Above: 16 years ago The Simpsons casually referred to ‘President Trump’ in the season 11 episode Bart To The Future. It isn’t the first time Matt Groening and the rest of his team have eerily and accurately predicted the future through the famous animation.
Now we’re not blaming The Simpsons for anything, especially the Trump presidency, but it’s getting a little freaky. Whether this is just a result of a 400-strong episode pool to draw innumerable moments of genius from or some kind of cosmic river of knowledge flowing through Groening’s mind, there’s just something about this show.
Stop reading your horoscope and start watching The Simpsons. Here’s 5 times that the world’s longest running animation correctly predicted the future.
Mass surveillance and the NSA
The regimes of the America’s National Security Agency were recently uncovered by whistleblower Edward Snowden, but in 2007 The Simpsons Movie showed a room full of NSA employees listening in on the public’s conversations.
Ben Ferringa wins the Nobel Prize for Chemistry
On October 5th, 2016 Ben Ferringa was awarded the prestigious Nobel Prize for Chemistry. Funnily enough, The Simpsons called it six years ago.
Brexit
Maggie Simpson is Brexit.
Virtual Reality
In the episode Bart Carny, the Simpson family was super excited to see a carnival rolling through Springfield. What’s more exciting is the ‘Yard Work Simulator’ they pass, a pretty spot-on prediction of what virtual reality currently looks like. Bart Carny aired in 1998.
The entire plot of The Hangover
We’ve all seen The Hangover. It was one of the funniest and most successful films of 2009, but you might also remember the classic Simpsons episode Viva Ned Flanders from 20 years earlier in 1999. You know, the one where Homer and Flanders drive to Vegas, gamble, wake up with no memory of the night before, find out they married overnight, meet Mike Tyson, meet a tiger and steal a car?
Huh.
While you’re here read our definitive list of the best Simpsons songs ever here.
