Hindsight Cleanup

Cut. Maybe there's an argument for the general franchise being renamed Potato Head making it Hilarious in Hindsight (seriously, what would be Harsher about dropping the "Mr." from his name? It's the same toy potato either way, calm down) but I'd rather just not give that manufactroversy any credit.

Edited by mightymewtron on Mar 3rd 2021 at 11:03:10 AM

Reposting from the previous page:

Bringing up the following examples from FunnyAneurysmMoment.Other Media:

• The core rulebook for White Wolf's Vampire: The Requiem includes, in a passage about storytellers embellishing the "dark and gritty" elements of the World of Darkness, a description of the differences between the Real Life version of New Orleans and the World of Darkness version; this was an example for the book. The last paragraph detailed how the street level was just below the water level of the Mississippi River and that the water was held back by levees that were ill-kept. Vampire: The Requiem was first published in 2004, one year before Hurricane Katrina caused the canal levees in New Orleans to break and flood the entire city.
• Flying Buffalo thought it would be funny to pretend that one volume of their Grimtooth's Traps series had been confiscated in a government raid (presumably so the carefully-unidentified agency could use those traps). Four years later, Steve Jackson Games was raided by the US Secret Service and GURPS Cyberpunk confiscated. Sorta killed the joke, there (and Flying Buffalo's publisher apologized in the next reprinting of the Traps volume that had the fake raid story).

The first one doesn't count because Hurricane Katrina didn't magically cause the levees to disappear. I think they fixed them a long time ago. The second does count only because of the apology.

Reposting from the previous page:

Bringing up the following example from Hilarious in Hindsight:

• From 1989 through 2004, Disney/MGM Studios in Orlando, Florida had an attraction called The Magic of Disney Animation which had a short film at the beginning called Back to Neverland (not to be confused with Disney's direct-to-video Peter Pan sequel Return to Neverland), starring Robin Williams and the late Walter Cronkite. In it, Robin is a huge fan of Peter Pan and actually becomes an animated Lost Boy, and he defeats Captain Hook with a little help from both Tinkerbell and his quick improvisational comedy skills. Doubly hilarious in hindsight in that not only would he later get a chance to really show off his improvisational skills in a full-length Disney film^note where that video even had a Shout-Out, as the Genie dresses like Robin did in a scene, but first he would also get the chance to actually be Peter Pan himself (courtesy of Steven Spielberg and TriStar Pictures).

ngl, I think that it is hard to say if it's hindsight or not.

Edited by callmeamuffin on Mar 4th 2021 at 7:28:02 PM

From Bad Creepypasta.

• Hilarious in Hindsight/Harsher in Hindsight:
  • The title of It Will Get Worse wasn't just a title drop for the creepypasta, but spelled out how cringe-worthy (and at times, tasteless) some of the creepypastas they later riffed became.
  • During the Jeff the Killer Vs. Slenderman reading, Toby cracked a joke about how Jeff the Killer had rabid fans, which Jacob responded with a potshot towards PewDiePie. After reading Jane the Killer: The Real Story and Clockwork: Your Time is Up, they outright despise the Jeff fandom for unanimously praising the story while making light of sensitive subjects such as murder and sexual abuse.
  • During Chuckie's Mom, the mention of a "harlequin baby" sends the guys into hysterics, picturing a baby dressed up like a jester with a mask and pointy hat. Not only is it a real thing^note An infant born with Harlequin Ichthyosis, a rare birth defect where the epidermis develops as scalelike structures that peel off, exposing the flesh beneath, and the eyes bulge out of the head, but about two years after the pasta was read, a very, very infamous video involving it would be published.
  • In Thomas, Matt jokes on the fact that Thomas believes that his sanity and trauma over seeing his mom kill herself would be cured from just a hug. Years later, Steven Universe: Future came out, and the main criticism for the final episode was that Steven's over-a-year-long traumas about his mother were solved with just a hug and some sweet words.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: The entirety of One Stormy Night/Terraria.Exe becomes this, being Gemma's first appearance.
  • In Thomas riff, after Valarie hears Thomas laugh for the first time ever since they started hanging out, this exchange plays out:
  Matt: It's good to know that you spend all your time with this guy and it's the first time you've made him laugh.
  Jacob: (Reading the story) Thomas took note and just gave her— Yeah, if I didn't make you laugh in like an an hour of hanging out with you, I would't call you again.
  Matt: Isn't woman the ones who say that the first thing to look after a man is if they have a good sense of humor?
  Gemma: (Laughing) "No it's not."
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • During their riff of Jeff the Killer Vs. Slenderman, a delirious Jeff calls out to Randy (one of the bullies from the original Jeff The Killer), and the gang assumes he's talking to the Slenderman, who Matt then dubs "Randy Slenderman". Then, during their riff of Jeff the Killer 2015, after Randy's stereotypical "American cool-kid" accent mutates into an Irish accent, Matt assumes he's Slenderman (since they already gave Slenderman an Irish accent).
  • For a more quickly-hilarious one, during their riff of My Name is MCCP, after the protagonist runs into the woods to escape from the cops, Jacob jokingly states that she ran into Slenderman, who shows up for real a few minutes later.
  • In Son Is Exe VS Ben Drowned, Jacob calls out spinpasta authors for using "Drowned" as part of BEN's name, later on in Meeting Ben Drowned's Sister, he has a mild meltdown after reading the title.
  • In the same story, Jacob refused to instantly declare this story as the standard for Wattpad creepypastas as he refused to come back to the site ever again. The next creepypastas they read on the site were Clockwork: Your Time Is Up, The Baby Alive Doll, Meeting Ben Drowned's Sister and Shadow of Blood.
  • In Kandy Kane, Jacob starts the episode by saying "Welcome to Bad Creepypasta, where we will never do Sonichu.", guess what happened a few episodes later.

