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People Expecting The World To End On 20 January Due To A New Simpsons Prediction

People Expecting The World To End On 20 January Due To A New Simpsons Prediction

We can dream

Amelia Ward

Amelia Ward

People think, once again, that The Simpsons has predicted the future, and this time, the world will apparently end on 20 January.

In a recent episode, 'Treehouse of Horror XXXI' which was aired in November, Homer is calmly sat on top of his house, drinking a beer while a post-apocalyptic world rages beneath him. Seems relatable, to be honest.

It's 20 January - the same date as the inauguration of the next US president.

In the episode, Marge - who producers decided to add a mask on to before the episode aired - calls Homer on election day to get him to vote.

Disney

Lisa tries to get Homer to remember all the bad things that have happened in the previous four years, reading out fifty things that Donald Trump did as president.

It turns out him voting was a dream, and on inauguration day - 20 January - the town of Springfield is in chaos.

As you can see, the scenes look fairly familiar.

Disney

Although the episode doesn't explicitly say the world is ending, people on social media have put two and two together and decided that it is what is heading our way.

One Facebook user wrote: "Better get ready, if it's on The Simpsons it has to happen."

Another guy is fuming that he already has plans, writing: "Can you not please my internet router gets installed on that date."

Someone else wants to delay proceedings, but only by a few days, saying: "Can it wait three more days, Armageddon seems like a birthday to remember!"

The animated adult comedy has a long history of 'predicting' real life events.

Of course, this could partly be down to the fact that it is the longest-running primetime scripted series ever, meaning there was a lot of opportunity for coincidence.

Homer is all of us.
20th Century Fox

Saying that though, some of the predictions have been pretty niche - for example, the show somehow showed Donald Trump winning the US presidential election, something I'm pretty sure nobody would've seen coming 20 years ago.

In the episode 'Bart to the Future' (which aired in March 2000), Lisa is made president. As she sits in the Oval Office, she quips: "We've inherited quite a budget crunch from President Trump."

Matt Groening told The Guardian: "We predicted that he would be president back in 2000 - but [Trump] was of course the most absurd placeholder joke name that we could think of at the time, and that's still true. It's beyond satire."

Featured Image Credit: Disney

Topics: Simpsons, TV and Film