Times The Simpsons Freakishly Predicted The Future
After more than 700 episodes, it's no surprise that Springfield has been blurring with reality, as The Simpsons has more or less predicted major events in the worlds of politics, disease, and deep-sea disasters.
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00:00After more than 700 episodes, it's no surprise that Springfield has been blurring with reality,
00:05as The Simpsons has more or less predicted major events in the worlds of politics, disease,
00:10and deep-sea disasters.
00:12In the season 2 episode, Itchy and Scratchy in March, which originally aired in December
00:161990, the Simpsons' matriarch goes on a censorship crusade to clean up cartoons.
00:21But then she abandons the cause after her fellow crusaders try to cover up Michelangelo's
00:25David when the sculpture visits a museum in Springfield.
00:28A similar real-life incident played out a little more than a decade later.
00:32Wait a minute, aren't you Marge Simpson the Wacko?
00:35Hmm, yes and no.
00:37In 2001, a shop in Lake Alfred, Florida called Fountain and Falls placed a small replica
00:42of David outside its front door.
00:44While this work is widely considered a masterpiece, it's also anatomically correct and does feature
00:49a man's genitals, so it was understandable when not everyone was happy with this decision.
00:53In particular, Jeanne Johnson, the owner of a nearby barber shop, complained to City Hall
00:57about it.
00:58City officials then asked Fountain and Falls to cover the statue's crotch with a loincloth,
01:02and shop manager Chuck Cole ultimately agreed to do so.
01:06The kids of Springfield have a grand adventure with their rival town of Shelbyville in Lemon
01:10of Troy, a season 6 episode that originally aired in May 1995.
01:14The plot revolves around the efforts to recover the town's beloved lemon tree, which was planted
01:18by settlers many years ago.
01:20Alas, those villains from Shelbyville ripped it right out of the ground.
01:24Plenty of Simpsons viewers surely thought that the idea of stealing a lemon tree was
01:27absurd on its face.
01:29One real-life person inclined to agree was surely Hannah Cooke-Wallace of Madison, Wisconsin.
01:34That's because in the summer of 2011, the huge Meyer lemon tree that Cooke-Wallace kept
01:38in a planter on her front porch for 20 years was also unceremoniously stolen.
01:42It's bizarre.
01:44It's bizarre.
01:45In Homer's Phobia, a season 8 episode from 1997, the Simpsons befriend a shop owner named
01:50John, who's voiced by filmmaker John Waters.
01:53Homer loves this guy, until he finds out that he's gay.
01:56Eventually, though, the Simpsons patriarch gets over his fear when John saves him from
02:00being gored to death by a group of reindeer.
02:02Well, Homer, I won your respect, and all I had to do was save your life.
02:07Now, if every gay man could just do the same, you'd be set.
02:11A very similar lesson was learned by real-life Birmingham, England resident Valjeet Kunar
02:15in 2010.
02:16Kunar lived next door to Bryn and James Tudor, who in 2005 became the first same-sex couple
02:21in the city to obtain a civil partnership.
02:23Kunar had a history of harassing his neighbors — that is, until they saved his life.
02:27His house was on fire early one morning, and the smell of smoke awakened James, who managed
02:32to get Kunar and his family to safety.
02:34While attending Colonel Tex's traveling carnival in the 1998 episode, Bart Carney, the kids
02:39of Springfield are transfixed by a cutting-edge virtual reality game that allows them to pretend
02:43that they're doing yard work like trimming hedges and raking leaves.
02:47It seemed utterly bizarre at the time, but this was a different era of video games.
02:51Some of the most popular titles from that year include the likes of Half-Life, Metal
02:55Gear Solid, and Banjo-Kazooie.
02:57This is all to say none of them featured yard work as significant features of their gameplay.
03:01If Bart Carney had instead arrived a decade later, it wouldn't have seemed quite so odd.
03:06That's because 2009 saw the release of the similar Facebook-based game Farmville, which
03:10went on to rack up more than $1 billion in in-game purchases.
03:14That puts a whole new spin on Cowabunga.
03:18In the early 1990s, Siegfried and Roy were staples of the Las Vegas entertainment scene.
03:22The German-American duo's show was one part magical spectacle and one part animal act
03:27that included beautiful white lions and white tigers.
03:30The Simpsons characters of Gunther and Ernst are obvious parodies of Siegfried and Roy,
03:34and in the 1993 episode, Springfield, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Legalized
03:39Gambling, they come to town to perform in Mr. Burns' casino along with their white tiger,
03:44Anastasia.
