History YMMV / InLivingColor

** The Music/MilliVanilli [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukQg_867SiQ sketch]] (featuring a "Milli Vanilli Do It Yourself Kit") is a typically harsh TakeThat at the infamous duo, and ends with the line ''"So call now, because we are almost out of style!"'' Sure enough, it wouldn't even be half a year before the lip-sync scandal ignited, [[DeaderThanDisco putting them out of style permanently]]. Reportedly, the duo themselves saw the skit at a party shortly before the scandal broke and took it as a sign that [[OhCrap they were going to be found out any day]].

** Related to the above, one sketch is of ''The Tonight Show with Jay Leno'' and with Sinead O'Connor being a guest. Of the pictures that she ripped up, she refused to do it to a picture of Arsenio Hall, saying that she loves him. Nowadays in real life, both of them hate one another, so much that days after Prince's death O'Connor publicly accused Hall of regularly supplying him with drugs and he in turn sued her for millions on the grounds of defamation.

** Seeing Keenan portraying [[Series/SoulTrain Don Cornelius]] collapsing at the end of the spoof of the series called "Old Train" [[spoiler: although he ''was'' able to be revived]] is now this given Cornelius' 2012 suicide. [[FromBadToWorse It gets even worse.]] Regardless on if you may think of the skit as this or a FunnyAneurysmMoment, his portrayal of Cornelius has him being forgetful and being out of touch with everything happening around him. The driving force behind his suicide was his declining health, namely of him showing early signs of either dementia or Alzheimer's Disease.
** In a ''Star Trek'' skit that poked fun at how old the original Star Trek cast was getting, Bones is portrayed as a skeleton. The actor who originally played Bones, Creator/DeForestKelley, was the first of the original cast to die.

** Jamie Foxx had plenty of opportunities to impersonate Ray Charles, especially since this was the time when Charles was promoting Diet Pepsi (even though Creator/DavidAlanGrier would usually play Ray Charles, as seen in such sketches as "Ray Charles in Charge" and "Career-Aid"). Foxx would later ''win an Oscar'' for doing the same thing, albeit in [[Film/{{Ray}} more dramatic fare]].
** A Season 1 skit involves a commercial for Rocky VI in which Rocky fights Grace Jones. A decade later, there would actually be a [[Film/RockyBalboa sixth Rocky film]].

-->''Fame, it don't last long/Look at Vanilla Ice, he is gone!''

** The ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZT5YRaulTzk sketch]] featured [[Creator/GeorgeTakei Sulu]] complaining about how Captain Kirk gets all the girls and he gets none, ending with his enthusiasm at the prospect of getting some. Kinda hollow now, considering that George Takei came out of the closet...
*** According to Takei it's not. He was upset at Kelvin!Timeline Sulu being revealed as gay after all, as TOS era Sulu is canonically straight. Unless one has the odd view that gay performers can -only- play gay characters, there's nothing much hollow about a fictional character having different desires than his actor.

** In the first "Men on Film" sketch, Blaine is surprised to learn that Creator/GlennClose is a woman, thinking her role in ''Literature/DangerousLiaisons'' had been a CrossCastRole. Years later, Glenn Close would star in ''[[SweetPollyOliver Albert Nobbs]]''.

* NightmareFuel, PyroManiac, BodyHorror, TooKinkyToTorture, and StuffBlowingUp: Every Fire Marshal Bill sketch has these tropes in abundance. One of the worst ones had him in a ''Franchise/StarTrek''-like scenario where he was a victim of a ChestBurster and by the end of the skit, the ship was ''jettisoned into the sun''.
** A basic example of nightmare fuel is a skit involving a skeptical man going to a magic show, the magician giving him the mind of a chicken and [[spoiler: immediately dying of a heart attack. In the present day, the man is now homeless and unable to communicate in anyway with anyone due to behaving and ''speaking'' like a chicken to the point he can't even order food at a restaurant.]] There's a reason why this ''[[Series/TheTwilightZone1959 Twilight Zone]]''-inspired skit is called [[AndIMustScream "The Vortex of Fear".]]

