The Future According to Tragic Comedy

Scott Hardie | July 17, 2011
Ten years ago today, I started Tragic Comedy as a blog to comment on current events and my own life. I wasn't sure whether it would last more than a few weeks. But before long, early commenters like Matthew Preston, Anna Gregoline, Jackie Mason, Kelly Lee, D R, Derek Sutcliffe, and Lori Lancaster started talking so much in response to the blog posts that it took on a life of its own, and I converted it to a forum instead. Today, we may not have as much activity as our peak a few years ago, but we're still talking. Tragic Comedy has racked up 32,266 comments in 2519 discussions, not to mention 3517 comments on 1118 blog posts -- more than 20 megabytes of text. I've enjoyed almost every word of it. Thanks, everybody, for joining in the conversation over the years.

For the occasion, I thought I'd play a little game of "hindsight is 20/20" and look up how we thought things would turn out by now. Here are some arbitrarily-chosen quotes about the future, collected from our past:

"With the news of the first successful face transplant ... am I the only one wondering how long it will be until this is a routine cosmetic procedure performed on people whose faces are perfectly fine except in their own minds? Here's predicting it will happen within two years." -Scott Hardie, December 4 2005

"There are still two more [Harry Potter] movies ... I predict they will be slightly but noticeably less successful now that the series has been resolved in print and the dramatic tension is dissipated." -Scott Hardie, July 21 2007

"My predictions for [The Sopranos] Season 6: Furio makes a return to court Carmella. ... The Russians from season 3 return to settle the score ... Tony will probably end up dead at the end, but I haven't decided by who's hands yet (maybe Furio)." -Dave Mitzman, November 3 2004

"The popular [Oscar] prediction (here and elsewhere) that mystifies me is Christian Bale in The Fighter." -Scott Hardie, February 6 2011

"Yes I would like to stayan author, maybe I too will have something to say in the future." -Brannan Conrad, February 2 2002

"Television sets and personal computers will converge within the next five years, making obsolete conventional broadcast television, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates predicted at the World Economic Forum Saturday. ... Yeah. ... Of all people, Bill Gates should realize how slowly the revolution will come." -Scott Hardie, February 1 2007

"I also think Dean WILL win the nomination, and it won't be as close as everyone is saying Iowa will be. He's had the organization and fundraising in place for months. He's got the fire-breathing base virtually locked up. ... I think a Dean/Edwards ticket could present a serious challenge to Bush." -Steve Dunn, January 19 2004

"[A]t the moment it seems like we'll soon be saying 'President McCain.'" -Scott Hardie, January 22 2008