This Is Going to Be Huge

"Kickstarter sensation, the Ouya, they're gonna make games for that thing for the rest of eternity! Mark my words, every game that comes out from now until the end of time will also come out on the Ouya. Gonna outlive Sony, Nintendo, Coleco, Canseco, Jaleco, all of the heavy hitters. Anyways, I can't wait to be playing Ouya games in fifteen years, or even, like, five months! Written in Sharpie on the bathroom wall of history!"

— Homestar Runner discussing the Ouya

A character sings the praises of, or announces he has invested in, something he claims is going to revolutionize society or be enormously successful; however, the show is set in the past and the audience knows he is doomed to failure. Often comes right after the character says its competition will never catch on.

This trope does not apply to Real Life because it requires an audience with hindsight; see Magnum Opus Dissonance instead. If the upcoming failure should be obvious at the time the claim is made, then that's just the person being dumb.

Compare Anyone Remember Pogs?, when people look back on things that were supposed to be huge but faded out, and It Will Never Catch On, the inverse of this trope (along with a real life example, And You Thought It Would Fail and Not So Crazy Anymore).

---

Examples

Anime and Manga

• Played with in 16bit Sensation: Another Layer. While Konoha is in 1999, she discovers that Alcohol Soft's manager is involved in shady dealings with a famous game designer named Ichigaya. When confronted, the manager excitedly explains about how "dot-com companies" are booming in America and that he and Ichigaya are investing in one together, even quoting the trope name almost verbatim. The "dot-com bubble" would burst the following year, though this particular venture fails even before that, as it's a massive fraud scheme that leaves Alcohol Soft in one bilion yen of debt.
• The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service features a commercial from a mid-eighties cryogenics company foreseeing that Betamax would reach a billion sales by 2052. If you're wondering what Betamax is... exactly.

Comic Books

• In Giant-Size X-Men #3, Wolverine predicts to the newly-assembled X-Men that Thunderbird will outlast them all. Thunderbird is killed in their second mission, in Uncanny X-Men #95.
• In Runaways, Nico once encountered the Difference Engine, who smugly declared that he was the future and that her magic was outdated. Of course, Nico is a witch from the 21st century, whereas the Difference Engine is a punch card-based robot.
• In Marvels, Phil decides that the centerpiece of his planned book about superheroes is going to be a vindication of Spider-Man, clearing his conviction-by-public-opinion with the help of the daughter of a man he supposedly killed, and convincing the world that superheroes truly do serve to protect the innocent. That woman's name? Gwen Stacy. Ouch.

