Are the writers time travelers, or are they related to Nostradamus?The Simpsonsnever disappoints viewers with its eerie Simpsons predictions that ring true years later.The Simpsonsfamily is made up of several characters, but the main characters are Homer (voiced byDan Castellaneta), Marge (voiced byJulie Kavner), Lisa (voiced byYeardley Smith), Bart (voiced byNancy Cartwright), and Maggie. Each episode is filled with the Simpsons family interacting with other residents of Springfield including guest stars that appeared in some episodes onThe Simpsons. Yet what intrigues viewers is how some events were predicted byThe Simpsonswriters at least five years before it happened.
So, what didThe Simpsonspredict? Could it be thatThe Simpsonsreally predicts world events or is the world just followingThe Simpsonsscript? With the 35th season of the long-running sitcom recently concluding, fans saw a return of more creative, powerful, and witty storylines that are reminiscent of the beloved classicSimpsonsseasons. There’s no doubt that the wild narratives from more recent seasons will be added to the growingSimpsonspredictions list, there’s no telling exactly which ones will come true in the coming years.The bestSimpsonspredictions aren’t just shocking, they’re also often strange, funny, and somehow make sense all at the same time.
The Simpsons
55The Shard
“Lisa’s Wedding” - Season 6, Episode 19 (1995)
Many characters from fan-favoriteshows will travel to Londonfor its iconic sights, andThe Simpsonsis no different. One of these trips comes with a strange prediction, as Lisa’s future is predicted and a flash-forward portrays her meeting with a fellow university student named Hugh Parkfield during a trip to London.
A blink-and-you’ll-miss-it shot shows a familiar-looking pointy building behind Tower Bridge, which is recognizable to many London locals and tourists who know it today as The Shard. The only issue?The Shard hadn’t been built yet at the time the episode aired, as it would only start being constructed in 2009, making its spot-on location and silhouette just a few of the weird predictions from this particular 1995 episode. Of course, that may be reading too much into a random building drawn by one of the artists from the show, but it’s fun to see it that way anyway!
54Ferrets as Toy Poodles
“Papa’s Got a Brand New Badge” - Season 13, Episode 22 (2002)
Marking one of the most peculiar yet uncanny predictions of the series,The Simpsons’ Season 13 episode“Papa’s Got a Brand New Badge” prophesied a bizarre toy animal scam that occurred in Argentina. The episode sees Homer form his own police force with his friends in response to city-wide riots that lead to Lisa’s Malibu Stacey doll collection being stolen.
One of the crimes Homer ends up stopping is Fat Tony’s scheme which sees his crooks gluing cotton balls to ferrets and selling them as pet poodles. Remarkably, in 2013, a retired man in Argentina was discovered to be doing the exact same thing in a market in Buenos Aires, selling the weasels for $150 each. The ferrets had been given steroids and groomed in order to resemble toy poodles.
53Twitter Becomes X
“Ned ‘n’ Edna’s Blend Agenda” - Season 23, Episode 21 (2012)
“Ned ‘n’ Edna’s Blend Agenda” transpires as Springfield learns that Ned Flanders and Edna Krabappel got married. Marge decides to throw the new couple a belated marriage party so everyone in town can celebrate, leading to Bart advising Edna to connect with Rod and Todd by tearing down the Flanders household’s rigid structure and exposing them to the real world.The Season 23 episodealso contains a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it foresight into the fate of one of the biggest brands in social media.
At one point in the episode, Homer checks his smartphone andone of the apps on his dock quite clearly contains an “X” as its defining symbol. While the resemblance isn’t quite as uncanny as some photoshop-enhanced reports would have fans believe, it is still fun to look back on as yet another monumental moment in recent pop-culture history thatThe Simpsonsreferenced, even if it was in the most obscure and unintentional of ways.
52Mr. Freeze’s Terrible Puns in ‘Batman & Robin’
“Last Exit to Springfield” - Season 4, Episode 17 (1993)
Batman & Robinis a film that has become so infamous for a litany of different reasons, but one of the cringe-worthy factors that sticks in the mind the most is the god-awful dialogue, which was largely defined by Mr. Freeze’s (Arnold Schwarzenegger) terrible puns. While it was an exaggerated sign of the corniness of the times to some regard, it was also a laughably bad disaster that no one could have pre-empted, at least, no one butThe Simpsons.
The Season 4 episode “Last Exit to Springfield”opens with the Simpsons at the movies watching one of McBain’s cheesy action blockbusters, which features a scene in which his heroic leadinfiltrates a meeting in an ice statue before bursting out and saying “ice to see you”before gunning them down. It is truly comical how such a vague jab at Hollywood blockbusters would just years later prove to be a direct prediction of one of the worst major movies of all time.
