Joke and Receive

"Gee... where are the snakes? [several snakes appear] I was just being sarcastic!"

— Kim Possible, Kim Possible, "Monkey Fist Strikes"

Your Deadpan Snarker, Plucky Comic Relief or just anyone in the mood makes a joke about something: a hypothetical, ridiculous situation at first glance. This is when, unbeknownst to them, what they just said is literally true or will happen later on in the story because the universe wants so.

Reactions vary: The joking character may laugh their ass off because it's suddenly even funnier, they may feel guilty for saying something that's suddenly tragic, they can go all deadpan and say "...Really?", or something else altogether.

It can be used as Foreshadowing for a future plot development if it sounds outlandish enough so the audience doesn't find the hint too obvious. If the audience already knows the joke is not a joke when the character makes it, it's a form of Dramatic Irony. If a really long time elapses between the joke and the moment it becomes real, it's also a case of Brick Joke.

Compare I Was Just Joking, where a character makes a joke and another takes it literally as a serious suggestion; My God, You Are Serious!, where a character thinks another is joking but isn't, as they soon find out; and Accidental Truth, where instead of a joke it's a deliberate lie. It may easily lead to Hilarious in Hindsight and Harsher in Hindsight. It may overlap with I Knew It! if a fan of a work makes a joking guess about the plot and nails it. See also If Only You Knew, Tempting Fate, The Cuckoolander Was Right, Chekhov's Gag, Retroactive Wish and Pre-emptive Declaration. Similar to Rhetorical Question Blunder where someone gets an answer to a question that wasn't meant to be serious.

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Examples:

Advertising

• In an ad for Quizno's, a man sitting on a bench eating a Quizno's sub notices the man next to him (played by Jim Parsons) is eating an untoasted sub and asks, "What were you, raised by wolves?" A Cutaway Gag shows that he in fact was, and it cuts back to the man answering in the affirmative.

Anime & Manga

• In Episode 4 of Yuri!!! on Ice, Takeshi and Yuko joke that many skating fans might be hating Yuri now since they believe that he "stole Victor from [ice skating]". Episodes 6 and 8 show that they're actually correct.
• In Season 2 Episode 6 of Zombie Land Saga, one of reporter Shinta Okoba's colleagues jokes that Franchouchou could be the living dead, rather than the bunch of celebrity lookalikes he thinks they are. At the end of the episode, Okoba sees Tae's head come off, realizing that Franchouchou ARE the living dead.

Comic Books

• Buck Godot: Zap Gun for Hire: In "The Gallimaufry", Buck while trolling the Klegdixal ambassador, predicts "a presentation that will alter the balance of galactic politics, forge new alliances, turn ally upon ally and change the life of every sentient aboard this station." The humans' presentation the following day has every one of those effects.
• My Friend Dahmer: A very, very bleak example happens at the end of the comic book memoir written by a former classmate of Jefferey Dahmer. When discussing with his high school friends where they think their old classmates have ended up, Derf comments, "Dahmer's probably a serial killer by now."
  ... And we all laughed.
• Spider-Men II: Peter and Miles are trapped, and Peter, who blames Miles for it all, sarcastically asks if he doesn't have some secret Spider superpower that would help them to get away. And actually, he does...
  Peter Parker: WHY DO YOU HAVE MEGA VENOM BLAST AND I DON'T?
• Tomboy (2015): Jessica asks Addison (who has been killing people involved with the corrupt Trent company) why she's been avoiding her. Owen proposes that "Maybe Addison is secretly the vigilante and she can't have you cramping her murder scenes." The girls yell at him, "Don't even joke about that!"

