Either Tintin's thirsty, or Captain Haddock has a naughty little side business.note
The following have their own pages:
European Comics
- Tintin has many of these moments:
- In Explorers on the Moon (1954) Tintin becomes the first man to walk on the moon. Almost 15 years later man would really walk on the moon surface.
- British author Harry Thompson noted in his biography Tintin and Hergé: A Double Biography that in The Shooting Star (1940), mushrooms grow to enormous size before they explode. Five years later, he wrote, the first atomic bomb would explode and produce large mushroom clouds...
- Asterix: In Asterix in Britain (1966) Asterix, Obelix, and the former's British cousin Anticlimax cross the English Channel and arrive while it rains. Obelix remarks that building a tunnel between the French and British coast might be a good idea. Anticlimax answers: "We thought of a tunnel ourselves. We've even started digging one but it seems to be taking a jolly long time, what." When the story was first published in 1966, people had thought of building a tunnel between Great Britain and France for centuries, but it didn't seem likely that this plan would ever come to fruition.
- Nero
- In De Ark van Nero (Nero's Arc) (1953) Nero predicts a great flood and builds an arc in prevention. Only a few months later Flanders and the Netherlands were indeed struck by a large flood, causing many casualties.
- In De Paarse Futen (1968) Adhemar sends two American astronauts to the moon with a magic wand, thus beating the Soviets in the space race. Only a year later the Americans landed on the moon for real.
- In De Grote Geheimzinnigaard (1993) Nero wishes Colombian drug baron Pablo Escobar literally to the moon, thus killing him. Ironically enough Escobar would be shot dead by the police that same year.
- This Star Wars parody
◊ in an Italian Mickey Mouse comic made in 1997 is this, now that Disney owns Star Wars.
- In the parody of The Incredible Hulk (1977), David Banner explains◊, "My name is 'Bruce' in the Comic Book version! But the Producers felt it wasn't a masculine enough name for TV!" A voice coming from a television set next to him then announces, "And Jenner wins the Decathlon!! BRUCE is the WORLD'S GREATEST ATHLETE!" The panel added an additional level of irony in 2015 when Bruce Jenner announced that he was transgender and transitioning to female.
- Al Jaffee was truly clairvoyant with his "Some MAD Devices For Safer Smoking" written in 1969. One idea, "The Smoke Simulator", was a cork-tipped Pyrex tube containing small amounts of water which would be inserted into a cigarette. Once the cigarette was lit, the cork at one end of the tube (edible, of course) popped out, and the water inside became steam. When inhaled, the steam would feel just like smoke. Sounds a wee bit like like E-Cigarettes, doesn't it?
- In one article from the early 90s, titled, "You Know You're Too Old To Rock & Roll When...", one panel has Mick Jagger looking disapprovingly at a singing apple, with the caption: "A song that once got you banned in six states is now being used to sell juice drinks". A few years later, Pepsi ran an ad using the Stones' song "Brown Sugar", which was extremely controversial back in the day (and, in recent years, has become so again, for different reasons).
- In anticipation of the release of Return of the Jedi, MAD once ran an article called "The Star Wars Log", framed as the official outline of the rest of the saga (which had been announced as a nine-film series at the time). The article was supposed to poke fun at the convoluted direction of the series up to that point, but a few of its predictions actually turned out to be eerily accurate. For example:
- They predicted that Episode II would be titled "Send in the Clones", and that it would involve the revelation that Darth Vader and Obi-Wan were cloned from the same donor (Chewbacca's grandfather). Episode II was actually called "Attack of the Clones", and the revelation was about Boba Fett and the Stormtroopers being cloned from the same donor.
- They predicted that the detail about Chewie's grandfather would set up a conflict between the Wookiees and the Empire in Episode III. As it turned out, a battle involving the Wookiees and the Empire actually was a big plot point in Episode III.
- They predicted that the later films would involve a "Great Droid War" of some kind. Though it wasn't actually called that, the later prequels did have the heroes at war with an evil army of droids.