03:45Anastasia is humiliated as she wears a dumb hat and rides a unicycle.
03:48She then dreams about her old life in the jungle, which ended when Gunther and Ernst
03:52shot her with a tranquilizer dart.
03:54She then snaps back to reality and ragefully attacks Gunther and Ernst, ripping them to
03:58shreds.
03:59Tragically, Roy Horn suffered a very similar fate in real life.
04:02During a 2003 show at the Mirage in Las Vegas, a 300-pound white tiger bit and mauled him,
04:08resulting in severe injuries and massive blood loss.
04:11The Mirage closed the show in the wake of the incident.
04:13It took Horn months to recover, though he was eventually able to walk again.
04:17Treehouse of Horror is one of the most beloved traditions in Simpsons history, even though
04:21these horrors can sometimes be a little too real for comfort.
04:25Treehouse of Horror 19, for example, aired during the show's 20th season, right before
04:29the 2008 U.S. presidential election.
04:31The episode opens with a gag in which Homer attempts to vote numerous times for Barack
04:35Obama with an electronic voting machine, only for his vote to automatically be swapped for
04:39Republican nominee John McCain.
04:41He's then sucked inside the machine and killed so that he can't tell anyone about what he's
04:45discovered.
04:46While most Americans are probably exhausted of hearing about unfounded complaints about
04:54voting machines stealing elections, there was actually one instance of something like
04:58this genuinely happening.
05:00In 2012, a machine in Pennsylvania had to be taken back to maintenance after one user
05:04found that it was erroneously recording votes for President Obama as votes for Republican
05:08nominee Mitt Romney.
05:09There seemed to be a problem with the machine's touchscreen calibration, causing it to register
05:13touch commands in the wrong location.
05:16It's been said that the season 9 episode, Lisa's Sacks, which originally aired in 1997,
05:21was somehow able to predict the existence of the Ebola virus before it was publicly
05:24known.
05:25However, this is actually a case where The Simpsons' powers of prognostication have been
05:29a little overstated.
05:30However, the episode does deserve some credit for being ahead of the curve, as it includes
05:34a scene where Marge reads from a book called Curious George and the Ebola Virus.
05:39Though it had yet to enter the wider American consciousness, the virus had been discussed
05:43publicly thanks to Richard Preston's 1994 book The Hot Zone, which was based on an article
05:47he wrote for The New Yorker.
05:49Considering that many Simpsons writers in early seasons were Harvard University alums,
05:53it's not too hard to imagine that at least one of them had a subscription to The New
05:56Yorker, or were otherwise aware of the virus when general audiences weren't.
06:00Nevertheless, none of this takes away from how eerie it was for Simpsons fans when the
06:04virus did finally arrive in America in 2014.
06:08Relatively put, it makes sense that the memory of Marge's book would stick out as another
06:11case of the show predicting the future.
06:14In 2013, former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden leaked evidence that the NSA
06:19was using a loophole to spy on ordinary American citizens.
06:23According to Snowden, this even went as far as some of their agents reading the emails
06:27of their former and current romantic partners and stalking them online.
06:30The details of the scandal are well-known today, but back when The Simpsons movie was
06:34released in theaters in July 2007, not as many members of the public were fully aware
06:39of the extent to which the authorities were able to access their private info.
06:43So while this wasn't exactly a prediction that came out of nowhere, the Springfield
06:46gang was still a little ahead of the curve.
06:48The plot of the movie involves Springfield being quarantined and the Simpsons going on
06:52the run.
06:53At one point, Marge jokes about how it's not as if the government is listening to everyone's
06:57random conversations.
06:58But then, the scene then cuts to a room full of NSA agents who are eavesdropping on all
07:02manner of normal people.
07:04When one of them manages to hone in on the Simpsons, he shouts,
07:07"'Hey, everybody, I found one!
07:09The government actually found someone we're looking for!
07:13Yeah, baby, yeah!'
07:16In some ways, it's more impressive when The Simpsons is able to preempt a shocking world
07:20event by a matter of months rather than decades, as was the case with the FIFA corruption scandal.
07:25In the season 25 episode, You Don't Have to Live Like a Referee, which aired in March
07:292014, Homer is suddenly considered a viable soccer official by FIFA thanks to its recently
07:34tarnished reputation.
07:36Soon after, that tarnished reputation was very much part of the actual FIFA's reality.