Fan Works

• Advice and Trust: Touji called Shinji and Asuka newlyweds when they were having a staged fight. A while later they confessed publicly that they had been secretly dating for several months before kissing in front of all their classmates, and Touji muttered that he thought he was joking when he told they looked a married couple:
  Touji: I thought I was joking about the "married couple" thing.
• In the Alternate Tail Series, Lily explains to Carla, Kagura, and Gajeel that Exceeds in Edolas are treated as divine beings that can smite any human with a thought. Gajeel asks that since Lily doesn't act that way, does that make him Edolas's version of Lucifer. Lily replies that as a Fallen Exceed, that exactly what Edolas sees him as.
  Gajeel: I was only joking.
• In the RWBY/Pokémon crossover Boldores And Boomsticks, once Team RWBY learns that Pokéballs are matter-to-energy conversion and storage devices, Blake comments that she'd wondered if some Pokémon were just really small. Yang's joking response to that is immediately proven correct, much to her dismay:
  Yang: What, like a portable goldfish?
  [nearby kid sends out a Goldeen]
  Yang: ...I was kidding.
• In The End Harry ends an open letter to magical Britain by claiming, as a prank, that he heard a rumor about Tom Riddle and McGonagall dating each other at Hogwarts. Turns out that they actually did, but the relationship was deliberately derailed by Dumbledore.
• In Fate Revelation Online, Cuvie facetiously calls one of Agil's spells Heat Hawk. Agil is shocked that Cuvie knew the name.
• The Guile of the Traveller:
  Walburga: You really are the most juvenile bunch. Kissing [cousins] is nothing in comparison to some of our marriages. Our cousin Rhea was once engaged to my brother Alphard but then left the day before the wedding to marry into a European pureblood family. She was a Maledictus, which was why she was blasted off the family tapestry, and eventually her Blood Curse caught up with her and she turned into a wyvern that stills guards her husband's castle to this very day.
  Harry: What the … Can't you Blacks ever be normal?! The next thing you'll tell me is that you have a Selkie in your line!
  Orion: Well, actually-
  Harry: For crying out loud! Forget I asked.
• Jade Green Eyes:
  Draco: You know Weasley and I are not going to get along! Granger's okay if she can keep from spouting off everything she knows, but Weasley is nothing but a pain in the butt!
  Harry: I don't expect you to be bosom buddies! The day you two get along for more than five minutes at a stretch is the day I'll expect to hear that Severus and Sirius dated in school!
  Snape: How did you know about that?
• In The Last Son series, after the Fantastic Four meet Superman, the Human Torch jokingly speculates that he's an alien, only to be shocked when the reactions of Superman and the X-Men reveal that he was right (the Thing observes that, by law of averages, even Johnny would have to be right at some point).
• In Mishaps and Misunderstandings, Hawkmoth has taken to send Akumas in the middle of the night, seriously disturbing Adrien and Marinette's sleep and making both of them cranky. When Nathalie points out that Gabriel is considering pulling him out in the middle of classes to do photoshoots, Adrien blows up at her and sarcastically suggests for his father to stop sending Akumas at night so he can sleep. Unbeknownst to him, his father is Hawkmoth, which makes Gabriel and Nathalie believe Adrien is onto them, so he stops sending Akumas at night - and causes them to get caught when Nathalie nonchalantly mentions this to Adrien a week later, making him realize that his father and Nathalie are the villains he and Ladybug have been fighting, and runs out to warn Ladybug.
• In Chapter 2 of No Competition, a neighbor finds out the Dursleys locked four-year-old Harry Potter out of the house overnight and he got frostbite. The concerned neighbor goes over to interrogate Petunia Dursley, inquiring after Harry. When the neighbor, not seeing Harry or knowing where in the house he is, says "I note you've not left the house at all this morning, and wanted to confirm YOU gave him the appropriate treatment, and didn't just shove him into a cupboard somewhere." The cupboard statement was supposed to be facetious, but it startles Petunia into a heart attack, and then Dudley begrudgingly reveals that Harry Potter really is in the cupboard under the stairs. The neighbor is horrified.
• Son of the Sannin:
  • When Naruto's team meets Roshi, the blond reveals to the old man that Jiraiya, who is also the current Hokage, is his adoptive father. Roshi jokingly asks if his adoptive mother happens to be Tsunade, which Naruto immediately confirms.
  • Earlier on, after being informed that what happened to Naruto's biological parents is an S-Rank secret, Karin asks "Geez, was your father a Hokage, or what?"
• The Soulmate Timeline: A running gag is for Sayaka's clearly joking comments to actually be true to her surprise. Like joking that Hitomi has to sit through pottery lessons, which Hitomi comfirms, and joking that Madoka is able restore Homura and Mami's magic through hugs and kisses only to be stunned when she sees when Madoka actually restoring Mami's magic with a kiss.
• This Bites!:
  • When De Lis calls HQ for confirmation, she gets Garp saying that the Accinos never did make any requests.
    Garp: Why, did they trick you into letting them into Alabasta or something?
    De Lis: [eye twitch] Um... well...
    [Beat]
    Garp: ...You did, didn't you.
  • During Marineford, after having several of his plans and contingencies foiled by Cross, a frustrated Sengoku wishes for the pirate to end up in the deepest, darkest hell. Exactly where Kuma sent Cross for the two year training session, The Seventh Hell of Darkness, The Eternal Rotting Tree, Serpent.
• Through a Temple: Eddington sarcastically apologizes that the Maquis' secret base doesn't live up to Shepard's standards, only for Shepard and Zaeed (who have seen many underground secret bases and the Collector Base, a hollowed-out hive and construction yard for eldritch machine gods), to say that no, compared to that, it's not that impressive.
• Throw Away Your Mask: When Adachi asks him if he has any ideas of who could be behind the murders, Akechi suggests it could be Adachi himself with the motive of being bored with life in Inaba, mostly to mess with him. Unbeknownst to Akechi, he's right on both counts.
• In Twelve Red Lines, after learning Luffy is Garp's grandson, Sabo's brother and Dragon's son, Usopp freaks out and asks if Luffy is hiding something else, such as his other brother being the Pirate King's secret son.
• In The World According To Peter Parker And Karen Starr, when Helena Bertinelli appears as a new teacher at Midtown High, Peter Parker jokingly asks if she got kicked out of Gotham because Oracle found out Helena and Nightwing had a fling, and Helena immediately asks who told him about that (although the relationship had nothing to do with Helena's departure; she just disagreed with Oracle about something in the field).
• In You'll Get No Answers from the Blue Sea Star, Jo tends to stumble into this when trying to make light of dire situations.
  I shrugged. "How bad could it be? The archbishop doesn't want to kill us or anything, right?" My sisters exchanged glances. "Oh, no. You think the archbishop wants to kill us."

Films — Live-Action

• Ali G Indahouse: When Ali accuses his opponent of "sucking off a horse" during a televised debate. It turns out that the guy actually did just that prior to the debate, and that it was a minor scandal in his party. But instead of just telling Ali off for saying something so vulgar during a serious debate, he proceeds to try to talk his way out of it by claiming that he just accidentally fell on the horse's phallus, and that it was aroused because it was mating season. It doesn't go well.
• James Bond, The Man with the Golden Gun: Describing the title character so Bond will recognize him at the "Bottoms Up" club, an associate can only manage a general description of "tall, slim, and dark". ("So's my aunt.") When she indicates that he has three nipples, Bond allows it's a "fascinating anatomical tidbit" as well as "the most useless piece of information" he's ever heard unless Bottoms Up is a strip club and the man is performing. Though he doesn't remark on it later, it turns out that the first part is actually right.
• The Muppets Take Manhattan: Pete does this in the scene where Kermit and the rats are applying for jobs.
  Pete: Rats want job. Frog want job. What next, penguins?
  (A group of penguins enters the room.)
  Penguin: Do you have any jobs available?
  Pete, Kermit, and the rats: NO!
• Superman III: When the Penny Shaving scam is discovered, Ross Webster says that there's no real chance of catching the perpetrator unless he does something really stupid (which he thinks is unlikely from someone smart enough to set up the scam in the first place). Gus Gorman immediately arrives for work in a sports car he couldn't possibly afford on his salary.
• ¡Three Amigos!: During the attempt to infiltrate El Guapo's hideout, Ned Nederlander (one of the Amigos) swings on a rope and ends up getting caught on a piñata high above the compound. Later on, after El Guapo captures the other two Amigos, he says "What is happening around here today? Are gringos falling from the skies?" Ned lets go and falls onto a nearby table. Jefe (El Guapo's The Dragon) says, "Yes, El Guapo."
• Werewolf by Night: When Jack offers to help Elsa get the Bloodstone in exchange for her helping free the monster, she sarcastically says, "Right, yeah. 'Cause you'll just have a quick chat with him, sort it out 'cause you're, what, the monster's friend?" Jack nods, smiling, prompting a surprised scoff from Elsa.

