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
KIRBY CAR
This was recently added to YMMV.Blues Clues And You by Melbee:
- Hilarious in Hindsight: Steve Burns playing Sympathetic Murderer in a neglectful school setting which causes one of the detectives on the case sees as someone similar to himself in his youth in a episode of Homicide: Life on the Street becomes that (mixed with Heartwarming in Hindsight) when it is revealed that Steve has become a detective
Aside from the poor grammar, is this a shoehorn?
Edited by ChillyBeanBAM on Sep 12th 2023 at 8:27:22 AM
he/him
It doesn't look like it follows the format "Something that happened in Blue's Clues feels ironic now," at the least.
KIRBY CAR
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Fair. Should I cut the example then?
While I personally lean on viewing the Fi example as something of Fan Myopia, the similarities have indeed been noted by the fanbase and there is some fanart depicting Fi as a Blade. I'd rewrite it somewhat to focus on the more general commonalities and mention that, in addition to the brief mention of Monolith Soft helping out with development on Skyward Sword, a significant chunk of Monolith's staff was also hired to help develop BOTW around when Xenoblade 2 began development.
Edited by AlleyOop on Sep 13th 2023 at 10:40:31 AM
"Cool. Coolcoolcool."
I found these Hilarious in Hindsight example on /Wizards of Waverly Place:
- Alex is a Mexican-Italian adolescent girl who engages with magic daily while working at a food shop. Cue to 16 years later, where something similar would happen again...
Seems like a stretch to me. Is that just me?
There's also this one that I just don't know what to do with.
- The show was originally conceived with Justin and Alex being friends instead of siblings, the Unresolved Sexual Tension between the actors and the characters they play is almost visible from space, 'Jalex' is the preferred ship for most fans - and now, in Real Life, Selena Gomez dated a boy named 'Justin'.
Some actor shoehorning:
- The fact that Theresa and Jerry's actress and actor had both worked for one of Disney Channel's rival channels, although on different shows.
Do any of these actually fit?
Fan-Preferred Couple cleanup thread
Flashgitz's Worst Enemy... (He/him)
I found these entries on YMMV.Bob The Angry Flower:
- Harsher in Hindsight: The "radiometric predict-o-mat" correctly foretold the (largely unexpected) Trump victory, eight months before the election. (So, does that mean it's truly harsher in hindsight or not?)
- Hilarious in Hindsight: A sociopathic yellow flower? Surely we'd never see a concept like that again...(Straight up Fan Myopia. Flowey is also completely white.)
So, what do you folks think about 'em, eh? "How could you stop an idea?" (Check out my troper wall if you can!)
low-poly Shinri
Any rewrite for the Fi entry?
Friends forevermore
Burn them both to the ground.
The Mask Does Not Laugh
From YMMV.Guilty Gear:
- Harsher in Hindsight: (other examples here are irrelevant)
- Every single Unsettling Gender-Reveal joke at Bridget's expense becomes this now that she's come out as transgender, especially with the real world context of trans panic driving hate crimes against trans people.
Is this a legitimate Harsher in Hindsight example or is this a shoehorn? I know the "the jokes made about Bridget in the past are kinda fucked up now that she's actually trans" part is okay but I don't know about the rest.
(I can't believe I have to say this, but just in case, this post is not an excuse for you to start trans discourse in the thread, especially not with current forum events. Please behave yourselves.)
Edited by Wafer on Sep 14th 2023 at 6:35:31 AM
Don't think its a Harsher, but i think it still fits for a In Hindsight situation.
Angry babby
I don't think it counts unless it's referring to jokes in the work proper. Do we trope Hindsight examples about memes and such and not events from the actual work?
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.
Yeah, popular memes are fair game for Hindsight reactions if they are big enough to have a noticeable and observable audience reaction.
Edited by AlleyOop on Sep 14th 2023 at 4:26:17 AM
Now im wondering if the whole "Its not gay if its Bridget" meme is now Hilarious in Hindsight?
