The Simpsons, a long-running spin-off of a short cartoon from The Tracey Ullman Show, has grown into a cultural phenomenon. Based around a family and their crazed adventures, The Simpsons has been a place to find witty humor every week. Over the years, The Simpsons have made some scarily precise predictions. From the 9/11 tragedy to Donald Trump’s shock presidency, the show’s writers have created scenes in the show that spookily resemble those in real life.
Considering the show is one of the longest-running shows, some claim it is inevitable that some themes displayed in the show will occur in real life. Whether or not that is true is yet to be determined. I’ve listed the strangest predictions the cartoon’s writers have made since the show’s launch in 1989, from future use of smartwatches to Game of Thrones plot.
- The Outbreak of the Year 2020 — Season 4, Episode 21
The “Osaka Flu” episode is spot on with the response we’ve seen following the start of the COVID-19 virus. With forecasts from the government that there is no cure and staying home is needed, and the mention of killer bees that we saw in the news in the year 2020.
- Smartwatches — Season 6, Episode 19
The Simpsons introduced a watch you could use as a phone in an episode aired in 1995, which is said to be 20 years before the Apple Watch was innovated.
- 9/11 — Season 9, Episode 1
In The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson, a scene alludes to the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York City. Jean, screenwriter and producer of the show, described it to Esquire: “The one that was really odd—and I can’t understand how this happened, it was so bizarre—in our New York show before, in 1998, there was a pamphlet that said, ‘New York on $9 a day,’ and then the World Trade Towers were right behind the nine, and it looked like 9/11.”
- Ebola — Season 9, Episode 3
People are pointing out that The Simpsons predicted the 2014 outbreak of Ebola 17 years before it happened. In an episode titled “Lisa’s Sax,” Marge suggests a sick Bart read a book titled ‘Curious George and the Ebola Virus.’ The virus wasn’t rampant in the 1990s, but it was at the top of the news agenda years later.
- Donald Trump’s Presidency — Season 11, Episode 17
In the episode titled “Bart to the Future,” Lisa Simpson is president. But what is uncanny is that this episode, airing in 2000, predicted that she would be president after President Donald Trump.
- “Game Of Thrones” Plot Twist — Season 29, Episode 1
In an episode of Game of Thrones, Daenerys Targaryen shocked fans when she and her dragon burned down the entire village of Westeros, also known as King’s Landing. In 2017, The Simpsons titled “The Serfsons,” shows the Three-Eyed Raven and the Night King — Homer brings a dragon back to life that proceeds to burn a village.
I, along with many others, wonder if the writers have a crystal globe when producing and writing the episodes. Fans and those unfamiliar with The Simpsons have drawn a greater deal of interest in the show after hearing about such conspiracy theories.
When asked about what they thought about the predictions, Samiha Alam stated, “I heard about it from Instagram but didn’t think much of it.”
After learning about the various events that resembled scenes from the show, Danisha Excellent, an avid watcher of The Simpsons, said, “I believe that the Simpsons creator just thought of bizarre realities and it surprisingly came true.”