The Hindsight tropes, Hilarious in Hindsight, Harsher in Hindsight, and Heartwarming in Hindsight, are among the most misused Audience Reaction tropes on this site. Many people don't understand that the tropes require more than just "This happened, so that happened", and end up adding examples which either lack connection or the substance that makes them funny/serious/not-so-funny/heartwarming. Some of them may be suited better for other tropes (ex: Life Imitates Art), while some may not belong on TV Tropes at all (such as ones involving politicians, due to Rule of Cautious Editing Judgment).
Please report any Hindsight example that you feel are questionable, and we'll analyze them to see if they are actually examples or not.
Remember that the Hindsight tropes are Audience Reactions. That means if an example under review discusses significant fan response pointing out the hindsight, the example can't be cut solely for being too tenuous for this thread.
- Creator's character/portrayal dies in work and then creator dies in real life, unless their fictional death is closely similar to their real one (such as Billy Bob Joe portraying a character who dies from pancreatic cancer, then Billy Bob dies from pancreatic cancer himself)
- Mundane word related to something terrible (such as "corona" or "Epstein") unless there's more to the connection (such as someone named "Corona" having the flu)
- Creator appears in work then becomes more controversial later on.
- A common event (such as a typical natural disaster) happens in work, then happens in real life (unless they are closely similar, such as the event happening to the same area in both reality and fiction around the same time) For once, not everything related to disease has to do with COVID-19, not everything related to racism and Police Brutality has to do with George Floyd and Black Lives Matter, and not everything related to sexual abuse has to do with #MeToo.
- A common/generic concept was used in this work and then later reused in that work (too loose for a connection, unless the concept is so unique it's identified with the work)
- Two actors appear together then do so in another work
- Hindsight examples involving recent events, due to them often being shoehorns. Specifically:
- COVID-19 examples, before 75% of the population has returned to normal
- George Floyd/2020 Black Lives Matter examples, before protests have declined
- Examples which fall guilty of Older Than They Think, such as "Make X Great Again" slogans. Aside from violating the ROCEJ, this slogan has been in use since the 1940s.
- Characters using slurs which are treated as annoying at worst in the work, but is now harsher due to how severe the slur is made now. Discrimination has always existed with that slur. (May qualify for Values Dissonance if work is at least 20 years old.)
Note: As of January 2022, "Funny Aneurysm" Moment is no longer separate from Harsher in Hindsight.
- The former redirects to the latter and all wicks to the former (with the exception of ones on archive pages and the YMMV Redirects index) must either be moved to the latter (if they're valid) or removed (if they're invalid).
- The subpages for the former are still accessible from this page
. After a subpage for "Funny Aneurysm" Moment has been completely cleaned up, turn it into a redirect to the Harsher in Hindsight subpage for the same medium to preserve inbounds.
Edited by Tabs on Jun 21st 2023 at 11:51:25 AM
The Stand (2020) has a Covid-19 example in Harsher in Hindsight.
- This series — about a viral pandemic ravaging the world — was filmed and produced prior to the 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic, which makes the concept a little more uncomfortable to look at. Stephen King himself even gave his enthusiastic approval to the pandemic being called Captain Trumps.
This is on Cop Rock:
Harsher in Hindsight: Mike Post wrote music for this series- however this show debuted 2 weeks after another police procedural he wrote music for, that being Law & Order which also likely contributed to this series doing poorly in ratings.
I think. It's trying to say that the guy who wrote the music also did the same music for law and order and that law and order led to this show getting cancelled. I think that's what their saying
"That's right mortal. By channeling my divine rage into power, I have forged a new instrument in which to destroy you."From the Harsher in Hindsight section of YMMV.The Mandalorian:
- In the finale of Season 2, Luke promises Din that he will protect Grogu with his life. As seen in the Sequel Trilogy, Luke's nephew will eventually kill his fellow Jedi, leaving Grogu's fate ambigious.
2/3 of the Sequel Trilogy came out before The Mandalorian, but those movies take place, like, 20 years later, so I can't decide whether or not this entry should fall victim to, "It ties in with something older, so it doesn't count."
Asking for opinions on the examples found on Strong Bad Email. Some of those just feel too much like shoehorns or Fan Myopia.
- Harsher in Hindsight:
- The "David Coppafeel" pun in "senior prom" sounded pretty apt after David Copperfield became accused of sexually assaulting an underage model.
- The throwaway joke about "oiled-up Bill Cosby" in "winter pool" stopped being funny for similar reasons.
- Strong Bad losing it and blowing up the movie theater with a bazooka in the sbemail "the movies" is decidedly less funny after the The Dark Knight Rises Aurora massacre.
