You never really know what the future holds, so there is really no need to worry since none of us can really tell what will happen next.
Unless you are one of the creators of Inspector Gadget, The Simpsons, Family Guy, or Futurama. Because if that's the case, you know exactly what will happen next, and you probably can't wait to illustrate it and put in on your show.
This list compiled by Bored Panda, shares all of the times the creators of these iconic shows have accidentally predicted how the future will look like, and some are surprisingly accurate.
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Donald Trump's Presidency
In 2000, 16 years before the actual announcement, The Simpsons had already predicted that Donald Trump will run for president and they even managed to predict that he will win. We still have time to see if Lisa's words hold true once Trump's presidency is over.
Does that mean that Lisa is going to be the next POTUS? Lookin' forward...
This is exactly what people will say when tangerine turd has left the White house.
He took credit for the economic recovery about a month after he was inaugurated. And he will destroy the economy, but it takes time to take effect, so if a Democrat wins in 2020, the Democrat will be blamed, just like Obama was blamed by many for the recession, though of course the economy went belly-up before he was inaugurated.
Faulty Voting Machine
This one surprised many as The Simpsons managed to almost identically predict the future. Back in 2008, Homer was illustrated voting for Obama during the election but the vote automatically changing for Mitt Romney. 4 years later, the exact same thing happened in Pennsylvania where a faulty machine had to be removed because of changing people's votes for Mitt Romney.
The Prediction Of Higgs Boson Or "God Particle"
Back in 2012, physicists confirmed the existence of the Higgs Boson also known as the "God particle". This scientific breakthrough helped explain how everything in the universe has mass. The discovery itself is amazing but what is even better is the fact that 14 years before this happened, Homer was illustrated in front of a blackboard with an equation that actually predicted the mass of the yet-to-be-discovered particle which basically means Homer was the first scientist to share any info on Higgs Boson.
Apparently a lot of writers on the show are mathmeticians and there is meant to be a lot of this kind of thing sneaked in. This isn't the actual equation, it's close though.
Oh! before I read the explain I was just fascinated by the PacMac at the bottom.
If it’s Homer Simpson then those are doughnuts being eaten.
Load More Replies...Mathematics is an extremely reliable discipline. Case in point: Neptune's existence and position were predicted in around 1845 using ONLY mathematics by Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier. Mathematics are the closest thing I can think of as a "God".
Okay.... the other ones are all (semi) believable plot points and predictions, but this????? I’m not denying it happened, but come on... the chances of this happening is 1in 1,000,000,000, surely??
The search was an ongoing process over the course of a long-period of time. Parts of the equation were already well-developed and Homer's equation isn't quite the same as the one that finally found the particle, so this was just based on the current state of the search at the time and was not really at all predictive.
Load More Replies...Three-Eyed Fish
The iconic three-eyed fish was a symbol throughout The Simpsons of the massive pollution the town was facing and how badly it affects nature. Funnily (or sadly) enough, a similar fish was found in Argentina near a nuclear power plant.
There are more than 29,000 tons of spent fuel rods worldwide and very few places to store. Waste is a serious problem. High level waste comprises only a tiny percentage of all nuclear waste but accounts for 95 percent of the radioactivity given off by nuclear waste. For storage, it may be transformed into a glass, which is then sealed inside stainless-steel containers that are entombed far below the Earth's surface at government-approved sites but no-one wants to live near these and seismic activity is a concern. Sadly, one of human-kind's greatest leaps in technology, also demonstrates our inability to deal with our own advances.
Load More Replies...thats just nasty and.. WAIT!!! WE SHOULD GET SOMEONE NAMED MR BURNS TO eAT IT!!!
What? I never even heard of this three-eyed fish and I´m from Argentina.
Disney Buying 20th Century Fox
Back in 1998, the creators of The Simpsons showed Homer creating the script. This script was produced by 20th Century Fox but in the episode, you can notice that there's a sign in front of the studio's headquarters that says "a division of Walt Disney Co." In fact, Disney did actually purchase 20th Century Fox for $52.4 billion 19 years later.
