History HarsherInHindsight / StandUpComedy

* Jason Cook in the emotionally charged climax to his stand-up show "Joy" does a list, the "5 worst things to happen to the Cook family" topped at #1 by his Dad's death to cancer. he then presents a new list: "5 people who should have died of cancer instead of my Dad" #2 was originally Jade Goody, who, during the tour, died of cancer. It was changed, but the audience is informed of this change, hence Liverpool making the list twice.

* In his 2017 special ''Hitler's Dog, Gossip and Trickery'' Creator/NormMacdonald does a lead in to a joke where he mentions the two leading causes of death are heart failure and cancer. This is sad to watch now, as Macdonald died from cancer 4 years after the special was filmed. (As well as having been already diagnosed with cancer years earlier, which [[SecretlyDying he hid from almost everyone]] until his death in 2021.

* All the drug addiction directed at Greg Giraldo (which he was always a good sport about, even making a few himself) at the Creator/ComedyCentral roasts and on his ''Comedy Central Presents'' episodes became a lot more uncomfortable when he died of a prescription drug overdose.

* All the drug addiction and suicide jokes directed at Greg Giraldo (which he was always a good sport about, even making a few himself) at the Creator/ComedyCentral roasts and on his ''Comedy Central Presents'' episodes became a lot more uncomfortable when he died of a prescription pill overdose. In his very last roast, the one for Creator/DavidHasselhoff, he joked that Hasselhoff's career and [[UsefulNotes/RobertFKennedy Bobby Kennedy]] are alike as they both died on a hotel room floor. Ironically, Giraldo would later join them on that same spot.

** The many rape allegations against Cosby that led to his prison sentence makes his [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAorIG6MZnc Spanish Fly]] routine, all about [[SlippingAMickey his desire to slip the drug into women's drinks]], very uncomfortable. Plus, it appeared in an album called ''It's True! It's True!'' (and let's not delve into how ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Cosby_Talks_to_Kids_About_Drugs Bill Cosby Talks to Kids About Drugs]]'' is now both UnderminedByReality and hypocritical)

** Regarding Savile, there's a very weird comedy sketch used in the Northern states of ''Mexico'', of all places, during the 90s, since Savile was basically unknown outside the U.K.: In the streets of Mexican Northern states (like Durango and Coahuila) an unknown comedy troupe tended to put fake Wanted signs in the streets about a fake serial rapist named ''Tio Manguerolo''[[note]]Manguerolo is a deformation of ''Manguera'', which is Mexican slang for ''penis'', and ''Tio'' means ''uncle''.[[/note]] who claimed to have raped women, men, children, the elderly, [[BestialityIsDepraved animals]], [[ILoveTheDead the dead]], [[RoboSexual robots]] and even ''aliens''. The harsher part came with the fact that Savile became a well-known figure worldwide two decades later, not only because he was a pedophile, but also it was recently discovered he had ''exactly'' raped from children to the elderly and even the deceased, and while we can discount the idea that he could have raped aliens and robots, the bestiality part is not so farfetched in any case, just because animals ''cannot talk'' to accuse him post-mortem.

'''Mitch:''' Hey, Phil, [[SelfDeprecation which way is my career going?

** * In 1998, comedian Jeff Foxworthy had a joke where he was discussing Red Necks' love of commemorative plates, and UsefulNotes/{{NASCAR}}, referring to a "Legends of NASCAR" plate with Dale Earnhardt. Foxworthy's redneck says "That's Dale Earnhardt, he wasn't in a wreck or nothin', that's just catsup on the plate". Three years later at the 2001 Daytona 500, Dale Earnhardt was killed in a crash.

** One of his comedy bits involves commemorative NASCAR plates. "That's Dale Earnhardt. He wasn't in a wreck or nothin'. That's just some ketchup on his face." Kinda funny...until the 2001 Daytona 500, when Earnhardt was killed in a crash.

