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5 TIMES TV PREDICTED THE FUTURE

by Doğa Fadıllıoğlu

  1. “Scrubs” Predicted Where Osama Bin Laden Was Hiding

 

“Scrubs”, much like the medical-comedy series “Grey’s Anatomy”, is notorious for its cheeky and dark humor.

Not that long ago, Osama Bin Laden was the most wanted man in the

world. Governments were investigating his whereabouts for nearly a

decade. If only they knew the answer lied within an NBC comedy series.

 

In an episode published in 2006 (titled “His Story IV”), a character called J.D

aims to impress his friends on his knowledge on the war in Iraq. Then, a

janitor comes in and says that they should be looking for him in Pakistan.

 

We can’t exactly say that the Show gave us his exact coordinates, but

Pakistan was still not predictable for a terror leader to be hiding in.

 

5 years later, U.S forces officially documented that Osama Bin Laden had

been found in Pakistan.

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      2. “Black Mirror” Foresaw An Extremely Peculiar Event

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“Black Mirror” is a UK based science fiction series. One of the most interesting aspects of this show is that it demonstrates the reality of human dependence on technology and the extents it can be taken to. Episodes such as “Nosedive” where people rate one another convey similarities to some aspects of our society (rating one another on “Uber”).

 

Although this episode reveals the truth behind a scandal-hungry society, we wouldn’t have expected such a peculiar story to have somewhat of a replication in real life.

 

                                                                                                                    In the show’s pilot: “The National Anthem”, the Prime Minister is                                                                                                                      threatened to get intimate with a pig on live TV in order to save                                                                                                                      a Royal Family Member’s life. It was simply a satirized take on                                                                                                                        humanity.

 

                                                                                                                    Subsequently, in a biography published about David Cameron,                                                                                                                      it was stated that David Cameron may have done                                                                                                                                                unspeakable things to a pig in his college years.

 

                                                                                                                    Although in differing contexts, it’s safe to say that the series, at                                                                                                                      bare minimum, offered up an accurate prediction of what the                                                                                                                        fervour around such a grotesque story would look like.

         3. The Simpsons Prediction of Donald Trump’s Presidency

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Donald Trump’s presidency was a concept many Americans simply ignored due to the fact that it was unrealistic an improbable. Looking back 18 years, it seems as if the integration of Donald Trump as POTUS into a cartoon comedy series is extremely ironic.

 

In a 2000 episode (“Bart to the Future”), Bart finds out about his future where he’s apparently a failure. Lisa however, gets the chance to see that she has a lot coming for her. In fact, she reigns as the first female POTUS.

However, her predecessor is none other than Donald Trump, whose left Lisa with unbearable financial budgets to clean up.

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           4. Chris Rock Predicted O.J. Simpson’s Hypothetical Murder Confession

 

          On the 11th of March 2006, FOX released an interview with athlete O.J Simpson where he “hypothetically” confessed to the 1994 murders of ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and friend Ron Goldman. The event was subsequently turned into a ghostwritten book, “If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer” (2007).

           Before the network decided to finally air the interview, Chris Rock was already one step ahead.

           Chris Rock was an iconic comedy which aired between the years 1997-2000. The HBO production featured celebrity guests and brilliant takes on race, social norms and of course, O.J. Simpson jokes. For it’s pilot episode, Rock interviewed the late Johnny Cochran (O.J. Simpson’s lawyer) and included a bit about Simpson confessing the crimes by way of an instructional VHS release.

 

           “Hey, who can forget the time O.J. came by to sell his instructional video tape, I Didn’t Kill My Wife, But If I Did, Here’s How I’d Do It?” Crazy,” Rock joked.

 

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        5. Parks & Recreation Predicts Cubs World Series Win

 

In “Ron and Jammy,” an episode from the series’ seventh and final season, the gang visits Lucy in Chicago. It’s the summer of 2017, and as she leads them around the city, she mentions that everyone has been in a great mood since the Cubs won the World Series. The episode aired in 2015 -- more than a year before Chi-town's beleaguered baseball franchise finally broke its 108 year-long curse and brought home the Commissioner's Trophy. In fact, Lucy's comment first received laughs, since it was clear to most viewers at home that, given the Cubs’ century-long losing streak, they probably weren’t going to be hitting that milestone anytime soon.

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