Nah, they just threw a LOT of darts, so some of them stick. Same way fortune tellers work.
Load More Replies...Nobel Prize Winner
In one of their episodes, The Simpsons showed Milhouse betting on MIT professor Bengt Holmström to win the Nobel Prize. Surprisingly, he did win after 6 years.
Can you shut the hell up and let everybody read this
Load More Replies...White Tiger Attack
Back in 1993, The Simpsons mocked Siegfried & Roy by showing them getting mauled by their white tiger. The same thing happened in real life 10 years later.
I guess this wasn't as hard to predict. Working with wild animals for entertainment has to go wrong at some point...
Yeah, those wild animals must be so stressed, so something is bound to happen at some point
Load More Replies...Er, wait, I thought the writers said they had actually heard this happened (in private) before the episode was written?
Got Season 8 Plot Twist
Many were surprised that the unimaginable Game of Thrones Season 8 plot twist was actually already predicted by The Simpsons. I guess we should thank The Simpsons for the spoiler or you can thank us if you still didn't watch the last season and came to read this list.
Yup! A fictional story predicting something happening in another fictional place = Nostradamus. (( the dragons destroying the place is an old OLD meme ))
Load More Replies...Now we know from where the writers of the 8 season got their inspiration...
Why do people keep referring to this as a huge plot twist? It was very apparent that she was about to lose it...and many times foreshadowing referenced the Family instability. The apple not falling far from the tree etc...papa T screaming "let them all burn"... plot twist smot plisht
Can someone tell me which season and episode of The Simpsons is this from?
If I'm not mistaken, it's the first episode of season 29
Load More Replies...I'm assuming this twist didn't appear in the books, then, or it'd just be a case of whoever wrote this episode read it in the books.
Caitlyn Jenner's Transition
Many years before the actual transition, Family Guy already illustrated Bruce Jenner in a rather feminine manner. In one of the series, Stewie describes Bruce as a "beautiful Dutch woman". In another episode, the yet-to-transition Bruce is illustrated dancing on stage for men in the navy. When these episodes were released, nobody thought they would soon call him Caitlyn. Creators of the show denied any further comment on why they decided to portray Bruce the way they did.
Anyone who calls Bruce Jenner a hero is a moron, HE is a twat.
Smartwatches
Back in 1995, The Simpsons showed one of their characters wearing a watch that you can also use as a phone. It took 20 years for the actual Apple Watch to be released.
Didn't Inspector Gadget and James Bond Jr. have a "smart watch" technology as well?
The idea of a smart watch was already old by the time Simpsons used it
D**k Tracy was the first comic to have a watch radio and that was 50 years ago!!
actually 1940's comic you see dict tracy taking to his wrist watch in the comic
Load More Replies...There have been smartwatches and phonewatches way before the apple watch, which isn't even a phone on it's own.
It would be expected seeing that the future was predicted to have fancy gadgets like flying cars but at least they got this one right
Makes me think of another article I saw on this very website years ago, lol: "This Astronomical Watch Accurately Shows The Solar System’s Movements On Your Wrist" -- https://www.boredpanda.com/astronomical-watch-midnight-planetarium-van-cleef-and-arpels-christian-van-der-klaauw
The Censorship Of Michelangelo's David
Residents of St. Petersburg were very unhappy when a replica of Michelangelo's David was placed in St. Anne’s Lutheran Church in central St. Petersburg. One woman has even written a letter asking for the sculpture to be censored. “How could you put this bloke without any trousers in the center of St Petersburg next to a school and church?” the woman wrote in a letter. In order to turn something negative into a positive, local authorities then started an initiative called "Dress David" where people voted on how the replica could be censored. There was an option "leave it as it is" and since this story happened back in 2016 and nobody talked about it ever since, there is a big chance that the sculpture remained uncensored although during the voting period, David was just covered in black tape. How rude!
Well, in fact these kind of censorship is not new :) in 1564, The Last Judgment (Michel Angelo again) was censored in the Sistine Chapel. The Pope got all the genitalia covered...
Oof, that makes it even more terrifying .... are we going backwards, regressing as a society that should confront uncomfortable ideas and figure out why they make us uncomfortable, rather than ignoring them and burying them?
