It's impossible to foresee future events for us, whereas sometimes it seems like a breeze for The Simpsons. From the Nobel Prize winner to the Beatles' belated mail to fans, its predictions have repeatedly been proven shockingly correct. Kick back and see how Simpsons nailed them!
1. The Beatles Sending Belated Fan Mail – "Brush with Greatness," 1991
There's a slim chance of getting a reply to your fan mail from your idol, let alone the chance of getting it after decades. However, the lucky thing did happen to Marge Simpson when she got a response from her teenage crush Ringo Starr. To everyone's surprise, that same fortune was bestowed on two fans of the Beatles in much the same fashion in 2013 when they received a reply from Sir Paul McCartney after sending him a mixtape 50 years earlier.
2. Leave Him Be – "The Simpsons Movie," 2007
Tom Hanks announced his health condition together with his wife Wilson's earlier this year, which caused quite a stir. Following his post, some viewers of The Simpsons Movie speculated that the event had been foretold by his cameo in the film, for he spoke of being left alone. How incredible that particular presumption was!
3. Autocorrect – "Lisa on Ice," 1994
Autocorrect often serves as the worst function of modern technology due to its misdirection. If Apple's engineers have watched this episode before, they should have been wise to the pitfalls. There was a moment when the school bully Dolph took a memo to "Beat up Martin" on his Newton device, only to find it autocorrect to "Eat Up Martha." Big oops!
4. Hairy Situation – "Homer at the Bat, " 1992
This episode may give you one more reason to get a clean haircut as Mr. Burns benched Yankees first baseman Don Mattingly due to his sideburns. Just as the episode showed, Yankees owner George Steinbrenner ordered players to abide by his clean-cut policy and benched Mattingly for not trimming his hair.
5. The Higgs-Boson Particle – "The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace," 1998
A scientific discovery would be the last thing you'd expect from an animated sitcom, but it's exactly what happened in The Simpsons. In the tenth season, Homer becomes an aspirational inventor and there's a scene showing him scribbling a math equation. And it struck people as an odd coincidence that the mass of Homer's equation was so similar to that of the Higgs boson particle discovered in 2013!
6. Sports Corruption – "You Don't Have to Live Like a Referee," 2014
The 2014 episode that took on the World Cup mocked the infamous corruption inside FIFA, when Homer was appointed referee due to FIFA's corruption. And it only took one year before the scandal came true, when the FBI investigated high-level FIFA officials and arrested them for wire fraud and money laundering.
7. The Rolling Stones' Tour – "Lisa's Wedding," 1995
Even fans of the Rolling Stones wouldn't expect their favourite band to still be playing tours today. However, in Lisa's Wedding, a poster stuck on the wall of Lisa's dorm room had advertised Stones' big tour in 2010. Guess what? The legendary band was doing international tours well past 2010! Unbelievable, right?
8. The Big Plot Twist In "Game Of Thrones" – "The Serfsons," 2017
Had you watched Game Of Throne, you might remember the famous scene when the dragon mother and her dragon laid waste to an already surrendered King's Landing. Well, in a 2017 episode titled The Serfsons, Homer revives a dragon that intends to burn a village.
9. Nobel Prize Winner – "Elementary School Musical," 2010
Isn't it cool to know who will become the Nobel laureates in advance? Then you'd better keep your eyes on The Simpsons. In reality, MIT professor Bengt Holmström won the Nobel Prize in economics in 2016, six years after his name appeared on a betting scorecard.
10. Merger Mania – "When You Dish Upon a Star," 1998
Simpsons' predictions often take years to come to fruition, but sometimes you'll miss it with a mere blink. The episode aired in 1998 showed a billboard for 20th Century Fox with a caption revealing it was a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Company. Scarily enough, Disney did purchase 20th Century Fox in 2017.
11. Smart Watches – "Lisa's Wedding," 1995
Besides the math equation the sitcom happened to discover, The Simpsons also deserves some credit for foreseeing future technologies. It introduced the idea of a smartwatch that could double as a phone in 1995, just like what you see today. The only possible reason seems to be that Matt Groening can travel through time.
12. Olympic Glory – "Boy Meets Curl," 2010
Could there be anything more uplifting than knowing who claims the biggest winner in the Olympic games beforehand? Perhaps not. Well, The Simpsons had offered such a foretelling in 2010 when Homer and Marge formed a mixed curling team and won the gold medal, with Sweden coming in second place, just like the 2018 Winter Olympics' result.
13. London's Shard – "Lisa's Wedding," 1995
Looking back, fans of The Simpsons will agree there were time travelers involved in the writing team in this episode. Look closely at the background of this visual featuring Big Ben, and you'll see a sharp structure that doesn't seem to fit in with the London skyline at the time. And that skyscraper is proved to be the Shard that was completed in 2012.
14. Robotic Librarians – "Lisa's Wedding," 1995
The episode named "Lisa's Wedding" boasts of plenty of inventions, and the robotic librarian is one of them. After 20 years, this foresight has begun to take shape, with Singapore scientists recently beginning to test their robot librarians.
15. Video Calls – "Lisa's Wedding," 1995
Even in 1995, you'd agree that our wish for making video calls would be sure to come true. However, there was a long way to go. When Lisa called her mom through an amusing-looking video phone, you'll feel the joy it brings when using it to chat with your beloved ones from a distance.
16. Three-Eyed Fish – "Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish," 1990
Loyal audiences will be familiar with how Mr. Burns polluted the environment. In this episode, Bart catches a three-eyed fish whose mutation results from the pollution of Mr. Burn's plant. Back then, it seemed too incredible, but in 2011 a fisherman caught a three-eyed fish in a reservoir in Argentina nearby a power plant.
17. Grease Grifters – "Lard of the Dance," 1998
Back in 1998, you may find it didn't make much sense when Homer asked Bart to help him make money by stealing grease from Krusty Burger and Bart's school. However, the truth is that people have come full circle in 2011 due to the rising oil prices.
18. Covering Up, David – "Itchy & Scratchy & Marge," 1990
Obviously, The Simpsons paid attention not only to science and technology but also to art. An early episode showed Springfieldians protesting against Michelangelo's statue of David being exhibited nude in the local museum. Shockingly enough, it indeed became a hot button issue in 2016, when Russians voted on whether to cover the statue up in central St Petersburg.
19. Ebola Outbreak – "Lisa's Sax," 1997
A scene set in 1990 shows that Marge attempted to cheer up the sick Bart with a book called Curious George And The Ebola Virus. Though the disease had existed long before, the year 2014 and 2015 happened to see its largest outbreak.
Source: buzzaura.com