Found this on Rugrats

• A Hilarious in Hindsight moment: The kidnappers think Tommy is the infant son of millionaire Ronald Thump.

That doesn't make sense. Donald Trump was well-known in 1991 and obviously the name is play-on-words of the real life billionaire-future President. So where's the Hilarious and how is it Hindsight?

Edited by MatthewLMayfield on Mar 4th 2021 at 9:38:30 AM

On that note, does Trumplica require a physical appearance?

Something similar was on the Western Animation page, I think, and it didn't work there either. Trumplica is a trope dating back to at least The '80s so you can nuke that.

Personally if there's enough circumstantial reason to draw parallels to Trump, like the name and if he owns hotels and stuff, I'd say yes.

Edited by mightymewtron on Mar 4th 2021 at 10:45:43 AM

From YMMV.Topaz

• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • The Topaz ringleader's code name is Columbine. Columbine Shoehorn

According to The Other Wiki, Columbine is disambiguated, and could mean a genus of flowers, with one of the species of the flower being the State Flower of Colorado, the likely reason for the naming of both. I'm asking here if it should be cut, just to be sure.

Edited by callmeamuffin on Mar 6th 2021 at 4:39:23 AM

Reposting from the previous page:

Bringing up the following examples from FunnyAneurysmMoment.Other Media:

