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 some COVID examples on YMMV.Spider Man PS 4, along with a Black Lives Matter entry that seems to veer into ROCEJ. Does the blanket ban on these kind of examples still apply?
- 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.
- 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
These are from Jet Set Radio:
- Harsher in Hindsight:
- The extreme levels of police brutality, such as through teargassing and military weapons, got a lot less fun and cartoony as these methods became more common and publicized.
- Professor K's line of "hijacking the airwaves and terrorizing you with tunes" wouldn't pass in a modern US release.
- The Golden Rhinos were heavily implied to be Arabian in Jet Grind Radio. In Jet Set Radio Future, they have fedoras and trenchcoats due to post-9/11 cultural sensitivities.
The first one is obvious misuse, but I can't tell what the other two are about.
1 is, as you said, obvious misuse.
2 is a "we can't talk about terrorism after 9/11" example. It could be valid, but I'm not sure because I don't know the context. (It's a common misconception that 9/11 was the first terrorist aircraft hijacking.)
3 is Distanced from Current Events, not Hindsight.
Edit: ![]()
There is a light at the end of the tunnel for "COVID exists" examples, but it's going to be until the middle of next year at the earliest before we can say it's over for anyone but the US and maybe the UK.
Edited by RallyBot2 on Aug 15th 2022 at 12:46:24 PM
Found these at Guilty Gear. Idk if they count as hindsight, so I’m bringing them here
- Harsher in Hindsight:
- In the first 2014 flashback in Xrd story mode, Frederick and Aria are chatting about being birds freely flying through the sky, after which Frederic jokingly suggests imagining becoming a roach, who has no natural predators, no concern for socio-political bullshit and is very hard to kill. Gears fit those criteria too well.
- Japan is destroyed in the backstory of GG (and by destroyed we mean it's a hole in the ocean). It wasn't clear exactly what had happened until Xrd, though, and the 2011 earthquake/tsunami/possible threat of nuclear meltdown and mass radiation poisoning events that hit Japan felt a little on the nose...
- In Xrd -SIGN-, Elphelt's antics in trying to get married to pretty much anyone is funny at first but becomes a little less funny when in Story mode when she explains that she is unable to feel love, despite being able to feel other emotions, implying this behavior is some sort of desperate way to find love and escape her fate as a Valentine.
- Daisuke's quote that "Fighting games are too simplified and should be more complex" ended up aging pretty badly with him now having seemingly done a 180 in this attitude with -Strive-.
- Hilarious in Hindsight:
- Before the release of XX and the official debut of Robo-Ky, there was some speculation about Ky being a Gear, based on how GG Mode in X altered his posture and voice to appear glitchy. Then Xrd came along, in which it's implied that he has become at least part-Gear after conceiving Sin...
- The original Guilty Gear beta for the PS1 was supposed to have utilized pre-rendered 3D models
for its characters before Team Neo Blood decided to go with hand-drawn sprites. Fast forward 16 years later, and Xrd was revealed to be a 2½D game that uses special techniques to make its character models simulate 2D hand-drawn art.
- In The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, the Champion Revali mocks Link by saying he "doesn't care for blonde-haired sacred knights with holy blades". Cut to several years later, where Revali's voice actor Sean Chiplock ended up becoming the new dub voice actor for Ky in -STRIVE-.
I don't think it's necessary since most of them say the same basic thing and they're all Hindsight examples and thus fall under this thread's jurisdiction.
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.Would this make a valid Hilarious in Hindsight entry for YMMV.Spaceballs?
- Yogurt shows off a talking doll of a smaller, "adorable" version of himself, apparently foreseeing "Baby Yoda" and his own blitz.
That sounds like a stretch to me. Spaceballs came out decades before The Mandalorian, which is too big of a time gap to "foresee" the Child.
...doesn't that make it more of an example, since it means it's definitely a funny coincidence? It's not literally claiming predictive programming.
Edited by mightymewtron on Aug 17th 2022 at 1:07:33 PM
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.So, a celebrity died, and then a couple of weeks later you can start mining for misuse...
YMMV.Psycho 1998 - Marion's brutal death in the wake of Anne Heche's (although she wasn't murdered, she suffered severe burns and was left brain dead following a horrible car crash that destroyed a house).
YMMV.John Q - The death of Anne Heche from a car crash, like the woman at the beginning of the movie, and being on life support while an organ is needed, like Michael was for most of the movie.
YMMV.I Know What You Did Last Summer - Anne Heche plays the sister of someone who died in a drunk driving accident (although it wasn't the driver who was drinking and it turns out he was murdered). She herself would be involved in a drunk driving accident on August 5, 2022, passing away only 7 days later.
All these sounds like XYZ died in movies from the 90s, before dying IRL two decades later. Cut?
Edited by RobertTYL on Aug 19th 2022 at 3:23:08 AM
Oh, so the Spaceballs example predicted that a really popular franchise will get adorable dolls for merchandise? No one would have seen that coming.
I think the Spaceballs example is a stretch. Merchandising and making characters more adorable for said merchandising has existed way before Baby Yoda.
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The second would only work if Anne Heche was the woman in the movie, and the third might count depending on how integral the drunk driving aspect is to her character.
Eh, I think Baby Yoda was such a huge phenomenon that is specifically tied to Star Wars that it counts. Other movies get "cutesy" merchandise but The Child pretty much became its own brand.
Edited by mightymewtron on Aug 18th 2022 at 3:54:04 PM
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.I'm inclined to think it doesn't count. Partly because with hindsight tropes if you even have to ask it usually doesn't. Mostly because it's a joke about merchandising with no direct connection to baby Yoda otherwise. If the joke had been a "Baby Yogurt" doll or something, I'd say go for it.
Here's the scene proper if it helps
Edited by sgamer82 on Aug 18th 2022 at 5:38:00 AM
When this thread is extremely strict and sometimes cuts examples that were even pointed out as funny/awkward coincidences offsite, that's kind of unfair to claim. People have to ask because the Hindsight thread has a very strict culture and even the most obvious examples might be put under scrutiny.
Looking in the comments of that very video you linked... people are saying it resonates even more now with the Disney era of Star Wars than it did back then (YMMV but people are saying this), and there are multiple "Baby Yoda / Baby Yogurt" jokes. I'm inclined to call it legit.
Edited by mightymewtron on Aug 18th 2022 at 1:16:13 PM
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.

Yeah, I read that and thought polio was the inspiration.
Ukrainian Red Cross