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
kiby :]
The fact that it's listed as a "Funny Aneurysm" Moment feels like stealth complaining, or maybe it's just because I've seen so much backlash regarding that game.
(Don't) take me home.
That's almost certainly complaining given it brings up Club Penguin being taken down before mentioning Island.
—signature not found—
Lots of coffee
It could be valid as a Hilarious in Hindsight entry, though.
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.
kiby :]
If so, maybe I can attempt to rewrite the example to make it sound less complain-y.
(Don't) take me home.
Lots of coffee
Honestly, I don't think it needs that much of a rewrite. Just take out the redundant "Club Penguin was taken down" (as "was replaced by" already covers that and emphasizing it sounds more negative) and change it to Hilarious in Hindsight and it works like a charm.
![[down]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_down.png "[down]"){kind=icon}
Looks good to me.
Edited by mightymewtron on Nov 6th 2020 at 4:30:36 AM
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.
Would this work?
Hilarious in Hindsight: A comic in one of the Club Penguin books features a penguin putting on 3D glasses and looking at another penguin, causing him to see him as a 3D model. Club Penguin's replacement, Club Penguin Island, was full 3D.
Berserk Button: misusing Berserk Button
Actor death Harsher in YMMV.Golden Queens Commando, and worse, it’s the ONLY trope on the page:
- Harsher in Hindsight: The David Bowie Expy getting killed graphically in the finale seems a lot harder to watch after Bowie's actual death.
Permission to send page to cutlist?
One of these days, all of you will accept me as your supreme overlord.
Yes, cut it.
I just added a So Bad, It's Good bullet.
Was coming back to this thread to edit the Harsher in Hindsight and Hilarious in Hindsight examples for Brooklyn Nine-Nine when I realized I forgot about the "Funny Aneurysm" Moment ones. Any opinions on these:
- "Funny Aneurysm" Moment:
- In "The Oolong Slayer," Jake asks Terry "why do you follow people's directions when you could literally pick them up and throw them out the window?" Later, when Terry Crews came forward about his sexual assault, he was asked why he didn't fight back.
- Amy desperately wanting Holt’s approval and her anxiety about becoming a sergeant are less funny after “He Said, She Said” reveals her former captain tried to sexually assault her after her promotion to detective, which made Amy feel like she didn’t really earn her rank.
- Similarly, quite a bit of Jake's sex jokes to Amy, which were initially played lighthearted, can come off as more awkward after the revelation that Amy specifically transferred to the Nine-Nine because her past Captain tried to sexually assault her.
- In "The Oolong Slayer," Jake asks Terry "why do you follow people's directions when you could literally pick them up and throw them out the window?" Later, when Terry Crews came forward about his sexual assault, he was asked why he didn't fight back
Bringing up the following examples from Alien:
- Hilarious in Hindsight:
- Paul McGann regenerates into John Hurt. Both actors have had roles in the franchise (McGann in the third movie, Hurt in the first).
- The Alien being inspired by parasitic wasps becomes incredibly funny when a new species of said parasitic wasp was named after the Xenomorph due to physical resemblance, and its especially brutal method of reproduction.
- The first Dark Horse comic series mentions as a minor worldbuilding element that television broadcast equipment has become so compact and cheap that anyone could start a TV channel, which led to a collapse in viewing numbers. In the real world, the Internet has caused much the same thing. What was the cancellation threshold back in the eighties would be considered an enormous audience today.
- Harsher in Hindsight: Kane and Brett are the first two characters in the film to die. Their respective actors, John Hurt and Harry Dean Stanton, were the first two cast members to pass on in real life, in the same order.
- Hilarious in Hindsight:
- Ash assures Ripley that the dead Face-hugger isn't a zombie. Six years later, Dan O'Bannon goes off to write and direct The Return of the Living Dead.
- In the novelisation, Ash says the aliens who left the distress signal to warn others from landing on the planet were a noble people, and that hopefully humanity will meet them under better circumstances. Come Prometheus the Engineers are shown to have created the Xenomorphs as a Weapon of Mass Destruction, that at one point they attempted to use to destroy humanity.
- Ridley Scott's preferred ending for the film involved the Alien killing Ripley and then mimicked her voice in her final transmission. Eight years later, the titular monster of Predator would demonstrate a similar ability.
- Parker's vocal obsession with getting paid becomes much funnier when Yaphet Kotto revealed he only returned to the role in Alien: Isolation for the paycheck.
Just to note, both Sean Connery and Alex Trebek passed away, so be careful of any "actor mortality" Hindsight examples involving them.
And this is on Saturday Night Live under Harsher in Hindsight:
After all the Celebrity Jeopardy sketches with Sean Connery as Alex Trebek's Sitcom Archnemesis, they ended up dying about eight days apart.
Friends forevermore
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
And sure enough...
Discarded and Feeling Blue
I mean, that might actually be keepable, because it's a very specific scenario, though granted their deaths had nothing to do with the SNL portrayal.
You can't escape this monster
About the Club Penguin example, yes. I think the writeup for Hilarious in Hindsight looks good.
I'm mainly a fan of underrated media.
Agreed that the SNL example, while hazy, is more specific than most examples and thus has a decent case for staying.
Lots of coffee
I almost think we need a subtrope for times where the events of the work don't make it harsh, but the timing is just way too eerie.
Edited by mightymewtron on Nov 8th 2020 at 4:39:10 AM
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.
If the SNL versions of Connery and Trebek had died close to one another, or indeed at all, there might be a case.
As it is, I consider it more than a bit of a stretch.
The SNL Trebek vs. Connery rivalry is well-known enough that even I, despite my dislike of Hindsight shoehorns, did think to that when I heard about Trebek's passing so soon after Connery's.
At least one friend of mine also took note of that, so from the perspective of many Hindsight shoehorns being the result of a single rogue troper suffering from Fan Myopia, this kind of comparison at least has a decent portion of the audience thinking it.
Goku Black
For Aesthetica of a Rogue Hero
- Harsher in Hindsight: In Sword Art Online, Todd Haberkorn voiced a villain who is a sexual sadist. Here, he desecrates corpses by raping them.
What ?
"That's right mortal. By channeling my divine rage into power, I have forged a new instrument in which to destroy you."
Discarded and Feeling Blue
"Actor plays sexually sadistic villain, and then plays another sexually sadistic villain".
'Ight.
Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
Goku Black
It's not even the only sexually sadistic villain that Todd has played. He was also apos in Mnemosyne. So it isn't even accurate of that's what their going for.
"That's right mortal. By channeling my divine rage into power, I have forged a new instrument in which to destroy you."
If it happens regularly enough, it might be a fit for Typecasting, but not Hindsight anything.
This is on Club Penguin:
"Funny Aneurysm" Moment: A comic in one of the Club Penguin books features a penguin putting on 3D glasses and looking at another penguin, causing him to see him as a 3D model. Come 2017, and Club Penguin was taken down and replaced with Club Penguin Island, which is in full 3D.