• Football manager Alan Pardew — who was out of work at that time — was censured for comparing a challenge by Michael Essien as rape during the Chelsea vs Manchester City in March 2009. The player who was the victim of that tackle? Ched Evans, who was imprisoned for rape just 3 years later, though was later acquitted.
• Rob Moroso was named the 1990 NASCAR Rookie of the Year, despite dying in a DUI accident earlier in the season. The scary part to this is that his first sponsorship in a NASCAR race was Old Milwaukee beer! This is even more frightening if you consider that for the two races he was sponsored by Old Milwaukee, he was only 17!
• The development of Nomex firesuits in the 1960s for race car drivers was brought on by the deaths of three drivers due to fire, and the lackluster protection drivers were offered at the time. The first driver to die was a NASCAR driver by the name of Edward Glenn Roberts Jr. His nickname? "Fireball Roberts!" He really should've picked a better nickname...
• This Subway commercial features an American football referee with a number 85 shirt admitting to missing a call. In 2008, referee Ed Hochuli admitted to missing a call to the San Diego Chargers coach, which ended up costing the Chargers the game. Hochuli's shirt number? 85.
• At the age of 25, college basketball legend "Pistol" Pete Maravich stated in an interview, "I don't want to play 10 years in the NBA and then die of a heart attack at 40." A leg injury necessitated his retiring from basketball after 10 seasons. And he died of a heart attack, at 40.
• In a 2006 Toronto Star interview, then-Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Wade Belak was asked where he'd be in 5 years, and jokingly replied "Dead". Belak died of suicide 5 years later, in 2011, and the interview was reprinted
• Eugene Robinson was a longtime free safety who joined the Atlanta Falcons in 1998 after having appeared in the previous two Super Bowls with Green Bay. The morning before the 1999 Super Bowl (the third consecutive he appeared in), Robinson, who had been outspoken about his Christian faith, received the Athletes in Action Bart Starr Award for outstanding Christian character. That night, Robinson got arrested for soliciting a prostitute who turned out to be an undercover cop. Robinson returned the award.
• French-Canadian Formula One driver Gilles Villeneuve called the Belgian Zolder circuit "a good killer" in an interview in early 1982. (meaning it would be extremely tiring in the hard-sprung cars of the time). He was killed in a crash at that track later in the same year.
• Jochen Rindt, upon winning the 1970 German Grand Prix at Hockenheim, claimed that his car was so easy to drive that a monkey could have won the race. 2 races later and Rindt was dead, having crashed the very same car. Rindt was advised a year before he died by his manager (one Bernie Ecclestone); "If you want to win, join Lotus. If you want to live, join Brabham". He joined Lotus.
• F1 journeyman Andrea de Cesaris had an unfortunate reputation for crashing often, gaining him the nickname Andrea de Crasheris. Funny at the time, but now takes on a different meaning after he was killed in a motorcycle accident near his home in 2014.
• A columnist writing for the San Jose Mercury News joked in his October 17, 1989 column that, as the two teams contesting the World Series were from California (San Francisco and Oakland), an "earthquake could rip through the Bay Area before they sing the national anthem for Game 3". The Loma Prieta earthquake, the most intense earthquake in California for 35 years and in San Francisco for 80 years, struck at 5:04 pm that day... during the warm-up for Game 3.
• Declan Sullivan, a Notre Dame student, had a job filming the school's football practice from a hydraulic scissors lift. On an extremely windy day, he tweeted, "Gusts of wind up to 60 mph. Well, today will be fun at work. I guess I've lived long enough." During work that day, the lift collapsed and he died.
• "I probably won't be alive to see it (his record 88-game winning streak broken)" - John Wooden (Died June 2010, the record was broken by The University of Connecticut Women's Basketball in December 2010.)
• "This is gonna be a spectacle. This is a great way to go out." - Dan Wheldon to ABC during pace laps of the final race of the 2011 IndyCar Series, commenting on the scale of the event and his shot at a $5,000,000 prize in Las Vegas. He would be killed from injuries sustained in a mass accident 11 laps into the race.
  • "You're on board with him, and one thing he was worried about going into this race was all the dirty air..." - the ABC commentator explaining to viewers that Dan Wheldon had expressed concerns about Indy Car's controversial decision to put 34 cars on a track designed for stock cars rather than open-wheelers, Wheldon specifically worrying about the high number of cars dirtying the air, making passing harder, bunching all those cars up and making a big crash more likely. The announcer is interrupted, however, when from Dan Wheldon's on-board camera we do indeed see a crowd of cars begin crashing ahead of him in the distance, just after Wheldon crosses the line to begin Lap 11. Cut to the wide overhead shot...
• Greg Moore, injured in the paddock following an accident on his scooter the day before the final race of the 1999 CART season at Fontana, gave an interview to ESPN before getting into his car. The reporter handed back to the commentators with the words: "Greg's ready to fly today". Just under an hour later, Greg's car became airborne and hit a barrier. He was killed instantly.
• Penn State's venerable college football program was rocked in 2011 when allegations of child sexual abuse against former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, spanning several decades, became public. Back in 2001 Sandusky had published an autobiography titled Touched: The Jerry Sandusky Story.
• Australian Rules Football: In 2013, Essendon's slogan was "Whatever it takes". Then news of the doping scandal broke.
• In 2020, when the NBA announced new procedures for interviews with the media in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, Jazz player Rudy Gobert jokingly touched every reporters microphone and recorders. Just two days later, Gobert ended up being diagnosed with COVID-19, and the rest of the NBA season was postponed.

I think the Rudy Gobert example counts. The FAM is not about COVID's existence as much as a single person already having had COVID. Also it was an infamous moment because of that hindsight.

I think the Sandusky example counts too, but it's Harsher in Hindsight because the original title probably wasn't a joke.

