While sometimes this show's "Toddstradamus" predictions go awry in a humorous way, sometimes they are much harder to swallow in various heartbreaking ways.
- Todd found one himself where he tweeted a joke at Robin Williams's expense just days before he committed suicide.
- In his "Deuces" review, Todd theorizes that Tyga might be too nice of a guy to be involved in harder rap, based on his verses on both it and the previously-reviewed "BedRock". A few years later, Tyga would be involved in plenty of controversy due to his relationship with then-underage Kylie Jenner. Could also count as Hilarious in Hindsight considering Todd later said in his "I Love College" review how he doesn't think Tyga even wanted to write a sad breakup song with a mismatched pop hook.
- In his "Blurred Lines" review, Todd theorizes that the sleazy content of the song was a result of Robin Thicke already being in a happy relationship, and therefore he didn't have to worry about how he presented himself to women. Robin would later go through a messy divorce with his wife after groping a fan, and an attempt to win her back with an album dedicated to her, Paula, was seen as mostly pathetic. This would be later lampshaded to hell and back when Todd made a Trainwreckords episode about Paula.
- Similarly, in his review of 6ix9ine and Nicki Minaj's "TROLLZ", Todd brought up Thicke as one of the few people whose careers actually ended for being "problematic", as in that their crimes were much lesser, but who no one really liked that much to begin with. A year later, Emily Ratajkowski, who appeared in Thicke's "Blurred Lines" video, released her autobiography called My Body, which accused Thicke of sexual harassment and groping on set of the video.
- In the Body of Evidence review, Todd mentions distress in a black church. The episode came out the same day of the Charleston shootings.
- In his Worst Hit Songs of 2015 list, he said of "Fight Song" (the #2 entry) "If this is your fight song, you're going to lose." Fast-forward to election day 2016 when Hillary Rodham Clinton, who had used "Fight Song" in her campaign, lost the presidency to Donald Trump.
- Speaking of: one of the lines he dismisses as "stupid" from Jadakiss' "Why" asks how Arnold Schwarzenegger could be elected governor of California when he had no prior political experience. Because lord knows that couldn't happen on a larger scale, and with a celebrity far more crude and brash than Arnold is.
- Similarly, in his Evita video, he mentioned that going by the movie, Eva Peron just seemed famous for being famous, "like Kim Kardashian, except she somehow became a country's First Lady", dismissing the idea as ridiculous before showing a "Kanye for President 2020" article. Looking back, even if this never happens, the fact that Melania Trump actually did become a country's First Lady makes the thought a little less ridiculous. The Kanye article itself gets this, as in July 2020, Kanye officially launched a campaign for the presidency. However, unlike with Donald Trump being President in 2016, Kanye West wasn't even close to following that 2020 presidential claim, in part because he registered so late into that election cycle that he could only be accepted as a write-in option that year. He would later try again in 2024, though that would be without Kim Kardashian being by his side that time. Even then, it's highly unlikely he would become President anyway due to his extreme shenanigans he said in 2022, to the point of praising Adolf Hitler of all people.
- Also in his Worst Songs of 2015 list: he constantly rags on Silento for being a comically dull, squeaky-clean kid, predicting he'll never be heard from again. Nowadays, Silento has a newfound reputation — as one of the most dangerous, mentally unstable rappers in Atlanta. Starting in 2020, he got booked on a domestic disturbance; was arrested again the very next day for stalking his girlfriend with a hatchet and breaking into a random home to terrorize the family; drove over 140 MPH down the Interstate, swerving through traffic, because he thought he was being "followed"; and, finally, got indicted by a grand jury for shooting his own cousin to death.
- Todd mentions in his "Holy Grail" review that he could imagine Kanye West delivering a song about the pressures of fame much more convincingly. In 2016, Kanye was hospitalized after a very well-publicized breakdown brought on by - you guessed it - excessive touring and production.