Load More Replies...Really? You don't think that art has been considered sexy as well as beautiful by the beholder in the past? Hello!!
Load More Replies...Virtual Reality
Although many tried to illustrate what our future entertainment would look like, Futurama's creators were the ones who perfectly predicted how virtual reality would look and what we will use it for.
It legitimately makes me depressed knowing that I'll die long before the invention of the holodeck, lol....
Load More Replies...Lady Gaga's Performance At The Super Bowl
The iconic Lady Gaga's Super Bowl performance was actually first performed 5 years earlier in Springfield where Lady Gaga, just like in the Super Bowl, was flying through the air while singing.
But Lady Gaga played herself in the episode, so does this really count as a prediction?
I think who they were trying to represent was Madonna, and Lady Gaga used it as "inspiration"
why... why would you post that picture of the cartoon. i am only 13...
Horse Meat Scandal
In the 1994 episode of the "Simpsons", the lunch lady known as Doris was using "assorted horse parts" while preparing meals for high school students of Springfield Elementary. Then nine years after the episode aired, a huge scandal happened when Ireland's Food Safety Authority found horse DNA in over one-third of the beefburger samples from supermarkets and ready meals, and pork in 85% of them.
There had been issues with horse meat before that. The joke was based on current events.
I find that's the case with a lot of "cartoons that predicted the future" tbh.
Load More Replies...Miss Universe Mix Up
It is known to most of us that the hilarious and tragic Miss Universe mix up that happened in 2015 was a surprise to everybody watching the show. Well, apparently, the creators of Futuruma already knew this might happen as they illustrated the exact same situation in their show back in 1999. While comparing the images, most of us can definitely notice the striking similarities.
How heart-breaking would that be, all the joy of thinking you've won, and it all gets taken away from you..... *sniff* .... I have something in my eye ....
Maybe you'll find out yourself one day. 'Hope so!!
Load More Replies...I hate how they cut it off right before the crown sits upon Miss Universes head (miss Philippines 2017)
First Laptop
Inspector Gadget already has a reputation for predicting the future of technology and some of the devices they used in the show are unbelievably similar to what major companies created many years later. For example, one of the characters from the show named Penny was using her "computer book" that looks strikingly similar to the first Toshiba laptop that was released a couple of years after the show.
Isn't it really more some one had a cartoon drawing of an idea, and then someone who watched it grew up to make it a reality?
Portable computers and the technology to eventually make laptops were already in development at the time of the show. There was a lot of general talk about making computers smaller and more portable, so it wasn't really so much predictive as it was an idea of what the future tech already in development might look like.
Load More Replies...Laptops were in Orson Scott Card's Ender's game in 1985. the original short story was published in 1977.
Drone Cameras
In this particular image, we can see floating cameras that we now know as drone cameras.Something that is now often used in media and movies was only a vague idea illustrated by Futurama back in 2000.
The First Digital Camera
Inspector Gadget took a a dive into the future and in the episode "The Infiltration", the show's character Penny Gadget was holding a device that clearly resembles a digital camera. The device was attached to her computer-book and it was used to snap photographs. Of course it failed to predict the usage of internal memory or memory cards, but it's still an impressive prediction that gained public attention. The design of the camera, of course, looks old-fashioned mainly because of the vanity of the cameras in that period.
A Self-Parking And Self-Driving Car
Now, almost every luxurious car has self-parking and sometimes even self-driving abilities that were absolutely unimaginable back in the '80s. It's safe to say that Inspector Gadget was definitely a technology prophet as his car had all of those abilities many years before any company managed to actually create them.
Well...I mean it's not like it's that much of an out of the box idea to think - "Wow, it would be great if there was something in my car to help me with parking/driving." I don't see the sensation here, really.
The first self-driving vehicle was Silver, Zorro's horse. He would come running with just a whistle and get ready when Zorro had to jump from a window.
The Ebola Virus
17 years before the actual outbreak of the Ebola virus, Marge was already illustrated by The Simpsons' creators giving a book to Bart. The title of the book reads "Curious George and the Ebola Virus".
