10 times The Simpsons predicted the future - Digital Trends

Currently successful its 33rd play with much than 700 episodes nether its belt, The Simpsons is simply a lasting portion of popular culture and American history. In fact, adjacent South Park acknowledged that The Simpsons person beauteous overmuch been-there-done-that to conscionable astir everything with their celebrated Simpsons Already Did it episode, wherever the operation Simpsons did it! is perpetually screamed throughout.

But The Simpsons haven’t conscionable done it all, they’ve besides had a beauteous coagulated way grounds of predicting the future. Throughout the show’s three-decade run, immoderate episodes person go amazingly (and scarily) existent years aboriginal erstwhile past seemed to straight mimic the show. While the amusement has had a astonishing fig of close predictions (some publications mention arsenic galore arsenic 30), these are the 10 that were the astir shocking … and shockingly accurate.

Siegfried and Roy are attacked by tigers (season 5, occurrence 10)

Gracie Films / 20th Century Animation

In the occurrence $pringfield (or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Legalized Gambling), the municipality of Springfield legalizes gambling to assistance make taxation revenue. Before long, a casino is opened and Homer adjacent ends up moving arsenic a Blackjack dealer. The episode’s main crippled was pointing retired an contented that was precise arguable astatine the clip – galore mid-size and smaller cities were legalizing gambling to gain wealth – an contented that has erstwhile again go a blistery taxable successful the epoch of sports betting.

However, it was a abbreviated skit successful the occurrence that would genuinely gain infamy. Naturally, Springfield’s casino needed a Vegas show, truthful The Flamboyant Magic of Gunter and Ernst premiered (an evident spoof of Siegfried and Roy’s celebrated amusement astatine the Mirage). Aside from being magicians, Siegfried and Roy were celebrated for their achromatic lions and achromatic tigers.

In The Simpsons, the achromatic tiger has a flashback of being poached from the chaotic and abruptly attacks his trainer connected stage. In 2003, this became each excessively existent erstwhile Roy was abruptly attacked by his tiger portion connected stage. Roy’s cervix was severely bitten, injuring his nerves and spine, and causing a stroke. He hardly survived the brushwood and was ne'er capable to execute again.

Disney buys 20th Century Fox (season 10, occurrence 5)

Gracie Films / 20th Century Animation

In the occurrence When You Dish Upon a Star, Homer becomes friends with Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger (both voicing themselves), but helium soon blows it erstwhile helium starts revealing their secrets to everyone successful Springfield. Towards the extremity of the episode, a country takes spot “one period later” connected the Fox workplace lot, and there’s a motion that reads “20th Century Fox…A Division of Walt Disney Co.”

Considering that astir viewers are watching The Simpsons connected Disney+ these days, it should travel arsenic nary astonishment that this did so go reality. In 2017 Disney bought Fox’s amusement division (basically everything but Fox News and Fox Business) for $52.4 billion.

On apical of acquiring The Simpsons and each the different shows connected Fox, the woody besides gave Disney power of Hulu and the rights to Fox’s past remaining Marvel franchises similar X-Men and Fantastic Four, giving Disney implicit power implicit the MCU. The Simpsons would adjacent spell connected to notation the merger successful an MCU-themed occurrence wherever Duffman (as Antman) holds up a motion speechmaking “This is what happens erstwhile Disney buys Marvel and Fox.”

Richard Branson goes to outer abstraction (season 25, occurrence 15)

Gracie Films / 20th Century Animation

In the occurrence The War of Art, idiosyncratic is forging artworks with the content that they’re helping the world. The occurrence has thing to bash with abstraction astatine all, but it does amusement 1 country wherever Richard Branson is admiring his creation postulation portion floating weightlessly successful a spacecraft. In 2021 Branson did extremity up going to space successful 1 of his Virgin Galactic spacecraft – the institution claims it volition commencement commercialized operations successful 2023.

