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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

deerhornsaresopretty Since: Jun, 2023
#8176: Feb 11th 2025 at 11:45:05 PM

From HilariousInHindsight.Arthur

  • In "Sue Ellen Chickens Out", Sue Ellen mentions she doesn't like chicken as part of her protest against the Sugar Bowl being replaced by a Chicken Lickin' restaurant. Cut forward to "Sue Ellen Vegges Out", where she becomes a vegetarian. <—- how is this hilarious
  • In "Arthur's Substitute Teacher Trouble", Arthur's friends were worried that Mr. Ratburn and his little sister Ms. Ratburn were competitive siblings over intellectual matters. They find out that Rodentia Ratburn is a marshmallow Misplaced Kindergarten Teacher that bores them to death and worships her big brother Nigel. Come "Mr. Ratburn and the Special Someone", it turns out that they have an older sister named Patty who is a competitive Control Freak. Nigel doesn't compete with Patty, however, and defers to her on all decisions. So it turns out all the Ratburns get along. <—- how is this hilarious
  • S7's "Prunella Sees the Light" has Prunella telling Muffy, "Marina's blind, not in a wheelchair." 7 seasons later, S14's "The Wheel Deal" introduces Lydia Fox, a fan-created character in a wheelchair. <—- how is this hilarious, those 2 characters are completely unrelated
  • In "Sue Ellen's Little Sister", Sue Ellen wants a little sibling, But doesn't know where to get them and claims that you can't buy a little siblings. Fast forward into the D.W.'s Time Trouble, The D.W. tries to be the first one born by making her parents buy her. Even though it was All Just a Dream, it is still pretty funny.<—- how is this hilarious
  • The fact that Brain, a supposedly African-American character was voiced by far-right commentator Steven Crowder, and then Crowder was replaced by trans girl Alex Hood. Both are white, btw. <—- uh......

Edited by deerhornsaresopretty on Feb 11th 2025 at 11:45:41 AM

TroperNo9001 Dragon in Waiting from the Dollhouse (Wise, aged troper) Relationship Status: I turn to stone when you are gone
Dragon in Waiting
#8177: Feb 12th 2025 at 1:03:32 AM

Reposting.

Still waiting for someone to break him free...
DoktorvonEurotrash Lex et Veritas from Not a place of honour (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#8178: Feb 12th 2025 at 10:30:10 AM

[up]x5: I never thought President/Lord Business was based on Trump. He's just a eventually redeemed Corrupt Corporate Executive.

[up][up][up]: Still don't see any real connection between a character called "Moldybutt" and a fan-myopic joke about JK Rowling. Really feels like the editor was shoehorning it in in order to bash Rowling.

[up][up]: Agree with you, none of those are valid.

Edited by DoktorvonEurotrash on Feb 12th 2025 at 10:31:26 AM

LoadsAndLoadsOfFreeTime Raz (Season 2) Relationship Status: I love you for psychological reasons
PeabodySam (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Owner of a lonely heart
#8181: Feb 12th 2025 at 5:26:41 PM

I noticed an iffy Hilarious in Hindsight example that was just added to YMMV.LEGO Studios. But it'd be disingenuous of me to single it out without also asking this thread whether the other hindsight examples (added by yours truly) are also valid or should be cut, so it's best if I run all of them by you first.

