Some of us would love to be able to look into the future so we can figure out the winning lottery numbers or change a disastrous event in our lives or the lives of others. If we had that kind of power, we might even be able to save the world or make millions of dollars by becoming oh-so accurate psychics. But believe it or not, there were a couple of times when cartoons predicted the future perfectly, like who’d be president and what new type of technology would go on sale. So, check them out. We low-key run out of words on this one. Seriously!“Game of Thrones” fans were probably nervous about someone spoiling the show’s final season. But it turns out that “The Simpsons” had already predicted a major season 8 plot twist 8 years before it aired. Are the producers of this show a bunch of time travelers? It seems pretty undeniable.
Siegfried and Roy are a duo of German-American entertainers who appear regularly with lions, tigers, and other animals. In 1993, “The Simpsons” aired an episode showing Siegfried and Roy getting mauled by their white tiger. Unfortunately, Roy got mauled by the white tiger, Mantacore, in 2003. Thankfully, Roy survived and fully recovered. Siegfried and Roy performed with Mantacore during their final show in 2010.
No one could have foreseen Donald Trump ever becoming president, but “The Simpsons” did. In one episode of the unbearably long-running series “The Simpsons,” they aired an episode that showed a grown-up Lisa talking about President Trump and a supposed debt the government will inherit from his administration. Did someone tip off the writers?
Homer Simpson predicted the concept of Higgs Boson, also known as the “God Particle.” In one episode on “The Simpsons,” Homer wrote an equation on a blackboard that predicted the mass of the particle years. It was discovered in 2012 by physicists 14 years after the original episode aired.
Smartwatches may be the latest rage today, but they were pretty much science fiction back in the 1990s. So, in 1995, “The Simpsons” showed certain characters sporting a Smartwatch on their wrists. Twenty years later, the Apple watch went on sale. Also, Lisa reached out to her mother and father via something that looks very much like Skype.
Horse meat in school cafeterias? Sounds like something “The Simpsons” would come up with. In 1994, “The Simpsons” fans saw a lunch lady prepping lunches from a large canister with the words “Assorted Horse Parts.” Nine years later in Ireland, the Food Safety Authority uncovered horse DNA in over a third of beef burgers sold at supermarkets. Seriously, is there a portal into the future at Fox studios, or what?
It doesn’t take a psychic to figure out voting machines can malfunction, but this scene was pretty interesting. In 2008, “The Simpsons” showed how Homer intended to vote for Barack Obama, but the vote went to Mitt Romney because of a system’s error. Four years later, a voting machine in Pennsylvania had the same malfunction in real life. Coincidence?
The thought of Disney buying 20th Century Fox seemed insane, but “The Simpsons” thought otherwise. In 1998, “The Simpsons” aired an episode where Homer submitted a script to 20th Century Fox. But right under the studio’s logo, it said “A Division of Walt Disney Co.” 19 years later, It actually happened!
It seems that Bruce Jenner’s transition to Caitlyn Jenner wasn’t really much of a surprise to people. On “Family Guy,” Stewie called Bruce Jenner a “beautiful Dutch woman” and in another episode, Bruce was seen dancing for Navy men. Years later, the actual Bruce Jenner transitioned into Caitlyn Jenner. Uncanny!
“Johnny Bravo” eerily predicted the fall of the Twin Towers, but so did “The Simpsons.” In 2001, “Johnny Bravo aired an episode that showed a poster where a tower was burning. The words “Coming Soon” were shown over the smoke. But four years before that, an episode of “The Simpsons” showed Lisa holding a magazine with a 9 next to the Twin Towers.
In a 1994 episode of “The Simpsons,” Dolph tried using autocorrect on his Apple Newton device. Dolph tried writing “Beat up Martin” but autocorrect changed it to “Eat up Martha.” In 2005, autocorrect became a real thing. The creators at Apple claimed they were inspired by the episode.
It was only a matter of time before Lady Gaga defied gravity while performing at the Super Bowl. “The Simpsons” aired an episode in 2012, where Lady Gaga flew while doing her Super Bowl performance. Five years later, the real Lady Gaga did just that with the help of a harness. Too bad they didn’t predict her hair or outfit right, although it came really close.
