Life imitates art more than you think! For this list, we’ll be looking at times when fictional programs appeared to imitate a real-world event before it occurred.
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00:00As you know, we've inherited quite a budget crunch from President Trump.
00:03Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the top 20 times TV shows
00:08predicted the future. And obviously everyone's in a really great mood now because of the Cubs
00:12winning the series. For this list, we're looking at times when fictional programs appeared to
00:17imitate a real-world event before it occurred. Which of these predictions shocked you the most?
00:22Let us know in the comments below.
00:2320. The COVID-19 Pandemic – Supernatural
00:29Since Supernatural is so focused on mystical elements, no one expected that they would
00:33predict something realistic. But it looks like it accurately predicted the biggest news event
00:38of 2020. In one episode from season 5, Dean gets a glimpse of the world five years into the future.
00:44He finds that public events have been shut down and the streets are mostly empty.
00:48Why? Well, because a virus starting with the letter C has run rampant.
00:52Croatoan pandemic reaches Australia.
00:57I thought I smelled your stink on this Back to the Future crap.
01:00President Palin defends bombing of Houston. Certainly a buyer's market in real estate.
01:05Although this episode aired in 2009, a good 11 years before COVID shut the world down,
01:10Supernatural was set to end in 2020. And if that wasn't evidence enough,
01:14Dean is even told to hoard toilet paper, just as many people did at the beginning of the pandemic.
01:20You hoard toilet paper. You understand me? Hoard it. Hoard it like it's made of gold.
01:25Because it is.
01:2619. The Ashley Madison Hack – Mr. Robot
01:29He's doing this to me. Then he must be doing this to other people. Think about it.
01:35Ashley Madison is a notorious dating site marketed towards married people looking to
01:39have an affair. This site only became more infamous after a group calling themselves
01:44the Impact Team acquired the personal information of the site's users in 2015.
01:48After their demands to shutter Ashley Madison were not met,
01:51the hackers released some of the data they acquired.
01:54We're talking 10 gigabytes on the dark web. 33 million accounts, 36 million email addresses.
02:00So when we were sorting through the data, we saw 15,000.gov.military emails.
02:06This resulted in the site being caught in a class action lawsuit
02:09and led to several public figures being exposed.
02:12That's why viewers raised their eyebrows when an Ashley Madison
02:15hack was present in the season one finale of Mr. Robot.
02:18He hacked into my private life. And then those Ashley Madison dumps happened.
02:24My wife found out about everything anyway.
02:26While the episode aired after the hack, writer and showrunner Sam Esmail
02:30confirmed that it was written and shot before the real event occurred.
02:3418. Hyde Goes to Jail – That 70s Show
02:38Look, Red, I gotta talk to you about something.
02:42Arrested? For what?
02:44Danny Masterson found great success playing lovable stoner Stephen Hyde
02:48on Fox's That 70s Show. Despite being intelligent, Hyde is an underachiever
02:53and doesn't seem to have much ambition in life. He's also very rebellious and harbors
02:57little respect for authority. Because of these traits,
02:59Hyde often declares that he will end up in jail.
03:02So, what's it gonna be, Stephen? Prison, death, or a birthday party?
03:07This proved correct in more ways than one. In the season two finale,
03:11Hyde is arrested for possession after covering for Jackie.
03:13And in real life, Masterson was charged with numerous counts of forcible assault.
03:18He was found guilty in May 2023 and could face life in prison.
03:2317. The Fall of the Berlin Wall – Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In
03:35Erected in 1961, the Berlin Wall was found in the Federal Republic of Germany
03:40and served to separate West Berlin from the Communist East.
03:42It's perhaps the most enduring symbol of the Cold War. While it was up,
03:46the popular comedy show Laugh-In did a segment where comedians would report on distant events.
03:51One bit saw Dan Rowan reporting from 1989 and claiming that the Berlin Wall was just torn down.