I'd say yes.
I've considered making this entry for Sonic the Hedgehog but I'm not sure if it fits:
Harsher in Hindsight: Years ending with a "5" seem to be a bad omen for actors who played Dr. Eggman. Deem Bristow, Eggman's first English actor in the games, would die on January 15, 2005, with the actor for his first ever television appearance, Long John Baldry, dying in July of that year. Furthermore, Chikao Ohtsuka, who had been the voice of Eggman in all Japanese Media up to that point, would die on January 15, 2015, exactly 10 years after Deem Bristow, with both deaths being caused by heart conditions.
Edited by Mariofan99 on Sep 16th 2023 at 11:17:03 AM
"Cool. Coolcoolcool."
Any feedback on these?
First and third could be cut. Dont know about the second.
I'm Sad Frogerson.
I don't think that really counts. That's more of a coincidence than anything else and doesn't really relate to the games themselves.
Yeah, that feels like a shoehorn.
Wick checker for hire
YMMV.Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1990 has these:
- Hilarious in Hindsight: Any sports fan over the last decade who's read the stories on steroid use can now look back on Raph's comment on Casey's Jose Canseco bat with a whole new meaning. Basically a ZCE
- It was a two-for-one sale. Natter that should be furthering the example above, except it's another ZCE
- Donatello gets ragged on by his brothers for trying to make the word "Acapella" sound cool. Years later Eminem finishes what Don started, by using that word and the meaning behind it in a crucial moment against Papa Doc in 8 Mile. Shoehorn?
- In one fight scene, Casey defeats Tatsu by swinging a golf club at him, and he promptly kisses the club, saying, "I'll never call golf a dull game again." There's a ninja game for the Atari called Ninja Golf. Shoehorn, as the game clearly came before this movie
- The song "Turtle Power" has Raphael erroneously identified as the leader. And then comes Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, where Raphael actually is the leader of the turtles. Keep?
- Kids nowadays, watching the scene with the teens in the warehouse, may have trouble understanding what is so subversive and rebellious about using an indoor skateboarding park, playing an electric bass, spraypainting a wall clearly set up for the purpose of spraypainting, playing arcade games, and doing a little recreational gambling. Now it seems that the least horrifying thing in the '80's ("Regular, or Menthol?") is the only bad behavior in the entire scene. Misplaced Values Dissonance?
- During the first rooftop battle, Raph mocks the Foot ninjas by saying "You guys must be studying the abridged book of ninja fighting". In the 2014 reboot, Splinter learnt and taught Raph and the others ninjitsu by studying a book he found in the sewers, meaning Raph himself learned the art of ninja by essentially studying the abridged book of ninja fighting! Keep?
Nintendo Fanatic Extraordinaire
For the Jose Canseco example, the "last decade" part needs to be reworded as it constitutes relative time.
Thoughts on this Hilarious in Hindsight entry I found on YMMV.Shang Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings?
- Soo dismissing Katy and Shang-Chi's whole adventure becomes a lot funnier considering that she's played by Stephanie Hsu, who would later star in Everything Everywhere All at Once with her being involved in the adventure this time (albeit as the antagonist). For added hilarity, Michelle Yeoh joins her in that film.
I'm Sad Frogerson.
Cut, since there's barely even a connection.
This is an actor mortality example from Murder at 1600 that is more understandable than most, but is it still a shoehorn?
- Harsher in Hindsight: Charles Rocket's character threatens to shoot himself in the opening scene. Several years later, he committed suicide.note
In fact, if it wasn't for the note at the end, I wouldn't have even thought to bring it up.
FTR, when I first saw the entry on YMMV.Imagine Dragons connecting "Whatever It Takes" to Endgame, it was a Hilarious in Hindsight entry pointing out that both the song and the movie use that exact phrase. I overhauled it since neither seemed to use it in a hilarious context.