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Hilarious in Hindsight/Literature: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
Examples of [[{{TOPLEVELPAGE}}]] in [[{{SUBPAGENAME}}]] include:
* In the first ''[[Discworld]]'' book, the heroes are surprised by a [[All Trolls Are Different|troll]] that appeared suddenly in their path, having been whisked away from its home in the mountains some thousands of miles away, in order to appear as a random encounter in the ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' game of the Gods. While it was in reference to random [[Tabletop RPG]] encounters, the way it was described - a sound, the world looking 'strange' and a monster suddenly popping up - mirror exactly the random battles in most console RPGs. This was in 1983, three years before ''[[Dragon Quest]]'' or ''[[Final Fantasy]]'', although ''[[Ultima]] III'' was from 1983.▼
** Another Pratchett one in ''[[Discworld/Carpe Jugulum|Carpe Jugulum]]'': Having an [[Ax Crazy]] vampire parody [[Tom Cruise]]'s character in ''[[Interview with the Vampire]]'' - funny; Reading this parody against Tom Cruise's current reputation? ''Hilarious''.▼
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*** Vlad is accused of only liking Agnes because he can't read her mind. Between that, and the odd amount of sparkling that goes on in ''[[Discworld/Thud|Thud]]'', there is much in the way of unintentional humor if you're at all familiar with ''[[Twilight (novel)|Twilight]]'' or the ''[[Southern Vampire Mysteries]]'', for that matter.▼
== ''[[Discworld]]'' ==
** In ''[[Discworld/Thief of Time|Thief of Time]]'' there's a gentleman's club with a Rule 34. In this case, Rule 34 states that women cannot enter the club except at a certain time and date, which leads to members assuming any women they see inside the club outside of that narrow window of time [[Weirdness Censor|must be figments of their imagination]]. The narration then notes that in Susan's case, with her strict schoolteacher outfit and black high heels, this [[Fetish Fuel|could easily be the case]].▼
▲* In the first ''[[Discworld]]'' book, the heroes are surprised by a [[All Trolls Are Different|troll]] that appeared suddenly in their path, having been whisked away from its home in the mountains some thousands of miles away, in order to appear as a random encounter in the ''[[Dungeons
** The anti-war novels ''[[Discworld/Jingo|Jingo]]'' and ''[[Discworld/Monstrous Regiment|Monstrous Regiment]]'' have echoes in conflicts that have broken out since they were published, but since "war is stupid, and all wars are stupid in much the same ways" is kind of the point, this is not surprising. Likewise with ''[[Discworld/Making Money|Making Money]]'''s jabs at the magical thinking inherent in economics.▼
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*** [[wikipedia:New Moore / South Talpatti#Disappearance|Real life steals the plot]]!▼
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** The only logical conclusion is that [[Terry Pratchett]] is either clairvoyant or a time traveler (and he did steal Unseen University from [[Harry Potter|Hogwarts!]]).▼
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*** [[Word of God]] claims that "with amazing prescience, I saw no future in a series based around a college of magic and wanted UU to stabilise a bit to give me headroom for other stories."▼
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** [[Discworld/Witches Abroad|Witches Abroad]] predates [[The Princess and the Frog]], and is partially set in a combination of a [[Disney Princess]] city and [[The Big Easy]]([[It's Always Mardi Gras in New Orleans|During Fat Lunchtime]], no less) and with a frog prince. Also, Greebo [[Doctor Who|always wanted to be ginger]].▼
*** ''Witches Abroad'' also has a lot of odd similarities with Shrek 2, including the ruler who's only revealed to be a frog at the end, and the villain being a fairy godmother.▼
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** An early Watch book mentions that mass-circulation newspapers hadn't been invented yet in Ankh-Morpork, "leaving the public to fool themselves". Then Pratchett gets around to writing ''[[Discworld/The Truth|The Truth]]''...▼
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** One of ''[[Discworld/The Wee Free Men|The Wee Free Men]]'' says he's "bigger on the inside" in a straightforward ''[[Doctor Who]]'' reference. Then, later on in the book, Tiffany comes across [[Doctor Who/Recap/S30/E08 Silence in the Library|unnatural shadows that]] [[Doctor Who/Recap/S30/E09 Forest of the Dead|move around without any light source]]...▼
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*** Also in that book is Tiffany rescuing someone from a dream {{spoiler|by killing him}}, and being informed by said individual that they might still be trapped in a dream and be unable to tell the difference. The dream is populated by stuff from the dreamer's memories. Oh, and Tiffany was in said dream because she and the WFM [[Inception|wanted to steal something]]. Date of publication: 2003.▼
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== ''[[Harry Potter]]'' ==
* In the fourth ''[[Harry Potter]]'' Book, Mad-Eye Moody {{spoiler|(the fake one)}} repeats "Constant vigilance!" over and over. When this first came out, it seemed outdated. After 9/11, similar lines said by various officials were so pervasive that this line can now be viewed as prophetic dark humor.▼
== Other works ==
* ''[[Neuromancer]]'': "The sky above the port was the color of a television tuned to a dead channel". Some years after this was published, new television sets with sophisticated electronics began replacing "snow" on dead channels with a blank, sky-blue, screen.