07:41In May 2015, seven of the soccer organization's officials were alleged to have taken over
07:45$150 million in bribes over the course of more than two decades.
07:50Like some other examples on this list, a likely explanation for The Simpsons supposedly being
07:54able to predict this event comes down to the writers probably being more aware of the topic
07:58before it widely entered the public consciousness.
08:01For example, an earlier incident that could have caught their attention was the revelation
08:04in 2012 that FIFA president João Avalanche took millions of dollars' worth of bribes
08:09during his term.
08:10And it's also noteworthy that this episode also accurately foresaw that Germany would
08:14be the next winner of the World Cup.
08:15"'I've never seen the Brazilians so depressed!'
08:18"'Olé, olé, olé, olé!''
08:24As far as plots for zany animated sitcoms go, a pandemic isn't that far out of left
08:28field to be counted as a prediction in and of itself.
08:31But The Simpsons took it one step further in a way that freakishly mirrored reality
08:34a few decades later.
08:36In the Season 4 episode Marge and Chains, which originally aired in 1993, a virus known
08:41as the Osaka Flu comes to Springfield, causing chaos as the town's citizens hopelessly try
08:46to protect themselves.
08:47At one point, they knock over a truck they believe to be transporting a cure, but instead
08:51It's carrying killer bees, which then spread throughout the town and only increase the
08:56panic.
08:57In the real world, a species of two-inch-long bees known as the Asian Giant Hornet, or more
09:01colloquially the Murder Hornets, made it to America in 2020 at the height of the COVID-19
09:06pandemic.
09:07Though these bees weren't necessarily deadly to humans, they did have the potential to
09:11decimate honeybee habitats, and they certainly caused widespread panic.
09:18Season 5's Lisa vs. Malibu Stacey, which originally aired in 1994, is another case
09:23of The Simpsons presenting events that could and eventually did happen, and doing so decades
09:28before the real-life version.
09:30During one scene, news anchor Kent Brockman is covering the craze surrounding the new
09:33Malibu Stacey doll, which is a parody of Barbie.
09:36Then he also mentions one other seemingly vital bit of news rather quickly.
09:45In the context of the episode, The Simpsons doesn't seem to be making any kind of political
09:49statements.
09:50Instead, the joke is more that Springfield is so distracted by Malibu Stacey that the
09:54arrest of a head of state barely registers as interesting.
09:57Anyone who lived through 2023 knows this puzzling feeling all too well.
10:01In August of that year, former President Donald Trump was arrested for various felony charges
10:05that included racketeering.
10:07This happened less than a month after Barbie hit theaters and became a worldwide sensation
10:11that dominated pop culture for the rest of the year.
10:14In the season 18 episode, Please Homer, Don't Hammer Him, which originally aired in 2006,
10:19the Simpsons family head out to a rundown mall.
10:22While the story only spends a few minutes in the dilapidated environment, there is notable
10:26inclusion of an empty JCPenney storefront, abandoned and left to rot.
10:30This image of retail decline returned to plenty of fans' minds in 2020 when the real JCPenney
10:35filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
10:37Of course, a major factor in this decision was the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced multiple
10:41businesses across the world to close.
10:44The company has since been trying to lower its financial liabilities and restructure
10:47its business model so that it can emerge from bankruptcy once more as a welcome retail option
10:51for families affected by inflation.
10:53It's also even spending a significant amount of cash on remodeling stores, hopefully leaving
10:58them in a better state than the one at the Springfield Mall.
11:01People across the globe were captivated by the story of Oceangate's Titan Submersible
11:05in 2023.
11:06The aquatic vehicle was lost at sea after it attempted to descend to the wreck of the
11:10Titanic.
11:11After debris was discovered, it was determined that the sub had suffered a catastrophic implosion
11:15that tragically took the lives of all aboard.
11:17In the midst of the media frenzy, many Simpsons fans began sharing clips from season 17's
11:22Homer's Paternity Coup, which originally aired in 2006.
11:26In one scene, Homer gets lost while exploring a shipwreck and piloting a submersible that
11:30has a similar design as the Titan.
11:32The obvious explanation for this supposed prediction is that in a show as long-running
11:36as The Simpsons, a submarine plot was bound to happen at some point.
11:39However, what makes this particular coincidence even more fascinating is that Simpsons writer-producer
11:44Mike Reiss was actually a passenger on the Oceangate submersible during a previous voyage.
