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Hindsight Cleanup

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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.

    Common NOT in Hindsight examples 
  • 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

ATricksterArtist Back from the grave. from CH 57 (Not-So-Newbie) Relationship Status: Faithful to 2D
AlleyOop Since: Oct, 2010
#3302: Mar 27th 2021 at 1:11:43 PM

Oh and TFATWS also has this entry, which doesn't even seem to make any sense?

WoodKnapp94 Since: May, 2020
#3303: Mar 27th 2021 at 3:07:11 PM

[up]My Name is Earl came out before Wanda Vision (and by extension, Falcon and the Winter Soldier). It's not hindsight.

Shadow8411 Since: Jul, 2019
#3304: Mar 27th 2021 at 3:58:19 PM

From TRON: Destiny:

Tron: Destiny is a Fan Film fake trailer for the (then rumored) Tron 3 movie. Would the movie being cancelled qualify as Harsher in Hindsight in this case?

fragglelover Since: Jun, 2012
#3305: Mar 27th 2021 at 4:15:28 PM

This is on Ducktales S 1 E 27 Horse Scents:

Hilarious in Hindsight: Milady the female horse kissing Scrooge in the face and making him feel awkward for this, when you remember that one of Alan Young's best remembered works was as a talking horse.

bwburke94 I am mad scientist! It's so cool! from 1.048596% (Y2: Electric Boogaloo) Relationship Status: She does the things you do, but she is an IBM
I am mad scientist! It's so cool!
#3306: Mar 27th 2021 at 6:14:41 PM

[up] In theory wrong way around, in practice it isn't even an example on the other side.

2025: the year it all ends?
Anddrix Since: Oct, 2014
#3307: Mar 27th 2021 at 8:37:12 PM

Reposting from the previous two pages:

Bringing up the following examples from Hilarious in Hindsight:

  • An episode of Saturday Night Fry (1988) included a sketch where Stephen Fry went on a night out in London. At one point he goes to the theatre: "I spent a thoroughly enjoyable time watching Simon Gray's The Common Pursuit. Half way through the interval, I realised I was supposed to be performing in it." This was eight years before he abandoned the West End production of Simon Gray's Cell Mates, something he's made jokes about since.
    • In the same radio show, he also said the word "iPhone". That's right. Stephen Fry claimed the iPhone.. in 1998. See here.
  • Early on in this podcast of a 4e D&D game, one of the players goes off on a tangent about a "Rat King", an urban legend about a monster rat that is formed when the population of rats is so dense that they fuse together. Guess what they run into later on in that session...
  • In the early 2000's, BBC Radio DJ's Mark Radcliffe and Marc 'Lard' Riley used to broadcast sketches featuring two naff club singers with the names Skel Nonch and Erk Dre who specialised in 'Cumbrian Tight-throated Singing'. One of the items of clothing the duo sported, a symbol of their terminal out-of-touch naffness, were trilby hats...
  • In August 2001, an episode of Old Harry's Game featured Satan showing Professor the truth behind his image of England. This included a cricket match which turned out to be fixed by the bookies. It was rebroadcast in September 2010, while this scandal about fixed cricket matches was still in the news.
  • In the first series of You'll Have Had Your Tea: The Doings of Hamish and Dougal, in 2002, reference is made to the "Red Hot Chili Pipers. When first broadcast, it was a simple pun on Red Hot Chili Peppers. Repeated later, it sounds like a reference to the actual Red Hot Chilli Pipers, who formed in 2004.
  • The fact that Martin Crieff of Cabin Pressure skipped reading the majority of literature in favor of Principles of Climatology for Pilots is much funnier now that his actor Benedict Cumberbatch is playing Sherlock Holmes.
  • Paul Hayes used to present mid-mornings on 96.6 TFM around mid-2003, and the station slogan was "The Best Variety of Hits". He presented 10am - 1pm weekdays and the occasional weekend show. Now that it's been announced he's joining Radio Aire, this is a lot funnier considering a decade later he'd be presenting on their sister station in Leeds with the exact same slogan. However, it's not the first time he's worked at Radio Aire; he covered Late 'n' Live Sunday - Thursday 10am - 1pm for a few weeks, but that's ignored by radio "geeks" and airbrushed from his CV by them.
  • In Liverpool, Merseyside there is Beacon Lane, Severn Street, Wye Street — which were around well before Beacon Radio was established in 1976, Severn Sound in 1980 and Wyvern FM in 1982. Coincidentally, all three stations could be heard in the same area in the West Midlands — and they were exactly Beacon, Severn and Wyvern (named from Wye and Severn rivers). So it looks like street-planners predicted commercial radio brand names...

