20 Times ‘The Simpsons’ Accurately Predicted The Future

"Tosh! Shredded newspapers add much-needed roughage and essential inks."

In a season six episode, Principal Skinner is under pressure about school budgets. After being reprimanded by his colleague Mrs. Krabappel about the inedible food, the camera pans back to the kitchen. With a gym mat poised at one end of the meat grinder and grey sludge oozing from the other, Lunch Lady Doris' secret is revealed. Sounds far-fetched, but unfortunately, it's not.

Years later, a report came out that claimed the McDonald's McRib and various sandwiches from Subway contained the chemical substance azodicarbonamide. The compound has been used as a whitening agent in foods like flour and bread, and, you guessed it — it's the same substance found in gym and yoga mats.

"That's why I haven't done anything with my life! I need to be more like Thomas Edison!"

The 1998 episode "The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace" sees Homer attempt to follow in Thomas Edison's footsteps by creating a variety of wacky inventions. During the episode, Homer is seen writing a seemingly nonsensical equation on a blackboard. But was it really nonsense?

Yep, you guessed it — his equation wasn't nonsense at all. In fact, it was nearly identical to that of the mass of the Higgs boson, an elementary particle that wasn't officially discovered until 2012. You heard it hear, folks — Homer Simpson successfully predicted the mass of the Higgs Boson 14 whole years before physicists at CERN managed it.

"I wanna go on the Yard Work Simulator"

A 1998 episode saw the Simpson family headed to a traveling carnival. As well as Bart and Homer managing to lose two workers their jobs, the show also contained a moment when Bart was champing at the bit to go on one unusually-themed ride. Much to Marge's dismay that her son would only willingly work on a virtual yard while wearing a headset, an eerily similar idea took off in real life some 11 years later.

Virtual reality headsets were already invented back in 1968, but what the Springfield kids were artificially enjoying was yet to become commonplace. And as it turns out, the concept of farming a computerized plot was far more popular than the brief snippet back in the late '90s could ever have imagined. The Yard Work Simulator in the '98 episode is much like the virtual reality game Farmville released in 2009.

“We take 18 ounces of sizzling ground beef and soak it in rich, creamery butter. Then we top it off with bacon, ham, and a fried egg. We call it the Good Morning Burger.”

"Bart’s Friend Falls in Love" sees Homer meet his match when a tantalizing ad plays on the TV. At the time, a meat mountain between two buns seemed outlandish, but fast forward to the present day, and it all makes sense!

Not one for the faint-hearted, the Good Morning Burger's calorific load would probably be enough for your entire day. But, it exists! Becoming a firm favorite on breakfast menus, as well as a must-try for internet chefs around the world, the real-life dish is almost a perfect replica of the 1992-inspired breakfast of champions.

"Let us curl, my lady."

Premiering in 2010, the season 21 episode "Boy Meets Curl" follows Homer and Marge's journey to competing in the mixed curling event at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Their team, which also included Agnes and Seymour Skinner, wins gold, defeating Sweden in the final. And in 2018, something spookily similar took place as the world watched on.

As far as predictions go, you can't get much closer than this. At the Winter Games in Pyeongchang, the U.S. men's curling team took gold. Their opponent in the final? None other than Sweden. Sure, the U.S. curling team may have beat the Swedes, but Marge and Homer did it first — eight years earlier.

“Geez, Flanders, you're 60 years old and you haven't lived a day in your life.”

In the episode "Viva Ned Flanders", Homer's god-fearing neighbor has a moment of realization — in between all of his okily dokily's, he hasn't lived his life to the fullest. In steps the Simpson family patriarch with a bright idea to make Flanders feel better. Cue a crazy trip to Las Vegas

Naturally, the plan doesn't quite work out. After hitting the Las Vegas strip in search of the spice of life, Homer and Flanders wake up to find themselves married to two cocktail waitresses. Sounding a little familiar? Well, that's probably because the story is a dead ringer for the plot of The Hangover. So did the 1999 episode inspire the movie?

"It takes real leadership to pick something you know nothing about"

A joke in The Simpson's Movie targeting Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said, "I was elected to lead, not read," which was obviously absurd. Despite that, Arnie's character goes on to blindly choose a plan for altering the states. A worrying possibility, but even more worrying when the same sentiment was used in a real Republican campaign.

