12 "The Simpsons" Moments That Went From Fiction to Reality

It's been 35 years since the premiere of this iconic series and many of its scenes have remained for posterity, whether for their witty humor or for having predicted some unusual real-life situation. As the seasons have gone by, more and more moments from the series seem to conceal a prophecy, and in this article, we take a look back at the most famous and spooky occasions when an episode from The Simpsons gave us a glimpse of what's to come.

1. Springfield Dome and Under the Dome (2013)

The Simpsons movie was a milestone in the history of the series, and many fans turned out to enjoy one of the craziest adventures of the yellow family in July 2007. The idea of a dome completely covering the town of Springfield seemed like a far-fetched and even comical plot. But many never expected the plot to be repeated in the famous 2013 series Under the Dome, where the town of Chester's Mill suddenly finds itself trapped in a dome that separates them from the rest of the world.

2. The purchase of 21st Century Fox

In episode five of the tenth season, released in 1998, Homer learns a valuable lesson about fame. Everything seemed to be going in the usual direction and the Hollywood jokes kept coming, but as the episode neared its end, a peculiar moment foreshadowed Disney's purchase of 21st Century Fox. This was a fact that would come true some 19 years later when the acquisition was announced.

3. Three facts about the 2014 Football World Cup

Lisa gives a speech that makes Homer look like a hero to the crowd, prompting the World Cup committee to offer the beloved yellow character a job as a referee. The episode, which premiered in March 2014, offers a lesson in honor and honesty, but also some peculiar details that came true a few months later, in July. To begin with, the series predicted that Brazil and Germany would play against each other and that the outcome would be devastating for the Brazilian team.

But the predictions did not end there. The series also predicted that Germany would win the World Cup title that year, and that a famous player in the Brazilian team would suffer a worrying injury.

4. Video calls and smartwatches

In the 1995 episode "Lisa's Wedding", The Simpsons takes us to a not-too-distant future where Lisa becomes engaged to an Englishman. The wedding preparations and the events surrounding the wedding are filled with hilarious dialogue. Still, not many expected this episode to foretell two major changes in communication technology: video calls, introduced into everyday use in the 2000s, and smartwatch calls.

5. Two celebrity divorces

In the fourth episode of season three, a series of events lead to the disappearance of Principal Skinner. Concerned for him, a police search is launched, involving a questionable psychic. In the original version, Princess Opal —as the psychic calls herself— offers a very wrong prediction.

But in the Spanish dub the prophecy is accurate: the second divorce of Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson, which occurred in 1996, is foretold. Similarly, the French version predicts the divorce of Prince Charles and Princess Diana.

6. Virtual reality goggles

We return to the episode "Lisa's Wedding", but this time to come across a slightly more advanced prediction about technology in general. While Homer has a fun chat with Lisa's fiancé, Bart and another guy are enjoying their virtual reality goggles. Although the concept of virtual reality was already circulating in the minds of many tech geniuses, this episode presented a version closer to today's virtual reality goggles, the standalone model of which was introduced in 2018 and 2019.

7. The Halloween special and CatDog (1998)

Many love The Simpsons Halloween episodes, as they mix the best elements of popular culture with the show's witty humor. However, the eighth Halloween special foreshadowed one of the most memorable animated series of the 1990s and 2000s: 1998's CatDog. The special premiered a year earlier, in 1997, and in one of its segments, Bart alters the DNA of his pets, fusing them into a half-dog, half-cat: just like the premise of the Nickelodeon series.

8. The end of Game of Thrones

It was 2017 and the famous series Game of Thrones amazed many with its penultimate season. The Simpsons joined this celebration with the first episode of season 29, where the yellow family moves to a fantasy universe inspired by George R. R. Martin's saga and other popular franchises.

Many fans enjoyed the episode from start to finish, never suspecting that the last scene would prophesize the unlikely ending of Game of Thrones in 2019, when King's Landing and all its inhabitants were wiped out.

9. The Nobel Prize in Economics

An episode about creativity and dreams concealed one of The Simpsons' most incredible predictions. At the beginning of the first episode of season 22, released in 2010, Lisa and Bart's friends gather at the Simpson house to watch the announcement of the Nobel Prize winners. Each has made his own prediction about the winner of the various categories. And while Martin turns out to be the most accurate in the series, it is Milhouse who is the true seer, having predicted six years earlier that Bengt R. Holmström would win the Nobel Prize for Economics.

10. GoPro cameras

In one episode of season five, Homer decides to join a TV station to expose Apu's bad practices. To do so, he must wear a large hat with a highly visible hidden camera. This would become a reality some ten years later when Nick Woodman launched one of the first GoPro cameras, whose versatile use makes it possible to wear them autonomously to record various scenes.

11. The Shard Building in London

The episode called "Lisa's Wedding" not only got it right in the field of technology but also made a very striking prediction that would come true some 17 years later. When Lisa travels to her fiancé's country, a shot opens up to show us a modern London. Many of the elements in the scene failed to materialize, but one of the buildings in the corner of the shot did. It is a triangular-looking skyscraper known as The Shard, which opened in 2012 and can now be seen from an open shot of the famous Big Ben.

12. Miley Cyrus' Wrecking Ball

In September 2013, singer Miley Cyrus mesmerized many with a spectacular pop music video in which she sings about a moving wrecking ball. This iconic image —and the song— quickly spread through the media, until someone noticed that The Simpsons did it first. In the fifth episode of season six (1994), city officials attempt to demolish the Simpson house to continue a public works project. To prevent this, Homer rides the wrecking ball that attacks his home, creating a scene very similar to the Miley Cyrus music video.

Many of The Simpsons episodes have turned out to be true prophecies, and it's possible that, as the years and seasons go by, this list will grow longer. Do you think another scene will come true? Has The Simpsons ever predicted an event in your life? Share your favorite Simpsons predictions with us.