The Incredible Predictions of the Simpsons

"The Simpsons" have been on television for over three decades. And time and again, the series has shown us glimpses of the future. But what was just a joke many years ago became an absurd reality on many occasions later on. Be it by chance or psychic abilities - the Simpsons have repeatedly predicted events that actually occurred years later. In this article, we present some amazing examples of such predictions, why you shouldn't believe all of them and what the future holds: So what can we expect in 2025?

Predictions That Have Come True

Donald Trump Becomes President

In the 2000 episode "Bart to the Future", Bart travels to the future and sees Lisa as President of the United States. She mentions that she has inherited "quite a budget crunch" from President Trump. An absurd thought at the time - 16 years later, Donald Trump was then actually elected President of the United States. And that's not all: Kamala Harris was almost the first woman to become President of the United States after him! In order to be right here as well, the makers should probably have opted for an old, yellow man...

Disney Acquires 21st Century Fox

In the episode "When You Dish Upon a Star", the Simpsons hinted at Disney's acquisition of 21st Century Fox back in 1998. A movie poster shows that 20th Century Fox belongs to Disney. In 2017, this prediction indeed became reality: Disney acquired 21st Century Fox for 71 billion dollars. So the Simpsons also seem to have a good intuition for the media world.

Lady Gaga at the Superbowl

In the 2012 episode "Lisa Goes Gaga", Lady Gaga flies over the audience on wires and puts on a spectacular stage show. Five years later, at the 2017 Super Bowl halftime show, Lady Gaga floated down from the roof of the stadium in an amazingly similar way. Even if she wasn't wearing sparkly bras in real life, the similarity of the performance was astounding.

The NSA Scandal

In the 2007 "Simpsons Movie", a scene shows the NSA intercepting American citizens' phone calls en masse. Marge Simpson reassures Lisa by saying: "It's not like the government is listening to everybody's conversation." The scene then switches to the NSA, where countless employees are sitting in front of their monitors and are in fact listening in on every conversation. In 2013, Edward Snowden revealed that the NSA does indeed monitor telecommunications data on a grand scale - just like in the movie.

The FIFA Corruption Scandal

In the 2014 episode "You Don't Have to Live Like a Referee", the vice president of the fictional world soccer association is arrested for corruption. This scene became frighteningly real a mere year later: in the wake of the FIFA corruption scandal, several high-ranking FIFA officials were arrested for bribery, money laundering and fraud. So the Simpsons also seem to have a good instinct when it comes to the machinations of international soccer.

The Three-Eyed Fish

In the episode "Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish" from 1990, Blinky, a three-eyed fish, is caught near a nuclear power plant. In 2011, a three-eyed fish was actually discovered in Argentina in a reservoir into which the cooling water of a nuclear power plant had been dumped.

Cannabis Legalization in Canada

In the 2005 episode "Midnight RX", Homer and his friends travel to Canada to buy cheap drugs. There, Ned Flanders is offered cannabis and learns that it is legal in Canada - much to his surprise. At the time, this was a gag to show how different Canada is from the USA. In 2018, however, Canada actually legalized cannabis for recreational use.

Manipulation of Voting Machines

In the Halloween episode "Treehouse of Horror 19" from 2008, Homer tries to vote for Barack Obama - but the voting machine keeps registering his vote for John McCain. Four years later, in the 2012 presidential election, voting machines in the USA were actually rigged. In Pennsylvania, votes for Obama were wrongly assigned to his rival Mitt Romney.

USA Wins in Curling at the Winter Olympics

In the 2010 episode "Boy Meets Curl", Homer and Marge surprisingly win the gold medal in curling at the Winter Olympics. Eight years later, at the 2018 Games in Pyongyang, the US curling team actually won. Even their opponents in the finals, Sweden, matched the prediction. The whole event is particularly unusual because the United States was actually considered to be an absolute underdog.

The Subway Bread Scandal

In a 1995 episode, Principal Skinner uses old gym mats as an ingredient in the school lunch. 19 years later, the fast food chain Subway admitted to using the controversial chemical azodicarbonamide in its bread. This is also used in yoga mats. Although Subway assured that there was no reason for concern, it decided against the use of the chemical going forward.