Literature

• Achoo!: The animals hyberbolically wonder if Suzy-Sue was born in a zoo due to having no manners. At the end of the book, it's revealed that she was.
• It seems very likely that the small boy Dirk asked for advice about how to explain the Impossibly Awesome Magic Trick in Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency was being sarcastic when he said "It's bleedin' obvious, innit, 'e must've 'ad a bleedin' time machine." Dirk not only takes this at face value, but is right.
• Discworld:
  • From Snuff:
    Captain False: The police? Here? Pull the other one, mate. Who do you think you are, bloody Commander Vimes?
    Sam Vimes: Are you always this lucky?
  • The same joke earlier appears in the short story "Troll Bridge":
    Micah: Bloody hell, you think you're Cohen the Barbarian, do you?
    Cohen: What do you think?
• Harry Potter:
  • Used as a Brick Joke in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: When Harry and Ron discover a trophy awarded to a Tom Riddle for undisclosed services to the school, Ron jokes that maybe Tom killed Moaning Myrtle (who is currently a ghost) because she's so annoying. Much later in the book it turns out that Tom Riddle actually did murder Myrtle, although that's not why he received the trophy (it was actually for supposedly catching her killer — he framed Hagrid for the murder, which is why Hagrid was expelled).
  • In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry tries to brute force the password to Dumbledore's office since he knows that the latter always uses the names of sweets as passwords. After trying a bunch of them to no avail, he gets angry and yells "Cockroach Clusters" and the door opens. Harry admits he was "just joking".
• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy: In The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Zaphod gets into an argument with the Guide's receptionist:
  Receptionist: Well, just who do you think you are, honey? Zaphod Beeblebrox or something?
  Zaphod: Count the heads.
• In King Dork, Tom and Sam name their band the "Chi-Mos" (child molesters) and some of their songs mention their assistant principal Mr. Teone having sexual misconduct towards students (though they just wrote that because he's a jerk and kind of creepy). It turns out Mr. Teone actually is running an underage pornography ring, and flees the school when the police investigate at the end of the book.
• When Katarina and Mary's first meeting in My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! is shown from the latter's perspective, her first thought is how Katarina seems like she was a being from another world.
• Roys Bedoys: In "Stop Blaming People, Roys Bedoys!", Roys keeps blaming other people for his mistakes, and Maker jokes that he would blame his little brother Loys if he could. Roys then says, "Now that you mention it, it is Loys's fault." Then, when Truly jokes that Roys might blame Charlie for eating his homework, Roys says, "Maybe he did."
• In the Sherlock Holmes novel The Twelve Thefts of Christmas by Tim Majors, Holmes has been challenged to a sort of puzzlehunt by Irene Adler, with the theme of thefts that aren't really thefts. Dr Watson thinks Holmes is too obsessed with this, especially when he has an actual client. When Holmes starts deconstructing the Times crossword for anything that might be relevent, Watson says he's seeing patterns where none are there, and that in his current state he could probably just as easily derive something from the headline opposite. Then he realises the headline opposite is about a river that was mysteriously drained of water.
• in To Shape a Dragon's Breath, Anequs says to Theod during their fight that if becoming the darling of jarls and kings is what it will take to secure her and Kasaqua's freedom to go as they may like without being tied to the academy, she'll just have to do it. She becomes a hero and darling to Jarl Joevarsson himself later soon after they meet when she and Kasaqua together dispatch his would-be assassin—but not without all three being injured in various degrees.
• In Warrior Cats, Jaypaw, annoyed at having his mentor Brightheart chosen specifically because Jaypaw is blind and Brightheart is missing an eye, as well as having the blind Longtail help out, angrily snarks "Oh great. Let's lump all the useless cats together and hope a tree falls on them!". Seven books later, a tree falls on his Clan's camp and Longtail is killed by it.

