At this point, it shouldn’t be at all surprising that The Simpsons managed to accurately predict a wild bit of IRL news that none of us ever saw coming, but yes: The Simpsons totally called Disney’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox.
In “When You Dish Upon a Star,” the 5th episode of the series’ 10th season, which first aired back in November of 1998, Homer ends up becoming fast friends with Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger (who were dating at the time) after he accidentally crashes into the couple’s bedroom thanks to a parasailing accent. Baldwin and Basinger explain that they have recently moved to Springfield, but have been largely confined to their home out of fear of being discovered and hounded by paparazzi and fans.
The trio come up with a plan in which Homer becomes their assistant and provides them with all the basic necessities they can’t go out and get for themselves. As their friendship grows, the celebrities introduce Homer to their friend Ron Howard and Homer begins to badger the stars about reading screenplays he’s written.
When Homer eventually betrays the stars’ trust and reveals that they have moved to Springfield, they push him out of their lives and Homer retaliates by opening up a mobile museum that’s actually just a bus filled with a bunch of junk he’s stolen out of their garbage. The episode culminates in a high-speed chase between the pissed celebrities and Homer that results in Ron Howard getting hurt and Homer being issued a restraining order. As the episode closes, though, we see Howard actually pitching one of Homer’s scripts at 20th Century Fox, which is listed as being a division of Walt Disney.
Now that The Simpsons‘ prediction has come to pass, it’s only a matter of time until we finally get that Ron Howard film about a murderous robot driving instructor from the future who travels back in time and is forced to choose whether his best friend, a talking pie, dies.