Films — Live-Action

• At the end of the 2005 remake of Fun with Dick and Jane, the protagonists have duped the evil CEO into reimbursing all of his employees' stolen pensions, are wealthy again and are happily driving towards the sunset... until a former colleague of Dick's drives next to him and tells him he got a great job at a company called Enron...and the credits roll.
• Near the end of Grease, the principal announces over the intercom that the graduating seniors may go on to greatness. One possible glorious future (this scene being set in the late spring of 1959) she speculates they might look forward to? Being the next Vice-President Nixon.
• In Shanghai Knights, Roy O'Bannon wastes most of his money writing false biographies of himself under a pen name. When Chon Wang finds out, he is disgusted with Roy, but Roy claims he has invested the rest into something that will revolutionize travel - zeppelining. When Chon is still not convinced, Roy claims that it's at least more likely to happen than some crazy invention called an "automobile".
• The Mummy:
  • The Mummy Returns has Izzy replaced his airplane offscreen with a literal airship (as in it was small boat held in the air by a gasoline powered balloon envelope) he makes a remark that airplanes are now a thing of the past when showing it. The film is set in 1933, just four years before the Hindenburg brought the end to airships as a form of passenger travel.
  • The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor has a scene where Rick and his son Alex compare their different guns. It includes a moment where the latter pulls out a PPS-43 saying that it is "future technology". In reality the gun's future was over almost as soon as it was adopted. The Soviets already invested heavily in the PPSh-41 by that time and so the PPS-43 only has one-third as many built as its bigger brother and mainly issued to troops that needed a more compact weapon than PPSh-41. By the time of the film's setting (1946-1947) the PPS-43 was already out of production and in about 2-3 years the Reds With Rockets would adopt the now iconic AK as their standard-issue rifle which would become the most widely produced firearm in history.
• In SLC Punk!, a punk in the 1980s proudly shows off his hyper-new Laserdisc player and explains what it is. Laserdiscs never quite caught on among American consumers, although it would help lead to the development of the DVD.
• At the end of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Kraglin gives Starlord a Zune to replace his destroyed Walkman. Starlord, who is mentally stuck in the '80s, is amazed that it can hold hundreds of songs and says that it's going to revolutionize the way we listen to music. The film is set in 2014 — not only does the audience know that the Zune will be crushed by the iPod, but so does anyone on Earth in-universe.
• Near the beginning of The Wolf of Wall Street, Jordan has obtained his stock broker's license and is eager to start his first day as a "master of the universe". Unfortunately, said day turned out to be Black Monday, the biggest US stock market crash in history. Jordan ends up losing his job shortly afterward and his outlook is so bleak he even considers becoming a stockboy at a grocery store.
• A pimp in Fanboys, set about six months before the release of The Phantom Menace, thought that nine-year-old Anakin and Jar Jar Binks would be so popular, he had them tattooed on his back, flashing gang signs. Given that the two characters were some of the most polarizing elements of The Phantom Menace, one could only imagine his reaction.
• In Peggy Sue Got Married, Peggy time-travels back to her high school years and when she sees her father proudly bring home a brand new Edsel, she collapses in laughter, much to the bewilderment of her family.
• In Zodiac, Jim Dunbar tells Melvin Belli he has seen the episode of Star Trek Belli appeared in, calling it (likely insincerely) "excellent". Belli replies he has considered becoming an actor full-time. The episode in question, "And The Children Shall Lead" is often considered to be one of the worst episodes in the entire franchise, in large part due to the casting of Belli (who had zero acting experience at that point) as the episode's villain and resulting performance. Belli would continue to work as an actor but definitely not full-time and only in bit parts as lawyers and legal professionals.

Literature

• Carl Hiaasen's Nature Girl has two characters who went through this. One is a woman who was mistress to a man who killed his wife and ended up in a high-profile murder trial, which led to a sensationalised ghost-written book on her story for which she gained half a million dollars and a stockbroker boyfriend who recommended investing it in Enron; two years later, she had lost it all and was working at a bottom-feeding telemarketing company. The other is the mother of another character, whose many disappointments in life include her father cashing in his pension to invest it all in the Delorean Motor Company, leaving nothing to pass to his daughter.
• In The Disaster Artist, Greg Sestero wrote that, unsurprisingly, Tommy Wiseau thought The Room (2003) would become an instant classic, winning him several Oscars, and be talked about for years to come. Well, in a way, it is a classic...
• Adrian Mole is prone to this trope as well as its inverse. Notably, in the second book, he falls for the Hitler Diaries hoax.

