For more than 30 years, The Simpsons has done more than make people laugh; it has somehow managed to predict the future. From world politics to pop culture and sports, Springfield’s most famous family keeps getting it right.
Fans noticed long ago that storylines often mirror real events, sometimes years before they happen. Showrunner Matt Selman once told People, “If you say enough things, some of them will overlap with reality.” He added that when you study humanity’s foolishness, you can’t help but “anticipate the future.” Turns out, he might be right.
Here are 16 moments that The Simpsons got strangely right.
1. Donald Trump’s presidency (Season 11, 2000)
In Bart to the Future, it shows the character his own destiny. Lisa becomes president in the episode and says she’s “inherited quite a budget crunch from President Trump.” At that time, Trump was still a businessman. Seventeen years later, he was sworn in at the White House.
2. Richard Branson goes to space (Season 25, 2014)
Virgin Group founder Richard Branson went to space in 2021 aboard Virgin Galactic. The War of Art episode from The Simpsons showed Branson floating inside a spaceship years before he actually uploaded a video of himself doing the same.
3. Game of Thrones’ dragon rampage (Season 29, 2017)
The Game of Thrones was one of the most culturally significant cornerstones of the 21st century, and The Simpsons managed to predict a scene from the show. In “The Serfsons,” a revived dragon burns down a medieval town — nearly identical to Daenerys’ fiery destruction of King’s Landing in the final season.
4. Cypress Hill Performing with the London Symphony Orchestra (Season 7, 1996)
In Homerpalooza, Cypress Hill performed with the London Symphony Orchestra, a combo few could imagine. The band made it a reality 28 years later, performing Insane in the Brain live with the orchestra. B-Real told the BBC that it was something they had planned on doing since The Simpsons episode aired.
5. Disney buying 21st Century Fox (Season 10, 1999)
The episode “When you dish upon a star” shows Homer becoming friends with Kim Basinger, Alec Baldwin, and Ron Howard. However, their newfound friendship ends quickly it quickly dissolves before the episode’s end. After the split, Howard is seen pitching Homer’s idea for a movie to Fox, giving it his name. The Fox sign on the studio says that the organization is now owned by Disney. In real life, Disney bought Fox in 2019.
6. Kamala Harris’ purple suit (Season 11, 2000)
Kamala Harris’s outfit during the 2024 presidential campaign mirrored Lisa’s purple blazer and pearls from Bart in the Future. Interestingly, the plot implied that Lisa had defeated Trump to become the president. In real life, Trump was elected for a second term.
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7. Autocorrect (Season 6, 1994)
Dolph types “Beat up Martin” in his Apple Newton device as a joke, but the device autocorrects the phrase to “Eat up, Martha.” The joke “Eat up, Martha” became an inside phrase at Apple as developers worked to fix autocorrect, per CNET.
8. Siegfried and Roy tiger attack (Season 5, 1993)
In the show, their lookalikes are mauled by their tiger. A decade later, Roy Horn was attacked by his real tiger during a show.
9. US curling gold medal (Season 21, 2010)
Homer and Marge’s curling team beat Sweden in 2010. Team USA did the same in the 2018 Olympics to win their first gold in curling.
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10. Three-eyed Fish discovery (Season 2, 1990)
The show’s “Blinky”, a three-eyed fish that mutated due to the nuclear waste from the power plant Homer worked at, became real in 2011 when fishermen caught a three-eyed fish near an Argentinian nuclear plant.
11. NSA spying scandal (The Simpsons Movie, 2007)
Marge decides to share some secrets with the NSA, but she is in for a surprise when she finds that the US government agency was actually listening in on people’s phone calls. In 2013, Edward Snowden revealed details of a government program doing the same in an interview with The Guardian.
12. Global virus outbreak (Season 4, 1993)
A “Osaka Flu” spreads worldwide after being shipped from an Asian country. The episode shows that a sick factory worker in Japan had coughed into boxes that were shipped to Springfield. The virus survived in the packages and spread rapidly, eerily similar to the COVID-19 pandemic nearly three decades later.
13. Rolling Stones touring in old age (Season 6, 1995)
A psychic told Lisa her future, and she sees herself in a dorm with her future husband, as well as a poster that teased a “Steel Wheelchair Tour 2010” by the Rolling Stones. The Stones are still touring well into their 80s.
14. The Beatles answering fan mail decades later (Season 2, 1991)
Ringo responds to fan mail from Marge decades earlier. Paul McCartney did the same in 2013, when he responded to a fan mail from 50 years ago, as reported by Rolling Stone.
15. Bengt Holmström’s Nobel Prize (Season 22, 2010)
Lisa and her friends tried to guess future Nobel Prize winners. Milhouse predicted that Finnish economist Bengt R. Holmstrom would be a future Nobel winner. He won the prize for economics six years later.
16. FIFA corruption scandal and World Cup winner (Season 25, 2014)
Homer referees a rigged match as FIFA executives are arrested. The person who asked Homer to referee the game is the executive vice president of the World Football Federation, who goes to jail for corruption charges in the episode. The installment also showed Germany winning the World Cup. A year later, FIFA was rocked by a real corruption probe. Germany won the World Cup in 2014, making another prediction come true.
The Simpsons has blurred the line between parody and prophecy. Maybe it is a coincidence. Maybe it is genius. But either way, Springfield seems to know what is coming before the rest of us do.
FAQs
What are some real-life events The Simpsons predicted correctly?
The show has foreshadowed events like Donald Trump’s presidency, Disney buying Fox, the FIFA corruption scandal, and even Kamala Harris’ iconic purple suit.
2. How does The Simpsons predict the future so accurately?
Showrunner Matt Selman says it is not magic, but math and observation. With decades of episodes, some jokes naturally overlap with real events.
3. What is the most famous Simpsons prediction of all time?
The Donald Trump presidency remains the most iconic. First referenced in 2000, it came true 17 years later.
