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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

Tomodachi Now a lurker. See you at the forums. Since: Aug, 2012 Relationship Status: Yes, I'm alone, but I'm alone and free
Now a lurker. See you at the forums.
#3326: Mar 30th 2021 at 7:51:30 AM

[up] Alright, let's see.

  • Keep.
  • Rewrite to add context. Weblinks are not examples.
  • Keep, I think. Actor mortality is tricky, but the entry is about "her funeral home".
  • Keep, but rewrite to make it clear is about Mad ceasing publications.
  • Keep.

To win, you need to adapt, and to adapt, you need to be able to laugh away all the restraints. Everything holding you back.
mightymewtron Word Up from New New York Since: Oct, 2012 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
Word Up
#3327: Mar 30th 2021 at 9:25:58 AM

I don't know about the Amy Winehouse one, unless she never had a real "full-house appearance" until her death, and/or the article predicted her means of death through alcohol poisoning (though I feel like a lot of other people predicted it as well).

Edited by mightymewtron on Mar 30th 2021 at 12:26:28 PM

I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.
Anddrix Since: Oct, 2014
#3328: Mar 30th 2021 at 5:43:18 PM

Bringing up the following examples from Hilarious in Hindsight:

ImperialMajestyXO Since: Nov, 2015
#3329: Mar 30th 2021 at 5:48:17 PM

[up] The first two I could go either way on, but the last is a definite keep in my book.

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!
#3330: Mar 30th 2021 at 7:34:13 PM

First two are technically ZCE.

2025: the year it all ends?
dsneybuf (Not-So-Newbie)
#3331: Mar 30th 2021 at 7:59:09 PM

The first references Disney owning both the Muppets and It's a Small World now, and the second references Star Wars ending the Luke/Leia romance by revealing them as brother and sister.

callmeamuffin Just getting into Utena... (he/they) from the kitchen (Troper Knight) Relationship Status: Thinkin' about you, muffin
Just getting into Utena... (he/they)
#3332: Mar 31st 2021 at 5:10:17 AM

Found this on YMMV.My Little Pony G 3:

Is it Fan Myopia?

Working on Sandbox.The Amazing Race TV Tropes Edition.
Delibirda from Splatsville Since: Sep, 2020 Relationship Status: I wanna be your dog
#3333: Mar 31st 2021 at 5:41:47 AM

Definetively.

"Listen up, Marina, because this is SUPER important. Whatever you do, don't eat th“ “DON'T EAT WHAT?! Your text box ran out of space!”
WoodKnapp94 Since: May, 2020
#3334: Mar 31st 2021 at 6:51:05 PM

YMMV.The Dick Van Dyke Show

  • "Funny Aneurysm" Moment:
    • In "My Husband Is Not a Drunk", Rob becomes a Hypno Fool, with a bell making him act like a falling-down drunk. In 1974, Dick Van Dyke publicly admitted to having had a serious drinking problem for the preceding 25 years.
    • In "The Sam Pomerantz Scandals", a comedian friend of Rob's does an impression of Jimmy Cagney as John F. Kennedy including the line: "You dirty rat! You're the guy that gave it to my brother, Bobby!" This, of course, was long before Bobby Kennedy was shot for real.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight:
    • In the episode "Brother, Can You Spare $2500?", a pawn shop owner suggests to Rob that a show about a pawn shop owner would be a hit. How right he would be.
    • In the episode "Go Tell the Birds and the Bees," Richie asks Rob whether a fox and a rabbit could fall in love. Rob says no, but come 2016 and lo and behold...
    • Rob is writing a children's story whose main characters are animals and asks Buddy and Sally for advice. Buddy suggests he make the book into a sexy magazine centerfold. "You mean a giraffe in black mesh stockings?" Sally asks. "What's the matter with that? It could be a whole series: Animal of the Month! 'Hey, Charlie, did you see the zebra this month? No stripes!'" Then the '60s audience laughs because this would be completely absurd. Oh, for those halcyon pre-internet days... (And right before this Buddy had suggested the book have "furry pages.")
    • In another episode, Rob is attending the reading of his great Uncle Hezekiah's will where he learns the old man's estate is worth more than a million dollars. His half-brother adds bitterly: "It could have been ten million if he had died a year earlier. I told him not to invest in 3D movies. One of us is going to get stuck with ten million pairs of cardboard eyeglasses."