Coolnut Since: Jan, 2001
#3308: Mar 28th 2021 at 8:24:14 AM

From Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey (my comments are in bold):


  • Hilarious in Hindsight:
    • How ironic that Jim Martin of Faith No More, "founder of the Faith No More Spiritual and Theological Center", quit Faith No More only two years after his appearance in Bogus Journey. Sounds like a keeper.
    • William Sadler plays Death in the second film and performs a Heel–Face Turn when Bill and Ted defeat him. A few years later in Demon Knight, he plays The Chosen One that battles the forces of Hell to stop them from conquering the universe. Shoehorn. Cut.
    • The name of Ted's future daughter: "Little Bill". Name-based. Cut.
    • This won't be the last time Ted meets the Devil. "Meeting the Devil" is a common trope. Cut.
    • The two Stations merging together is uncannily like Fusion from Steven Universe. No context and fusion creatures aren't completely unknown. Cut.
    • Little Bill and Little Ted were both portrayed by female babies. Face the Music reveals they actually are girls. Unsure. As we assumed the babies were male, keep?


Only the first one and last one appear to qualify. Questions or comments before I make the changes?

Edited by Coolnut on Mar 28th 2021 at 11:31:55 AM

RobertTYL Since: Oct, 2019 Relationship Status: Holding out for a hero
#3309: Mar 28th 2021 at 8:28:50 PM

^ Cut everything 'cept the first.

Found a couple more potential cuts for the action flick, The Delta Force:

  • Harsher in Hindsight:
    • Seeing Robert Forster during the final fight with Chuck Norris getting several punches to the face and even roundhouse kicked across the head is more wincing as Forster would later pass away in 2019 from brain cancer. — Implying that Chuck Norris kicking the character in the face is enough to give the actor brain cancer three decades later, amirite?
    • Speaking of, this film's Big Bad's portrayer Forster and the sequel's Big Bad's portrayer Billy Drago would both pass away in the same year of 2019.

It's an action movie. Bad guys in action films tend to die by the end. So... shoehorning?

Edited by RobertTYL on Mar 28th 2021 at 11:29:00 PM

Anddrix Since: Oct, 2014
#3310: Mar 29th 2021 at 1:57:45 AM

Bringing up the following examples from World War Z:

