The Cubs Winning the World Series Isn't the Only Thing Parks & Recreation Correctly Predicted

The seventh and final season of Parks and Recreation was set three years in the future from when it was made in 2014 (it aired in January and February 2015). The writers used that time jump to have some fun with what America would be like in the near future. Now, with 2017 bearing down on us, Parks and Rec's predictions are looking less funny and more eerily prophetic.

In that seventh season, Parks and Rec offhandedly predicted that the Chicago Cubs would have won an MLB title by 2017. That prediction came true Wednesday night, when the Cubs beat the Cleveland Indians to win their first World Series since 1908.

The Washington Post has a thorough explanation of how that prediction wasn't a joke, and executive producer Michael Schur inserted it into the script because he believed it was going to come true. Basically, Schur knows a lot about baseball, and he knew the Cubs would be really good by 2017.

This bit of foresight inspired us to take a closer look at some of the other predictions Parks and Recreation made in Season 7, and what from the show's vision of 2017 as imagined in early 2015 has come true by late 2016. Some things haven't (and won't) come true, but some of them have!

- 100% Accurate

The Cubs winning the World Series
Michael Schur is less a clairvoyant than a dedicated baseball fan who pays attention, but still, the Cubs were cursed until this year.

Marriage equality exists
Again, like the Cubs winning the World Series, this one was pretty inevitable, but Craig's (Billy Eichner) wedding in the series finale aired six months before same-sex marriage became legal on June 26, 2015.

- 75% Accurate

America runs out of beef by 2022
This is another inevitable one, it just hasn't happened yet. Sorry to be a downer, but studies show that the world's current level of meat consumption is unsustainable if we want to keep existing.

There's a Pulitzer Prize for listicles
Like it or not, the listicle is part of journalism now, so it's not impossible that the Pulitzer committee changes with the times and starts recognizing excellence in, say, ranked lists of TV guest stars.

- 50% Accurate

Kevin James is Jason Bourne
One episode predicted that Kevin James would take over for Matt Damon in a reboot of the Bourne movie franchise. That hasn't happened, but the premise of James' new movie, True Memoirs of an International Assassin, is essentially "what if Kevin James was Jason Bourne?"

Verizon, Exxon and Chipotle merge
These three haven't come together, but AT&T just bought Time Warner, so this kind of megaconsolidation doesn't seem that farfetched.

- 25% Accurate

Shia LaBeouf is a highly-regarded fashion designer
It seems unlikely that The Beef will start designing wedding dresses and engagement rings, but who knows? He's an unpredictable guy.

Jack Sparrow joins Game of Thrones
Johnny Depp's character from Pirates of the Caribbean probably won't marry Daenerys Targaryen, but another J.S. with famous hair might!

- 0% Accurate

LeBron James rejoins the Miami Heat
King James re-signed with the Cleveland Cavaliers for three years this summer, so if he leaves the reigning NBA champs again, it won't be for awhile.

Joe Biden is a poet
After leaving office, the Vice President publishes a book of poems called Biden the Rails: A Thousand and One Poems Inspired by My Travels Through Amtrak's Northeast Corridor. This is ridiculous. Everyone knows that the only poetry Joe Biden respects is the hum of a Trans Am engine as it hits 90 mph.