History UnintentionalPeriodPiece / The90s

* ''Film/TheWorldIsNotEnough'' has several things that instantly date it:
** When Bond returns to London, he presents a cigar to Miss Moneypenny, who replies that she knows where to put it. This could be seen as a reference to the Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky affair, which allegedly featured a cigar being used in foreplay.
** The boat chase down the River Thames does not feature the London Eye (which had already been raised to its current position ''by the time the film was released'') and passes a then-under construction Portcullis House (it was finished in 2001).
** Bond watches a report on the conclusion of Elektra King’s kidnapping presented by Martyn Lewis -- as in the above example, Lewis had retired and the BBC had changed the appearance of their news broadcasts by the film’s release.
** Elektra King surveys her oil empire with a computer running Windows 2000 (and a beta version at that).
** At the end, R switches off a screen showing a heat-sensitive image of Bond and Christmas Jones ''in flagrante delicto'', pretending it’s an early occurrence of the MillenniumBug.

* ''Film/VegasVacation'' is a time capsule of that [[DorkAge regrettable time]] in the history of UsefulNotes/LasVegas when, in an attempt to keep up with competition from [[{{Joisey}} Atlantic City]] on the East Coast and {{Native American casino}}s across the country, the city attempted to rebrand itself as a ''family vacation destination'', with a wide variety of new resorts bearing theme-park style rides and theming (the MGM Grand had an entire short-lived AmusementPark). The year after ''Vegas Vacation'' came out in 1997 and parodied the "new" Vegas, the opening of the more adult-oriented, high-class Bellagio resort heralded the start of a backlash that saw most of these casinos de-themed and oriented back towards their bread-and-butter industry of gambling.

* ''Literature/TheSuitcaseKid'''s overall plot is pretty timeless, but there are some details that clearly place it in the early 1990s (published in 1992). No one is mentioned owning or using a cellphone, which weren't yet common, including in situations why they'd be useful (such as Carol contacting Simon about Andy being sick before he arrived to pick her up; it also seems likely Andy would have a cellphone in case of emergencies given that she has to make long commutes to and from school by herself). Characters are often mentioned watching movies on video (including Katie hiding horror movie video cassettes in ''Care Bear'' boxes). Andy also makes mention of the show ''Teenage Mutant'' '''''Hero''''' ''Turtles''; in the UK the original ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987'' cartoon was called ''Hero Turtles'' when it first aired, due to MoralGuardians feeling the word "ninja" had [[{{Bowdlerise}} violent connotations inappropriate for kids]].

** "The Reaction" features teen heartthrob Jeremy Jason [=McCole=], star of ''[[ShowWithinAShow Power House]]'', a clear [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed shout-out]] to Johnathan Taylor Thomas of ''Series/HomeImprovement'' fame, ''definitely'' set in the late-90s when [[HeIsAllGrownUp he was hitting his teen years]] and the show was gaining a PeripheryDemographic of teen girls suddenly watching the same sitcom as their dads. Also in that book, Cassie name-drops several bands that were popular at the time: Music/BoyzIIMen, Music/SnoopDogg, and Music/NineInchNails.

* ''[[Literature/CaptainUnderpants The Adventures of Captain Underpants]]'' has Mr. Krupp blackmailing the heroes with a video tape, showing it was made before [=DVDs=] and digital video became popular. The heroes replace said tape with [[Series/BarneyAndFriends a copy of a show called Boomer the purple dinosaur]], another sign it was written in the 90s.

* The ''Cruis'n'' series of arcade racing games by Creator/EugeneJarvis date themselves to the UsefulNotes/BillClinton years by ending with the player, after completing the racing tournament, being invited to party with Clinton in a hot tub with bikini babes.

* The 1991 novel ''[[Literature/TheRing Ring]]'' by Koji Suzuki, along with its Japanese, South Korean, and American film adaptations (released in 1998, 1999, and 2002 respectively). The story revolves around a cursed [[UsefulNotes/{{VHS}} videotape]] that causes those who watch it to die in seven days, a premise that marks it as being from a time before the rise of DVD, Blu-Ray, and online video. Parodies of ''The Ring'' made in more recent years typically joke about how either the movie would be over in five minutes because [[WhatAreRecords nobody has a VCR]], or conversely, how Sadako/Samara would [[https://xkcd.com/396/ wipe out half the world]] once the video is uploaded on [=YouTube=].

