The beloved animated TV show The Simpsons is not just for laughs. It’s known for predicting the future!
As fans know, the Matt Groening-created FOX series holds the record as the longest-running American primetime scripted television show of all time. Plus, over its more than three decades, 36 seasons and 790 episodes, the show’s writers have scripted eerily prescient plotlines about politics, math and science, commerce, pop culture, sports and entertainment. The jaw-dropping bits that later came true include Donald Trump becoming President, the correct teams winning the Super Bowl, a tiger attacking the Siegfried and Roy show and a submersible malfunctioning in the ocean.
When asked how the magic happens, The Simpsons producer Matt Selman told People, “Well, the sourpuss answer I always give that no one likes is that if you study history and math, it would be literally impossible for us not to predict things. If you say enough things, some of them are going to overlap with reality, and then that’s the math element. And then, the history element is if you make a show that is based on studying the past foolishness of humanity, you are surely going to anticipate the future foolishness of humanity as it sinks further into foolishness. So we don’t really think about it.”
While the producers and writers don’t think about it, viewers sure do! And will there be more Springfield soothsaying in the hit Fox series’ eagerly anticipated season 37, which premieres this Sunday night, Sept. 28, at 8 p.m. ET/PT?
Time will tell if there’s more left in the crystal ball. But until then, read on to find out more about The Simpsons’ top 15 predictive moments.
The Simpsons Predictions
Donald Trump becomes President (Season 11, Episode 17: “Bart to the Future”)
In this 2000 episode, Bart Simpson travels back to the future and sees sister Lisa as president of the United States. In a cabinet meeting, she mentions they have inherited quite a budget crunch from a former President Trump! Of course, 16 years later, Trump actually became president. Strangely, Trump ran again for 2024—which was the year that The Simpsons had originally predicted that he would be president.
Kamala Harris wears a purple pantsuit (Season 11, Episode 17: “Bart to the Future”)
During the same Trump presidency show, Lisa wears a purple pantsuit and white pearls, which is the outfit Vice President Kamala Harris actually wore to President Joe Biden’s 2021 inaugural. Animators might have been honoring Hillary Clinton with the pantsuit, but the color purple “seemed to have been a random choice. It may have been done by the animators,” Simpsons producer Mike Scully has noted. As for the pearls, it was sheer coincidence as “Lisa always wears them.”
Super Bowl winners named (Season 3, Episode 14: “Lisa the Greek”)
Lisa correctly predicts that the Washington Redskins will win the 1992 Super Bowl on the episode that aired just three days before the real game. When the episode was rebroadcast in 1993 and 1995 ,it was redubbed and again accurately predicted the winners, the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers, respectively.
Tiger attacks Siegfried and Roy (Season 5, Episode 10: “$pringfield”)
After Mr. Burns builds a Las Vegas-style casino in Springfield, the “Gunter and Ernst” act, clearly a parody of famed Siegfried and Roy, gets attacked by their white tiger, Anastasia. Ten years after that 1993 episode, the real-life duo’s white tiger, Mantecore, savagely attacked Roy Horn and caused the cancellation of their hit Vegas wild animal show. Both performers later passed away.
Disney acquires Fox (Season 10, Episode 5: “When You Dish Upon a Star”)
The Simpsons showed a movie poster in 1998 indicating 20th Century Fox belongs to Disney as “A Division of Walt Disney Co.” is shown below it. As it turned out, Fox sold to The Walt Disney Co. in July 2018.
Related: Marge Simpson Dies in Shocking Finale—and Fans Are Furious
Underwater submersible goes down (Season 17, Episode 10: “Homer’s Paternity Coot”)
In this 2006 episode, Homer embarks on an undersea sunken ship treasure hunt with a man he believes is his long-lost biological father. They travel in individual underwater submersibles. However, Homer’s vessel gets stuck in coral, and he loses consciousness due to lack of oxygen. While Homer wakes up in the hospital, fans later noted the creepy parallels to the June 2023 OceanGate submersible story. OceanGate imploded while transporting five passengers to the bottom of the Atlantic to view the Titanic ruins. The tragic accident killed everybody on board, including founder Stockton Rush, who was posthumously blamed for negligence.
