DID THE SIMPSONS PREDICT COVID-19?

Words by Joana Stankevicius

Ever heard the conspiracy theories the animated sitcom The Simpsons predicts the future? The Simpsons has predicted the outcomes to a weird amount of events, and now, it’s thought the possibility of the coronavirus pandemic was also predicted. After running for almost 30 years, it seems highly possible a real life event could be alluded by the show long before it actually happens. What is weird though is the staggering number of events which have been predicted with starling accuracy. What could the show have possibly predicted? In season 11 episode 17, The Simpsons predicted Donald Trump’s Presidency 16 years before it came to fruition. Not convinced? Season 6 episode 19 came out in 1995 and introduced the idea of a phone as a watch. Nearly 20 years later, the Apple Watch was released. Maybe these are just coincidences, but the specificity of these events is a little bit suss. Perhaps Oscar Wilde was really onto something by saying life imitates art. With the global pandemic being all the talk, it only makes sense someone has done the digging and found a 1993 episode predicted Coronavirus. Season 4 episode 21 announces the fear of the ‘Osaka Flu’, showing a Japanese factory worker coughing into packaging, infecting all of Springfield as a result. Whilst this alone might be a bit of a reach, and is one of the less accurate predictions, it doesn’t end there. Not only was the coronavirus predicted, but also the quarantine of Tom Hanks, his isolation predicted in 2007. This prediction occurred in the notorious Simpsons Movie, where Hanks took part in an advertisement and told the audience “the US government [had] lost its credibility so it [was] borrowing some of [his]… this is Tom Hanks saying, if you see me in person, please, leave me be”. Some regard this scene as a prediction of Hanks’ having to go into quarantine. While all of this might be seen as a huge leap, is there really such a thing as too many coincidences? Or is this just subliminal social engineering and mass media mind influence where The Simpsons control the future. Whatever the answer may be, the response of the writers is they are all very smart, with most of them being Harvard educated. They see themselves as futurologists and look into future events to create entertaining episodes. It was said “when many smart people produce a television show, it’s bound to make some chance ‘predictions’, but that sounds a lot like what someone who could predict the future would say doesn’t it?