Welcome to the Conspiracy Series.
This week we will dive into the conspiracy that The Simpsons predicts the future.
The first episode of The Simpsons aired in December of 1989. Meaning, it’s been around for a while. The show is currently in its 31st season. This show is insanely popular, is a household favorite, and even has part of a theme park designed after it. There is no doubt, that millions of people have seen The Simpsons. But lately, people have been noticing some similarities from the show to what is happening in real life. Only the events on the show happened years in advance.
Behind the Conspiracy
The theory behind The Simpsons predicting the future stemmed from the people noticing similarities. If you look online you can find tons of examples, but I will just share with you the craziest ones.
- “$pringfield (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Legalised Gambling).” Season 5, Episode 10
- During this episode, the producers created characters similar to Siegfried & Roy, two famous magicians. During the episode, one of their white tigers attacks them, and later in 2003 it actually happens during a live show. Roy thankfully survived, but it’s kind of odd how accurate the show portrayed it.
- “Lisa on Ice” Season 6, Episode 8
- During this episode, a message gets mixed up on Kearny and Dolph’s cellular device. Instead of saying “beat up Martin”, the message said, “eat up Martha”. Many people say that this predicts autocorrect on our modern-day phones.
- “Lisa’s Wedding” Season 6, Episode 19
- During this episode, the first watch that can also be used as a phone was introduced. gif sourced from giphy.com
- Also during this episode, a certain building is predicted in part of Lisa’s trip to London. In the episode, which aired in 1995 you can see the silhouette of a building that looks suspiciously similar to the Shard. The odd thing about this though, is that the Shard wasn’t around then. Construction didn’t start until 2009.
- “Lisa’s Sax” Season 9, Episode 3
- In this episode, Marge reads Bart a book called “Curious George and the Ebola Outbreak”. And while the Ebola virus did exist in the 1990s, it definitely wasn’t as “popular” per se as it is now. gif sourced from reddit
- “When You Dish Upon a Star” Season 10, Episode 5
- In this episode, we see the 20th Century Fox sign that says “a division of Walt Disney Co”. This is peculiar however because Disney didn’t buy 20th Century Fox until 2017.
- “Bart to the Future” Season 11, Episode 17
- In this episode, Lisa is president but refers to Donald Trump as president meaning he was at some point. In Lisa’s presidency, she is attempting to fix everything that Trump messed up during his term. gif sourced from simpsonsworld.com
- “Boy Meets Curl.” Season 21, Episode 12
- During this episode, Marge and Homer compete on the USA curling team and end up beating Sweden, the favorite. This episode aired in 2010, and in 2018 the US men’s curling team won a gold medal in curling, beating Sweden after being behind. Homer and Marge won the same way as the actual Olympians did in 2018.
- “Lisa goes Gaga” Season 23, Episode 22.
- This episode predicts Lady Gaga’s halftime show in 2017. Gaga flies over the crowd in The Simpsons episode, and in real life at the Superbowl.
- “The Serfsons” Season 29, Episode 1
- In this episode, there are major Game of Thrones spoilers that happened 2 years later. I won’t say what happened because I’m nice.
Among these examples, The Simpsons has predicted Nobel Peace Prize winners, Superbowl winners, controversies, and more.
Debunking
At this point, we don’t know that a time machine exists, although it would be awesome. There is no proof that this conspiracy theory is true, but it is entertaining and thought-provoking. Some definitely more than others.
What I Think
My personal favorite is the Olympic curling team prediction because of how accurate it is. Some of the others could just be brushed off as a coincidence. I honestly have never watched The Simpsons so my credibility is a little low on this subject. However, it was really interesting to read about. I appreciate the creativity and thoughtfulness behind the conspiracy, but the more I read into it, the more I think it’s just coincidence.
Overall I give this theory a 3 out of 5 stars. It’s a cool theory. It’s fun to imagine that the producers of the show can predict the future. Maybe they can, or maybe they’re just really lucky. Either way, it was entertaining to read these theories.
gif sourced from simpsonsworld.com
Come back next week to see if Stevie Wonder really is blind.