Just five years after The Simpsons Movie hit theaters, in 2012 GOP candidate Herman Cain ran for president. And whether he'd settled down with a jumbo popcorn to watch a cartoon Schwarzenegger or not, he ran with the campaign slogan, "We need a leader, not a reader." Catchy? Yes. Good for a presidential campaign slogan? No. Yikes!

"Marge, if you don't mind, I'm a little busy right now achieving financial independence."

Kicking off season ten back, the 1998 episode, "Lard of the Dance," sees Homer masterminding a crafty money-making scheme. Using stolen grease first from the Krusty Burger kitchen and then from Springfield Elementary School, he — rather entrepreneurially — resells it for a profit.

Lawful it was not, but Homer was the first of many. It was reported in November 2011 that a band of thieves had taken roughly $2,000 of grease from a restaurant in St. Louis. Flip forward to 2023, and oil thefts are becoming increasingly common. In fact, there are even oil theft rings. Yep, it's a real problem. In 2016, for example, two men plead guilty to a scheme that saw stolen oil being sold across five different states.

At one point, the show introduced a billboard for the premiere of The Itchy and Scratchy Movie. And for those who need reminding, the cat and mouse are a notoriously bloodthirsty pair. Naturally then, any promotional poster simply had to include lashings of squirting blood! Sounds pretty gory, but that didn't stop one Hollywood director from doing the same.

Perhaps inspired by The Simpsons' clever advertising, just several years later, the king of cinematic bloodshed, Quentin Tarantino, borrowed the very same idea for himself. Billboards promoting his then-new film Kill Bill Vol. 2 used attention-grabbing gore in exactly the same way. Whether it was done on purpose or not has never been determined.

"If we learned one thing from The Amazing Colossal Man and Grasshopperus, it's that radiation makes stuff grow real big, real fast."

In the 1999 episode "E-I-E-I-D'oh," the Simpsons flee to an old farm after Homer challenges a Southern gentleman to a duel. There, with the help of radioactive waste from Springfield's nuclear power plant, they create a tomato-tobacco hybrid called "tomacco."

More than a decade later, the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant played host to the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl. In 2013, a devastating 8.9 magnitude earthquake followed by a tsunami caused three nuclear meltdowns. In the wake of the disaster, mutated fruits and vegetables began popping up in the surrounding area.

"To Ned Flanders, the richest left-handed man in town."

During the episode "Ned Flander Fails," Homer wishes that Flanders' store dedicated to left-handed people, The Leftorium, would go out of business. But who could ever even imagine such a store, besides a room full of comedy writers?

Well, wouldn't you know it! In 2008, a real-life Lefty's opened in San Francisco. It has since become a hit around the nation; a second location popped up at Walt Disney World Resorts in Florida. Among the left-handed items available are scissors, garden tools, notebooks, and more. Whether you're a lefty or a righty, if you fancy a visit, you'll need to heat to Pier 39.

"The script might have worked if you got rid of the talking pie."

Season ten's "When You Dish Upon a Star" features Homer rubbing elbows with a number of real-life celebrities. As a personal assistant to Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger in the 1998 episode "When You Dish Upon A Star," Homer pitches a script to director Ron Howard. Eventually, he ends up pitching it to 20th Century Fox, and in a visual gag, a sign in the lot reads: "A division of Walt Disney Co." 

And, lo and behold, on March 20, 2019, this joke became a reality when the Walt Disney Company acquired the greater 21st Century Fox conglomerate for an eye-watering $71 billion. The deal gave Disney control of many major entertainment properties, including FX, National Geographic, and, of course, 20th Century Fox.

"Quiet. It's time for the noblest Nobel Prize of all... the Peace Prize."

In the 2010 episode "Elementary School Musical," several of Lisa and Bart's classmates create a betting pool for the upcoming Nobel Prizes, or 'Nobies' as Homer calls them in the show. While Martin picks Jagdish Bhagwati to win the prize for economics, Milhouse chooses Bengt R. Holmström.

Well, Milhouse must've been onto something, as six years later Holmström, an economics professor at MIT, was named the joint winner of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. His contributions to contract theory in the area of law and economics. And although Milhouse didn't predict it, he shared the prize with Oliver Hart.

"Lisa! Listen to me! This pity party's being shut down by the smile police."