Live-Action TV

• The Barrier:
  • Alma at some point quips that she'll go down in history in role more important than that of her husband, who is the Minister of Health. By the end of the series, she's the new President.
  • During a party, Alma makes Luis move the champagne bottle a little before uncorking it to make sure one of the guests isn't in the cork's trajectory, jokingly asking him to please not kill the guest in question. The party ends up being the last time the guest is seen alive.
• Big Fat Quiz of the Year:
  • In the third episode of the BFQ of Everything, Dara and Chelsea wrote down "Smells Like Teen Spirit" as a joke answer to a question about a deodorant-inspired song. They were right.
  • In the 2017 "Everything" episode, Jimmy asks what lyric comes after "I don't want to see a ghost/It's the sight that I fear most" in Des'ree's song "Life". Jonathan Ross and David Walliams wrote "I would like some toast" because it was a random thing that rhymed, and turned out to be mostly right. ^note The actual line is, "I'd rather have a piece of toast".
• On an episode of Blockbusters, host Bill Cullen made a very bad pun, to which the sound effects booth responded by hitting the Losing Horns. After Bill quipped "can't we do this show with an applause machine?", an offstage voice (possibly that of The Announcer, Bob Hilton) said "We are."
• Bridgerton: When Eloise (a rebellious young lady uncomfortable with being out in society) is presented to the queen, she makes an unpolished comment about preferring emeralds to diamonds^note the Queen had been expected to declare the season's diamond/Incomparable at said ball. After an uncomfortable Beat, the Queen is delighted by her comment, impressed by how Eloise "knew" her favorite necklace was an emerald one. Eloise is horrified at how she's just failed upwards.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
  • "Inca Mummy Girl": After the gang notices that someone went missing during their school trip to the museum, they start joking about one of the exhibits coming to life and attacking him — before realizing that that's not at all outlandish compared to everything else they've been through.
  • "Doppelgangland": Willow enters the library, where Giles, Buffy, and Xander are trying to come to terms with the fact that she's dead, because Xander and Buffy have seen her vampire counterpart from an alternate dimension:
    Willow: What's going on?
    [no response]
    Willow: [lightly] Geez, who died?
    [no response]
    Willow: [panicked] Oh, God, who died?
  • Also when Xander and Buffy are about to get into a fight in "Dead Man's Party".
    Oz: Okay, I'm stepping in, Mr. Referee Guy.
    Willow: No, let them go. Talking this out isn't working, so let's try violence. [zombies burst through the window] I was being sarcastic!
• Truth in Television: On The Daily Show, Jon Stewart called his 2000 presidential election coverage Indecision 2000 as a reference to MSNBC's label of Decision. When the entire mess in Florida started, he admitted it was a joke and wasn't meant to be taken seriously.
• The Dick Van Dyke Show:
  • In "Happy Birthday and Too Many More", while Laura is in the kitchen, Alan Brady sends over a present for Ritchie: a rented pony. Just then, Laura asks if anyone wants a sandwich, saying she's hungry enough to eat a horse. Rob grins and quietly leads the pony towards the kitchen, innocently asking Laura to repeat what she said.
  • In "Three Letters from One Wife", Rob convinces Alan to make a risky appearance on a cultural show. Alan warns him that if the show bombs, Rob might lose his job. When the show is preempted by a flood, Rob jokes that Alan will probably think that the network caused the flood on purpose because the show was so bad. The phone rings:
    Rob: Hi, Alan... Alan, they wouldn't do that!
• In one episode of The Golden Girls, Rose brings a chicken into the house, saying she's a professional entertainer. Blanche scoffs at this and talks about how ridiculous it is with Dorothy while Rose is out of the room, asking "What does she do? Play the piano?" Right then, Rose comes back in and says "She plays the piano!" (It's a small piano, but she does play "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" on it.)
• In one episode of The Hollywood Squares, Buddy Hackett was asked which country had the greatest number of doctors per capita, and jokingly answered that it had to be Israel because it was the only country with a majority-Jewish population. To his own astonishment, the answer turned out to be right.
• Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: In the episode "Care," Alex Cabot walks into the squad room and sees everyone standing together, quiet, like they're in mourning.
  Alex: [jokingly] Who died?
  Elliot Stabler: [seriously] Dorothy Rudd.^note The perp they're prosecuting.
  [pause]
  Alex: Please tell me you're kidding.
  Olivia Benson: Suffered a major heart attack, didn't feel a thing.
• The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: After a hard battle against the Orcs, Ontamo teasingly asks Isildur what he thinks of his first experience in Middle-earth until then, knowing of Isildur's life-long desire to see Middle-earth one day. Isildur answers that he likes the mountains in a deadpan tone. Valandil, hearing their conversation snarkily adds they are about to get a closer look to them, because Galadriel plans to organize a company to hunt down the remaining Orcs. Minutes later, Orodruin erupts.
• Mock the Week:
  • Between Dara and Josh in one episode:
    Dara: What did the Queen invent with a dachshund and a corgi?
    Josh Widdicombe: The dorgi!
    Dara: That's absolutely right.
    Josh: Really?! I was joking!
  • In the 2016 Christmas episode:
    Dara: What might you expect to eat at Christmas in Japan?... A bucket of...
    Nish: Fried chicken?
    Dara: Fried chicken!
    Nish: Is it fried chicken?
    Dara: It's fried chicken.
• Happens with a few riffs on Mystery Science Theater 3000:
  • From "Time of the Apes":
    Johnny: Do you live with your parents?
    Joel: No! They're dead! Dead! Dead!
    Godo: No. They died years ago.
    Tom: Oh, you're right.
  • From "City Limits":
    Clipper: Hey Ernie!
    Joel: [imitating Ernie] Yeah, Bert?
    Clipper: Send him back!
    Ernie: Shut it, Bert!
    Joel: [laughs] It is Bert and Ernie!
• Mark Lamarr from Never Mind the Buzzcocks jokingly accuses Simon Amstell of trying to steal his "act", which he does a year or so later.
• QI:
  • "International" gives us the memorable moment of Bill Bailey riffing on the series bonus "Nobody Knows" by asking if he would get a bonus by waving it when the QI scoring system comes up. A few minutes of banter later, Stephen reveals that Bill has got 3 points already for that joke.
  • A few joke answers that turned out to be correct include Sandi Toksvig joking that war tubas◊ were really large hearing aids, Jack Dee joking that the first geisha were all men, and Johnny Vegas joking that cornflakes were invented to discourage masturbation.
• Roseanne: When Darlene and David try to tell Roseanne about their pregnancy, they're naturally hesitant to come out and say it directly, leading to Roseanne to quip that Darlene's pregnant. After a couple of moments of silence, Roseanne realizes that it's the truth and yells "That was my joke guess!"
• In RuPaul's Drag Race, when Valentina offers to share a disorder she's been struggling with, Eureka immediately makes a bad joke that it's an eating disorder. In the next episode when Eureka apologizes, Valentina reveals she really is struggling with anorexia.
• In the Scottish sketch show Scotch and Wry, every Supercop sketch would open with Supercop stopping someone for speeding and saying "Awright, Stirling, oot the car". In later episodes the speeders were frequently celebrities. In one sketch, inevitably, it was Sir Stirling Moss.
• Wheel of Fortune: On October 27, 2011 (an episode with a Fictional Family puzzle), Pat joked that the category had only been used eight times. At the end of the show, he was told that it actually had been used only eight times... except that was wrong as well — it was the category's tenth appearance.

Magazines

• MAD once did a parody of Cathy called Amy!, which depicted Amy Winehouse hiding drugs in her beehive hairdo. Then someone filmed her pulling a vial of cocaine from her hair, and suddenly it's like, "They knew!"

Manhua

• Inverted in one Old Master Q strip ^note which only makes sense in said work's native Mandarin language, this strip seldom appear in translated copies. The titular character receives a cold-call from some large company offering a million dollars to anyone who can guess the caller's name. Master Q retorts with a "Hell I'm gonna respond!" [费事理你, or fei shi li ni] and surprise, the caller is a company called Fezzlini.

Music

• Diamond Rio's "You're Gone"
  I said hello I think I'm broken
  And though I was only joking
  It took me by surprise when you agreed.
  I was trying to be clever
  For the life of me I never
  Would have guessed how far the simple truth would lead.

Podcasts

• Multiple times on The Dollop, most infamously after the "Mad Dan Morgan" live show. Because it was recorded the day before Dave's birthday, the episode ends with Gareth presenting him with a gift from his Australian friends. Having ended the story with the reveal that Morgan wound up having his scrotum turned into a tobacco pouch, Dave jokingly asks if that's what his present is...
  Dave: I hope it's a scrotum!
  [Beat]
  Dave: [quietly] ...What?
  Gareth: It's a scrotum!
  Dave: It's a scrotum bag!
  Gareth: For your tobacco!
  Dave: It's a fucking kangaroo scrotum tobacco pouch! ...What the fuck is happening!?
• How Did This Get Made?: During the liveshow for The Shadow, Paul and Jason make a joke about recognizing the mystical knife from other movies, treating it as if it were a bit character actor, and also joke about wanting to see a movie about the knife itself. This is funny enough, but an audience member later points out the knife prop was in fact also used as the MacGuffin in The Golden Child.
  Jason: I know we made the joke earlier, but that knife got a lot of work!
• Happens surprisingly often in Totalus Rankium. Frequently, Jamie will make some joke predicting what may happen later in an emperor's life, only for Rob to say "We'll get to that." It's usually not identical or quite as absurd, but quite close.
• We Hate Movies: In the episode on The Core, Andrew notes a Narm scene where Aaron Eckhart's character freaks out over losing a friend and derisively wonders what it would be like if the MTV Movie Awards had a prize for "Best Temper Tantrum". What he probably didn't realize is that the Teen Choice Awards actually do have a category for "Best Hissy Fit".

