How The Simpsons Keeps Predicting The Future

The Simpsons has predicted countless real world events day, years, and decades before they actually occurred. But how?

MUSIC
Following The Crowd Part 2_fullmix
Licensed via Warner Chappell Production Music Inc.
El Cartel_fullmix
Licensed via Warner Chappell Production Music Inc.
Broken By Nature Part 1_fullmix
Licensed via Warner Chappell Production Music Inc.
Digital Fear_undrscr
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STILLS
DC: Inauguration Day
San Francisco Chronicle/Hearst Newspapers via Getty Images/Getty Images
Washington State Department Of Agriculture Sets Traps For Asian Giant Hornets
Karen Ducey/Getty Images

VIDEO
1959 Ford Levacar Mach I montage
Curious Cumulus Productions/Getty Images
Donald Trump speaking on stage at New Hampshire rally
Sky News/Film Image Partner/Getty Images
Donald Trump waving before climbing into The Beast at Wright Patterson AFB
Milmotion/Getty Images
Animation of particles collision in Hadron Collider. Astrophysics concept.
vchal/Getty Images
Flying above the clouds, seamless looping
Videowok_art/Getty Images
EVENT CAPSULE CHYRON: 'The Simpsons' 500th Episode Celebration On The Yellow Carpet, Hollywood, CA, United States, 2/13/12
WireImage House/Getty Images
Matt Groening at The Simpsons 500th Episode Celebration On The Yellow Carpet in Hollywood, CA, on 2/13/12
WireImage House/Getty Images
HO, HO D'OH! The Simpsons Take Manhattan to Celebrate DVD Release
WireImage House/Getty Images

EXTERNAL CREDITS
Matt Real

[arthurmorgan]

Plot twist: the people that are in the future simply just whach the Simsons and copy what they do to make it seem like they predicted the future

[UMIunited]

Maybe the real predictions were the friends we made along the way

[HeatherLockheart]

the weird thing about the trump episode wasn’t that they predicted his presidency in general, but there are scenes from that episode that mirror real life events that actually happened years later

[CamMackay]

The maths ones aren't predictions, the show just has a lot of writers who are graduate-level mathematicians. Simon Singh has a good book about this topic!

[de]

maybe the simpsons don’t *predict* the future, they write it in and we *follow them and make it reality.*

[ERoBB]

People just forget that Simpsons writers were Harvard grads pulling things from the headlines. Trump talked about running for president in the 80's and 90's so they made a joke about if he'd won. People just forget or don't know how long Trump was openly talking about running.

[honykomb]

It's crazy to see Ned Flanders breaking down his shows weirdest moments, he looks different without his glasses tho.

[chriswalkey]

When you write a show that parody’s reality it shouldn’t be a surprise when it predicts things from time to time

[WhaleManMan]

When you have 1, 000+ episodes, you're bound to make a hypothetical that ends up similar to reality.
A lot of these are just commentary of stuff that was already happening at that time, that later happened again.

[agtac]

Star Trek didn't predict the future, it inspired the future.

[ouzounicus]

I love how he's talking about the Simpsons while he looks like Ned Flanders 0:15 he talks like him

[MeredithHagan]

Star Trek didn’t predict cell phones - the inventor of the cell phone was inspired by Star Trek.

[anxietywave]

If you understand the present, its easy to make predictions on the future.

[mrducky]

In fairness they’ve been around for 30+ years they’re bound to get some things right

[milktea]

Maybe the simpsons creators are also creators of this simulation we live in

[brandonx]

"The chalks too big?!!" Best part of the show.

[ironicstatement]

I wonder if the simpsons will predict the end of the world. We need a do over on humanity

[vitawhittaker]

can the simpsons predict the end of the world already pls

[victorcovack]

Ah yes, i have arrived at the “its 3 am i should go to bed now” section of youtube

[Tahu]

actually one of the most interesting videos that Buzzfeed Unsolved made since Ryan and Shane Left. I actually liked this video!