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
Cut these from YMMV.Andi Mack:
- Hilarious in Hindsight: The first episode has Buffy calling Buffy the Vampire Slayer "a show of the last century". It was announced for a revival in July of 2018.
- Harsher in Hindsight: Watching Ham interacting with Andi or her friends can be difficult after Stoney Westmoreland's sex abuse charges.
No-lifer
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Agreed. Both of them seem to be obvious shoehorns.
I may not follow this thread anymore, but I did wanna give a heads up; Rick May, the VA of Star Fox 64's Peppy and Andross and Team Fortress 2's Soilder passed away today, so those YMMV pages and the general YMMV for Star Fox will probably need to have an eye on them for a bit in case any misused Harsher in Hindsight gets added.
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This just got added to YMMV.Final Fantasy XIV under Harsher in Hindsight:
Is this a misuse? My knee-jerk reaction is "cut anything about COVID-19", so I don't know if I'm actually evaluating it correctly.
Trouble Cube continues to be a general-purpose forum for those who desire such a thing.
I don't think that should be a knee-jerk reaction. Yeah, we've seen some really forced parallels, but that doesn't mean any example involving the current pandemic is automatically invalid.
Is the disease similar to Covid-19? If it's not, it can probably go.
#BoomSilverTheVampire4Lyfe
I added this a long time ago to YMMV.Parry Gripp:
- Hilarious in Hindsight: "Overweight Hedgehog". Now look at the Sonic The Hedgehog fandom...
A month ago, Canwood commented out with the edit reason "...is this really an example if it tells you to look up nondescript fanart? also the joke has been done to DEATH too which certainly isn't helping matters..."
Anyway to improve on this example before it can be uncommented? Or is it not really an example? (Also, the "overused joke" reason isn't reasonable in my opinion)
Edited by PrincessPandaTrope on Apr 14th 2020 at 7:31:29 AM
Content Warning: My posts may involve my actions dealing with R-rated or Not Safe for Work content. Same for my edit history.
As written it's a Zero Context Example that violates Weblinks Are Not Examples. So an explanation of context to go along with the link would help determine if it's an example or not. As it is I have no idea what they mean by "look at the Sonic fandom".
That said, I'm going to wager on no, as said link goes to a Youtube video featuring an actual hedgehog, which makes me wonder if we aren't looking at "A happened, then B" without a connecting link beyond "hedgehog".
Edited by sgamer82 on Apr 14th 2020 at 6:50:22 AM
#BoomSilverTheVampire4Lyfe
How about this?
- Hilarious in Hindsight: "Overweight Hedgehog" becomes more amusing when you know about the infamous fat fetish trend within the Sonic the Hedgehog fandom.
Still violates Weblinks Are Not Examples, since nothing in that description describes Overweight Hedgehog. Ideally the link should be an extra, not a necessity.
Put another way, you shouldn't have to click the link to know what's in it, but if what's in it sounds interesting, hey there's the link.
Edited by sgamer82 on Apr 14th 2020 at 7:22:01 AM
#BoomSilverTheVampire4Lyfe
The song title says it all. The weblink is just there if one needs to check out the song, but I can remove it if I need to.
Edited by PrincessPandaTrope on Apr 14th 2020 at 9:09:38 AM
Content Warning: My posts may involve my actions dealing with R-rated or Not Safe for Work content. Same for my edit history.
How self-explanatory it may seem doesn't matter and, speaking purely for myself, is easily disproven by the fact that, along with the relation to the Sonic fandom, the title had me expecting some parody meme of Sonic himself being overweight.
- The mere appearance of a weblink explains nothing about the example on its own. Clicking on a link is a choice; people can either do it or ignore it. For anyone who ignores the link, the remaining text is as helpful as a Zero-Context Example.
- Moreover, nobody should have to click on a weblink. People reading trope examples shouldn't have no other choice but to leave the page they are already on in order to understand something immediately relevant to what they were just reading.