Live-Action TV

• Stranger Things: There's great concern over the new mall in Hawkings pushing older, more established local business out. Modern viewers will know that malls have been slowly dying out for many years.
• In an episode of Teen Angel where the eponymous character travels back in time, we learn that shortly prior to his death, he had made a huge investment in "Planet Macarena" stock. After his future self warns him about this mistake, he then announces to "present" Steve that he will sell all his stock...and invest it in Tony Danza T-shirts.
• The Big Bang Theory:
  • In an episode, Sheldon has a flashback to going over his roommate contract with Leonard, which includes a clause that Friday nights are permanently reserved for the viewing of Firefly, stating that they "might as well make it official, the show is going to be on forever". It lasted (half of) one season.
  • In the same episode, Sheldon chides Raj by telling him that the Microsoft Zune is going to obliterate the iPod and become the dominant MP3 player on the market.
  • In a later episode, Sheldon, having trouble choosing between buying an Xbox One or a PlayStation 4, realizes that he has always picked the losing format. Along with the previously mentioned Zune, he also chose Betamax over VHS and HD-DVD over Blu-ray.
• Community:
  • Abed and Troy were obsessed with the short-lived show The Cape in a flashback scene. They insist it'll last "six seasons and a movie!"
  • "VCR Maintenance and Educational Publishing": The stinger shows a flashback to 1993 where a man is offered a job to be the actor in a VHS game called Pile of Bullets. His wife persuades him to take the job since according to her VHS games are gonna be at least as big as Star Wars. She even convinces him to give up his job at Apple Computers and the silly stock options they were giving him.
• In an episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, the guys find an old time capsule they buried, which is filled with items they thought would be extremely valuable in ten years. Among other things, the items they find include a Greg Jeffries baseball card, a Korn CD, and a laserdisc copy of The Ciderhouse Rules.
• Mad Men:
  • In an episode, the publicity firm is hired by an enthusiastic Upper-Class Twit to introduce professional jai alai in the United States, convinced that it is going to be huge. Draper flat out tells the client that he is delusional, but since he insists he instructs his coworkers to shake him down. This is Truth in Television; at the time Mad Men is set jai alai was expected to be the next big thing. While it had faddish popularity in the US in the early 70s, ultimately various factors like "it's really heavily mob controlled" drove spectators away in hordes.
  • In the sixth season numerous ad agencies compete over Chevy's next big thing, and Don in particular seemed very excited for its entirely different design. The car in question? Model number XP-887, later known as the Chevrolet Vega—a car that was initially well-liked, then became infamous for things like poor rust-proofing and engines that never worked to start with, leading to several recalls, one of which included a half million at once.
• Boardwalk Empire:
  • In the first season, set in 1920, a businessman tells Nucky that there is an Italian man in Boston working with mail coupons that can return investments in a couple of weeks with a 45% increase. Nucky says that those numbers are absurd and that there must be something very wrong with that guy, but the other man replies that he has had successful returns a couple of times already and has invested now his whole fortune. A couple of episodes later, we learn that the businessman has lost all his money and that this Italian's name is Charles Ponzi.
  • In season four, Nucky is in Florida where he meets a young salesman who is trying to sell him on investing in a local real estate project. Real estate development in Florida was a very popular investment at that time but Nucky is too smart to invest in this pipe dream. The Florida real estate boom of the 1920's ended in a massive bust and it would take decades for the market to recover. Ironically, Nucky later buys land in Florida but for the more sensible goal of using it as a front for his liquor smuggling operation. One major character who falls victim to this "cannot lose" investment opportunity is gangster Arnold Rothstein and he is very unhappy about it.
• Downton Abbey: In one episode, Lord Grantham, scouting around for ways to make back the money he lost investing in the recently-nationalized Canadian Grand Trunk Railway, notes that "There's a chap in America, what's his name, Charles Ponzi, who offers a huge return after 90 days." This prompts a Facepalm from Matthew, who's just been trying to explain the folly of get-rich-quick schemes.
• In Happy Days, set in the '50s but released in the '70s, both Richie and Howard believe that the United Nations will put an end to all wars. About that...
• In Moone Boy (written in the 2010s but set in the early 1990s) Martin's science teacher describes the solar system, mentioning for no particular reason that Pluto will always be a planet.
• In the first-season finale of Pose, Ricky and Damon are offered jobs as backup dancers with Al B. Sure!, and Elektra enthusiastically encourages them to take those jobs, even though it would interfere with Damon's education, as Al B. Sure! is a rising star.
• Young Sheldon: In "A Suitcase Full of Cash and a Yellow Clown Car", Sheldon calls RadioShack to sell them on the idea of a megastore. At the end, Adult Sheldon reveals that they did eventually open one, Incredible Universe, which was a huge failure.
  Adult Sheldon: Oopsie!

Theatre

• This is Birling's opinion on the maiden voyage of the Titanic in An Inspector Calls. In complete fairness, he's right, but not for the reasons he thinks.
• In the musical adaptation of The Wedding Singer, Gulia predicts that "New Coke" will be the next big thing. Guess what doesn't catch on?
• In Steve Martin 's Picasso At The Lapine Agile, Know-Nothing Know-It-All Charles Dabernow-Schmendiman has a revolutionary idea that will change the world. This idea is a brand new building material...that is brittle, inflexible, and made from equal parts radium, asbestos, and kitten paws. Due to building codes, this material is also unable to be used anywhere other than San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Krakatoa. However, for Dabernow-Schmendiman this is an absolute success!