- They predicted that the series would end with the revelation that Luke's father wasn't Darth Vader... but that Luke was fathered by "the Force itself". In the real movies, Vader did turn out to be Luke's father after all, but Vader was revealed to have been conceived by the Force.
- Lastly, it claimed that "Star Wars Saga - Part II" would start "sometime around the year 2014", one year away from the actual release date of the first movie in the Sequel Trilogy. (2014 did see the reboot of the original Expanded Universe as well as the first works completely in the Disney Canon.)
- Their Return of the Jedi parody also contained several similar moments.
- One scene made fun of the scene where Luke reveals to Leia that they were twins, by also claiming that Threepio was his brother. Once again, fast forward to 1999 and Episode I, and he's right (From a Certain Point of View).
- One scene featured Han asking Luke if his lightsaber was more powerful. Luke said it was because he had switched to "Duracell"'s. As part of the promotions for "The Force Awakens", at least one Duracell commercial featured Lightsabers powered by Duracells.
- Meanwhile, In 1994, Darth Vader appeared in a commercial... opposite the Energizer Bunny.
- Meanwhile, In 1994, Darth Vader appeared in a commercial... opposite the Energizer Bunny
- The opening splash page had Muppets and the Seven Dwarves on it, and a later panel has Lando saying that the Emperor thought the Rebels were a "Mickey Mouse Operation." Guess who was behind him?◊ This was LONG before Star Wars was owned by Disney.
- The final panel had the wedding of Han and Leia. In it, Yoda held up a sign, "May divorce be with you!", Fast forward to Episode VII, and the two of them are separated.
- When they did their parody of Batman Returns in 1992, one of the background sight gags was that the newsboys reporting on the Penguin's good publicity were the dancing ones of Newsies, which arrived a few months prior to the Batman sequel and was a notorious flop. That Disney musical ultimately found a cult following, but what makes the joke funnier now is that Christian Bale played the youthful hero in it.
- An old issue which was "concerned" with the population explosion suggested that, to prevent "young folks" from having children, people should give them a robotic dummy baby in order to convince them they can't be parents. Which is exactly what they're handing to teenage girls (and sometimes boys) in high schools across the nation today.
- The magazine had this parody ad for Cadillac back in 1960, showing a woman wearing an emblem of the car like a necklace to show off her status symbol. Who knew rappers would adopt the same style decades later?
- When Cars came out, MAD joked that there was a scene with a car version of the Pope that had to be removed. And then a car Pope actually showed up in Cars 2.
- A 1999 article giving fake predictions of future comic-based movies included one which remade Pulp Fiction with Marvel Comics characters. The proposal depicts Samuel L. Jackson, who played Jules in Pulp Fiction, portraying Nick Fury. Two years after the article's publication, Jackson lent his likeness to the Ultimate Marvel incarnation of Fury, which eventually led to the Marvel Cinematic Universe actually casting him as the character.
- One issue in the 1950s had an article with a description of a sport similar to bullfighting, but abusing dogs instead of bulls. The article included the phrase "Kick the Dog," capitalized as on this wiki.
- In the parody of The Sound of Music, "Mitzia", the expy of Maria, admits to the "Mother Obsess" that she can't type or take diction. Maria's actress, Julie Andrews, would later demonstrate otherwise in Thoroughly Modern Millie.
- In their parody of Rocky III, "Rockhead Bulboa" is twice placed nose-to-large-chest with his opponents. In an Aside Comment, he says, "If this kind of posing keeps up, I want my next match to be with Dolly Parton!" Two years later, Stallone starred alongside Dolly in Rhinestone.
- In a Justin Bieber themed Issue of MAD there was a joke about a Donald Trump Chia Pet. Fast forward to 2016 and they now exist.
Others
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles issue #1 was meant to parody several things, when something happened to those tropes or something.
- Animal Teams, which ironically made the meme of Animal Teams.
- The works of Frank Miller, who would later go on to inadvertently parody himself.