* The early ''Literature/StephaniePlum'' books were written in, and take place in, TheNineties, and almost feel like throwbacks to TheEighties. The title character doesn't get a cellphone until book 3 or so.
* ''Literature/GoodOmens'' was published in 1990 and shows its age occasionally. Crowley is considered hyper-modern by angelic and demonic standards, which is exemplified by the fact that he "drives a car with a telephone in it." In a mixed example, Crowley considers the Velvet Underground to be modern music, though they had already been broken up for over a decade by the time the book published. Interestingly, Crowley considers it a coup to disrupt the mobile phone network in the original book, which would have been a much smaller accomplishment than in modern times.
* ''[[Literature/{{Janie}} The Face on the Milk Carton]]'' falls into this for several reasons. The first being the premise, which is that Janie sees her face listed as missing on a milk carton. Much of the rest of the book is her trying to find the truth, which would've taken mere hours if she could just Google herself. Additionally, it's unlikely nowadays that a [[MissingWhiteWomanSyndrome missing white girl]] wouldn't have been a media sensation.

* ''Literature/RisingSun'': A whole book about 1990s apprehension that JapanTakesOverTheWorld, before the Japanese recession eased those concerns. The protagonist's daughter listens to the latest Music/MCHammer hit. The plot centers around discovering a large Japanese corporation has digitally edited video footage by placing a photo image over a 3D model. Nowadays, any 3D software can do texture mapping, and there are a plethora of free image editing tools available to the public. However, the in-universe realism of the end result is utterly ridiculous - even today, it's usually fairly easy to tell just by looking that digital editing has been done to a video, ''especially'' when being scrutinized as much as evidence in a murder would be.

%%* ''Film/TheNeverendingStory III: Escape From Fantasia'' is so painfully '90s.

* ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHead''. The main characters are parodies of '90s teen metalheads and slackers who {{MST}} music videos from that decade, and the antics they get into on the rest of the show, which include meeting UsefulNotes/BillClinton, finding themselves on ''Series/AmericasMostWanted'' and ''Series/{{COPS}}'', calling a 1-900 phone sex hotline, and going on a right-wing talk radio show in the vein of Radio/RushLimbaugh, reflect '90s concerns and pop culture. Their HippieTeacher, Mr. Van Driessen, is likewise portrayed as a [[NewAgeRetroHippie former '60s activist]] whose age (implied to be in his 30s or 40s) immediately pegs the show's air date. It's especially pronounced in TheMovie, ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHeadDoAmerica'', which features a very pre-[[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror 9/11]] portrayal of terrorism, most notably with the ATF (which had just gained infamy after the ill-fated Waco siege) hunting down the duo after they're {{Mistaken for Terrorist}}s.

* ''Series/WhereInTheWorldIsCarmenSandiego'', which was at the height of its popularity in the early '90s, would definitely suffer from this if it were aired in reruns; that being the era of the fall of the Soviet Union. Lynne Thigpen (The Chief) had to include a message at the end of each episode stating "All geographic information was accurate as of the date this program was recorded," with the record date displayed quite prominently on-screen (a rare thing). But the theme song itself prominently mentions "Czechoslovakia", which would cease to be a country in 1993 and force the writers to quickly change the show's lyrics. Worst of all, though, was the EightiesHair on quite a few of the contestants; even dressing everyone in pseudo-1940s detective wear couldn't keep all that hair from spilling out behind the fedoras. The poor producers were hit so hard with this, it might help to explain why the follow-up show, ''Series/WhereInTimeIsCarmenSandiego,'' switched its focus from Geography to History, a topic that is usually a little more stable.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXpfdq3WYu4 This]] Windows 95 video guide, from start to finish. The fashion (''still'' reeling from the late 80s, plastic glasses and flannel shirts included), the '90s sitcom humor, the gamer caricature "Joystick Johnny" (who's used to hype ''3D Pinball: Space Cadet'', one of Windows 95's pack-in games), the [[Film/WaynesWorld Wayne & Garth]] ripoffs, the idea of [=CDs=] as advanced technology ("it's digital!"), the fact that it features ''Series/{{Friends}}'' stars Creator/JenniferAniston and Creator/MatthewPerry... When ''The Atlantic'' [[http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/05/the-most-90s-thing-that-could-ever-exist/371115/ discovered it]], they called it "the most '90s thing that could ever exist".