03:57Berlin, 20 years from now, 1989. There was dancing in the streets today
04:01as East Germany finally tore down the Berlin Wall.
04:04It was meant as a joke to the viewers in 1969,
04:07as there were no signs that the structure would come down.
04:10However, the comedians completely called it. The Wall was figuratively broken in November 1989
04:16and literally demolished throughout the early 90s.
04:2016. The Cubs Win the World Series – Parks & Recreation
04:29And speaking of things that would seemingly never happen, let's talk about the Chicago Cubs.
04:33By 2016, the Cubs had the longest World Series drought in baseball history because they had not
04:39won since 1908. History was made on the night of November 2, 2016. That's when the Cubs beat
04:46Cleveland in Game 7 for their first title in 108 years.
04:50The curse reversed. A historic 8-7 win in extra innings for the Chicago Cubs in what
04:56turned out to be an epic nail-biter, their first World Series title since 1908.
05:02This historic event was predicted one year earlier in an episode of Parks & Recreation.
05:07During the Season 7 episode set in 2017,
05:10a character named Lucy mentions that the Cubs have recently won the series.
05:17This piece of dialogue was just meant to be a funny dig at the long-suffering team.
05:21However, the Cubs got the last laugh.
05:2415. Blinky the Three-Eyed Fish – The Simpsons
05:27The Simpsons writers are no strangers to predicting the future, as we have a whole list
05:32solely based on times they've done so. And spoiler alert, they might even appear again on this list.
05:37This second-season prediction is one you might not even know about. In the episode
05:41Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish, Bart catches a three-eyed fish
05:46that's named Blinky by the media. The deformed fish was caught near a nuclear
06:00power plant that is found to have 342 safety violations worth over $50 million.
06:06This remained a silly joke until 2011, when fishermen in Córdoba, Argentina caught a
06:12three-eyed wolffish. Sure enough, the lake was used as a dumping ground for a nuclear
06:16power plant facility's hot water. 14. Facebook – Friends
06:26This iconic sitcom came to an end in 2004, the same year that Facebook was founded in Cambridge,
06:31Massachusetts by Mark Zuckerberg and Company. But Friends predicted it about one year earlier.
06:36The one with the memorial service aired on March 13, 2003. It sees Ross finding a
06:42social website exclusively for college students. Of course,
06:56similar sites like Myspace existed at the time, but they were open to the general public and not
07:01exclusive to college alumni. When Facebook launched in 2004, it was meant specifically
07:06for Harvard students, and later expanded to many universities around the country.
07:19It wasn't until September 2006 that it was open to the public. And we are sure Ross jumped on it
07:24as soon as he could. 13. Colonel Gaddafi – Second Chance
07:29This oft-forgotten sitcom only aired for one season in the 1980s. The first scene sees various
07:35dead people visiting St. Peter in his heavenly office and being judged for their actions in life.
07:40One of Peter's visitors is Libyan Revolutionary Colonel Gaddafi,
07:43who shows up with multiple gunshot wounds in his chest.
07:46You never could take a joke. And now it's time for you to be judged.
07:52The title card informs us that this scene takes place on July 29, 2011.
07:57This dark gag came shockingly close to being 100% identical to reality.
08:02Muammar Gaddafi was shot to death by militants on October 20, 2011.
08:06Somehow, a sitcom that came and went predicted a major world event.
08:1112. Google Glass – Star Trek Deep Space Nine
08:15With the amount of futuristic technology present in the Star Trek franchise,
08:19fiction has met reality a few times. One such case can be found in Deep Space Nine
08:24and Google Glass. And while it wasn't a spot-on prediction, it is extremely close.
08:29In the show, virtual display devices are placed over characters' heads,
08:32and a little computer screen hovers over one eye.
08:39One character even says that it's like having a viewscreen inside your brain.
08:43A few decades later, Google would unveil the Google Glass.