- The classic Sin City story "That Yellow Bastard" at one point has Hartigan talking about how something is "just plain damn screwy" repeatedly. Cue Frank Miller's The Spirit...
- Image United is a Crisis Crossover designed to celebrate the history of Image Comics. Due to massive Schedule Slip, it's now fallen many months behind. One of the most infamous issues of early Image being its delays.
- Fiends of the Eastern Front: Corporal Cringu mentions how his vampiric master Captain Constanta has used his powers to fight in several historical wars against Rumania's enemies, including the Ottoman Empire. Then in 2014 a movie was released where Dracula fights the Ottoman army in exactly that way.
- Can be considered an inversion, Dr. Seuss's wartime political cartoon showing a man in the future telling his grandson about his days during WWII, which he apparently spent complaining about fuel shortages. This becomes much less ludicrous when you look at the date this is supposed to be taking place: 1973, when everybody talked about fuel shortages. If you didn't know this was written in 1943, there isn't much of a joke, since it is perfectly reasonable that the grandfather is recounting his past experiences with fuel shortages.
- Don Rosa's 2002 Uncle Scrooge story "The Dream of a Lifetime" features the Beagle Boys using an invention stolen from Gyro Gearloose to sneak into Scrooge's dreams and learn the combination to his money bin's main vault. It also features a staggering amount of similarities to the lucid-dreaming mechanics, and some of the plot elements, of Inception.
- In 1996 Marvel and DC made a crossover (Elseworlds) Batman & Captain America. No comment about the story itself, however epilogue has a very significant detail. Batman and Robin found frozen Cap, and save him. Then they reveal that Batman is now Dick Grayson former Robin (and Bruce retired now), and Robin is... Bruce Wayne Jr. son of the original Batman! Now where have i heard that one before?
- The idea of Dick Grayson teaming up with Bruce Wayne's son was a reasonably common one in Silver Age "imaginary stories".
- 2010: The Transformers: Last Stand of the Wreckers contains a memorable scene where Rotorstorm jokingly shouts "Wreckers, combine!" (they have no such ability). 2012: Hasbro announces a Wreckers combiner. Rotorstorm isn't part of it.
- For the Grand Finale of his League of Extraordinary Gentlemen saga, Alan Moore wrote a scene involving a climactic face-off between a deranged Harry Potter and a Guardian Angel Mary Poppins...about two or three months before anyone knew that the Opening Ceremony of the London Olympics would feature almost the same thing. Sure, it was Voldemort against a swarm of Mary Poppinses in the latter case, but the coincidence is still pretty astounding. Especially since the book finally hit the stands almost exactly a month before the London Olympics started.
- Alan Moore's Lost Girls has Wendy from Peter Pan married to a man named Harry Potter.
- The Anthology Comic Star Wars Tales has a throwaway drawing in one of the stories of the Empire's sigil with Mickey Mouse ears on it. The gag became a lot funnier when Disney bought the rights to Star Wars in late 2012 and announced production of a new series of films.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (IDW):
- This article, posted before the comic series was announced, showing fanart of the (humanized) Mane Six as pin-up superheroines, mentioning "Somewhere 'bad girl artist' J. Scott Campbell is smiling". Campbell did do a variant cover◊, with no Fanservice in sight!
- In Diablo III, a unique unicorn monster found in Whimsyshire was named "Nightmarity". The name isn't used in the comic, but Rarity becomes the second Nightmare Moon.
- The many "What If Rarity Were Evil?" fan-remixes, especially this one, are all very much Hilarious in Hindsight now.
- The two Doctor Whooves in #7 is quite prophetic, since the Doctor Who 50th anniversary special will be bringing back Ten and Rose.
- This article
- Kick-Ass: In the Hit-Girl interquel, Mindy mentions that she hopes to gain friends in school with knowledge on The Hunger Games. Not only was Chloë Moretz considered for the part of Katniss, but Aaron Johnson for Peeta.
