From Lore Sjoberg's Online Book of Ratings written in 1998:
"I'll limit myself to observing that with the increasing popularity of vampires, we're on the verge of the unicorn syndrome all over again. If it hasn't happened already, in a few months look for airbrushed posters of sad vampires in Wal-Marts everywhere, and in a decade look for female college students saying to each other 'Were you into vampires when you were nine? Me too! We were such dorks!'"
... nailed it (well, aside from being about ten years off), didn't he?
In 2012, Buzzfeed made an article called Occupy Emerald City, in which the flavor text read "The Wizard says the protestors are high on poppy." Five years later, there was a poppy addict in Emerald City, Mistress West, played by Ana Ularu, a self-admitted minor anarchist.
In 2011, Darwin's Soldiers introduced a character named ROSS, a crime-solving vigilante AI who devoted its time to defeating and exposing internet-based criminals. Four years later in the real world, IBM released ROSS, the first artificially-intelligent digital lawyer. Looks like all that crime-fighting paid off!
This article where the first item declared that the San Francisco Giants have a curse to never win the World Series. Oops.note For non-Americans: they won the World Series in the year after the article was, 2010, and then in 2012 and 2014.
Another article "The 2007 Lineup: 35 Soon to Be Canceled Shows" is this. Although most of the shows did get canceled soon after they premiered (and the joke is that every show of the 2007 season is represented), a few didn't, such as (in order of duration) Pushing Daisies (two seasons and critical acclaim), Chuck (which made it to five seasons), The Singing Bee (also five - one season on NBC, four on CMT), Gossip Girl (six), Private Practice (also six) and most notably The Big Bang Theory (a whopping twelve). A hilarious thing was they listed Heroes: Origins, which never aired because of the Writer's Strike.
This entry in a Cracked photoshop contest became hilarious after Rock Band 3 introduced pro mode, which can be used with a 108-button guitar controller.
Cracked.com had a contest for "What campaign ads would look like if they were targeted to six-year-olds," written before the '08 election. Number 8 is an ad for Obama that parodies Sesame Street, and number 19 says "He'll bring back Mittens to life!" This was before his campaign linked themselves to Sesame Street and before Mitt Romney, "Mittens," was running for president!
An article about Seltzer & Friedberg has the writer write a hypothetical trailer about a vampire movie spoof. Then along comes Vampires Suck...
During the huge success of The Avengers, they published a humorous vignette called "Why It Sucks to Be Ant-Man", which depicted Ant-Man, The Wasp, and The Falcon as a trio of desperate nobodies who weren't considered good enough to be included in the MCU. Since then, Falcon has debuted as a major character in Captain America: The Winter Soldier and joined the Avengers in subsequent movies, while Ant-Man got his own movie and a sequel called Ant-Man and The Wasp.
Though this could be a bit of a case of Harsher in Hindsight, since the movie is about Scott Lang, the second Ant-Man, not Hank Pym, the Ant-Man who was mocked in the article; and in the movie his wife Janet van Dyne died (presumably) and his daughter betrayed him.
Adding salt to the wound, the next Avengers movie was Avengers: Age of Ultron, which managed to take Pym's most notable recurring villain and change his backstory until it had nothing to do with him.
In early 2015, they ran an article called "5 Famous Movies That Are Getting Unspeakably Bad Sequels," and one of the movies highlighted was Creed. The writer proceeded to mock both Michael B. Jordan and Sylvester Stallone, and ultimately concluded that Adonis Creed sounded like an unlikable and unsympathetic character. Creed ended up opening to massive critical acclaim, with a good deal of the reviews praising Adonis as a complex and relatable protagonist, and Stallone ended up getting an Oscar nomination for his work.
In a 2011 article, 8 Absurd Jokes That Predicted Real Life Events, they discussed the Laugh In joke about President Ronald Reagan, before ending with: "So, has anyone done a wacky "Donald Trump as president" sketch yet? Laugh all you want, it may seem strangely prescient in, say, 2017."
When The Liam Smith Showflashed forward to New Years Eve 2999, Dick Clark promoted UPN: "For One Thousand Years, the Solar System's Number One Network."
On April Fools' of 2011, Boubouille of World of Warcraft news site MMO-Champion posted this joke article about the upcoming expansion pack being centered around the Pandaren race and introducing them as playable for both factions. Well... The next expansion is centered around the Pandaren race and introduces them as playable for both factions. Made even better when you know that the moderation team speculated and planned a few elaborate satirical jokes which were then denied for risk of causing bad press by forumgoers taking it seriously. The pandaren joke on the other hand was deemed obvious and cringeworthy enough for everyone to understand it was just a joke. Which they did. Since it was. At the time.
