24 Times 'The Simpsons' Accurately Predicted The Future
Updated July 1 2023, 10:33 a.m. ET
People think that 'The Simpsons' can predict the future.
If you've been a longtime viewer of The Simpsons, then you know that the writers they pick for the show are basically clairvoyant.
Now maybe you can just chalk it up to humanity being predictably ridiculous, or the fact that the show's been around forever, so the writers are bound to cover everything that's going to happen in the scope of past, present, and future history, but there are some seriously impressive social phenomenons that the show's got right on the nose.
Here are some of the craziest ones.
1. The USA Men's Curling team winning Gold.
S21E12: "Boy Meets Curl" depicted Homer and co. taking home the Gold medal in curling during the Winter Olympics. 8 years later, the US Olympic men's curling team would do just that in Pyeongchang. But what's really crazy is that they accurately predicted the Silver medalists from the 2018 games as well.
2. Trump getting elected President.
S11E17: "Bart to the Future" made a joke of a dystopian future where Donald Trump somehow was elected President. 16 years later and that ridiculousness actually came to pass.
3. Disney buys out Fox.
S10E5: "When You Dish Upon A Star", nearly 20 years before Disney bought out Fox, predicted the animation studio giant would own 20th Century Fox in 1998. In 2017, Disney purchased Fox for $66.1 billion.
4. Lady Gaga's Super Bowl halftime show.
S23E22: "Lisa Goes Gaga" in 2012 predicted the pop sensation would be rocking the Super Bowl festivities mid-game. In 2017, she did just that.
5. Siegfried and Roy being attacked by their tigers.
S05E10: "$pringfield" aired in 1993, in 2003 the garish entertainment duo encountered called it quits after Roy was mauled by the tiger and left part-paralyzed.
6. Mutant tomatoes.
S11E5: "E-I-E-I-D'oh!" debuted in 1999, and 14 years later, mutant tomatoes started popping up in Japan in wake of the Fukushima disaster.
7. Autocorrect frustrations.
S6E19: "Lisa's Wedding" came out way back in 1995. In the episode, Lisa and Marge talk with a phone that has video capabilities and lo and behold, an annoying autocorrect feature. Sound familiar?
8. Broken voter machine.
S20E4: "Treehouse of Horror XIX" came out in 2008. Then in 2012, the exact same thing happened.
9. The discovery of "The God Particle".
S10E2: "The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace" came out in 1998 and it features Homer at a blackboard with an equation written on it. That equation predicted the mass of an undiscovered particle: the Higgs Boson, or "God Particle" that ended up being a huge scientific breakthrough.
10. The inexplicable theft of a lemon tree.
S6E24: "Lemon of Troy" aired in 1995. The episode featured residents of rival town, Shelbyville, stealing a lemon tree from Springfield. Life imitated art when a lemon tree was uprooted, for no reason, in the same exact fashion, in 2013.
11. The NSA Spying Scandal.
The Simpsons Movie in 2007 depicted the NSA as this huge organization spying on all American citizens. Now it might've seemed like hyperbole back then, but it turns out they got it pretty much right.
12. Lisa's fiance from the future talking into his watch.
S6E19: "Lisa's Wedding" debuted in 1995, and now we've got a wave of smartwatches that do all sorts of crazy stuff.
13. TV Evangelists worshipping money.
S7E12: "Team Homer" shows TV preachers being obsessed with worshipping money. Then Pope Francis said this in 2013.
14. America's Ebola "outbreak".
S9E3: "Lisa's Sax" shows Marge reading Curious George and the Ebola Virus in 1997. In 2014, America was very, very afraid of Ebola.
15. Horse meat as a "secret" ingredient.
S5E19: "Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song" aired in 1994, featuring the lunch lady putting horse meat in children's lunches. In 2013, a bunch of popular food products were found to have horse meat in them.
16. FIFA's corruption.
S25E16: "You Don't Have To Live Like A Referee" aired in 2014 featuring a character who bore an eerie resemblance to the same officials arrested on corruption charges.
17. Hamburger earmuffs.
S10E2: "The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace" featured this weird fashion trend in 1998 well before this product hit the market in 2010.
18. Greece's economic collapse.
S23E10: "Politically Inept, with Homer Simpson" aired in 2012 and cracked a joke about Greece being put up on eBay. In 2015, Greece went into default.
19. Ringo taking 20 years to write back to his fans.
S2E18: "Brush with Greatness" had Ringo say he'll write back to each and every one of his fans, even if takes him "20 years". In 2013, Paul McCartney of the Beatles responded to a fan's mail 50 years later.
20. Predicting someone would win the nobel prize six years before they did.
S22E1: "Elementary School Music" aired in 2010, saying that an MIT Professor would win a Nobel prize, which he did, in 2016.
21. Future Lisa's college librarian was a robot.
S6E19: "Lisa's Wedding" debuted in 1995. Her college's librarian was a robot, and, well, we now have robotic libraries. So there.
22. Baby translator.
S3E24: "Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes?" came out in 1992. The episode featured a baby translator that could let you know what your infant is saying. Now, there's an app that recognizes the type of cry your baby is giving you.
23. Homer sells cooking grease for money.
S10E1: "Lard of the Dance" came out in 1998 where Homer has a get-rich-quick scheme stealing and selling grease. In 2013, thieves were found smuggling grease for pretty much the exact same reason.
What I want to know is why the writers of The Simpsons aren't using their future prediction powers for good. Or maybe there's a secret organization that's forcing them to deliver their message in cartoon-joke form, so no one takes it seriously? Illuminati.
24. The Titanic submersible accident
S17E10: “Homer's Paternity Coot" was released in 2006. In the episode, Homer Simpson meets Mason Fairbanks, who claims to be his biological father. The two embark on a mission to find sunken treasure in submersible crafts. However, Homer gets stuck in coral and runs out of oxygen. Three days later, Homer wakes up in the hospital from a coma.
Unsurprisingly, people quickly compared this episode to the Titanic submersible incident in 2023. It was initially believed that the pilot and passengers were slowly running out of air after something went wrong on their dive to the wreck of the Titanic. However, it is now believed that the submersible imploded, killing all those onboard instantly.