areas. The same joke would be told in the 1960s about Biafrans, in the 1970s about Cambodians, in the 1980s about Ethiopians, in the 1990s about Serbians, and in the 2000s about Darfurians -- the words would be absolutely identical, only the location and nationality changed. Notably, higher political sensitivity killed these kinds of jokes during the 2010s, with no one wanting to have a laugh to the expense of Syrians.
* If a work deals with LGBT characters in any way, it can pretty quickly date itself if it uses the word "transsexual". Though that used to be a perfectly acceptable term for people experiencing gender dysphoria, "transgender" became the preferred term around TheNew10s, thanks to changing ideas about the dissonance between sex and gender.
* Gay marriage being a) an issue at all (well into the 20th century, very few people -- even LGBT advocates -- thought of such a thing), or b) not possible in the place the work is set in. All US states and most of Europe have now legalized either gay marriage or civil unions that are marriage in all but name. Few countries have legalized gay sex and an attitude towards homosexuality open enough to make a work with openly gay characters yet have no gay marriage, so a plot dealing with the inability of a gay couple to get married or the political struggle behind it inevitably dates itself to a time period between -- at the earliest -- the 1970s and at the latest the mid-to-late 2010s. There are of course many countries still without gay marriage, but most of them have homophobia enshrined in society or even law to such a degree that ''that'' would be PlayedForDrama and not just the inability to get married.
* {{Fanvid}}s are usually quite easy to date, especially anime/manga ones or video game ones. Contemporary songs and series are commonly used for periods of them before being replaced. It's also noticeable due to what episodes/chapters someone uses in their videos, and to a lesser extent what techniques are used for the videos. Anything made during a show's run will likely be this, especially if later episodes have footage that would be far more fitting than the clips that were used in the video. For example, many ''Film/HarryPotter'' fanvids made before the last three films came out had a tendency to use clips from other media to stand in for the older versions of the characters -- as they had no clips of Hermione and Ron or Ginny and Harry kissing[[note]]In fact, it became quite popular to substitute Willow from ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' as an older Ginny.[[/note]]
** Content based on ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' is particularly easy to pick out, given the heavy emphasis on the characters currently confirmed and available, as well as those yet to be. Many "dream roster"-type images can be dated by the characters who either aren't present, or are represented by fanart or artwork for their respective series. You can also see character selections become notably more obscure or unusual as most of the traditional Nintendo A-listers and B-listers and big-name third parties got some form of representation, especially when ''Ultimate'' cleaned up most of the big remaining candidates.
* One might look at the bonus material included in the [[LimitedSpecialCollectorsUltimateEdition Platinum or Diamond Edition]] DVD's or Blu-Ray's of vintage films remastered and re-released out of the [[Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon Disney Vault]] and find special "behind-the-scenes" features on the making of the films, and/or music videos of pop-styled covers of the musical numbers contained in the film. Very often, the young celebrities featured in the BTS features and/or music video are stars of whatever in-vogue Creator/DisneyChannel series or Disney Channel Original Movie that might have been in production at the time the Blu-Ray/DVD was released. Promos or trailers of then-upcoming Disney/Pixar productions may be added as well.
* Most low-budget movie studio logos from the 1960s to the 1980s use very cheap animation set to synthesizer sound and sometimes, if they were expensive enough, to small orchestras. While in their time most people saw them as futuristic, you would nowadays see a lot of people that find them legitimately scary.
* Any work that references [[HappyBirthdayToYou the copyright status of a certain birthday song]] immediately dates itself to before 2015, when the U.S. Supreme Court declared the song to be in the public domain.
* Any work that references five-and-dime stores (and isn't framed in a nostalgic context) will date itself to the early to mid-20th century. Thanks to inflation, said stores fell out of favor by The70s.
* Any work that references "Don't ask, don't tell" as a current policy of the U.S. military is instantly dated between 1994 at the earliest, when the policy was first instituted, to 2010 at the latest, when the policy was repealed.
* Any work that references or features video rental stores dates itself to the 1980s at the earliest and circa 2006 at the latest. The rise of online streaming services and conveniences such as Redbox starting in the mid noughties caused many, if not all, of these stores to go out of business. Within this, there's also a limited period of time at the TurnOfTheMillennium when those stores offered [=DVDs=] for rent.
* Since 1928, the back of a United States $10 bill has had a portrait of the U.S. Treasury building. The Bureau designer decided to park a car in front of the building which would make it vintage-era today. Therefore, the portrait became this as early as 1934 when new $10 bills began to be printed and had really become this when more were produced in the 1950s. Finally corrected when a new depiction of the U.S. Treasury featuring just the building was introduced for Series 1999.
