History HilariousInHindsight / WesternAnimation

** The casting of Creator/CoreyBurton, the voice of Shockwave on ''[[WesternAnimation/TheTransformers Generation 1]]'' as Megatron. Recently in ''Film/TransformersDarkOfTheMoon'', the ''G1'' incarnation of Megatron's voice actor, Creator/FrankWelker, returned the favor and voiced movie Shockwave.

** The casting of Creator/CoreyBurton, the voice of Shockwave on ''[[WesternAnimation/TheTransformers Generation 1]]'' as Megatron. Recently in ''[[Film/{{Transformers}} Dark of the Moon]]'', the ''G1'' incarnation of Megatron's voice actor, Creator/FrankWelker, returned the favor and voiced movie Shockwave.

** The episode "Hoist Goes Hollywood" has the Autobots participating in a film. But the human cast overshadows them, there's a good deal of pyrotechnics and explosions in it, and the director initially lacks respect for the Autobots. [[Film/{{Transformers}} And then it all actually happened]].

** In the first part of "The Siege of the North", Master Pakku tells Sangok "A couple of more years and you might be ready to fight a sea sponge." In 2008, three years after said episode aired, ''Avatar: The Last Airbender'' won the Kids' Choice Award for Favorite Cartoon.

** In one episode, Zim catches Dib sneaking around his house in a squirrel disguise. After Dib runs off, Zim yells a parting insult to him, calling him "Squirrel boy!" Several years later, Zim's voice actor would go on to voice the titular character in the series ''WesternAnimation/SquirrelBoy''.

*** Speaking of ''MLP'', there's a villain who uses a robot unicorn that shoots lasers to commit crimes. You know it's funny when you realize that [[Creator/TaraStrong Sari's VA]] voices a [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic certain purple unicorn]].
*** Also in ''Human Error Pt. 2'', there are quotes of "So much for the element of surprise" and "Just do it!" which become something [[Creator/TaraStrong Sari's voice actor]] [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipisMagicS4E6PowerPonies would say later.]] Also "Just do it!" becomes something [[Creator/ShiaLaBeouf Sam Witwicky]] says (and no, the [[{{Film/Transformers}} Sam from the other Transformers]]).

* ''HilariousInHindsight/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius''

* ''HilariousInHindsight/TheVentureBrothers''

* Around the time when ''WesternAnimation/MollyOfDenali'' first premiered, Website/GoAnimate users [[InsaneTrollLogic claimed that the show was a ripoff]] of ''WesternAnimation/WildKratts''. Three year later, the Kratt brothers themselves would guest-star on ''Molly of Denali''.

* ''HilariousInHindsight/VoltronLegendaryDefender''

*** Also at one point, Satan (voiced by Creator/RonPerlman) gets his horns caught in the ceiling and mutters about how he should've gotten them trimmed. Ron would later go on to play Franchise/{{Hellboy}}.

** "The Green Loontern" has Katma Tui, a purple skinned Franchise/GreenLantern voiced by Creator/TaraStrong, go up against Sinestro, who's voiced by Creator/JohnDeLancie. This would not be the [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic only]] [[WesternAnimation/DCSuperHeroGirls time]] it happens.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheIllusionauts'', a little-known [[TheMockbuster mockbuster]] of ''Franchise/FantasticFour'', whose premise features a group of heroes recruited to enter the world inside a fiction writer's books (in the original dub, the aforementioned writer is Creator/JulesVerne) to keep it from being changed. Four years later, we have ''VideoGame/BungoToAlchemist'', which has exactly that as its central premise (but with the recruited heroes being ''[[HistoricalDomainCharacter the actual authors]] of the books being protected, brought BackFromTheDead'').

* In the 1949 WesternAnimation/{{Droopy}} cartoon ''Out-Foxed'', Droopy and other dogs go fox hunting. The fox is first seen at home, reading a newspaper titled ''Fox News'' -- the [[Creator/FoxNewsChannel similarly named television network]] didn't exist until 1996.

* In "Hell Comes to Quahog" there's a cutaway gag involving ComicBook/{{Iceman}} visiting a gay movie theater. In 2015, Creator/MarvelComics officially announced that Iceman would come out as gay.

* ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow'': In "Take the Cake", a short-tempered, entitled woman stalks and tries to kill Modecai and Rigby after accusing them cutting in line at the store (when really they were smart enough to use the pre-check pick-up line). It wouldn't be until 2020 that women of her demeanor would gain mainstream attention via the term "Karen".

* ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'':
** Dexter talks to his computer, Quadraplex T-3000 Computer, and it responds to him in a female voice whatever command he has. In May 1996 when internet access was limited, this seemed futuristic, but since Amazon launched the Amazon Alexa on November 6, 2014, 18 years and 6 months later, it's retroactively funny in that Dexter seemed to be ahead of the crowd before Jeff Bezos was!

** At the end of the episode "Nightmares and Daydreams", Aang dreams about [[NotWearingPantsDream Ozai not wearing pants]] during their final battle. During the ''actual'' final battle, Ozai [[WalkingShirtlessScene wears nothing]] ''[[WalkingShirtlessScene but]]'' [[WalkingShirtlessScene pants]].

* ''Animation/TheIllusionauts'', a little-known [[TheMockbuster mockbuster]] of ''Franchise/FantasticFour'', whose premise features a group of heroes recruited to enter the world inside a fiction writer's books (in the original dub, the aforementioned writer is Creator/JulesVerne) to keep it from being changed. Four years later, we have ''VideoGame/BungoToAlchemist'', which has exactly that as its central premise (but with the recruited heroes being ''[[HistoricalDomainCharacter the actual authors]] of the books being protected, brought BackFromTheDead'').

* At the very beginning of ''Thru the Mirror'', an ''[[Literature/AliceInWonderland Alice]] [[WesternAnimation/AliceinWonderland in Wonderland]]'' novel can be seen on MickeyMouse's nightstand. When Mickey climbs out of the mirror and enters the mirror world for the first time, among the objects he encounters is [[WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast a footstool who acted like a dog.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil:'' In the episode “Running With Scissors, while Marco is traveling through Heckapoo’s dimension, he adopts a [[AnimalVehicleHybrid “Dragoncycle”]] that he names “Nachos.” As the name implies, they’re dragons that have a body type (including wheels) that makes them be able to be ridden like a motorcycle. In ''VideoGame/PokemonScarletAndViolet'': The player rides on a dragon (Koraidon or Miraidon depending on the version) that used similarly to a motorcycle.

* The Red Lobster restaurant was actually named after the Coachman's tavern from ''WesternAnimation/{{Pinocchio}}''.