Soy snacks. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 "30 Rock" did an entire subplot around buying a SoyJoy out of a vending machine. I'd say the idea of soy-based snacks has definitely come to pass . And "The Simpsons" also accurately nailed their horrible, horrible flavor. Even a generation that grew up eating paste as children can't really choke them down. 
 
 
 
 More and more celebrities getting arrested. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 During Kent Brockman's newscast, he lets viewers know that if they see any celebrities, consider them dangerous. A few years later "The Simpsons" would have an entire episode centered around Mel Gibson. In 2010, they'd take Brockman's advice and stay the hell away . Celebrities really do get arrested at a prodigious rate today. 
 
 
 
 Rolling Stones old but still going strong. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 The Rolling Stones really ignored the whole "live fast, die young" credo of rock-and-roll. Malcolm Gladwell could write a whole new "Outliers" book on the fact that they're all still alive. 
 
 
 
 Widespread home satellite dishes. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Throughout "Lisa's Wedding", pretty much every home and building shown has a small satellite dish on top. And while not all of us have satellite cable, this episode was written around the same time that DirecTV was founded . (Both in 1994.) A decade and a half later we don't all have small satellites on our roofs... but many people do, and we all, at least, have the option. (And, just like the "Simpsons" predicted, they're an unexpected eyesore.) 
 
 
 
 The Prius design. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 This cab, driven by the indicted Mayor Quimby, looks surprisingly like the Prius design. And/or they modeled it after the Inspector Gadget car. Honestly, it's right smack in the middle of those two designs. 
 
 
 
 Motion controlled video games. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 You probably don't recognize this scene. I didn't. It was cut out for syndication... meaning we saw it when Fox first aired the episode, then didn't see it the subsequent 200 times we watched the episode, and now have it back on the DVD. 
 
 
 
 The syndicators do a so-so job on choosing which scenes to chop out of the "Simpsons" episodes to make room for one more precious commercial. This was a good chop. The scene is kind of dumb -- Bart and a random guy wear virtual reality headsets and play motion-controlled video games. 
 
 
 
 And while it's not exactly the Wii or the Kinect or the PlayStation we're-so-late-to-this-motion-controlled-party-that-the-kegs-are-tapped-and-the-hosts-are-in-pajamas... and the headsets more resemble Nintendo's ill-fated Virtual Boy... we are in the era of motion-controlled video games . So I'm giving them a "pretty damn enough." 
 
 
 
 Classroom overcrowding. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 I'm pretty sure this is what classrooms look like here in California . Well, just with a spicier Latin flavor. 
 
 
 
 Communicator watches. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 I'm not sure why People Of The Past were so obsessed with wristwatch communication. Dick Tracy built his entire career around it... and here Hugh uses it for his crucial wedding proposal. Once wrist communication actually became possible, we realized it was NOT going to revolutionize the world as we know it. 
 
 
 
 Yes, this technology exists today -- mostly as toy walkie talkies or through Bluetooth from your cell phone. I think they sell both in SkyMall. And I assure you, anything sold in SkyMall is not a cutting edge or indispensable technology. 
 
 
 
 A device resembling the Kindle. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 The device on Lisa's dorm room floor here (or is it Hugh's?) looks a bit like the Kindle. Or, at the very least, a slightly larger Apple Newton . The PDA, not the cookie. PDA meaning personal digital assistant, not public display of affection. Why do things always have to mean other things? 
 
 
 
 Credit cards at vending machines. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 They nailed this one perfectly. 2010 is the time when we'll happily jam our credit cards into anything -- we haven't quite gotten to widespread wireless/thumbprint/RFID payments yet, but we sure as hell aren't going to carry around a bunch of cash anymore. We're not cavemen after all. 
 
 
 
 Thousands of cable channels. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 And yet we still watch the same "Simpsons" episodes over and over and over. 
 
 
 
 
 
 So yesterday, Lisa Simpson got married.That invitation is from the classic "Simpsons" episode called "Lisa's Wedding"... which was the show's first (of three) episodes to feature a vision of the future. (And also, six seasons in, the first Lisa-centric episode to come anywhere close to "classic" status.)In the tradition of the two lists I did last year discussing "Back to the Future Part II" -- its good predictions and bad predictions -- I decided to look at the vision from "The Simpsons" of what 2010 would look like."Lisa's Wedding" aired in 1995, making predictions about a future 15 years later. Here are the 11 best predictions it made. (And, yes, there will be another list this week with the worst predictions it made.)Coming soon -- the 11 Predictions About 2010 That the Simpsons Got Wrong. ||||| October 1992: Homer The Heretic airs and ends with Homer talking to God. 
 
 http://i.imgur.com/uwHdZLM.jpg 
 
 Homer: God, I gotta ask you something. What's the meaning of life? 
 
 God: Homer, I can't tell you that. 
 
 Homer: C'mon! 
 
 God: You'll find out when you die. 
 
 Homer: I can't wait that long! 
 
 God: You can't wait six months? 
 
 Homer: No, tell me now! 
 