  • Harsher in Hindsight: The Steven Spielberg MovieMaker Set features two skyscrapers, one with a prominent antenna, that are built to collapse. After the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center, this set notably didn't age well even one year after its release.
    • Despite their similarities, I could see this one being too tenuous to keep. I thought I recalled hearing that this set was pulled from production post-9/11, but I can't find any proof of it. But, it is worth noting that LEGO did "censor" a LEGO Alpha Team set (which was released around the same timeframe and also had a similar "collapsing tower" play feature) after 9/11.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight:
    • Jewel Quest is a Raiders of the Lost Parody, Fetch T-Rex/Jurassic Bark is a Jurassic Farce, and Shark Bite is a "Jaws" Attack Parody. LEGO would later acquire the licenses to produce actual Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, and Jaws sets, including sets based on the specific scenes parodied in these animations.
      • I believe this one is fine. There's a clear but coincidental connection here: LEGO does parodies of famous movie scenes years before doing actual sets based on those scenes.
    • One of the story starters on the LEGO Studios website describes Evil Ogel creating new powerful dinosaurs and threatening to unleash them upon a major city, and Alpha Team must stop his evil plan. This predates Rescue From Dino Island (a comic in the November/December 2001 issue of LEGO Mania Magazine, in which Ogel mind-controls the dinosaurs from LEGO Dinosaurs and plots to ruin the holidays with them until he is foiled by Alpha Team), LEGO Dino Attack (in which powerful mutant dinosaurs attack major cities), and LEGO Dino (which results from Commander Hypaxxus-8's backup plan to unleash dinosaurs upon major cities).
      • Not sure where this falls. The idea of LEGO villains (like Ogel specifically) using dinosaurs to attack cities was never done before LEGO Studios, and has been done multiple times since. But is that too common/generic?
    • The Mad Scientist from the Scary Laboratory set, released in 2002, is a dead ringer for The Medic 5 years afterwards.

... until SUDDENLY DINOSAURS!
costanton11 Since: Mar, 2016
#8182: Feb 12th 2025 at 8:08:30 PM

Agree with cutting the Arthur examples.

costanton11 Since: Mar, 2016
#8183: Feb 13th 2025 at 7:06:38 AM

There’s also this example from HilariousInHindsight.Arthur:

  • S1's "The Scare-Your-Pants-Off Club" features a parents group called "PAWS" getting a popular book series banned from the library due to thinking it's inappropriate for kids to read despite none of the people in group having actually read the books themselves. This became a lot funnier when many libraries in Florida banned several books due to parental complaints (primarily due to governor Ron DeSantis's overly broad and restrictive policies that allowed such bans to happen in the first place) for utterly ridiculous reasons, with one district even banning several Arthur books.

This seems more like harsher to me.

fragglelover Since: Jun, 2012
#8184: Feb 13th 2025 at 7:47:20 AM

Not sure it's even that. Although book banning is in the news a lot more, parents not liking certain book series has been going on for decades (the books in the episode were based on Goosebumps, for instance, which had parents hate them for being horror aimed at children).

I mean, even before this wave (and after the episode), there were high profile cases involving Captain Underpants (toilet humor, the main characters being pranksters (so disrespectful), and the last book for the usual modern reason) and Harry Potter (witchcraft).

Summing up, book banning using "Think of the Children!" as an excuse existed long before this episode (aired in 1996), much less the 2020s.

dcutter2 Since: Sep, 2013
#8185: Feb 13th 2025 at 7:52:09 AM

It might count if you restrict it down to just Arthur books themselves being banned?

RadioContactLine Not The Kind of Worm You Wanna Meet from the land of Mormons and Swig (Utah, U.S.A) (Life not ruined yet) Relationship Status: love is a deadly lazer
Not The Kind of Worm You Wanna Meet
#8186: Feb 13th 2025 at 1:39:07 PM

Found these on Madoka Abridged via Random Media pushes:

The first one uses a weblink which leads to a poster which I don't think is official. The second one is short and feels like it's lacking context. Are these valid, or should I just cut the above page since these are the only two items on the above YMMV page?

Ready to rock?
deerhornsaresopretty Since: Jun, 2023
#8188: Feb 17th 2025 at 12:27:16 PM

From Spongebob Hilarious In Hindsight:

  • In "Idiot Box", SpongeBob makes a rainbow between his hands as he says the word "Imagination", almost reminiscent of Ressha Sentai ToQger and its Rainbow Line fueled by imagination. They even use the English word instead of the Japanese for "imagination"!
  • In "Chimps Ahoy", one of Sandy's bosses at Tree Dome Enterprises Limited is named Dr. Marmalade.