* SpecialEffectFailure: In the first season skit of "The Arsenio Hall Show", when Keenan!Arsenio was running around and rolling on the stage, you can see the padding used to make him appear to have a larger butt.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: Unfortunately as many characters and skits that had recurring roles, there were several that only had one or sporadic appearances. Such characters /skits include The Buttmans, [[JadedWashout Magenta Thompson]], Keenan's version of Music/LittleRichard, Three Champs and a Baby/Little Lady (featuring David as UsefulNotes/MuhammadAli, Tommy as Sugar Ray Leonard and Keenan as Creator/MikeTyson) "You Bet Your Career", "The Exxxon Family" and "Creator/RichardPryor is Scared for No Reason".
* TooGoodToLast: As iconic and memorable as the show was and the influence it had on pop culture, it's shocking to realize that it lasted just a mere four years (and with only three of those years with involvement of the show's original creator Keenan Ivory Wayans and his family, who all eventually left due to growing tired of both censors and executives repeatedly stifling their art.)
* UnintentionallySympathetic: Sure Wanda Wayne is an annoying and obsessive AbhorrentAdmirer, but she is also seen as desperately wishing for love and willing to rock a potential partner's world, only for them to reject her due to her looks. This becomes much worse in the final season, where she ends up giving birth to a child and is never able to find the child's father and make him take responsibility.

* EnsembleDarkhorse: As far as characters and sketches, the "Men on..." sketches are ''very'' popular with audiences, including gay men (to the point that the characters were reprised years later on an episode of ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'', a rival show to ''In Living Color''.)

** Jamie Foxx had plenty of opportunities to impersonate Ray Charles, especially since this was the time when Charles was promoting Diet Pepsi (even though David Alan Grier would usually play Ray Charles, as seen in such sketches as "Ray Charles in Charge" and "Career-Aid"). Foxx would later ''win an Oscar'' for doing the same thing, albeit in [[Film/{{Ray}} more dramatic fare]].

* AcceptableTargets: Given how it was a comedy sketch show, ''everyone'' was fair game, but in particular conservatives, racists, the censors, the Jackson family (especially [[Music/MichaelJackson Michael]], Joe, [=LaToya=] and Tito), Music/VanillaIce and Creator/MikeTyson and his ex-wife Robin Givens got it the worst.

** [[ActionGirl Vera de Milo.]], a rare case of a character being loved ''because'' she's FanDisservice.

** One of Jim Carrey's recurring characters on the show was called The Overly Confident Gay Man. The voice, mannerisms and catch phrases (including the now-famous "Alrighty then") would get retooled into his first major film role of [[Film/AceVenturaPetDetective Ace Ventura]], a character who, infamously, has [[UnsettlingGenderReveal a vomit-inducing mental breakdown from kissing another man]].

** A sketch called Cookin' With Salt-N-Pepa. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUpFd6mb22E Salt-N-Pepa actually did their own show of the same name two decades later]].

** A season three skit called "Krishna Cop" had a cop who gets shot several times and reincarnates every time he does. The very first on-screen reincarnation [[Film/CopAndAHalf is that of a little boy.]]

* MisAimedFandom: In one "Men on Film" skit, Blaine and Antoine dismiss ''Series/TheGoldenGirls'' as "hated it!" The writers admit they foolishly assumed that two gay black men wouldn't be into a show about four elderly white women living together...only to discover via viewer reaction that ''Girls'' has a ''huge'' gay following which means Blaine and Antoine would be more inclined to gushing over it.

* SpecialEffectsFailure: In the first season skit of "The Arsenio Hall Show", when Keenan!Arsenio was running around and rolling on the stage, you can see the padding used to make him appear to have a larger butt.

*** Unrelated to the sexual assault scandals, the Cosby Condom sketch also makes jokes about Cosby's son having an STD. Cosby's son, Ennis, would be murdered a few years after this sketch aired.

** The Music/MilliVanilli [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukQg_867SiQ sketch]] (featuring a "Milli Vanilli Do It Yourself Kit") is a typically harsh TakeThat at the infamous duo, and ends with the line ''"So call now, because we are almost out of style!"'' Sure enough, it wouldn't even be half a year before the lip-sync scandal ignited, [[DeaderThanDisco putting them out of style permanently.]]

** A sketch called Cookin' With Salt-N-Pepa.[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUpFd6mb22E Salt-N-Pepa actually did their own show of the same name two decades later]].

