You Won’t Believe All The Predictions That Were Made On “The Simpsons” That Actually Came True
Even if you don't typically believe in conspiracy theories, these predictions are just too accurate to overlook. In their TV episodes, The Simpsons have shown inventions that hadn't hit the market yet and were even able to predict events that later made major headlines. What's really mind-boggling is that many of the events don't happen until nearly a decade later.
Curious George And Ebola
During 2013-2014, the Ebola virus scare was massive. People were afraid for their lives as the biggest outbreak to date started in West Africa and resulted in 11,310 deaths.
Back in 1997, a Simpsons episode titled "Lisa's Sax" aired showing Marge reading Bart a story. But this story had the title of Curious George and the Ebola Virus. We never stood a chance once this came out.
Lady Gaga's Aerial Super Bowl Performance
In 2017, for the halftime show of Super Bowl 51 the NFL enlisted pop star Lady Gaga to entertain the fans. While the world watched, Lady Gaga appeared at the very top of the stadium in a shiny silver outfit. She then took a huge leap down to a platform, suspended in the air by a harness.
But for those who watch The Simpsons regularly, this may have seemed all too familiar. In a 2012 episode, Lady Gaga put on a show for Springfield and her performance was pretty much the same. Except the flamethrowers coming from her bra.
The Three-Eyed Power Plant Fish
This three-eyed fish has appeared in Simpsons episodes since the early '90s. The most noteworthy appearance of Blinky the three-eyed fish was in a 1990 episode. Bart caught this fish in a disgusting river and tried to serve it up to Mr. Burns.
That's how it happened in The Simpsons but in real life, it wasn't Bart who found it. It was an Argentinian fisherman who found this three-eyed fish. He caught it in a river that coincidently gets water from a power plant.
Milhouse Knew
Milhouse was always one of the smarter kids of the gang on The Simpsons. In a 2010 episode, Milhouse correctly chose the winner of The Nobel Prize, Bengt Holmström.
Six years later, Holmström would indeed go on to win the Nobel Prize in Economics. Milhouse was the only character to choose him in the betting pool. Lisa probably regrets things now. It's a shame he didn't tell Lisa he had prediction powers. Maybe then she would have liked him.
Siegfried & Roy Attacked By Tigers
This one is more or less a hunch that natural selection would take place sooner rather than later. Legendary magicians and showmen Siegfried & Roy used to do a show with two white tigers. That is until one of the tigers mauled Roy during a show.
In The Simpsons, there were parody characters called Gunter and Ernst. They made an appearance at Mr. Burns' casino but things ended early after one of the two were attacked by the tiger. This happened a decade before the real event took place.
The Simpsons Predicted Autocorrect
Well before autocorrect became a reality, for better or worse, Simpson's character Dolph was shown having problems with it.
In a 1994 episode, Dolph was attempting to send a message that said "Beat up Martin". Instead, his personal digital assistant would change it to "Eat up Martha". Employees at Apple would reference this episode when they were developing the true autocorrect engine.
Why Would Anyone Steal a Lemon Tree?
This is quite possibly the weirdest incident that The Simpsons predicted. This bit covered some weird and obscure news, showing that someone had randomly dug up and stole a lemon tree. Well, in 2013, that's just what happened in Houston, Texas when thieves went to a suburb a stole a lemon tree.
In 1995, The Simpsons had an episode called "Lemon of Troy". The Springfield kids got into a battle with kids from Shelbyville after they went and dug up the town's lemon tree. No battle took place in Texas but apparently, it could have.
Voting Error Predicted in 2008 Happens in 2012
Back in 2008 during a Halloween special episode, Homer wanted to cast a vote for Barack Obama with the electronic voting machine. When he tried to select him, it made his vote go towards Mitt Romney instead.
Sure enough, the same thing happened in Pennsylvania in 2012. A voting machine had to be taken out of commission for doing the same thing that happened in the episode. Except the vote went to Republican John McCain instead of Mitt Romney.
Predicting The Baby Translator
When Homer's half-brother Herb came to visit in 1992, he came up with the baby translator idea. Quite frankly, that should have already been in production even before Herb thought of it.
In 2013, an app called Cry Translator was invented. It was supposed to be able to decipher what type of cry was happening so that the baby could be attended to in a proper fashion. The effectiveness is debatable but Herb came up with it first.
Stealing Grease From Restaurants
When Bart and Homer were stealing grease from the Krusty Burger to sell, it seemed a little odd, to say the least. This happened in 1998 and it wouldn't be until 2013 that we would see something similar start to manifest.
