You never really know what the future holds, but if you watch The Simpsons closely, you might start to think that its creators have a Magic 8-Ball or something.
Throughout its 32 seasons, this iconic show has (accidentally) predicted how the coming days will look numerous times, and some of these guesses were surprisingly accurate too like Donald Trump’s presidency. Or Disney buying 20th Century Fox.
After the Biden - Haris inauguration, the show’s Nostradamus-like screenwriting has again captured the Internet’s attention.
The pair were elected after winning the presidential election in November 2020, but fans of The Simpsons are convinced Harris’ fate was decided even before then.
Yes, the show did not have an animated version of Harris working alongside the president but in 2000, it aired an episode called Bart To The Future, in which Lisa becomes the first female President of the United States, inheriting the White House after — you guessed it — Donald Trump.
Harris is the first female ever to be the vice president of the United States, which is a milestone not so different from the one The Simpsons pitched. And, just like in the episode, her term begins after Trump's came to an end. But it was her choice of clothing at the inauguration ceremony that really got people talking about the connection between the two.
In 2000, The Simpsons creators depicted Lisa wearing a grey top, a purple jacket, and what looked to be a pearl beaded necklace and earrings. Harris arrived at the Capitol looking nearly identical, with the only difference being her purple top.
Social media users quickly pointed out the eerie similarities, with some going as far as asking Harris if she took inspiration from Lisa's wardrobe choices.
As for why the showrunners chose Trump as the president in the first place, writer Dan Greaney told The Hollywood Reporter that, "It was a warning to America. And that just seemed like the logical last stop before hitting bottom. It was pitched because it was consistent with the vision of America going insane."
#3 Three-Eyed Fish
The iconic three-eyed fish was a symbol throughout The Simpsons of the massive pollution the town was facing and how badly it affects nature. Funnily (or sadly) enough, a similar fish was found in Argentina near a nuclear power plant.
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232points
#4 The Prediction Of Higgs Boson Or "God Particle"
Back in 2012, physicists confirmed the existence of the Higgs Boson also known as the "God particle". This scientific breakthrough helped explain how everything in the universe has mass. The discovery itself is amazing but what is even better is the fact that 14 years before this happened, Homer was illustrated in front of a blackboard with an equation that actually predicted the mass of the yet-to-be-discovered particle which basically means Homer was the first scientist to share any info on Higgs Boson.
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219points
#5 Donald Trump's Presidency
In 2000, 16 years before the actual announcement, The Simpsons had already predicted that Donald Trump will run for president and they even managed to predict that he will win. We still have time to see if Lisa's words hold true once Trump's presidency is over.
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205points
#6 Faulty Voting Machine
This one surprised many as The Simpsons managed to almost identically predict the future. Back in 2008, Homer was illustrated voting for Obama during the election but the vote automatically changing for Mitt Romney. 4 years later, the exact same thing happened in Pennsylvania where a faulty machine had to be removed because of changing people's votes for Mitt Romney.
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195points
#7 Smartwatches
Back in 1995, The Simpsons showed one of their characters wearing a watch that you can also use as a phone. It took 20 years for the actual Apple Watch to be released.
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186points
#8 White Tiger Attack
Back in 1993, The Simpsons mocked Siegfried & Roy by showing them getting mauled by their white tiger. The same thing happened in real life 10 years later.
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185points
#9 Disney Buying 20th Century Fox
Back in 1998, the creators of The Simpsons showed Homer creating the script. This script was produced by 20th Century Fox but in the episode, you can notice that there's a sign in front of the studio's headquarters that says "a division of Walt Disney Co." In fact, Disney did actually purchase 20th Century Fox for $52.4 billion 19 years later.
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183points
#10 The Birth Of Autocorrect
In a 1994 episode, "Lisa on Ice", Dolph uses an Apple Newton - a digital assistant. When he tries to write ''Beat up Martin'', the machine changes it to "Eat up Martha" which could mark the very beginning of the now infamous autocorrect fails. With the official launch of autocorrect in 2005, it's been reported that the original employees fondly referred to this episode of The Simpsons when creating the actual product.
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159points
#11 Nobel Prize Winner
In one of their episodes, The Simpsons showed Milhouse betting on MIT professor Bengt Holmström to win the Nobel Prize. Surprisingly, he did win after 6 years.
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155points
#12 The Censorship Of Michelangelo's David
Residents of St. Petersburg were very unhappy when a replica of Michelangelo's David was placed in St. Anne’s Lutheran Church in central St. Petersburg. One woman has even written a letter asking for the sculpture to be censored. “How could you put this bloke without any trousers in the center of St Petersburg next to a school and church?” the woman wrote in a letter. In order to turn something negative into a positive, local authorities then started an initiative called "Dress David" where people voted on how the replica could be censored. There was an option "leave it as it is" and since this story happened back in 2016 and nobody talked about it ever since, there is a big chance that the sculpture remained uncensored although during the voting period, David was just covered in black tape. How rude!
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145points
#13 Lady Gaga's Performance At The Super Bowl
The iconic Lady Gaga's Super Bowl performance was actually first performed 5 years earlier in Springfield where Lady Gaga, just like in the Super Bowl, was flying through the air while singing.
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134points
#14 The Fall Of The World Trade Center
In a 2001 episode, "Chain Gang Johnny", the creators of Johnny Bravo managed to predict the tragic events of 9/11 and the fall of the Twin Towers. Given the fact that the episode aired just a few months before the actual disaster, many conspiracy theorists wonder: could it have been a subliminal message or a not-so-subtle warning? Well, it did say, "Coming soon", but we'll never know.
The Simpsons predicted the disaster way back in 1997 when the family plans a trip to New York. It's all fun until we notice the cover of the magazine that Lisa holds up as it eerily shows the Twin Towers next to a big number 9. Again, subliminal message? Honest prediction of 9/11? We'll leave it to the conspiracy theorists.
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132points
#15 Horse Meat Scandal
In the 1994 episode of the "Simpsons", the lunch lady known as Doris was using "assorted horse parts" while preparing meals for high school students of Springfield Elementary. Then nine years after the episode aired, a huge scandal happened when Ireland's Food Safety Authority found horse DNA in over one-third of the beefburger samples from supermarkets and ready meals, and pork in 85% of them.
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131points
#16 First Generation Ipod
Five years before Apple announced the first iPod, The Simpsons already had an idea of what the invention would be like. Seen in an episode from 1996, the device closely resembles the first generation iPod not only in design but also in the purpose of communicating messages and music.
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126points
#17 Got Season 8 Plot Twist
Many were surprised that the unimaginable Game of Thrones Season 8 plot twist was actually already predicted by The Simpsons. I guess we should thank The Simpsons for the spoiler or you can thank us if you still didn't watch the last season and came to read this list.
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116points
#18 The Shard Building In London
Another episode of the Simpsons, "Lisa's Wedding", predicted the iconic Shard Building in London 14 years before it was built. Looking back at the episode now, it's fascinating to see that not just the shape and look of the Shard is incredibly similar but also the location is the same.
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114points
#19 The Ebola Virus
17 years before the actual outbreak of the Ebola virus, Marge was already illustrated by The Simpsons' creators giving a book to Bart. The title of the book reads "Curious George and the Ebola Virus".
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100points
#20 Financial Crisis In Greece
In a 2012 episode, "Politically Inept With Homer Simpson", Homer appears as a guest on a news show. A headline flashes at the bottom of the screen: 'Europe puts Greece on eBay'. Even though Europe didn't actually sell a whole country online, three years later in 2015, Greece became the first developed country to enter a large scale debt crisis.
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94points