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
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Yet another example that acts like people cleaning their hands wasn't something that existed before the pandemic.
Indeed. Once again it doesn’t really fit the example like the last one I just saw.
Tobias/TJ (He/Him)
Looks like it's gone now.
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Yeah... it's not like we never washed our hands before the pandemic. And like I said, it was in a context where it made perfect sense to be asking someone to wash their hands.
Edited by punkcrow on Apr 2nd 2024 at 7:00:12 AM
Cold turkey's getting stale. Tonight I'm eating crow.
Not gonna lie, the fact that some people associate any mention of handwashing with COVID makes me wonder what their personal hygiene was like before the pandemic.
Can shapeshift (probably)
On the topic of COVID shoehorns...
- Harsher in Hindsight: In "Barry's Back", Jackie's ex-husband Barry unexpectedly shows up and wants Sammy to see him in concert. When Jackie points out that's a school night, Barry says, in a surprised tone, "he still has school?" This was meant to show his carelessness, but the series did not even premier until after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused schools to be closed (outside of online classes) for the rest of the year.
I mean granted, there's some connection here (even if it's a coincidence), but I don't think it's enough to count. Silver and gold, silver and gold
Rookie Trope Repairer
Like you said, it's a (very weak) coincidence. Cut with extreme prejudice.
To me anyway it more or less outdated if you ask me at the time they were added. But right now for these types they would have to go.
Can shapeshift (probably)
Alright, I sent the page to the cultist (since that was the only example there).
Silver and gold, silver and gold
On QI
- Harsher in Hindsight:
- In "Groovy" they joke about an Osmond brother who was locked away due to his deformity and wrote all the songs. Not so funny when you learn that the Osmonds really do have two disabled siblings (both of the eldest Osmonds were born deaf) who stay out of the public eye. "When you learn that..." is basically "not hindsight", but this isn't even that similar. Choosing to stay out of the spotlight isn't the same as being locked away
- In "Monster Mash", Phil Jupitus makes a joke about Alan Rickman. The episode first aired just after Rickman's death. The same happened two weeks later in "Mix and Match" with Lemmy from Motörhead. Cue fans wondering if they'd mention David Bowie next. Not hindsight. It aired after Rickman's death. And it's just a mention of a celebrity, not similar to their passing
he/him
From YMMV.Fallen London:
- Harsher in Hindsight: Alexis Kennedy was a founder of Failbetter Games and the writer to some of the most popular and iconic stories of Fallen London, including the Seeking Mr. Eaten's Name quest. Years after he left the company, allegations of abuse and misconduct surfaced, with many of the accusers being women from his own former company. Many of those within the fandom who have become familiar with his name and style may find it difficult to ignore how the relationship between him and those who own the property they are enjoying have seemingly irreparably soured.
That's just the usual "Creator appears in work then becomes more controversial later on", isn't it? Which is specifically out of scope.
Any concerns if I cut?
Stark Holmes
Nope. Maybe it could be Overshadowed by Controversy, but there are no qualms about getting rid of it.
Rookie Trope Repairer
If it is OBC, has it been 6 months?
Stark Holmes
The misconduct allegations happened back in 2019 (after Kennedy left in 2016), but Kennedy also accused FailBetter (the studio who makes Fallen London) of being just as predatory in practices. This apparently went to court, and only resolved back in October of 2023.
Edited by CanuckMcDuck1 on Apr 4th 2024 at 8:59:13 AM
Discombobulate.
"Cool. Coolcoolcool."
I found this Hilarious in Hindsight entry on YMMV.The Angry Video Game Nerd:
- In his review of the Ghostbusters game for the NES, one of the power ups you can buy is a "Ghost Vacuum." Essentially, a ghost trap that is on top of the car that sucks up ghosts during driving sequences. During the first fight at the start of Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire what do they use to capture the snake ghost? A drone ghost trap, launched from the top of Ecto-1, that uses a vacuum-like vortex to suck up the ghost!
It seems weird to have this on his page. Wouldn't it make more sense to have this on the YMMV.Ghostbusters 1984 because that is the game where the similar thing first happened?
Fan-Preferred Couple cleanup thread
he/him
So we're five years on, Fallen London is still thriving as far as I can tell, and Failbetter's just announced that they're working on two more games. That doesn't feel like OBC.
I'll cut entirely.
Edited by Mrph1 on Apr 4th 2024 at 6:39:42 PM
Probably.