11:49Reiss recalled some technical issues on his journey, as he told the New York Post,
11:53"...Death is always lurking.
11:54It's always in the back of your mind."
11:56Before you even get on the boat, there's a long, long waver that mentions death three
12:00times on page one.
12:02It is always in the back of your head that this is dangerous.
12:07On the surface, the Apple Vision Pro is like many virtual reality headsets that came before
12:11it.
12:12Its main feature is an ability to strap an interactive screen to your face so as to immerse
12:16yourself more completely in whatever game you're playing or movie you're watching.
12:20From that point of view, there's nothing particularly special about The Simpsons predicting the
12:23wide adoption of a VR headset in the season 28 episode Friends and Family, which aired
12:28in 2016.
12:29But what makes it more noteworthy is how it kind of predicted how the Vision Pro would
12:33stand out from the crowd.
12:35The Vision Pro comes with a travel mode, which was meant primarily for planes, but some users
12:39took to using it while out and about in public, which annoyed a lot of people.
12:43As antisocial as strapping a screen to your face might seem, the intent is apparently
12:47for them to be treated like eyewear.
12:49And on The Simpsons, the town of Springfield almost unanimously adopts VR headsets in exactly
12:54the same way, with residents stumbling into light poles and traffic thanks to their obscured
12:58vision.
12:59In 2024, legendary musician Paul McCartney responded to a fan six decades after she initially
13:05reached out to him.
13:06Back when the Beatles first arrived in America in 1963, a Brooklyn resident named Adrian
13:11professed her unmatched admiration for McCartney.
13:14Six decades later, while he was opening a photo gallery at the Brooklyn Museum, he invited
13:18Adrian to the show in a video posted to his Instagram.
13:21He did something similar a decade earlier when he belatedly responded to a tape recording
13:24sent by two Essex women in 1963.
13:27Long before McCartney sent those long-overdue responses, his former bandmate Ringo Starr
13:32responded to his own piece of decades-old fan mail from Marge Simpson.
13:35In the season two episode, Brush With Greatness, which aired in 1991, Starr voiced a fictionalized
13:40version of himself who helps Marge rediscover her love for art by finally writing to her
13:44to let her know that he loved a painting she did of him 20 years earlier.
13:48But outside of Springfield, the story was a little different.
13:51In 2008, Starr politely asked his real-life fans to stop sending him fan mail by giving
13:56them a firm cut-off date.
13:58Specifically, if anything arrived after October 20th, it would remain unsigned and end up
14:03thrown away.
14:12Does something count as a prediction if it inspired people to recreate something that
14:16otherwise wouldn't exist?
14:17That's for you to decide, though we think that The Simpsons deserves at least some credit
14:21for proposing a collaboration that surely nobody else had thought of beforehand.
14:25In season seven's Homerpalooza, which originally aired in 1996, American hip-hop group Cypress
14:30Hill find themselves unexpectedly performing with the London Symphony Orchestra.
14:34Then, almost 30 years later, the real Cypress Hill actually did hook up with the LSO for
14:38a one-night-only concert, which was largely inspired by Homerpalooza.
14:42As Cypress Hill's Be Real told the BBC in 2024,
14:45"...it's been something that we've talked about for many years since the Simpsons episode
14:49first aired.
14:50So it's very special for us.
14:51And it's coming off the heels of our 30th anniversary for our Black Sunday album."
14:55The fact that the performance was at the world-famous Royal Albert Hall in London made it all the
14:59more special for the group.
15:01They even invited Peter Frampton, who also appeared in Homerpalooza, to join them for
15:05this collaboration.
15:06Cypress Hill steals my orchestra and Sonic Youth's in my cooler!
15:11The most recent example of The Simpsons getting the future just a little too right comes from
15:15season 11's Bart to the Future, which originally aired in March 2000.
15:19The plot involves Bart receiving a vision of what his life in Springfield will be like
15:2340 years in the future, during which he learns that his sister Lisa will one day become the
15:27President of the United States.
15:29And she made a particular sartorial choice that brought this episode renewed attention
15:32a couple of decades later.
15:34In July 2024, President Joe Biden formally declined to seek re-election, instead endorsing
15:39Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic Party nominee.
15:42And this brings things back to The Simpsons' version of reality, as President Lisa wears
15:46an outfit nearly identical to the one that Harris wore at President Biden's inauguration
15:50in 2021.
15:52Simpsons writer Al Jean responded on social media, calling this one prediction that he
15:56was proud to be a part of.