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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

SkyCat32 The Draftsman of Doom (Five Year Plan) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
The Draftsman of Doom
#6476: Mar 21st 2023 at 5:36:45 AM

bowserbros No longer active. from Elsewhere Since: May, 2014
No longer active.
#6477: Mar 21st 2023 at 8:43:28 AM

Not to sound pushy, but I still haven't gotten any proper feedback on what to do with this.

Be kind.
RacattackForce (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#6478: Mar 21st 2023 at 10:11:29 AM

[up][up] Sounds good to me.
[up] It feels like that can stay, so long as you specify that Western half of the fandom that's been making these jokes didn't learn the info about the Christian motifs being intentional until after the joke was popularized.

Edited by RacattackForce on Mar 21st 2023 at 1:34:36 PM

Dramatic Since: Jun, 2012
#6479: Mar 21st 2023 at 12:48:24 PM

From The Bullet Train:

Shoehorn due to completely different locations and motives between the two. I think 'bomb on a train' is way too broad to be hindsight anyway, but a quick check of Wikipedia gives me a train bombing in 1887, which confirms that this film didn't exactly invent the idea.

maxwellsilver Since: Sep, 2011
#6480: Mar 23rd 2023 at 1:23:26 AM

From Captain Planet and the Planeteers

  • Harsher in Hindsight:
    • Now that Neil Patrick Harris, whom the HIV-stricken teen Todd was played by, has come out as gay, it's pretty obvious why he did the role (the character he played was accused of contracting HIV from unprotected sex with his male friend, rather than a blood transfusion gone wrong), since, back then, homosexual men were discriminated against because of it. Speculating on why an actor chose a role doesn't seem okay
    • One episode is about rhino horns and how poaching might make them extinct. Watching it over 20 years later might make some people cringe knowing what happened to the western black rhino... Needs a rewrite, but sounds legitimate
    • If the Planeteer Alerts about pollution from cars had been taken more seriously, there probably wouldn't be this much smog over big cities today. Sounds too general
    • As of the OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes crossover, any time Wheeler bickers with the other Planeteers, since eventually the group broke up due to infighting and went to "find real jobs". Unsure. "Any time [X]" entries always feel a bit weak
    • In "Mind Pollution", Linka's cousin Boris gets hooked on a designer drug called "Bliss", and gets Linka hooked, too. A decade or so later, designer drug "Krokodil" had similar effects on actual Russians. Except worse. So does it effect other people or just Russians? I'm pretty sure it was based on a real drug
    • The episode about AIDS was very much an anvil that needed to be dropped at the time it was made. During the Turn of the Millennium and early parts of The New '10s? People laughed at it - because it just seemed so outlandish. However? As mentioned by Verminous Skumm, if the public is misinformed about a disease that makes it easier to spread. Listen to that line after the COVID-19 Pandemic happened... then realize just how much of it was happening in North America and Western Europe. COVID shoehorn
  • Heartwarming in Hindsight: The "If It's Doomsday, This Must Be Belfast" episode, which one segment dealt with Wheeler managing to talk down both the Catholics and Protestants from nuclear detonation along with getting them on a peaceful relationship, became more heartwarming 6 years later with 1998 Good Friday Agreement. Though tensions and terrors have occurred after that, especially at the tail end of the 1990s, the results have been overall very positive with the sectarian violence winding down and both Sinn Fein (Catholic) and Democratic Unionist Party (Protestant) peacefully sharing power in Northern Ireland parliament in 2013. Unsure
  • Hilarious in Hindsight:

Dramatic Since: Jun, 2012
#6481: Mar 23rd 2023 at 3:53:29 AM

[up] On the Neil Patrick Harris example, I agree that speculating about someone's motivations for taking a role in relation to their sexuality, especially when he did the role at a relatively young age (19), feels icky. On his Wikipedia page, it cites an anecdote about him having his coming out story during a 1997-1998 relationship which was a few years after the Captain Planet episode; I'm sure it's more complicated than that, but it's a good demonstration of how people's opinions on their own sexuality change, and why it's not great to go 'this actor is out and proud now, so they must've felt the same decades ago'. I think it's an easy cut.

The smog example is not only too broad, but also incorrect. Air pollution has legitimately improved since the 1990s.

The Northern Ireland example is still referring to an ongoing event. As of right now, the Northern Ireland Assembly is facing issues over power-sharing, so this example already feels outdated.

Those are my comments; the rest I agree with as written.

SharkToast Since: Mar, 2013
#6482: Mar 23rd 2023 at 6:09:10 PM

The Last Man on Earth:

  • Harsher in Hindsight: The show's infamous MacGuffin (a virus that wipes out most of the world's population) became this with the COVID-19 Pandemic. The timeline even aligns, as the show specifically takes place in 2020 — the year the pandemic took hold. Will Forte eventually spoke about how disturbed he was by the coincidence, though he also noted even the characters in his silly little comedy knew masks would have been a good idea.