- Strong Bad Email 81 features the sender as "Dynomite, Boston, MA". "Dynamite Boston" might sound random, but saying those two words together might be very harsh now
.
- Hilarious in Hindsight:
- In Email 10, released in 2002, Strong Bad gets an email from a vampire named Trevor. Fastforward to the release of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate in 2013, which has Trevor Belmont becoming a vampire himself.
- In Email 143, released in 2006, Strong Bad is talking about the different functions of Pom Pom's cellphone, from buying movie tickets to watching said movie to making his own. Nowadays, smartphones have internet access, Netflix and Hulu, and even 1080p video cameras.
- Email 181, released in 2007, discusses various types of Webcomics, and even parodies Penny Arcade with a strip where Strong Bad and Strong Sad, after "bricking" a meat loaf, randomly spout off various technical specifications. Fast forward to 2010, and Strong Bad is playing poker against Tycho in Poker Night at the Inventory.
- "Hey, Stinkoman! Everyone says you're the guy, but... I Wanna Be the Guy, too!"
- How does Strong Bad define "technology"? "The word 'technology' means 'magic
'."note
- There's also Strong Bad putting beans on a cake for The Poopsmith. In case he wanted Strong Bad to put beans on it. note
- 172 (More Armies) features Strong Bad recruiting for his band of shady missionaries - er, mercenaries - while wearing an eyepatch, a fake mustache, and a "robotic hand". Years later, there was a game whose main character was a bearded man with an eyepatch and a robotic hand who recruits for a band of mercenaries and like Strong Bad, ultimately turns out to have been faking that identity.
From South Park: The Pandemic Special:
- Harsher in Hindsight:
- President Garrison fully intends to let the Coronavirus spread so he can kill all the Mexicans and then delays having a vaccine made by killing the scientist and the pangolin at the end of the episode. A day after the special aired, Donald Trump was diagnosed with the Coronavirus.
- Wildfires are raging across South Park. Now wildfires are starting to ravage Colorado. Though the wildfires were active at the time of first airing, they just got worse...
I think enough time has passed for the Trump COVID one to be valid (and it's not about the real man's politics), but the Colorado wildfires entry needs to be rewritten to not be recent, or just cut if it's still ongoing.
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The way I see that first entry, it suggests that after knowing Trump himself got sick, it makes Garrison look more stupid by comparison, like some unintentional Dramatic Irony. I saw the connection pointed out a lot offsite as well. Also of course Trump wasn't at that level of blatant evil, and thankfully the entry doesn't suggest he was - it's their satirical take on the matter.
Edited by mightymewtron on Feb 18th 2021 at 12:21:20 PM
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.Bringing up the following examples from Doctor Who S30 E11 "Turn Left":
- Harsher in Hindsight:
- The brief eulogy for Sarah Jane Smith on the TV news after her death became this after Elisabeth Sladen's passing a mere three years later.
- Watching Britain descend into trouble and a far-right Government take over who pursues racist, anti-immigrant policies becomes this due to the fact that around the time this episode aired a worldwide recession occurred, which in the following decade, has led to the rise of more far-right movements and Governments, anti-immigrant policies and a noted rise in hate crime, such as in Britain.
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I think all of those are shoehorns. Yank 'em.
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I don't actually think the first one could be valid unless Garrison himself got the disease, and I doubt Trump was trying to spread it on purpose. But then again, this is South Park, so it's possible none of that matters. The second one should definitely be rewitten at the very least.
The first is actress mortality and the second is a ROCEJ violation.
- Harsher in Hindsight: In "The Return" trailer, upon the late 2020 release date being announced, Travis dryly remarks "good luck". Then the COVID outbreak hit, slowing down development for nearly every game developer including Grasshopper. Sure enough, they would issue an announcement that the game had to be delayed to 2021. It seems like "luck" wasn't on their side.
IT seems far fetched IMO
Edited by Silverblade2 on Feb 18th 2021 at 4:50:57 PM
Already a gigantic stretch when the plague is used as a means of "things got hard for them", given that the "luck-against-us" event could be.......anything.
Permanently expunge it.
Cassie | they/them/he | Help needed for filling out entries on the Series X SCP categoryThis is on Captain Planet and the Planeteers under Harsher in Hindsight:
- The traumatic climax of "Mind Pollution" is now even worse than before. When the Planeteers come to Washington DC to investigate the widespread use of Bliss, Verminous Skumm converts the thousands of addicts into an army and incites them to take the Planeteers out. The Planeteers flee to the nearest building for safety and barricade themselves inside as the rampaging addicts lay siege to and eventually break and storm their way in. The building in question: the United States Capitol!.