* ''VideoGame/YuGiOhForbiddenMemories'' dated itself even before its Japanese release in December 1999 (let alone the North American release in 2002) by trying to have an astrological twist in its ElementalRockPaperScissors by giving each monster two "guardian stars", with two cycles where each celestial body (that is, the non-Earth planets plus the sun and moon) beat the adjacent one farther away from Earth than itself[[note]]Moon > Venus > Mercury > Sun > Moon, and Mars > Jupiter > Saturn > Uranus > Pluto > Neptune > Mars[[/note]]. Even disregarding Pluto's altered planetary status, in this system, Uranus beat Pluto and Pluto beat Neptune, because Pluto, due to its wonky orbit, was closer than Neptune between January 1979 and February 1999. Presumably the game was already too far along in development in February to rebalance the system to reflect this.

* [[http://toastytech.com/evil/ Internet Explorer is EVIL!]] was created in the midst of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v%2E_Microsoft_Corp%2E Microsoft's antitrust case]]. It features humor relating to the trial, Internet Explorer, and [[UsefulNotes/MicrosoftWindows Windows 98]]. There are references to Lorena Bobbitt, Tonya Harding, and the defunct airline [=ValuJet=] (which was in the news at the time of the site's creation for it's often dangerous attempts at cutting costs), with a dash of anti-[[Series/BarneyAndFriends Barney]] humor for good measure.[[labelnote:*]]Microsoft released an Actimates Barney doll.[[/labelnote]] According to the owner, the site was preserved so visitors could relive the controversy surrounding Microsoft's anticompetitive practices during that time. The late '90s web design also helps -- the owner removed the autoplaying MIDI music years ago, but the fire [=GIFs=] are still intact.

* [[http://www.angelfire.com/super/badwebs/ This website]] about bad web design across sites like Geocities and Angelfire at the time is very much a time capsule of mid-late 90s web design, with all the cliches: the looping MIDI music and [=GIFs=], the overuse of the Times New Roman font, the frames around the webpage, and the badly contrasting colors. There's even a reference to [[MillenniumBug Y2K]]! Surprisingly, the site is still updated, as it mentions [=HTML5=] rather than the old '90s markup.

* There are portions of ''Film/CantHardlyWait'' that may have not worked had it been made a decade or so later. For instance, Amanda could've theoretically, simply looked Preston up on Website/{{Facebook}} and figured out who he was. Meanwhile, the subplot involving Denise and Kenny being LockedInTheBathroom could've been solved much sooner had they just called somebody on their cell phones for help. Speaking of which, Preston is seen using a Bell Atlantic phone booth. Bell Atlantic would change its name to Verizon Communications in June 2000. The movie also implies that being interested in computers like in William's case automatically makes you (at least in [[JerkJock Mike's]] point of view), [[{{Nerd}} nerdy]] and uncool.

* The 1997 MadeForTVMovie ''Detention: The Siege at Johnson High'' (also known as ''Hostage High'' and ''Target for Rage'' in home video releases), in addition to being BasedOnATrueStory, is a noticeably pre-UsefulNotes/{{Columbine}} portrayal of a [[AxesAtSchool school shooting]], and not just in its very {{grunge}}-era fashion sense and soundtrack. In particular, it's a film where the school shooter starts taking hostages, some of whom develop a rapport with him while others joke about their predicament, with the hostage negotiator being one of the protagonists. While this is TruthInTelevision for the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindhurst_High_School_shooting real shooting]] the film was based on, later school shooters, starting with the Columbine killers, would be notorious for ''not'' taking hostages and instead opting to KillEmAll, with no chance at negotiation. Many real police procedures for dealing with mass shooters, in fact, had to be heavily rewritten after the Columbine massacre, where the police set up a perimeter around the school but didn't go in until it was already over, because they thought they were dealing with a hostage situation where they could negotiate with the killers. As such, the flow of how the shooting progresses can come across as very unusual for somebody raised in the modern environment of mass shootings.

* [[http://toastytech.com/evil/ Internet Explorer is EVIL!]] was created in the midst of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v%2E_Microsoft_Corp%2E Microsoft's antitrust case]]. It features humor relating to the trial, Internet Explorer, and [[UsefulNotes/MicrosoftWindows Windows 98]]. There are references to Lorena Bobbitt, Tonya Harding, and the defunct airline [=ValuJet=], with a dash of anti-[[Series/BarneyAndFriends Barney]] humor for good measure.[[labelnote:*]]Microsoft released an Actimates Barney doll.[[/labelnote]] According to the owner, the site was preserved so visitors can relive the controversy surrounding Microsoft's anticompetitive practices during that time. The late '90s web design also helps--the owner removed the autoplaying MIDI music years ago, but the fire [=GIFs=] are still intact.

