Tag: Times

22 Times 'The Simpsons' Accurately Predicted The Future

If you’ve been a longtime viewer of The Simpsons, then you know that the writers they pick for the show are basically clairvoyant.

Now maybe you can just chalk it up to humanity being predictably ridiculous, or the fact that the show’s been around forever, so the writers are bound to cover everything that’s going to happen in the scope of past, present, and future history, but there are some seriously impressive social phenomenons that the show’s got right on the nose. 

Here are some of the craziest ones. 

01

Siegfried and Roy being attacked by their tigers.

S05E10: “$ pringfield” aired in 1993, in 2003 the garish entertainment duo encountered called it quits after Roy was mauled by the tiger and left part-paralyzed. 

02

Lady Gaga’s Super Bowl halftime show.

S23E22: “Lisa Goes Gaga” in 2012 predicted the pop sensation would be rocking the Super Bowl festivities mid-game. In 2017, she did just that. 

03

Trump getting elected President.

S11E17: “Bart to the Future” made a joke of a dystopian future where Donald Trump somehow was elected President. 16 years later and that ridiculousness actually came to pass. 

04

Mutant tomatoes.

S11E5: “E-I-E-I-D’oh!” debuted in 1999, and 14 years later, mutant tomatoes started popping up in Japan in wake of the Fukushima disaster. 

05

Autocorrect frustrations.

S6E19: “Lisa’s Wedding” came out way back in 1995. In the episode, Lisa and Marge talk with a phone that has video capabilities and lo and behold, an annoying autocorrect feature. Sound familiar? 

06

Broken voter machine.

S20E4: “Treehouse of Horror XIX” came out in 2008. Then in 2012, the exact same thing happened. 

07

The discovery of “The God Particle”.

S10E2: “The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace” came out in 1998 and it features Homer at a blackboard with an equation written on it. That equation predicted the mass of an undiscovered particle: the Higgs Boson, or “God Particle” that ended up being a huge scientific breakthrough. 

08

The inexplicable theft of a lemon tree.

S6E24: “Lemon of Troy” aired in 1995. The episode featured residents of rival town, Shelbyville, stealing a lemon tree from Springfield. Life imitated art when a lemon tree was uprooted, for no reason, in the same exact fashion, in 2013. 

09

The NSA Spying Scandal.

The Simpsons Movie in 2007 depicted the NSA as this huge organization spying on all American citizens. Now it might’ve seemed like hyperbole back then, but it turns out they got it pretty much right. 

10

Lisa’s fiance from the future talking into his watch.

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S6E19: “Lisa’s Wedding” debuted in 1995, and now we’ve got a wave of smartwatches that do all sorts of crazy stuff. 

11

TV Evangelists worshipping money.

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S7E12: “Team Homer” shows TV preachers being obsessed with worshipping money. Then Pope Francis said this in 2013. 

12

America’s Ebola “outbreak”.

S9E3: “Lisa’s Sax” shows Marge reading Curious George and the Ebola Virus in 1997. In 2014, America was very, very afraid of Ebola. 

13

Horse meat as a “secret” ingredient.

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S5E19: “Sweet Seymour Skinner’s Baadasssss Song” aired in 1994, featuring the lunch lady putting horse meat in children’s lunches. In 2013, a bunch of popular food products were found to have horse meat in them.  

14

FIFA’s corruption.

 S25E16: “You Don’t Have To Live Like A Referee” aired in 2014 featuring a character who bore an eerie resemblance to the same officials arrested on corruption charges. 

15

Hamburger earmuffs.

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S10E2: “The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace” featured this weird fashion trend in 1998 well before this product hit the market in 2010. 

16

Greece’s economic collapse.

S23E10: “Politically Inept, with Homer Simpson” aired in 2012 and cracked a joke about Greece being put up on eBay. In 2015, Greece went into default. 

17

Ringo taking 20 years to write back to his fans.

S2E18: “Brush with Greatness” had Ringo say he’ll write back to each and every one of his fans, even if takes him “20 years”. In 2013, Paul McCartney of the Beatles responded to a fan’s mail 50 years later. 

