All the way back in the year 2000, the American Sitcom “The Simpsons” aired an episode that presented Donald Trump as a future president of the United States. This idea seemed like pure comedy until it came to fruition after the 2016 election. This, along with countless other predictions, established “The Simpsons” as providing watchers with relatable comedy, bizarre scenes, and a seemingly uncanny ability to peer into the future. This calls into question whether these are simply coincidences or if there is more going on and if we will see more of these foretellings unfold in the near future.
One of the most surprising of “The Simpsons” many ambitious guesses to come true would be that of the Higgs boson particle. In the second episode of season ten, Homer, the father of the show’s family, known to be lacking in the intelligence department, has a sudden urge to invent items he thinks the world would need and also to preserve his legacy. During this frantic brainstorming session, Homer throws what appears to be a completely random equation onto a blackboard. This equation went widely unnoticed until 14 years later when scientists, using a supercollider, proved the mass of a so-called “God Particle”. They then realized that Homer was only a fraction off of the mass of the Higgs boson particle in 1998. The odds of mistakenly guessing something of this scale and importance that took scientists hours of research and millions of dollars to produce are almost impossible.
A more disturbing foretelling was that of the incident involving Siegfried and Roy; these two men were well-known magicians, and they would perform shows involving tigers, which would be described as the most visited show in Las Vegas. They were eventually featured in a 1993 episode of “The Simpsons” playing themselves and performing their signature act in the newly opened casino in Springfield. During this act, one of the tigers begins acting unusually, leading to the tiger mauling both of them. Unfortunately, this same event came into reality only ten short years later. During a performance, one of the tigers named Montacore started to attack Roy and, as spectators described, dragged him off the stage into one of the wings. Fortunately, Roy ended up surviving but with many life-changing injuries. The two magicians would return to the stage for several one-offs before finally retiring in 2010.
Even with how shocking both of these predictions are, countless more have come true or have shown similarities between events in the show and real life, such as the Ocean Gate tragedy, Lady Gaga’s Superbowl performance, Disney purchasing Fox, and smartwatches. Many have started to wonder whether or not the writers are predicting the future or writing it. Although, according to People Magazine, Matt Selman said “If you say enough things, some of them are going to overlap with reality.” He pins it with pure coincidence, but with many more waiting to come to light, the question isn’t whether or not “The Simpsons” will continue their prediction streak, but rather which of them will become true next?
