Key Points
- The Simpsons has foreseen global events such as the Trump presidency and advancements in space tourism
- Episodes predicted climate issues and the global threat of AI, with Lisa Simpson as an early advocate for environmental awareness
- Iconic episodes like ‘Marge vs. the Monorail’ reflect economic mismanagement, resonating with 2025’s financial struggles
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The Simpsons, created by Matt Groening, has long been credited as foreseeing world events, from uniquely specific incidents to broader themes.
Most notably, in an episode 16 years before it happened, writer Dan Greaney predicted the Trump presidency in Bart to the Future.
And in episodes spanning back decades, writers for the show have explored topics like the advancement of technology and the impact of climate change, which ring true years later.
On these unnerving coincidences, showrunner Matt Selman told People: ‘The sourpuss answer I always give that no one likes is that if you study history and math, it would be literally impossible for us not to predict things.
‘If you say enough things, some of them are going to overlap with reality, and then that’s the math element.
‘And then, the history element is if you make a show that is based on studying the past foolishness of humanity, you are surely going to anticipate the future foolishness of humanity as it sinks further into foolishness fair.’
So what has the long-running cartoon got right about 2025?
Commercialisation of space
A moment in 2025 that will undoubtedly crop up in many end-of-year quizzes is the all-female Blue Origin space mission that sent Katy Perry, Lauren Sanchez, Gayle King, Amanda Nguyen, Kerianne Flynn, and Aisha Bowe into space.
While The Simpsons might not have predicted the unique line-up of women that made it into orbit, they did predict the concept of space tourism and media spectacles to promote intergalactic travel.
In the episode Deep Space Homer which aired in 1994, Homer is sent into space by NASA to help boost the public’s interest in the topic. It suggests anyone can become an astronaut for the purpose of a publicity stunt – sounding familiar?
The threat of AI
In an iconic 1994 episode of The Simpsons, Itchy & Scratchy Land, the family is seen trying to physically escape a group of encroaching robots who have malfunctioned and started attacking humans.
This might have seemed purely fantastical at the time, but cut to 2025, and AI is posing a threat to jobs worldwide and replacing much human interaction.
And there are countless cases that prove it’s not to be trusted by misleading users on facts and information, which has the potential to cause harm.
Climate doom
Unfortunately, 2025 has been a year of rising temperatures, flash flooding, and unpredictable weather events.
While this might seem depressingly normal for us now, it was less common during earlier series of The Simpsons, but as you can imagine, the show has predicted our planet’s demise for a while now.
In a 2009 episode, The Good, the Sad, and the Drugly, Lisa makes an impassioned speech to her classmates after finding articles online predicting that global warming will leave nothing of their well-loved hometown, Springfield.
Years before schoolgirl Greta Thunberg was shouting about the dangers of climate change, Lisa was leading the way and even diagnosed with Environment-Related Despair – which might now be called climate anxiety.
Recession and financial woes
Marge vs. the Monorail, from 1993, is a tale of economic doom, as the town’s mismanagement of funds results in the investment of a monorail, which fails.
Taking risks with public money, poor decision-making and overspending, leading to widespread chaos and instability, isn’t such a fiction in 2025.
Many countries are experiencing difficult financial challenges, blamed in part on the decisions made by their predecessors, and civilians are feeling the consequences.
Down to the food we eat
While plant-based menus are now widely common, back in 1995, the concept of vegetarianism was perplexing for many.
But Lisa embraced it in the mid-nineties episode Lisa the Vegetarian. After visiting a petting zoo and becoming attached to a lamb, the 8-year-old refused to eat meat, much to the confusion of her family and friends.
Fast-forward to the present day, and the way we consume food has become one of the most talked-about topics in relation to climate change and animal welfare.
Cue Lisa proving to be a trailblazer once more.
The Simpsons is available to watch on Disney+ and Channel 4.
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