Hilarious in Hindsight/Western Animation: Difference between revisions

* In the season 4 episode "The Front", an unnamed cartoon writer becoming disillusioned with his current work is heard to mutter, "To hell with cartoons. I'm gonna do what I always dreamed of doing: I'm going to go write [[Futurama|that sitcom about the sassy robot]]."

** There's also the episode where the Itchy & Scratchy studio run a focus group on what the show should be:

* An odd case is the "Homer at the Bat" episode which involved numerous Major League stars (Boggs, Clemens, Canseco, etc) being hired to play on the company softball team so that Burns can win a bet. A [[Running Gag]] in the episode was Burns demanding that Don Mattingly cut his sideburns (Don had no sideburns; Mr. Burns was probably talking about his mustache). Eventually Mattingly is benched even after shaving a good chunk of his hair with Don saying, "I still like him better than Steinbrenner". Two weeks before the episode aired Mattingly would be suspended from the Yankees for failing to cut his mullet in accordance to George Steinbrenner's player policy.

* The Spinoff Showcase episode from season 8 predicts that future seasons of the show will have wacky subplots featuring magic powers, multiple weddings, and Bart meeting long-lost triplets. Okay, the magic powers were relegated to the Halloween episodes (mostly), but the "Bart meeting long-lost triplets" storyline and the multiple ridiculous weddings storylines (one involving Patty {{spoiler|coming out of the closet as a lesbian and nearly marrying a man thinking it's a woman}} and Selma {{spoiler|marrying Grampa Simpson}}) ''did'' happen.

** In a later episode, the oil-guzzling Constructicons actually ''do'' ingest a bit of Bumblebee's motor oil after they find a trail made by his leaking tank. Apparently [[Squick|he tastes even better than their usual fare]], so it's possible that Bumblebee just settled on the first blood-analogue he could find for his dramatic statement.

** It also serves as a sort of retroactive Reverse Funny Aneurysm moment when you consider two things:

and 2. During that same time, a cartoon called [[Vanpires]] aired, about - you guessed it - mechanoid vampire cars that drained the motor oil from helpless vehicles. }}

** Another Transformers example comes from ''[[Beast Wars]]''. During the episode "Call of the Wild", the Maximals have been taken over by the primal instinct of their beast modes, and the Predacons are hunting them down. Now look at the following quote and try to not think about Sarah Palin. (However, not all will find this as amusing, given that it involves poaching animals.)

** Also from ''[[Beast Wars]]'', Blackarachnia once made an annoyed off-handed remark that almost seems to foreshadow a certain [[Michael Bay|infamous director]].

** Speaking of the Movie, one of the salutes said by the Decepticons is "All Hail Megatron!" (also used as the title for an IDW miniseries). Years later, Megatron in the Japanese dub of ''Animated'' is voiced by [[Norio Wakamoto]]...

* The Japanese [[Transformers Animated]] opening had original footage that [[Never Trust a Trailer|naturally never showed up in the show itself]]. Most notably characters that never even met on the show were paired off to fight. [[Designated Girl Fight|Blackarachnia was always paired off with Arcee]]. In [[Transformers Prime]], Arcee has an [[Arch Enemy]] in Airachnid who's clearly based off of Blackarachnia.

** In one sketch, the announcer says something along the lines of "Remember that hit show ''[[The PJs]]''? [[Take That|Me neither!]]". This became funnier when ''The PJs'' started airing on [[Adult Swim]].

* Consider the lyrics of "The Presidents Song" from ''[[Animaniacs]]'', the version on the Variety Pack album:

It's Clinton, first name Hillary!" }}

** These lyrics were revised from the version of the song used in the show; as clearly audible (and visible) [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vvy0wRLD5s8 here], the lyrics are "But the ones in charge are plain to see/The Clintons, Bill and Hillary!" It still works, more or less.

*** There was also a ''[[Mad Magazine]]'' cover with the Clintons dressed up as ''[[The Flintstones]]'', and these lyrics:

And the one in charge is Hillary!" }}

** Also, in the episode "One Flew Over The Cuckoo Clock" where Slappy goes insane, she says "Is it time for Montel and Phil on the [[The Oprah Winfrey Show|Oprah]] channel?" Come 2011, where Oprah now has her own channel, with [[Doctor Phil|Dr. Phil]].

