The "Rise of Online Education and MOOCs" (Episode: "The Mook, the Chef, the Wife and Her Homer", 2005)

The Simpsons has earned quite the reputation for seemingly predicting the future. It’s actually a bit of a meme at this point, with fans pointing out how many things in the real world appear to have been "predicted" by the show, sometimes years in advance. While some of these predictions are purely coincidental or the result of broad satire, others do seem oddly prescient.

The "Rise of Online Education and MOOCs" (Episode: "The Mook, the Chef, the Wife and Her Homer", 2005)

• What happened: The episode satirizes the idea of online courses and remote learning, predicting the rise of internet-based education.
• Reality: In the 2010s, online education and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) gained immense popularity, with platforms like Coursera, edX, and Khan Academy providing free and paid courses to millions around the world. The COVID-19 pandemic only accelerated this shift toward remote learning.