This is technically a COVID shoehorn, but it is noteworthy that the timeline matches and the main actor acknowledged the similarities.

Edited by SharkToast on Mar 23rd 2023 at 6:09:28 AM

WhirlRX Since: Jan, 2015
#6483: Mar 23rd 2023 at 6:49:15 PM

[up]I think it fits honestly considering the date its set.

mightymewtron Word Up from New New York Since: Oct, 2012 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
Word Up
#6484: Mar 23rd 2023 at 8:00:50 PM

Agreed, 2020 is too specific a year, it works.

As for the NPH example, could it worked if reworded to be less speculative? Like if it focused on the Reality Subtext of a gay-coded character being shamed for having HIV, being played by an actor who would come out as gay? Or would that be Heartwarming in Hindsight since NPH eventually came out and had a family with his husband?

I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.
Ayumi-chan 3rd happiest man in Connecticut from Iacon City (Experienced Trainee) Relationship Status: I like big bots and I can not lie
3rd happiest man in Connecticut
#6485: Mar 24th 2023 at 4:41:44 AM

I've been cleaning up YMMV.Hypnosis Mic for a bit and I came across this:

She/Her | Currently cleaning: N/A
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!
#6486: Mar 24th 2023 at 4:43:41 AM

[up][up][up][up] You said it yourself. It's a Covid shoehorn, which should be removed on sight.

2025: the year it all ends?
PurpleEyedGuma Since: Apr, 2020
#6487: Mar 24th 2023 at 7:43:06 AM

[up] It’s about COVID, but it’s not really a shoehorn. Even the crew noticed.

PalacePosy from In a beautiful place out in the country Since: Feb, 2022 Relationship Status: Crazy Cat Lady
#6488: Mar 24th 2023 at 6:14:04 PM

From Cs188's YMMV page, because even Youtube Poop creators get hit with this.

  • From OPPA GODDAMN STYLE: "Korea's got a bomb, US could become a target". North Korea has threatened to launch a nuclear missile towards the United States multiple times (even performing multiple test launches) since 2013. Hasn't North Korea's nuclear program been a thing for longer than that? This video is from 2012, and I think it was an old punchline by then.
  • All the references to cjflo become this when you consider how much of a Jerkass she was to cs in one video. I had to see who that was (she's another YTP maker). I can't find this specific video where she's (allegedly) rude to him.
  • Pooping the Charts Vol. 7: Why Can't I Think Of A Title? makes fun of Justin Bieber's "Mistletoe" by rearranging the lyrics to proclaim he was "gonna get so high, eating toads." While he didn't do so eating toads, the news reports talking about him smoking marijuana were almost prophetic. This seems like a weak connection. Plenty of celebrities abuse drugs, and marijuana is pretty mild compared to others.
  • In the beginning of "Linkin Park Want Candy Bars Stuck In Their 'Divide'", Chester Bennington sings "Wish I could find a way to SHUT UP!". About seven years later, Bennington committed suicide out of grief from the death of his close friend Chris Cornell, who was also Driven to Suicide. But he doesn't die in the video.
  • He took the "No one needs foundation repair" and other HoH SiS videos off his channel because the company whose ads they pooped had filed a privacy complaint, and later on, one of them called up CS and said that they were still getting prank calls from his fans. Some time later after CS told fans to stop calling them, Home Savers went out of business. (Perhaps people were 100% unsatisfied with them having to do the JoJ all over again?) Might be more Why Fandom Can't Have Nice Things.
  • "At home, our top priority is burning our citizens" from Obama Sh!ts in the Gulf on National Television became this in light of the California wildfires since 2017. Maybe a stretch
  • One of his self-YTP videos features a joke about him saying "you have to go around and destroy all of the Jews" before the video is shut down by Youtube. Not long after, this happened to a certain Swedish Youtuber, who made an ill-advised anti-Semitic joke to the same effect and lost his ties to the company. Leaning towards valid. If I remember right, Pewdiepie's "joke" was having kids hold a sign saying "Death to all Jews", which is pretty close to the quote in the video.
  • In "THE PHONE THAT FOLDS ITSELF OUT OF EXISTENCE" has the Galaxy Fold constantly breaking all over the video. A week later came news that the folding mechanism had caused the screen to break and glitch out. Maybe? I feel like this phone was subject to snark from the moment it was announced.
  • His Kesha poops (made in 2010-2011) are full of jokes portraying the singer as a sex addict, something that can be hard to watch after it was revealed years later that she was sexually abused in real life by her producer Dr. Luke. This is valid, moreso than the other examples here.
  • Depending on when cs came up with it, the “wreck the helicopter” joke from "A MAN HAS FARTED INTO THE RIVER IN LEGO CITY" may fall under this given the video was released days after the tragic helicopter crash that killed NBA legend Kobe Bryant and his daughter, among others. Probably get rid of, if it came out AFTER the crash. The example even admits that he might have come up with the idea due to the crash.

