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
Found these on Tangled: The Series:
- This is not the first time Clancy Brown has voiced a leader of a kingdom with a (somewhat) rebellious daughter, as he had voiced Baron Praxis in Jak II: Renegade. However, unlike King Frederic, Praxis had overthrown the monarchy and exiled its real king Damas, and has a terrible relationship with his daughter Ashelin. Seems like a "similar characters" shoehorn. Plus, even if it were valid, wouldn't it go on J2R's YMMV page?
- In Supergirl, Winn, played by Jeremy Jordan, also an Adorkable genius, feared that having the genes of his crazed mechanical genius supervillain father would one day cause him to go insane and become just like his father. In this series he voices Varian, another character with Daddy Issues, and he ends up becoming exactly what Winn feared he could become. Except here, his father isn't evil. Tangential similarities.
- This isn't the first time Jeremy Jordan has played a character who does a Face–Heel Turn and sings a song about justice. Too generic.
- The moonstone and its container looks very similar to the Eye of Sin in SHAZAM! (2019), starring Zachery Levi (who voices Eugene in the series), another Artifact of Doom found in a dark cave that merges with a character corrupted by their desire for power. For reference, the Eye of Sin looks like this. The moonstone looks like this. They look kinda similar, but even I think that's a stretch for this trope, since dark mystical objects in various media are kind of expected to look similar.
- The show being a sequel to Tangled that expands the film's lore, specifically giving more background to Rapunzel's magic as well as revealing there's other related magic, is also something that Frozen II does with Elsa's magic. "Similar premises" shoehorn.
- The reveal that Cassandra is Gothel's daughter, given that Descendants extended media also claims that Gothel has a daughter, Ginny Gothel. Maybe valid, but then again, I don't really see what's so hilarious. Is it just two Disney canons clashing?
- Eugene's real name and title is Prince Horace. Sounds like Fan Myopia.
- Red keeping her status as a werewolf is a similar resolution to an episode of Summer Camp Island. Same as above.
- "The King And Queen of Hearts" is not the first time Julie Bowen's character has dealt with a monster who turned out to be a mother. Marginally better than the other actor examples, but my gut still tells me it's a shoehorn. Thoughts?
- "Pascal's Dragon" isn't Rapunzel's only run-in with dragons. She also rode one when meeting Sofia and Amber. Feels like actor garbage (admittedly a term I dislike using) like the other ones listed here.
- This is not a first time where there is an orphan named Red, who talks and interacts with thieves and later becomes a member of Nobility thanks to a friend in high places. Also via create-a-soul, characters from this show can be recreated but with weapons. And also a character named Cassandra who becomes evil thanks to an influence of evil. Surprisingly Similar Characters, maybe? But if Create-A-Soul is what I think it is, couldn't characters from various other shows also be created in the same way? And "character becomes evil due to evil influence" is just way too broad a similarity, even if the names match.
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
I complained constantly about this a long time ago, but they never acknowledged it in any way, so I've kind of given up.
A lot of the examples posted don't even have anything really wrong with them in my estimation. It's not our jobs to do the vetting for you.
Now a lurker. Thanks for everything. | he/him
Agreed. The troper in question keeps coming to the X Killer cleanup and doing this too, I've been vetting examples myself for a while but really Anddrix you should be doing it yourself.
kiby :]
Agreed. It's alright once in a while, but you can't just keep posting contextless walls of text and expect us to figure it out ourselves.
(Don't) take me home.
From American Dad:
- The season five finale "The Great Space Roaster" was about the family doing a roast on Roger for his birthday (with unexpected results). Seth MacFarlane (the voice of Stan and Roger) became the roast master for the Comedy Central roasts of David Hasselhoff, Donald Trump, and Charlie Sheen. This is just Seth doing his job as a comedian. I don't see enough of a connection here.