* EarWorm:
** The original theme song, heard [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzhyrsDOgOI here]].
--> '''You can do what you wanna do... in living color (In Living Color)''
--> ''You walk on the moon float like a balloon, you see it's never too late and it's never too soon''
--> ''Take it from me what it's like to be... in living color''
--> ''And how would you feel knowin' prejudice was obsolete, and all mankind danced to the exact beat''
--> ''And at night it was safe to walk down the street! (In Living Color)''
** How you livin'? "[[GreekChorus WHAT?]]" How you livin'? "[[NoIndoorVoice WHAT?]]" How you livin'? "'''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ataHNEclz44 In Living Color.]]'''"
** The season five remix of the first theme isn't bad either.

** Meta example: when watching the seasons 1-3 [=DVDs=], the 1981 and 1989 20th Century Fox Television [[FanNickname "Tower of Doom"]] logos are upheld on the most of the episodes. Both are pretty creepy in their own right but the former is worse due to being both videotaped and having to hear that squawky horn playing.

** Even though many of his characters were [[EnsembleDarkhorse the breakout hits]] for audiences, Damon Wayans' leaving the show for films become this since his own career didn't take off like many assumed it would and several of his costars, especially Creator/JimCarrey, Creator/JamieFoxx and Creator/JenniferLopez, had greater success in Hollywood. That being said. he has still had better luck in television and as a producer.

** The ''Series/StarTrek'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZT5YRaulTzk sketch]] featured [[Creator/GeorgeTakei Sulu]] complaining about how Captain Kirk gets all the girls and he gets none, ending with his enthusiasm at the prospect of getting some. Kinda hollow now, considering that George Takei came out of the closet...

** A basic example of nightmare fuel is a skit involving a skeptical man going to a magic show, the magician giving him the mind of a chicken and [[spoiler: immediately dying of a heart attack. In the present day, the man is now homeless and unable to communicate in anyway with anyone due to behaving and ''speaking'' like a chicken to the point he can't even order food at a restaurant.]] There's a reason why this ''[[Series/TheTwilightZone Twilight Zone]]''-inspired skit is called [[AndIMustScream "The Vortex of Fear".]]

** The original theme song.

** In the ''Veracosa: Mistress of Destruction'' sketch, she ends up beheading three opponents (evident by their heads flying up and then displayed on the ground a short time later) who magically get up alive and with them somehow reattached with no lasting damage minutes after being defeated.

** In the MC Hammer-skewering sketch "Too Sold Out to Quit", the joke of Hammer selling out to make himself wealthy ("The rules of being legit/Make a ton of money and then you can quit!") becomes this trope when Hammer ended up more than $10 million in debt the next year.

*** Unrelated to the sexual assault scandals, the Cosby Condom sketch also makes jokes about Cosby's son having a STD. Cosby's son, Ennis, would be murdered a few years after this sketch aired.

** Jamie Foxx also impersonated Garrett Morris (''Series/SaturdayNightLive'''s first token black cast member from the show's first five years) in a fake American Express commercial featuring Creator/ChrisRock (played by Shawn Wayans) -- a couple years before Foxx would appear with Garrett Morris on the WB sitcom ''The Jamie Foxx Show''.

** For those who don't know already, there was a time when Creator/JimCarrey (who was credited as his real name "James Carrey" for most of his tenure) was the crazy white guy on ''In Living Color'' -- and that Jamie Foxx was on this show from season three to the end.

* TheWoobie: A few of the characters played by Tommy Davidson end up being this as the resident ButtMonkey. Most noticeably, anytime he had a run-in with Homey, Mr. [=McAfee=] or Wanda.

** [[ActionGirl Vera de Milo.]]

* AcceptableTargets: Given how it was a comedy sketch show, ''everyone'' was fair game, but in particular conservatives, racists, the censors, the Jackson family (especially [[Music/MichaelJackson Michael]], Joe, [=LaToya=] and Tito), Music/VanillaIce and UsefulNotes/MikeTyson and his ex-wife Robin Givens got it the worst.

* HarsherInHindsight: [[http://youtu.be/EEnefkpRfHE This Fire Marshall Bill]] skit (from season five) had a part where it's implied that Fire Marshal Bill and an Arab man bombed the World Trade Center, just to prove that it wasn't structurally sound. Yes, it was referring to when the World Trade Center was first bombed in 1993, but now the joke is in worse taste due to the infamous attack on September 11, 2001 that leveled the towers. As a result, the line is edited from the FXX reruns (including the On-Demand version). The DVD has the line intact.

** A sketch called Cookin' With Salt-N-Pepa. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUpFd6mb22E Salt-N-Pepa actually did their own show of the same name two decades later]].