- Todd's many jokes at Linkin Park's expense become much harder to take after frontman Chester Bennington's suicide in 2017. Todd himself expressed dismay over Bennington's death and said he came to appreciate the band after a while.note
- His joke about Ke$ha (as she was then) knowing the location of a penis became a lot more horrifying after she filed a lawsuit against Dr. Luke, alleging that Luke had raped her.
- Speaking of, his claim that "every third song I review on this show sounds like a sex offender wrote it" in "Give Me Everything" could also qualify (even though Gottwald had no involvement on the song in question), as lampshaded by this comment:Laporte
: Considering this was around Dr Luke's peak, you weren't wrong there Todd.
- Speaking of, his claim that "every third song I review on this show sounds like a sex offender wrote it" in "Give Me Everything" could also qualify (even though Gottwald had no involvement on the song in question), as lampshaded by this comment:
- In his review of "Despacito", after making a joke that America had to import its happy summer songs from elsewhere just like everything else, he acknowledges that this isn't technically true as the artist is from Puerto Rico, "and Puerto Rico is in fact part of this country, even though we treat it like it's not, for God knows what reason." Two months and two disastrous hurricanes later (Maria in particular), the US government's approach to the relief efforts proved this statement more painfully true than expected.
- In his "Look What You Made Me Do" review, Todd compared the destruction of Taylor Swift's wholesome, innocent image to the shattered public images of "saintly father figure" Joe Paterno and "moral voice of black America" Bill Cosby. In his Best of 2017 list, when discussing "Praying", he also discussed the #MeToo movement and how many celebrities are being exposed for sexual abuse. Neither of these moments were sunshine and rainbows to begin with, but they're especially harsh after the 2018 revelations of mistreatment and sexual abuse from some of Channel Awesome's staff, with Todd leaving the site in light of the accusations.
- Adding to the previous point, Todd discusses how he's been binge-watching movies and shows from people he likes before allegations come out and turn them into horrible people he can no longer support. The Not So Awesome document released in 2018, written by over 20 ex-producers of CA, details many issues with management as well as a case of sexual grooming. A response by Channel Awesome themselves revealed, accidentally (or so we hope), that the groomer was Justin Carmical, someone who was close friends with everyone on the site, Todd likely included. It hurts on a far more personal level.
- In the "I Took a Pill in Ibiza" review, Todd worries that everything from 2010 is gonna come back to haunt him, and Allison Pregler cameos as Obscurus Lupa telling Todd to stop stalking her. Lupa shoots off a bunch more dated claims in The Stinger, including "If there's one thing I know for sure, I'm going to be on That Guy with the Glasses forever." At the time, this wasn't an example since Allison had already made it clear that she was fired under pretty bad circumstances. Come 2018, however, the aforementioned revelations from the early 2010s blow up with Allison leading the movement, to the point where Todd himself quit the channel.
- On the other side of the business model, his comments on Chamillionaire being a major investor in his employer Maker Studios became much worse in the context of purchasing, dissolving and failing to replace Blip, as well as improper treatment of their employees that eventually led to a mass layoff in 2017, which many affected content creators were thankful for.
- Todd's videos of "Club Can't Handle Me" and "S&M" have cameos from Doug and Rob Walker, respectively, who provide humorous in-universe examples of Executive Meddling. After the Change the Channel movement blew up and resulted in Todd and many, many other producers parting ways from Channel Awesome, even though Todd never had any issues with the Walkers or even CEO Mike Michaud, it goes without saying that these two bits haven't exactly aged well.
- Similarly in his crossover with Lindsay Ellis (when she was still The Nostalgia Chick) had him remarking that at least - unlike Kelly Clarkson and Justin Guarini - they didn't film their self-promoting movies out of contractual obligation, to which Lindsay snarks, "Maybe you didn't." As it turned out, pretty much all of the then-Channel Awesome creators had no desire to make more crossover films, but more or less did it out of contractual obligations.
- In his One-Hit Wonderland episode on Kyper's "Tic Tac Toe", Todd brings up Hurricane Chris as a One Hit Wonder nobody remembers. Later in 2020, Hurricane Chris would be arrested on charges of second-degree murder, which he would be acquitted of in 2023.