 God: Well, ok. The meaning of life is… 
 
 April 1993 (SIX MONTHS LATER): So It’s Come To This: A Simpsons Clip Show airs and involves Bart’s April Fools prank inadvertently putting Homer into the hospital, where he is then crushed by a vending machine and put in a coma. 
 
 Now the episode ends with Homer waking up (and giving us a hilarious POV shot of him choking Bart), but it seems to be too convenient and sudden. 
 
 http://i.imgur.com/9GYMplw.jpg 
 
 I propose that Homer didn’t actually wake up from his coma. He is still in a vegetative state and every single Simpsons episode afterwards is in Homer’s imagination. 
 
 This is why the characters don’t age. Homer remembers Bart, Lisa, and Maggie as 10, 8, and 1 year old, so they will always appear that way in his dreams. He is subconsciously aware of time passing, so his mind will often “update” his memories so that the year they occurred matches up with the age he thinks he is (eg. That 90’s Show contradicting other flashback episodes). 
 
 While the characters’ ages don’t change, the events happening to the Simpsons definitely did. The plots of episodes following the April Fools show are far zanier than beforehand. Let’s compare, shall we? 
 
 Plot Examples Before April 1993 
 
 Bart cheats on an IQ test 
 
 Homer tries to give up drinking 
 
 Marge considers cheating on Homer 
 
 Lisa has a crush on her teacher 
 
 Yes, there were some wacky plots, but overall fairly mundane stuff. Nothing out of the ordinary for most people. 
 
 Plot Examples After April 1993 
 
 Homer goes into outer space 
 
 Principal Skinner is revealed as an imposter 
 
 Mr. Burns captures the Loch Ness Monster 
 
 Homer works for a supervillain who takes over the eastern US 
 
 Bart and Homer buy a racehorse and discover the secret land of jockeys 
 
 Also, celebrity after celebrity after celebrity 
 
 This is clearly Homer’s imagination running wild. With no real world restrictions, Homer’s mind is able to dream up scenarios of him and his family in fantasies involving him winning a Grammy, his father fighting his boss for buried WW2 treasure, his wife getting breast implants, his infant daughter saving him from drowning, etc. 
 
 The massive amounts of celebrity appearances are easily explained as well. People in comas can sometime hear what people in the same room are saying. While Homer wouldn’t physically react, his mind processes that information and includes it in his dreams. 
 
 Maybe the nurse leaves the radio on and Homer hears a Lady Gaga song. Suddenly: 
 
 http://i.imgur.com/4C0817Q.jpg 
 
 His family visits and talk with each other about the new Mel Gibson movie they’re going to be seeing after leaving the hospital. Next thing you know: 
 
 http://i.imgur.com/nzyS4my.gif 
 
 And so on. 
 
 There’s one last thing I want to leave you with. Going back to Homer’s conversation with God, what is the meaning of life? Or at least Homer’s life? Well life can have different meaning for different people and a purpose or reason for one’s existence can be as unique as their fingerprints. For Homer, his grand purpose is obvious – he is here to entertain. His dreams, his imaginative adventures, have provided billions with amusement and will continue to do so for decades. 
 
 Not bad for a dumb overweight loudmouth. 
 
 EDIT: This got really big. I'm getting messages about it making the news in Australia, Belgium, and other places. It made the front page of Yahoo, and TMZ even got a statement from Al Jean about my theory. He says it's not true, but what does he know about the Simpsons? ||||| As the animated hit comedy reaches its 30th birthday, a look back on some of the key moments throughout its run 
 
 Matt Groening’s The Simpsons is 30 years old today, its titular family having first appeared on the Tracey Ullman show in 1987 in a very weird short during which Homer and Marge put the kids to bed. Since then it’s become a ubiquitous cultural force: a theme park ride, half a dozen different action figure series, several video games, a whole line of comic books, and of course 28 seasons – and counting – of television. 
 
 The Simpsons Thanksgiving marathon: the 25 best episodes to gorge on Read more 
 
 Prehistory 
 
 Originally, Groening was invited to pitch an animated version of his popular alt-weekly newspaper strip Life in Hell but balked when he realized he would have to sign over the rights to the whole thing to 20th Century Fox. Depending on who you believe, Groening either came up with the Simpsons family the night before he was due to give the “What else you got?” pitch to producer James L Brooks or in the lobby of Brooks’ office. 
 
 Groening had a dad named Homer Groening, a mom named Margaret Groening, neé Wiggum, sisters named Lisa and Maggie, and an aunt named Selma. He grew up in Portland, Oregon, where the town next door was Springfield, though the mystery of which state hosts the Simpson family’s home town is a running gag on the show. 
 
 But the Simpsons is far more than a sentimental look back on family life, though it is more often that than either its fans or its detractors believe. It’s also an incredible patchwork of secondary and tertiary characters, many of them voiced by the omnipresent cast of Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Hank Azaria, and Harry Shearer – with the rare exception of Yeardley Smith, who voices only Lisa. Here are the show’s key cultural milestones. 
 
 1989 
 
 Animation problems pushed the series all the way to the end of the year from its original debut date in the fall of 1989. Episode 1 of season 1, Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire, airs 17 December. 
 