  • Harsher in Hindsight: A lot.
    • One of the diseases that Breckinridge Scott mentions as a typical "scare" in the US is Ebola, which would have a large outbreak less than a decade after the book was published, and which did cause a scare in the US that was very much disproportionate to the chances of anyone in the US getting it.
    • Another one from Breckenridge Scott is how he gets rich shilling a drug called Phalanx that allegedly vaccinated people against Solanum infection, with anecdotal cases of people recovering from zombie bites causing them to believe that it worked until the Great Panic started. Phalanx actually was effective as a vaccine against rabies, but the problem is, this wasn't rabies. This bit eerily foreshadowed the hype that surrounded chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine during the COVID-19 Pandemic in 2020. Chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine are, in fact, effective treatments against malaria, arthritis, and lupus, but during the start of the outbreak, they were hyped up as miracle drugs that would stop the coronavirus dead in its tracks, even though the evidence was anecdotal, the research was still in the preliminary stages, and they came with severe side effects that eventually caused many doctors to stop using them in favor of regular antivirals. And those drugs at least had some evidence behind them; other, shadier sellers promoted various All-Natural Snake Oil cures ranging from colloidal silver to essential oils to "Miracle Mineral Supplement" (which, far from a miracle cure for anything, is actually a toxic bleach solution).
    • It's stated in one chapter that the Ukrainian government relocated to Crimea during the war. How'd that work out, huh?
    • Max Brooks had an article in The Washington Post saying a bit about how the 2019 coronavirus outbreak spread wasn't very dissimilar to the Chinese government's cover-ups of their zombie infestation in the book. He had based the Chinese government's actions in the book off of their suppression of the SARS virus outbreak in their country in 2002.
    • Israel deserves a mention for the very opposite reason. In the book, its efforts to avoid the infection were a huge success, thanks to its well guarded borders. Once the airport is closed, the country is isolated and perfectly safe from any infection coming from outside its fences. For whatever reason, the government didn't exploit this advantage during the first ten months of the COVID-19 outbreak, and decided to take this action only on January 2021, for a limited period of time. In the meantime, the disease raged on, affected and unemployed hundreds of thousands of its citizens, and killed over fifty hundred. Not exactly what we'd call a huge success.
    • Likewise, this interview that Brooks gave with Alissa Wilkinson for Vox. Between the formatting and the specific snarky, cynical language he uses about America's lack of preparation for the outbreak, the interview feels like it could've been dropped into the early chapters of the book with only minor changes.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight:
    • Barack Obama is implied to be the "first choice" for Vice President of the bipartisan war-time U.S. government, but is passed over in favor of Howard Dean, who says that Obama was excluded because Americans wouldn't accept having two black men as America's most powerful figures (the President being Colin Powell). Two years later in the real world, Obama was elected President of the United States.
    • The soccer mom makes reference to her daughter being a fan of Jamie Lynn Spears, wearing soccer cleats with her brand on them. Just one year after the book came out, Spears' career was destroyed by her teen pregnancy scandal.
    • Paul Sorvino as Fernando Oliviera in the audio book, discussing organ transplants from infected donors.
    • Breckinridge ‘Breck’ Scott would come across as a darkly hilarious parody of the ‘pharma bro’ Martin Shkreli if you weren’t aware that the book was written almost a decade before the latter achieved national infamy by massively hiking the price of his company’s pharmaceuticals.

  • Harsher in Hindsight:
    • The Garbage Truck scene, It was filmed in George Square, Glasgow, only a year later in the same place, at Christmas, a man driving a garbage truck blacked out and plowed through a crowd of people, killing several.
    • In the film, vaccines made from deadly diseases enable humans to survive and fight against the zombies. In the years since the movie came out, there is increasing zealotry all over the world against vaccinations.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight:
    • Peter Capaldi had a small part in the film as the WHO doctor. Guess which famous role he was announced to be playing...
      • Apparently, the filmmakers already knew this, cast Capaldi because of it and credited him as "WHO Doctor" as an in-joke. In the script, Capaldi's character is called Dr. Kelley.
      • And just to add to the "coincidence", the character is based in Cardiff, where Doctor Who is filmed.
    • The U.S. president and vice-president are killed offscreen early on, and so it's the WHO and Gerry of the UN that possibly save the world (pending whatever happens in the sequel). Events of 2020 have made this look like a Take That! at America's politics.

bwburke94 I am mad scientist! It's so cool! from 1.048596% (Y2: Electric Boogaloo) Relationship Status: She does the things you do, but she is an IBM
I am mad scientist! It's so cool!
#3311: Mar 29th 2021 at 2:23:51 PM

[up] Capaldi's credit isn't hindsight, because he was credited as "WHO Doctor" by someone who already knew he was cast in Doctor Who.