* Any work that mentions a real U.S. President will be automatically dated to the time the administration took place. For example, showing UsefulNotes/BarackObama as the president dates the work anytime from the start of 2009 to the ''very'' start of 2017. Similarly, any work that bases its fictional president on the one currently in office. ''Film/WhiteHouseDown'', ''Film/TwoThousandTwelve'', and ''Film/OlympusHasFallen'', all released during Obama's term, each have vastly different interpretations of the president, but the president in each is black.
* Memes in general can become quickly dated, as memes can remain relevant for as little as a week to as long as a few years. Many include examples such as "JustForFun/{{Rickroll}}ing", "[[Music/{{Vocaloid}} Leek Spin]]", "Harambe" and "[[VideoGame/CallOfDutyGhosts Fish A.I.]]".
* [=RPs=] that allow for a MassivelyMultiplayerCrossover aspect are easy to date, especially when certain arcs take place, by the sheer number of characters, or conspicuous ''lack'' of said characters, from a certain popular franchise in the RP. An example would be RolePlay/CampusLife, which started out on a ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' forum with multiple references to ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl Brawl]]'', the then-most-current game in the series. A greater part of the cast came from there, with a number of characters belonging to Franchise/{{Pokemon}} species originating from [[VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl the fourth gen]], placing it sometime around 2007. As time went on, the [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic mane cast from FiM]] ended up becoming the focal characters of a B-plot which easily dates it sometime during the early [[TheNew10s New Tens]]. Once the RP underwent a reboot, several ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'' characters ended up becoming focal points, placing it sometime around the mid-'10s. This isn't even going into movie characters who like to pop up while their movies are still new and fresh, only to [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome disappear without a trace]] once the hype for their movie dies down.
* Almost all pornography (especially the live-action kind) tends to become a PeriodPiece ''very'' quickly. Because porn typically doesn't focus on crafting a good plot & characters, less steps are taken to make it less dated. This means, for example, if you were to watch a porno from 1976, SeventiesHair and {{disco}}/funk music will be everywhere, not to mention all the pubic hair on the actresses. And then there's the fact that porn has a very short shelf-life (most people nowadays don't randomly watch a porn flick from 1994, for example).
* Older shopping malls can sometimes display this if they have not been heavily renovated. Modern malls tend to be very white and sterile, with a vast number of kiosks on an otherwise plain floor -- due to easier maintenance and an attempt to look clean and inviting. Older malls will often retain natural shades such as brown (if built before the '80s) or neon (if built or renovated ''in'' the '80s; shopping mall growth gradually tapered off in the '90s), and have skylights, planters, and/or fountains. Designs of department stores can vary, as well -- older department stores tended to be very boxy and bulky, with multiple floors, while many more modern ones are brighter and usually only one story unless the entire mall is multi-level.\\
Even the overall floor plan can hint at a mall's age. Many early malls often had a very wide open center court (as codified by the TropeMaker, the now-demolished Northland Center in suburban UsefulNotes/{{Detroit}}), while those built in the 1960s and early 1970s were often a straight line or T shape with a department store at either end (often called the "dumbbell"). In comparison, malls built from about the mid-1970s onward often went for more varied angular designs, with staggered storefronts and diagonal hallways. Multi-level malls were all but nonexistent until about the mid-70s; any mall before that point that had more than one level usually had a small, cramped, dark basement that normally consisted of non-retail tenants such as tailors, barber shops, shoe repair, etc. If a mall was expanded at any point in its life, then expect at least a subtle change in architecture along the way (change in the width/straightness of the corridor, presence or absence of fountains/planters/benches, positioning of stores, and so on).
* Palisades Center in West Nyack, New York was built in 1998 and features the logos of many original mall tenants set into the concrete floors. Given that nearly all of these retailers have either gone defunct or changed their logos, and given the impracticality of sandblasting or reflooring a sprawling four-story mall, it's unlikely that this accidental piece of retail history will ever go away.
* Many locations of national chains can be period pieces to the era when they were built. This may be due to the expansive nature of a retail chain, a lack of resources to update all stores to a national standard, or a location being marginal enough that a renovation would not be worthwhile:
** In TheNew10s, Bath & Body Works remodeled most of its stores to a plain blue-and-white design. But a few, particularly in older and more obscure shopping malls (especially given Bath & Body Works's tendency to be one of the last remaining chains at dead malls), still sport the chain's original 1990 look of wood grain with a red-and-white awning.
