50 Times The Simpsons Saw It Coming Before the World Did

In a flashback scene, young Bart lies sick in bed while Marge offers to read him a book titled “Curious George and the Ebola Virus.” At the time, the disease was relatively obscure to the public and rarely referenced outside medical journals.

Yet in 2014, Ebola dominated global headlines as outbreaks in West Africa led to widespread panic and an urgent international response. The book title seemed like a dark joke until viewers dug it up years later and gasped. That one prop became an eerie reminder of how even Springfield’s smallest gags could foreshadow something of such global significance.