Hilarious in Hindsight/Literature: Difference between revisions

** In ''[[Discworld (Literature)/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]].

** The anti-war novels ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Jingo|Jingo]]'' and ''[[Discworld (Literature)/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 (Literature)/Making Money|Making Money]]'''s jabs at the magical thinking inherent in economics.

** 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!]]).

*** [[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."

*** ''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.

** 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 (Literature)/The Truth|The Truth]]''...

*** 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.

* ''[[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.

** 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.

* In [[Michael Crichton]]'s 1994 novel ''Disclosure'', discussing a computer help program:

** Hey! Listen! (Press C^!) Some people might not get this one if they don't hover the links.

* 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.]]

* During the climax of ''[[Adventures of Huckleberry Finn]]'', an old woman rambles on about {{spoiler|Jim's escape from the Phelps' farm}}, [[Rozen Maiden|ending every sentence with 'says I'.]]

* ''[[The Serpent and The Rainbow]]'' is the autobiographical non-fiction account of Harvard ethnobotanist Wade Davis' journey to Haiti to investigate a mysterious drug being used to turn people into the zombies. The book was notable for its respectful treatment of Haitian and voodoo culture and included several passages that condemned the way voodoo is sensationalized by Hollywood. It was adapted by Wes Craven into a horror film that [[Hilarious in Hindsight|epitomizes everything that Davis condemns in these passages.]]

* [[Edward Gorey]]'s first book, ''The Unstrung Harp'' came out in 1953. In one scene, the main character goes driving near a town named [[Something Awful]].

* Among many other [[Blind Idiot Translation|bad translations]] in the infamous Portuguese-to-English phrasebook "O Novo Guia da Conversação em Portuguez e Inglez" (also known as "English As She Is Spoke") was its translation for "Cômô dizeís ''ôu'' díz Vm?": "[[Zero Wing|What you say?]]"

** Speaking of that, at one point in [[Lord of the Flies]] Piggy says, "[[Zero Wing|What You Say?]]

* In ''[[The Phantom of the Opera]]'', the [[Narrator]] refers to Christine's first abduction (the one where she disappeared for two weeks) as "not the infamous abduction" which everyone has heard of. In context, this refers to how famous her second abduction became in the news in-universe, but the story is so famous now through [[Popcultural Osmosis]] that this clarification seems to be [[Leaning On the Fourth Wall]].

* 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]]'' [http://www.afterellen.com/people/2007/12/jodiefoster come out of the closet], and it [[Actor Allusion|reads quite differently.]]

* In the 1990 short horror novel ''[[The Langoliers]]'' by [[Stephen King]] one of the characters is trying to figure out what caused practically all the passengers of a cross country airline flight do disappear and while internally brainstorming considers the idea that someone [[Snakes On a Plane|filled the plane's luggage compartments with poisonous snakes]] before immediately dismissing it as ludicrous.

* In ''[[The Princess Bride (Literature)|The Princess Bride]]'', the old Archdeacon, as part of Buttercup and Humperdinck's marriage ceremony says, "Mawidge is a [[Inception|dweam wiffin a dweam]]. (He was old and deaf and had a speech impediment.)

** Similarly, Liu Biao has an advisor named Kuai Liang. That won't be too significant for most readers, but any ''[[Mortal Kombat]]'' fans are sure to get a chuckle out of it since ''[[Mortal Kombat 9 (Video Game)|Mortal Kombat 9]]'' revealed ([[Mortal Kombat 2|the younger]]) Sub-Zero's [[Canon Name|real name to be just that.]]

** The book also features a [[Red Shirt]] named "He Man"--while the name is not pronounced anything like [[He Man and The Masters of The Universe (Animation)|He Man and The Masters of The Universe]], it's still funny to see him appear, make a [[Badass Boast]], and then cut down without anyone batting an eye.

* At least one translation of ''[[Beowulf (Literature)|Beowulf]]'' referred to [[Monty Python and The Holy Grail|'great tracts of land']].

* In the 1932 novel ''[[When Worlds Collide]]'', the League of the Last Days picked a location in Michigan to build the space arks because of its geological stability; in another universe, [[Portal (Video Game)|so did a certain shower curtain company]].

* 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]].