- In 2018 Todd made a Twitter thread in which he praised Shia LaBeouf and then jokingly mentioned that he hoped Shia wasn't involved in some "weird ugly sex thing". It came out in late 2020 and early 2021 that LaBeouf had physically and sexually abused multiple partners. Todd lampshaded this in a later tweet and in the Worst of 2020 video:
- Todd: Well, Bieber, you may be lo-o-o-onely, but you had a better 2020 than that guy. So, buck up.
- In his "TROLLZ" review, Todd states that the person 6ix9ine reminds him the most of is Marilyn Manson, in that he doesn't think that Tekashi is very interesting enough to sustain attention for very long beyond shock value. Seven months after Todd's video, Manson would have another thing to share with Tekashi as he was accused of sexual misconduct and abuse by multiple women (including ex-girlfriend Evan Rachel Wood, Esmé Bianco and Phoebe Bridgers).
- He actually invokes this, although subtly. In his best songs of 2011 review, he flashes back to 2009 when Adele won the Grammy for Best New Artist. He rants at the TV, saying "we already have an Amy Winehouse and she's much more interesting!" Sadly, we wouldn't have an Amy Winehouse for that much longer.
- Todd's comments about Pete Burns's addiction to plastic surgery in his One-Hit Wonderland episode for "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)" could come off this way considering that it caused Burns health problems later in his life, which led to his death in 2016.
- In his "Worst Songs of 2018" video, Todd describes Juice WRLD as a mainstream version of the late XXXTentacion. One year later, Juice WRLD gained another trait to share with X in terms of dying young.
- In that same segment, Todd discusses the Misogyny Song trend in Hip-Hop and how it doesn't bother him when older rappers do it, noting that a primary reason why is that most of them are happily married men, with one of the clips shown to prove his point being "Gold Digger" by Kanye West. A few years later, Ye would go through a messy divorce with Kim Kardashian, along with an ensuing Creator Breakdown which included him publicly begging Kim to come back, threatening Pete Davidson, leaking private text messages on his Instagram, and blatant antisemitism to the point of admitting he liked Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.
- This happened very quickly on his "Best Hit Songs of 2020" video, where he declared he was going "all in" on Morgan Wallen's career prospects after putting his song "More Than My Hometown" at #1. Just 2 weeks later, Wallen was caught a firestorm of controversy when he was recorded shouting the N-word at his neighbors, with Todd completely disowning him. Several months later in his review of Walker Hayes' "Fancy Like", he almost devolved into angrish over how Wallen went and ruined his Best of 2020 list.
- Todd taking offence to the Sex Tourism parts of "Talk Dirty", especially when Jason Derulo mentions going to Haiti, and hopes Derulo meant he was going to volunteer for a charity. Then news broke in 2018 that Oxfam volunteers/employees had sexually exploited (whether through prostitution or rape) women in Haiti, Chad and the Congo.
- In a similar vein to the above, in his review of "We Are the World 25 for Haiti", Todd makes it clear that, however narmy they may seem, he has nothing but respect for musicians who try to make a difference with their art, stating that he "will take an insincere display of charity over a genuine display of apathy any day of the week." Later in his review of Lil Dicky's "Earth", where he says that the "charities" the song's proceeds went to ended up being scams that didn't help at all (showing a news report of Wyclef Jean's charity), so it may well have actually been worse than doing nothing.
- He invoked this trope in his One-Hit Wonderland review of "Don't Worry, Be Happy" by Bobby McFerrin, in reference to the persistent (and false) rumor throughout the '90s that McFerrin had committed suicide. While said rumor was already pretty tasteless in and of itself, it became particularly abhorrent after Robin Williams—who was prominently featured in the song's music video—really did kill himself in 2014.
- One of the context-free Macarena clips Todd included at the end of the One-Hit Wonderland on the song shows legendary Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully doing the dance. He died hours after the video came out.