Even as a child, when the episode was brand new... I knew what the ebola virus was. And that was before Wikipedia was even a thing! We had to read about it in BOOKS! .... Books with PAPER even!
and once again the simpsons predict something that has been around for HUNDREDS OF YEARS!!! WE JUST DIDNT KNOW ABOUT IT!!!
The Shard Building In London
Another episode of the Simpsons, "Lisa's Wedding", predicted the iconic Shard Building in London 14 years before it was built. Looking back at the episode now, it's fascinating to see that not just the shape and look of the Shard is incredibly similar but also the location is the same.
The location isn't the same. Also if you aligned Tower Bridge at that height with Big Ben in the foreground then The Shard would be obscured by Big Ben and St.Pauls Catherdral would be on the left. Also they failed to predict the other dozen or so buildings that have been built since. Myopic future telling.
The Fall Of The World Trade Center
In a 2001 episode, "Chain Gang Johnny", the creators of Johnny Bravo managed to predict the tragic events of 9/11 and the fall of the Twin Towers. Given the fact that the episode aired just a few months before the actual disaster, many conspiracy theorists wonder: could it have been a subliminal message or a not-so-subtle warning? Well, it did say, "Coming soon", but we'll never know.
The Simpsons predicted the disaster way back in 1997 when the family plans a trip to New York. It's all fun until we notice the cover of the magazine that Lisa holds up as it eerily shows the Twin Towers next to a big number 9. Again, subliminal message? Honest prediction of 9/11? We'll leave it to the conspiracy theorists.
The poster is actually a knock-off of Irwin Allen's The Towering Inferno
Alright, these are both a bit of a stretch. First, displaying any high rise on fire is easy, considering how many there are and the likelihood of a fire happening in them. Second, picking an arbitrarily low number is simple, and the fact that the world trades centers, side by side, look like an eleven is coincidence.
Agree, in hindsight you can find a lot of "references" if you look hard enough.
Load More Replies...It's eerie that the 9 is next to the towers, creating a 9 11 effect.
what happens if someone from iraq really wants to get into crop dusting?
... or, it's a retro showing/ remake of Towering Inferno from the 70s
Financial Crisis In Greece
In a 2012 episode, "Politically Inept With Homer Simpson", Homer appears as a guest on a news show. A headline flashes at the bottom of the screen: 'Europe puts Greece on eBay'. Even though Europe didn't actually sell a whole country online, three years later in 2015, Greece became the first developed country to enter a large scale debt crisis.
The Birth Of Autocorrect
In a 1994 episode, "Lisa on Ice", Dolph uses an Apple Newton - a digital assistant. When he tries to write ''Beat up Martin'', the machine changes it to "Eat up Martha" which could mark the very beginning of the now infamous autocorrect fails. With the official launch of autocorrect in 2005, it's been reported that the original employees fondly referred to this episode of The Simpsons when creating the actual product.
Not quite. The Apple Newton's failure was that it tried digitizing handwriting, but it's interpretation was terrible. It wasn't autocorrect as much as bad implementation.
The Rise And Fall Of Miley Cyrus
South Park has been spot on with pop culture as well. An episode from 2008, ''Britney's New Look'', accurately prophesied that ''Miley Cyrus, though only 15 years old, is already on her way to becoming a major superstar'' and would be the next star after Britney to have a meltdown. The cartoon wasn't far off at all.
Nobody would in their wildest dreams has thought about little sweet Miley would be a drunk porn sing along superstar.lol
The Death Of Osama Bin Laden
The Simpsons wasn't the only cartoon to predict major political events. In an episode that aired on October 13, 2010, South Park showed Osama Bin Laden, the leader of Al-Qaeda, being shot in the head and killed by special forces. Only eight months later, the real Osama was killed by Navy SEALs in a very similar fashion.
South Park depicting Navy SEALs doing their job, and then real-life Navy SEALs doing the same job is not a prediction.
Ebola Outbreak
''Gluten Free Ebola'', an episode of South Park was released a few days prior to the virus outbreak that started sweeping through USA.