08:47It looked and functioned almost exactly like the show's virtual display devices.
08:58These writers should look into sports betting.
09:00In the episode All Americans, which aired in 1990, Al was watching Super Bowl XXX,
09:05and it was mentioned that the Pittsburgh Steelers were down by three points.
09:14Sure enough, the Pittsburgh Steelers played the Dallas Cowboys in Super Bowl XXX,
09:18six years after the episode aired on television.
09:21And the kicker? In the fourth quarter of the game, the Steelers were down 20-10
09:25when running back Bam Morris scored a touchdown, making the score 20-17.
09:30Yes, the Steelers were down by three in Super Bowl XXX, just as Quantum Leap had said.
09:36I'm still here, Al.
09:38Oh, well, a man's work is never done.
09:44Seeing as how Star Trek takes place in the distant future,
09:47it's not surprising to hear that it correctly predicted a few things.
09:50One of their best calls forward came with their personal access display devices.
09:54These handheld touchscreen computers were used for a variety of functions.
09:59Tom?
10:04Mr. Forge.
10:05And you may have noticed, personal access display device shortens to pad.
10:10Sound familiar? Computers of this magnitude were literally the stuff of science fiction in 1992.
10:15But less than two decades later, Apple would revolutionize the computing game with the first
10:20iPad. Released in April 2010, the real device was virtually identical to the pad.
10:26Even their names bore startling similarities.
10:29One of dad's computer contacted some of his geek friends,
10:33told them that he was dying, and his last wish was an iPad.
10:42Spooks is a BBC One production that follows the lives of various MI5 officers.
10:46On July 7th, 2005, conspirators bombed various areas of England,
10:51including the London Underground. Many were injured and lost their lives in the attack.
11:03The Spooks series 4 premiere followed an extremely close storyline.
11:08During the episode in question, the agents are forced to battle a group called Shining Dawn,
11:12who threaten to blow up public places like the London Underground.
11:27While this episode aired two months after the attack, it was filmed months in advance.
11:31It ended up airing with an advisory, which warned viewers of the episode's similarities
11:36and coincidences.
11:42This feels like it must have been intentional because the similarities are just way too
11:46coincidental. In this segment, Chris Rock is showing us around the backstage of his studio.
11:54It's there he finds OJ Simpson's fictional video,
11:57I Didn't Kill My Wife, But If I Did, Here's How I'd Do It.
12:00This episode aired in 1997. Ten years later, the book If I Did It was released,
12:05which details how Simpson would have enacted the murders if he decided to kill Nicole Brown
12:10and Ron Goldman. While Simpson's manager has claimed that Simpson didn't write the book,
12:14he still accepted money for its publication, indicating an acceptance of the material within.
12:19First of all, it's very difficult for me to do this. It was very difficult for me
12:24because it's hypothetical.
12:29Edward Snowden shocked the world in 2013 when he controversially leaked classified information
12:34regarding secret surveillance programs. The reaction was mixed. Some hailed him as a hero
12:39and a patriot, while others called him a traitor. We all would have seen this coming if we had
12:44watched Person of Interest. In May of 2012,
12:49the episode No Good Deed aired, which told the story of an NSA security analyst who learns of
12:54a massive surveillance program, leaks the info to the press, and is subsequently hunted by the
12:59government. So, you know, pretty much the same situation Edward Snowden found himself in.
13:03It sounds like someone knew something we didn't, because Scandal covered similar
13:07ground in an episode dated from October 2012.
13:10Millions of Americans are being watched right now, and they have no idea.
13:13You told your supervisors about this? Of course I did,
13:16repeatedly, and they said they'd look into it, and then suddenly I'm being followed.
13:22A brilliant satire of the television industry, 30 Rock aims a lot of vitriolic humor towards
13:27celebrities, producers, and networks. The narcissistic Jenna Maroney makes some wickedly
13:32dark jokes about the embattled and now convicted producer Harvey Weinstein. In one scene,
13:37Jenna claims that she resisted Weinstein's advances three out of five times.