In March 2010, in the "general" forums of a fansite about import/European cars, someone posted a Fan Fic entitled... Two Broke Girls, though admittedly the motives were not clear (Word of God is not forthcoming, but speculation is it was a Take That! at the economy of the time). Made even more hilarious by the fact that a year later the show 2 Broke Girls (stylised as 2 BROKE GIRL$) launched, airing on CBS, and as of 2012, Channel 4 in the United Kingdom.
In 2008, Something Awful posted a front-page article which parodied a typical anime show's talk page at The Other Wiki. In particular, one "user" chided the other participants for thinking that the in-show credits were an acceptable source, saying that credits must come from IMDb or somewhere similar. As of 2012, the actual credits in a film, TV show or video game are no longer considered acceptable sources for Wikipedia articles.
The April 8, 1998 issue had the headline: "Cubs Eliminated From Playoff Contention." The Cubs went on to make the playoffs that year.
"Michael Moore Honored With New Ben & Jerry's Flavor" mocks Ben & Jerry's liberal leanings by saying they have invented a new flavor named after Michael Moore called "The Waffle Truth", which had vanilla ice cream with chocolate-covered waffle cone pieces. Two years later, Ben & Jerry's came out with a new flavor named for liberal (faux-conservative) icon Stephen Colbert called "Stephen Colbert's Americone Dream", which has....vanilla ice cream with chocolate-covered waffle cone pieces.
"Historic 'Blockbuster' Store Offers Glimpse Of How Movies Were Rented In The Past" is about the 'Blockbuster Video Museum' in Michigan that "aims to transport visitors to a time before the Internet." Like a version of Colonial Williamsburg, the sketch has actors playing clerks and customers who describe how the rental process works. Tour groups watch the performance, stunned. Five years later, the skit became several thousand times funnier when it was announced that Blockbuster's physical stores were shutting down due to the inability to compete with the advent of digital downloads on Netflix and the Internet in general.
Famous internet troll Chad Warden made an attack on the Nintendo Wii for using a, pardon the language, "dildo," for a controller, it all becomes hilarious when Sony made the PlayStation Move and now have dildo controllers of their own.
In the 2007 internet game Bartender: The Right Mix, you can occasionally explode by shaking the drink too much. You can even cause an explosion if you only add lemons. Exploding lemons are referenced once again, in another game.
In the Eight Crazy Nightsreview, he calls the film out (amongother things) for making a jab against homosexuals when Davey is arrested for breaking into the mall, claiming that those sort of jokes are what holding gay marriage legalization back. In June 2015, America would actually legalize gay marriage.
The Legend Of The Guardians The Owls Of Ga Hoolere-review, consisting of Duckyworth saying "They Changed It, Now It Sucks!" for all of the changes the film made to the first 3 books, and citing that Kathryn Lasky should've handled the adaption becomes a lot more funny when you realize that Lasky originally was going to write the screenplay before being replaced by Zac Snyder.
At the beginning of the Song of the Seareview, while lamenting about many modern animated films succumbing to the Animation Age Ghetto (and those who find the ghetto acceptable), and praising those who avoid the ghetto, he feels that Norm of the North is going to suck as he sees from from the trailer. When the film came out in North America, it ended up getting a rare zero percent from Rotten Tomatoes out of 36 reviews. For a double whammy, the critic consensus for the film says that it should only be shown "in case of parental emergency"... the opposite on what Duckyworth stated, which was to not show the kids those sort of films.
In the review for A Troll in Central Park, he comments on the flowers Stanley the troll produces and notes that, while intended to be cute, they just end up looking creepy. Of note is of a flower that Stanley accidentally produces, and in turn, hides from the troll. Duckyworth describes it as a 'rather disturbing looking flower with an overly happy expression'. This description accurately describes Flowey from Undertale, a video game Ducky would end up loving.
At the end of his review for the film version of The Lorax (2012) after tearing the film a new one for not following the original book and its themes, he says that 'if Dr. Seuss had written his book as it plays out in this movie, it would have long been lost into the dustbins of history, which where this wrong-headed movie is very likely headed...' In December 2016, MrMrMangoHead gave the film quite the revival with a Memetic Mutation version of 'Let It Grow' on par with We Are Number One, leading to a series of snowclones similar to the latter.
In 2012, After Ellen posted an article titled "Miley Cyrus is a better lesbian than you". In 2015, Miley revealed that she actually had been in relationships with women.