Theatre

• In Albert Herring, when the Superintendent comes up with the suggestion of having a King of the May, Lady Billows and the others react incredulously, and she tells him the idea is "mere red herring, Budd!" He seizes on this as a cue to explain that the young lad he has in mind is in fact named Albert Herring.

Video Games

• League of Legends: When Camille attacks Caitlyn, she jokingly says " Did Daddy buy you that gun?". In her lore, he actually did.
• In Bass's ending in Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters, he claims he is so powerful, it must have been a fluke for an idiot like Dr. Wily to build a robot such as him. He's a lot closer to the truth than he realizes.
• In The Misadventures of Tron Bonne, during their first encounter with Denise Marmalade, Tron makes fun of her arriving late, and mockingly asks if her mommy had to wake her up. Denise briefly freaks out and asks Tron how she knew that.

Web Animation

• Etra chan saw it!: Akane jokingly tells Yuzuriha that she should be aware of her mother-in-law Azami, fearing that she will show her true colors to Yuzuriha after marrying Hiiragi. She turns out to be right.
• Homestar Runner: In "2022 Costume Pack Now Available", Homestar pulls his usual Recognition Failure shtick and assumes The Poopsmith's Rinzler outfit is "Evil Tron". As it turns out, that's exactly who he's dressed as, much to the disappointment of Homestar.

Webcomics

• El Goonish Shive: In this comic, Mr. Alephnull notes that the arrival of two new students with the same schedule, who both have vague pasts and apparently know each other, is highly suspicious. He then produces some vaguely mathematical-sounding gibberish and declares the result "a duplicate squirrel of some sort". Grace (who is part squirrel) and Ellen (who is Elliot's Opposite-Sex Clone) are briefly shocked before Mr. Alephnull cheerfully admits he was just messing with them.
• A rather spoilery one from Girl Genius, when Gil is failing to convince people that he's Baron Wulfenbach's son, in the midst of all the And I'm the Queen of Sheba responses, someone says that this must mean Zeetha is the Baron's daughter. It is later strongly hinted (and confirmed by Word of God) that yes, she is.
• The Order of the Stick:
  • Belkar declaring "We keep overcoming plot obstacles at this pace, we'll be killing Xykon in five strips!" The next strip, Dark V declares they're going to kill Xykon right now.
    Belkar: I was only kidding when I said we'd be killing Xykon in five strips! You can't take everything I say in the last panel seriously!
  • When Roy is visited by Julia using an improved sending spell rather than his father's ghost, he responds to Julia's sarcasm with "Oh, there you are, Dad. I didn't see you hiding in my sister's entire personality like that." It eventually turns out he's actually been talking to Eugene's ghost after all, who disguised himself as Julia because Roy had made it clear he didn't want his help.
• In Schlock Mercenary, this happens when a detachment of Toughs led by Kevyn accept a technical job from the newly crowned King Lota.
  Ennesby: Commander, do you remember when you said that maybe Lota wanted us to build him a superweapon so he could cruise the galaxy as a giant robot ninja-pirate terrorist? And remember how you said it sarcastically, to shut me up when I was worrying about Lota's plans?
  Kevyn: If you say "I told you so," I get to say "My sarcasm is more accurate than your paranoia."
• Stand Still, Stay Silent: After the crew manages to crash the tank into something before it has even left its departure military base, a member of Mission Control jokingly advises them to avoid damaging an ancient piece of construction that is on the way between the base and their destination. Yes, said piece of construction does get damaged before the end of the chapter.
• In one Wapsi Square strip, Monica and Jin show up at Tina's coffee shop charred and bruised, and mention that they had been trying to find a good tropical island hangout. Tina asks, "What did you do? Find an active volcano?" It turns out that was exactly what happened.
• In Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic, while crossing the desert, Princess Adina, both hungover and still sleepy, is getting aggravated by her older siblings and thinks to herself, "Oh Mighty Ch'Thier, deliver me from rotten siblings." The very next second, her sister Sahar is grabbed by a Roc and taken away.
  Adina: [screaming toward the sky] I WAS KIDDING!

Web Original

• Gary: Landlord of the Flies: In this post, Gabe returns home and quips that "the cops aren't here, so that's a good sign." He's immediately told that the cops were just at the house, investigating Gary after he broke into a tenant's car.
• Whateley Universe: A joke is made about Mars Wants Chocolate, but unbeknownst to them, aliens really are stealing chocolate from Earth.

Websites

• Not Always Right:
  • A customer forgets what he's looking for. An employee jokingly asks if he's looking for memory aids, which turns out to be correct.
  • A customer pays for a $70 purchase with 70 single-dollar bills; the cashier jokingly asks if the customer is a stripper, and is surprised by the "yes" answer.