This is on Dead Like Me under Harsher in Hindsight:
- In the episode "Shallow End," George reflects on the fact that in a fair world, assholes would finish last. But they have followers and acolytes, over which is a montage of several dictators across the 20th century, starting with Adolf Hitler. The montage ends with, of all people, Donald Trump.
- In a similar vein the group of Reapers for death by illness, who haven't had much work since the black plague. In light of the Covid-19 pandemic, they might finally be meeting their quota.
The first one seems notable...but inflammatory. Plus Trump was known by many as a successful asshole before he got into politics anyway.
The second one is just another eye-rolling COVID shoehorn.
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.Just zapped these on YMMV.The Rescuers
- Harsher in Hindsight: Bernard's superstition about the number 13 came true when the film's sequel took that many years to come out, and performed very badly despite raving reviews.
- Hilarious in Hindsight: The film used "I like trains!" years before asdfmovie.
First is a shoehorn (13 Is Unlucky is super common), the second is Fan Myopia.
Found in Metalocalypse:
- Harsher in Hindsight: ...This was before Anders Breivik and Sandy Hook Elementary (~10 miles outside Danbury).
- One has to remember season 2 was made in 2008 and the Cosby sexual assault accusations weren't until the mid 2010's when watching Dethdoubles when Skwisgaar says he wants to be Bill Cosby.
- Although considering how the other two people mentioned in the joke were Joseph Stalin and Richard Nixon, both of whom are largely considered to be bad people, this actually fits quite well.
- In-universe, Toki's birthday "kidnapping" in Fertilityklok could be also seen as this since he got kidnapped by Magnus Hammersmith in Church of the Black Klok.
- The cliffhanger ending of "Doomstar Requiem" gets even worse, once you know AS passed on Season 5. Should fan petitions fail, that's how the series ends, which unfortunately didn't work. The only silver lining is Brendon Small's album GALAKTIKON: Become the Storm serves as a spiritual ending to the series just without the name (as Adult Swimm owns the rights to the Dethklok name).
- To add insult to injury, there is an episode that has Charles saying that the band has the rights to the name Dethklok. Considering that Brendon lost the rights to the name to Adult Swim...
- One has to remember season 2 was made in 2008 and the Cosby sexual assault accusations weren't until the mid 2010's when watching Dethdoubles when Skwisgaar says he wants to be Bill Cosby.
- Hilarious in Hindsight: The bleach scene gets a lot funnier in April 2020 after Donald Trump infamously announced that people should inject bleach in their body to disinfect the COVID-19 virus. Brendon himself even noticed and tweeted the scene in response
while reminding people not to actually drink the bleach.
Some time ago, I Made a Hilarious in Hindsight entry about a book written in 2005 where the Laughably Evil villain (a New Yorker summoning a monster from another dimension) boasts about becoming more powerful than Donald Trump and Michael Bloomberg. To me, this comment was not making a political or moral judgment either way about Trump and felt funnier than it would have if I'd read it in 2005 due to how both men ended up running for president and Trump won (making the villains boasts about ending up more powerful than Trump take on a different even more megalomaniacal light). The trope was removed by the ROCEJ thread due to them not allowing anything Hilarious in Hindsight or Harsher in Hindsight about Trump while he was in office. Now that he is not in office, I asked if I could put it back, and they said I should ask you if it qualified as a genuine Hilarious in Hindsight moment.
Edited by Melinda on Feb 19th 2021 at 6:25:31 AM
Bringing up the following example from WandaVision Episode 7 "Breaking the Fourth Wall":
- "Funny Aneurysm" Moment: The episode was written before the COVID-19 Pandemic, but viewers noted a number of circumstances in it that resemble those of the present it was released in, such as Wanda staying in her house all day wearing sleepwear, referring to it as a "quarantine stay-cation", and insisting she's fine while actually growing more and more upset inside.
Found this listed as Harsher in Hindsight in Warrior Cats. I don't think it counts, but I'm just checking to get a second opinion.
- The circumstances behind Ashfur's trying to kill Squirrelflight and her kits: He was upset because she had dumped him a year before. The reason why this is here? Think of how many murders/shooting sprees have occurred in reality for the exact same reasons, especially as of the late 2010s.
I'm pretty sure murderous exes have been a thing for ages. The only new aspect is the added influence of stuff like "incel" culture.
Edited by mightymewtron on Feb 19th 2021 at 7:24:16 AM
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.

For Malcolm in the Middle:
Both FAM entries and the first Harsher entry sound valid, since they resemble later, tragic events. Although, was the character fearing he had cancer, but it turns out he doesn't, Played for Laughs or Played for Drama?
The second Harsher entry is a "2008 economy downturn" shoehorn. Easy cut.
The first Hilarious entry sounds valid. The rest seem too weak, like actor garbage or shoehorns.