Does The Simpsons Actually Predict Events?

With the 2024 elections in the United States approaching, Kamala Harris has a strong chance of becoming the country’s president. And if that happens, The Simpsons will have predicted yet another event years before it occurred.

How is it that Matt Groening, the creator of The Simpsons, predicted so many recent events back in the 2000s? Is he some kind of time traveler? Who returned solely to stage a satirical performance about the impending chaos? Or is there something far more sinister going on out there? Don’t worry, I have figured it all out, and no, it’s nothing sinister.

Some Predictions Made By The Simpsons:

The Simpsons has predicted so many events that celebrities should start worrying if they get an episode made about them. Richard Branson, the English business magnate, went to space in 2021. The Simpsons, however, sent him to space in an episode aired back in 2014.

Richard Branson in space (The Simpsons and Real Life)

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have been partners for quite a while, but did you know that The Simpsons predicted their partnership even though they weren’t running mates at the time the short aired?

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris (The Simpsons and Real Life)

A whopping $71.3 billion was spent by Disney to acquire 20th Century Fox in 2017. In 1998, in an episode titled “When You Wish Upon a Star,” we can see 20th Century Fox already owned by Disney. How is that not proof that Matt Groening is a time traveler?

Sign that says “20th Century Fox, A Division of Walt Disney Co”

In “Betting Pool,” a card contains Milhouse’s and other students’ predictions for the Nobel Prize. One of these is Milhouse’s bet for the Nobel Prize in Economics, Bengt R. Holmstrom. The Finnish economist would actually go on to win the award six years later.

Betting Pool card from The Simpsons

Do The Simpsons Actually Predict Events?

Well, long story short, yes and no. Do they predict events? Yeah, kind of. Do they do it on purpose? Not actually.

Short story long, Matt Groening is a satirical genius. To predict so many events perfectly would mean that you should know the whole iceberg of every event. In satire, you show something with an exaggeration. Matt really put his mind into it while portraying exaggerations. Lets see how he makes exaggerations that actually feel probable

In the 1990s, Disney was on a shopping spree, acquiring a handful of studios. Making it a great idea to show how Disney would at one point become such a giant that it would acquire its competitors—20th Century Fox—as well. Showing an exaggeration rather than a prediction.

Branson has consistently expressed his desire to open up space travel via Virgin Galactic, his company that has been developing commercial spaceflights since the early 2000s. His desire to travel to space was well known, which made him an appropriate candidate for The Simpsons to mock in space. This was more of a known possibility than a blind prediction by Matt.

Where the talk about Bengt R. Holmstrom winning the Nobel Prize comes, to even include a betting card that shows the people who are likely to be chosen as the next Nobel laureate means they were well aware of the great economists of that time. Bengt R. Holmstrom is not a rare name for a person who knows economists; it is us who think that it was a weird name to be placed on the card. And in the end, Holmstrom winning the Nobel prize was still a possible probability

Donald Trump shooting (The Simpsons and Real Life)

If we look closely and actually think about it, Matt Groening was just a great thinker. I’m sure Trump getting shot isn’t all that impossible to predict and is very likely to have a place in a 35-season satirical show mostly based in the United States.

It’s Just Well Written Satire:

Matt puts such effort in the satirical aspect of the show that it almost feels as if it could actually be true—spoiler, it does get true. To his satirical genius, we should be thankful, as we can get an early glimpse of the near chaotic future. Yikes.

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