Is there a crystal ball in "The Simpsons" writers' room? Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the most extraordinary times “The Simpsons” used their magical crystal ball to predict real-world events.
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00:00 "Let's give the Olympics a miracle!"
00:02 "But this time, on ice!"
00:05 Welcome to WatchMojo,
00:06 and today we're counting down our picks for the most extraordinary times
00:10 the Simpsons used their magical crystal ball to predict real-world events.
00:14 To make this list,
00:15 the predictions would have been highly unlikely to take place when the episodes aired,
00:19 yet defied the odds to eventually happen.
00:22 [Gasps]
00:24 "Daddy! Daddy!"
00:28 Number 20 - Cypress Hill and the London Symphony Orchestra
00:31 Back in 1996, the Simpsons aired the episode "Homerpalooza,"
00:35 where Homer tours as a cannonball absorber in a parody of the renowned Lollapalooza music festival.
00:40 While backstage at an event,
00:47 a producer asks the acts who ordered the London Symphony Orchestra,
00:51 perhaps while in an altered state,
00:53 and then looks at hip-hop group Cypress Hill.
00:55 After a brief discussion within the band,
00:57 they decide to move forward.
00:58 We get a brief taste of classical insane in the brain,
01:02 which Marge supports, and so do we.
01:03 Well, in 2024,
01:13 after having performed with classical groups in the US the year before,
01:16 Cypress Hill announced a gig at the Royal Albert Hall in England with...
01:20 the London Symphony Orchestra.
01:22 Number 19 - Game of Thrones heel turn
01:25 The final season of Game of Thrones is one of the most controversial last outings for a TV show in history.
01:31 One of the biggest problems was Daenerys Targaryen's heel turn.
01:42 In the episode "The Bells,"
01:43 she and her dragon Drogon go on a rampage through a surrounded King's Landing,
01:48 setting it ablaze.
01:49 Two years before this aired in 2017,
01:52 the Simpsons released "The Surfsons,"
01:54 which parodied fantasy and Game of Thrones.
01:56 Homer revives a dragon before the family heads off.
02:10 When they look back at the town,
02:11 the dragon is rampaging above it,
02:13 spraying it with fire.
02:15 We can only assume a Game of Thrones writer watched the episode and took detailed notes.
02:20 Number 18 - Don Mattingly's hair
02:22 When fans chit-chat about the greatest Simpsons episodes of all time,
02:26 1992's "Homer at the Bat" is often in the running.
02:29 After all,
02:40 it stars a host of famous athletes from the era and is a hotbed of jokes.
02:44 One in particular involved baseball star Don Mattingly
02:47 being constantly harassed by Mr. Burns to shave his sideburns
02:50 even though he doesn't have any,
02:52 and gets benched.
02:53 In 1991,
03:04 Mattingly ruffled the feathers of the New York Yankees management
03:07 by refusing to cut his hair.
03:09 He was dropped and fined before being put back in the roster
03:12 and announcing his intention to get his follicles snipped.
03:16 While the Simpsons episode aired later,
03:18 the recording of it was done before Mattingly's real-life incident.
03:22 Number 17 - Eating irradiated fish
03:25 Mr. Burns and his sketchy practices with his nuclear power plant
03:29 came back to bite him in this peerless 1990 episode.
03:32 After Bart discovers a three-eyed fish nearby,
03:35 Burns runs for political office to stop his plant from being closed down.
03:39 "Their job to turn this Mr. Burns into this."
03:43 "Why are my teeth showing like that?"
03:46 "Because you're smiling."
03:47 "Ah, excellent."
03:50 Later, the resident billionaire eats at the Simpsons house
03:53 with the press watching,
03:54 only to be served the three-eyed Blinky.
03:57 While Burns tried to eat it, he couldn't keep it down.
04:00 "Ruin before it hit the ground."
04:03 "Get me the city desk."
04:04 "Here's your headline, Phil. Burns can't swallow own story."
04:07 Fast forward to 2023,
04:09 and Japan's real-life Prime Minister Fumio Kishida did something similar.
04:13 Alongside other ministers,
04:15 he proceeded to eat a fish that was caught in the waters in Fukushima
04:18 to showcase that it was safe
04:20 after treated nuclear wastewater was released from the power plant.
04:23 Number 16 - Nobel bet
04:26 Predicting the winners of the Nobel Prize
04:28 seems like an impossible task to do years beforehand.
04:32 After all, breakthroughs can happen at any time.
04:34 Slingshotting someone into the favorite position.