13:41Oh please, I'm not afraid of anyone in show business. I turned down intercourse with
13:46Harvey Weinstein on no less than three occasions, out of five.
13:49This episode aired in March of 2012. The following January saw the release of Florida,
13:55in which Jenna makes a reference to being put in an uncomfortable position with the producer.
13:59News of the real Weinstein's bad behavior and crimes began to come to light in October 2017.
14:05A court in Los Angeles has sentenced Harvey Weinstein to 16 more years in prison.
14:10Viewers noted that Jenna's comments could have been both a prediction
14:13and a way of drawing attention to a then-open secret.
14:20We're pretty sure that Star Trek writers are just time hoppers at this point.
14:23In a season one episode titled Tomorrow is Yesterday, the Enterprise crew is sent back
14:28to the 1960s, and there's a reference to a three-man mission to the moon leaving
14:32Cape Kennedy on Wednesday. This episode aired in 1967. Two years later, Apollo 11,
14:43the first manned mission to the moon, left Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday, July 16th,
14:48with three men on board. While details of the upcoming mission were probably big news in 1967,
14:53it's still pretty impressive.
14:55What?
14:59This animated sitcom has predicted several major historical and pop culture events during its run.
15:04In recent years, many have examined their dig at the now-disgraced Kevin Spacey.
15:08Like Harvey Weinstein, Spacey's career spiraled in October 2017,
15:13when he was accused of some heinous crimes. This was seemingly referenced
15:1612 years earlier when Family Guy released an episode called Don't Make Me Over.
15:2110 bucks.
15:225 bucks.
15:228 bucks and I'll do it.
15:23Fine.
15:24Stewie performs a public prank by running through a mall and claiming he's escaped
15:28from Spacey's basement. Similarly to the Weinstein incident, viewers wondered if
15:32insider knowledge of the actor's alleged crimes informed this joke.
15:36Now he was able to make it out without a speeding ticket, but as for the case against him that he
15:41was arraigned for in the building right behind me, that still looms large.
15:46President Trump – The Simpsons
15:48When this clairvoyant writer's room isn't busy predicting the Disney-Fox merger,
15:52they're foretelling the future of American politics.
15:55Remember when the idea of Donald Trump being President of the United States was just a joke?
15:59Who knew that it would actually happen?
16:01On March 19, 2000, The Simpsons aired the episode Bart to the Future.
16:05While the young Simpson discovers that he's a deadbeat, his sister Lisa is the President
16:09of the United States. She makes a comment regarding her predecessor, President Trump.
16:16Sixteen years later, he was elected the country's 45th President.
16:26Simpsons did it first indeed.
16:35Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan – Scrubs
16:39Who knew that a goofy medical drama would correctly predict the location of one of
16:43the most notorious people in modern history? In the 2006 episode His Story 4, the hospital is in
16:49the midst of a political debate, and J.D. feels left out. The wacky janitor enters and claims
16:54that the government should be looking for Bin Laden in Pakistan. While J.D. asks to look at
17:04a globe, some wondered if he glanced into a crystal ball. Bin Laden was found and killed
17:09in Pakistan on May 2, 2011 in his supposed home of 5 plus years. This would mean that Bin Laden
17:16was allegedly living in Pakistan in 2006 as the janitor predicted.
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17:44The Lone Gunman was an X-Files spinoff that aired for just 13 short episodes in 2001,
17:49and like its parent program, it was full of mystery and intrigue. In the series premiere,
17:55which aired on March 4, 2001, the characters find themselves unravelling a plot to
18:00intentionally send a plane to collide with the World Trade Center.
18:08This episode shockingly aired six months before the World Trade Center was actually attacked.
18:13It's hard to re-watch this episode of The Lone Gunman and not think that the people
18:17behind the show somehow saw this grim historical event coming.