** Which is why, in [[Neil Gaiman]]'s novel ''[[Neverwhere]]'', he describes a perfectly clear sky as being the color of "a television tuned to a dead channel," in both a homage to ''[[Neuromancer]]'' and a [[Lampshade Hanging|nod]] to the changes in technology.
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*** Another interpretation would be a black sky with enough ambient light from surrounding structures/buildings/etc. to make it appear to be luminescent at the edges, much like a CRT that is on but does not have any input (like at a command prompt).
** It came out over a decade before the ''[[Metal Gear]]'' series became popular. Reading it today, the inclusion of a [[Metal Gear Solid|genetically enhanced super ninja]] named [[Hideo Kojima|"Hideo"]] is pretty funny.
* A children's educational book in The Knowledge series called ''Crashing Computers'', published in 1999, talks about policy discussions on the 10 Downing Street website and makes a joke about paying kids to go to school. A few years later, the Government created [https://web.archive.org/web/20101125221715/http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/EducationAndLearning/14To19/MoneyToLearn/EMA/DG_066951 the Education Maintenance Allowance], paying some 16-18 year olds to go to school.
** Some countries (e.g. Finland) had student benefits years before 1999, so it's more of a case of Hilarious When Put Into Multinational Perspective.
* ''[[Dave Barry]]'s Book of Bad Songs'' cited "All By Myself" as a member of the bathetic "you-don't-love-me-so-it's-[[Electrified Bathtub|time-to-jump-into-the-bathtub-with-an-electrical-appliance]] genre". The movie ''Me Myself I'' used the song for that exact dramatic situation.
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* In the 1998 ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]''/''[[X-Men]]'' crossover novel ''Planet X'' (which is not a fanfic but rather an officially published, authorized, but noncanonical novel) Captain Picard meets a holodeck simulation of Professor Charles Xavier and is astounded by how similar he looks to him. Two years later the first ''[[X-Men (film)|X-Men]]'' film came out, casting Picard actor [[Patrick Stewart]] as Professor Xavier.
* In Charles Stross' ''[[The Laundry Series|The Atrocity Archives]]'', written in 1999, the author was looking for an obscure terrorist who was none the less likely to strike on American soil. In the book this terrorist gets his occult weapon mass destruction from Saddam, and is based in Afghanistan. Originally the terrorist in question was, you guessed right, [[Osama Bin Laden]]. The book was published in late 2001 and his publisher suggested he change this to some other terrorist who is still obscure, which Stross did.
* In ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]]'', a Someone Else's Problem field is set up to stop people noticing a spaceship parked at Lords' Cricket Ground. A couple of decades later, they built [https://web.archive.org/web/20190928000637/http://www.shrimpsonthebarby.com/images/graphics/mediacentre.jpg this].
** Holy pants, it's [[Wallace and Gromit|Wallace]]'s smile!
** Another example: at the beginning of the first book a demolition foreman is described as being a descendant of Genghis Khan to set up an amusing aside where he has visions of his ancestor's life. Later, it was discovered that 0.5% of the world's male population are indeed descended from Genghis Khan.
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** Hey! Listen! (Press C^!) Some people might not get this one if they don't hover the links.
** You could also go for that great Microsoft innovation, the [[wikipedia:Office Assistant|Office Assistant]], aka that annoying f-ing paperclip.
▲* In the fourth ''[[Harry Potter]]'' Book, Mad-Eye Moody {{spoiler|(the fake one)}} repeats "Constant vigilance!" over and over. When this first came out, it seemed outdated. After 9/11, similar lines said by various officials were so pervasive that this line can now be viewed as prophetic dark humor.
▲** When Dumbledore and McGonagall left Harry with the Dursleys as a [[Door Step Baby]] in the first book, McGonagall said "This boy will be famous. There won't be a child in our world that won't know his name." [[Cash Cow Franchise|Indeed, there probably isn't]]. She also mentions that "there will be books written about him". [[Recursive Canon|No way THAT one wasn't intentional.]]
▲** In the fourth book, Cedric earns the nickname of "Useless Pretty-Boy Diggory". Considering who plays him in the movie (and said actor's [[Twilight (novel)|further roles]])...
▲** For years, various well-meaning parents have demanded that the Harry Potter books be banned because of the books' [[Sarcasm Mode|obvious Satanic undertones]]. ''[[My Immortal]]'' makes all of this hilarious.