- At the start of the Trainwreckords episode on Two the Hard Way, Todd mentions Jason Sudeikis and Olivia Wilde as an example of a happy, drama-free celebrity couple. Come 2022, that couple had a very public and ugly falling-out as a result of Wilde leaving Sudeikis for Harry Styles (complete with an incident of Wilde being served custody papers onstage while presenting one of her films).
- In his One Hit Wonderland episode on "Whoomp! There It Is", he joked that the Addams Family movies inherently end the careers of the rappers who write and perform the tie-in singles, citing MC Hammer on the first movie and Tag Team on Addams Family Valuesnote , and predicted that Migos would suffer the same fate after they did a song for the soundtrack to the 2019 animated film. Less than two years after the episode came out, his prediction regarding Migos came true, but in this case in tragic fashion — on November 1, 2022 one of the trio's members, Takeoff, was shot dead at a party.
- The One Hit Wonderland episode on "Hanson" has a bit where Todd mentions that unlike other bands Hanson "never embarrassed themselves", in 2020 this became a lot more awkward when "Hansongate" happened where many fans criticized one of the band members for posting anti-BLM and anti-COVID memes on their Pinterest page and another for making anti-COVID posts on their Instagram page, with even mods on the bands official sub-reddit calling them out for their poor behavior and with many former-fans swearing off the band forever as a result of their disturbing viewpoints.
- This also extends to his extended rant defending them in the S Club 7 episode (after one of the S Club sitcoms makes a Take That! joke at their expense).
- In his "Last Night" review, Todd notes one of the primary defenders of Morgan Wallen's N-word controversy was that of fellow country singer Jimmie Allen, who noted that he wasn't offended or upset about it. Not even two months later and Allen would be the center of an even worse controversy, where he was accused of rape as well as sexual and verbal abuse by a former manager. Not long after a fan of Todd's pointed this out on Twitter, Todd replied how the news had ruined his day.
- In "The Top Ten Best Hit Songs of 2022", Todd discusses Lizzo's "About Damn Time" and praised Lizzo for conveying authenticity in her all-loving confident persona in contrast to Meghan Trainor. In 2023, backup dancers of Lizzo's would file a widely-publicized lawsuit alleging disturbing behavior in her role as their boss that caused a huge media stir and made a significant dent in her image for many, with people starting to doubt the sincerity of Lizzo's image in the wake of the suit.
- At the end of his Best Hit Songs of 2019 list, Todd says, "I only hope things stay this good in 2020." As noted by many fans in the comments section, things did not stay that good in 2020.
- Todd's review of "S & M" by Rihanna features a segment where Todd prepares to recite an essay he prepared about sexual assault and its impact on pop culture, only to be interrupted by his then-producer Rob Walker, who vetoes the entire speech, forcing Todd to try and find something else to talk about before the video ends. In the wake of the "Change the Channel" controversy and the mass exodus of Channel Awesome's contributors (including Todd), seeing Rob not only silence Todd but actively try to invalidate his opinions on the topic of sexual assault reads as much more... sinister.
- In his review of "Body Like a Back Road", Todd mentions when regarding Country Music's obsession with Hip-Hop that he imagines Drake and Lil Wayne deleting texts from Jason Aldean and laughing. Come 2023 and Aldean would release "Try That in a Small Town", which featured a music video that was heavily accused of being pro-lynching, which if it turns out Todd's quip in that episode were actually true, would likely be a case of Everyone Has Standards considering some of the lyrical content that both Drake and Wayne garnered controversy for over the years (such as in "Circo Loco" and the "Karate Chop" remix, respectively)note .
- In his "Top Ten Worst Hit Songs of 2011" video, when reviewing his #7 pick, "I Need a Doctor" by Dr. Dre featuring Eminem and Skylar Grey, Todd calls out Dr. Dre for his usage of the word "faggot" at the age of 46, telling him to "grow up". In 2018, Eminem would face a similar backlash for using that same word at nearly 46 in his song "Fall" in reference to Tyler, the Creator, both from fans and non-fans as well as famous celebrities such as Troye Sivan and Dan Reynolds.