* Creator/BillHicks was a very, ''very'' heavy smoker, who habitually tore the filters off his Marlborough Reds before smoking them and joked about going through "two lighters a day" in his act. One routine had him confessing his failure to quit, which is greeted with ecstatic cheering from the audience. He turned this into a joke too. "Bill's gonna kill himself, WOOOH! Bill's gonna lose a lung, YEEAH!" He didn't lose a lung, but did die from aggressive pancreatic cancer at the age of 32. So, err, yeah.
* Creator/RodneyDangerfield made a statement to his fan club before going into surgery saying "If all goes well, I will be out in a couple weeks. If not, a couple of hours." He would die from complications from that operation within a few weeks. Lightened by the fact that the statement was so typical of his style of humor, and that he might have thought the irony funny.
* Creator/ChristopherTitus's first two stand-up specials[[note]]''Norman Rockwell is Bleeding'' and ''The 5th Annual End of the World Tour''[[/note]] (and the original first episode of his sitcom ''Series/{{Titus}}'') both have bits in which Christopher gushes over how wonderful is girlfriend Erin is (especially compared to the briar patch of psycho-bitches he dated in the past, including the abusive Noelle, who, like Titus's violent, manic-depressive schizophrenic mom, had a high IQ, was said to be beautiful, and often snapped and abused Titus for little or no reason). Fast forward to ''Love is Evol'' and ''Neverlution'', in which Titus and Erin (renamed "Kate" or referred to as "my ex-wife" for legal reasons) are divorced and Erin turns out to be no different than the psycho-bitches Titus dated -- in fact, Erin was worse: She cheated on Titus with two men (one of which was a 60-year-old man who was richer than Titus), stole her children's college money so she could get plastic surgery, drank excessively, tried to kill Titus in front of his daughter, [[DrivenToSuicide goaded him to kill himself just like his mom and sister]], and committed perjury in court by claiming that Titus was abusive ''just so she could take him for everything he had''[[note]]California is usually a "no-fault divorce" state, meaning that if a couple divorced, everything they own is automatically split down the middle. However, if one spouse claims that the other abused him or her and/or their children, then everything the abuser has becomes property of the one who claims abuse[[/note]]. The only good thing to come from this is that Titus now has a girlfriend (Rachel Bradley) who actually loves him and who comes from a functional family.

** In ''Bill Cosby Himself'', there's a whole bit that begins, "My son is 10 years old, and I don't think he's going to live to see 11..." and then details a plot by his sisters to kill him. Later in the same, there's a bit where his wife tells him to go upstairs "And kill that boy." Ennis Cosby [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ennis_Cosby was murdered on January 16th, 1997]].

* In a particularly horrifying example, British magician and comedian Tommy Cooper had a heart attack and collapsed ''live on stage'', being broadcast to millions across Britain. As this was not out of character for his act, the audience started laughing, only to lapse into horror as they realized it wasn't an act. After seeing that, watching old recordings of his act can be pretty painful.
* Creator/SamKinison had several:
** He did a rant about how people overreacted to drinking and driving. His untimely death was caused by some drunk asshole crashing into his car, and Kinison reportedly had drugs in his system at the time, making his advocacy of drug use darkly ironic.
** The "driving to Barstow" bit on ''Have You Seen Me Lately'' eerily echoes the time and place of Kinison's death, in a car crash in the California desert.
** Related to Californian deserts, the 2010s droughts lead many people to compare the state to Kinison's famed "YOU LIVE IN A FUCKING DESERT!" routine.
* When you consider that comedian Creator/RichardJeni was diagnosed with clinical depression and killed himself two years after his last HBO stand-up special, ''A Big Steaming Pile of Me'', watching it is like watching a videotaped suicide note with a laugh track. Of course, this is a risk with any comedian who talks about their married and/or personal life, really.
* In the 1960s impressionist Vaughn Meader recorded two comedy albums entitled "The First Family Vol. I" and "The First Family Vol. II" poking fun at then White House occupant UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy. When he was assassinated, nobody could bear to see Meader perform his act and all unsold copies of his records were destroyed and both albums remained out of print until the turn of the millennium (when they were released on CD).

* Jason Cook in the emotionally charged climax to his stand-up show "Joy" does a list, the "5 worst things to happen to the Cook family" topped at #1 by his Dad's death to cancer. he then presents a new list: "5 people who should have died of cancer instead of my Dad" #2 was originally Jade Goody, who, during the tour, died of cancer. It was changed, but the audience is informed of this change, hence Liverpool making the list twice.

* In 1990, Brazilian magazine ''Casseta Popular'' (whose members would be part of the comedy group Casseta & Planeta) did a satirical analysis of each team/country on the upcoming UsefulNotes/FIFAWorldCup. Yugoslavia's one said there was no joke to be told as it was an unremarkable and "meh" country. [[UsefulNotes/TheYugoslavWars One year later...]]
* Creator/GeorgeCarlin spent the first ten minutes of his 1999 special, ''You Are All Diseased'', by mocking airport security, emphasizing the unlikelihood of a terrorist attack, how he finds terrorism "entertaining", and how everyone needs to settle down and enjoy life. Needless to say it wasn't so entertaining after 9/11 happened.
* [[http://www.theonion.com/article/penn-state-players-all-worried-theyre-going-to-be--21120 An article]] from ''Website/TheOnion'' in August 2011 about Joe Paterno ended with the sentiment that without Penn State, Joe Paterno would probably die. Paterno was fired as the head coach at Penn State in November 2011 due to the Jerry Sandusky sexual abuse scandal. Two months later, Paterno died.