In the 1990s, “The Simpsons” had a censored statue of Michelangelo’s David on their show. Then, in 2016, Michelangelo’s David was replicated and placed in St. Anne’s Lutheran Church in St. Petersburg. But residents gawked at the nudity. So, the city created the “Dress David” contest where people would vote on how to censor the statue.
Remember the episode of “Futurama” where people were playing Virtual Virtual Skeeball? The show’s writers predicted that virtual reality would become the next level of entertainment in the future. Although it’s still not as sophisticated or as popular, it has become available in today’s modern world.
In “The Simpsons” episode “Lisa’s Wedding,” writers predicted the construction of the Shard Building. The Shard Building wasn’t built in London until 14 years after the episode aired. They even predicted where the location of the structure was going to be. We’d say that’s pretty freaking eerie and cool at the same time.
Laptops were just one of the technological wonders “Inspector Gadget” predicted. In the episode “The Infiltration,” Penny is using a device attached to her computer book that resembles a digital camera. The only thing the episode didn’t predict was that the device would have internal memory or an SD card.
“Inspector Gadget” was years ahead of its time, like when it showed a self-parking and self-driving car. The cartoon predicted the possibility of self-parking vehicles in the 1980s. Now, there are cars that use technology to parallel park and squeeze into tiny spaces. Even driverless cars are an expensive but cool reality.
In a 2000s episode of “Futurama,” viewers got a glimpse of a bunch of floating cameras. This was an accidental prediction of what we now know as drone video cameras. But the show couldn’t predict how it gave people a cool perspective of the world around them as the technology continues to capture awesome images.
“The Simpsons” foresaw the outbreak of the Ebola Virus 17 years before it actually happened. In an episode of “The Simpsons,” the famous children’s book “Curious George” released a fictional title called “Curious George and the Ebola Virus.” But we doubt the writers could have imagined that the joke would turn into a sad reality.
It seems like Apple and other companies got tons of inspiration for their technology. In 1996, “The Simpsons” aired an episode that showed a device on a gate that looked awfully similar to an iPod. Then, Apple released the first iPod five years after the episode aired. Sounds awfully fishy to us.
“The Simpsons” are nefarious for showing all sorts of unrealistic looking creatures on the show. Take the mutated three-eyed fish, which was found in the show’s polluted waters in Springfield. Who knew that an actual three-eyed fish would be found in Argentina near a power plant? Mind is blown!
“The Simpsons” weren’t the only ones who predicted the modern-day Ebola Outbreak. While some shows predict a possible future that’s a couple of years away, “South Park” managed to predict the Ebola outbreak in the United States a few days before it happened in the episode “Gluten Free Ebola.”
This one wasn’t much of a stretch, but “South Park” predicted Osama Bin Laden’s demise. On October 13, 2010, a “South Park” episode showed Bin Laden being taken down by special forces. But we knew this would eventually happen eventually after the events of 9/11. As it turns out, Bin Laden was taken down 8 months after the episode aired.
In 2012, “The Simpsons” showed Homer guesting on TV show Headbutt with a horrible prediction for Greece. The lines at the bottom announced that “Europe puts Greece on eBay.” Three years after the episode “Politically Inept with Homer Simpson” aired, Greece entered into a major debt crisis.
MIT professor Bengt Holmström, is an accomplished Finnish economist who deserved a Nobel Prize. So, “The Simpsons” figured that Holmström would win a Nobel Prize someday and had Milhouse bet that this genius would get one. Six years later, Holmström earned one. Should we be creeped out by the show’s uncanny accuracy?
Most fans hadn’t foreseen the rise and temporary fall of singer/actress Miley Cyrus. They probably laughed when they saw the 2008 episode of “South Park” titled “Britney’s New Look.” But it turns out their brief prediction of Miley’s rise and fall to fame was fairly accurate. Too bad they didn’t predict her marriage to Liam Hemsworth or her comeback.
In 1999, an episode of “Futurama” showed a hilarious mix-up at a beauty contest that came true. In 2015, during the Miss Universe contest, the host announced the wrong winner and then the wrong contestant was crowned. Moments later, she was “dethroned” on stage, and the crown went to the right winner. How embarrassing!
Remember Penny and her too good to be true computer book on “Inspector Gadget?” The 1980s series had us believing that a computer that small could actually exist. Well, it turns out that the computer book was similar to Toshiba’s first laptop, which was released a couple of years after the show.
