A 2002 episode of South Park once joked that The Simpsons had covered every idea and storyline imaginable. Almost two decades and more than 400 episodes later, however, that observation has proven to be an incredibly inaccurate one with new narratives arriving on a near-weekly basis. One thing that has been surprisingly precise, though, are some of the many predictions made by the show during its 32 years on the air.
While it’s certainly true that even a stopped watch is right a couple of times a day, the number of times that The Simpsons has accurately predicted the future is really quite astounding. Some of those predictions have been fairly obvious ones, but others are so inconceivably specific and random that one starts to wonder whether the show’s writers have access to a time machine.
10 Three-Eyed Fish (S02, E04)
Bart caught Blinky, the three-eyed fish, in the season two episode “Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish” back in 1990, and it ultimately cost Mr. Burns his shot at becoming Governor. Although the mutation is clearly caused by nuclear waste from his power plant, Burns initially tries to claim that it’s actually an example of evolution. When he’s unable to stomach its rancid taste, however, his approval rating tanks, and his campaign goes down in flames.
Fast forward 27 years, and some fishermen in the Argentinian city of Córdoba also happened to catch themselves a three-eyed fish. It was found in one of the city’s many reservoirs which, just like in The Simpsons, also happened to be contaminated by runoff from the local nuclear power plant. Whether or not it tasted as bad as Blinky is unclear, as, unlike Mr. Burns, they opted not to taste test the mutant wolfish.
9 The Siegfried And Roy Tiger Attack (S05, E10)
Gunter and Ernst have appeared in several episodes of the show and serve as a parody of the now-deceased entertainers, Siegfried and Roy. One of their most memorable appearances came in the 1993 episode “$pringfield”, in which they are hired to perform at Mr. Burns’ new casino. When their white tiger, Anastasia, remembers how they captured her in the wild, however, she turns on her handlers and ends up mauling them both quite badly.
10 years later, at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas, tragedy struck during what was supposed to be a routine Siegfried and Roy performance. After the latter fell down, one of the pair’s white tigers bit into his neck and dragged him off the stage. Thankfully, Roy survived the attack (albeit, with some serious injuries), and no harm came to the big cat that was responsible. Admittedly, predicting that a wild animal might one day attack its handlers is a little like shooting fish in a barrel, but it remains yet another accurate prediction nonetheless.
8 The 2013 Horse Meat Scandal (S05, E19)
Lunchlady Doris has appeared sporadically throughout the show over the past thirty years and is best known for her ability to stretch out the cafeteria’s limited budget. There have been some incredibly creative dishes on the menu as a result, and although the horse meat that she served up in 1994 is far from the most shocking, it did prove to hold some relevance further down the line.
Almost two decades later, Europe was hit by one of the largest food scandals in living memory after it was discovered that much of the meat found in supermarkets was contaminated with traces of horse meat. In some cases, horse meat was actually being sold as other types of meat while certain beef products were also found to contain traces of pork. Arrests were made, fines were issued, and millions of dollars worth of meat was seized.
7 Smartwatches (S06, E19)
When Lisa follows a white rabbit into a fortuneteller’s tent at the Renaissance fair in the 1995 episode “Lisa’s Wedding”, she’s given a glimpse of her life, fifteen years in the future. There, she meets a man named Hugh, who sports a not-so-futuristic-looking smartwatch on his wrist, which enables him to make and take phone calls without the use of a cellphone.
Although many companies experimented with the idea of smartwatches in the years that followed, it was not until 2009 when the world’s first standalone smartwatch hit the market. The Burg featured its own sim card, allowing users to communicate with others without needing to tether the watch to a phone.
6 Autocorrect (S06, E08)
After Martin expresses approval for the school’s new academic alert system, Kearney suggests that Dolph takes a memo to remind the pair to beat him up later. After he inputs the text into his Apple Newton, however, the device automatically corrects it to “Eat up Martha”, causing Kearney to hurl the Newton at Martin’s head in frustration.
While the annoyances of autocorrect may be commonplace these days, this episode first aired back in 1994, many years before the feature would become a regular fixture of day-to-day life. With countless Facebook groups and webpages now dedicated to the documenting of erroneous corrections, The Simpsons may well have provided the very first pop culture reference highlighting the frustrating inaccuracy of autocorrect.
5 Disney’s Acquisition Of 20th Century Fox (S10, E05)
In the 1998 episode “When You Dish Upon a Star”, Homer strikes up an unlikely friendship with Kim Basinger and Alec Baldwin after crashing through the skylight of their summer home. It’s through them that he meets Ron Howard, who ends up stealing his movie idea and pitching it to some Hollywood executives. During a scene set the following month, 20th Century Fox is shown to be a division of Disney.
Rumors of an acquisition first surfaced in late 2017, when CNBC reported that negotiations were taking place. A bidding war then ensued between Disney and Comcast, with the former eventually closing a deal in March 2019. It may have taken quite a bit longer to go through than The Simpsons predicted, but the writers ultimately got this one right as well.
4 Donald Trump’s Presidency (S11, E17)
“Bart to the Future” first aired in the year 2000 and is the second episode of the show to take place primarily in the future. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, Bart is shown to be a 40-year-old slacker, but things aren’t going too badly for his sister. Lisa was recently elected president of the United States with her predecessor, President Trump, having failed to secure reelection.
Few could have predicted that the business tycoon would decide to run for office, let alone win, and yet The Simpsons was able to do so a full 16 years before it happened. It’s not quite the perfect prediction as the episode is set in the year 2030, but it’s still an eerily accurate coincidence in spite of this relatively inconsequential detail.
3 Faulty Voting Machines (S20, E04)
Turnout for the 2008 presidential election was the highest since 1968 with more than 130 million Americans casting their votes. When Homer tries to cast his vote in the opening scene of “Treehouse of Horror XIX”, however, the voting machine that he is using refuses to accept his vote for Obama, instead casting multiple votes for Republican candidate, Mitt Romney.
Eight years later, during the 2016 presidential election, a sizable number of voting machines had to be removed from circulation because they were flipping votes. The general consensus seems to be that the problems were a result of the age of the machines rather than foul play. Still, the voting machines incorrectly tracked votes, just as The Simpsons predicted.
2 Multiple Nobel Prize Winners (S22, E01)
“Elementary School Musical” first aired in September 2010 and sees some of the students from Springfield Elementary predicting the year’s Nobel Prize winners. Although Martin’s picks are shown to be the most accurate in the episode, it’s actually Milhouse who deserves all the plaudits. Well. Him and the show’s writers, that is.
Both William Moerner (2014) and Bengt Holmström (2016) would go on to pick up Nobel Prizes in their respective fields in the years that followed. Of the other 10 names on the list, Ben Feringa (2016) is the only other person to been awarded a Nobel Prize since the episode aired, although several of the others have been nominated.
1 The Sacking Of King’s Landing (S29, E01)
To many, the series finale and final episodes of Game of Thrones are some of the most disappointing of all time. Had these people already seen the 2017 Simpsons episode, “The Serfsons”, though, they may have at least been a little more prepared for what was waiting on the horizon.
Having already spoofed other pop culture series like Harry Potter and My Little Pony in the past, the show’s writers turned their attention to Westeros, including elements like the Three-Eyed Raven, the Night King, and even dragons. As the episode draws to a close, one of these dragons can be seen burning the family’s village to the ground in scenes that look remarkably similar to Daenerys’ rampage in the penultimate episode of Game of Thrones. It’s not quite like for like, but it’s pretty close.
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