- From that same episode, Steve roasts Francine by saying she's so dumb that he has to tell "my momma" jokes instead of "yo mamma" jokes. Y'know who else tells inverted "your mom" jokes?note I have no idea what this one is even talking about
- The b-plot from "American Stepdad" becomes this with the announcement of an actual Fast and Furious 7. ZCE. Even then, a Cash-Cow Franchise getting another sequel is hardly a surprising event
- Bullock and Stan going on a "hunting" trip in "Bullocks to Stan" is made amusingly ironic after Patrick Stewart voiced the Great Prince of the Forest a year later. Run even further in a later episode "Buck, Wild" where the CIA push Steve to shoot a deer, complete with a Bambi parody. Massive shoehorn about Patrick Stewart's career
- "May The Best Stan Win" features a futuristic cyborg Stan playing the band Perfume for Francine, stating that "Japanese funk" is popular in his time. Fast forward a few years later in real life: Perfume is now quite popular in the West, but their fanbase is nothing compared to the ones for K-Pop. Shoehorn; describes two different music styles originating from separate Asian countries
- In "Daddy Queerest," a drunken Stan mistakes Nelson Mandela for Morgan Freeman. It is somewhat funny due to Mandela's and Freeman's similarities in appearance, but it really becomes Hilarious in Hindsight when you realize that the episode came on seven months before the release of the movie Invictus, who — surprise! — had Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela.
- A throwaway line in the season 6 finale "Gorillas in the Mist" joked that Francine fakes her orgasms. The season nine Halloween Episode "Poltergasm" revealed that, yes, Francine faked her orgasms — to the point that it manifests itself into a sex-starved demon that possesses the house.
- The b-plot from "Morning Momosa" has Stan thinking that he can make people "gone" with just the snap of his fingers. This was before Avengers: Infinity War notoriously took that idea to a more literal extreme.
- In "A Smith In Hand," Steve and Stan create Clean TV, a broadcast consisting of squeaky-clean and completely factually wrong fundamentalist Christian teachings, as an alternative to regular, "impure" TV. Half a decade later was the similarly-named Pure Flix, a fundamentalist Christian alternative to Netflix infamous for their many, many movies which use baseless information to allegedly promote fundamentalist Christian values.
Edited by TantaMonty on Jul 15th 2021 at 10:13:08 AM
For the examples you did not evaluate: The first one seems like a keep. The other three can be cut; the second and third use common ideas (e.g. "faking orgasms" was also a The Naked Gun joke; the "make people disappear" with a gesture is pretty common as well. Unless Stan uses a special glove or gauntlet, that is.)
The fourth is not only common, but includes complaining, which is not allowed on this wiki.
(Edit) And I believe the first five can be cut for the reasons you gave.
Edited by Coolnut on Jul 15th 2021 at 6:28:16 AM
From FunnyAneurysmMoment.Marvel Cinematic Universe:
- Avengers: Infinity War:
- Tony's line to Eboy Maw "Get lost Squidward!" is a little harder to sit through after SpongeBob SquarePants creator, Stephen Hillenburg died a couple of months after the film opened.
This seems like a tenuous connection at best.
Edited by costanton11 on Jul 15th 2021 at 6:22:59 AM
Angry babby
Do they consider that an insult to Hillenburg? Cuz it's not. At all. And SpongeBob's reputation obviously survived Hillenburg so it's not like all references to the show are tainted.
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.
That's a textbook creator death shoehorn.
It's uncanny how many examples are "X happened a few weeks/months after/before Y happened". I guess I don't fault people for have kneejerk emotional reactions, but they make those "coincidental date" entries seem like valid examples by comparison.
Angry babby
I still think we could use a new draft to cover these "coincidental/unfortunate timing" entries but I worry it'd attract more shoehorns of its own.
I mean, any trope where that "example" just there would be valid sounds like a trope that's too dumb to have.
Regarding the YMMV.Moulin Rouge examples listed in this post, in order:
- Those just seem like intentional ShoutOuts.
- Is that a deliberate reference to MR? I'm not sure how popular Moulin Rouge is TBH, so without knowing Metal Gear Solid it's hard to know whether those two words being mentioned is a Shout-Out. But even if it wasn't, "Diamond Dogs" kind of just feels like too generic a name to be Hilarious in Hindsight.
- Not sure. It's a noteworthy similarity, but I don't know if it's noteworthy enough to merit being listed here.
- Minor similarities in an actor's roles.