18

Predicting someone would win the nobel prize six years before they did.

S22E1: “Elementary School Music” aired in 2010, saying that an MIT Professor would win a Nobel prize, which he did, in 2016. 

19

Future Lisa’s college librarian was a robot.

S6E19: “Lisa’s Wedding” debuted in 1995. Her college’s librarian was a robot, and, well, we now have robotic libraries. So there. 

20

Baby translator.

S3E24: “Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes?” came out in 1992. The episode featured a baby translator that could let you know what your infant is saying. Now, there’s an app that recognizes the type of cry your baby is giving you. 

21

Disney buys out Fox.

 S10E5: “When You Dish Upon A Star”, nearly 20 years before Disney bought out Fox, predicted the animation studio giant would own 20th Century Fox in 1998. In 2017, Disney purchased Fox for $ 66.1 billion. 

22

Homer sells cooking grease for money.

S10E1: “Lard of the Dance” came out in 1998 where Homer has a get-rich-quick scheme stealing and selling grease. In 2013, thieves were found smuggling grease for pretty much the exact same reason. 

What I want to know is why the writers of The Simpsons aren’t using their future prediction powers for good. Or maybe there’s a secret organization that’s forcing them to deliver their message in cartoon-joke form, so no one takes it seriously? Illuminati. 

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Man Goes On Twitter Rant About Trump's Recent New York Times Interview—And We Agree

Arguing on the internet is oftentimes about as useful as peeing against the wind. Sure, you might really need to get it out, but it almost always ends up spraying back in your face.

People’s opinions rarely change no matter how much evidence you bring to them. No matter how many good points you make, no matter how many other issues you present that are way more important to focus on than the inconsequential, often sensationalized issues they choose to focus on – you won’t change someone’s mind on the internet.

Oftentimes, merely criticizing someone’s point or questioning them will have them cry “persecution” and that you’re being unfair to them. It’s a trait tons of dictatorial regimes have utilized in discrediting media agencies for catching them in lies and exposing the weak points in their propaganda.

Trump’s popularized the term “fake news” and used it as a blanket statement to try and discredit any news agency that questions and disproves many of the President’s erroneous claims. 

The divisive nature of Trump’s election has left people with very strong opinions on how the press should treat him. However, the objective of traditional press has always been to provide factual evidence and question individuals on the facts. The media in America was expected to be a watchdog of the government to keep our elected officials honest, since the earliest days of our democracy.

Washington Star correspondent Daniel Dale offered an interesting take on the role journalists should take when interviewing Donald Trump and politicians like him who constantly lie in a manner that doesn’t destroy the entire q & a.

Dale stresses professionalism and politeness.

It’s much more powerful to allow a lying politician, President or not, acknowledge their lie in a follow up answer and just carry on with the interview.

He also highlighted the difference between interview and print lies.

It’s all about maintaining composure.

He stressed that basic questioning is a journalist’s job, there’s nothing “gotcha” about it.

Ultimately, Dale just wanted to highlight the correct way to interview someone like Trump who has a penchant for making wild claims without evidence in his q & a’s.

Some people responded to the thread by pointing out some of the worst lies Trump’s told in his interviews.

And how journalists let him get away with it.

Do you feel like the media needs to be tougher on Trump? Or is it a losing battle at this point?

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17 Times Tumblr Had Too Much Fun With Benedict Cumberbatch's Name

Benedict Cumberbatch isn’t just a great actor, he has a great name. Sure, it’s a bunch of different syllables and it sounds like something out of a quirky British novel set in Victorian times. He has the name of a guy that the girl in the story is engaged to but doesn’t really love, he’s just a good “match” for her.

Trust me, as someone with an unusual name myself, I get the flak that Cumberbatch gets for his moniker.

But that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy all the ribs he gets on the internet for being blessed with such an original name. And neither does Tumblr. So they’ve started a little game that the rest of the internet’s adopted of making fun of his name in the most absurd ways.

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