Top 8 Simpsons Predictions That Came True. (Photo Credit – Instagram)
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Fox’s The Simpsons has garnered a reputation for predicting the future. The comedy-drama, which ran for 35 seasons and consisted of 750+ episodes, truly managed to manifest moments in real-life events. 16 years ago, one of the episodes of The Simpsons predicted that Donald Trump would become US president one day, and we all know how it turned out.
The show’s major characters, Homer, Marga, Lisa, Bart, and Maggie, eerily presented what seemed like farfetched scenarios at the time. While the writers correctly predicted several events years in advance, the show has captured viewers’ fascination. As the 35th season of The Simpsons recently concluded, some recent wild storylines will inevitably join the uncanny predictions, perhaps in the coming 15-20 years. We’ll have to wait for that to come true, but let’s review the top 10 predictions that have already come true.
1. The Simpsons Season 11 Episode 17: The Donald Trump Presidency
The Simpsons Season 11 Episode 17, Bart to the Future, is the widely predicted moment that references Donald Trump as the US president. Although the jokes about Trump entering politics existed in the 1990s, no one predicted it would happen. While the episode predicted Trump becoming the president in 2030, it’s still a fascinating prediction, making it one of the most notable forecasts.
The Simpsons Season 3 Episode 14, Lisa the Greek, was the football-centric episode aired a few days before Super Bowl XXVI. In the episode, Lisa predicted the Washington Redskins’ would win, and the following year, the staff dubbed in the names of the competing teams, and The Simpsons were once again accurate with their call of the Dallas Cowboys as the winners. The redubbing continued with moderate success over the next years, leading to another accurate prediction of the San Francisco 49ers defeating the San Diego Chargers in the Super Bowl XXIX.
3. The Simpsons Season 6 Episode 19: Smartwatches
The Simpsons Season 6 Episode 19, Lisa’s Wedding, was the first episode that glimpsed into the future. It humoured with several technology jokes that eventually came true. For example, when Lisa’s boyfriend Hugh botches a wedding proposal, he improves by talking into his watch. In 2013, smartwatches with voice recognition were introduced, echoing this episode and saving relationships worldwide.
4. The Simpsons Season 6 Episode 8: Autocorrect
The Simpsons Season 6 Episode 8, Lisa on Ice, is one of the rare cases when they made predictions and contributed to real-world events. In a quick gag, bully Dolph writes “Beat up Martin” on his Apple Newton, which translates to “Eat up, Martha.” This highlights the device’s poor handwriting recognition. Years later, sources alleged that employees remembered this joke from The Simpsons when Apple worked on the iPhone keyboard. They quoted, “Ear up, Martha”, to emphasise the importance of perfecting the feature.
5. The Simpsons Season 25 Episode 16: FIFA’s Corruption Scandal and World Cup
The Simpsons Season 25 Episode 16, titled You Don’t Have to Live Like a Referee, was about the World Cup featuring Homer becoming a referee due to a shortage from massive corruption within FIFA. Though he gets the temptation, he decides to officiate the big game fairly, resulting in Germany winning the World Cup. Remarkably, Germany ended up winning the title that same year, highlighting the show’s predictive prowess. The second part of the prediction came true in 2015 when FIFA headquarters were raided by police amid accusations of bribery, fraud, and money laundering.
6. The Simpsons Season 6 Episode 19: Inventing Video Chats
Going back to The Simpsons Season 6 Episode 19, Lisa’s Wedding, the episode also featured one of the crucial components of the 2010s and especially the 2020s during the pandemic, the video chat. In the episode, the characters communicate visually via screens instead of phones. Now that the world is reliant on Zoom, Google Hangouts, FaceTime, and Skype, this prediction has become remarkably accurate, pointing to writers’ foresight.
7. The Simpsons Season 21 Episode 12: The US wins gold in curling
The Simpsons’ Season 21 Episode 12, Boy Meets Curl, showcases the international adventures of Homer and Marge, who join the US curling team for the 2010 Winter Olympics. Despite the odds against them, they defeat Sweden and win the gold medal. Although it took eight years before this prediction came true, in the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, the same match-up occurred, and the event came true.
8. The Simpsons Season 23 Episode 22: Lady Gaga’s Super Bowl performance
The Simpsons Season 23 Episode 22, Lisa Goes Gaga, was regarded as the show’s worst episode. However, it featured the pop star visiting Springfield to help Lisa with her self-esteem issues. In 2017, when Gaga performed at the Super Bowl halftime show, many noticed that her wire-based, spark-laden stunt bore an uncanny resemblance to one of her many outfits from the episode.
