"Let’s be real, the recent attack on the Capitol took a toll on all of us. It’s not a thing in-and-of-itself to make light about, but I’m going to take this article and try to bring some humor to these somber times. So with that out of the way, did the Simpsons really predict the capitol riot?" -- Declan mcmahon, 8th grade
Let’s be real, the recent attack on the Capitol took a toll on all of us. It’s not a thing in-and-of-itself to make light about, but I’m going to take this article and try to bring some humor to these somber times. So with that out of the way, did the Simpsons really predict the capitol riot?
It started a day after the riots themselves, when many people, relatively simultaneously posted a clip from the Simpsons S7 E18 episode “The Day the Violence Died.” In this episode, Bart meets a homeless man by the name of Chester J. Lampwick. Lampwick tells Bart that he created Itchy and Scratchy, a popular segment on the Krusty the Clown Show in which a mouse brutally abuses a cat (some believe it to be a twisted parody of Tom and Jerry). Knowing how popular Itchy and Scratchy is with children, Bart and Lisa help Chester J. Lampwick sue the production company. Lampwick wins and is awarded 800 billion dollars, forcing the production company to close down. This results in Krusty the Clown having to replace the segment with something educational.
This is where the prediction comes in, in a parody of Schoolhouse Rock!’s “I’m Just a Bill,” the segment “I’m an Amendment to Be” shows a proposed amendment on the steps of Congress. They make it clear that this amendment will make many forms of violence more legal. In the end, a man runs out of the capitol saying to the amendment “You’ve been ratified! You’re in the U.S. Constitution!” and the amendment shouts “Doors open boys!” and men with guns rush up the steps and into the capitol, firing all the way. Anticlimactic, I know. Honestly I wasn’t sure about all the hubbub for that one moment, but it had me thinking… what else have they predicted?
It started a day after the riots themselves, when many people, relatively simultaneously posted a clip from the Simpsons S7 E18 episode “The Day the Violence Died.” In this episode, Bart meets a homeless man by the name of Chester J. Lampwick. Lampwick tells Bart that he created Itchy and Scratchy, a popular segment on the Krusty the Clown Show in which a mouse brutally abuses a cat (some believe it to be a twisted parody of Tom and Jerry). Knowing how popular Itchy and Scratchy is with children, Bart and Lisa help Chester J. Lampwick sue the production company. Lampwick wins and is awarded 800 billion dollars, forcing the production company to close down. This results in Krusty the Clown having to replace the segment with something educational.
This is where the prediction comes in, in a parody of Schoolhouse Rock!’s “I’m Just a Bill,” the segment “I’m an Amendment to Be” shows a proposed amendment on the steps of Congress. They make it clear that this amendment will make many forms of violence more legal. In the end, a man runs out of the capitol saying to the amendment “You’ve been ratified! You’re in the U.S. Constitution!” and the amendment shouts “Doors open boys!” and men with guns rush up the steps and into the capitol, firing all the way. Anticlimactic, I know. Honestly I wasn’t sure about all the hubbub for that one moment, but it had me thinking… what else have they predicted?
Over the years there have been many episodes of The Simpsons that “predicted” the future. Probably the most known is the Lady Gaga Super Bowl Halftime Show stunt prediction. In S23 E22, “Lisa Goes Gaga,” Lady Gaga’s tour bus travels through Springfield, the Simpsons’ hometown, and notices Lisa Simpson. Gaga thinks Lisa’s too depressed, and instead of going where she was supposed to for her show, she stays and tries to cheer up the notably depressed town of Springfield, especially Lisa. In one of the scenes in this episode, Gaga descends from a helicopter by a harness, remarkably to her entrance at the 51st Super Bowl just five years later, where she descended from the roof of the stadium by a harness
Another notable “prediction” was Homer’s discovery of the Higgs boson particle, scientists spent decades searching for this elusive particle that exists everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Honestly, I don’t understand it, but particle physicist Simon Singh does. “That equation predicts the mass of the Higgs boson. If you work it out, you get the mass of a Higgs boson that’s only a bit larger than the nano-mass of a Higgs boson actually is. It’s kind of amazing as Homer makes this prediction 14 years before it was discovered, Singh says in his 2015 book, The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets. The title is in reference to an equation Homer writes on a chalkboard when he becomes an inventor in the S10 E2 episode “The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace.”
Perhaps everyone’s favorite, the prediction of Donald Trump’s presidency. In S11 E17 “Bart to the Future,” the Simpsons stop at an Indian Casino. Though kids aren’t allowed, Bart manages to sneak in. Inevitably he gets caught by the casino guards and is sent to the casino manager’s office. In the office, the manager shows him a few visions of the future. One of the visions includes Lisa’s presidency. It doesn’t specify what year she will become president, but there are multiple people saying “now that you’re the president,” which implies that she just began her term. As she talks to her aides, she mentions in passing the “budget crunch”, that the country inherited from President Trump. Keep in mind that this episode was released in 2000, before Trump even had any public inklings of running for president. Although it’s just mentioned in passing, it’s pretty mind-blowing. If this isn’t proof that the Simpsons writers have a time machine, I don’t know what is.
“Bart to the Future” regained notoriety just last Wednesday (at the time of publishing), the day of President Biden’s inauguration on January 20th, 2020. Kamala Harris, the Vice President, wore a purple coat and dress, with a lilac shirt, a pearl necklace (a nod to her sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha), and single-pearl earrings. It’s uncannily close to what Lisa Simpson was wearing on (what seems to be) the first day of her presidency. It’s quite chilling, actually.
“Bart to the Future” regained notoriety just last Wednesday (at the time of publishing), the day of President Biden’s inauguration on January 20th, 2020. Kamala Harris, the Vice President, wore a purple coat and dress, with a lilac shirt, a pearl necklace (a nod to her sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha), and single-pearl earrings. It’s uncannily close to what Lisa Simpson was wearing on (what seems to be) the first day of her presidency. It’s quite chilling, actually.
Those were the most concrete and surprising ones, but here are some honorable mentions.
- The Coronavirus - sort of [S4 E21]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFM_2KdvHEQ
- Murder Hornets [S4 E21]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aU1Nf7rEf-k (watch until 1:07 on 2x speed)
- Disney’s Purchase of Fox [S10 E5]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSzNStVOjtA
- 2016 Nobel Prize Prediction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y13PjuMrreE (look carefully at Milhouse’s betting pool when Martin holds up the betting sheet. Milhouse bets Bengst R Holmström will win, which he did 6 years after the premiere of the episode)
- Arnold Palmer’s Death: In an episode that premiered only hours before the famous golfer Arnold Palmer died, the Simpsons premiered an episode where Homer fills up a water gun with the drink named after the golfer, a mix of iced tea, and lemonade.
- Yard work VR, Ringo Starr’s late fan mail replies, smartwatches, the list goes on.
Does any of this really prove that the Simpsons writers somehow know the future? Well, that’s for you to decide, but to me, it seems pretty uncanny...