** A few Arby's restaurants still sport large brown neon signs reading "Arby's roast beef sandwich is delicious" in varying states of functionality. Even fewer of those that still do are in the chain's earliest design of a small "chuck wagon" shaped building, with minimal seating, bathrooms accessible from outside only, and no drive-thru.
** Many older locations of fast-food restaurants were built before drive-thru windows became commonplace, and had them added on at a later date. This can often lead to strange retrofits such as the window being on the "wrong" side of the building and/or requiring a conveyor belt to move food from the kitchen to the window. Still others, particularly in congested urban settings, may not even bother with a drive-thru in the first place.
** Any fast-food restaurant with a solarium was almost certainly built, or at least had the solarium added, in The80s. This was a [[http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1985-11-11/business/8503180207_1_greenhouse-atrium-restaurant common tactic]] at the time in order to make the restaurant seem more open and "natural", but quickly fizzled out due to high maintenance costs.
** Any Taco Bell built before the late 1990s that has not been remodeled will likely have teal blue and purple ''everywhere''. Bonus points if it still has the old brown logo with a more curly font (which was changed in 1994).
** In Australia, the "Hungry Jack's" burger chain[[note]]Actually Burger King, the different name has to do with trademark issues[[/note]] built a large amount of stores during their late 1980s/early 1990s high-growth period in an American [[The50s 50s-era]] GreasySpoon aesthetic akin to the Jack Rabbit Slim's restaurant in ''Film/PulpFiction'', with pop culture icons, posters and props all over the walls. This style was dropped in the late 90s[[note]]Which coincided with the period BK ''competed'' with HJ[[/note]], dating the stores that remained in the older style before they were renovated in the early-mid 2000s.
* UsefulNotes/McDonalds, despite its usually rather cohesive renovation plans, may often go through this:
** The "[=McDonald's=] Classic" became an ironic example of this. This concept, introduced at a few locations in The90s, brought the chain back to basics with a {{retraux}} walk-up stand design. However, many of them were given a [[https://www.flickr.com/photos/fanofretail/25722689885 very 1990s-looking EXTREME logo]] that has made their "retro" nature feel dated in more than one way. It is perhaps for this reason that very few of the "Classic" prototypes remain in business.
** While renovation and relocation of older properties has been a constant since at least the end of The80s, the chain's vast size has made storewide uniformity a challenge. Many stores built in the 1970s and 1980s still have shingled brown mansard roofs and square panels down the side, often with a teal and wood grain interior. Stores built in the 1990s and early noughties tended toward larger windows and red siding on their mansards. The "Forever Young" concept introduced in 2006 consists of a brown, boxy appearance with a more "lounge" inspired appearance, including more comfortable padded seating and large open spaces.
** Some locations have kept their older-style signs (i.e. the then-iconic "Billions and billions served") either out of nostalgia, [[GrandfatherClause having been erected before stricter sign ordinances were enacted]], or both. Rarer yet are those who have kept the earliest, single-arch signs -- one rare survivor being in Green Bay, Wisconsin, which is allegedly the last in the nation to feature "Speedee", the chain's original mascot.
*** Many of those are under franchise agreements dating to the [=McDonald=] brothers' era; it was not until Ray Kroc took over that the contract had a mandatory-update clause.
* Any work claiming that the world will end on a certain date according to current events immediately dates itself to before said date. For example, anything that revolves around the MayanDoomsday is instantly dated to before December 21, 2012.
* While the issues promoted by environmentalists have been relatively consistent since the 1980s, one that has faded away is ozone depletion due to [=CFCs=]. Since the movement was able to affect policy change and ozone levels are growing back, any GreenAesop that treats the hole in the ozone layer as equally dangerous as global warming dates it to the late 1980s or 1990s.
* The oldest surviving globe, Martin Behaim's ''Erdapfel'' from 1492, displays an impressive knowledge of Old World geography for its time... and not a trace of the Americas, which Europeans first reached late in that year (and was not accepted as such for several years).
* 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).
* The Museum of Failure traveling exhibition still includes a copy of ''VideoGame/NoMansSky'' [[VindicatedByHistory despite the game's reception improving over time]]. They did, however, update their write-up to reflect its status as a failure turned into a success.
* Works featuring [[WackyWaterbed waterbeds]] are automatically dated to the 1970s or their peak during the 1980s as they quickly became unpopular in the 1990s (due to their high maintenance) and {{forgotten|trope}} in the 2000s and later. Waterbeds can appear in newer works, but are generally found in either period pieces (again, set in the 1970s or 1980s) or in speculative fiction. Somewhat tellingly, ''Film/EdwardScissorhands'' (released in 1990) used a waterbed to evoke a deliberately AmbiguousTimePeriod.