An article on Random-ness Wikia entitled "How to Make Good TV Shows Bad" has a section for PriPara, which was added in the summer of 2016. One part of the section says that one way to make the episode "Youthful Jump In! Snap In!" worse was to replace the scene where Dorothy scares Jururu by imitating a video game she brought with her to her getting kicked out of Elmo's Eatery by a man named Ray Snails for using a portable DVD player that showed Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Five months later, the movie Sing gets released, and one of the characters in the film is a snail named Ray.
In May 2014, The Muppets' fansite ToughPigs reviewed every episode of The Jim Henson Hour for its 25th aniversary. The reviewers particularly liked the Bill Prady-scripted Miss Piggy's Hollywood, and wondered why Prady was wasting his time on The Big Bang Theory when he could be writing Piggy getting into feuds with celebrities. A year and a half later, that's exactly what he was doing.
A running joke on Pokémon: The Series fansite Pokemopolis is that Togepi is evil. An episode of the anime years later focuses on "The Worst Togepi Ever!" From their guide to the episode: "Look I don't mean to sound like a broken record here but I TOLD YOU I FUCKING TOLD YOU ALL THESE THINGS ARE EVIL! EVIL! EVVIIIILLLLLLLL!!!!"
An AV Club article about a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie marathon held for Avengers: Age of Ultron had one user comment that they would like to see a movie where superheroes needed to rescue the world from endless comic book movies. That did happen three years after the article was published with the release of Teen Titans Go! To the Movies, where the climax reveals that Slade disguised himself as a Hollywood filmmaker named Jade Wilson, and he's been giving all the DC superheroes movies as an evil plot to mind control the world, leading Robin to try to stop his plan.
The page image caption of Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal is "Well, at least there's a complete outfit between them." Which just so happens to be a plot point to "No Service".
Fix Fic, when talking about the Naruto fix fics, it said "When was Hinata this bold?" Well, not factoring in her big confession scene, there was that Alternate Universe Hinata...
TV Tropes has the JustForFun.The Ship Yard page, which is a collaborative effort to come up with incredibly punny naval-themed terminology for various shipping behaviors. Then comes KanColle, its cast of personified IJN battleships, and the fans who ship these "ship daughters", which some describe as "literal shipping".
The trope about works of fiction tending to be about 20 years behind the times was originally launched with the title of "Still the Eighties"; this was changed to Two Decades Behind around 2010 or so under the assumption that modern examples would reference The '90s instead. But considering the insane amounts of '80s nostalgia that dominate pop culture to this day, one can argue that the name never needed to be changed at all.
One of Cracked Photolaspty entries features TV Tropes crossed with Youtube, creating Tropetube. TV Tropes now has a video feature, even showcasing mini descriptions, similar to the photo entry.
In 2004, Peter found a cartoon on Telefutura starring a homely schoolgirl named "Betty." After watching an episode, he published a review online, titled "The most obscure cartoon I can possibly review." Two years later, the character of Betty La Fea was formally introduced to America with the successful sitcom, Ugly Betty, prompting Peter to retitle the article (now called "Ugly Betty: The Cartoon Series") and rewrite the opening and concluding paragraphs.
The "Pony-Free Since 2001◊" banner took on some irony after a self-proclaimed Pegasister became one of the most frequent posters on the Platypus Comix forum.
"The Ancient Lost Art of TV Guide Advertising" Vol. 7, "The Bicentennial", shares a cover◊ promoting the Wonder Woman TV show. Underneath, Peter laments that Wonder Woman apparently doesn't seem relatable enough for her own theatrical movie, with the rejection of a Joss Whedon-penned screenplay prompting him to declare, "if Joss can't make it work, no one can." Eventually, Allan Heinberg and Patty Jenkins would respectively pen and direct Wonder Woman's first big-screen solo movie, and turn it into the first critical darling among the DC Extended Universe's films. This statement might have also become Harsher in Hindsight during the year of that movie's premiere, due to the scathing receptions of Joss' leaked Wonder Woman script, and the first released DC film with him as a credited screenwriter, Justice League (2017); the latter would even receive a recut four years later, either replacing or deleting all of his material.
In Joe Goes To Blizzon, Joe Hansen asks a man if they pretend to be a girl while going online, switching to a woman's voice while doing so. Years later, Joe came out as trans.
In 2008, BP sent an angry email to the activist organization known as The Yes Men, complaining about usage of their trademarks in a half-finished parody website run by the group. In their response, the Yes Men argued that "BP does every bit as much damage to this planet as does Exxon" and deserved a fully realized parody site. Two years later...