51Bloody Billboards
“Itchy and Scratchy: The Movie” - Season 4, Episode 6 (1992)
A hilarious exaggeration of cartoon violence, particularly pointed towards series likeTom & Jerry,The Simpsons’ ‘The Itchy and Scratchy Show’ stands as one of the show’s most shocking and hilarious ongoing gags. In Season 4’s sixth episode, Bart Simpson is punished for his bad behavior and negligence, with Homer refusing to let him see the episode’s titular film. As part of the marketing for the cartoon movie,a billboard is established in Springfield that sees Scratchy being decapitated with blood spraying from the poster.
50America Wins the Gold Medal in Curling
“Boy Meets Curl” Season 21, Episode 12 (2010)
Everyone loves an underdog story, andThe Simpsonswere able to predict the most unlikely of tales in the Season 21 episode, “Boy Meets Curl.” Released in 2010, it centers on Homer and Marge as their search for a fun date takes them to the winter sport of curling. Teaming up with Agnes and Seymour Skinner, they are brought into the U.S. Olympics team for the sport and embark on an incredible run to win gold.
While the episode was released in conjunction with the 2010 Winter Olympics in Canada,it would be eight years later that the prediction would come to fruition when America took home gold at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang. Like in “Boy Meets Curl,” the Americans had to topple Sweden to emerge victorious.
49J.C. Penny Files for Bankruptcy
“Please Homer, Don’t Hammer ‘Em” - Season 18, Episode 3 (2007)
WhileThe Simpsonsepisode in question technically featured a JCPenney’s as opposed to a JCPenney, many fans were still eager to give the series an emphatic nod when the famous American department store chainfiled for bankruptcy during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Amazingly, the prediction came 13 years prior in the Season 18 episode “Please Homer, Don’t Hammer’Em”.
The episode contains several hilarious gags—including a brilliantStar Wars-inspired duel between Bart and Principal Skinner—but it is the opening sequence with the Simpsons ambling through the dilapidated Springfield mall that proves to be the prophetic scene-stealer. Marge exclaims “Ohhh, a JCPenney’s… used to be here” as the Simpsons near the decrepit storefront. Granted, JCPenney never spiraled down that low even at the height of the pandemic, but the episode’s foresight remains truly incredible.
48Ebola Outbreak
“Lisa’s Sax” - Season 9, Episode 3 (1997)
“Lisa’s Sax” is an episode that tells the origin story of Lisa’s love for the musical instrument. In one scene, Bart is shown sick and feeling down, so Marge attempts to cheer him up by reading a strangely titled book. The book, titled “Curious George and the Ebola Virus,” is a strange narrative choice considering Ebola wouldn’t be widely known until the outbreak in 2000, and then again in 2014.
TheEbola outbreak back in 2000made headlines for claiming the lives of 254 people in the Republic of Congo, and 224 more in Uganda.It’s bizarre to see the disease featured onThe Simpsons, as it was still relatively unknown by the time the episode premiered. It’s a shaky connection, but one loyal fans are still willing to make and point out.
47Barbie Mania
“Lisa vs Malibu Stacy” - Season 5, Episode 14 (1994)
Greta Gerwig’s comedy hitBarbiebecame the biggest box office success of 2023,grossing over $1.4 billionas it took the world by storm, enveloping pop culture in pink hysteria withMargot Robbie’s leading performance becoming instantly iconic. While the film was a critical success that earned plaudits aplenty for its social commentary,The Simpsonsinitially pictured a world engulfed in a doll daze in the Season 5 episode “Lisa vs Malibu Stacy.”
Touching on themes similar toBarbie, the episode focuses on Lisa as she grows concerned about the message that the Malibu Stacy dolls send to little girls about what womanhood can and should look like. When her pleas with the doll’s designer see a progressive shift in the product, mass hysteria takes over Springfield as everyone reacts to the new range of dolls on display.
46Donald Trump Being Arrested
Despite being released in 1994, “Lisa vs Malibu Stacy” proved to be an episode that held a lot of relevance for viewers in 2023. Not only did it preface the fanfare surroundingBarbie, but it also subtly hinted atDonald Trump’s arrest. On the 24th of August, the former President of the United States surrendered himself to authorities after being indicted on charges relating to racketeering.
Quite hilariously, “Lisa vs Malibu Stacy” sees newsreader Kent Brockman speak at great length about the popularity of the playthings beforeoffhandedly closing the broadcast with a brief mention that the president was arrested. While vague, it could be viewed that the episode not only predicted the craze of Barbie, but even foreshadowed the social response that starkly contrasted between the political bombshell and the Barbie fanfare.