In New York and other major cities, restaurants started to see an unusual spike in grease robbery. These thieves were extremely organized and restaurant owners resorted to hiring private investigators in order to stop them.
One Smartwatch Coming Up
In 1995, tech nerds should have got excited when they watched the episode "Lisa's Wedding". The Simpsons episode was set in the year 2010, where Lisa's fiance was seen using a smartwatch.
They didn't predict the date quite right, as Apple's first smartwatch was released in 2015. However, that's a pretty impressed prediction, considering that it was way before smartphones as we know them even hit the market.
Censoring History
You would think that iconic pieces of art would not be put under fire after standing the test of time for so long. But for Michaelangelo's David sculpture, that is not the case. When a statue of him was brought to Springfield, the people demanded that his body be covered up.
In 2016, a copy of the famed statue was brought to Saint Petersburg, Russia. They clearly aren't fond of nudity over there because they started a campaign to have some clothes put on the statue as well.
Professor Fink Wears Earmuffs of the Future
Questionable fashion choices are all the rage these days. You never know what people are going to wear or what will be acceptable as clothing next. Evidently, anything goes now but The Simpsons were hip to it back in the day.
In 1998, Professor Fink chose to wear a pair of hamburger earmuffs. They were available on Amazon in 2013 but since then have been discontinued. There were seven customer reviews so we know at least seven people got to try out these earmuffs.
Disney Buys Huge Portion of 21st Century Fox
One of the more recent predictions to come to life is the Disney and Fox deal. In a 1998 episode, Homer meets Alec Baldwin at Fox Studios. For a brief moment, you see a sign that says Fox is a division of Disney.
This couldn't be further from the truth, that is until late 2017. A deal was made between these two and Disney ended up making a deal to purchase the majority of 21st Century Fox.
Sad Times For Greece
In a political episode from 2013, Homer Simpson appears on the news. While you may have been distracted by Homer's typical antics, if you read the ticker you would have seen: Europe puts Greece on eBay.
Soon after the episode aired, Greece's economy went from bad to worse. The country's economy was given one bailout after another, but it couldn't prevent Greece from going into massive debt. No, the EU didn't put them on eBay but it seems they pretty much gave up Greece.
Horse Meat Scandal Predicted in 1994
In 2013, Europe had a shocking meat scandal where the meat that was labeled "beef" was, in fact, horse meat. Several Irish and British supermarkets were discovered to have been serving their customers beef burgers that were in fact made of horse meat.
Previously, in 1994 The Simpsons aired an episode with some twisted humor. We get a glimpse of Lunch Lady Doris adding some horse meat to school lunches. She was getting it out of a barrel which read "Assorted Horse Parts".
Marge Predicts 3D Printing
While we don't all have 3D printers in our homes, the majority of the population now understands the concept and the technology is quickly developing. The Reprap Darwin 3D printer was invented in 2008, but The Simpsons saw it coming before that.
When Marge takes a photo of Bart and Lisa in the 2005 episode "Future-Drama", she instantly turned the photo into a cake, as a 3D printer would. Nearly 10 years later, in 2014, the Consumer Electronics Show featured a 3D printing section that included cakes that were created using the printer.
Not Even Fifa Is Safe
In 2015, top board members of the football association FIFA were arrested and indicted by the FBI and the IRS for money laundering and racketeering. This scandal included at least $110 million in bribes surrounding the issuing of media and marketing rights of FIFA. Leading up to the scandal, Germany won the World Cup in 2014.
Earlier in 2014, in a Simpsons episode, Homer was asked to be a referee in the World Cup. Surely enough in the episode, the Vice President of FIFA ended up being arrested for corruption and Germany would end up winning the World Cup. Soon, it really happened.
The Tomacco?
In a 1999 Simpsons episode, the family moves to a farm where Homer tries his hand at growing crops. To help the plants grow, Homer decides to add plutonium. The result was a cross between tomatoes and tobacco that he called a "ToMacco".
In 2013, something similar was found near a nuclear power plant in Japan. Weird vegetables, including a strange tomato, were discovered. The tomato closely resembled what Homer had created.
The Simpsons Predict Trump's Presidency
We wouldn't create this list without adding possibly the spookiest and most famous prediction from this show. As we know, Donald Trump became president in 2016. but The Simpsons knew that would happen that way back in 2000.
In an episode set in the future, Lisa becomes president, and she's quoted saying: "as you know, we've inherited quite a budget crunch from President Trump." The Simpsons are always one step ahead.