I can already tell the "fox and rabbit" one needs to go, but I'm not sure on the rest.

fragglelover Since: Jun, 2012
#3335: Apr 1st 2021 at 12:04:56 PM

Found this on The Fairly OddParents!:

  • "Funny Aneurysm" Moment: In "Timmy TV", the creators of the titular Show Within a Show do not like Timmy's friends Chester and AJ and want to have them replaced by monkeys. Cut forward to the later seasons and you find that although they are not exactly replaced or underwent Chuck Cunningham Syndrome, looking for them is like playing a Where's Waldo game. Not helping is that the episode ended with Timmy giving a show to Denzel Crocker, who started appearing more frequently in the later seasons, but in contrast to the fairies' positive reactions to Crocker, the fanbase has mixed feelings about Crocker in the later seasons.

mightymewtron Word Up from New New York Since: Oct, 2012 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
Word Up
#3336: Apr 1st 2021 at 12:21:06 PM

[up] I know it's complainy, but the fact that Chester and A.J. are legit Out of Focus in later seasons does make that scene harsher and I think I've seen multiple remarks about that.

I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.
Delibirda from Splatsville Since: Sep, 2020 Relationship Status: I wanna be your dog
#3337: Apr 1st 2021 at 12:22:14 PM

[up]Yeah, really needs rewriting.

Edited by Delibirda on Apr 1st 2021 at 9:25:19 PM

"Listen up, Marina, because this is SUPER important. Whatever you do, don't eat th“ “DON'T EAT WHAT?! Your text box ran out of space!”
Shadow8411 Since: Jul, 2019
#3338: Apr 1st 2021 at 12:22:43 PM

[up][up][up]The part that boils down to "A character getting their own television show In-Universe becomes harder to watch after fans have complained about them getting too much screentime in later seasons" seems like shoehorned complaining.

Edited by Shadow8411 on Apr 1st 2021 at 12:28:22 PM

Tomodachi Now a lurker. See you at the forums. Since: Aug, 2012 Relationship Status: Yes, I'm alone, but I'm alone and free
Now a lurker. See you at the forums.
#3339: Apr 1st 2021 at 12:39:03 PM

The entry is correct. Chester and AJ were legitimately Demoted to Extra in later seasons, and Crocker became a Spolight Stealing Squad character. The entry should be rewritten to be less complainy.

  • In "Timmy TV", the creators of the titular Show Within a Show do not like Timmy's friends Chester and AJ and want to have them replaced by monkeys. Cut forward to the later seasons and they became Demoted to Extra.

Which season is this episode of, and which season Poof debuted? I'm aware Chester and Aj stopped appearing around Poof's introduction.

Edited by Tomodachi on Apr 1st 2021 at 12:41:15 PM

To win, you need to adapt, and to adapt, you need to be able to laugh away all the restraints. Everything holding you back.
chasemaddigan I'm Sad Frogerson. Since: Oct, 2011
I'm Sad Frogerson.
#3340: Apr 1st 2021 at 12:52:32 PM

[up] "Timmy TV" was a season 5 episode, while Poof was introduced at the beginning of season 6.