Web Videos

• Citation Needed: Occasionally, the panelists will make a joke about the subject of the episode only for it to turn out completely true. Some of these events are among the show's funniest moments, such as this exchange from S7E03, on the "Turra Coo.":
  Tom: [having just explained "Turra" as local talk for "Turiff"] What might "coo" be?
  Gary: PIGEONS! [audience laughter]
  Chris: Is it one of those cattle that's in fields? [adopts bad Scottish accent] "A highland coo?"
  [DING!]
  Tom: He's absolutely right!
  Chris: What?!
• This happens a lot on Comic POP with Ben, such as in the Marvel Knights Spider-Man episode about an issue where Electro visits a hooker who can change her form to match anyone. Ben jokes that Electro wants her to be Spider-Man so he can finally F*** Spider-Man... and Sal points out that's exactly what Electro wanted.
• When Jesse Cox and Cryaotic went through Resident Evil 6 together, they had a lot of fun playing Shipper on Deck and pretending that the game was just a badly-written love story. But by the end of Ada's campaign...
  Simmons: Give in to your feelings! You can't live without me!
  Jesse: Holy shit! We were just joking! But that's exactly what this game is!
• In the Defunctland episode ''Disney Channel's Theme: A History Mystery", Kevin is watching Disney Channel clips from September 2002 on YouTube, trying to figure out when the four-note Disney Channel Theme first aired. He finds a comment from an archivist saying that Disney Channel changed their logo on September 30, 2002. He then says "There's no way somebody uploaded something from September 30th, 2002, is there?". One search later, he finds a video of clips from Playhouse Disney... from September 30th, 2002.
• A few episodes into Danaru's LP of Sonic the Hedgehog, Dan jokes about how anime the plot is, and accidentally predicts one of the game's big twists. The funniest part is, Grace confirms that his guess is correct, but Dan doesn't believe her—so he's completely flabbergasted when he actually gets to that point.
  Dan: So, lemme ask you, how anime is this gonna get? Because this is looking kind of anime. Is this gonna be one of those things where, like, the dude's told [Elise] not to cry because Iblis was sealed inside of her, and if she cries, she makes Iblis come out?
• In the Dark Future Rifftrax:
  Future Cop: He's headed your way.
  Mike: Yeah, he's at the two flaming barrels, likely headed towards more flaming bar—
  [cut to exactly that]
  Mike: Oh my God, I was kidding.
  Kevin: [wheezing laugh] Wow.
• When Tenshinhan confronts Semi-Perfect Cell in Dragon Ball Z Abridged to prevent him from absorbing Android 18, Cell mockingly asks if he's there because Krillin was busy. As it so happens, Krillin was busy fetching the detonator for the androids from Bulma.
• French YouTuber L'Ermite Moderne is fond of these kind of gags, notably in his video "4 plagiats de cartoons célèbres" (which is about plagiarism and Mockbusters), with two in a row (and a lampshade) when talking about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles imitations:
  L'Ermite Moderne: No, in fact, it seems like there's an algorithm that mix randomly an animal with some cool activity to make an improbable cartoon solely used to sell toys, such as... I don't know... Viking Pangolins... Samurai Caribous... Bovine Cowboys—
  [a poster for Wild West C.O.W.-Boys of Moo Mesa is displayed]
  L'Ermite Moderne: FUCK, THAT EXISTS, SERIOUSLY?!
  Okay, that's enough, it's no longer funny now, I'm fed up that every time in my videos there're some sarcasms that become reality! One of those days, I'm really going to spout some big bullshit, the like of... "ducks playing hockey", and it's gonna—
  [a poster for Mighty Ducks: The Animated Series is displayed]
  L'Ermite Moderne: HOLY FUCKING SHIT, STOP IT!!!
• Whether Gavin Free is going down very quickly or panicking and shooting his teammates in the back, it's been joked that Gavin is more dangerous to the other players than to anyone else. This was actually proven true in the Dying Light session where he played as the zombie, and effortlessly wiped the floor with all his coworkers before they realized what was happening.
• Game Grumps:
  • During their Sonic '06 playthrough, Arin made fun of Silver and Blaze's interactions by calling Silver, as Blaze, "so naive". Blaze's very next line of dialogue in the game has her call Silver "so naive."
  • In an early Castlevania: Dracula X episode, Danny jokes about the terrible posture of some skeleton enemies, comparing them to apes. In fact, their English name is "skeleton ape", and a couple boards later one of them throws a barrel at Richter.
  • In the Sonic Boom video, the Grumps get an objective that they think is to find a cliff, and Dan jokes about how they should run into a guy named Cliff. Turns out, they really are looking for a character named Cliff.
  • In episode 47 of Sonic Adventure (during the Big the Cat levels), Arin jokingly suggests that Froggy is the 7th Chaos Emerald, with Danny following that up by saying it would be amazing "if he had swallowed it or something". Danny was more right than Arin.^note This only counts because they were paying too little attention during the beginning cutscene to notice Froggy explicitly swallowing Big's Chaos Emerald.
  • During their tutorial playthrough of Spider-Man (PS4), while fighting mooks, Arin starts (and Dan quickly picks up) the joke of "Spider-kiss", referencing kissing as an attack and/or spider-related power as an alternative to the simple punch/kick/web attacks offered. Later, during the cutscene just after defeating the Kingpin, Spider-Man has the crime lord All Webbed Up and hanging upside-down. Spidey quips "So, should we kiss now?" leading Arin and Dan to collapse into hysterics.
  • While playing Mountain Rescue Simulator, Arin randomly calls a character "Carl." Sure enough, it really is Karl. ^note This is dulled slightly by the fact that Arin was actually referring to a character named Sepp; Karl is present, but due to very poor blocking, he was almost completely obscured by Sepp standing in front of him.
  • During the fourth trial of their Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc playthrough, when trying to decide who killed Sakura, Dan makes a joke (as Hiro) that it was Sakura herself that did it. Then it comes out that Sakura really did commit suicide!
  • Really, they have an uncanny knack for joking about the plots of games and it coming true. There's been several video compilations of them joking about future events or other things in games like Doki Doki Literature Club! and Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc among others and it coming true.
    • Here is a complilation for Doki Doki Literature Club accidental foreshadowing. Compilation of these moments for ''Danganronpa 1'' here and here for a compilation of moments for their Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair playthrough.
• In Hellsing Ultimate Abridged, Episode 6 has Seras and Pip talking about fighting Nazi Vampires and the possibility of having to fight a Nazi werewolf. Three episodes later, Seras has to fight The Captain, who in his reveal turns out to be a Nazi werewolf.
  Seras: Pip was right. This is so much worse!
• Jbizzo 49: During Metroid: Other M, Prometheus made several jokes that ended up describing plot points.
  Prometheus: Goddammit, I'm trying to make a fucking joke here, Other M! Let me have these!
• Joueur du Grenier:
  • Twice in the Excalibur 2555 review, first when he comments on how cliché the enemies are:
    JdG: Seriously, the only way to make this game more cliché is to put in a mad scientist and Frankenstein's monster.
    [those two enemies appear with the "1-Up Sonic" jingle]
  • And after finding a bar in a cave:
    JdG: Stupid game, a bar in a cave... Why not a strip-club for transvestites while you're at it?
    Seb: Actually, that appears later in the game.
    [footage of said level is shown]
    JdG: I hate my life.
• In the review for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, Brian from Midnight Screenings mentions his confusion over Barbossa having a peg-leg, to which Brad suggests he go to the Pirates wiki, jokingly saying it probably has its own page.
• From The Mysterious Mr. Enter's review of the Mega Babies episode, "Poop Doggy Dog":