▲** From ''[[Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone]]'': "... the Weasley twins were punished for bewitching several snowballs so that they followed Quirrell around, bouncing off the back of his turban." Remember how this book ended? {{spoiler|Fred and George were ''repeatedly hitting Voldemort in the goddamn face this entire time!''}}
▲** At the end of Prisoner of Azkaban, Snape flies into a rage and the Minister of Magic says to Dumbledore - "''Fellow seems quite unbalanced...I'd watch out for him if I were you, Dumbledore''" Possibly the only time Cornelius Fudge displayed sound judgment.
▲** Combined with the movie, ''[[Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows]] Part 1'' has a mixed-income wedding where commoner Bill Weasley (handsome but disfigured by a werewolf's claws) marries the (presumably) wealthy Fleur Delacour, who is wearing an Alexander McQueen-inspired dress. There's a featured wedding guest in yellow, meanwhile there's dark doings involving terrorists and secret missions in the background (that ultimately succeeds, and the defeated foe is given a swift, unceremonious burial) that quickly overshadows the happy occasion. Less than a year after the movie's released, Prince William (handsome but prematurely balding) marries wealthy commoner Kate Middleton, who wears an Alexander McQueen dress while the Queen wears a cheerful yellow ensemble (wait, [[The King in Yellow|The Queen in yellow?]]). Meanwhile, there's a secret mission to take out Osama Bin Laden (who is killed and quickly buried at sea) that knocks the royal wedding off the news cycle (at least until the newlyweds visit California).
▲** In the second book Ron suggests that {{spoiler|Tom Riddle got an award for killing Moaning Myrtle.}} It turns out {{spoiler|he did kill her.}}
* In a case of either this or a [[Funny Aneurysm Moment]] (depending on how you handle your childhood memories being perverted): In 1971, Roger Hargreaves started the ''Mr. Men'' book series, the third of which was titled "Mr. Happy". The titular character was a very happy little yellow man. 10 years later, guess what [[Robin Williams]] decided to nickname his penis (and [[I Call Him "Mister Happy"|name a trope in the process]])?
* In ''[[The Fountainhead]]'', one of the characters walks past a movie theater advertising a cheapened version of ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]'': "Bill Shakespeare's immortal classic! But there's nothing highbrow about it! Just a simple love story. A boy from the Bronx meets a girl from Brooklyn. Just like the folks next door. Just like you and me." [[Ayn Rand]] wrote this description long before ''[[West Side Story]]''. [[True Art Is Ancient|Shakespeare wasn't highbrow in Shakespeare's day, either.]]
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* In ''[[Good Omens]]'': "She wanted a change. Something with openings. She quite fancied herself as a newspaper journalist." Let's just say that whatever the state of the newspaper industry was in 1990, well, [[It Got Worse]].
* Before the invention of Internet memes, there were two points in [[The Thrawn Trilogy]] where Admiral Ackbar brings up traps. In the first book, told that smugglers suspect that alliance with the New Republic is a trap, he says "Because of me, no doubt." Later he says "It appears to be a trap."
** Luke, briefly and incorrectly, suspects the reason Joruus is insane is that the force ghosts of the other Jedi masters on Outbound Flight won't stop bugging him. Originally this just showed that Luke doesn't realize Joruus is insane because he's a clone, unlike Thrawn who notices right away and tells Pellaeon ([[The Watson|and the audience]]) this within the first few pages. In ''Legacy'' the constant pestering of Luke's force ghost drives his descendant Cade Skywalker crazy enough that he takes drugs to keep Luke away.
** And in the [[X Wing Series]], years before Ric Olié's "Coruscant. The whole planet is one big city", newbie Tatooine pilot Gavin Darklighter has a [[Narm Charm]] moment.
{{quote|"It's just a city, the whole thing, one big, huge, really big city. It's ''all'' city."}}
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** In the 9th book, Senna also recites a list of reasons [[This Cannot Be!|why the adventure must not end with her death]]. Perhaps a certain [[Magnificent Bitch]] had some [[Leaning on the Fourth Wall|awareness of the fourth wall]].
* The title of the book ''[[The BFG]]'' by Roald Dahl has taken [[BFG|a new, wonderful meaning.]]
* [[The Iron Dream]] is a Norman Spinrad book, essentially taking the racial ravings of Adolf Hitler {{
* In the second [[Maximum Ride]] book, a kid at Disneyland mistakes [[Big Badass Wolf|Ari]] for Wolverine. Then [[Disney]] bought Marvel...
* In ''[[The Catcher in The Rye]]'', Holden says that if he ever gets drafted, he'll volunteer to [[Riding the Bomb|sit on a nuclear bomb as it is dropped]]. [[Doctor Strangelove|Twelve years later]]...
