The Simpsons, known for its eerie prophecies, is warning of more doom and gloom in the new year.
In 2026, online sleuths are looking at storylines that could be connected to a new type of flu, artificial intelligence taking over jobs, another world war, smart homes, and aliens making human contacts.
The buzz around The Simpsons‘ 2026 predictions is making waves on the internet, and netizens can’t get enough of the chilling predictions.
Let’s find out.
Did The Simpsons predict AI would take over jobs?
Take Season 23, Episode 17, Them, Robot, for example: it predicted AI taking over human jobs in Springfield.
The 2012 episode foresees Mr. Burns replacing his staff with robots; when the robots turn on him, it’s his laid-off workers who come to his rescue.
Interestingly, a recent study that came out in October last year, surprisingly based on ChatGPT findings, found that AI and automation could wipe out nearly 100 million jobs in the US over the next decade, including both white- and blue-collar jobs.
The report findings suggest that “the agriculture revolution unfolded over thousands of years. The Industrial Revolution took more than a century. Artificial labor could reshape the economy in less than a decade.”
Moreover, backing the hypothesis, a recent Stanford University report states that U.S. job postings for young adults aged between 22 and 25 have dropped by 13% since 2022 in AI-exposed sectors.
Did 1994 episode “Deep Space Homer” predict space travel?
Season 5 of The Simpsons’ 1994 episode titled Deep Space Homer could be seen as predicting space travel becoming commercial for the public.
In this Season 5 episode, Homer Simpson is selected by NASA to go into space with astronaut Buzz Aldrin in an attempt to make space travel more commercial for the man on the street.
While in reality, an all-female crew, which also included Katy Perry and Gayle King, went on a brief trip to space on Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket, which was again part of tourism flight.
Did Simpsons predict ‘superflu’ back then?
The Simpsons could have seen into the future with the new “superflu” strain that’s surging in the U.S.
The U.S. is facing the highest surge in infectious cases in nearly three decades, as per the data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week on Monday, January 5, 2026.
The storyline in the Marge in Chains episode of 1993 predicts a fictional virus spreading throughout Springfield after it came from Japan in shipping crates.
That particular episode generated buzz on the internet during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, especially through its depiction of how society unraveled and how the ensuing town-wide frenzy was in the quest for a cure.
The nostalgic show, which hit the airwaves in 1989, has also shown what it would be like to live in a smart house.
In Season 13, episode 1, Treehouse of Horror XII, the Simpson family moves into a voice-activated house that handles their day-to-day lives.
But with each passing day, the home grows more menacing.
Did Simpsons predict ‘alien contact’ in a 1997 episode?
Amid growing theories about extraterrestrial life, a 1997 Simpsons episode, The Springfield Files, might already offer fans a sneak peek into what’s to come.
In the episode, two FBI agents come to interrogate an alien that Homer claims to have seen in the woods.
There have been multiple instances of a World War III in the show The Simpsons, and fans are taking it seriously.
In 1995, the Lisa’s Wedding, episode that features her fiancé, Hugh Parkfield, in the future, talks about WWII with Homer and Bart as well as a succeeding global conflict.
Homer also appeared to be convinced that the world was ending in an episode titled Thank God, It’s Doomsday, which went on air in 2005.