- In the very first issue of Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics)note , there was a short strip which mocked The Late Show with David Letterman's Top 10 Countdown. Two of the entries were that the comic would not rely on crossovers and that it was the only comic with a female character with very little clothingnote . Four years later, Sonic would crossover with Image Comics then again two years later with Sabrina the Teenage Witch and twenty years later, a Cosmic Retcon affected Sally would put on a lot more clothes.
- Another early issue had a comic proclaiming a "darker and grittier" Sonic, though it was him as a chimney sweeper. About two years later, the comic would start getting Darker and Edgier.
- Archie Comics
- Zombies appeared in a few issues and in Archie's Weird Mysteries. It's usually somewhat funny and not too serious. Family friendly, lovable Archie and zombies just doesn't mix... Until Afterlife with Archie and it's terrifying now.
- One story has Mr. Weatherbee overhear Betty, Veronica, and Miss Grundy discussing a soap opera, in which a couple had to break up after discovering they were long-lost siblings. The Bee falsely assumes Archie and Veronica as the couple, then gets ridiculed for thinking Surprise Incest could occur in real life. Incest would later play a role in some Darker and Edgier Archie interpretations, with Riverdale in particular having Polly Cooper date Jason Blossom, bear his child, then discover they were distant cousins.
- A Jughead Jones comic has Jughead's look-alike "casanova cousin", Nathan, date various women in Riverdale, causing onlookers to suspect Juggie of having a secret, romantic side. Eventually, Riverdale would give the role of Jughead to Cole Sprouse, previously best known for playing a Kidanova's identical twin brother in The Suite Life of Zack & Cody.
- A issue of Simpsons Comics Presents Bart Simpson from 2006 had Bart wining a toy store shopping spree contest, but everyone started demanding Bart free toys. During the spree he picks up the Kid-Tastic Krusty-Bot he had been wanting but everyone else started chasing him because he did get them the toys they wanted. He ended up crashing into the toy store's My Pretty Expensive Pony dispaly causing him to have a shopping trolly full of rainbow ponies. Four years later, a certain show would spark a certain fandom.
- In The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (1992), Link used a hang-glider made from the feathers of a large bird that carried Hylian Knights into battle and later turned into a wolf in the Dark World on occasion.
- The 1977 comic Flesh featured furry tyrannosaurs from the north. 2012 saw the discovery of a feathered tyrannosaur in northeastern China.
- Nemesis:
- The controversial series sees an evil expy of Batman torment an expy of Commissioner Gordon. The animated version of Gotham by Gaslight sees Bruce remain his usual moral self, but instead of Jacob Packer, Jack the Ripper was revealed to be Jim Gordon undergoing Adaptational Villainy.
- Part of the concept is "What if Batman had the morality of The Joker?" Oh, Batman Who Laughs, that's your cue!
- An issue of the official Street Fighter comic had a Terrible Interviewees Montage consisting of characters auditioning for Street Fighter V. One of the candidates was Shoma from the largely-forgotten Rival Schools series, who was rejected due to his busy baseball and high school schedule. A few years later, Akira from Rival Schools was added to Street Fighter V as a surprise DLC character.
- Youngblood (Image Comics) began as Rob Liefeld's idea for Roy Harper leading a team of Titans working for the government. Two years after the first Youngblood issue, Roy Harper was leading the Titans for the government.
- Monica's Gang: Nimbus' persona as a ladies' man can be quite amusing to see after Mauro Takeda e Sousa, the inspiration for the character, publicly came out as gay in 2016.
- The long history of Frivolous Lawsuit's surrounding Shazam! has led to a lot of this, first DC sues Fawcett Comics claiming Captain Marvel is a rip-off of Superman. This leads Fawcett to stop publishing Captain Marvel, disappointing British publisher L. Miller & Son, Ltd, who could no longer reprint their issues. To get around this they created their own Captain Ersatz called Marvelman, who bounced around owners for a while. In this time, Captain Marvel has become a DC character, but another lawsuit from Marvel Comics led to Captain Marvel being renamed Shazam and Marvelman being renamed Miracleman. Ironically, as Shazam ended up a DC character, Miracleman is now owned by Marvel.
