Top 10 South Park Predictions Vs Reality

#10: The Coney Island Hotdog Sale

One of the most bizarre circumstances Cartman has found himself in occurred in “South Park’s” twenty-fifth season. Having failed to find more work and thus unable to afford their home, Cartman and his mom find themselves living in a parodied version of the Coney Island Hot Dog shack. It wasn’t long before this plot in the episode became somewhat of a reality. The Coney Island Boardwalk hot dog stand in Denver, Colorado was put up for sale in May 2022, three whole months after the “City People” episode aired. At the time of this video, it has yet to be sold and remains vacant.

#9: The Making of Legendary Cinema

This might be one of the more famous or infamous examples of “South Park” accidentally predicting things. The episode features a scene where Stan and Wendy go to see a movie featuring two cowboys who become lovers. As simple as it is, the plot in the movie is very similar to the 1997 short story “Brokeback Mountain,” which would receive a film adaptation seven years after this episode first aired. The only difference between the 2005 movie and the “South Park” version is, well, we don’t remember any scenes where Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal are eating bowls of pudding.

#8: Criminal Pocket Monsters

In this episode, “South Park” satirizes the overblown panic parents had over the real-world “Pokémon” franchise exploding in popularity among kids. While the kids are all obsessing over collecting all of the Chinpokomon, the company manufacturing the monsters is secretly using them to brainwash them. There had never been an incident similar to this at the time, but there were some raising concerns when “Pokémon Go” launched in 2016. Because the app relied on a user’s location to function, authorities began warning players about the dangers of trespassing, abduction, and human trafficking.

#7: The Death of Osama bin Laden

Ever seen someone predict something twice before it even happens? It wasn’t that “South Park” called out Osama bin Laden dying. Everyone dies eventually. How he died is a different story. Both episodes - “Osama bin Laden Has Farty Pants” and “It’s a Jersey Thing” - depict bin Laden dying from a shot fired by an American soldier. Well, May 2, 2011, marked the death of Osama bin Laden, who had been shot by US Navy SEALs during a raid of his hideout in Pakistan. Sure, “South Park” didn’t get every detail right, but to show the US finally finding bin Laden and taking him down twice… it’s enough to make some folks believe Trey Parker and Matt Stone are psychic.

#6: Predicting a Skyscraper

While the boys are building a ladder to reach Kenny in Heaven, Japan announces that they have begun their own ladder to reach the great afterlife in the sky before a bunch of American kids do. They succeed rather quickly, though they are soon exposed to have faked the whole thing. However, Japan did manage to build a tall observation tower in the real world. In 2008, six years after “A Ladder to Heaven” aired, Japan began construction on what would become the Tokyo Skytree. The tower finished construction in 2012 and has since been deemed the third-tallest structure on Earth, right behind the skyscrapers Burj Khalifa and Merdeka 118.

#5: The Poop Cruise

At first, this was just a passing jab at a major cruise line, but it was wild to see it become a reality years later. “Crème Fraîche” opens with Randy and Sharon watching the news, the anchor stating, “Passengers said the Carnival cruise line smelled like poop, but that that was an improvement.” Well, the world got a glimpse of that kind of incident three years after this episode aired. In 2013, a Carnival Triumph cruise was stranded in the Gulf of Mexico after the engine room caught fire. This caused the entire ship to lose power, which affected its sewage system, thus garnering the name “The Poop Cruise”.

#4: The KFC Black Market

In case you hadn’t seen this one, “Medicinal Fried Chicken” centers on Cartman desperately trying to find some KFC, which soon escalates to him running a cartel supplying individuals with illegal KFC goods. Believe it or not, there was an incident similar to this that occurred in 2018. This was the year when the fried chicken chain saw a massive shortage in supply in the UK after some severe mismanagement in their logistics department. It wasn’t long before people began selling their own old orders from the chain at exorbitantly high prices. At least we got some hilarious new buckets out of the disaster.

#3: Jared Fogle’s Crimes

In 2015, the world was shocked when Jared Fogle, who had long been known as the spokesperson for sandwich chain Subway, was caught talking about unspeakable acts involving minors and possession of material depicting said acts. Looking back on “South Park’s” episode, “Jared Has Aides,” it’s almost eerie how Trey Parker and Matt Stone were almost warning us of Fogle. In the episode, Jared talks about how he wants to give everyone in the world aides - people whose job is to assist others - and even give them to children. A play on words type of joke, yes, but it’s hard to laugh at this joke, given what we know today.

#2: Seventeen Years of Development Later…

If you’re an avid fan of video games, then you likely know about this hilarious moment. When Cartman gathers the boys to assess their situation in “World of Warcraft,” Butters reveals that he has never actually played the MMO before. Instead, he plays a game called “Hello Kitty Island Adventure.” At the time of the episode’s airing, no such game existed. But in 2023, the game became a reality. “Hello Kitty Island Adventure” released for iOS on July 28, 2023, before making its way to PC and consoles in 2025. And yes, it is exactly the kind of game we’d imagine Butters would be playing - an “Animal Crossing”-esque life sim where you get to play with all of the different characters from Sanrio.

#1: Bots Make Our Movies

Now, this is one episode we never thought would actually become a reality. Unfortunately, it’s looking more and more likely every waking moment. “Awesom-O” shows Cartman tricking Butters into thinking he is a robot. During that time, the two wind up at a movie studio where Cartman is asked to pitch tons of movie ideas. Well, at the time of this video, movie studios like Warner Bros. are investing in artificial intelligence to help identify market trends and predict the success of a movie before it can even enter production. Only time will tell how many of them star Adam Sandler.

Did you find any of these predictions to be coincidental? Or does South Park Studios have a third eye? Let us know in the comments.