PPPSSC Since: Nov, 2009
#3341: Apr 1st 2021 at 2:00:18 PM

I would like some second opinions about these on YMMV.Goof Troop

  • Harsher in Hindsight: It's depressing to see Goofy and/or Pete enjoying their time with their respective families when you realize that each Canon Foreigner character from the series got Put on a Bus in the years following and have been completely absent from any new Disney media since 2004's Mickey’s Twice Upon a Christmas. Even though it's obviously because Disney was simply retiring the characters due to their waining popularity at the time, the fact that Max and PJ technically grew up in real time over the course of all of the spin-off material can read as a depressingly realistic depiction of a family slowly growing apart as the children outgrow their parents. Seems too meta
  • Hilarious in Hindsight:
    • In "UnReal Estate," a design flaw (read: they replaced the garage with a windmill) in the house that Pete and Goofy are fixing up causes it to fly. Not sure if it's specific enough to count
    • Rob Paulsen's character in "Queasy Rider" is suddenly terrified at the idea of Max being part of a local biker gang. About a year later...Same as previous, not sure if it's specific enough to count
    • In "Max-Imum Insecurity", Pete briefly mistakes PJ for Peg and grumbles about how his voice should hurry up and change already. While this is funny without hindsight since PJ isn't even a teenager yet, it's even funnier after the release of An Extremely Goofy Movie, where he is an adult and his voice still hasn't changed. I added this one, is it accurate?
    • Max's Rhetorical Question Blunder in "Slightly Dinghy" is funny to begin with because PJ's relationship with his father leaves much to be desired. After A Goofy Movie, it's funnier because Max also compares going on a fishing trip with his dad negatively to unpleasant things. I added this one, is it accurate?
    • In the game, when walking through a dark room, Goofy and Max have a small light around them (unless they pick up a candle)... almost like they're carrying a smartphone with a light turned on. Maybe?
    • Despite all the mean things Pete does to him, Goofy still considers Pete to be a close friend. In Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, this becomes a reality between the two, in which Pete was portrayed as a lovable trickster, rather than an abusive jerk. Not sure if these are connected

Edit: This is the Rhetorical Question Blunder example:

  • In "Slightly Dinghy", Max gets the bright idea to ask this question to try to convince PJ to ask Pete to take them fishing:
    Max: Aww, Peej, fishing with your dad! What could be more fun?
    PJ: Eating glass! You got any idea what fishing with him is like!?

Edited by PPPSSC on Apr 1st 2021 at 2:06:42 AM

RobertTYL Since: Oct, 2019 Relationship Status: Holding out for a hero
#3342: Apr 1st 2021 at 5:52:10 PM

The two examples that references Pixar's Up and Biker Mice are serious shoehorning. As is the smartphone example. All three of those can be scrubbed.

Don't really have any opinions about the rest

fragglelover Since: Jun, 2012
#3343: Apr 2nd 2021 at 8:10:19 AM

This is on HarsherInHindsight.Film:

Muppets Most Wanted: Constantine, an evil Russian frog, frames Kermit for a crime he committed and takes his place, sending him to prison. Matt Vogel, Constantine's performer, is also the new puppeteer for Kermit.

Tomodachi Now a lurker. See you at the forums. Since: Aug, 2012 Relationship Status: Yes, I'm alone, but I'm alone and free
Now a lurker. See you at the forums.
#3344: Apr 2nd 2021 at 8:22:08 AM

I don't get it.

To win, you need to adapt, and to adapt, you need to be able to laugh away all the restraints. Everything holding you back.
Delibirda from Splatsville Since: Sep, 2020 Relationship Status: I wanna be your dog
#3345: Apr 2nd 2021 at 8:37:45 AM

[up][up][up][up] & [up][up] If X makes Y from Z have one of these tropes, it is supposed to go on work X, not Z if you know what I mean.

"Listen up, Marina, because this is SUPER important. Whatever you do, don't eat th“ “DON'T EAT WHAT?! Your text box ran out of space!”
mightymewtron Word Up from New New York Since: Oct, 2012 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
Word Up
#3346: Apr 2nd 2021 at 12:18:49 PM

[up][up][up] I don't see how that's harsher. Hilarious in Hindsight, maybe.