On the whole, we want to encourage editors to write out their examples and explain how any given trope is used in all circumstances. Even if a trope example is overly complex or requires a lot of explanation that a weblink to some other place can seemingly convey more easily, or even if one wants to include a weblink, anyway, one should still try to make an effort to write a sufficient, clear explanation of a trope example, no differently than if one didn't have any URL links on hand.
TL;DR - Try to write the example as if the person reading it knew absolutely nothing about either "Overweight Hedgehog", Sonic the Hedgehog, or the fandom thereof.
I'm not entirely convinced the entry would be valid, since the video seems to have nothing to do with Sonic outside of also having a hedgehog in it. To be fair, though, I tend to be overly skeptical of any "Hindsight" entry in general. I also only gave the video a quick skim to get an idea of what it was, so there may well be something I missed.
Edited by sgamer82 on Apr 14th 2020 at 8:30:57 AM
Maybe you could discuss the subject matter of the song? I'm not sure many people would want to watch a video called "Overweight Sonic".
#BoomSilverTheVampire4Lyfe
Okay, this should work:
- Hilarious in Hindsight: "Overweight Hedgehog", a song about a real fat hedgehog and its obesity, becomes more amusing when you know about the infamous fat fetish trend within the Sonic the Hedgehog fandom.
Edited by PrincessPandaTrope on Apr 14th 2020 at 10:12:03 AM
Content Warning: My posts may involve my actions dealing with R-rated or Not Safe for Work content. Same for my edit history.
Looks good to me.
This just seems like a general example, any way you put it.
Like it isn’t tied to any specific event, it’s just making a generalization about a fan base based on a minority in a large fandom
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Indeed. I haven't been in the fandom for years and never encountered the fat fetish crowd. Not to mention fat fetishists are in every fandom, so what gives?
To win, you need to adapt, and to adapt, you need to be able to laugh away all the restraints. Everything holding you back.
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Sounds like a stretch, but you could make it a legit example by linking it to Sonic 2 XL, a game mod where Sonic becomes really fat.
I sort of agree with this. It feels more like it's just another case of pointing and laughing at Sonic fans (which, mind you, I have done in the past) than a tropeworthy thing.
#BoomSilverTheVampire4Lyfe
Okay fine, removing the example from YMMV.Parry Gripp.
Content Warning: My posts may involve my actions dealing with R-rated or Not Safe for Work content. Same for my edit history.
This is on YMMV.Free Willy under "Funny Aneurysm" Moment:
By the time the third movie was released, a critic was moved to ask, "Maybe they should have 'freed' a smarter Orca?"
Not sure if it counts.
Sorry if it does.
Veteran Editor IV
I'd cut it. It hardly makes sense in it's current state, as it doesn't refer to any events in particular and would probably be too general otherwise.
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I'm Sad Frogerson.
I think that might be referring to how Keiko (the orca that played Willy in those films) was later released into the wild, but had difficulties adjusting and later died of pneumonia.
I'd probably cut it since it's not specific and it's from a review from the film, not the film itself.
I've removed it.
I think it's referring to something that happened in the film, partially because, looking through the page history, the first example under "Funny Aneurysm" Moment used to be about what happened when Keiko was freed. It was removed in 2017 with the edit reason "Keiko died at age 27 after acclimating fairly well to life in the ocean."
The first "Funny Aneurysm" Moment is a bit shoehorned, as you said. I'd lean toward cutting.
The teddy bear one is an obvious reach. Cut.
If Swayze had died from leukemia, it might have a case to stay, but cancer by itself is probably too common.
The PTSD one can indeed be moved to Fridge Horror.
The Murder At 1600 example is better served for that work's page. It doesn't belong here.
All the Hilarious in Hindsight and Values Dissonance examples you mentioned can be cut. They're all reaches/shoehorns.
Edited by RallyBot2 on Apr 5th 2020 at 10:42:29 AM