  Mr. Enter: Now we move onto the babies beating the animals, because... Ha ha, they don't know their own strength. One of them pulls a dog's ear and he shits on the floor, and for some reason, this episode doesn't want to show it. I don't know why not. I mean, is there any reason not to? We're long beyond the standards of taste.
  Buck: Doody time!
  [Buck dirties his diaper]
  Mr. Enter: I was joking! God, what the fuck is wrong with this show?
• The Nostalgia Critic:
  • At one point in the Spy Kids 3: Game Over review, the Critic notes how one area in the film looks like Mount Doom and wonders if Frodo Baggins is going to show up. Immediately afterwards, a character played by Elijah Wood enters the story.
    Critic: Holy shit, I was just kidding!
  • In his review of Jack Frost:
    Critic: I don't know why, I just really have a hang-up that this band could be successful. I mean, they really think this would span out through a large audience?
    Yeah right, and I'm in this month's issue of Entrepreneur!
    [he opens said magazine toward the camera, and then does a Double Take as he realizes there's indeed a picture of Doug Walker on the page]
    Critic: Well, they'll print anything these days.
• This was practically a Running Gag when OneyPlays took a crack at Forspoken. For example when Frey, the game's main character, is examining a photo of the Holland Tunnel:
  Frey: Who leaves a newborn baby on the street?
  Chris: Right?
  Lyle: "...and my name is Frey Holland."
  (Zach laughs)
  Frey: Well, at least it wasn't the Queen's Midtown Tunnel. That would've been an awful last name.
  Lyle: D'ah-!
  (Chris and Zach start laughing)
  Lyle: I WAS JOKING!
• Retsupurae:
  • In "LP Mario 64...very slowly", the duo joke about what would have happened if the Nintendo 64 really was as slow as the LPer's emulator made it look like. One of their remarks is how it had state of the art graphics and only 2 MB of RAM. This isn't very far off from the truth — the N64 had 4 MB of RAM without the expansion pack, yes, but it used high latency Rambus DRAM which made it a huge bottleneck on the system.
  • In their Wrongpurae of Surgical Strike, due to the excessive amount of explosions in the game, guest riffer Mr. DJB jokes that "it'd be great if these beach girls just started exploding"... which they promptly do.
• Max from RLYoshi jokes near the beginning of Digital: A Love Story that the people he talks to can't be human, because they're too polite to be a human being on the Internet. As it turns out, most of the people he was referring to are actually AIs and not real people.
• The Runaway Guys: While playing Fortune Street, Jon suggests Masae carry a taser, and she admits she's considered it. Emile then jokes that instead she carries a knife... which she promptly confirms. She then has to make it clear she's not going to use it on them.
• During SnapCube's Real-Time Fandub of Sonic Adventure 2, Alfred, who had never played the game before, has Dr. Eggman interrupt Sonic's first battle with Shadow by declaring he's about to blow up Prison Island with the two of them still on it. Once the cutscene ends, both Ryan and Penny break character to point out that the island really is about to blow up, and that Eggman was actually telling Shadow about it in the original scene. Sure enough, the very next shot is of Prison Island exploding, prompting an "OH MY GOD, I DIDN'T KNOW!" from Alfred.
• While reviewing a Collector's Edition version of Gears of War 3, Stuart Ashen comes across a Cog Medal awarded to "Doctor" Adam Fenix (father of series protagonist Marcus Fenix.) Given that Ashen knows how half the cast of the Gears series are all steroided up bodybuilders, he jokes that "Doctor" Adam is probably just another musclebound Rob Liefeld style giant of a man just like his son but in a white coat... only to find a photo of Adam in the same box and learn that that is exactly what Adam looks like. Just without the lab coat.
• In his Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc LP, Super Jeenius manages to correctly guess that Hifumi would be murdered by Celeste, while he was making a joke.
• In Sword Art Online Abridged:
  • In Episode 4, when Rosalia sees Kirito and Silica together in town, she snidely says how nice it is that Silica finally found someone "on her level," which Kirito takes poorly. But at the end of the episode, when Silica snaps after suffering a "Shaggy Dog" Story, we see that Rosalia was more accurate than she could have imagined.
  • Heathcliff's unbeatable defensive skill has earned him the "distinguished" title of "Cheating Haxxor Faggot". Whoever called him that was at least half right — while Heathcliff's sexuality isn't addressed, he really was using cheat codes.
• Team Four Star:
  • Throughout their Dragon Ball Z: Sagas playthrough, the guys joked about Piccolo's fusion with Kami being portrayed as a transformation like it is in the Budokai games. It turns out they were right, much to their amusement. However, Piccolo doesn't "vomit" Kami up after the transformation wears off.
  • In Part 15 of TFS Plays Batman: The Telltale Series:
    Grant: Great things always begin like this, don't worry. This is how the best political moves always start, is necessary evil.
    Dent: Do it.
    Grant: [makes an explosion sound; a major explosion goes off in the distance behind Batman] Wow, I was kidding.
• A few episodes of the Yakuza 0 playthrough have Matt from Two Best Friends Play jokingly referring to Makoto, Majima's mark, as Motoko Kusanagi. Despite Majima assuming Makoto is a man, his mark ends up being a woman, like Motoko is.
• UBOGaming's Let's Play of Vampire Saga: Welcome to Hell Lock has him repeatedly calling the protagonist "David" because he bears a strong resemblance to David Beckham. When the protagonist's name is finally revealed, UBOGaming is very amused to discover it actually is David.
• Versus: In episode 1 of "Super Mario 64 Versus", Tyler makes a joke about Josh saying 'snap' being a coded message that his next LP will be Pokémon Snap, which surprises Josh, who was planning on let's playing Pokémon Snap next... but then reveals he was just kidding. But it later turns out he wasn't. Extra points for uploading the first part on April Fool's Day to make it even more ambiguous whether it was real or not.
• Vinesauce:
  • While streaming He-Man: Defender of Greyskull, Joel makes fun of the Star Wars Expanded Universe by talking about "the He-Man books where He-Man and Skeletor have sons", and Skeletor's son is named "Skeleson". In the Masters of the Universe Classics continuity, He-Man and Skeletor do have sons, Skeletor's being named "Skeleteen".
  • During Joel's Undertale playthrough he wonders if there are any other skeletons in the game, and jokingly names off 'Helvetica' and 'Wingdings'. Helvetica, a webcomic about skeletons named after fonts, was actually the inspiration for Papyrus and Sans. As for Wingdings, well...
  • Speaking OF Joel and Undertale, when streaming his reaction to the September 4 Nintendo Direct stream, he would troll his audience by playing MEGALOVANIA at the start of various announcements to make it seem like Sans would be announced for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. When they did announce that Sans would be available as a Mii Gunner skin (with the MEGALOVANIA remix it comes with to introduce it, to boot), all he could do is drop an Atomic F-Bomb and then laugh for three minutes straight.
  • Vinny watching the Gears 5 DLC trailer joked that the pile of skulls on the ground meant The Terminator was going to be a guest character. Just as he joked that a foot was going to stomp and crush the skulls, exactly that happened. Funnier still is that it was in text on the screen, but he didn't notice it.
• Weird Video Games: In "Rock 'n' Rage", after expressing disbelief at the random weirdness of the first Ancient Egypt level (such as Cleopatra giving you a forcefield powerup) he sarcastically suggests that the next level, Medieval Great Britain, will include Dracula as an enemy. It actually turns out to have Nosferatu as an enemy...
• Tara from What the Fuck Is Wrong with You? has the uncanny ability where whatever joke she makes will inevitability segue into the next story Nash has. She regards it as the most useless superpower ever.