* The Chuck E. Cheese's restaurant has several examples.
** While the Pizza Time Theatre era was made to be timeless, it has several examples of ValuesDissonance that make some of the shows inappropriate today for a children's pizza parlor, such as Chuck E. himself being a CigarChomper. There's also the patriotic shows (American locations only), which were right off the heels of the national Bicentennial.
** The [=ShowBiz=] Pizza Time "Tux" era, which was made to be timeless like its predecessor, has the occasional example, like some of the showtapes having ads for VHS tapes and CGI-animated reels that were only there to show off the capabilities of CGI. The countdowns for the video segments scream early '90s, with random stuff in the background.
** During the "Cool" era, which lasted from 1994-1998, there was a machine named the Awesome Adventure Machine (which is '90s enough on its own) that took the gang to several places. One of these was a Western town built on computer technology -- as in, 1995 technology, with references to ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' (which would be a DemographicDissonantCrossover, given the game's violent nature), MIDI, floppy disks, DOS, and of course, boxy computers.
** During the "Avenger" era, which lasted from 1998-2012, Chuck gained Tony Hawk style attire with a very TurnOfTheMillennium color scheme of purple, green and yellow. There were also video segments where Chuck E. went to Blockbuster Video, the "Studio C Alpha" stage was made to resemble a late night talk show stage from the late 1990s, the restaurants were filled with posters parodying late-'90s TV shows...
** The current "Rockstar" era, which began in 2012, has Chuck being a guitarist voiced by Jerret Reddick from Music/BowlingForSoup. This was right at the end of the period where rock was more popular among kids than pop or hip-hop, meaning it's already starting to show its age. There's also a beaver character in the Fall 2013 tape named "Justin" as a dig at Music/JustinBieber.
* The UsefulNotes/MacysThanksgivingDayParade, because of its long-running history, can often veer into this territory for each edition. Many parades, especially in later years, often featured a popular hit-making act of the time performing their hit song on a float, or referenced a trend or meme that was "hot" at the time (the most famous example of the latter being the JustForFun/{{Rickroll}} in the 2008 parade). Many balloons and floats are based off of popular pieces of media at the time, such as cartoons, films and toys. Watching an old Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade makes for a great time capsule of what was popular or considered "hip" in the year the parade was held; especially if some of the properties, trends, memes or celebrities featured have fallen into obscurity (for example, [[WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius Jimmy Neutron]] was featured as a balloon at the height of his show's popularity. It's unlikely he'll return as the series is now only relevant through ironic memes).
* The MediaNotes/{{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.
* You can tell a review of a piece of media or something else was written in a certain decade by the writing style the reviewer used. Film reviewers in the 1960s-90s preferred a CompassionateCritic style most of the time, often calling out the negative qualities in great detail while praising positive qualities. Later, criticism of media, the arts, cars, etc. in the 2000s and early 2010s was dominated by "edgy" {{Caustic Critic}}s who preferred [[AccentuateTheNegative ignoring positive attributes in favor of brutally mocking the negative attributes]] (to the point where making "worst [blank] of all time" lists/polls practically became a cottage industry in and of itself), while the later half of the 2010s saw reviewers prefer reviewing media using sociopolitical allegories, with the Caustic Critic style mostly falling out of favor (with some exceptions, such as with many online reviewers). Even the terminology and descriptors critics use can become dated. In the 2000s, quite a few (mostly British) Caustic Critics often described things they disliked as "[blank] with Downs", a descriptor that largely fell out of use by TheNew10s because of concerns it was offensive to the disabled.
* Works that reference One-Hour Photo stores date themselves to the late 20th century at a time when thousands of these stores could be found across the United States. Digital photography caused many One-Hour Photo stores to go out of business in the TurnOfTheMillennium, and very few survived into TheNew10s.
* Any work referencing illegal sports gambling or the presence of bookmaking as illegal dates itself to pre-2018. The Supreme Court legalized sports gambling nationwide that year and it instantly became ingrained into the culture, with many leagues outright taking sponsorship deals from betting agencies.
* Any work involving a {{giant squid}} dates itself if it mentions that the giant squid has never been seen alive in the wild. While this was true for most of modern history (which contributed to the animal's mystique), it became dated when marine biologists successfully captured one alive in 2006, and became further dated when scientists finally captured video footage of a giant squid in its natural habitat in 2012.
