For over 30 years, The Simpsons has been more than just a funny TV show. It has also become surprisingly good at predicting the future. From big political changes to new technology, the show has a weird habit of showing things years before they happen. Is it just a coincidence, or are the writers psychic?
This list will guide you through the show’s most amazing predictions. We will look at the most mind-blowing forecasts, explaining how they appeared in the show and how they happened in real life. You will get the episode details, the story behind the jokes, and a clear comparison to the real events that followed.
Get ready to be amazed as we explore everything from presidential elections and company buyouts to new gadgets that once seemed like science fiction. We will look at the stories behind the show’s most famous predictions, proving that sometimes, truth is stranger, and funnier, than fiction. Get ready to see your favorite cartoon family in a whole new, prophetic light.
1. Donald Trump’s Presidential Run
Maybe the most famous of all The Simpsons predictions is its very accurate forecast of a Donald Trump presidency. This wasn’t just a quick joke; it was a specific story that has become a key part of the show’s reputation for seeing the future.
The Episode’s Ominous Warning
The prediction comes from the episode “Bart to the Future,” which aired on March 19, 2000. In this episode, which flashes forward in time, we see a 30-year-old Bart Simpson struggling with his life, while his sister, Lisa, has become the President of the United States.
When she takes office, Lisa has a meeting with her staff in the Oval Office and says a now-famous line:
“As you know, we’ve inherited quite a budget crunch from President Trump.”
This one sentence showed that in the show’s world, Donald Trump not only ran for president but also won and left the country with money problems. At the time, Trump was known as a real estate developer and TV personality. The idea of him being president seemed like a silly joke, perfect for the show’s humor.
The timeline below shows the incredible gap between the show’s joke and its eventual reality.
As the infographic shows, it took 16 years for this joke to become a political reality. The long time between the two events is a key reason why this is considered one of the most unbelievable Simpsons predictions that came true. To learn more about how The Simpsons has made fun of politicians over the years, you can find great discussions and art on the our blog. Writer Dan Greaney later explained the line was meant as “a warning to America,” showing a vision of the country hitting rock bottom before things could get better.
2. Disney’s Acquisition of 20th Century Fox
Long before streaming services and big company mergers were common news, The Simpsons made a surprisingly specific joke about the future of its own production company. The prediction of Disney buying 20th Century Fox is another great example of the show’s strange ability to predict major real-world events.
The Episode’s Ominous Warning
This smart joke is in the Season 10 episode “When You Dish Upon a Star,” which first aired on November 8, 1998. The episode follows Homer as he becomes a personal assistant to celebrities Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger. In one scene, a quick shot shows the outside of the 20th Century Fox studio.
Underneath the famous studio logo, a small sign delivers the joke:
“A Division of Walt Disney Co.”
At the time, the idea of the huge 20th Century Fox company being bought by its rival, Disney, seemed like a crazy joke. It was a funny jab at corporate takeovers, playing on how big the Disney brand was getting. For over 20 years, this was just another clever Simpsons predictions joke, until reality decided to catch up.
On March 20, 2019, almost 21 years after the episode aired, The Walt Disney Company officially finished buying 21st Century Fox’s main entertainment properties for a huge $71.3 billion. The on-screen joke had become a corporate reality, and the studio that had made The Simpsons for 30 years was now, in fact, a part of Walt Disney Co. This deal also meant that characters like the X-Men and Fantastic Four could finally join the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a move fans had wanted for a long time.
3. Smartwatches and Wearable Technology
Long before the Apple Watch was on wrists everywhere, The Simpsons imagined a future where you could wear your communication device. The show’s version of smartwatches is another great example of its talent for predicting tech trends decades before they became popular.
The Episode’s Ominous Warning
The prediction appeared in the classic Season 6 episode “Lisa’s Wedding,” which aired on March 19, 1995. In this look into the “distant” future of 2010, Lisa’s fiancé, Hugh Parkfield, is shown using his watch to make a phone call. The device on his wrist isn’t just a watch; it’s a working phone.
At the time, the idea of talking into your watch was pure science fiction, like something from old spy movies. The episode showed it as a futuristic gadget. What the show’s creators couldn’t have known was how accurately this joke would predict the rise of smartwatches.
“I must tell my mother.”