Western Animation

• In Avatar: The Last Airbender, Katara marches up to Aang and requests the usage of Appa. Aang, noticing Zuko standing behind her, is quick to jokingly ask if it's her turn to "take a little field trip" with him, just as Aang and Sokka did in the preceding episodes.^note "The Firebending Masters", "The Boiling Rock (Part 1)" and "The Boiling Rock (Part 2)." Katara's answer is a Blunt "Yes", which leaves Aang momentarily startled.
• DaThings: In "Postman Tap 2: Double Tap", Mrs Goblins laments that the water is being turned off, but jokes that they can't turn off the lemonade. Two seconds later, she laments that they're going to turn off the lemonade.
• Kim Possible provides the page quote: In the episode "Monkey Fist Strikes", as Kim attempts to retrieve an ancient monkey statue from a booby-trap-laden temple she comments on where are the snakes... which immediately appear.
  Kim: I was just being sarcastic!
• A Robot Chicken sketch has Alvin and the Chipmunks performing at Coachella. When speculating what tent they'll be playing at, Alvin suggests the "Butthole Full of Sand tent", which an annoyed Dave insists isn't real. Sure enough...
  Alvin: Guess the joke's on me.
• Scooby-Doo:
  • Used often in Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! and subsequent series; usually along the lines of Shaggy exclaiming "Don't worry, it's not like the {Monster of the Week} will be {where we are about to explore}", only for the monster to inevitably appear there.
  • In "Hassle in the Castle", Shaggy jokes he is so scared that he could eat a ham sandwich; the ingredients needed promptly appear floating in midair. He constructs the sandwich, then says "If only my imagination could cut it in half." Cue a suit of armour dropping its axe and slicing it in two, scaring him in the process.
• In South Park, episode "How to Eat with Your Butt", Cartman puts Kenny's school picture (in which Kenny stuck his butt through his hood) on milk cartons for the world to enjoy. This backfires as the parents, who have literal butts for faces, show up in search of their long-lost son, causing Cartman to believe that his funny-bone broke from the absurdity, while Kyle believes it's just guilt that Cartman doesn't recognize.
• In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, when Tiger Claw senses Alopex and freezes up, Bebop jokes that he's been using catnip. Given that Tiger Claw hid a plant behind his back when Bebop and Rocksteady came into his room, it's... not implausible.
• In Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo, when Saiko-tek somehow totally vanishes right in front of Robin after kicking open the sprinkler systems, Beast Boy jokingly suggests that he "just wasn't waterproof", earning a Death Glare from Cyborg and Raven in response. As it turns out, he was made out of ink, so he really wasn't!

Real Life

• British police officers asked speeders "Who do you think you are? Stirling Moss?" around the time the racing driver became famous. Reportedly, one officer asked this of a driver who had good reason to think he was Stirling Moss: he was Stirling Moss.
• In 1994, Country Music singer Mark Chesnutt was recording a rendition of "Rainy Day Woman" with the song's original artist, Waylon Jennings. Chesnutt's wife, Tracie, was pregnant at the time, so Waylon joked that they should name the child after him. Although Waylon later revealed that he was joking, they kept the name anyway.
• When the sequel to Knives Out was announced, Twitter user @GemOfAmara joked that Benoit Blanc should have a different outrageous accent in every film with no explanation. Cue Rian Johnson replying that he was seriously considering doing exactly that.
  • As of Glass Onion however, Blanc has kept his southern accent.
• According to this Tumblr post, a man in a cat fursuit attended a restaurant and asked for a drink. The bartender replied, "I swear to god your ID better have a big fuckin' cat on it." The furry provided a driver's license with an image of a real-life cat.
• In Magic: The Gathering, this happened during the development of the card Teferi's Protection. The developers were trying to make a card that made the player and everything they controlled "disappear" from the game until their next turn (making them invincible, but unable to do anything until they came back), but were having trouble making it work. Eventually, one of the developers got the then-crazy idea to make the card use Phasing, a former Scrappy Mechanic from MTG's early history. The set designer left a comment on the design asking who the wiseguy was who put a card with Phasing in the set. When the wiseguy stepped forward and admitted to it, the designer replied with a "Carry on, then." The card ended up being so well-received, Phasing (specifically phasing out) was Rescued from the Scrappy Heap and became a recurring mechanic.^note To be specific, early Phasing was a Scrappy Mechanic because cards with Phasing would blink in and out so they could only be used every other turn, making them very obnoxious to actually use. However, making a card phase out simply makes it act like it doesn't exist for a turn. It ended up being very useful as a way to temporarily get rid of something in play, either to avoid having to deal with it or to keep an opponent from harming it, while avoiding the rules baggage of actually removing the card and then returning it to play.
• Mike Bithell, creator of the 2012 video game Thomas Was Alone, ended up joking about the game's cult hit status that maybe he should make action figures of the main characters^note the joke being that the protagonists of Thomas Was Alone are all brightly coloured squares and rectangles. He ended up being so inundated with requests for them that the action figures got a real -- albeit very limited edition -- run in 2015. Bithell even made Claire's action figure buyoant, like she is in-game.

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