D'Oh! 5 Times ‘The Simpsons’ Correctly Predicted the Future

With 35 seasons of The Simpsons under their belt, the show has managed to deliver thousands of jokes. In addition to those jokes, the show has also been able to predict some real life scenarios that have weirdly panned out down the road.

So, do the writers at The Simpsons have a crystal ball or have they just had the weird luck of mentioning things in episodes and them happening years down the road? Regardless, here are five times The Simpsons have correctly predicted the future!

What happened on the show: In a 1992 episode titled “Lisa the Greek,” Homer takes advantage of Lisa’s unusual ability to predict the outcomes of NFL games. She finds out that her father is taking advantage of her, so she is so angry that she can only make this prediction for the Super Bowl: Washington wins if she still loves her dad, and the Buffalo Bills win if she no longer does. In the end, Washington won.

What happened in real life: That episode aired a few days before Super Bowl XXVI, which was Washington taking on Buffalo. Like the show, Washington also went on to defeat Buffalo. The next year, Fox aired a repeat of the episode just days before Super Bowl XXVII, but it was redubbed with an update of the two competing teams: Dallas Cowboys and Buffalo Bills, with Dallas replacing Washington in the equation. Dallas went on to beat Buffalo. They did it again the following year for Super Bowl XXVIII, which was a rematch between Dallas and Buffalo. They tweaked a few lines to reflect the rematch, but again predicted Dallas beating Buffalo and the real game saw Dallas winning again. They have redubbed the episode a few times since then and shown before the Super Bowl and have been right most of the time.

What happened on the show: In the 1993 episode “$pringfield (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Legalized Gambling),” the Springfield version of magicians Siegfried & Roy were attacked by a white Bengal tiger during one of their shows.

What happened in real life: Ten years later, in 2003, Roy Horn was attacked by a white Bengal tiger during a Siegfried & Roy show. Horn was left paralyzed and the long-running act came to an end.

What happened on the show: In the 1995 episode “Lisa’s Wedding,” Lisa goes to see a fortune teller, which transports her to 2010. Future Lisa is talking to Marge via her phone’s video chat feature, called Picture Phone.

What happened in real life: While other Hollywood depictions of the future showed similar technology over the years, The Simpsons got a little closer. How so? Apple founder Steve Jobs announced their new product, FaceTime, in 2010.

What happened on the show: In the 2012 episode “Lisa Goes Gaga,” the show featured Lady Gaga flying over an audience while attached to cables.

What happened in real life: Well, Gaga happened to perform the halftime show at the 2017 Super Bowl. The singer made her entrance to the show by descending from the stadium’s roof. Of course, she didn’t have the sparkler-shooting brassiere on like in the episode, but close enough.

What happened on the show: In the 1993 episode “Marge in Chains,” the citizens of Springfield were infected by a germ-infested Juice Looseners package from Osaka, Japan. The results: an outbreak of the “Osaka Flu.” While the citizens tried to find a cure, a mob outside the hospital topples a truck they thought had the cure — only to unleash crates of killer bees.

What happened in real life: Of course, how could anyone forget 2020 and the global pandemic of COVID-19, which was an infectious disease that originated in Wuhan, China. Also, there were multiple sightings of the extremely deadly Asian giant hornets in the United States that same year.