** "Daddy, why doesn't this magnet pick up your floppy disks?" The joke being that floppy disks, as a type of UsefulNotes/MagneticDisk, would be destroyed by magnets. As of 2016, magnetic portable storage devices have been almost completely phased out in favor of flash-based devices like USB drives, which are immune to this sort of erasure.[[note]]At least for private users. Many institutions collecting vast amounts of data, like NASA or CERN, still use magnetic drives for archival since it still has better longevity.[[/note]] While magnetic hard disks are still prevalent on many desktop and laptop computers, they too are slowly being phased out in favor of solid-state drives.

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpMvS1Q1sos "It's All About the Pentiums"]] was made to be humorous in the first place, but unsurprisingly has become a period piece of 1990s computing. TechnologyMarchesOn, and the things the singer brags about are now quaint memories: Pentiums[[note]]Pentium processors are still used as a middle-range processor, just hardly worth bragging about[[/note]], T1 lines, Y2K, floppy diskettes, modems, Creator/SarahMichelleGellar being a TeenIdol and geek heartthrob, a "32-bit-world", and mentioning a newsgroup called "alt.total-loser". On the bright side, even twenty years later having 100 GB of memory and a 40-inch monitor are still very impressive[[note]]The latter if only due to the impracticality of having such a large monitor, and not due to any technological constraints[[/note]], and the technology-based insults manage to hit even harder than before simply because the stuff referenced is even more outdated now than it was in 1999.

* [[http://toastytech.com/evil/ Internet Explorer is EVIL!]] was created in the midst of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v%2E_Microsoft_Corp%2E Microsoft's antitrust case]]. It features humor relating to the trial, Internet Explorer, and [[UsefulNotes/MicrosoftWindows Windows 98]]. There are references to Lorena Bobbitt, Tonya Harding, and the defunct airline [=ValuJet=], with a dash of anti-[[Series/BarneyAndFriends Barney]] humor for good measure.[[labelnote:*]]Microsoft released an Actimates Barney doll.[[/labelnote]] According to the owner, the site was preserved so visitors can relive the controversy surrounding Microsoft's antitrust practices. The late '90s web design also helps--the owner removed the autoplaying MIDI music years ago, but the fire [=GIFs=] are still intact.

* [[http://toastytech.com/evil/ Internet Explorer is EVIL!]] was created in the midst of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v%2E_Microsoft_Corp%2E Microsoft's antitrust case]]. It features humor relating to the trial, Internet Explorer, [[UsefulNotes/MicrosoftWindows Windows 98]], and Bill Gates himself, with a dash of anti-[[Series/BarneyAndFriends Barney]] humor for good measure.[[labelnote:*]]Microsoft released an Actimates Barney doll.[[/labelnote]] According to the owner, the site was preserved so visitors can relive the controversy surrounding Microsoft's antitrust practices. The late '90s web design also helps--the owner removed the autoplaying MIDI music years ago, but the fire [=GIFs=] are still intact.

* [[http://toastytech.com/evil/ Internet Explorer is Evil!]] was created in the midst of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v%2E_Microsoft_Corp%2E Microsoft's antitrust case]]; it features humor relating to the trial, Internet Explorer, UsefulNotes/MicrosoftWindows, and Bill Gates himself. According to the owner, the site was preserved so visitors can relive the controversy surrounding Microsoft's antitrust practices. The late '90s web design also helps--the owner removed the autoplaying MIDI music years ago, but the fire [=GIFs=] are still intact.

* "[[http://toastytech.com/evil/ Internet Explorer is Evil!]]" was created in the midst of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v%2E_Microsoft_Corp%2E Microsoft's antitrust case]]; it features humor relating to the trial, UsefulNotes/MicrosoftWindows, and Bill Gates himself. According to the owner, the site was preserved so visitors can relive the controversy surrounding Microsoft's antitrust practices. The late '90s web design also helps--the owner removed the autoplaying MIDI music years ago, but the fire [=GIFs=] are still intact.

* ''Film/TheFugitive" basically screams "Chicago, 1993" in everything it does. From the cop cars, to the ads and street signs, to the damn hair cuts, even the film quality. Everything is early 90s.

* The ''VideoGame/{{Gex}}'' games. When you're playing as a [[DeadpanSnarker smart-aleck]] [[MascotWithAttitude gecko]] who gets TrappedInTVLand, this is bound to show up. While the games usually do a good job of keeping things timeless by parodying a lot of older TV shows from the '50s through the '70s (such as [[TheWestern Westerns]], Creator/HannaBarbera cartoons, ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'', and ''Series/GilligansIsland''), the jokes and references to ''Series/FullHouse'', Mike Tyson, ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay'', ''Series/TheXFiles'', and ''Film/AustinPowers'' give it away.