Simpsons Writer Jokes That The Show Did Predict Future

For years, fans of The Simpsons have claimed the show has predicted the future at various points - from electing Donald Trump to Disney buying out 20th Century Fox. Now, writer Bill Oakley has backed up the claim... although he's almost certainly joking.

The latest prediction comes from an episode that dates all the way back to 1993, when Springfield is hit with a highly contagious virus. While the town folk demand a vaccination, they end up getting attacked by bees - not entirely dissimilar to the murder hornets the US is currently dealing with during the coronavirus pandemic.

A fan shared the clip on Twitter, claiming the show really had predicted the future. Simpsons writer Bill Oakley then quote tweeted the post and wrote: "OK fine I guess we did." Well, there you go.

OK, this looks like the words of someone who's become tired of hearing the same joke over and over, and is finally going along with it, as opposed to Bill necessarily agreeing with the original post. But hey, we'll take what we can get.

The show's knack of predicting the future has become such a talking point with fans that Disney+, which has every single episode available to stream, has even created a special The Simpsons Predicts collection, so you can check them all out for yourself.

The Simpsons Predict episodes:

S6: E8 - 'Lisa On Ice'
S6: E19 - 'Lisa's Wedding'
S9: E1 - 'The City Of New York vs Homer Simpson'
S9: E4 - 'Lisa's Sax'
S10: E2 - 'Wizard Of Evergreen Terrace'
S10: E5 - 'When You Dish Upon A Star'
S11: E17 - 'Bart To The Future'
S20: E4 - 'Treehouse Of Horror XIX'
S21: E13 - 'Boy Meets Curl'
S22: E1 - 'Elementary School Musical'
S23: E22 - 'Lisa Goes Gaga'
S25: E16 - 'You Don't Have To Live Like A Referee'
S29: E1 - 'The Serfsons'

Of all the bizarre predictions, perhaps the most popular is from the episode 'Bart To The Future', which aired back in 2000, and shows Lisa as president telling White House staff: "We've inherited quite a budget crunch from President Trump."

However, explaining the gag, creator 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."

Topics: TV and Film, Weird

Claire Reid

Claire is a journalist at LADbible who, after dossing around for a few years, went to Liverpool John Moores University. She graduated with a degree in Journalism and a whole load of debt. When not writing words in exchange for money she is usually at home watching serial killer documentaries surrounded by cats. You can contact Claire at [email protected]

@ClaireReid19