5 Simpsons Episodes Whose Predictions Totally Missed the Mark

“The Simpsons” has built its legacy on several fronts: blisteringly sharp comedy, a widely celebrated golden age spanning roughly Seasons 3 through 8, and a run so long it has become one of television’s most enduring institutions. Yet one of the strangest parts of its reputation is something even creator Matt Groening likely never expected — the show’s uncanny habit of seeming to predict real-world events.

The most famous example remains the 2000 episode “Bart to the Future,” in which Lisa Simpson (Yeardley Smith) is shown as President of the United States and refers to a budget crisis left behind by President Donald Trump. Ever since, viewers have pointed to moments where “The Simpsons” appeared to mirror later headlines. The truth, of course, is far less supernatural: there are no time travelers hiding in the writers’ room. A series with more than 800 episodes is simply bound to brush up against reality now and then.

For every eerie coincidence, there are plenty of “Simpsons” jokes about the future that never came true. Sometimes the show is not revealing destiny — it is just telling a joke. Then again, perhaps we simply have not waited long enough for “The Simpsons” to eventually call every event that has happened, or ever will.

A great example comes from the endlessly rewatchable “Lemon of Troy.” In one memorable sequence, Bart (Nancy Cartwright) flees from a group of Shelbyville kids and winds up facing a row of doors marked with Roman numerals. Door VII leads to safety, while the others hide man-eating tigers. Since Bart ignored an earlier lesson on Roman numerals, he solves the problem in the most Bart-like way possible: by using “Rocky” titles. “‘Rocky V’ plus ‘Rocky II’ equals ‘Rocky VII: Adrian’s Revenge!'” he declares.

When “Lemon of Troy” aired in 1995, the “Rocky” franchise had only reached five films, so the gag was clearly a playful leap into an imaginary sequel. The subtitle “Adrian’s Revenge” is especially funny because Adrian (Talia Shire) had long been Rocky Balboa’s (Sylvester Stallone) devoted girlfriend and later wife. It invites a ridiculous scenario in which the couple somehow falls apart in “Rocky VI,” setting up Adrian to challenge Rocky herself by the time “Rocky VII” rolls around.

Instead, the “Rocky” franchise took Adrian in a far darker direction. She passes away before the events of 2006’s “Rocky Balboa” due to cancer. The seventh part of the “Rocky” franchise was actually “Creed,” which functioned as a soft reboot of sorts to turn the attention away from Rocky and toward Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan). Legacy sequels weren’t really a thing in the 1990s, so “The Simpsons” writers can be forgiven for being unable to see how that could wind up being the true “Rocky VII.”

In Season 3’s “Bart the Murderer,” the police enlist the help of a psychic, Princess Opal (Jo Ann Harris), to locate Principal Skinner (Harry Shearer). She’s not much help, but she has a few pop culture references that never came to pass. Unfortunately, Willie Nelson never swam the English Channel, but no one was really thinking that could happen. She also predicts, “I’m afraid it’s splitsville for Delta Burke and Major Dad.”

Predicting that a celebrity couple will break up should’ve been a slam dunk, but in a hilarious twist of fate, both Burke and “Major Dad” actor Gerald McRaney are still together to this day (as of this writing in September 2026). The two met in the mid-1980s but finally wed in 1989. During this time, Burke starred in the sitcom “Designing Women,” while McRaney had the titular role on “Major Dad” from 1989 to 1993.

“Bart the Murderer” aired in 1991, so the writers probably assumed they were safe in predicting the two actors would split in the near future. But astonishingly, the two stayed together for the next several decades. While it’s technically a prediction that didn’t come true, it actually makes the joke even funnier that Princess Opal is, in fact, a terrible psychic who couldn’t get anything right.

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“Lisa’s Wedding” is a flash forward episode to when Lisa almost marries a proper British gentleman. As such, the episode has numerous predictions for the future, some of which kind of came true. There are video-based phone machines that resemble FaceTime; and Hugh Parkfield (Mandy Patinkin, an actor you forgot guest starred on “The Simpsons”) speaks into a phone-watch as though it were a modern smartwatch. Naturally, not everything came true. The British still haven’t saved the United States from World War III (yet); but, on a lighter note, we never got 1,500-channel cable tubes connecting TV sets to all kinds of programming.

When Homer (Dan Castellaneta) takes Hugh to Moe’s, there’s a giant cable attached to the TV. This was a joke about how there were coming to be so many cable channels that, pretty soon, there would be thousands of them. As it turns out, the entertainment industry took a different route. In lieu of expanding cable channels, studios pivoted toward streaming services. Now, you can watch whatever show or movie you want, provided it’s in the streamer’s catalog.

However, there’s another prediction within this scene that we pray doesn’t come to fruition. Homer and Hugh are watching a newscast from CNNBCBS: A Division of ABC. This pokes fun at how media companies often merge, monopolizing and cannibalizing one another. The only thing more horrifying than having 1,500 cable channels is if they’re all owned by one single company.

“Bart to the Future” has the infamous Donald Trump prediction mentioned earlier, but not everything in that story ended up being true. Early in the episode, Bart goes to Ned Flanders (Harry Shearer) to borrow money, and he’s blind. “I never should have had that trendy laser surgery,” he said. “It was great at first, but, you know, at the 10-year mark, your eyes fall out.”

Apparently, this is a common occurrence within “The Simpsons” universe, where anyone who had laser eye surgery loses their eyes after 10 years. It makes sense for “The Simpsons” to make fun of it. Laser eye surgery went in vogue in the late 1990s and early 2000s, right around when this episode came out. Having someone shoot lasers at your eyes is a delicate proposition, and there just wasn’t enough data in the ’90s about any potential long-term side effects.

It has now been several decades since “Bart to the Future” came out, and we don’t have people’s eyes falling out en masse. Long-term side effects from the procedure are rare, although they have been known to happen. But overall, it’s something that’s helped a ton of people; and if you think you could benefit, it’s vital to speak to a doctor. Don’t let a one-off joke from “The Simpsons” make you afraid to improve your life.

Sticking with “Bart to the Future,” there’s a prediction “The Simpsons” made that still hasn’t come to fruition. Of course, Lisa Simpson is sworn in as President of the United States in that episode, immediately following up President Donald Trump’s term. But, as of this writing, the U.S. still has never had a female president.

If anything, “The Simpsons” was far more optimistic, since Lisa has a line about being honored to be “America’s first straight female president.” That means she’s at least the second female president, while we haven’t even gotten one in the real world — and many people were optimistic that a certain detail would prove fortuitous. During former President Joe Biden’s inauguration in 2021, then-Vice President Kamala Harris was wearing a purple outfit similar to what Lisa wears in the episode. Some thought that might’ve been a sign of things to come when Harris ran for president in 2024. But it turned out to be one election prediction “The Simpsons” failed to get right.

It’s possible this prediction could still come to pass. A woman follows up Trump’s term, so perhaps we’ll finally get a female president in 2028. That would be an appropriate year, given that “Bart to the Future” came out in 2000 and shows Bart what his life will be like 30 years in the future. In 2030, there may very well be a female president — and maybe we’ll also find Abraham Lincoln’s gold by that time, too.