4 ‘Simpsons’ Jokes That Came True in 2023
A lot of people seem to think that The Simpsons somehow has the ability to predict the future — as opposed to just having just been on the air for so long that a small portion of hundreds of hours of content eventually manifested in the real world.
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While we’re not saying that any of their writers have Miss Cleo-like powers, this year, we’ve noticed that a few real-life news items arguably reflected some classic Simpsons jokes, starting with how…
Elon Musk’s Cybertruck Is Basically Homer’s Car ‘The Homer’
In the second season episode “Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?” Homer reunites with his long-lost, Danny DeVito-voiced half-brother Herb Powell, a filthy rich auto company magnate. Seeing an opportunity to cater to the “average American,” Herb enlists Homer’s help designing the “car of the ’90s.” The result? “The Homer,” an unsightly, prohibitively expensive vehicle that destroys Herb’s entire livelihood.
If this sounds oddly relevant, that’s probably because it’s not so dissimilar to the story of Elon Musk’s Cybertruck, which is also an ugly, exorbitantly priced retrofuturist-style car designed to reflect one guy’s singular (and stupid) vision. But at least “The Homer” didn’t look like it was from a PlayStation 2 game about a DeLorean with a steroid addiction.
While it remains to be seen whether or not the Cybertruck sells better than The Homer, Musk echoed Herb’s fears in a recent call with investors, lamenting that Tesla dug their “own grave with the Cybertruck.” No, it doesn’t come with a horn that blasts “La Cucaracha,” but since Teslas allow for custom horn sounds, that option isn’t entirely off the table either.
Shia LaBeouf Got the Poochie Treatment in the Latest ‘Indiana Jones’ Movie
One of the most memed moments in Simpsons history came at the end of “The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show,” in which the unpopular canine cartoon character voiced by Homer is awkwardly written off of The Itchy & Scratchy Show, dying while en route to his home planet (as revealed in a handwritten card inserted into the broadcast).
This — minus the serial killer-esque note — is pretty much what happened to Shia Labeouf’s Indiana Jones character, Mutt Williams. The similarities run deeper than the doggy monikers; Mutt is also an in-your-face, proactive, cool guy character who wears a leather jacket and gets added to a pre-existing cast of characters.
And, following the less-than-stellar reception of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull — not to mention Shia LaBeouf’s general awfulness — in the recent Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Mutt was totally given the Poochie treatment. While he didn’t die while traveling to another planet, he did die a horrific death, which we only learn about in a brief moment of dialogue halfway through the film.
This isn’t too far off from my previous prediction that he would be “eaten by wolves offscreen between movies,” so one point for past-me.
ALF Really Did Come Back in Pog Form
When Bart sells his soul to Milhouse in the aptly-named episode “Bart Sells His Soul,” he discovers that his inner being is worth exactly how much it costs to buy a handful of Pogs depicting a forgotten puppet sitcom star.
“Remember ALF? He’s back, in Pog form” may seem like an especially funny thing to say today when Pogs and ALF are arguably even less popular than when the episode aired. But this past summer, ALF really was back. In Pog form.
To promote their ALF DVD collection, Shout Factory distributed “exclusive” ALF “milk caps” at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con.
You can still find some for sale on eBay, which, as far as we know, does not take children’s souls as payment.
Billionaires Actually Want to Block the Sun (For Non-Evil Reasons)
Prior to being shot by Maggie Simpson (spoilers for a contest you have no chance of winning now), C. Montgomery Burns pisses off the entire town of Springfield by implementing a device that blocks out the sun, forcing citizens to rely on Mr. Burns’ electricity for light and heat, which even Smithers finds “unconscionably fiendish.”
But some rich guys this year have genuinely been suggesting the use of sun-repelling technology — not as part of an evil scheme, but in order to combat climate change. Billionaire George Soros likely made every conspiracy theorist in America’s head explode when he endorsed “a controversial plan to shield the rapidly melting Arctic from the warmth of the sun.”
Instead of a giant mechanical disc, this plan would involve spraying “seawater into the atmosphere during the Arctic summer … creating tiny droplets of water vapor that could become sunlight-reflecting clouds.” Bill Gates has also supported similar geoengineering schemes, and this summer, a White House report indicated that they are “open to studying the possibility that altering sunlight might quickly cool the planet.” Or, as one Fox News guest put it, Joe Biden wants to “risk the entire planet” on “insane research.”
Although they stopped short of suggesting that the president will also be studying the effects of taking candy from babies…
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