04:37 In 2010, the Simpsons episode "Elementary School Musical" aired
04:41 that used the prestigious awards as a plot backdrop.
04:44 "It's 4 a.m. You kids should have been in bed a half hour ago."
04:48 "We're watching the Nobel Prize announcements live from Stockholm."
04:51 At the start, Lisa and her friends are watching the ceremony.
04:54 Martin explodes in happiness as his pick in the betting pool wins in economics.
04:59 When he shows the betting table,
05:01 we can see that Milhouse chose Bengt R. Holmstrom.
05:04 "Quiet! It's time for the noblest Nobel Prize of all, the Peace Prize."
05:09 "I would kill for that."
05:11 Well, in 2016, that blue-haired icon was correct.
05:15 The Finnish economist was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences
05:19 alongside Oliver Hart for their work in contract theory.
05:23 Number 15 - Goodfather
05:25 1972's "The Godfather" is one of the best films ever made.
05:29 Somehow, Francis Ford Coppola kept nearly the same quality
05:33 with 1974's "The Godfather Part II."
05:36 Yet 1990's "The Godfather Part III" is pretty much universally acknowledged
05:41 as the weakest entry in the trilogy.
05:44 In 2001's worst episode ever,
05:46 the Simpsons took a jokey jab at the latter film.
05:49 "Whoa! Comic Book Guy's secret stash! Look at all these bootleg videos!"
05:56 When Bart and Milhouse stumble upon Comic Book Guy's secret film vault,
06:00 they discover a bunch of unique movies.
06:03 One in particular was "Godfather III - Good Version."
06:06 "Alien autopsy. Illegal alien autopsy. Godfather III - Good Version."
06:12 Seemingly, Paramount took note.
06:14 In 2020, they released "The Godfather Coda - The Death of Michael Corleone,"
06:19 a recut version of the 1990 version.
06:22 Coppola and star Al Pacino praised this version and felt it vindicated the original.
06:27 Number 14 - Gaga Attire
06:30 Lady Gaga is a very hard person to predict.
06:33 Yet someone in the Simpsons writing team somehow defied the odds to foresee her actions.
06:38 In the 2012 episode "Lisa Goes Gaga,"
06:41 the music icon comes to Springfield to lift their spirits.
06:44 "Has the lowest self-esteem of any place on the planet."
06:46 "Really? Aww, that's so sad.
06:50 And as entertainers, it is our solemn duty to cheer them up for a little while."
06:55 At one point, Gaga performs to the crowd before having a quick costume change.
06:59 While parodying her flaming bra outfit,
07:01 she takes to the sky, flying around the stage and the audience with cables.
07:05 Five years later, the seed of that cartoon interpretation bloomed in Gaga's mind.
07:15 For her halftime performance at the Super Bowl,
07:17 Gaga began at the top of the stadium in a similar silver costume and boots.
07:22 Then, she descended onto the stage via cables, appearing to soar.
07:27 Number 13. Late Beatle Post
07:29 In the 1991 episode "Brush With Greatness,"
07:32 Marge loses her artistic drive after sending a portrait of the Beatles' Ringo Starr
07:37 to the drum icon himself.
07:39 "I decided to send the portrait to the only man on earth whose opinion I could really trust."
07:43 "And what was Ringo's response?"
07:45 "Mmm, I never got any."
07:47 However, after having no response,
07:49 she pauses her painting passion before picking it up nearly 20 years later.
07:53 When Marge has doubts again,
07:55 Starr goes through his fan mail,
07:57 finds her drawing and sends her a positive response.
08:00 "From the desk of Ringo Starr!"
08:02 "Dear Marge, thanks for the fab painting of yours truly.
08:06 I hung it on me wall. You're quite an artist."
08:09 In real life in 1963, young Barbara Besant and Lynn Jeffries
08:13 sent a message on a tape to the Beatles.
08:16 However, the recording never reached them and was later found at a community sale.
08:20 Thanks to "The One Show," it was eventually given to Paul McCartney in 2013,
08:24 who sent the pair a lovely response.
08:26 Number 12. Horse Meat Meals
08:30 2013 in Europe was a bizarre time as the horse meat scandal swept the continent.
08:35 An investigation found that various food products claimed to contain beef
08:38 often turned out to have meat from the equine species.
08:41 Several people responsible for the controversy were sentenced to jail.
08:45 Once again, the prediction gods favored the Simpsons.
08:48 In the 1994 episode "Sweet Seymour Skinner's Badass Song,"
08:52 Santa's little helper is at the school after Bart brought him in for show and tell.
08:56 "My dog's name is Santa's little helper.