From The Blues Brothers:
- Harsher in Hindsight:
- The Illinois Nazis are introduced holding a rally because "they won their court case". While it's most likely a reference to this SCOTUS case that occurred a few years prior, it becomes more upsetting after the Supreme Court ruled that the Westboro Baptist Church's funeral pickets were protected under the First Amendment in 2011.
- The Illinois Nazis are introduced holding a rally because "they won their court case". While it's most likely a reference to this SCOTUS case
- In the same scene, the brothers get past the rally and counter-protest by driving their car through the crowd. In August 2017, a white supremacist plowed his car into a crowd of counter-protesters during a rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, killing one and injuring at least 19 others.
- Hilarious in Hindsight:
- The brothers' agent tells them that blues is a Dead Horse Genre and they should switch their act to disco. Thirty years after the film's release, blues music is still going strong, while disco remains going through periods of Popularity Polynomial.
- When the Brothers get into the phone booth together, Jake says he needs to make a phone call. Elwood responds with "Who ya gonna call?", a question made popular by a later film starring his actor.
- The Illinois 3rd Congressional District (which has included part of Chicago since 1873) overwhelmingly votes Democratic, to the point that in 2018, no Republicans put themselves forward for the primary. This allowed a neo-Nazi and Holocaust denier named Arthur Jones to claim the Republican nomination unopposed, prompting many people to return the "I hate Illinois Nazis!" line to common use. He still got 25.9% of the vote.
Angry babby
- In the episode "Gutter Balls", Rocko, Heffer and Filburt's bowling team is named "The Losers". 22 years after it's premiere in 1995, "The Losers" would become the name of a team in Battle for BFDI.
This feels like Fan Myopia because I've seen other shows (like Fairly OddParents) have a team named "Losers" as a gag. There's others on the page that feel borderline but some, like the Spongebob examples, at least have the excuse of shared crew members.
There's also this:
- "Heff in a Handbasket," the episode where Heffer sold his soul to be on a game show, was once pulled due to its blasphemous content. Eventually, the episode did air again on June 6th, 2006 (6/6/06) on Nicktoons TV. Guess the Nickelodeon censors didn't see why this would be inappropriate.
Which feels too deliberate to be Hindsight, or at least too meta in nature.
Edited by mightymewtron on Apr 4th 2024 at 11:06:26 AM
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.
I'd like to know if this proposed addition to YMMV.Walt Disney Presents would fit under Hilarious in Hindsight, or if it merely turns the episode in question into an Unintentional Period Piece:
- Walt's intro to an airing of Pollyanna (1960) comments that while several male names have become associated with certain archetypes, "Pollyanna" seemed like the only female name at the time to achieve this. Eventually the name "Karen" also became a descriptor, for someone grouchier and less helpful than a Pollyanna.
Edited by dsneybuf on Apr 5th 2024 at 6:36:39 AM
Fair assessments.
Now a lurker. See you at the forums.
Can I propose an example for Marvel Ultimate Alliance?
- Iceman's interactions in the game have him with a crush on Black Widow, finding her hot. This was years before Iceman was retconned to be gay in the comic books.
From Volcano
- Harsher in Hindsight: The conflict between Jasper and Kevin. The former is clearly supposed to be a racist cop, and he comes across as one, and is consistently shown antagonizing Kevin. They end up burying the hatchet a bit when Jasper asks fire engines to help out Kevin's neighborhood. This is quite sweet and is clearly a reference to the then-contemporary issue with Rodney King, and put a hopeful spin on police-civilian relations, but real life would go in this direction as seen in the 2020s with the increasing volatility and exposure of police brutality against minorities, especially in the wake of the deaths of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and Amir Locke. In fact, all of what has happened in the climate of attitudes towards police can make Jasper and Kevin's conflict seem and look much more like a simple personal dispute between two individuals. Too abstract. This reads like a rejected Values Dissonance entry
Edited by maxwellsilver on Apr 5th 2024 at 6:39:16 AM
Not really an example. Iceman was attractive to females in the comics. He was just retcon to being gay later on.
Now a lurker. See you at the forums.
Fair enough, fair enough.
To win, you need to adapt, and to adapt, you need to be able to laugh away all the restraints. Everything holding you back.
Found on YMMV.Incredibles 2, which looks like a COVID shoehorn:
It's been a while since I've seen Incredibles 2, but I specifically remember that Violet was telling Dash that he should wash his hands because the family was about to have dinner — and if I recall correctly, he had also just used the bathroom. Asking someone to wash their hands in those contexts is pretty much expected, even when contagious diseases aren't involved, so... this seems like a really tenuous connection to make.
Cold turkey's getting stale. Tonight I'm eating crow.