 1990 
 
 The Simpsons landed its first renewal and began its second season, outdoing The Cosby Show with the season two premiere, Bart Gets an F. 
 
 1992 
 
 George HW Bush addressed the Republican national convention by scolding the TV show and proclaiming his party’s desire to “keep trying to strengthen the American family, to make the American family a lot more like the Waltons and a lot less like the Simpsons”. The show’s producers took enough umbrage to quickly record a new line of dialogue zinging Bush for the state of the economy at the beginning of a January rerun of the episode Stark Raving Dad. “Hey, we’re just like the Waltons,” says an offended Bart as he watched Bush’s speech. “We’re praying for an end to the Depression, too.” 
 
 What's the greatest TV show of all time? Easy. The Simpsons Read more 
 
 1994 
 
 Producers approved a crossover episode with Brooks’ other series, The Critic. Months later, Groening would publicly air his displeasure with Brooks, who developed and produces The Simpsons. The Critic was in need of a marketing push after its failure on ABC and subsequent hasty move to Fox. Neither man got much out of the showdown: The Critic was canceled, though not without a cult following, and the episode – A Star Is Burns, set during a Springfield film festival – far from a monument to compromise, remains one of the series’ most beloved. 
 
 1995 
 
 The show had heard the cries of parent groups and opportunistic politicians denouncing the excessive violence in the series, especially in its show-within-a-show, Itchy and Scratchy, a parody of classic smart mouse v hapless cat cartoons. In response, writer David Mirkin packed the show’s 1995 Halloween special episode, Treehouse of Horror V, with as much violence as possible, including a short in which the teachers at Springfield Elementary murder and eat the students. 
 
 2001 
 
 The Oxford English Dictionary capitulated: editions from 2001 forward define the word “D’oh” as “Expressing frustration at the realization that things have turned out badly or not as planned, or that one has just said or done something foolish.” 
 
 2003 
 
 The final episode written by John Swartzwelder, The Regina Monologues, aired. Swartzwelder holds the record for most episodes written – 59 – and maintains a mystique worthy of its own television show. In Mike Sacks’ book about comedy writers, Poking a Dead Frog, the head of David Letterman’s writing staff in 1983 claimed to have discovered him when Swartzwelder sent a single, perfect one-liner on a postcard. It read: “Mike Flynn’s much-publicized attempt to break every record in the Guinness Book of Records got off to a rocky start this week when his recording of White Christmas sold only five copies.” 
 
 2007 
 
 The Simpsons Movie opened in theaters with cameos by a host of movie stars. Unfortunately, not all made the cut: the producers kept Tom Hanks but lost Edward Norton and even Kelsey Grammer as Sideshow Bob. It still grossed $528m. 
 
 
 
 2013 
 
 Voice actor Marcia Wallace, who gave elementary school teacher Edna Krabappel her trademark acerbic “HA!”, died of pneumonia at age 70. The Simpsons paid her tribute next year, with Ned Flanders remarking that he sure does miss her laugh. School bully Nelson demonstrated his own laugh (“HA-ha.”) before admitting: “I miss, her too.” 
 
 2015 
 
 Ross and Rachel v Homer and Marge: who’s the best TV couple? Read more 
 
 Fox stopped producing DVDs of the series, pushing fans to the network’s digital platforms. The same year, Fox decided to syndicate the 500-plus-episode run of the series on FXX, a new network to which it hopes to lure younger viewers. 
 
 2016 
 
 The show passed 600 episodes this year with its 27th Treehouse of Horror anthology – in celebration, the writers slipped in a triumphant declaration as part of the usual litany of Halloween names such as Bat Groening and James Hell Brooks: Al Jean went by Al “You’re next, Gunsmoke” Jean – and indeed, barring the end of the world, or even less likely, the Fox network, The Simpsons will surpass Gunsmoke’s 635-show record for most episodes aired in a US primetime show ever.
– During its sixth season in 1995, The Simpsons gazed into the future—specifically, 2010—in the “Lisa’s Wedding” episode. Writing at 11points.com, Sam Greenspan lists 11 things about this year the episode got right: Soy snacks: Not only did the show predict their popularity, it also “nailed their horrible, horrible flavor.” Celebrity arrests: “During Kent Brockman's newscast, he lets viewers know that if they see any celebrities, consider them dangerous”—and today, “celebrities really do get arrested at a prodigious rate.” Rolling Stones still at it: A poster for the “Rolling Stones Steel Wheelchair Tour 2010” is shown, and the band is now “old but still going strong,” Greenspan writes. They “really ignored the whole ‘live fast, die young’ credo of rock-and-roll.” Credit cards everywhere: In the Simpsons episode, plastic is used at a vending machine. And it’s true: “2010 is the time when we'll happily jam our credit cards into anything. We sure as hell aren't going to carry around a bunch of cash anymore. We're not cavemen after all.” Thousands of cable channels: Yep, got that, Greenspan concludes: “And yet we still watch the same Simpsons episodes over and over and over.” For the complete list, click here—or for the follow-up, 11 predictions the show got wrong, click here.