It's been more than thirty years since the first ever episode of The Simpsons came to our screens. In its 32 seasons so far, it aired more than 600 episodes. Centered around what could be considered a typical American family when it first aired, it is rich with slapstick comedy, running gags, and cultural references.
The show is so rich with the latter that the writers managed to foreshadow our future. And so, The Simpsons didn't only become one of the best TV shows of all time, but also a source of countless conspiracy theories.
10 Video Calling Apps
Long before most people had mobile phones, let alone smartphones, Lisa Simpson was already making video calls to her mom. "Lisa's Wedding" aired all the way back in 1995. The episode took us into the future, to a time when Lisa is attending college.
There, she fell in love with Hugh, a typical Englishman, and the two ended up getting engaged. Lisa broke the news in a way that doesn't seem as futuristic today: via a video call.
9 The Shard In London
Another little detail that didn't go unnoticed in "Lisa's Wedding" is that there was a very distinct addition to the London skyline: a tall, triangular building could be seen looming far in the distance behind Big Ben.
It wasn't built yet in 1995, though. The 87-story building is today know as The Shard and it is the tallest building in the UK. It was completed in 2012. Did the architect see The Simpsons episode or is it just a coincidence?
8 Bengt R. Holmstrom Won The Nobel Prize
While some predictions are outright insane, some are pretty logical. The writers of The Simpsons are clearly informed observers of our time and culture; they had Millhouse correctly guess the Nobel Prize winner in Economics.
Bengt R. Holmstrom won the prize in 2016, six years after his name was featured on the show.
7 The Famous Three-Eyed Fish
"Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish" is the third episode of the second season of The Simpsons and it aired three decades ago. Near Mr. Burns' nuclear power plant, Bart caught a three-eyed fish.
In 2011, Argentinian fishermen also caught a three-eyed fish near the local nuclear power plant. Unfortunately, it wasn't as cute as the one from The Simpsons.
6 The Horrible Ending Of Game Of Thrones
"The Serfsons" saw what the writers of Game of Thrones had in mind for Danaerys Targaryen two years before the iconic HBO show ended. A dragon burned down the whole town of Springfieldia - just like Danaerys' dragon set King's Landing on fire.
When fans first saw "The Serfsons", they didn't even think that it was foreshadowing what will actually happen in Game of Thrones. After all, Danaerys was a righteous and compassionate ruler, not a blood-thirsty dictator. The dragon burned down the buildings with an uncanny resemblance and so, Game of Thrones joined the list of shows that deserved a better ending.
5 Disney Bought 20th Century Fox
"When You Dish Upon a Star" came out in 1998. The Simpsons often had guest celebrities join an episode, and in this one, Homer met Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger after an accident at Lake Springfield. Their roles are considered among the best guest performances, but that's not the only reason why this episode went down as one of the most memorable ones.
In "When You Dish Upon A Star", Disney bought 20th Century Fox, an event that actually came true in 2017. Since then, The Simpsons are owned by Disney, so we could easily say that Lisa is just as much of a Disney princess as Cinderella.
4 The Ebola Outbreak
In the nineties, The Simpsons knew what we all know now: that pandemics are a huge concern to the entire mankind. What's more, they even predicted that it's going to be the Ebola virus that will come and pester us. In 1997, Marge wanted to read Bart a children's book, called "Curious George and the Ebola Virus".
The Ebola virus was first identified in 1976, but it wasn't until 2014 that the news of the outbreak shook the entire world.
3 Trump Became A President
"Bart to the Future" is the second episode of The Simpsons that was set in the future. It took us slightly further ahead than "Lisa's Wedding": Lisa just became the president of the United States, trying to solve the budget crisis left behind by the previous president, Donald Trump. But the real star of the episode was Bart: he turned out to be a mooch with no realistic prospects in life.
When Trump actually became president in 2016, the writer of the episode, Dan Greaney, had this to say about his prediction: "It was pitched because it was consistent with the vision of America going insane."
2 Lady Gaga's Halftime Show
It doesn't take a genius to predict that Lady Gaga would at some point be the star of the Superbowl halftime show. The Simpsons did more than that, though. In 2012, they didn't only accurately predict that Lady Gaga would indeed perform at Superbowl, but they got her performance down to a T.
Both in the show and in real life, Lady Gaga made a dramatic entrance: she came flying through air, dressed in a similar very similar outfit. It's true: life does indeed imitate art.
1 The Discovery Of The Mass Of The Higgs Boson
Homer might not be particularly shrewd or inventive, but he discovered the mass of the God particle 14 years before the actual scientists did in CERN. "The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace" came out in 1998. The mastermind behind Homer's equation is a mathematician who went on to create Futurama: David X. Cohen