The world’s oldest animated cartoon is thought to be Fantasmagorie, a stick figure animation
created by Émile Cohl in 1908.
Since Fantasmagorie, cartoons have evolved into a more sophisticated and popular form
of entertainment.
Over the years, people have come to know and love cartoon characters such as Bugs Bunny,
Scooby Doo, The Smurfs, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and SpongeBob Square Pants.
There are also animated series geared toward adults such as Family Guy and Samurai Jack.
With so much attention focused on the psychological effects of watching cartoons, one unusual
aspect of cartoons has been overlooked until recently.
Did you know that some cartoons have had the uncanny ability to forecast future technology
or future events?
We will look at some of these “psychic” animations in this episode of The Infographics
Show, “Top Ten Cartoon Predictions That Came True.”
10.
Laptop Computer
Inspector Gadget is an animated series about a bumbling part-human, part-machine detective.
The original 1980s version of the show foresaw the future when Inspector Gadget’s niece,
Penny, used what one article describes as a “’computer book’” that is similar
to a laptop computer.
The laptop computer “wasn’t a consumer product until later in the 1980s” according
to the article.
9.
Digital Maps
The laptop computer was not the only device predicted by Inspector Gadget.
One of the futuristic features of Penny’s computer book was its ability to map out the
location of a place on demand.
Digital maps obtained by a few computer keystrokes probably seemed far-fetched back in the 1980s,
but now we take Google Maps, MapQuest, and GPS for granted.
8.
Google Glass
One of the tools used by the characters in a popular anime series called Dragon Ball
Z is the DBZ Scouter, which looks similar to Google Glass.
Like Google Glass, the DBZ Scouter has “communication and tracking abilities” and a “camera
feature” according to an anime website.
Dragon Ball Z made its debut on Japanese television in 1989, but the development of Google Glass
did not begin until 2012.
7.
Stealing Cooking Grease for Profit
The Simpsons is a long-running satirical animated TV series.
One prescient episode of the show involved selling stolen cooking grease, which seemed
like a silly cartoon caper back in the 1990s but has become a growing crime problem in
reality.
A Consumerist article summarizes the fictional and real thefts:
Way back in 1998, in an episode titled “Lard of the Dance,” Homer and Bart Simpson became
grease bandits, draining local restaurants of their used fryer oil and reselling it for
a profit.
Two decades later, folks are still imitating these animated grease grabbers, stealing oil
from eateries and selling it to be refined into biodiesel.
6.
Nobel Prize Winner
Various news sources attribute an episode of The Simpsons called “Elementary School
Musical” with correctly predicting that MIT Professor Bengt Holmström would win the
Nobel Prize.
In this 2010 episode, Holmström’s name clearly appears as Milhouse’s choice for
the winner of the Nobel Prize for Economics on a betting pool scorecard.
According to one news report, Holmström eventually won the prize six years later with Oliver
Hart of Harvard.
5.
Black Market for Kentucky Fried Chicken
Who would have thought that a cartoon could accurately predict something as bizarre as
a black market for Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC)?
That is what a satirical animated sitcom called South Park did in its 2010 episode called
“Medicinal Fried Chicken.”
In this episode, South Park’s KFC is converted to a medicinal marijuana dispensary after
all KFCs are shut down.
This leads to “Colonel Sanders becoming a crime boss of a chicken-smuggling empire”
according to one entertainment website.
While a worldwide “chicken-smuggling empire” did not become a reality, a temporary black
market for KFC chicken emerged after a chicken shortage caused hundreds of KFCs in the United
Kingdom to shut down in 2018.
One UK newspaper reported that some people were gouging desperate customers by selling
KFC meals on eBay for around £100 or $131, and someone even tried to sell a KFC meal
for as high as £25,000 or $32,763.90!
4.
Carnival Triumph Disaster
South Park also correctly predicted what would become one of the worst PR disasters for Carnival
Cruise Lines.
According to one source, the show’s 2010 episode called “Crème Fraiche” featured
a news show reporting that “’passengers said that the Carnival Cruise Line smelled
like poop.’”
Three years later, Business Insider published an article called “DISASTER TIMELINE: How
Carnival Went From ‘Fun Ship’ To ‘Poop Cruise.’”
It reported that a Carnival Cruise Line ship called the Triumph became stranded at sea
for almost a week “due to an engine fire.”
Living conditions on board deteriorated because of the lack of electricity and running water,
and the ship “was given the nickname ‘poop cruise’ because passengers were forced to
use the bathroom in bags.”
The Triumph truly “smelled like poop” because the ship’s “hallways were flooded
with human waste.”
3.
Virtual Pop Star
Macross Plus is an original video animation (OVA) series that was released in 1994.
One of its main characters is a virtual pop star named Sharon Apple.
She is a hologram generated by artificial intelligence, although one source notes that
her voice and ability to “express emotions” are derived from her human manager, Myung
Fang Lone.
Fast forward to 2007, and we witness the beginnings of a virtual pop star in the form of Hatsune
Miku.
A Digital Trends article describes her as a “vocaloid,” which means she is a “voice
synthesizer program.”
Like Sharon Apple, Miku’s voice is derived from human voice samples.
In Miku’s case, the samples are from Japanese voice actress Saki Fujita.
For the price of a software license, musicians can use Miku’s image, name, and voice in
their music for profit.
In recent years, however, Hatsune Miku has become a successful performer in her own right
as a hologram based on her Vocaloid avatar image.
Described as a “’Japanese music sensation’” in an NBC News article, she will be performing
on stage in Europe this December.
2.
Flat Screen TVs
Originally airing from 1962 to 1963, The Jetsons featured a family living in a future world
filled with technology that was supposed to make their lives better and more comfortable
(at least when things did not malfunction or break).
An article about the Jetsons notes that it showcased a few high-tech items that are now
commonplace today.
One of them is the flat screen TV, which appeared in the first episode of The Jetsons when Jane
Jetson tries to follow an exercise workout broadcast on TV.
A year after the show ended, two University of Illinois professors, Donald Bitzer and
Gene Slottow, and their assistant Robert Wilson invented the first prototype flat screen TV.
It had a monochrome display, and “the resolution was very poor by modern standards” according
to one report.
The report further states that significant improvements were not made to the 1964 design
until decades later when a “Panasonic engineer named Larry Weber invented the present-day
version of the plasma TV,” which Panasonic started selling in 1997.
1.
Capsule Endoscopy Camera (PillCam)
The article about the Jetsons also notes that in an episode called “Test Pilot,” George
Jetson “swallows a tiny robotic pill called the Peekaboo Prober” as part of a physical
exam he had to get done for work.
As the probe traveled through his body, it performed “an internal checkup while displaying
the images of his insides on the screen.”
Today, we have the capsule endoscopy camera, which is a tiny imaging camera in the form
of a pill that can be swallowed.
The Mayo Clinic notes that the camera is used to “see inside your small intestine” and
can be used to diagnose a variety of health problems such as inflammatory bowel diseases,
cancer, and celiac disease.
The best-known capsule endoscopy camera is the PillCam SB capsule, which “has been
used close to 1.5 million times by more than 5,000 medical facilities in more than 75 countries”
since it was officially released in 2001 according to the European Patent Office.
Is there an eerily accurate cartoon prediction that we missed?
Let us know in the comments!
Also, be sure to check out our other video called Most Dangerous Hackers In The World!
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