2025: the year it all ends?
WoodKnapp94 Since: May, 2020
#3312: Mar 29th 2021 at 2:51:19 PM

[up]×5

  • I don't understand the connection here.
    • Doubt it. The link is dead
  • There should be a blanket ban on "guess what happens" examples that don't explain much beyond that.
  • There is no connection to be made here.
  • There should also be a blanket ban on examples involving news stories that everyone will forget about a week later.
  • Maybe
  • Actor garbage
  • I don't see a connection, but then again I know nothing about British radio stations. The last sentence invalidates the whole thing anyway.
  • It's entirely possible that the stations were named after the streets. Cut.

[up][up][up] Both of those look like actor mortality to me.

[up][up] Harsher:

  • I don't know about this one. I don't think Ebola really made it to the US, but it did cause a scare...
  • Wall of Text, COVID shoehorn and I'm pretty sure everyone's forgotten about hydroxychloroquine by now. Obvious cut.
  • How did that work out?
  • If the author says it counts, then it counts even though I don't think it should
  • Another negative COVID shoehorn
  • Maybe
Hilarious:
  • Not sure
  • How does a career getting ruined qualify as hilarious? Not that it matters, because it's a huge stretch otherwise.
  • Fan Myopia or actor garbage. Can't tell which
  • I'm assuming it's another news story everyone forgot about because I've never heard of Martin Shkreli before
Harsherer:
  • Yet another news story nobody remembers.
  • Assuming the movie has absolutely nothing to do with the anti-vax movement, nothing will be lost if you cut it.
Hilariouser:
  • [up]Exactly. Not hindsight.
  • ROCEJ violation, and a confusing one at that.

fragglelover Since: Jun, 2012
#3313: Mar 29th 2021 at 6:15:14 PM

These are on Diff'rent Strokes:

  • "Funny Aneurysm" Moment: ...
    • Gary Coleman died from a brain hemorrhage, which could be termed as a FAM. A brain hemorrhage is also a type of stroke, making the show's title a FAM as well.
    • The episode "Little Mother", where Kimberly's childhood friend learns she's pregnant involves a misunderstanding where the boys mistake Kimberly herself for pregnant. Several seasons later, Dana Plato was fired when the writers refused to incorporate her own pregnancy into the show.
    • The episode "Green Hair" had Kimberly upset over how acid rain had turned her hair green and said that if she couldn't get a hair appointment to fix it, she would do the next best thing: kill herself. Yikes...

mightymewtron Word Up from New New York Since: Oct, 2012 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
Word Up
#3314: Mar 29th 2021 at 6:29:34 PM

[up]

  • Coleman dying is actor mortality, but the connection to the title might count, though I think it's a little flimsy if other people haven't really made that joke.
  • I don't see how this is Harsher unless there's some conflict regarding Kimberly's judgment related to the judgment against the actress's real pregnancy.
  • Did Kimberly's actress kill herself? If so, I guess it could count, but it's a ZCE as it stands.

I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.
MrMediaGuy2 Since: Jun, 2015
#3315: Mar 29th 2021 at 8:12:51 PM

This was just added to The Far Side.

  • There's a cartoon where a children are hiding in their houses from the "vaccination man", who apparently drives around town in what looks like an ice cream truck looking for people to vaccinate. Once the COVID-19 Pandemic came along, the idea of people not wanting vaccinations and going out of their way to avoid them became a lot less humorous.

callmeamuffin Just getting into Utena... (he/they) from the kitchen (Troper Knight) Relationship Status: Thinkin' about you, muffin
Just getting into Utena... (he/they)
#3316: Mar 29th 2021 at 9:07:28 PM

[up] Poor grammar and COVID shoehorn. Easy cut.

Working on Sandbox.The Amazing Race TV Tropes Edition.
PacificGreen Since: Sep, 2014
#3317: Mar 29th 2021 at 9:34:04 PM

From YMMV.Planet 51

Think it's safe to say both can be eliminated; first is just "two works by different creators have similar premises", and second has a featured song as the only connection, with no other context.