The season 23 finale features guest star Lady Gaga who teaches a downbeat Lisa about the true meaning of happiness. She puts on a number of outfits and performances throughout the episode, including one where she's suspended from a wire above the crowd wearing a pyromaniac's dream on her upper half.

Five years later, Lady Gaga performed at the Super Bowl LI halftime show much in the same way her Simpsons character had done back in 2012. Suspended from a wire, Gaga descended from the top of the stadium, singing as she landed on the stage below. It was probably a good decision to lose the fire bra...

"You peasants are a dragon the economy."

Fueled by Game of Thrones hysteria, The Simpsons premiered its 29th season with "The Serfsons," a GoT-inspired episode that sees Homer revive a magical dragon only to have it burn down the entire kingdom of Springfieldia. The medieval fantasy kingdom was suspiciously similar to that of King's Landing. And one scene in particular caught the attention of eagle-eyes fans.

Two years later, a nearly identical scene took place in the second-to-last episode of Game of Thrones' final season. In it, Daenerys Targaryen burns down King's Landing with the help of her dragon and ultimately seals the fate of Westeros. But what came first, the dragon or the egg?

"We understand, Homer. After all, we are from the land of chocolate."

In a 1991 episode, Mr. Burns sells the Springfield nuclear plant to two German businessmen for $100 million. During a meeting, one of the moguls jokingly tells Homer that he comes from the "Land of Chocolate." Of course, Homer takes that literally and imagines a Willy Wonka-esque land where everything is candy. 

A daydream we can fully understand! Who doesn't want to take a stroll next to a chocolate river? As it happens, a lot of people would want just what Homer dreamed of! And so, a few years later, the city of Shanghai, China, announced plans to construct the world's first theme park made entirely from chocolate.

"Now we'll see what the future holds."

In the season six episode "Lisa's Wedding," Lisa visits a fortune teller whose predictions transport us to a potential future for little Lisa. During the vision, we see Lisa talking on the phone with Marge. Yet this isn't just any phone call: it's over video, a technology that seemed lightyears away back in 1995.

The device in The Simpson's universe may have been connected to a classic rotary phone, but they still got the concept right way ahead of time. Flash forward to 2010 (the year Lisa's wedding took place) and video chatting was already well established, thanks to Skype's creation seven years earlier. In 2010, however, video calls were taken to the next level with the introduction of FaceTime.

"Mutation Caught At 'Ol Fishin' Hole. Boy was using five-pound test and ordinary worms. Sister was just there for the tranquility."

Blinky has been featured in a number of The Simpsons episodes, first appearing in season one's "Homer's Odyssey." A mutated fish with three eyes, he is the product of the radioactive waste being dumped into the river by the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant.

The wittily titled 1990 episode, "Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish," which also features Blinky may not have been so far off after all. As unrealistic as a creature like this may seem, Argentine fishermen actually caught several three-eyed fish in 2011. And just like Blinky, these fish were found to have been living in the contaminated waters surrounding a nuclear power plant.

"As you know, we've inherited quite a budget crunch from President Trump. How bad is it, Secretary Van Houten?"

The 2000 episode "Bart to the Future" gives a glimpse into Bart's future, showing him as a washed-up rock musician while Lisa has become President of the United States. During a meeting, Lisa mentions that the country has inherited a budget crisis from the presidency of Donald Trump.

Sixteen years later, Trump was elected the 45th president of the United States. But did he create a budget crisis? Well, for starters the former president and self-proclaimed, "King of Debt," oversaw the third-biggest deficit increase of any president according to the nonprofit organization ProPublica. The same publication also claimed, "the financial burden that he’s inflicted on our government will wreak havoc for decades, saddling our kids and grandkids with debt."

"Now a guitar has many, many nicknames — an axe, a gitbox... Well, I guess that's it."

"How I Spent My Strummer Vacation" is a 2002 episode where Mick Jagger and Keith Richards run into Homer at the Rolling Stones Rock N' Roll Fantasy Camp. After an episode of hijinks, the rockstars give Homer a jacket as something to remember them by. But the writing printed on the back has sparked debate.

The words "Guitar Hero" can be seen stitched onto the back of Homer's keepsake, which may not seem like a big deal for anyone who's strummed a note while playing the musical rhythm video game. But when you know that the once-popular Guitar Hero game wasn't released until 2005, it all starts to make sense.