According to the W.H.O ( world health org) there was a total of 8 people infected in the usa. hardly a " sweeping through the USA.
it was 11 cases and was officially called an epidemic, seems a bit over inflated :/
Load More Replies...First Generation Ipod
Five years before Apple announced the first iPod, The Simpsons already had an idea of what the invention would be like. Seen in an episode from 1996, the device closely resembles the first generation iPod not only in design but also in the purpose of communicating messages and music.
The device you're showing from the episode is an intercom, not a music player.
... that was an intercom in the Simpsons, not a music player of any sorta. Trying to stretch a bit here, aren't we?
Loving all this debunking in the comments. pattern recognition is all this is.
I don't think cartoons predicted the future; I think some geeks saw the cartoons, thought "Wow, that's so cool, let's make it real !" and worked their butt off in order to make it happen ...
This is actually not far from truth and it's no secret either. Most engineers and inventors are influenced by sci-fi, that's why the Star Trek franchise is known to have "predicted" a good portion of nowadays technology.
Load More Replies...A lot of these are trying to make a sensation out of something completely logical or long time well known. Sorry, you're right, I'm no fun at the parties.
I was thinking the same.... Most of these things were already known about long before these cartoons even premiered.
Load More Replies...I don't think they predict the future its common sense which people are lacking in and plus they speak in code only wake people crack it
This actually has a name, and it's called "predictive programming" or "revelation of the method". The powers in charge of our reality, reveal their plans for us. This is intentional, a sort of karma cleansing, and happens with most big events. 9/11 had hundreds of predictions. Corona too. Kobe's "death". Columbine shooting. Etc. Welcome to the real world, where nothing is real.
This actually has a name, and it's called "predictive programming" or revelation of the method. The powers in charge of our reality, reveal their plans for us. This is intentional, a sort of karma cleansing, and happens with most big events. 9/11 had hundreds of preditions. Corona too. Welcome to the Real World.
There was one episode of Family Guy called I Take Thee Quagmire in one part where Adam West was on Jeopardy. During the Final Jeopardy with the clue talking about space, Adam West wrote down "Kebert Xela" which sends Alex Trebek to the 5th dimension. A year later, an actual Jeopardy contestant wrote Kebert Xela during the Final Jeopardy. He only put down $1 on his wager and had no money left. In the end, Alex said he would go to that "other dimension" as he concludes the show.
I don't think cartoons predicted the future; I think some geeks saw the cartoons, thought "Wow, that's so cool, let's make it real !" and worked their butt off in order to make it happen ...
This is actually not far from truth and it's no secret either. Most engineers and inventors are influenced by sci-fi, that's why the Star Trek franchise is known to have "predicted" a good portion of nowadays technology.
Load More Replies...A lot of these are trying to make a sensation out of something completely logical or long time well known. Sorry, you're right, I'm no fun at the parties.
I was thinking the same.... Most of these things were already known about long before these cartoons even premiered.
Load More Replies...I don't think they predict the future its common sense which people are lacking in and plus they speak in code only wake people crack it
This actually has a name, and it's called "predictive programming" or "revelation of the method". The powers in charge of our reality, reveal their plans for us. This is intentional, a sort of karma cleansing, and happens with most big events. 9/11 had hundreds of predictions. Corona too. Kobe's "death". Columbine shooting. Etc. Welcome to the real world, where nothing is real.
This actually has a name, and it's called "predictive programming" or revelation of the method. The powers in charge of our reality, reveal their plans for us. This is intentional, a sort of karma cleansing, and happens with most big events. 9/11 had hundreds of preditions. Corona too. Welcome to the Real World.
There was one episode of Family Guy called I Take Thee Quagmire in one part where Adam West was on Jeopardy. During the Final Jeopardy with the clue talking about space, Adam West wrote down "Kebert Xela" which sends Alex Trebek to the 5th dimension. A year later, an actual Jeopardy contestant wrote Kebert Xela during the Final Jeopardy. He only put down $1 on his wager and had no money left. In the end, Alex said he would go to that "other dimension" as he concludes the show.