08:58 One time he crawled under the house and when he came out he was covered with ants.
09:01 Then he ran into a church and drank all the holy water."
09:04 "Thank you, Bart. Great job."
09:08 The pup then smells something enticing in the cafeteria kitchen.
09:11 In a throwaway gag, we see lunch lady Doris making a stew, we assume,
09:16 and next to her is a big container of horse meat,
09:19 with an emphasis on extra intimate pieces within.
09:22 "More testicles mean more iron."
09:25 In 2005, the Simpsons took aim at U.S. prescription medication costs
09:32 in the episode "Midnight Rx."
09:34 Homer, Apu, Grandpa, and Ned team up to go north of the border into Canada
09:38 to get cheaper pills, then smuggle them back into the States.
09:41 "Listen, you two, I'll tell you who the true god is
09:44 if you're both quiet the rest of the trip."
09:46 "But the infernet, you see, I'll be uh..."
09:48 "All right, I'm coming back there."
09:50 Ned meets his maple leaf doppelganger and the two exchange nonsense for a while.
09:54 But the double quickly falls out of Ned's grace when he offers him legal Referino.
09:58 "Say, would you like to puff on a Referino? It's legal here."
10:01 "They warned me Satan would be attractive. Let's go."
10:05 Ned gets all judgy and accuses him of being a satanic temptation.
10:09 At the time, in reality, Canada had not legalized marijuana.
10:13 But jumping ahead to 2018, the country formally introduced the Cannabis Act,
10:18 which legalized the substance for medical and recreational use.
10:22 In an episode not focused on space travel, we get a blink-and-you'll-miss-it prediction.
10:30 Homer and Lisa go on an adventure to prove the ownership of a priceless painting
10:34 Homer bought from Kirk Van Helten.
10:36 "Painting's only 20 bucks."
10:38 "Oh, please, homie."
10:40 "I'll throw in the tiny violins."
10:43 [Humming]
10:47 "Oh, it looks great!"
10:51 They travel to Puerto Rico where they encounter an art forger named Klaus Ziegler
10:55 who confirms the painting is a forgery he painted.
10:58 When Lisa claims that what he's doing is dishonest,
11:01 Ziegler counters that his works bring pleasure to people all over the world.
11:06 "Beauty is beauty. My forgeries give pleasure to people all over the world.
11:11 The only real question to ask about art,
11:14 whether it's in the Louvre or on a freshman's wall at Cal State Fullerton,
11:18 is, 'Did it move you?'"
11:21 During that moment, there is a brief cutaway of Richard Branson on a spacecraft.
11:26 This depiction was seven years before Branson's spaceflight with Virgin Galactic.
11:30 "All right, everybody, look out the window. Don't miss Epogee."
11:33 "Oh, my God."
11:34 "It's incredible."
11:37 "Woo!"
11:38 Number 9. Tiger Attack
11:41 As a way to improve Springfield's economy,
11:43 the town legalizes gambling and Mr. Burns builds a casino.
11:47 "Welcome to Mr. Burns Casino.
11:48 If there's anything I can do to make your visit more enjoyable,
11:51 please, just let me know."
11:52 "Yeah, great."
11:53 One of the attractions featured at the new casino is the duo Gunter and Ernst,
11:57 who are magicians performing with a white tiger.
12:00 During one of the performances,
12:02 the tiger, named Anastasia, has a flashback recalling her capture.
12:06 "She loves show business so much nicer than the savagery of the jungle, yeah?"
12:10 "Hey, tiger, wake up!"
12:20 This causes the big cat to attack the two.
12:23 Gunter and Ernst are parodies of Siegfried and Roy,
12:25 who were known for performing their magic show with white lions and tigers.
12:30 Unfortunately, about 10 years following the airing of this episode,
12:33 Roy was attacked by a tiger during a performance.
12:36 "In the middle of a performance at the MGM Grand,
12:39 a 400-pound Siberian tiger named Manticore pounced on the magician."
12:44 He survived, but had to retire due to extensive injuries suffered in the attack.
12:49 In the opening for the annual Halloween episode,
12:55 Homer goes to vote for Barack Obama for the 2008 United States presidential election.
12:59 "They can't fit in the booth.
13:02 Here's to double-vide."
13:08 "Ooh, one of those electronic voting dealies."
13:12 While in the voting booth,
13:13 Homer selects Obama as the machine continues to register his vote as one for John McCain.
13:18 The machine ends up sucking Homer in.
13:21 "This machine is rigged!
13:22 Must tell President McCain!