Video Games

• Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time: The Dodo Rider Zombie's Almanac states that he believes dodos are the future of transportation. Everyone else keeps telling him there's no future in dodos. Considering that Dodo Rider Zombie is fought during the Ice Age, and that Dodos eventually die out, it looks like everybody else was right.
• In a case of Self-Deprecation by Nintendo, in Luigi's Mansion 3, Professor E. Gadd presents his latest and greatest invention, a holographic red headset he calls the Virtual Boo (or VB), which he predicts will "fly off the shelves". The real "VB" (or Virtual Boy) was one of the biggest game console flops in history and lasted less than eight months on the market.
• In the Mafia: Definitive Edition mission "Great Deal", after an intense firefight, the Salieri family successfully makes a deal with William Gates' illegal distillery to distribute his product and everyone celebrates believing they will become incredibly rich. The mission takes place on September 22nd, 1933: less than three months later, the 21st Amendment is ratified and Prohibition ends, making everything they just went through completely pointless. They still managed to make enough money during that short period of time to later diversify their activities for a post-Prohibition world, but it's definitely not the huge payout they hoped for.
• Discussed in Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy: Part of the reason the game exists was because of discussion in game development that games made of entirely pre-made assets would come to dominate the game world, which turned out to not be the case. The game deconstructs why this was - ease-of-use means easily forgotten, in Foddy's words - and plays around with it by being a game made entirely of pre-made assets, but designed to be as awkward and difficult as possible, and thus not easily forgotten.

Web Animation

• In Homestar Runner, a running gag in "Marzipan's Answering Machine 17.2" (released on April Fools' Day in 2016 after a seven-year hiatus) involves Homestar gushing about various fads that came and went between 2009 and 2016, such as planking, the Ouya, Linsanity, and Google Glass.

Webcomics

• In an Alien Loves Predator strip, we learn that while Abe and Preston were in college in 1999, the former had decided to invest all his textbook money in shares of Pets.com, the unofficial poster child of the dot-com crash.

Web Original

• In the SF Debris review of the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Timeless", there's a little skit involving Steve Jobs and George Lucas having a conversation in 1998. Steve asks George if he wants to partner up to acquire a touchscreen company so they can use it on phones. Lucas dismisses him because he's too busy working on The Phantom Menace, the "greatest movie ever made" which he expects will win him several Oscars.
• In the special 200th episode of Atop the Fourth Wall that took a look at One More Day (which came out in 2007), when a character who's a video game designer appears in one scene, Linkara mentions in-character that he's the writer for Mass Effect 3, and that people are going to love the ending he's writing.

Western Animation

• The Simpsons:
  • Disco Stu does this, trying to recruit for his disco record label:
    Stu: Did you know that sales of disco were up 400% in the year ending 1978? If these trends continue... ayyyyy!
  • In "Homer's Barbershop Quartet", which was set in the early '80s, Homer says of Dexys Midnight Runners, "We haven't seen the last of them!" (While DMR had more success in the UK than the US, Homer, as an American, is unlikely to have gone on to hear a single song of theirs besides "Come on Eileen"). The Italian dubbing for the episode substitutes Duran Duran for DMR, dating the joke in hindsight, since the original line-up came back together in early '00s.
  • In "That '90s Show", Homer chooses records over CDs, a typewriter over a computer, and Enron stock over Microsoft stock when splitting his and Marge's possessions. This became a bit Hilarious in Hindsight in The New '10s, as CDs have been largely replaced in the popular consciousness by streaming, and records have made a resurgence with music collectors.
  • "'Round Springfield" offers a slightly sneaky version of this trope in an early episode in which Bill Cosby compares Jazz to Kodak film and "the New Coke: It'll be around forever (Heh heh heh!)"
• Bojack Horseman has a series of them in the 2007 Whole Episode Flashback "The Bojack Horseman Show":
  • Bojack is the proud owner of an HD-DVD player.
  • A skywriter is shown advertising John from Cincinnati (and two months later strikes through the same message).
  • Mr. Peanutbutter gets a gig fundraising for "the next President of the United States": John Edwards.
  • Jessica Biel is excited for her part in what she was told would be a "a very important gay rights movie": I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry.

---