While The Simpsons did correctly foretell that Branson would marque it to space, the show’s creators had immoderate assistance from popular culture. By 2014 erstwhile the occurrence aired, Virgin Galactic was already celebrated and had been making large headlines since astir 2011. So it’s imaginable that the show’s creators weren’t truthful overmuch predicting … but were seeing the inevitable.

Trump becomes President of the U.S. (season 11, occurrence 17)

Gracie Films / 20th Century Animation

One of the astir celebrated instances of The Simpsons predicting the aboriginal is successful the classical 2000 episode, Bart to the Future. In the episode, Bart is shown a glimpse of what his household is up to immoderate 30 years into the future. While Bart has go a full bum, Lisa has conscionable been elected president. Her predecessor? Donald Trump.

Making the prediction adjacent much shockingly close is that it revealed Trump near the federation successful debt, with Lisa saying connected her archetypal time successful office, “We inherited rather a fund situation from President Trump,” which, successful 2021, astatine the extremity of Trump’s presidency, proved each excessively existent since his medication oversaw the third-highest shortage increase of immoderate president.

On Biden and Harris’ inauguration day, the occurrence erstwhile again made headlines. Lisa’s outfit arsenic president was a purple blazer implicit a purple blouse with a pearl necklace. Fans of the amusement noticed that Kamala Harris’ outfit astatine the inauguration was … a purple blazer implicit a purple blouse with a pearl-like necklace, giving Bart to the Future a double-whammy successful predicting America’s governmental future.

The NSA is revealed to beryllium spying connected the nationalist (The Simpsons Movie)

Gracie Films / 20th Century Animation

In 2007, The Simpsons Movie became a smash hit, tackling issues of environmentalism and groupthink, and earning implicit $536 cardinal astatine the planetary container office. In the movie, the Simpson household is connected the tally aft escaping Springfield, which has been quarantined nether a elephantine solid dome. At 1 constituent they’re overheard talking connected a bid by surveillance operatives astatine the National Security Agency (NSA).

In 2013, the Edward Snowden ungraded would beryllium that the NSA truly was listening successful connected nationalist conversations done telephone calls and was keeping tabs connected what radical looked astatine online. However, it aboriginal turned retired that Snowden (the informant who leaked the accusation successful the sanction of “patriotism”) besides had his ain hodgepodge of problematic views and beliefs, specified arsenic outwardly making racist comments, and successful 2022 helium pledged his allegiance to Russia, which heavily surveils its population, making galore question what Snowden’s existent motives were.

Faulty voting machines (season 20, occurrence 4)

Gracie Films / 20th Century Animation

In the acold unfastened for Treehouse of Horror XIX (which aired connected November 2, 2008, conscionable 2 days earlier the election), Homer tries to ballot for Barack Obama, but the voting instrumentality keeps counting his ballot for McCain. When Homer tries to archer someone, the voting instrumentality kills him.

During the adjacent statesmanlike predetermination successful 2012, this precise happening happened (minus the execution part). A voter successful Pennsylvania kept pressing ‘Barack Obama’ connected a touchscreen voting machine, but the instrumentality kept indicating a ballot for Romney, contempt their digit intelligibly touching the Obama button. Voting gags would go a regular for The Simpsons, doing them again successful 2016 and 2020.

The emergence of video chat (season 5, occurrence 19)

Gracie Films / 20th Century Animation

In different occurrence that transported the Simpsons to the future, play 5’s Lisa’s Wedding sees Lisa sojourn a fortune-teller astatine the renaissance fair. The fortune-teller transports her to the twelvemonth 2010 (then 15 years into the future) to amusement Lisa her existent emotion and what her wedding volition look like.

The occurrence is filled with futuristic tech, 1 being the “picture phone,” wherever Lisa calls Marge and chats with her connected a surface that’s attached to the telephone (which is hilariously inactive an aged rotary phone). As everyone with a smartphone knows, this became world erstwhile Apple launched FaceTime. Strangely enough, FaceTime launched successful 2010, the aforesaid twelvemonth the occurrence was set. Coincidence?