Hugh says this line right before speaking into his wrist-phone, a moment that is very similar to how people use their Apple or Samsung Galaxy watches today. This prediction is especially impressive because it came a full 20 years before the first Apple Watch was released in 2015. Today, these devices do much more than just make calls, with some even providing life-saving health alerts from smartwatches that show their real-world impact. This is one of the predictions that shows how the show imagined a future that now feels completely normal. For more on the show’s futuristic jokes and art, the Simpsonize Me Blog is a fantastic resource.
4. Virtual Reality Technology
While many Simpsons predictions look back at older episodes, this one is much more recent. It shows how the show’s talent for jokes is still in tune with new trends. The series showed the common, everyday use of virtual reality in a way that perfectly matched its boom in the consumer market.
The Episode’s Immersive Vision
This prediction comes from the Season 28 episode “Friends and Family,” which aired on October 2, 2016. In the episode, the Simpson family gets a set of advanced VR goggles from Professor Frink. They quickly get lost in a virtual world, leading to a funny montage of them living in a digital reality instead of with each other.
The episode showed the family doing things that are now common in VR:
Homer plays a VR version of “catch” with a virtual Bart, and Marge walks her virtual dog, Santa’s Little Helper.
This picture of VR as a fun but isolating home entertainment system was incredibly timely. In that same year, 2016, the consumer VR market took off with the launch of major headsets like the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and PlayStation VR.
The episode aired at almost the exact moment VR went from being a niche tech demo to a real product for homes around the world. The way the characters used the technology for gaming and social simulation was a direct reflection of how companies like Meta (then Oculus) and Sony were marketing it. This makes it one of the most immediate predictions that came true, happening in real-time instead of decades later.
5. Video Calling Technology
Long before FaceTime and Zoom became a key part of daily life, The Simpsons was already exploring the world of video communication. This wasn’t just a single joke but a regular piece of technology in their vision of the future, making it one of the show’s most practical and accurate predictions.
The Episode’s Futuristic Vision
The clearest example is in the classic 1995 episode, “Lisa’s Wedding.” In this flash-forward to the year 2010, Lisa video chats with her mother, Marge, using a rotary-style phone with a screen attached. The call is casual and a normal part of their lives, and it even has the kind of glitchy connection we still deal with today.
The show presented video calling not as a rare, high-tech tool for spies or big companies, but as a common way for families to talk. This prediction captured the feel of how services like Skype, WhatsApp video, and FaceTime would eventually be used by millions.
“I can’t believe it, my little girl is getting married! Let me just get a picture.”
Marge’s line during the call, as she tries to take a picture of the screen, perfectly shows the slightly awkward but sweet ways we adapted to this new form of communication. It showed that the technology would be for everyone, not just tech experts. The Simpsons’ vision showed a future where distance was no longer a problem for seeing a loved one’s face, a reality that became especially important during the global pandemic. The show’s prediction was amazing because it foresaw not just the technology itself, but the human, social part of how we would use it.
As this technology keeps growing, new forms are appearing, like the use of AI avatar videos for business and communication. This shows how the main idea imagined by The Simpsons continues to expand in ways we are still discovering, making it another one of the most incredible predictions.
6. Autocorrect Fails and Predictive Text
Long before we all had smartphones, The Simpsons managed to predict one of the most common and funny frustrations of modern technology: the autocorrect fail. This prediction is especially impressive because it came more than ten years before the technology it was making fun of became widely used.
The Episode’s Ominous Warning
This moment of foresight happened in the episode “Lisa on Ice,” which first aired on November 13, 1994. In a scene at Springfield Elementary, school bully Kearney uses a Newton MessagePad, an early digital assistant from Apple, to write a reminder. He taps “Beat up Martin” into the device.
However, the Newton’s handwriting software, which was known for being bad, misunderstands what he wrote and corrects it to something completely different:
“Eat up Martha.”
This joke was a direct jab at the Apple Newton’s technical problems at the time, but it accidentally became a perfect forecast of the predictive text and autocorrect mistakes that would annoy mobile users years later. The idea of a device changing a user’s intended message into a funny or nonsensical phrase is now a daily reality for millions.
This is a classic example of making fun of a specific piece of niche technology that would eventually become a universal experience. The “Eat up Martha” joke perfectly captures the feeling of every “darn you, autocorrect” moment shared online. For those interested in seeing more famous show moments turned into art, the Simpson Art shop offers a variety of creative pieces. The joke worked in 1994 as a critique of a specific product, but its relevance has only grown, making it a strangely accurate piece of technological foresight.