PacificGreen Since: Sep, 2014
#3318: Mar 29th 2021 at 9:39:21 PM

Also, [up] x9

Both of those Delta Force entries are pretty bad, nuke 'em.

callmeamuffin Just getting into Utena... (he/they) from the kitchen (Troper Knight) Relationship Status: Thinkin' about you, muffin
Just getting into Utena... (he/they)
#3319: Mar 29th 2021 at 9:41:48 PM
AlleyOop Since: Oct, 2010
#3320: Mar 30th 2021 at 12:40:49 AM

From Xenoblade Chronicles X:

Iwata was not directly involved in X's creation. At best you could say that it came out the same year, a few months before Iwata's death, but even so this sounds like a shoehorn of anything involving a rainbow.

mightymewtron Word Up from New New York Since: Oct, 2012 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
Word Up
#3321: Mar 30th 2021 at 12:47:18 AM

[up][up][up][up] The first one can be moved to something like Older Than They Think.

Edited by mightymewtron on Mar 30th 2021 at 3:47:26 PM

I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.
Anddrix Since: Oct, 2014
#3322: Mar 30th 2021 at 4:31:44 AM

Bringing up the following example from Superman Smashes the Klan:

  • Harsher in Hindsight: The comic was already written in response to the growing visibility of racism and hate crimes during the Trump Era, but arguably became even more relevant as it came out at the start of the COVID-19 Pandemic, which caused a spike of Anti-Asian racism in particular due to racists blaming China for the spread of the virus.

HashiriyaR32 Since: Jan, 2001
#3323: Mar 30th 2021 at 5:23:03 AM

[up] Obvious COVID shoehorn is obvious, because anti-Asian racism has existed as far back as the mid 19th century.

Edited by HashiriyaR32 on Mar 30th 2021 at 9:51:25 AM

jandn2014 SMILE! from somewhere in Connecticut Since: Aug, 2017 Relationship Status: Hiding
SMILE!
#3324: Mar 30th 2021 at 5:26:14 AM

[up][up] That’s just using Harsher in Hindsight to shoehorn a Values Resonance entry in. Cut it.

Anddrix Since: Oct, 2014
#3325: Mar 30th 2021 at 5:32:23 AM

Bringing up the following examples from FunnyAneurysmMoment.Other Media:

  • The June 1993 Disney Adventures cover featured Michael Jackson carrying a delighted Pinocchio (his favorite Disney character, according to the magazine) on his shoulders. Two months later, Jackson was first accused of child molestation and in the years to come his Neverland Ranch would be compared to Pleasure Island, where young boys were free to play but had to pay a horrific price for their fun — including at his 2004-05 trial on a second set of charges. Similarly, all the "Pied Piper of Pop" accolades that flew around him in The '80s turned sour in the wake of the accusations, as people remembered what happened to the kids he enchanted. (A Cracked back cover in '93 spoofed this with Jackson as "The Pied Piper of Encino".)
  • Charb, cartoonist and editor in chief of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, published a drawing on January 7th, 2015 on the magazine's Twitter, titled "Still no terrorist attack in France", in which a terrorist said "[they] had until the end of January for the wishes." A few hours later...
  • MAD: In the "20 Dumbest People, Events, and Things" for 2008, Amy Winehouse's destructive behavior was listed at number 11. The end of the entry stated: "It makes us wonder if her next full-house appearance will be at a funeral home." About two-and-a-half years later, Winehouse was found dead in her London flat at age 27.
    • In 2019, the “Dumbest thing” of the year was the assumption that Mad would stop publishing new material completely after firing most of their staff. They insisted new issues would be a mix of first runs and reprints. Which was true...at a 20-80 split. And only for a few more months.
  • Nintendo Power's Player Pulse section in volume 72 (May 1995) featured a list of "Top 10 Crime Games". #10 was "Super Bomber Man 3: The World Trade Center". Let that sink in for a moment...


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