Also, is Matt Vogel already Kermit's puppeteer in that film, or only afterwards? If the former, it's not hindsight at all.

Edited by mightymewtron on Apr 2nd 2021 at 3:19:06 PM

I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.
fragglelover Since: Jun, 2012
#3347: Apr 2nd 2021 at 12:43:28 PM

[up] He started performing Kermit in 2017, 3 years after Muppets Most Wanted was released.

PlasmaPower Piece of Cake. Since: Jan, 2015
Piece of Cake.
#3348: Apr 2nd 2021 at 12:54:32 PM

YMMV.Spider Man PS 4

  • Harsher in Hindsight:
    • In the mainstream comics, Otto has a crush on Aunt May, and even paid his respects when he found out she had passed away in a later story. In the game, he both releases the bio-weapon that infects May and refuses to give up the antidote, resulting in her death.
    • The death of Stan Lee in November 2018, coupled with the June 2018 death of co-creator (Steve Ditko) makes his cameo in the game poignant. Likewise, the fact that the game ends with Peter Parker losing Aunt May, his last remaining family, alongside the off-screen death of his co-creators, adds to the sense that Peter and Spider-Man is really an orphan in every sense.
    • Aunt May dying in the game's ending is this to the main comics series now that it's revealed that May has contracted cancer just months after the game's release in Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #1.
    • The entire "Pandemic in New York" plot point becomes a bit worse with the real world Coronavirus pandemic, a bit over 2 years after this game's release. As someone on Reddit pointed out, numerous "Stay indoors, avoid social gatherings" signs were adopted worldwide, around the time this post was made (Q1 2020) Most confirmed cases were in the US, most US cases were in New York State, and most of those cases being in New York City, where the game takes place.
      • Following this, May and June 2020, are civil unrest and multiple riots/protests in the US (Including New York City). Both in real life and in the game, they were against police brutality, silencing protestors, violation of constitutional rights, as well as a political leader who the people believed were facilitating it all. Ultimately serving to make the super contagious disease outbreak even worse.
      • It makes it all the more poignant when the game's being rereleased in 2020 with a remaster on PS5 that it features a pandemic from an airborne illness in NYC.
    • In the Turf Wars DLC, after Spider-Man damages the Harlem Sanctuary in pursuit of Hammerhead at the beginning of the DLC, Jameson goes on a rant about Spider-Man destroying a piece of New York history, despite acknowledging that the doctors there probably did commit atrocities against their patients, and says that New York should honor the more difficult parts of their history. This rant is already supposed to paint Jameson in an unfavorable light, but with the debate over historical figures that occurred after the killing of George Floyd, this can be more difficult to listen to or find funny.

Which of these should I give the nuke? There’s quite a lot of George Floyd and Corona in these examples.

Thomas fans needed! Come join me in the the show's cleanup thread!
MrMediaGuy2 Since: Jun, 2015
#3349: Apr 2nd 2021 at 4:28:17 PM

From YMMV.College Humor.