7. Three-Eyed Fish and Nuclear Pollution
One of the most famous visual jokes from the show’s early years, the three-eyed fish named “Blinky,” has become a powerful symbol of environmental damage. It was more than just a joke about Mr. Burns’s careless power plant; it was a clear and memorable prediction of how industrial pollution could physically change nature.
The Episode’s Ominous Warning
Blinky first had a major role in the episode “Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish,” which aired on November 1, 1990. In the episode, Bart catches the mutated fish in the river near the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant. This causes a media storm and a government investigation into the plant’s safety. The three-eyed fish becomes a key part of the story, showing the real results of Mr. Burns’s corporate greed.
While a fish with three eyes might seem like a cartoon fantasy, reality has provided some disturbingly similar examples. The most direct match happened in 2011 when fishermen caught a three-eyed wolf fish in a reservoir near a nuclear power plant in Córdoba, Argentina.
“We were fishing and we got the surprise of this rare specimen. As it was dark at the time we did not notice, but then one of us looked at it with a flashlight and saw that it had a third eye.”
This statement from the fishermen captured the shocking discovery, which was just like the Simpsons episode from over 20 years earlier. Besides this specific case, scientists have found numerous mutations in wildlife near other sites of nuclear pollution, such as Chernobyl and Fukushima. This has made the story of Blinky one of the most chilling and well-known Simpsons predictions that came true, turning a simple cartoon into an environmental warning.
8. Lady Gaga’s Super Bowl Halftime Performance
While some predictions are quiet warnings, others are flashy predictions about pop culture. The Simpsons once again proved its strange ability to mirror future events by showing a Lady Gaga performance that was very similar to her real-life Super Bowl halftime show years later.
The Episode’s Aerial Spectacle
The prediction appeared in the Season 23 finale, “Lisa Goes Gaga,” which aired on May 20, 2012. In the episode, Lady Gaga arrives in Springfield to cheer up the town. During her concert, she is shown flying over the crowd on wires, wearing a unique outfit and performing from above.
At the time, it was just another example of the show capturing the singer’s big personality. But five years later, reality caught up. On February 5, 2017, Lady Gaga came down from the roof of Houston’s NRG Stadium to start her Super Bowl LI halftime show, hanging from cables in a very similar way.
The show depicted Gaga flying over an audience in a concert setting. Five years later, she made one of the most memorable entrances in Super Bowl history by doing the exact same thing.
This similarity between the cartoon concert and the real-life Super Bowl show was too obvious to ignore. It added another item to the long list of predictions that came true, turning a funny cartoon joke into a major, globally televised event. The show’s creative team perfectly captured the style and drama Gaga would later bring to one of the world’s biggest stages. You can explore more about why The Simpsons were actually made yellow.
So, What’s Next?
From the President’s office to our own living rooms, the world of The Simpsons has often felt less like a story and more like a preview of the future. As we’ve looked at some of the most surprising came true, a clear pattern shows up. These aren’t just lucky guesses, they are the result of very smart, funny writing that reflects our society.
The show’s creators have always been great at seeing the strange things happening in the present and stretching them into the future. Whether it was the rise of wearable tech like smartwatches, the merging of huge media companies, or even a celebrity becoming a politician, the seeds of these future events were already there. The Simpsons just noticed them, added some humor, and let them grow into predictions on our screens.
Key Takeaways from Springfield’s Crystal Ball
What can we learn from this strange ability to predict events? The most important lesson is the power of paying attention and thinking critically. The show’s writers are not psychics; they are smart observers of politics, technology, and people.
Here are the main points to remember:
- Jokes as Predictions: Smart humor often works by taking current trends to their logical, and often silly, conclusions. This helps us see how a joke about President Trump or video chat became real.
- The Slow Growth of Technology: Inventions like smartwatches and virtual reality didn’t appear overnight. The Simpsons simply saw early ideas and imagined how they would be used by everyone decades before it happened.
- Life Imitates Art: Sometimes, a creative idea is so good that it inspires real-world events. Could Lady Gaga’s team have seen her high-flying Super Bowl entrance in an old episode? It’s possible, showing how culture can influence itself in a cycle.
In the end, the predictions that came true is a powerful reminder of the show’s lasting cultural impact. It’s more than just a cartoon; it’s a long-running commentary on our world, our flaws, and our future. By paying attention to its smart, funny view, we not only get a laugh but also a surprisingly clear look at where we might be headed next. As the show continues its long run, we can only wait and wonder what future headlines are currently hiding in plain sight, disguised as a simple animated joke.
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