FIFA’s corruption scandal — and the World Cup winner (Season 25, Episode 16: “You Don’t Have to Live Like a Referee”)
Homer Simpson becomes a referee in this 2014 soccer-themed episode because of FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) corruption. A scene shows the Vice President of the organization getting arrested. In 2015, FIFA’s very real corruption was exposed as the group was raided on charges of bribery, fraud, and money laundering. Also, Germany wins the World Cup on The Simpsons, which actually happened that same year!
Three-eyed fish (Season 2, Episode 4: “Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish”)
In a 1990 Simpsons episode, Blinky, a three-eyed fish, is found near a nuclear power plant. It foreshadowed a horrifying event in 2011 when fishermen caught a three-eyed wolf fish in a reservoir near a nuclear plant in Argentina.
The U.S. wins gold in curling (Season 21, Episode 12: “Boy Meets Curl”)
In this 2010 episode, Homer and Marge compete for the U.S. curling team in that year’s Winter Olympics and win the gold medal against Sweden. In 2018’s PyeongChang Winter Games, an underdog U.S. team actually achieved the dream, winning a gold medal against Sweden in the bizarre cult favorite brush and stone sport.
A mysterious virus outbreak (Season 4, Episode 21: “Marge in Chains”)
Incredibly, The Simpsons seemingly foresaw even the COVID-19 pandemic. In this 1993 episode, a factory worker in Japan spreads germs by coughing into boxes that are being used to ship juicers to Springfield. Everyone in the town and all the Simpsons except Marge catch the “Osaka Flu.” In March 2020, the devastating effects of COVID-19 hit the world. While some believe the origins of the virus that killed millions began in a Wuhan, China lab, that has never been proven.
The episode’s co-writer Bill Oakley was caught off guard by its being brought up as prophetic, explaining to The Hollywood Reporter that at the time, “It was meant to be absurd that someone could cough into a box and the virus would survive for six to eight weeks in the box. It is cartoonish. We intentionally made it cartoonish because we wanted it to be silly and not scary.”
Related: ‘Simpsons’ Icon Dead at 84 After Private Health Battle
NSA spying is exposed (The Simpsons Movie)
The Simpsons‘ big screen outing in 2007 shows Marge planning to expose government secrets – and a room full of National Security Agency operatives listening in on Americans’ phone calls. In 2013, whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed the NSA does indeed run secret surveillance programs of telecommunications data. While the scandal is now well-known, people in 2007 had no idea that authorities were able to access their private information.
Yoga mats in bread (Season 6, Episode 21, “The PTA Disbands”)
Springfield Elementary’s Doris uses old gym mats as recipe ingredients for school lunches in this 1995 episode. In 2014, the Environmental Working Group released a report that found a compound called azodicarbonamide in various food products, including the bread they used to make sandwiches at Subway. It’s also used in yoga mats. Although Subway insisted there was no reason for concern, the company removed azodicarbonamide from its bread in 2014.
Canada legalizes pot (Season 16, Episode 6, “Midnight RX”)
Homer and his friends travel to Canada to buy cheap drugs in a 2005 episode that predicted future legalization of marijuana. In the episode, Homer is surprised to learn that cannabis is legal in Canada, which, in reality, it wasn’t then. But in 2018, Canada legalized pot for recreational use.
JCPenney goes bankrupt (Season 18, Episode 3, “Please Homer, Don’t Hammer ‘Em”)
While the Simpsons are visiting a dilapidated mall, the family members are shown staring inside an empty and abandoned JCPenney storefront. In 2020, viewers talked about the episode again when JCPenney filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The retailer is now closing stores across the country every year due to market realities and expiring leases.
Donut-shaped universe (Season 10, Episode 22: “They Saved Lisa’s Brain”)
As fans know, Homer Simpson is obsessed with donuts, and that played a part in another show prophecy. When famed physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking is a cameo character in 1999, he tells Homer at Moe’s Tavern, “Your theory of a donut-shaped universe is intriguing. I may have to steal it.” Actually, donuts are torus-shaped, and Homer’s idea might well be correct, as cosmologists have since discovered evidence that the universe was round and tube-like, but empty in the middle.
Related: FOX Reveals Fall Premiere Dates for ‘Hell’s Kitchen,’ ‘Doc,’ ‘The Simpsons’ and More
This story was originally reported by Parade on Sep 27, 2025, where it first appeared in the TV section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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