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* [[wikipedia:Sinclair Lewis|Sinclair Lewis']] 1947 novel ''[[wikipedia:Kingsblood Royal|Kingsblood Royal]]'' features the Sant Tabac, a racist secret society fronting as a cigar club. Flash forward 50 years to the height of the cigar craze, when such clubs were all the rage.
* In the [[The Bible|Book of Exodus]], God lets Aaron speak for his brother Moses because the latter stutters when he speaks. Come 1998, [[Dreamworks Animation]] decides to [[The Prince of Egypt|adapt Exodus into an animated film]], and who do they cast as Aaron? [[Jeff Goldblum]].
* In the novel ''[[Silence of the Lambs|Hannibal]]'' they have an early scene where Mason Verger pumps Paul Krendel on info about Clarice Starling. They come to the point where he mentions that Clarice has a female roommate, and Krendel casually speculates that the pair's relationship is sexual in nature. At the time the book was written it was a quick [[Establishing Character Moment]] to show us that Krendel is a creep, but then [[Jodie Foster|a certain someone]] decided to ''[[Transparent Closet|finally]]'' [https://archive.is/20130101205711/http://www.afterellen.com/people/2007/12/jodiefoster come out of the closet], and it [[Actor Allusion|reads quite differently.]]
* In ''[[Honor Harrington|The Honor of the Queen]]'', one enemy officer is criticized for trying to rely on weight of fire rather than proper timing to overwhelm Honor's defenses, which looks odd in light of the [[Macross Missile Massacre|Macross Missile Massacres]] of later books.
** In ''The Short Victorious War'', the idea of battle-cruisers trumping ships of the wall, even in a missile fight, is dismissed as impossible. Wait a minute...
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* The 2008 [[Doctor Who Expanded Universe]] novel ''Ghosts of India'' has the Doctor trusting an alien on the grounds the alien is making tea, adding "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S31/E03 Victory of the Daleks|The Daleks never made me tea]]."
* The children's novel ''The Twenty-One Balloons'' has the protagonist landing on Krakatoa shortly before the fateful volcanic eruption. He meets a secluded society whose men are named "Mr. (letter)". This naming convention results in two Hilarious In Hindsight moments: 1)the first person the protagonist meets on the island is named [[Arrested Development|Mr. F]] and 2) a later one named man on the island goes by [[The A-Team|Mr. T]].
* [[Young Adult Literature|Juvenile]] science fiction novel ''Rocket Jockey'', published in 1952 by Lester del Rey (under the name Philip St. John), mentions in the prologue that the first human to set foot on the Moon, in 1964, was named Armstrong. Five years early, and del Rey's Armstrong was a major, not an ex-navy civilian, but still.
* In the ''[[The Thrawn Trilogy]]'' Luke is annoyed at having to do date conversions and notes how it seemed that every new government's first action was to create a new calendar. Since the main calendar (which itself wasn't really solidified yet at the time the novels were written) of the ''[[Star Wars Expanded Universe]]'' is based on the Battle of Yavin, and has many works set ''before'' the Battle of Yavin that (obviously) can't use Before Battle of Yavin dating in-universe, there's at least five contemporary calendars introduced for keeping track of time in prequels<ref>The Russan Reformation (which is conveniently exactly 1000 years before the Battle of Yavin), local Cularin system time in [[Living Force]] (made more annoying by how the system disappeared for 10 years and then reappeared without any time within the system progressing), the Treaty of Coruscant for the ''[[The Old Republic]]'' MMO, the Great Resynchronization created by ''A Guide to the Star Wars Universe'' but used largely for in-universe forum posts in the [[West End Games]] RPG (which frustratingly isn't just a different zero year but also starts the year at a different point), and the Tho Yor Arrival for the ''[[Dawn of the Jedi]]'' series.</ref>, at least two non-New Republic governments that exist post-Yavin with their own<ref>The Imperials (who naturally don't view the New Republic as legitimate and don't idolize the Battle of Yavin) using the founding of the Galactic Empire as their zero point, and the internal calendar of the Chiss Ascendancy using their founding in 5000 BBY. On top of that that the Hapes Consortium ''may'' also have their own.</ref> and the occasional use of the local calendars of non-space civilizations {{spoiler|including one within the Thrawn Trilogy itself}}. Keeping track of the year in ''Star Wars'' does indeed involve a lot of date conversions.
* The ''[[Mad]] Magazine'' parody of [[The Incredible Hulk (TV series)|''The Incredible Hulk'' TV series]] in the 1970s included a panel where Dr. Banner was asked about his name change from the comic book "Bruce" to the TV show "David", going with the explanation "Bruce sounds too feminine"... while a TV in the corner replayed footage of Bruce Jenner winning an Olympic decathlon gold medal. Forward to 2015, when the world learned <s> Bruce</s> Caitlyn Jenner is a [[transgender]] woman.
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