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
(x2) Yeah, I feel you can cut that.
Besides the bad indentation, I feel that's a shoehorn. I don't feel "Seinfeld" Is Unfunny fits either, to be honest.
A Harsher in Hindsight on Fire Emblem: Three Houses
- Kostas is the first fully named character to die in the game (aside from Nemesis, but that was in a flashback). In January 2021, his voice actor Brad Venable was the first actor in the Three Houses cast to pass away.
This seems like shoehorning, can I cut it?
"We'll meet again" | 🏳️⚧️The fact they're both the first to pass away makes it slightly less of a shoehorn but IDK.
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.From YMMV.The Ultimate Showdown Of Ultimate Destiny:
- Harsher in Hindsight: Aaron Carter's tragic death in November 2022 makes his demise in this song a lot less comedic.
Another mortality example where the circumstances were different.
I found this on Family Guy S1 E1: "Death Has a Shadow":
- Harsher in Hindsight: Peter commenting on The Brady Bunch living in a drug-infested neighborhood, but a second later he mentions that Jemima's Witnesses are the only bad thing the Spooner Street neighborhood has after Aunt Jemima herself shows up at their window. In 2021, Quaker Oats retired the name Aunt Jemima and instead changed it to Pearl Milling Company after being criticized as a racial stereotype for African-American women.
Edited by MisterToodleoo on Nov 7th 2022 at 8:37:34 AM
YMMV.Code Geass has Harsher in Hindsight internally split by Real Life and Canon examples. I doubt that's normal.
TroperWall / WikiMagic Cleanup
I agree; I think this is the first time I've seen in which any trope has done that.
I removed this on ComicBook.Radioactive Man for being on the main work page:
- Hilarious in Hindsight: One issue featured a Deconstructive Parody of Spider-Man, His outcast characterization was taken Up To Eleven to the point of being a misanthrope, his aunt and uncle were Abusive Parents and he ended up becoming a giant spider-like Humanoid Abomination. Several years later Marvel Comics would release ''Edge of Spider-Verse #4'' which basically follows this plot beat by beat, minus Radioactive Man.
If I ever decide to move this to a YMMV subpage with a few tweaks, is there anything salvageable?
Found this while editing the Nausea Fuel page on music:
- Skinless's original M.O. was to create this by taking Toilet Humor up to eleven.note Their defining example, "Tampon Lollipops", in which a night janitor goes around fishing used tampons out of the trash and eating them, became Harsher in Hindsight fifteen years later due to the Giovanna Plowman Incident.
I had to look up what the "Giovanna Plowman incident" was, assuming it was something music related. Instead, Plowman was apparently (spoilered out because this is legitimately disgusting, it involves menstruation) a teen girl who filmed herself eating her own used tampon. Since this example mentions it so casually as if it's common knowledge, and because it refers to a NSFW real-life incident, I feel like that can be removed. (The Hindsight part I mean, the rest of this is a valid example of the trope it's listed under)
While I guess it counts as Harsher in Hindsight, I don't think that part is necessary in this case, so I'd delete it.
This is on Batman: The Animated Series under Heartwarming in Hindsight:
- In The Man Who Killed Batman, Joker goes through an Antagonist in Mourning phase when he believes Batman has died and makes a tribute to Batman. In November 2022, following the death of Batman's voice actor, Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill, Joker's voice actor, posted a touching tribute regarding how he considered the man he worked with for thirty years like a brother and considered him to be a brilliant actor.
To be honest, I was expecting someone to bring that episode up under a Hindsight trope, but under a misused Harsher in Hindsight, not this.
By the way, does the actor mortality rule cover Heartwarming in Hindsight, or no?
I don't know about generally speaking, but that particular example strikes me as ridiculous because unlike Batman and the Joker there's absolutely no reason not to expect that Hamill and Conroy were friends (or at the very least got along). It might be heartwarming, but there's no "hindsight."
Edited by nrjxll on Nov 12th 2022 at 7:40:05 AM
Would this count as Hilarious in Hindsight for Frasier.
- When Lilith was going to get remarried, she mentioned they were going to get wed in Las Vegas. Niles laughed, believing she was doing it ironically. Though, it's because her future husband's parents live there. His comment becomes funny later on when he marries Daphne in a quickie Reno wedding.
Saw this on Dinosaur Train:
- Harsher in Hindsight:
- Everything about the Conductor’s relationship with the Pteranodon kids becomes this note after Claire Corlett wrote a letter on her Twitter revealing her difficult relationship with her parents and why she didn’t invite them to her wedding
, and the huge fallout on Twitter afterwards.
- Everything about the Conductor’s relationship with the Pteranodon kids becomes this note after Claire Corlett wrote a letter on her Twitter revealing her difficult relationship with her parents and why she didn’t invite them to her wedding
Is it too soon to add this? Is it appropriate for the page? You might want to keep an eye out on Johnny Test and Dragon Ball Z as well, as those are shows where Ian played..uh...less than perfect parents.
Sinners are TRASH / And they are A**HOLES

From Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius:
I'm pretty sure this is misuse, or at least belongs under "Seinfeld" Is Unfunny instead.