* In the late 19th century, UsefulNotes/{{Melbourne}}, Australia was one of the richest cities in the world, and remains one of the best places to see architecture of that era, especially since many of the buildings in Europe were destroyed in the two World Wars.
* In general, any media that includes real life celebrities popular at the time tends to get very dated when said celebrities inevitably lose relevance, die or [[OvershadowedByControversy get caught up in a career-ending scandal]]. One example of this is in ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', (which otherwise averts the trope by taking place in another world, in a timeless culture populated by ponies and with little to no focus on technology), but as it was released in TheNewTens, a few personas tend to stand out. This includes the ponified cameos of Matt Lauer, Al Roker, and Savannah Guthrie from ''Series/TheTodayShow'' which dates the episode ''The Gift Of Maud Pie'' sometime between the years 2012-2017 (as Matt Lauer was removed from the show following allegations that came out during the [=#MeToo=] movement). This also covers the comicbook cameo of Mandopony, dating the issue at the end of the TheNewTens when the Brony community had a wakeup call regarding the likes of him and [=ToonKriticY2K=].
[[/folder]]

* Each game in the ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' series contains a treasure trove of ContinuityPorn for a huge variety of Nintendo (and other companies starting with ''Brawl'') franchises, but obviously they can only do so up to the time of their release. Therefore, as more games come out in each series represented, each ''Smash'' game becomes increasingly dated. For instance, ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosMelee Melee]]'' is clearly dated to 2001, seeing as how it only features Franchise/{{Pokemon}} from the [[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue first]] [[VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver two]] generations, collectable trophies from games which have long since been localized such as ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossing'' are marked as being a "Future Release", and its character designs are derived from the most recently released games in each series at that time, which were typically on the Nintendo 64 due to ''Melee'' releasing at the beginning of the [=GameCube's=] life, making it stick out next to other games on the console.[[note]]For example, in ''Melee'', Fox and Falco look as they did in ''VideoGame/StarFox64'', and Link, Zelda, Ganondorf and Young Link draw their designs from ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Ocarina of Time]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask Majora's Mask]]''. ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl Brawl]]'', however, would update the character designs to ones from games that came out after ''Melee''. ''Star Fox'' characters got their looks from ''[[VideoGame/StarFoxAssault Assault]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/StarFoxCommand Command]]''. Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf's designs now come from ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess Twilight Princess]]'', while Toon Link from ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker Wind Waker]]'' replaces Young Link. ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate Ultimate]]'' updates the ''Star Fox'' characters to their ''VideoGame/StarFoxZero'' designs, and while Ganondorf reverts to his ''Ocarina of Time'' design, Link's design comes from ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild Breath of the Wild]]'' and Zelda's design comes from ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkBetweenWorlds A Link Between Worlds]]''.[[/note]]
** In the original game, out of the nine stages that can be selected, only three of them are from a game which hadn't been released in the past three years – [[Franchise/{{Metroid}} Planet Zebes]] ([[VideoGame/SuperMetroid 1994]] at the absolute latest), [[VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry Kongo Jungle]] (also 1994), and the hidden [[VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1 Mushroom Kingdom]] (1985).[[note]][[VideoGame/SuperMario64 Peach's Castle]] and [[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue Saffron City]] are from 1996, as is [[VideoGame/KirbysDreamLand Dream Land]] as evidenced by [[VideoGame/KirbySuperStar its music]]. [[VideoGame/YoshisStory Yoshi's Island/Super Happy Tree]] and [[VideoGame/StarFox64 Sector Z]] are from 1997. [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Hyrule Castle]] is from 1998.[[/note]]
** In an odd case of this, the rosters are also usually [[ProductionLeadTime decided a few years in advance]], which can lead to some characters looking somewhat out of date even from the moment the game releases. For instance, Mario in ''Brawl'' has a stage, a move, and a boss based on ''Super Mario Sunshine'', which was five years old at that point, and nothing from the more popular ''Galaxy'', which released only two months before ''Brawl''. The same game has a lot of content from ''VideoGame/Mother3'', repping a game that sold fairly poorly and [[NoExportForYou wasn't released outside of Japan]] at all. On the other end of the spectrum, you have [[VideoGame/FireEmblem Roy]], who was added last-minute in ''Melee'' to promote his game (to the point of technically debuting in ''Smash''); Roy is fairly middling in popularity as Lords go outside of ''Smash'', so there's not much chance it would have happened otherwise.
** 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 his down-B ([[GroundPunch Hand Slap]]) 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 March 2024, with ''VideoGame/PrincessPeachShowtime'' being the most recent game represented in the series after its respective spirit board event.

* ''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).