The Simpsons Predict the Future? 3 Times TV Show Premonitions Came True

Speculating what the future will look like has always been a classic human activity, but it often misses the mark. Back to the Future had us wearing metallic jumpsuits at all times and riding hoverboards, and we aren’t quite there yet. 

That example didn’t really work out, but many other predictions made by television shows have later come true. The Simpsons predict the future on a regular basis with over 30 confirmed predictions as of right now (who knows how many there will be total!). 

Things that seem outlandish and crazy enough to make good television coming true in the future is a wild concept to think about. Things that were once thought of as crazy are now our standard.

With that in mind, let’s look at 4 times television predicted the future and what those predictions look like in real life.

1. The Jetsons: Video Chatting 

Along with The Simpsons, The Jetsons is famous for making predictions that eventually came true. This show that originally aired in the 1960s was based in the future, so it makes sense that some of their predictions were true. 

While the robot servant and the flying car predictions haven’t come true, there is something that has: video chatting.

Oftentimes during the show, George Jetson and the rest of the Jetson family would be seen speaking to other people on television through video chat and making virtual calls. At the time, the idea of seeing someone while you talk to them through a screen was fantastical.

Nowadays? This is the standard! Almost everyone has at least one device that’s capable of video chatting, FaceTiming, or Skyping. This has spawned a whole new virtual space for remote workers, family members, long distance relationships, and more. 

Now, those who can’t afford private office space can simply get virtual office space that allows them to have a secretary, an address, and virtual chatting options. People can work from around the world, see their family who live in other countries, have virtual doctor’s appointments, therapy sessions, and more! 

Who would’ve thought in 1963 when George and Judy Jetson were speaking through their fantasy television that that very idea would be possible 50 years later?

2. Parks and Recreation: Cubs World Series Win

Before the 2016 season, the Chicago Cubs hadn’t won the World Series since 1908. They were famously bad and the odds seemed to always be against them.

In 2014, though, Parks and Recreation predicted that the Cubs would win the World Series in 2016. This wasn’t a throwaway prediction, either. One of the writers for the show was very into baseball odds and statistics. Once he learned that the show would be putting the characters in the “future” of 2017, he had the prediction put in to see if he would be proven right.

And indeed he was! One of the characters says that everyone in Chicago is now in a good mood “because of the Cub winning the series”... but this was two years before they won (and during a slump for the team!).

3. The Simpsons: Nobel Prize Winner

The Simpsons are perhaps the most well-known for making predictions that eventually came true, so let's end with them. From predicting President Donald Trump to SmartWatches to autocorrect to faulty voter machines, there are so many we could’ve chosen from for this article.

However, we chose this one because it’s truly wild how this came true. 

In Season 22, Episode 1 called “Elementary School Musical”, the students make predictions of who will win the various Nobel Prizes (Physics, Literature, Chemistry, Economics). This episode aired in 2010 and none of the guesses won that year.

So why does this episode matter? Well, none of the people on the Simpsons’ list won in 2010, but one did win six years later in 2016. Milhouse clearly wrote in “Bengt Holmström” (an MIT Professor) as his guess for the winner of the Nobel Prize in economics, and he did in fact win in 2016.

Of all of the hundreds of thousands of people that could’ve been written into that episode of The Simpsons, what are the odds that one of the guesses would come true? Pretty crazy stuff!