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
No-lifer
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
The first one is about exploding aircraft, but not from destroying any towers. Think that's a cut.
Big Catch, Sparkle Edition
Wouldn't a blimp accident be closer to Hindenburg than 9/11, anyway?
Current Project: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
Very Spooky
This is on YMMV.Interstellar:
- Harsher in Hindsight: Dr Mann being slowly revealed as a villain - especially as he's implied to have been a Nice Guy who slowly went mad - eerily reflects a brief dip in the public opinion of his actor Matt Damon following a discussion he made regarding the fallout of the Hollywood sexual abuse scandal in 2017.
This connection seems too flimsy, and it connects to a controversial topic. It also says that there was only a "brief dip", not the end of an entire career.
Edited by jandn2014 on Jun 23rd 2020 at 10:04:52 AM
back lol
It's so mild as to not be a good representative of an opinion held by at least a significant portion of the collective audience, as opposed to a tiny handful of fans of which one happened to be an editor. So delete.
Edited by AlleyOop on Jun 23rd 2020 at 10:12:18 AM
This is on YMMV.Shrek Forever After under Hilarious in Hindsight:
- Coincidentally, Ice Age and Toy Story would each have their own fourth movies featured in 2.40:1 widescreen.
What. I don't even understand what that has to do with the movie.
Friends forevermore
An industry-standard aspect ratio doesn't make for a valid example... especially when none of these films were 2.40:1 in the first place!
Can we cut all the "aired days before/same day as" entries? They're always weak at best.
This was just added to JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Steel Ball Run:
- Hilarious in Hindsight: The Nest Goblin◊ from Serina looks a little like Tusk Act 1 with its huge head, beak, beady eyes, and long ears.
Seems like a blatant case of misuse and something that might've fit better under Surprisingly Similar Characters at that.
Big Catch, Sparkle Edition
Cut.
Current Project: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
A bit off-topic, but this could be said about basically everything that's brought up in this thread. I really don't get the mentality behind shoehorning the negative hindsight tropes in particular - at least Hilarious in Hindsight is usually just good old-fashioned Fan Myopia at work.
Big Catch, Sparkle Edition
Could it be that "I must make my favorite work seem as edgy as possible" mindset people have when it comes to Nightmare Fuel and Getting Crap Past the Radar?
Current Project: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
These are on The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie under Harsher in Hindsight:
- Plankton carries out his plan to destroy Mr. Krabs on March 14th, the same day news broke out about Stephen Hillenburg being diagnosed with ALS in 2017. Sadly, Hillenburg passed away of the ALS on November 26, 2018.
- Now just try to watch Sponge Bob and Patrick “dying” without shedding a tear, after Hillenburg’s passing from a relatively similar fate.
Very Spooky
What do either of those even mean? For the first one, there's a difference between "character trying to destroy another character" and "actual person being diagnosed with a disease", even if the date is a bit of a coincidence. And the second one makes no sense; Hillenburg didn't die from being dried up.
Edited by jandn2014 on Jun 24th 2020 at 2:45:39 PM
back lol
Industrious Incisors
A "relatively similar fate?" I'd like to know how whoever wrote that defines "similar". "Chihuahuas and giraffes are relatively similar! They're both four-legged mammals."
Edited by ShinyCottonCandy on Jun 24th 2020 at 2:45:14 PM
SoundCloud
Big Catch, Sparkle Edition
You see, they almost died. Hillenberg suffered a relatively similar fate which was actually dying. The only real connection you need here is that they died- and death is a pretty similar fate to death, is it not?
Yeah, that example's gotta go.
Current Project: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
I think we should just blanket ban all coincidental date entries. I highly doubt anyone actually correlates those, like those Sponge Bob examples.
Found this on Big City Greens:
- Harsher in Hindsight:
- Cricket realizes in "Cricket Versus" the "vicious critter" he needed to wrestle to pass the Green family Rite of Passage was Hidden in Plain Sight this whole time: it was Gramma. Fast-forward to "Reckoning Ball", Chip only used the Greens' forgiveness to sign the contract so he can become a Corrupt Corporate Executive in his retiring dad's place, so he can focus on running them out of town without his interference.
- Cricket catches a fever in "Cricket's Shoes" for sharing his popsicle with Phoenix, and often sneezes germs all over Bill's face. Flash forward a year and a half later, COVID-19 has broken out.
And this under Hilarious in Hindsight:
- Of course you can see the Green family has yellow skin like the Simpson family. Fast forward to 2019, the Simpsons would be the second Disney family to have yellow skin.
Industrious Incisors
The first one... Nope, it’s impossible. I can’t find the connection at all. Second one, easy COVID cut and third one seems to be a non-statement. Cut them all.
Big Catch, Sparkle Edition
Agree.
Very Spooky
Yeah, all of those can go.
back lol
Third time’s the charm.
Just when you thought Tropers would come to their senses, i found this in YMMV.Judge Dredd.
- A virus that spreads quickly with flu-like symptoms, causing mass panic, is tested for using a nasal swab, and had certain elements of society hampering the authorities' attempts to deal with the situation. Are we talking about the Chaos Bug or Covid-19?
It's been nuked.
On a related note, I was thinking of making a work page for a manga, Yuutsu Kun To Succubus San, but it has a COVID entry just waiting to happen that I'd rather nip in the bud sooner than later, in that one of the characters works in a bakery called "Pandemic".
Barring a YMMV Page I don't have any tropes in mind for yet, would it be worth putting in a commented out note on the main work page?
Wait until you can find at least 5-10 Tropes before making it.
Edited by jandn2014 on Jun 23rd 2020 at 2:58:23 PM
back lol