- Where's the hindsight? Is this just saying Ewan's performance is similar to Richard's?
- "Same name and nothing else" shoehorn.
- Definite cut. "Character X in Work A has one similarity to Character Y in Work B" isn't tropeworthy.
From Pokémon Mystery Dungeon:
- Hilarious in Hindsight: The Koffing-Skuntank-Zubat trio from Explorers is referred to as Team Skull, a name that would later be used for the street gang from Pokémon Sun and Moon. Gladion, who serves as the enforcer for Sun and Moon's Team Skull, has a battle theme whose beginning sounds extremely similar to that of "Runaway, Fugitives" from Rescue Team.
This one is a bit confusing, but let's see if I got this right: Games 1 and 2 have two teams with the same generic name. Games 2 and 3 have two songs with similar beginnings. If that's it, I'd say the connection is nonsensical. Cut?
Edited by TantaMonty on Jul 16th 2021 at 6:38:15 AM
"The beginning of a song from Game A sounds similar to the beginning of a song from Game B" is too much of a stretch. Both villain teams having the same name is probably just a coincidence. Both examples can be cut.
Also, there's this on Purr Tenders:
- Hilarious in Hindsight: It seems very strange in this era where cats rule the Internet that they'd have to disguise themselves in order to be loved.
Not sure what to make of this.
Thanks, made the cut.
As for the example you've brought up, I'd say the idea of cats disguising themselves is strange period. The popularity of kitty videos in modern days is irrelevant considering that cats have been one of the most popular house pets for millennia. It's an easy cut for me.
Edited by TantaMonty on Jul 16th 2021 at 7:29:29 AM
@ Tangled stuff (so it doesn't get unanswered when this thread hits a new post — sooner or later it's gonna happen!) - Just cut them, cite this thread.
Anyway, more shoehorns from people who hate certain celebrities:
- Harsher in Hindsight: Any scene with Paul and Chenault becomes this in light of Amber Heard accusing Johnny Depp of abuse only for the accusations to be proven false when audio tapes came out that confirmed that Amber was the one abusing Johnny. — Just because two characters played by Depp and Heard shared screentime? That's it? Shoehorn.
- Harsher in Hindsight: Zach's death is hard enough to watch already knowing it was based on a real incident, but it became even more tragic with the news of his actor Anton Yelchin dying relatively young (and in such a cruel way) in 2016. - Another "XYZ Actor Died" Shoehorn. I originally scrubbed a similar entry but it was re-added by a different person altogether...
- Martin Landau played Bela Lugosi, who played a popular fictional vampire. A couple of years later, his daughter Juliet Landau would play another popular fictional vampire. - His daughter isn't even in the film? How does that even apply?
- Juliet also appears in the film as Loretta King, who famously claimed to be allergic to all liquids. — I fail to see the hilarity of this "Hindsight" example.
- Ed and his ragtag crew having to flee from the cops before they're caught shooting their No Budget film on location without a permit. This is exactly how π was made — and, for that matter, The Room, which just adds a further layer of hilarity to the comparisons between Wood and Tommy Wiseau. — Another real-life comparison shoehorn
- Martin Landau played Bela Lugosi, who played a popular fictional vampire. A couple of years later, his daughter Juliet Landau would play another popular fictional vampire. - His daughter isn't even in the film? How does that even apply?
Edward Scissorhands — I'm just going to cram all three in one, because... well, just because. Read on. (Complain-y parts bolded for convenience. We could rewrite the trope entries, but a better option is to simply shred it)
- Harsher in Hindsight:
- Edward repeatedly being mistaken for hurting Kim and others, as well as being falsely accused of rape and the entire neighbourhood pretty much turning their backs on him (besides Kim and Peg), is this after Johnny Depp was accused of abusing his wife Amber Heard, which the public initially believed. Especially as it eventually turned out that Amber was the one abusing Johnny. Just like Edward, Johnny himself was falsely accused of something he didn't do.