* In the wake of several mass shootings in America (including at a movie theater and at a Sikh temple), satirical newspaper The Onion published an article entitled "Nation Celebrates Full Week Without Deadly Mass Shooting." The last line in the article is "At press time, federal authorities had issued a reminder to all Americans that a lot can happen in 24 hours, ...so let’s not get too excited yet." Less than 24 hours later, a gunman shot ten people in front of The Empire State Building and killed two of them.
* Creator/RobinWilliams:
** In his 2002 comedy special ''Live on Broadway'', Creator/RobinWilliams mocks the French for their supposed outrage about Lance Armstrong winning the Tour de France bicycle race despite the ravages of cancer: "'He is on chemicals!' 'It's chemo-''therapy'', you little toad-suckers!'". Though in 2012, it was determined that Armstrong ''had'' used performance-enhancing drugs in his victories, and he got stripped of all his titles.
*** During the same special, Robin discusses the heightened security following the September 11th attacks, and how such measured singled out Muslims and Middle Eastern people in a [[BlatantLies "totally random"]] manner, adding "every Black and Hispanic man in the room is going, 'Thank you, God! Oh, yes, we're off the list, motherfucker, yeah!'" As it turned out, both Black and Hispanic people wouldn't be any less discriminated against, as the September 11th attacks also led the US government to establish the Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, which would more aggressively scrutinize immigrants, especially those from Mexico and Latin America, leading to the 2018 scandal where ICE forcibly took the children of immigrants and refugees from their families to detention centers; and PoliceBrutality against Black people increased in the years that followed, leading to massive international protests against policing after George Floyd's murder by police officers in 2020.
** His final comedy special, ''Weapons of Self-Destruction'' in 2009, has gotten uncomfortable since his suicide in August 2014. First of all, the title, ''Weapons of '''Self-Destruction''''', has taken on a whole new meaning. Second, in the special, Robin shared a humorous story about [[AIIsACrapshoot his GPS mistakenly telling him to turn while crossing a bridge]], saying "No can do, [[Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey HAL]]... Not that depressed, really."

* At Wrestling/WrestleMania V there was a segment where comedian Morton Downey, Jr. kept blowing cigarette smoke in Wrestling/RoddyPiper's face. At one point Downey even said, "That's good for you. That's healthy. Look, you can live as long as I have." Morton Downey, Jr. would die on March 12, 2001 from lung cancer.
** Invoked twice here. Downey died at age 68. Piper didn't make it that far, dying on July 31, 2015, aged 61.

* On August 28, 2014, Creator/JoanRivers joked at a stand-up performance that she could "go any day now". Just hours afterward, during what was supposed to be a minor throat surgery, she suddenly stopped breathing and was placed in a medically-induced coma. She died a few days later.
* In a bit about bicyclers in New York in 1997, Creator/DenisLeary joked that the last person to get a ticket for speeding in New York was a guy who crashed his plane into the Empire State Building in the 30s. Four years later, the joke became a bit awkward...

* One of Jeff Foxworthy's comedy bits involves commemorative NASCAR plates. "That's Dale Earnhardt. He wasn't in a wreck or nothin'. That's just some ketchup on his face." Kinda funny...until the 2001 Daytona 500, when Earnhardt was killed in a crash.
* During ''Creator/JeffDunham'''s All Over the Map tour/special in 2014, Malaysia "asked" Jeff not to use Achmed the Dead Terrorist, one of his most popular characters. To get around this, he instead used "Jacques Merde[[note]]Jack Shit[[/note]], the Dead French Terrorist". Given the terrorist bombings in Paris in 2015 and onwards, this has become a lot more.... Awkward.
* After the 2017 Best Picture Oscar mix-up, Billy Eichner [[https://twitter.com/billyeichner/status/836082654483210248?s=20 tweeted]] “If anyone in the In Memoriam is still alive, please let us know!” Turns out [[https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/02/oscars-in-memoriam-mistake/amp?__twitter_impression=true someone was:]] The name of late costume designer Janet Patterson was shown alongside a picture of producer Jan Chapman, still very much alive and not happy about the error.
* In his 2008 comedy special ''Kill the Messenger'', Creator/ChrisRock joked about Senator John [=McCain=]'s presidential campaign, saying about his time as a POW during the Vietnam War, "I don't wanna vote for nobody who got captured, I wanna vote for the motherfucker that got away." In 2015, then-nominee UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump attacked [=McCain=]'s service, saying "I like people who weren't captured." [=McCain=] was so incensed by Trump that when he died in 2018, he specifically prohibited then-President Trump from attending his funeral.
* Rolf Harris:
** In Roy Chubby Brown's 1998 show ''Chubby Goes Down Under and Other Sticky Regions'', Brown jokes about Harris' songs being about sex ("Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport"? What's all that about? "Two Little Boys"? Dirty bastard"). Barely a decade later, Harris was revealed to be sexual predator.
** Creator/BernardManning even took a shot at him that proved quite prophetic.
-->Two Little Boys, dirty fuckin' bastard.