** Yet another, more in the vein of the ''Star Wars'' fandom: Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars movies, plays the evil overlord father of one of the main characters. Role reversal much? He even shoots lightning!

** "The Ember Island Players" features [[Who Would Want to Watch Us?|a play based on the Gaang's adventures]] which isn't exactly accurate. In light of the live-action [[The Last Airbender|film]], this exchange seems almost prophetic.

'''Sokka:''' But the effects were decent! }}

*** Amusingly, many people found the effects to be decisively lacking.

** In another episode, Carmen's clue to her next target (the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC) was "Follow Hillary [Clinton]'s route to the hill" (see the Animaniacs example above).

* A few [[Youtube Poop|YouTube Poopers]] have taken note of this line in the second ''[[Garfield and Friends]]'' theme song:

** In "The Bad Sport", one throwaway gag mentions building a statue of [[Arnold Schwarzenegger]] out of coleslaw, someone who would find his way back into Garfield media 23 years later with [http://www.mezzacotta.net/garfield/?comic=625 this] ''[[Square Root of Minus Garfield]]'' comic.

** At the beginning of "Astrocat" Garfield and Odie watch the game show "[[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Hit The Buzzer, Win A Cookie]]" and Garfield comments "And this is on the educational channel". Midly amusing comment then, very relevant today thanks to the [[Network Decay]] of [[The Learning Channel]].

* In [[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003|the 2003 incarnation of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]], one of its spinoffs, ''Back to the Sewers'', had the Turtles fight three Shredders in the first episode. Cut to ''Turtles Forever'', {{spoiler|where three Shredders ''do'' appear}}.

** Another for ''[[Turtles Forever]]'': In one of Laird's interviews, he mentions he didn't expect The Shredder to become the "[[Star Wars|Darth Vader]]" of the TMNT universe. The movie hit pretty close to the mark, in which Shredder quotes Vader's master, Palpatine.

** There's even one in the 1st episode of the 2003 show's run: [[Memetic Mutation|"You guys are too slow!"]]

* In the ''[[American Dad]]'' episode "Daddy Queerest", a drunken Stan mistakes Nelson Mandela for [[Morgan Freeman]]. While it is somewhat funny due to Mandela's and Freeman's similarities in appearance, it becomes Hilarious in Hindsight thanks to the movie ''[[Invictus]]'' and Freeman's role as Nelson Mandela.

* Speaking of ''Donkey Kong'', the first episode of ''[[Captain N: The Game Master]]'' had the N Team climbing a volcano to escape the big ape. Kevin remarks that he has played ''Donkey Kong'' enough to know what he's doing. Since the actual NES game had no volcano level, Simon is understandably not trusting of this. In a piece of irony, ''[[Donkey Kong 94]]'', the [[Game Boy]] remake of ''Donkey Kong'' released five years later ''does'' have a volcano level.

* Consider a quote from ''[[The Incredibles]]'':

** And a few years later, ''[[One More Day]]'' comes out. Guess what the devil wants to do with Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson's marriage.

* In the ''[[Baby Blues (animation)|Baby Blues]]'' episode "Teddy Cam", Daryl's co-worker, Kenny (voiced by Diedrich Bader), starts making Batman jokes. Six years later, [[Batman: The Brave And The Bold|he is Batman]] (although he'd already been in ''[[Batman Beyond]]'' three years before).

* A truly epic example happened on October 9, 2010. An episode of [[The Penguins of Madagascar]] had Private be offended that Kilwolski would mock his favorite show about unicorns. It was meant to be a joke that Private was weird in the fact he liked something for girls. ONE DAY LATER, [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]] happened...and well...

* A quote from [http://www.awn.com/mag/issue4.01/4.01pages/bevilacquaceleb.php3 this article] dating back to 1999 about celebrity voice acting:

** The quote was made anonymous, but whoever said it, he got at least one of those things [[Film/Yogi Bear|right]].

* On the [[MAD]] skit ''That's What Superfriends are For'' Jason Marsden ,one of the show's regulars, provided the voice of Kid Flash (Bart Allen). Several months later, when Allen appeared on [[Young Justice]], guess who voiced him?