Television is supposed to be entertainment.
And it's pretty deliciously entertaining when TV writers try to predict the future.
Sometimes they don't even mean to, but TV shows have called out world events long before
they've happened.
Here are eerie examples of some silly little TV shows that somehow knew what was going
to happen before the rest of us...
Chris Rock knew O.J. did it...Before O.J.
Did
In the first moments of the very first episode of The Chris Rock Show on HBO, Rock aired
a sketch about O.J. Simpson hawking a videotape called "I Didn't Kill My Wife, But If I Did,
Here's How I'd Do It."
It brutally mocked Simpson, acquitted for the murder of his ex-wife in 1995, but still
widely believed by the public to be guilty.
Amazingly, almost ten years later, Simpson imitated that sketch in real life, with an
almost exact same title, when he penned his book, If I Did It.
To promote it, he even taped a TV special called If I Did It, Here's How it Happened.
Ultimately, good taste prevailed, and neither were released.
Family Guy Predicts Caitlyn Jenner
In a brief, throwaway gag in an episode from 2009, baby Stewie Griffin casually tells Brian
the dog the truth about Bruce Jenner.
"Bruce Jenner is a woman.
An elegant, beautiful Dutch woman."
That was a full six years before Jenner announced that she now identifies as a woman and goes
by Caitlyn Jenner.
As far as we know, she still isn't Dutch.
An X-Files Spinoff Envisions 9/11
In 2001, the conspiracy theorist characters from The X-Files known as the Lone Gunmen
got their own short-lived series.
On the first episode, they uncovered a conspiracy about the U.S. government planning to crash
an airplane into the World Trade Center, blame it on foreigners, and then use the resultant
outcry to justify raising the defense budget.
Apart from real-life conspiracy theorists who believe the U.S. government was behind
the events of 9/11, it’s chilling that a TV show suggested the possibility of an airplane
flying into the Twin Towers only months before it actually occurred.
Quantum Leap And The 1996 Super Bowl
In a 1990 episode of Quantum Leap, Sam quantum leaped into the body of a high school football
player.
In keeping with the football theme of the episode, Sam's holographic advisor Al mentions
that he's watching the tail end of the 1996 Super Bowl.
"I been watching Super Bowl 30.
Oh Sam the Steelers are down by 3 you wouldn't believe-"
"Al this is the only game I care about."
That’s really how Super Bowl 30 in 1996 went down.
The Pittsburgh Steelers were in the game against the Dallas Cowboys, and in the fourth quarter,
the team really was down by 3.
"Oh boy"
The Simpsons Called It: President Trump
The Simpsons has a lot of episodes set in the future, but they’re usually just a vehicle
to make jokes about future technology.
For example, in an episode where Lisa is in college, robots are common but they catch
fire and melt whenever they feel human emotion.
In the same episode, Lisa calls Marge with video-phone technology.
And whilst we do have Skype and FaceTime, we're still waiting for our melting robots.
So take what you will from this prediction, first aired way back in 2000, when Lisa gets
elected president:
"As you know we've inherited quite a budget crunch from President Trump."
It's possible!
After all, The Simpsons has correctly predicted the actual outcomes of elections before...
"America!
Take a good look at your beloved candidates!
They're nothing but hideous space reptiles!"
(audience gasps)
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