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
This is on Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald under Harsher in Hindsight:
- A meta example: Criticisms went about due to Johnny Depp's involvement with the franchise due to the allegations of him being abusive to his ex-wife Amber Heard. A few months after the movie was released, Depp filed a lawsuit against Heard for defamation, alleging that she was abusing him. Some months after that, an audio showing Amber admitting to the abuse was released.
We don't allow meta moments for other reactions like Moment of Awesome, and I don't see why the hindsight pages would be any different. Also, as written, it's just "bad person exists, and they may or may not even be a bad person".
Bringing up the following example from Youngblood:
- Hilarious in Hindsight: Youngblood began as Liefeld's idea for Roy Harper leading a team of Titans working for the government. Two years after the first Youngblood issue, Roy Harper was leading the Titans for the government.
- Hilarious in Hindsight: Thanks to The Good Place any mention of Becker going to Hell or meeting Jesus.
It's a ZCE, but is it also actor garbage?
Danson's character isn't even the one who goes to the afterlife. He already works there. The Good Place doesn't subscribe to a specific religion, so Jesus does not appear, so that entry just fails on almost all levels.
Edited by mightymewtron on Sep 1st 2020 at 5:28:22 AM
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.Also this:
- "Funny Aneurysm" Moment: On Electronica 1, Jarre collaborated with Tangerine Dream, the number one Berlin School group and one of the most famous German classic electronic music acts ever. It seemed like a collaboration of titans. And it became Tangerine Dream's last production with Edgar Froese who passed away not much later.
Actor mortality?
Bringing up these examples from Harsher in Hindsight:
- This work
(warning, NSFW) by Boris Vallejo, painted in 1997, is supposed to depict the ruins of New York City a thousand years in the future (as Vallejo himself commented on after the 9/11 attacks), but the Twin Towers are still standing.
- Like most podcasts produced through a network, Mystery Show ends some episodes with promos for the network (Gimlet Media in this case) and their other shows. Starlee gushing about her employers and their other projects can be uncomfortable considering their somewhat bitter separation after the first season.
- The Last Podcast on the Left: Towards the end of the episode on Howard Unruh, who perpetreated one of the earliest known mass shootings in 1949 New Jersey, the hosts mention that one of the attack's survivors went on to have a grandchild that also survived a mass shooting, this one the Parkland, Florida school shooting of February 2018.
Put the last one under History Repeats with a rewrite. The others, not really sure.
This example from Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs got brought up in the Get Help With English thread, and since me and the person who brought it up were both a bit iffy on whether it should count, I'm bringing it here.
- "Funny Aneurysm" Moment: Flint mentioning he has an allergy to peanuts stops being a funny little aside when you realize that his voice actor, Bill Hader, has the same thing.
That's Actor-Shared Background.
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.Oh right I forgot. Then I guess it's nothing. (Maybe Actor Allusion? But I think that's only applicable to other roles not personal life stuff?)
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.This is on Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey under Hilarious in Hindsight:
- Little Bill and Little Ted were both portrayed by female babies. Face the Music reveals they actually are girls.
This was just added under Harsher in Hindsight on Avengers: Endgame:
- Seeing the Black Panther come back to life is pretty tragic considering Chadwick Boseman died a year after the film was released. He had in fact been struggling with cancer since 2016.
Those aren't even connected. Delete.
Suddenly I'm... still rotating Fallen London in my mind even though I've stopped actively playing it.This got added to Black Panther (2018):
- Killmonger's death by being impaled in the stomach becomes much harder to look at knowing that Chadwick Boseman died of colon cancer, which primarily affects the stomach.

I believe Harsher in Hindsight can't count if the creators did it intentionally, so no.
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