The Simpsons has been a household name for decades now. But lately it’s been gaining attention for more than its quick wit and ageless storytelling. The show can predict the future!
Don’t believe us? What about that time in 2010 when Milhouse predicted that Bengt R. Holmstrom would win the Nobel Prize in Economics and 6 years later, Holmstrom and Oliver Hart were announced as joint winners of the prize. Still not convinced?
How about the “$pringfield (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Legalized Gambling),” episode that aired in 1993.
It featured magicians in a Siegfried and Roy-like show who were attacked by their trusted white tiger. In 2003, Roy was attacked by the very same trusted white tiger during a live show. He survived. If this still isn’t enough for you, don’t worry. There’s way more.
In 1995, season six, episode “Lisa’s Wedding”, Lisa phoned her Mom, Marge, over video call. A technology that seemed incomprehensible in 1995. But that’s not even the weird part.
The wedding was set in the year 2010. The exact year, video chatting became well established in the real world through Skype and Facetime. Still not impressed?
Another time The Simpsons predicted the future with uncanny accuracy is with the episode titled “Lisa Goes Gaga”. This episode features Lady Gaga putting on a number of outfits and performing on a suspension cable, flying above the crowd.
5 years later, Lady Gaga performed at the Super Bowl LI halftime show wearing a similar outfit as she flew suspended above the crowd.
In an episode in 1999, the Simpsons fled to an old farm where radioactive waste from Springfield’s Nuclear Plant created a tomato-tobacco hybrid called “tomacco”.
A decade later, the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant suffered three nuclear meltdowns. Following the disaster, mutated fruits and vegetables – including tomatoes, began sprouting around the area.
During the 1998 episode “The Wizard Of Evergreen Terrace”, Homer seemingly writes nonsensical equations on a blackboard as he tries to follow in Thomas Edison’s footsteps.
Fast forward a few years later and the equation is far from nonsensical as it’s nearly identical to the mass of the Higgs boson, an elementary particle that was officially discovered in 2012.
In 2008, an episode aired that showed the immersion of faulty voting machines. Homer went to the voting booth to vote for Barack Obama, however his vote went to McCain.
During the 2012 elections, voters who cast their vote for Barack Obama, sent their vote to Mitt Romney instead proving a voting machine faulty. And what about Trump?
The episode “Bart To The Future” gave the world goosebumps when it predicted the Presidency of Donald Trump, and a budget crisis that he would induce to the country.
16 years after the episode aired, Donald Trump was elected to be the 45th president of the United State of America. The budget crisis is yet to be proven correct.
Who could have predicted the horrendous horse meat scandal that traumatized the UK in 2013. It was reported that traces of horse DNA were detected in meat products all over the country.
Well, The Simpsons could. An episode in 1994 showed the lunch lady reaching into a container labeled “assorted horse parts” and putting the meat into the school’s cooking pot.
A Game Of Thrones inspired episode where Homer saved a dragon, only to have it burn down their entire Kingdom of Springfieldia, held an eerie resemblance to how GOT actually played out.
Two years later, the second last episode of GOT rolled out a closely identical scene as Daenerys’ dragon burns down King’s Landing, bringing the show to its end.
If Apple didn’t ask The Simpsons for permission to develop their smartwatch idea, should someone be pressing charges?
In 1995, an episode aired that shows Lisa and her husband in the future. Her husband talks to a device wrapped around his wrist. It’s a smartwatch. The first smartwatch wasn’t created until 2013. Let that sink in!
What is probably the most mind boggling prediction yet, is the 1993 episode, where a Japanese factory worker accidentally spreads a contagious flu to Springfield. Then a van accidentally knocks over, releasing a swarm of killer bees.
The spread of “murder hornets” in America has coincided with the coronavirus in 2020. Ok, need we say more? Yes? Ok.
First appearing in the episode “Homer’s Odyssey”, Blinky has been featured in a number of episodes. He’s a mutated fish with 3 eyes and the product of dumped radioactive waste by the Springfield Power Plant. Completely unrelated to the real world right?
Wrong. In 2011, argentine fishermen discovered the exact 3-eyed mutated fish caused by radioactive waste from a nearby Nuclear Power Plant.
Season ten’s episode “When You Dish Upon a Star”, featured Homer meeting a number of celebrities, which includes a brief joke about the Walt Disney Company acquiring 20th Century Fox. Crazy right?
Wrong again! On March 20, 2019, no one was laughing when this prediction became reality. Just like the episode said, the Walt Disney Company acquired the greater 21st Century Fox conglomerate for $71 billion. Here’s one more insanely accurate prediction for the road.
If you’re into virtual gaming, you might remember the game, Farmville, which was all the craze in 2009. Surprisingly, gamers raced home from work and other activities to tend to their farm. But we should have seen this coming.
In a 1998 episode, a scene is played out where kids line up to play in a yard work simulator.