13:28 This doesn't happen in America!
13:30 Maybe Ohio, but not in America!"
13:32 Of course, in real life, voting machines don't do that yet.
13:36 But during the 2012 presidential election,
13:39 footage was captured of a person trying to vote for Obama,
13:42 but the machine would select Mitt Romney.
13:44 Many couldn't help but notice the eerie similarity between the two moments.
13:48 While at a Renaissance fair,
13:54 Lisa encounters a fortune teller who says she'll tell the young girl her future
13:58 and the story of her true love.
13:59 "The cards are vague and mysterious.
14:01 They seem to be revealing the story of your first love.
14:06 Do you want me to continue?"
14:07 In the vision, we see Lisa as an adult in the year 2010,
14:11 where she meets Hugh and the two fall in love.
14:14 Aside from the prevalence of robots and new airplane designs,
14:17 communication tools have improved.
14:19 When Lisa makes a call to Marge,
14:21 she does so on a video phone,
14:23 which seems to have been adopted recently as Marge forgets she can be seen by Lisa.
14:27 "Don't worry, honey, I guarantee your father will behave.
14:31 Mom, it's a picture phone."
14:32 "This?
14:33 This?
14:33 Oh, no, I-
14:34 I've just got a touch of the rheumatism."
14:36 "Oh.
14:36 Mom, picture phone."
14:39 Earlier in the episode,
14:40 when Hugh is proposing to Lisa,
14:42 he speaks into a smart watch.
14:44 The episode aired in 1995,
14:47 and both of these tools would be popularized in the 2010s.
14:50 "So, you've taken up running.
14:52 Apple Watch has taken up a few new things as well."
14:55 Number 6.
14:56 Disney buys Fox
14:58 While Homer is parasailing,
14:59 he accidentally discovers the vacation home of Kim Basinger and Alec Baldwin.
15:04 "You think you could slide over a little?"
15:05 "I am a married man."
15:08 "You're crushing my husband."
15:09 "Billy Baldwin!"
15:13 "I'm Alec Baldwin.
15:14 Could you get off me?"
15:15 He forms a close relationship with the couple and Ron Howard,
15:18 becoming their assistant.
15:20 He would run errands for them so they can keep a low profile while in Springfield.
15:24 He also pitched a screenplay starring Baldwin,
15:26 with Howard to direct.
15:28 "It's got the perfect part for you.
15:30 Either one of you.
15:30 It's about a killer robot driving instructor who travels back in time for some reason.
15:36 Ron Howard's attached to direct."
15:38 "I am not."
15:39 "Well, he expressed an interest."
15:40 "No, I didn't."
15:41 Later in the episode,
15:42 Howard takes the story to his producing partner Brian Grazer at 20th Century Fox.
15:47 "What else you got?"
15:48 "Uh...
15:48 Well, well, there is this one thing.
15:52 It's about a killer robot driving instructor that travels back in time for some reason."
15:57 "I'm listening."
15:58 In an establishing shot of the Fox film lot,
16:01 there's a sign for the studio indicating it's a division of Walt Disney Co.
16:05 In 2019, Disney would in fact buy Fox and would become the owners of the Simpsons.
16:11 Number 5.
16:13 NSA spying
16:14 Once the townsfolk discover that Homer was responsible for the EPA
16:18 in closing the town under a large dome,
16:20 an angry mob forms to confront the Simpson family.
16:23 They're able to escape through a sinkhole and go on the lam.
16:26 "What do we do?"
16:28 "Now we run."
16:30 They end up in Alaska,
16:31 but after several months away,
16:33 Marge and the kids can no longer stay and head back to save Springfield.
16:37 While on their way back,
16:38 it's revealed that the NSA has a large network dedicated to listening to people's communications.
16:44 "No, Lisa, it's not like the government is listening to everybody's conversation."
16:48 If that isn't scary enough,
16:50 in 2013, Edward Snowden came forward revealing the NSA's surveillance programs.
16:56 "NSA and the intelligence community in general
16:58 is focused on getting intelligence wherever it can by any means possible.
17:03 That it believes on the grounds of sort of a self-certification that they serve the national interest."
17:09 The Simpsons' predictive powers aren't just confined to the TV series.
17:13 Number 4.
17:14 The Higgs boson particle
17:16 Feeling as though he hasn't accomplished anything with his life,
17:19 Homer takes inspiration from Thomas Edison after learning of several inventions credited to him.
17:24 "Look at all the inventions Edison came up with.
17:27 The stock ticker,
17:29 the storage battery,
17:31 even wax paper.
