‘The Simpsons’: Has this show finally stopped predicting the future?

The Simpsons, as many people can attest, has a habit of predicting the future. It predicted President Trump. It predicted Lady Gaga’s outfit for the Super Bowl halftime show. It has predicted Nobel Prize winners and Seifried & Roy getting attacked by their tigers. The Simpsons, anyone can tell you, has predicted pretty everything. Given how long it’s been on the air? It’s not a surprise.

After all, guesses or gags could turn into reality given enough time on television. The Simpsons habit of predicting the future may just be attributed to the show’s longevity. It’s 30+ seasons after all. So has the show stopped predicting the future in 2021? Or is The Simpsons still on its psychic hot streak? Well let’s take a look at how The Simpsons predicted things that have come to pass this year.

Richard Branson: In Space!

To be fair, we’re pretty sure that everyone knew that Richard Branson wanted to go to space. So, maybe, The Simpsons getting it right was a little less on the Nostradamus side of things and more of the “it was inevitable” side of things instead. Either way! Richard Branson has made it to space so we can give The Simpsons credit where credit is due here.

In the 2014 episode “The War of Art”, we see the animated billionaire floating in space while enjoying a painting. In a video of Branson’s own IRL trip to the edge of the atmosphere, you can see Branson enjoying zero g’s while in space on Virgin Galactic. Though, again, Branson founded Virgin Galactic back in 2004 so while it happened, this was more an inevitability. 

Tom Hanks here

For this one, we’re going to the one & only feature film for The Simpsons: The Simpsons Movie. Tom Hanks makes a cameo for a “new Grand Canyon” with the greeting: “Hello! I’m Tom Hanks. The US government has lost its credibility so it’s borrowing some of mine.” This was back in 2007 when we were on the cusp of getting Obama elected and we believed that anything was possible.

Fast forward to 2021, the United States government does borrow some of Tom Hanks’ credibility when he hosts an inauguration special for President Joe Biden. After what happened with the former President, many people felt like The Simpsons predicted the government’s need to get Tom Hanks in front of the cameras. Because who doesn’t trust Tom Hanks? 

Inheriting the post-Trump presidency

Many people point to this as The Simpsons predicting that former President Donald Trump getting elected back in 2016. In the episode “Bart to the Future”, The Simpsons also ended up predicting the situation that President Joe Biden would inherit from his predecessor. In the episode, President Lisa Simpson says that they “inherited quite a budget crunch from President Trump”. 

That’s also true for President Biden, who inherited a greater debt from the former President along with other issues as well. In a funnier note, the episode also predicted Kamala Harris’ inauguration outfit. Lisa wears a similar purple & pearls combo in her Presidency day-to-day wear. You have to admit it’s pretty weird how similar they look. Did the designer watch The Simpsons for some inspiration? 

The Capitol Hill riots

In “Treehouse of Horror XXXI”, Homer ends up sleeping through the 2020 election to wake up on Inauguration Day 2021. He finds that during his very, very long nap that complete and utter chaos has erupted. While the riots took place on Jan. 6, we have to admit that pandemonium near Inauguration Day is close enough to a prediction in our book. 

Maybe chill out with the future vision there, Simpsons writers.