6 Movies And Shows That Called Events IRL
It's tough to predict the future -- just ask any TV psychic who didn't foresee that the TV psychic industry is a laughingstock. Amazingly, though, sometimes pop culture doesn't simply entertain us / distract from the endless void of meaninglessness that is existence. It has the power to anticipate real-life events. Either due to coincidence or some kind of glitch in the Matrix, movies and TV have foreshadowed certain incidents, such as ...
McDonald's Sold Muffin Tops Years After Seinfeld
The lovable gang of affluent sociopaths on Seinfeld sure had a lot of wacky schemes over the years, but most of them didn't manage to permeate the wall that separates fiction from reality. (Sadly, heftier gentlemen still can't purchase a Manssiere.) One ridiculous idea that did come to fruition was executed not by some TV-obsessed weirdo, but by one of the largest corporations in the world. If you remember back to the eighth season, Elaine inspires her former boss, Mr. Lippman, to open a shop devoted to the sale of just the tops of muffins, discarding the stumpy bits we all secretly despise.
Seemingly wanting to embrace Seinfeld without resorting to having angry employees bark nastily at customers, McDonald's began testing a product known as "Muffin Toppers." And yeah, they were exactly what it sounds like. People of course noted the similarities between the this product and the 20-year-old sitcom plot.
On Seinfeld, Mr. Lippman finds that the tops are inedible unless he makes the entire muffin first and then throws away the stumps, leaving him with an unwieldy excess to deal with. While we don't know a lot about the McDonald's process, presumably any surplus muffin parts were just tossed in with whatever other mystery ingredients make up McNuggets.
Related: 27 Mind-Blowing Things Accurately Predicted By Movies
Arrested Development Anticipated The Trumps
Ah, Arrested Development -- the thing people who didn't grow up with Teen Wolf Too know Jason Bateman from. It seems that in the writers' attempts to craft a comically repugnant family, they accidentally anticipated our current First Family. Think about it. A real estate tycoon who committed a little "light treason" leaves the business to his inept son who is constantly making huge mistakes. Then there's the daughter, Lindsay, who like Ivanka Trump purports to stand for things, but always buckles to her own selfish whims. (Also, we wouldn't be surprised if it turned out Jared showers in a pair of jean shorts.)
And like the Trumps, the Bluths also employ a sleazily inept lawyer.
Even more pointedly, Season 4 finds George Sr. masterminding a plan to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico, getting a right-wing political candidate to use it as a campaign promise. This comes complete with supporters chanting "Put up this wall!" Keep in mind, this was back in 2013.
And George Sr.'s defective Cornballer? Why, that's obviously a metaphor for Trump University. Or that casino in Atlantic City. Or, you know, America.
Related: 6 Movies That Predicted Disasters With Eerie Accuracy
Full House And Desperate Housewives Episodes Foreshadowed Their Stars' Arrests
Of all the Full House gang one might expect to be arrested, you'd probably guess Uncle Joey would one day snap, eventually being shoved into the back of a squad car while unironically shouting "Cut it out!" So naturally, we were all taken aback when Aunt Becky, actress Lori Loughlin, found herself on the wrong side of the law for her role in the recent college admissions scandal.
If the words "Aunt Becky" and "admissions scandal" sound familiar, that's probably because an episode of Full House dealt with that very plot way back in the '90s. The episode "Be True To Your Pre-School" doesn't involve millions of dollars trading hands like the college scam, but Uncle Jesse straight-up lies on his kids' preschool application. Ironically, it is Aunt Becky who sets things straight.
Sadly, Loughlin (allegedly) did the opposite of her fictional counterpart, and will soon go on trial. If the prosecutors have any sense, they'll pump in some gratingly sentimental synthesizer music as soon as she hits the witness stand.
Amazingly, another actress implicated in the scandal, Felicity Huffman, similarly dealt with the topic on her own TV show years earlier. In a Season 1 episode of Desperate Housewives, Huffman's character Lynette and her husband donate $15,000 to an exclusive private school to guarantee their kids a spot. Somehow, both ridiculous shows never even considered that the characters should Photoshop their children's faces onto the bodies of athletes. Well done, reality, you've out-garbaged TV.
Tokyo Is Hosting The 2020 Olympics ... Just Like In Akira
Claiming that the iconic anime cyberpunk extravaganza Akira inspired modern Japan is a tad perilous. Sure, the country is full of neon and probably a biker gang or two, but we have yet to see a grotesque mutant psychic cause any kind of damage. On the other hand, Akira was spot on when it came to predicting the Olympics. The 2020 summer games are set to be held in Tokyo, exactly like in Akira (well, in the movie it's Neo-Tokyo, but still). The newly built national stadium is even eerily close to the one in the film.
While you might think that organizers would shy away from comparing their Olympics with the ones set in an ultra-violent, gang-infested post-apocalypse, apparently that isn't the case. Rehearsals for a large-scale projection outside the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building actually utilize footage from Akira intercut with footage of the real Tokyo.
Thankfully, they've stopped short of housing a secret lab containing the cryogenically preserved remains of a physical god beneath the stadium ... as far as we know.
Related: 21 Eerily Specific Pop Culture Predictions That Came True
An Eddie Murphy Movie Predicted The Gulf War
We don't typically look to Eddie Murphy's filmography for political insight, with the possible exception of the treatise on academic ethics that is the Nutty Professor films. But one Murphy comedy accurately foresaw a straight-up war. In the otherwise forgettable Best Defense, co-starring Dudley Moore, Murphy plays a tank commander tasked with testing out the new XM-10 Annihilator. Hijinks ensue, as hijinks are wont to, when Murphy accidentally wanders into the middle of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.
Here's the thing, though: This movie came out in 1984, a full six years before the Gulf War was kicked off by Iraq's real-life invasion of Kuwait. One Gulf War vet even admitted to watching the movie as research before his deployment. Which is a little like preparing for a career in law enforcement by studying the exploits of Axel Foley.
Related: 6 Eerily Specific Inventions Predicted In Science Fiction
A Fake Dora The Explorer Trailer Is Pretty Close To The Upcoming Movie
You know Dora the Explorer as the cartoon girl who teaches children far more than their deadbeat parents ever could. Through the course of her series, Dora embarks on harmless adventures with the help of her monkey pal Boots and her backpack, which is tragically cursed with the burden of being a sentient piece of luggage. Giving Dora a more mature reboot may seem a little like forcing the Magic School Bus to drive a Fury Road, but that's exactly what's happening.
It was recently announced that Dora would be heading to the big screen in Dora And The Lost City Of Gold. The new Dora is a teenager, going on an Indiana Jones-style adventure to rescue her kidnapped parents and maybe plunder a little Incan gold while she's at it. And it's produced by Hollywood's leading children's educator, Michael Bay.
If the idea of an older Dora battling criminals sounds familiar, that's probably because CollegeHumor made a parody video with a similar premise back in 2012. The site's fake trailer for a Dora movie also turns the pint-sized heroine into a hardened teenager. When the official Dora trailer hit, some were quick to point out the similarities.
The video proved so popular that CollegeHumor made an entire webseries featuring "gritty" Dora -- although we're reasonably sure that Nickelodeon's movie won't see Dora packing heat.
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