Can I remove these for being Fan Myopia

DoktorvonEurotrash Lex et Veritas from Not a place of honour (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
PalacePosy from In a beautiful place out in the country Since: Feb, 2022 Relationship Status: Crazy Cat Lady
#8190: Feb 17th 2025 at 3:53:00 PM

From An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn

  • Robert Evans's appearance Adam Westing as a film producer who insists on his much-younger partners calling him "Daddy" gets (even more) wince-inducing in light of Ryan O'Neal appearing on the film (also playing a producer), after an incident in which O'Neal, following the funeral of his long-time partner Farrah Fawcett, tried to hit on a younger woman, only to discover from the horrified woman that she was his own daughter Tatum O'Neal (from whom he had been estranged for years at the time).

This seems flimsy to me, because it's not O'Neal's character who makes people call him daddy, and also because the anecdote veers a little towards celebrity gossip (in my eyes anyway).

dsneybuf (Not-So-Newbie)
#8191: Feb 18th 2025 at 7:19:11 AM

Does the current image for HilariousInHindsight.The Simpsons imply that monopolies are hilarious?

I know this question looks more appropriate for the Image Pickin' Forum, but it currently doesn't have room for another thread, plus I can't think of an alternative image yet.

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!
#8192: Feb 18th 2025 at 7:30:08 AM

"Disney bought something" hindsight tends to be misuse, but is there any image which would illustrate it better?

2025: the year it all ends?
BocchiTheRock Since: Feb, 2023
#8193: Feb 18th 2025 at 7:46:26 AM

[up] It's the one "Disney buying something" joke that is hindsight, since the original joke was related to Disney buying Fox.

dsneybuf (Not-So-Newbie)
#8194: Feb 18th 2025 at 11:11:48 AM

Do you see any hilarity in it though?

dcutter2 Since: Sep, 2013
#8195: Feb 18th 2025 at 11:13:34 AM

Yes? Like the joke there is made funnier by the fact the outlandish scenario actually came true.

WarJay77 It's NaNo, Bay-beeee! (10,238/50,000) from My Writing Cave (Troper Knight) Relationship Status: Armed with the Power of Love
It's NaNo, Bay-beeee! (10,238/50,000)
#8196: Feb 18th 2025 at 11:15:12 AM

The Simpsons in general is known for predicting the future, and this one does seem legitimately chuckle-worthy since it's such a bizarre thing to get right.

Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper Wall
PeppermintSoda i like cheese from Hideout Planet. It was once called Earth Since: Jul, 2016 Relationship Status: watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
i like cheese
#8197: Feb 19th 2025 at 12:29:10 AM

Just came across this thread. I've written down these Hilarious in Hindsight examples a while ago, but now upon viewing some wrong examples here, I am second guessing myself.


YMMV.Tom And Jerry Kids

YMMV.Droopy Master Detective


In all three cases, the "hindsight" aspect refers to some vague connection between the media mentioned (for example, the Master Detective example vaguely being connected to The Boss Baby and the "boomer" example being just "haha ok boomer lol"). Not sure if there are some hilarious aspects to that. Ok to cut?

Edited by PeppermintSoda on Feb 20th 2025 at 7:33:34 AM

i like cheese
DoktorvonEurotrash Lex et Veritas from Not a place of honour (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#8198: Feb 19th 2025 at 5:21:07 AM

[up]Agree with cutting all of them for the reasons you gave.

Oh, and the image for HilariousInHindsight.The Simpsons is great, no reason to change it.

LoadsAndLoadsOfFreeTime Raz (Season 2) Relationship Status: I love you for psychological reasons
#8199: Feb 19th 2025 at 8:40:29 AM

That boomer connection is as flimsy as the one from Super Paper Mario I brought up a few pages back. Cut

I don't want the world, I just want your half.
PeppermintSoda i like cheese from Hideout Planet. It was once called Earth Since: Jul, 2016 Relationship Status: watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
i like cheese
#8200: Feb 19th 2025 at 3:42:07 PM

[up]

[up] [up] Great, I’ll get started with cutting them all.

i like cheese

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