A three-eyed fish is allegedly discovered in Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal, or near an Argentinean nuclear power plant? Three words: Simpsons did it. Radiation reportedly begets strange-looking mutant tomatoes? Yep, The Simpsons did that too.
Sure, it’s a given that a series that’s been around this long—28 seasons and 606 episodes, as of last Sunday—would accidentally augur an event or two; stick a thousand monkeys at a thousand typewriters, and eventually they’ll write a Dickens novel. (“It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times?”) Even so, The Simpsons’s uncanny ability to predict the future has been a flash point for years—so much so that there's even a subreddit devoted to obsessively documenting those very prophecies. (Its name, by the way, is actually a South Park reference.)
For whatever reason, 2016 was an especially rich year for “Simpsons did it!” moments. Like what, you ask? Try these perfectly cromulent coincidences:
President TrumpBy now, we all know that The Simpsons knew, long before anyone else, that Donald Trump would eventually be elected president. (The show’s reaction to its own prediction coming true? “Being right sucks.”) But chin up, America: if the show’s prophetic streak continues, Trump’s presidency will at least be followed by the election of Lisa Simpson.
Johnny Depp’s Weird Australian AdventureShortly before the actor separated from his wife, Amber Heard—and that separation turned ugly—the Pirates of the Caribbean star was caught up in a bizarre scandal that culminated in him and Heard presenting a public apology to the nation of Australia. Kind of like Bart Simpson was nearly forced to do when he, too, disrespected Australian law.
The Censoring of Michelangelo’s DavidThe 1990s “Itchy and Scratchy and Marge” features outraged Springfielders protesting and censoring the exhibition of Michelangelo’s David, thanks to the masterpiece’s show of a naked male form. Something similar actually happened in Russia—where else?—this summer.
A Nobel Prize WinnerThere are oodles of nerdy references sprinkled throughout The Simpsons, but this one may be the nerdiest of all: in 2010, Springfield Elementary student Milhouse van Houten predicted that Finnish economist Bengt Holmström would win a Nobel prize. Wouldn’t you know it: in 2016, Holmstöm did. Truly, everything is comin’ up Milhouse.
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The Tetris TrilogyYes, a movie studio is actually making not one, not two, but three films based on . . . Tetris. As Reddit points out, this sounds just about as desperate as Tic-Tac-Toe: X v. O, a game-based epic sci-fi adventure featured on a 2010 episode.
Yoko Ono’s Signature DrinkIn the Season 5 episode when Homer and some pals form a band clearly meant to parody the Beatles, Barney Gumble briefly dates a mysterious Japanese woman who requests “a single plum, floating in perfume, served in a man’s hat” at Springfield’s local watering hole. Wouldn’t you know it: an Ono exhibition at the Reykjavik Art Museum this fall actually featured a sculpture, by Ono, of a single plum floating in perfume, served in a man’s hat. It’s less prediction than homage, but it’s pretty amusing all the same.
WestworldRemember when the Simpson family visited Bloodbath Gulch, a wild west theme park staffed in part by sexy robots? Sure, you could point out that Westworld’s source material pre-dates The Simpsons, and that the show actually did a more direct homage to Westworld in Season 6’s “Itchy & Scratchy Land” . . . but there were no sexy hooker androids in that one.
The Dawn of Fake NewsThis one might also be a bit of a stretch. However: When you heard about that audio recording in which President Obama allegedly encouraged undocumented immigrants to vote in the presidential election—a recording somebody made by selectively and deceptively editing an interview in which Obama said nothing of the sort—weren’t you reminded of the Season 6 episode “Homer Badman,” in which the Simpson patriarch is accused of sexual harassment, and the situation is exacerbated by selectively and deceptively edited video interview?
No? Just us? Got it.
Plus: One Thing The Simpsons Did Not PredictDid you hear about that guy who sued Golden Corral because the all-you-can-eat restaurant expelled him from their buffet, even though he had not eaten all he could? Just like Homer Simpson at the Frying Dutchman? Yeah, no; that never happened. Lesson learned: even Simpsons fans can fall victim to the allure of fake news, primed as they may be to expect it.