- Joyce kicking her own dog in a literal Kick the Dog moment becomes this after Johnny Depp and Amber Heard were arrested for illegally smuggling their dogs in Australia. To make matters worse, not only did Johnny took most of the blame but in the midst of evidence coming out that proved Amber was the one abusing Johnny, evidence also came out that it was in fact Amber's idea to smuggle the dogs in Australia which was something Johnny didn't want to do and was ultimately forced to do so. It's safe to say that Joyce is pretty much Amber in a nutshell.
- Heartwarming in Hindsight: Edward and Kim's romance becomes this when you know that Johnny Depp and Winona Ryder were an item for some time. Even after their split, Ryder spoke fondly of him and came to his defense in 2020 during his Domestic Abuse trial and remain close friends. — I'm betting fifty bucks all three entries above come from the same troper, probably someone with a beef against Amber Heard. I know she's NOT the internet's favourite celebrity right now, but come on!
...anyway, that's all for today, permission to cut as necessary?
In the case of The Rum Diary, if I recall correctly, Depp and Heard met while making that film. Doesn't really mean it's not misuse...
Edited by fragglelover on Jul 17th 2021 at 7:57:20 AM
Angry babby
I may give leeway to Hindsight examples if Amber and Johnny play dysfunctional couples, but we really should not be definitively saying one party is the only abuser and the other person is lying about it. It's an extremely heated topic even compared to other abuse scandals, and the only definitive fact is that they were both in a toxic relationship.
Edited by mightymewtron on Jul 17th 2021 at 8:59:58 AM
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.
Angry babby
The Martian, focusing on the film section:
- Hilarious in Hindsight:
- Sebastian Stan and Kate Mara's characters getting married in the ending becomes this knowing that they have played characters with the same surname before: Bucky and Zoe Barnes. With the help of a third, namely Troy. And all three of those roles are their respective actors' most well-known.
- Plus, we're seeing Bucky Barnes and Sue Storm together.
- Did anyone notice that Luis was part of the crew too?
- There's also the fact that Mark references Iron Man when he and his team are figuring out how to get him back on the ship. Although he wouldn't meet Tony Stark, Matt Damon would later make his MCU debut where he would play as an actor for Loki in Thor: Ragnarok.
- Not only that, but Murph actually rescues Dr. Mann in this film.
- Then Vincent and Bruce went on to become sorcerers.
- In the Japanese dub of the film, Watney is voiced by Nobutoshi Canna, who previously voiced Basara Nekki, a rock singer who wants everyone in the space to listen to his songs. In this film, he voices an astronaut stranded in Mars having to listen other people's songs, and that music turns to be disco, of all things.
- In addition to this, he also plays Lancer, a legendary hero who was notorious for being killed in all his routes, eventually turning it around to become the most notoriously unkillable Servant in the Fate Series.
- During the Ares 3 farewell segment, it's implied that the Chicago Cubs still haven't won the World Series as of 2035. If only the filmmakers waited another year...
I'd cut everything except the Chicago Cubs bit and maybe the Iron Man one and possibly the first entry with the surname, but the majority of this is just mislabeled Retroactive Recognition at best.
Edited by mightymewtron on Jul 17th 2021 at 6:23:45 AM
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.
The Barnes thing can probably be moved to Memetic Mutation as I remember a lot of jokes of that nature back then. Agreed with keeping the Iron Man and Cubs jokes but the rest falls safely into actor garbage.
Edited by AlleyOop on Jul 17th 2021 at 7:54:21 AM
Berserk Button: misusing Nightmare Fuel
From YMMV.Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure Steel Ball Run, under Hilarious in Hindsight:
- Diego is introduced as a Determinator who isn't necessarily evil in his endeavors, but will stop at nothing to achieve them, and can still show some sympathy and regret. Later, the story is Hijacked by Ganon with an Alternate Universe Diego, hellbent on world domination. ...Where do these two characters sound familiar?
This sounds like a huge stretch of an example.
Was just about to post that. It sounds like the kind of misuse that Surprisingly-Similar Stories invtes.
Star Trek The Next Generation S 6 E 21 Rightful Heir
Posted just recently, even though the episode in question came out from the 90s. And the sole example is a Covid-19 shoehorn. Cutlist?
Edited by mightymewtron on Jul 14th 2021 at 1:38:29 PM
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.