The Nobel Prize for Bengt Holmström and Ben Feringa

In the episode "Elementary School Musical" from 2010, Milhouse guesses that the Finnish MIT economics professor Bengt Holmström will win the Nobel Prize for Economics. Six years later, in 2016, Holmström did indeed win the Nobel Prize! In the same episode, Dutch chemist Ben Feringa is predicted to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry - and he, too, won the prize in 2016!

The Horse Meat Scandal

In the 1994 episode "Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song", the words "horse parts" can be seen on a barrel of meat in the school kitchen. 19 years later, in 2013, a horse meat scandal hit Europe. In various countries, food products labeled as beef products were exposed as horse meat. In other words, the show was also one step ahead when it came to food deception.

The Simpsons and the Year 2025

The Simpsons have often given us a peek into the future and some of their predictions have indeed come true. Could they be right again for 2025? With many stories still outlandish back then, the time seems to be right for at least somewhat similar things to actually happen.

Flying Cars

In the episode "Bart to the Future", Homer can be seen driving a flying car. Flying cars can also be seen in the future in the 1992 episode "Itchy & Scratchy Land". Companies such as Samson Sky are currently working on the development of flying cars and have plans to launch the first models on the market as early as 2025. Could the dream of flying soon become a reality for everyone?

3D Printed Food

In the episode "The Food Wife" from season 23, Homer, Marge and the children are introduced to the futuristic world of 3D printed food. They try a meal that is prepared layer by layer by a 3D printer. Companies around the world are currently developing such printers that produce food from chocolate, pizza dough and other ingredients. Some are even trying to make these technical dishes more sustainable by printing food with protein-rich ingredients such as algae or plant-based substitutes. In 2025, we are likely to see the first examples of meals simply being printed at home or at least in a restaurant.

Baby Translator

Imagine a world in which every time a baby cries, you can understand precisely what the problem is. In the Simpsons episode "Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes?", an invention is introduced for this very purpose: the baby translator. This device is designed to translate the babbling of babies into understandable words. Current developments in the field of AI, translation tools and speech recognition are advancing rapidly. Even the emotional state of the person is to be taken into account. There are already apps available for download that supposedly translate babies' cries. Despite the fact that they probably promise more than they deliver: The time seems right for a reliable baby translator.

Virtual Reality

The episode "Friends and Family" shows how people in the future are dependent on virtual reality and lose touch with the real world. They spend their time in a simulated world, neglecting their real lives. With the increasing prevalence of VR technology and the metaverse, this prediction is not far-fetched. And even if the big breakthrough of glasses is unlikely to suddenly happen in 2025: Smartphones already seem to be doing a similar job today.

Fake Simpsons Predictions

With all due respect to the amazing accuracy of the Simpsons: The phenomenon has also repeatedly encouraged people to make false claims about the predictions in recent years. Time and again, images are either manipulated or simply backdated in order to make a prediction out of a reaction to the series. This is particularly the case when famous photos appear almost identically in a Simpsons version.

Trump on the Escalator

For example, the picture of Donald Trump as a presidential candidate standing on an escalator in front of a cheering crowd: It is true that Lisa actually mentions a President Trump in an episode from 2000. However, the misattributed image comes from the short film "Trumptastic Voyage" from 2015 and is based on a real photo. The Simpsons were therefore merely parodying an already well-known event.

Bridge Collapse in Baltimore

Next example: A viral image showing Homer and Lisa in front of a collapsed bridge was mistakenly spread as a prediction of the bridge collapse in Baltimore in 2024. In reality, the image was created using AI and has some subtle differences to the real Simpsons characters, such as the number of spikes in Lisa's hair.

The Notre-Dame Fire

An image showing the Simpsons in front of the burning Notre-Dame was also spread as a prediction of the 2019 fire. In truth, though, the image was digitally edited. The original scene is from the 2007 episode "Husbands and Knives" - but there is no trace of flames.

Can the Simpsons Predict the Future?

Despite everything, it's amazing how often the Simpsons have nailed it. So do the creators have clairvoyant abilities? Not really. After all, the series now comprises nearly 800 episodes and thousands of seemingly crazy ideas that often take aim at real-life developments. Of course, it seems uncanny and also amazing when some things actually do happen later on - or at least something similar. We can't wait to find out how often the series will get it right in the future!