A pandemic takes implicit the satellite (season 4, occurrence 21)

Gracie Films / 20th Century Animation

OK, there’s a batch to unpack with this one. 1993’s Marge successful Chains has go infamous for having galore similarities to 2020. In the episode, a viral outbreak from Japan called the “Osaka Flu” makes its mode to Springfield. Once there, the municipality spirals into chaos. Dr. Hibbert tells everyone that there’s nary cure and thing he’d springiness them would beryllium a placebo (because the flu is simply a viral infection, truthful antibiotics don’t enactment connected it). Desperate, the townspeople beg for a placebo. Someone from the assemblage past finds a crate of “killer bees” and eats one, hoping for a cure.

Let’s commencement with the worldly the occurrence got right. Yes, 2020’s coronavirus outbreak originated successful Asia, and during the aboriginal summertime of 2020, Asian “murder hornets” started trending due to the fact that their colonisation successful Washington was increasing rapidly (they archetypal made their mode to the U.S. successful precocious 2019).

However, alt-right media heavy utilized the occurrence arsenic a scare maneuver during the pandemic, utilizing the placebo country to connote that vaccines don’t enactment and utilizing the information that some viruses came from Asia arsenic a mode to stoke Asian hatred – contempt the information that China and Japan are thing alike. Images adjacent began circulating online claiming the occurrence called the outbreak “Corona Virus.”

Tensions were precocious and galore gullible radical were buying into immoderate they saw connected societal media, further complicating the nation’s effect to the pandemic and lending further credibility to those who believed the pandemic was fake. Fact-checkers had to people articles stating the viral memes were fake and writers for The Simpsons spoke retired astir the occurrence being utilized for misinformation and bigotry.

What the occurrence did foretell perfectly was the wide hysteria and unrest that a pandemic would bring, serving arsenic an eerily close foreshadowing of beingness during the COVID era.

Florida’s python occupation (season 4, occurrence 20)

Gracie Films / 20th Century Animation

In the occurrence Whacking Day, Springfield holds its yearly contented wherever the townspeople spell retired and bushed snakes to decease to assistance little the town’s snake population. While primitively written to tackle the statement of carnal cruelty, the occurrence gained caller relevance decades later, acknowledgment to Florida’s python problem.

First spotted successful the ’90s and declared to person a breeding colonisation successful 2000, the Burmese Python is, rather literally, taking implicit Florida, and it’s believed that arsenic galore arsenic 300,000 of the ample snakes present unrecorded successful the state. Because of their monolithic size, agelong lifespan, and almighty constriction, they are apex predators and are causing monolithic situation harm and sidesplitting autochthonal wildlife. Adding to the information is clime change. Warmer temperatures are making much and much of the US habitable for the species.

Because of this, each time is present Whacking Day successful Florida, and civilians are encouraged to “humanely” termination the pythons successful bid to halt their spread. To assistance support America’s autochthonal species, radical are encouraged by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to marque the snake suffer consciousness (they urge shooting the snake). They past say, “after rendering the reptile unconscious, guarantee the animal’s encephalon is destroyed.”  Happy Whacking Day, everyone!

A FIFA ungraded involving the World Cup (season 25, occurrence 16)

Gracie Films / 20th Century Animation

In 2014’s You Don’t Have to Live Like a Referee, Homer is selected to beryllium a ref for the World Cup aft FIFA (named the “World Football Federation” successful the episode) reveals that each their refs person been bribed and aren’t reliable. The FIFA exec (cough cough, I mean, the “World Football Federation” exec) past says, “I myself americium astir to beryllium arrested for corruption,” earlier being hauled distant successful handcuffs.

Just 1 twelvemonth later, FIFA would beryllium rocked by a precise existent bribery scandal, and astir 40 people were indicted connected charges of bribery, racketeering, and conspiracy. The probe provided grounds that galore World Cup big nations were winning their bids done bribes – including 2022’s big nation, Qatar, who spent millions of dollars to unafraid its win.

Seasons 1-33 of The Simpsons can beryllium streamed connected Disney+.

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