"The Simpsons" isn’t just America’s longest-running animated sitcom — it’s a time-traveling prophecy machine. Over the years, the show has bizarrely (and accurately) predicted events that came true years or even decades later.
Coincidence? Or is Matt Groening hiding a crystal ball?
Here are some of the strangest, eeriest, and downright bizarre predictions the show has made — and yes, many of them actually happened.
🧪 1. Donald Trump Becomes President
Predicted: 2000
Came True: 2016
In the episode "Bart to the Future", Lisa mentions inheriting a budget crisis from President Trump. Back then, the idea was a joke. Then, 16 years later... it became reality.
📱 2. Smartwatches Before Apple Did It
Predicted: 1995
Came True: 2014
In "Lisa’s Wedding", her fiancé uses a wristwatch as a phone — long before smartwatches were even a concept. Apple released the Apple Watch in 2014.
🧬 3. Disney Buys Fox
Predicted: 1998
Came True: 2019
A sign reading “20th Century Fox, a division of Walt Disney Co.” appears in an old episode. In 2019, Disney officially bought 21st Century Fox for $71.3 billion.
🤢 4. Three-Eyed Fish = Pollution
Predicted: 1990
Came True: 2011
Blinky the three-eyed fish, mutated by the nuclear plant’s runoff, was a joke — until a real three-eyed fish was found in Argentina near a nuclear facility.
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🧼 5. The COVID-19 Pandemic?
Predicted: 1993
Came True: 2020
An episode called "Marge in Chains" featured a fictional virus called the Osaka Flu, spreading rapidly from Asia — complete with panic-buying and quarantine scenes eerily similar to COVID-19 events.
🧠 6. AI Takeover and the Rise of Robots
Predicted: Various Episodes
While robots haven’t enslaved humanity yet, The Simpsons regularly portrays AI going rogue — echoing modern fears with ChatGPT, deepfakes, and robot dogs patrolling the streets.
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💸 7. Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency References
Predicted: 2013
Came True: Ongoing
In 2013, The Simpsons referenced digital currencies before Bitcoin became a household name. By 2020, they aired an episode explaining how cryptocurrency works.
🚀 8. Virgin Galactic & Space Tourism
Predicted: 2016
Came True: 2021
In an episode, Homer becomes an astronaut — and later, episodes showed commercial space travel. In 2021, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson actually made it happen.
🧊 9. The Rolling Censorship Machine
Predicted: Early 2000s
Came True: Modern Social Media
Remember when characters’ dialogue was censored in real-time on the show? Now it’s happening for real with AI moderation on YouTube, TikTok, and Twitch.
🔪 10. Autocorrect Fails Before Smartphones
Predicted: 1994
Came True: Daily
An episode showed a device changing “beat up Martin” to “eat up Martha.” Sound familiar? Yep — it’s everyone’s daily battle with autocorrect.
⚾ 11. The Bengt R. Holmström Nobel Prize Prediction
Predicted: 2010
Came True: 2016
Milhouse lists Holmström as a likely Nobel Prize winner. Six years later — he won it in economics. Did the writers know something we didn’t?
🛠️ 12. Higgs Boson Discovery
Predicted: 1998
Came True: 2012
In an episode, Homer is seen scribbling a complex formula — which turned out to be eerily similar to the real equation of the Higgs Boson particle discovered in 2012.
🐘 13. Siegfried & Roy Tiger Attack
Predicted: 1993
Came True: 2003
A big cat attack on a magician duo happened on The Simpsons a full 10 years before Roy Horn was actually attacked by one of their white tigers.
The odds of so many events being predicted in a single cartoon are beyond strange. Whether it’s coincidence, satire becoming reality, or just razor-sharp cultural insight — The Simpsons keeps giving us chills.