Most of the "made a joke about death the literal day they died" examples can count as actor mortality is negated if the joke is related to the means of death, like joking that "this race is a great way to go out" right before you die in said race, or joking you'll be dead in five years when you kill yourself exactly five years later.

The only examples I think can't fit anything are the first two. For the first one, the rapist was the person who was tackled, not the tackler, which softens the comparison, and they were acquitted. The second one just feels like a stretch. I'm also unsure about the Subway referee one.

Subway/referee example would only be valid if the #85 was a deliberate reference to Hochuli, and I don't think it was.

The name change announcement was initially presented as if they were going to replace Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head with a single, non-binary Potato Head. But that's not what actually happened.

This is on Avengers: Endgame:

• Harsher in Hindsight: It is noted at one point that the Snap was a great tragedy, but the ecology does seem to be recovering. A year later, wildlife in quite a few places started getting a break due to the COVID-19 Pandemic quarantines.
  • Rocket's near drowning experience along with Banner and Rhodes, when his model Oreo died shortly before this movie opened.

Is... is that an actor mortality shoehorn for an actual raccoon?

(Also we've cut that first one like 4 times already now...)

Can we put a note on the page about the "wildlife returning" example?

I think I already did? IIRC it was ruled to be valid because the comparison is specific in nature as opposed to general, and has been made by quite a few people across social media so it's not the usual shoehorn most examples. But the premise is a little faulty and so the wording needs to be careful (quarantine didn't make swans come back, just made the existing ones more visible), and also even if it's valid it may not fly by the currency rule, what with the pandemic still being ongoing.

Edited by AlleyOop on Mar 5th 2021 at 8:17:34 AM

Oh, speaking of pandemic examples, here's a nice shoehorn from Ninja Sex Party:

• Harsher in Hindsight: When Danny and Brian visit the future in "6969", they discover a world where touching other people has been completely outlawed. Turns out that future came a lot sooner than they thought; four years after the song's release, social distancing from others became, while not an absolute law in most places, strongly encouraged (though it came as the result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic rather than a dystopian ruler banning anything remotely related to sex).

Edited by mightymewtron on Mar 5th 2021 at 8:16:39 AM

From Coming to America

• "Funny Aneurysm" Moment: In this movie, Eddie Murphy plays an African prince who goes to America to find love. In his earlier standup special "Eddie Murphy: Raw", he does a whole bit about going to Africa to find love. Compare both to what really happened. Not only not hindsight, what's the context? What happened?
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Akeem talking about the New York Giants defeating the Green Bay Packers with a field goal kick, which would happen in the 2007-08 playoffs. Also a "Funny Aneurysm" Moment for Packers fans. I don't think a football team beating another is really worth mentioning
  • For this or "Funny Aneurysm" Moment, James Earl Jones as King Joffer walking around with a massive lion skin stole. At least he died of natural causes. Oh wait.... Actor garbage
    • In The Lion King, Mufasa's servant Zazu humorously suggests that his brother Scar "would make a very handsome throw rug". Is that an Actor Allusion or not?
  • A fast food restaurant obviously ripping off McDonald's, barely staying out of legal trouble with the real deal? It was McDowells in this 1988 film, and MaDonal in the real world's Kurdistan in the following decade. The founder wanted to bring a real McDonalds to Kurdistan, but was refused a franchise. What?
    • Ripping off McDonald's to the point that the franchisee of a McDonald's a half mile down the road came with his lawyer to threaten the set crew with a lawsuit.^note Hilariously, the filmmakers had actually gone to McDonald's Corporate beforehand and got permission to do all of it. Uh...
  • Speaking of McDowells, Samuel L. Jackson's sole scene in the movie has him unsuccessfully rob a food establishment; in one of his most famous roles, he thwarts the robbery of a restaurant. Actor garbage
  • Akeem's arranged Queen-to-be was Imani Izzi. In 2016, Eddie Murphy had a daughter named Izzy. Too weak a connection?
  • Related to The Lion King (1994), James Earl Jones and Madge Sinclair as the king and queen in Africa. Again with the actor garbage

that's an easy cut

As with , you can cut all of them. The second too.