17:33 And look at him dance."
17:34 "That's great, Dad."
17:40 Homer dedicates his life to coming up with inventions.
17:43 Of course, taking up such a task is a lot harder than it sounds.
17:46 We get a brief montage of Homer hard at work,
17:49 and he has an equation written on a chalkboard during this process.
17:52 [Music]
17:59 What you might not realize is that the equation predicts the mass of the Higgs boson particle,
18:04 with the result being just a bit larger than the observed mass.
18:08 The amazing part is that this is 14 years before the particle was discovered.
18:13 "So the explosion of the particle broke the original perfect symmetry of this crystal,
18:18 giving us the broken world we see today of planets, stars, galaxies, you, me, even love.
18:24 All of it from this explosion triggered by a Higgs-like particle."
18:29 Number 3. The Titan Disaster
18:32 Homer finds out that Grandpa might not be his father
18:34 after a letter to Mona from a former lover is discovered.
18:37 Homer tracks down Mason Fairbanks, the man who could be his real dad.
18:42 "I think you're my pappy."
18:43 "I found this letter you wrote to my mom.
18:47 Mona Simpson."
18:48 "Dear God, I always dreamed this day would come,
18:53 and now that it's here, there are so many feelings I, I..."
18:56 Fairbanks spends his time salvaging valuables from sunken ships.
19:01 The two dive into the ocean with submersibles searching for treasure,
19:04 where Homer's vehicle becomes trapped and his oxygen runs out.
19:08 "What do I do?"
19:09 [Music]
19:11 "Ah!"
19:12 [Music]
19:13 "Ah!"
19:14 [Music]
19:15 "Oh."
19:16 [Music]
19:18 "Ah!"
19:18 In 2023, Oceangate's submersible Titan went on a voyage to view the wreckage of the Titanic.
19:25 Many people noted the similarities between the two situations
19:28 when the ship was first reported missing.
19:30 Unfortunately, the search for the Titan ended in tragedy
19:33 when the ship imploded and its debris was located a few days later.
19:37 "The ship returning today after taking the Titan sub to sea,
19:40 losing contact an hour and 45 minutes later.
19:43 All five passengers on board instantly killed in a catastrophic implosion."
19:49 Number 2. Trump's election victory.
19:51 Few could have seen Donald Trump winning the White House in 2016.
19:55 That is, except for the Simpsons.
19:57 While at a Native American casino,
19:59 Bart is shown a vision of his potential future if he doesn't change his deceitful ways.
20:04 In it, Bart is a 40-year-old slacker rooming with Ralph Wiggum.
20:08 "Hey Bart, any clean towels?"
20:10 "Nah, use this."
20:12 "I'm sick of having to dry myself with a newspaper.
20:15 You could at least do some laundry, I pay the rent."
20:19 "Dude, you know I'm good for it.
20:20 I'll have plenty of money when my lawsuit pays off."
20:23 Lisa, on the other hand, is doing quite well for herself as she has become president.
20:28 We get a brief scene with Lisa in a meeting to discuss a budget shortfall,
20:32 where it's revealed that it's been inherited from President Trump.
20:35 "As you know, we've inherited quite a budget crunch from President Trump.
20:39 How bad is it, Secretary Van Houten?"
20:41 "We're broke."
20:43 The episode aired in 2000, and in 2016, Trump would be elected.
20:49 Following Trump's election, the show had a chalkboard gag stating, "Being right sucks."
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21:11 Marge and Homer get swept up in the sport of curling accidentally when they plan to go
21:21 ice skating.
21:22 After Agnes Skinner notices Marge's sweeping talent,
21:25 she and Homer join Agnes and Seymour to form a team.
21:28 "Young woman, where'd you learn to sweep like that?"
21:30 "I've been training all my life.
21:32 I once swept red wine off a white carpet."
21:35 "I like your style, Blue.
21:37 Want to join our team?"
21:38 "If Homer can join with me, fine."
21:41 When the IOC announces that mixed curling will be held at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver,
21:45 the foursome end up representing the USA for the event.
21:48 They make it to the gold medal game, facing off against Sweden where they take the gold.
21:53 "USA! USA!"
21:55 "Oops."
21:57 Although it wasn't at the same Olympic Games,
22:04 the USA would go on to win gold over Sweden at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.
22:10 If the Simpsons family, including the extended members,
22:13 got into a battle royale-esque fight, who would win?
22:17 Lisa? Marge? Uncle Herb? Or someone else? Let us know in the comments.
22:21 Did you enjoy this video?
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22:38 [Music]