People have been trying to predict the future for as long as we’ve been around as a species—Nostradamus, the Mayans, Miss Cleo (may she rest in peace). They’ve all taken their shots (and subsequent misses) at predicting what is to come in our lifetimes. Most notably, we seem to keep missing the end of the world, may it come soon and swiftly. But perhaps we’ve been looking in the wrong place. If any one entity is going to correctly forecast our demise, it’s likely going to be the long-running animated series, The Simpsons.
For over three decades, the series has thrived with a dedicated audience invested in the hijinks of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie. But the catch is that despite many of its storylines being asinine beyond belief, they end up getting mimicked in real life later on. Whether that’s strange, unconscious manifestation or clairvoyance is up to you to decide, but it’s impossible to look at The Simpsons and not feel a bit uneasy about how spot on the FOX show seems to be about what’s to come. Even creepier, the show seems to be getting it right with increasing accuracy.
“It’s a little sad that something you put in a show as a joke because it was so crazy came true,” longtime Simpsons showrunner Al Jean told Esquire shortly after they predicted Donald Trump becoming president.
Below is a look at some of their greatest hits. From tiger attacks to Trump presidency, it’s best to keep an eye on The Simpsons. Wise are those who prepare via an animated TV series.
Ted Cruz Goes on Vacation Mid-Disaster
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In the most recent edition of The Simpsons Predicts the Future, someone has unearthed a clip that looks a lot like Senator Ted Cruz’s latest debacle. Amid a pandemic and a state-wide weather disaster that has left Texans without power and water, Cruz packed up shop, left his dog at home, and took his family on a vacation to Cancún. It wasn’t until he was clocked at the airport that he was forced to fly back home and issue an apology.
Donald Trump’s Presidency
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In the now famous episode “Bart to the Future,” Lisa Simpson is president, which is not terribly hard to fathom. But what is eerie is that this episode, airing in 2000, predicted that she would succeed President Donald Trump, whose fictional term as President seems as disastrous as his actual term.
Kamala Harris… Down to the Outfit
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People called out the weird Trump prediction back during his successful election run in 2016, but then the whole thing just doubled down when Kamala Harris appeared in what seems to be a replica of Lisa’s outfit just days after being elected Vice President. It does seem a bit too on the nose, but also, Harris doesn’t seem like a typical Simpsons fan, so who knows.
The Siegfried and Roy Tiger Attack
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Ten years before a tiger would attack Roy Horn during a live performance, The Simpsons featured an episode where the duo would be attacked by a white tiger. Yikes.
Apple Products and Features
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Use FaceTime lately? An Apple watch? Or just had a really erroneous last minute text switch thanks to Apple’s “autocorrect” function? Well, The Simpsons predicted all of this in its 1995-1996 seasons. Granted, Lisa’s FaceTime uses a rotary phone, but you’re not going to accidentally FaceTime someone with that, so maybe they had the better idea.
The Game of Thrones Finale
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Oh, whoops. Spoiler alert? Before the finale… underwhelmed fans, The Simpsons gave Westeros a preview of what was to come. When a dragon rises up and burns down the entire village, it looked an awful lot like the big, chaotic conclusion to the HBO series’ final season.
Lady Gaga’s Halftime Show
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This one is tricky and we don’t want to say Gaga is reductive, but we will say that her 2012 cameo on The Simpsons bears a striking resemblance to her Super Bowl half time show from a couple years back.
The Pandemic Response (feat. Killer Bees)
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The “Osaka Flu” episode of The Simpsons is rife with predictions, but most notably, it really nails the response we’ve seen following the onset of the COVID-19 virus. With suggestions from authorities that there is no cure and that bedrest is what’s really needed, we get a bonus prediction when townspeople overturn a truck and reveal killer bees, reminiscent of the reports we saw in 2020.
Disney Buys Fox
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Two decades before it came true, the series predicted that Disney would buy Fox. And all these years later, here we are…
9/11
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Perhaps the strangest and most famous of these predictions is that The Simpsons appeared to allude to 9/11 in the 1997 episode “The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson.” As Jean described it to Esquire: “The one that was really odd—and I can’t understand how this happened, it was so bizarre—in our New York show before, in 1998, there was a pamphlet that said, ‘New York on $ 9 a day,’ and then the World Trade Towers were right behind the nine, and it looked like 9/11. If you had designed something to reflect it, you couldn’t have made a design that would’ve made it look any clearer. So that one—that spooks me to this day. That is really odd.”
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