Narrative Nostradamus: The Simpsons May 'Predict' The Future But They Weren't The First

After our previous two-parter on Israel, Palestine, and the global reaction to their conflict throughout history, we here at HR&R figured it might be nice to publish something a little bit on the lighter side. So, welcome to an article about The Simpsons. Though the long-running television show is best known for its humor, in recent years it has also been lauded as a sort of cartoon Cassandra, especially after it predicted that Donald Trump would become President of the United States.  

Outlets as esteemed as The Washington Post and The New York Times have all written about the viral phenomenon, and The Hollywood Reporter even wrote about “31 times” the show has supposedly foretold events. 

For example, one plot line seemed to predict the massive FIFA soccer scandal almost a decade ago:

“The Simpsons’ take on the World Cup involves Homer being brought into the world of refereeing, mainly due to the FIFA organization having a shortage from massive corruption. Though he gets the temptation, he decides to call the big game fairly, leading to Germany winning the World Cup. The show enjoyed a one-two punch (or kick) of precognition. First, Germany did end up winning the title that same year. But what followed in 2015 was not as joyous, as FIFA headquarters was raided by police amid accusations of bribery, fraud and money laundering.”

Another instance was when the show featured a duo named “Gunter and Ernst” who performed with a tiger named Anastasia; the reference was a not-so-subtle one to Siegfried and Roy. In the television show, Anastasia attacks the pair, and ten years later, the same thing happened when the performing tiger mauled Roy onstage.

The show famously predicted the Super Bowl winners in 1992, 1993, 1994 (the creators decided to stop with the prophecies after this winning streak). It predicted Disney would purchase Fox and that Lady Gaga would perform at the Super Bowl.

But one of the most “remarkable,” prophecies, as deemed by The New York Times, was when the cartoon supposedly predicted 9/11. In an episode filled with jokes about the World Trade Center, Bart picks up a brochure. The price is $9.00, and beside the digit are the twin towers. “So they look like an 11, and it looks like a 9/11. That one is a completely bizarre, strange thing,” noted Al Jean, one of the show’s original writers.

A screenshot from the episode

But this isn’t the first time fiction has preceded history.

In 1884, four men from a ship called the Mignonette found themselves shipwrecked on the open seas while trying to navigate around the Cape of Good Hope. After three weeks, two of the men decided to resort to cannibalism, and killed and ate the 17-year-old cabin boy, named Richard Parker. This infamous incident is known as the R v Dudley and Stephens case.

Almost 50 years earlier, in 1838, Edgar Allan Poe published his only novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. It is a somewhat meandering tale, which Poe himself deemed “silly,” but one major plot-point of the book is when the main character, along with a group of whalers, gets stranded at sea. Facing desperation, they decide to resort to cannibalism, and the name of the unlucky victim was none-other than Richard Parker. 

But that isn’t the only example.

Fiction’s Futility (Literally)

On a clear, chilly April night, the largest vessel ever constructed, stretching 800 feet long and displacing 45,000 tons, sailed smoothly through the water. Heralded by all as an “unsinkable” ship, it carried approximately 2,500 passengers along the Northern Atlantic as they peacefully slept.

Suddenly, the ship struck an iceberg on its starboard side while traveling at 25 knots. The vessel began to sink – revealing a new crisis: not enough lifeboats. After all, the boat was supposedly unsinkable! The ship sank quickly, and unfortunately the majority of its passengers drowned. 

Sound familiar? It should – the above almost perfectly describes the Titanic. But that is pure coincidence; the above paragraph was actually a description of Morgan Robertson’s novel The Wreck of the Titan (it was also published under the name Futility).

Published fourteen years before the Titanic set sail, the book serves as an eerie blueprint for the maritime tragedy, even down to the ship’s name: the Titan. The story follows John Rowland, an alcoholic and disgraced former Naval officer, who takes a job aboard the Titan, the world’s largest vessel, as it navigates across the Atlantic only to strike an iceberg and sink, leaving thousands to die.

A quick perusal of the book gives even more similarities: it was the longest ship in the world, it was the fastest ship in the world, it had two orchestras, and its route was between Ireland and New York (albeit reversed). For those interested, here is a link to read the PDF – even reading the first few paragraphs is worth it in this author’s opinion.

It isn’t just the plot that is similar. As noted by All That’s Interesting, the technical characteristics of the boats and their voyages are also strangely similar. For example, the Titan was 800 feet long, while the Titanic was 882 feet. The Titan hit the iceberg at 25 knots, and the Titanic at 22.5 knots. The Titan carried 2,500 passengers, whereas the Titanic carried 2,200, though both had a capacity of 3,000.

Both ships were British-owned, struck an iceberg on their starboard bow around midnight, and sank in the North Atlantic exactly 400 nautical miles from Newfoundland. They both suffered from a severe lack of lifeboats, with the Titan carrying 24 and the Titanic just 20. Additionally, both ships featured a triple screw propeller.

There were some differences; in the novella, there were only 13 survivors, while the number of survivors from the Titanic numbered 705. The Titan also capsized, while the Titanic split in two. Also, there were additional plot points in the fictional version, which included hidden corruption, a love story, and the hero of the story killing a polar bear on an ice cap, which we can safely assume did not happen in real life. But the number of similarities was far greater.

About the Author(s)

Some of the predictions identified in The Simpsons and The Wreck of the Titan can certainly be ascribed to common sense. For example, the route of the Titan and the Titanic was the most direct one between the United States and England. It is not surprising that both the actual and fictional ship would take it. In addition, with a large supply of stories – whether it be books about shipwrecks or decades of plot-lines on a television show – there are bound to be some that also take place in real life.

However, it should be noted that – in these two cases –  both the author of The Titan and the writers of The Simpsons have backgrounds that perhaps tilted the odds in favor of predicting the future. In the case of The Wreck of the Titan, Robertson insisted that his work was the product of experience and research of maritime trends. The author had a long history at sea; his father was a ship captain and he grew up as a cabin boy before becoming a sailor himself.

Regarding The Simpsons, an astonishing number of writers have impressive backgrounds in math and science. As reported by The Guardian, “Al Jean, who worked on the first series and is now executive producer, went to Harvard University to study mathematics at the age of just 16. Others have similarly impressive degrees in maths, a few can even boast PhDs, and Jeff Westbrook resigned from a senior research post at Yale University to write scripts for Homer, Marge and the other residents of Springfield.” Another writer, Mike Reiss, was a “teenage mathematics prodigy” and a fourth, David S. Cohen, joined the writing team after earning a masters degree in computer science at the University of California, Berkeley.

Though a degree in math is hardly the secret to clairvoyance, it is possible that the writers are more attuned to spotting patterns in politics and current events due to their academic backgrounds. 

The Epilogue

This author confesses that she finds examples of fiction preceding reality fascinating – but perhaps that is because it relies on the same themes as this Substack. At the end of the day, fiction often delves into fundamental aspects of human nature and societal behavior, which tend to remain consistent over time. Writers explore themes like ambition, disaster, technological advancement, and conflict, which are recurrent in human history, as we hopefully demonstrate each week.