Edited by callmeamuffin on Mar 6th 2021 at 8:13:38 PM

From The Three Stooges

• "Funny Aneurysm" Moment:
  • Bedlam in Paradise, where Shemp has a nightmare that he dies and comes back as a ghost, was released just a few months before Shemp died in real life. Even more upsetting is that this was a re-release of their earlier film, Heavenly Daze with some new scenes added in; Daze starts out with Shemp already in Heaven, but Bedlam includes a scene that actually shows his character's death. (Actor mortality)
  • Worse in that regard was For Crimin’ Out Loud, which was hit with this before release. Simply put, this was a posthumous Shemp film, and the last with original footage of Shemp, and the “Remind me to kill you later” gag variation, where the usual response is “I’ll make a note of it”, has Shemp say, “I won’t have time later.” (More actor mortality)
  • Remember the Stooges' blatant disregard of gun safety in the shorts? In reality, Curly Howard accidentally shot himself in the ankle at age 13 while toying with a rifle. The injury was never properly treated, and caused him pain for the rest of his life. In some shorts where his bare legs are shown, one calf is noticeably thinner than the other. (Not really hindsight)
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • The moment in "Nutty But Nice" where Curly says "What'll the world do without me?", soon mirrors him being replaced by his older brother Shemp seven years later. Curly being replaced was one complaint for fans that enjoyed the original shorts. (Stretch)
    • His death in 1952 could also count. (Mortality)
  • In "Oil's Well That Ends Well", Moe breaks the fourth wall and says to the audience, "I hate him!" referring to then-Stooge Joe Besser for laughs. Years later, during an interview, Moe revealed that he hated working with Joe, and wasn't the least bit charitable with his comments. (Stretch)
  • The short Heavenly Daze where Shemp dies and goes to heaven, particularly the parts where we see Moe and Larry mourn for him, is harsher in hindsight since Shemp would die for real in only a few short years. (Mortality)
  • The angry husband/drill sergeant from Boobs in Arms frequently laments his terrible luck with a frustrated "Everything happens to me!" His actor, Richard Fiske, was later drafted into service and sadly killed in action during World War II. (Don't know about this.)
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • When Curly was forced to retire, producer-director Jules White attempted to recruit Joe De Rita to take his place. Joe refused, however, because he believed that being associated with a low-class act like the Stooges would kill his career. Yes, this is the same man who would later happily accept a chance to become "Curly-Joe". (Possibly too meta)
  • In the short "Men in Black", a deranged hospital patient (played by Billy Gilbert) claims to see "great, big, giant, green CANARIES!" . About two decades later, "Cuckoo on a Choo-Choo" is released and guess what a hallucinating Shemp is in love with? (Not enough context)
  • The short "What's the Matador?" has the trio put on a comedy bullfight down in Mexico. The crowd goes wild for them, which is apropos given the Stooges' popularity among Spanish-speaking audiences (see Germans Love David Hasselhoff above). (Stretch)
  • "Pardon My Backfire" has the line "I am going to kill you to death!" (Fan Myopia ZCE)
  • One short dealing with Those Wacky Nazis had Moe dress up as Hitler and order the Nazi guard to shoot themselves in the head for their failure. Looks like the real Hitler ended up taking his own advice years later. (So suicide is hilarious now?)
    • Moe was apparently such a good Hitler imitator that years later, the infamous History Channel series Hunting Hitler was fooled into thinking that a picture of an elderly Moe Howard was actually Hitler himself. (Okay, this could be valid.)
  • "A Pain in the Pullman" has Moe questioning about Curly having nightmares, with Curly saying it was in technicolor. Come 2004, a variety of the Stooges' shorts would be colorized on DVD. (This might also be valid.)
  • Overlapping with Harsher in Hindsight, depending on your viewpoint; Playing to an empty stadium was just another joke in Three Little Pigskins, before becoming a global reality in wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic. (COVID shoehorn)

So, do I nuke the bad ones here?

This is on HilariousInHindsight.The Nostalgia Critic:

• In his review for Space Jam, he rants about how the film presents Lola Bunny as a "sex symbol", with one complaint in particular addressing her "bunny boobies". He severely underestimated how popular Lola was in (and even outside) the Furry Fandom: when the sequel to Space Jam was announced many years later, one of the most prominent complaints was about how Lola was redesigned to be Tamer and Chaster, including removing the aforementioned "bunny boobies".

I think the removal of her breasts alone could make the review joke Hilarious in Hindsight, but the implication that everybody disliked the change is inaccurate. Most people I saw didn't care or were glad they were averting Non-Mammal Mammaries.

Edited by mightymewtron on Mar 6th 2021 at 12:54:10 PM