The existence of the meme Pedobear, in 2012 the BBC stated that the charity mascot of "Children In Need", Pudsey, was no longer allowed to be alone with children and instead of hugging them had to either wave at them or shake their hands. Naturally, the two bears had been crossed over before◊.
The Princeton Review, a test-preparation service company, has long made use of a naive straw-man character in its lessons, who demonstrates what not to do on standardized tests by always choosing the multiple-choice option that only looks correct upon superficial reading. In American courses, this gullible patsy is named "Joe Bloggs", a surname that pre-dates the World Wide Web and the rise of blogging: a phenomenon which, if read superficially by the naive, can give people a very misguided notion of what's factual.
One that'll speak to theatre fans: The blog Everything I Know I Learned from Musicalsfeatured a list of the worst musicals of the 2000s. Discussing the show Ordinary Days, he remarks that the Roundabout Theater's sub-par track record makes him automatically expect their shows to suck. Two years later, the Sutton Foster-led revival of Anything Goes, followed by similarly successful revivals of Cabaret, Violet, and She Loves Me, helped redeem their reputation in a big way.
CollegeHumor: In "The App That Does Everything... Poorly!", the site promotes Omni, a do-everything app. The narrator hooks the prospective viewer by asking, "How many times have you said, 'I like Instagram, but I wish it was more like Snapchat?' Or, 'I love Uber, but I wish it would deliver me food?' Or 'What if Facebook was YouTube?'" All three of those things have since become true. Instagram has added stories, while Uber now has Uber Eats, and Facebook has expanded their video features.
Twitter has an account called “Things That Aged Well”, which posts pictures and images relating to this kind of content.
In 2013, a Disney fan made a Chicago parody called Spell Block Tango. The video includes Maleficent, who was in love with King Stefan until he cheated and faced the fury of a Woman Scorned. In 2014, Disney made a live-action remake Maleficent that has King Stefan as her First Love and his betrayal as her Start of Darkness.
In December 2019, a member of a Facebook gaming group for players of Disney Magic Kingdoms posted a blatantly Photoshopped "Character Welcomed"-type screenshot for Darth Vader. But at the time, the only Star Wars characters and content that were coming to the game were related to theDisneytrilogy. Fast-forward to 2021, characters and content from A New Hope have been added to the game, including Vader.
In 2002, The Sports Guy ended his retrospective on The Karate Kid with "If they ever made a "Return of the Karate Kid" movie — with a grown-up LaRusso opening a karate studio to compete with Cobra Kai, then getting picked on by his own students and eventually pulling Miyagi out of a nursing home to help him survive — I would be the first person in line." Decades later comes Cobra Kai, where indeed "Daniel-san" opens a dojo to face against the one from the title, and that also got glowing approval from Bill Simmons.
Rules 1 and 2 on the Rules of the Internet are both "Do not talk about /b/" as they were written when it was 4chan's most infamous board. During The New '10s, /b/ lost its status as the most popular/infamous 4chan board to /v/ and then /pol/, meaning even though the rules have faded into irrelevancy, Rules 1 and 2 are indirectly more obeyed than ever.
Mark Prindle ended his review ofPJ Harvey's Dance Hall At Louse Point with a list of hypothetical Christmas albums by largely unlikely artists like Slayer, GG Allin, Danzig, and Bad Religion... Three years after Mark retired from updating the review site, Bad Religion actually did release an album of Christmas standards. Additionally, Mark poked fun at the band's reputation for Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness by suggesting the title We Desiderate You A Saturnalian Yuletide (And A Convivial Neoteric 365 Days, 5 Hours, 49 Minutes, and 12 Seconds Of Mean Solar Time) - Bad Religion went with the much simpler Christmas Songs.
WE'LL BE RIGHT BACK.: In December 2022, TapeWorm uploaded a video in the series which contained a fanmade recreation of Suicide Mouse. Fast forward to February 2023, and she decided to recreate the creepypasta to be more accurate to the story.note This link takes you to a fan reupload; to watch the recreation, you need to download the video from a torrent site, which we do not recommend.
A blog called High Impact Classification, which deals with ratings boards, made a post in March of 2018 about questionable ESRB ratings. The entry for Mega Man Battle Network 2 ends with a hypothetical reaction of disbelief at the idea of a T-rated Mega Man game. Four months later, the Mega Man X Legacy Collection was released and got a T-rating.
, in which the flavor text read "The Wizard says the protestors are high on poppy." Five years later, there was a poppy addict in Emerald City, Mistress West, played by Ana Ularu, a self-admitted minor anarchist.