The Kesha one I definitely feel is valid. I think the Pewdiepie one is too, but am less sure. The others, I want to cut. How do we all feel?

mightymewtron Word Up from New New York Since: Oct, 2012 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
Word Up
#6489: Mar 24th 2023 at 11:05:15 PM

The Bieber one feels more Hilarious in Hindsight depending on your views on him smoking weed (if he's discussed it as an actual problem he had then it might count). The Home Repair one shutting down might fit (I don't count it as "mortality" as a business isn't doomed to go out of business like people are doomed to die). Agree with pretty much every other assessment.

I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.
VoidGhost There are no heroes here from somewhere better (Apprentice) Relationship Status: Hiding
There are no heroes here
#6490: Mar 26th 2023 at 9:47:24 PM

This ATT thread brings up two COVID Harsher in Hindsight examples recently added to YMMV.They Are Billions. I believe that they are shoehorns but would like more consensusnote . Example in question:

* Harsher in Hindsight: The first Early Access release was in 2019, well before the the COVID-19 global pandemic. That said, a premise about a highly infectious plague destroying civilization took on a different meaning the following year.
  • A late campaign mission is called, "Omicron Laboratory," an unfortunate coincidence with the rise of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 that broke out in late 2021.

Edit: I've now removed the examples.

Edited by VoidGhost on Mar 27th 2023 at 12:08:10 PM

Amonimus the "Retromancer" from <<|Wiki Talk|>> (Sergeant) Relationship Status: In another castle
the "Retromancer"
#6491: Mar 26th 2023 at 10:27:15 PM

Shoehorn. The game is a post-apocalyptic zombie survivor, there can be no comparison.

TroperWall / WikiMagic Cleanup
ArthurEld Since: May, 2014
#6492: Mar 26th 2023 at 10:27:51 PM

Definitely a cut. The one about Omicron is literally just "the same greek letter in a different context!."

GanSaibou Since: Nov, 2019
#6493: Mar 27th 2023 at 1:58:43 PM

The following Harsher In Hindsight/Real Life entry is a contradictary and untrue version of an earlier entry on the page, and should be cut:

  • In February 1959, Waylon Jennings lost a coin-flip to Buddy Holly and was forced to take a bus to Minnesota whereas Buddy took a plane. Before leaving, Holly joked "Well, I hope your ol' bus freezes up.", to which Jennings joked, "Well, I hope your ol' plane crashes." Tragically, the plane did crash, killing Holly and everybody else aboard. Jennings was haunted by those words for the rest of his life.

Tabs Since: Jan, 2001
#6494: Mar 27th 2023 at 2:26:01 PM

[up] Rectified. Next time you can request its removal on the locked pages thread.

Ayumi-chan 3rd happiest man in Connecticut from Iacon City (Experienced Trainee) Relationship Status: I like big bots and I can not lie
3rd happiest man in Connecticut
#6495: Mar 27th 2023 at 4:29:41 PM

Bumping this

She/Her | Currently cleaning: N/A
RallyBot2 (Elder Troper) Relationship Status: I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me
Ayumi-chan 3rd happiest man in Connecticut from Iacon City (Experienced Trainee) Relationship Status: I like big bots and I can not lie
3rd happiest man in Connecticut
#6497: Mar 27th 2023 at 6:45:57 PM

YMMV.The Legend Of Heroes Trails Of Cold Steel has these bad boys:

She/Her | Currently cleaning: N/A
ArthurEld Since: May, 2014
#6498: Mar 27th 2023 at 10:02:28 PM

That last one also seems like a cut, at least to me.

"players mod game to include X, and then years later a different game does include them" seems like barely more than trivia. if there was some connection between the mod and the later game, that would probably qualify.

TroperNo9001 Dragon in Waiting from the Dollhouse (Wise, aged troper) Relationship Status: I turn to stone when you are gone
Dragon in Waiting
#6499: Mar 28th 2023 at 11:30:43 AM

On YMMV.The Ripping Friends:

  • Hilarious in Hindsight: One of the "Rip Along with the Ripping Friends" segments features a sentient male hotdog and a sentient female hot dog bun. The bun had its mouth sideways. Seth Rogen would use a similar design choice in Sausage Party.

Is this more of Older Than They Think since the example reads more like "this isn't the first time these character designs were used"?

Edited by TroperNo9001 on Mar 29th 2023 at 2:31:00 AM

Still waiting for someone to break him free...
Ayumi-chan 3rd happiest man in Connecticut from Iacon City (Experienced Trainee) Relationship Status: I like big bots and I can not lie
3rd happiest man in Connecticut
#6500: Mar 28th 2023 at 6:59:22 PM

[up][up][up] Can I have more opinions on this?

She/Her | Currently cleaning: N/A

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