  • Harsher in Hindsight:
    • Their "Not Google Plus" video has everyone not joining Google Plus. Fast forward to November 2013, when a Google Plus account is mandatory for YouTube users. And then in 2018, Google Plus shut down due to low usership.
    • "Aladdin's Mistake" features Genie becoming suicidal after a wishing mishap causes his legs to become one hideously deformed pile of mass. Robin Williams, who voiced Genie in the original film, committed suicide in 2014 as a result of serious depression.
    • The sixth episode of Prank Wars has Amir planting a fake marriage proposal from Streeter to his girlfriend in the middle of a Major League baseball game. When Streeter's girlfriend accepts, Streeter has to inform her that he did no such thing, and the ensuing argument - and slap across Streeter's face - is broadcast to the entire stadium. Shortly afterward, the two of them broke up. Though they claimed it was for other reasons and that the break-up was amicable, it was impossible to completely detach it from the prank. This one got less harsh again in 2017 when Streeter and Amir admitted that they'd staged the prank war and that Streeter's girlfriend was in on the gag.
    • In the two-part North Korean propaganda parody video Kim Jong Un vs Kim Jong Il, Kim Jong Un's brother, Kim Jong-nam is revealed to be the mastermind behind a conspiracy to depose his brother and take over North Korea. However, he is defeated in the end. On February 17, 2017, Kim Jong-nam was killed in an alleged assassination, and people close to him have claimed Kim Jong Un to be the mastermind.
    • The message in Stop Saying "It Ruined My Childhood" (that reacting to movies and shows you grew up with being rebooted or changed in ways you don't like by claiming your childhood has been ruined when there are much worse things people have endured in their youth is ludicrously obtuse) loses some of its sincerity and comes off as hypocritical when you find out College Humor did an "honest" poster for Power Rangers (2017) calling it "Childhood Ruiners".
      • One of the complaining millennials in that video is Kelly Marie Tran, whose character in The Last Jedi gained a significant backlash to the point of her leaving social media.
    • In March 2017, they posted a video titled Don't Eat the Laundry Pods where someone gets curious about them and despite the dangers, ends up eating some in the end. Flash forward to late 2017 where teens and kids take a tide pod challenge, eating them despite the dangers. While before, toddlers would eat/attempt to eat them because they look like candy, teens and kids are eating them by choice.
      • They would end up addressing this in a video titled Tide CEO: You Gotta Stop Eating Tide Pods, in which the CEO of Procter and Gamble (not mentioned on screen for legal reasons) chastises the audience for eating Tide Pods, and then grows steadily more outraged at various products manufactured by the company for looking exactly like candy.
    • A video called CollegeHumor is Shutting Down (a clip from Dropout's series Kingpin Katie) became this in 2020, when it was announced that over 100 people, including the entire cast of CH Originals, would be laid off as College Humor had lost funding from their parent company.
    • Their "If Google Was a Guy: Quarantine Edition (part 3)" video ended on the punchline about the Mayan apocalypse (2012) possibly being off because the Mayans were dyslexic (implying it was supposed to be 2021). Less than a week later, pro-Trump protesters stormed the Capitol building, making that joke - especially with the questioner being a Tinfoil Hat-wearing Conspiracy Theorist - a fair bit less funny.

  • Hilarious in Hindsight

WoodKnapp94 Since: May, 2020
#3350: Apr 2nd 2021 at 5:27:47 PM

Oh boy... [up][up]

  • I don't know enough about the franchise to judge this one, but I'd assume it's valid
  • Actor mortality
  • The entry doesn't say whether or not she died in the comics
  • COVID shoehorn
    • Riots existed before 2020
    • Just a repeat of the original point
  • I'm assuming this is also a shoehorn.

[up]
Part 1

  • The reason Google Plus shut down is because everyone was not joining it. The only reason people used it at all is because it was forced on YouTube users when it was active.
  • Suicide shoehorn
  • The example outright says the prank didn't cause the break-up.
  • Possible shoehorn
  • I think the "honest" trailer might've been a joke; i.e., they didn't actually think it was a "childhood ruiner".
    • This is just "bad character exists".
  • Here we are four years later and nobody's eating Tide Pods anymore. The sub-bullet might be enough to save it, but
  • "Employees getting laid off" ≠ "Shutting down".
  • The world didn't end because people held a riot at the capitol.
Part 2
  • Actor garbage
  • Possibly valid
  • Don't know enough to judge
  • Don't know enough to judge
  • Actor garbage
  • I would like to pretend that movie never existed, please. Also, I'm pretty sure Ariel Winter wasn't even in it.
  • I would like to pretend that remake never existed, but it does sound kinda valid.
  • Can't tell if this actor garbage or not
  • Blatant Fan Myopia
  • I've never heard of Dogecoin before, so I don't know what to think of this.


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