How does The Simpsons predict everything?
20th Century Television How does The Simpsons predict everything? Well we’re here to let you in on a massive secret — it doesn’t.
The Simpsons has earned a strange reputation over the decades for its Nostradamus-like ability to predict the future.
Perhaps the most famous example of the last few decades came in the 11th season episode ‘Bart to the Future.’ During this episode, Lisa mentioned Donald Trump having been president (and having left the US broke). More than a decade later, Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election and actually became president, seemingly confirming Lisa’s grim prophecy.
It’s hardly the only example, though, of The Simpsons’ powers of prognostication. Over the course of its long run, the show has allegedly foreseen some of the most seismic events of the last three decades across politics, pop culture, and technology, including 9/11, smartwatches, and even the global lockdown.
20th Century Television Would you like to know your future?
So, how does a cartoon about a bunch of yellow idiots do it? Does it only employ those who graduate at the top of Hogwarts’ divination class? Well, no. The Simpsons writers’ room, like Pearson Hardman, primarily recruits from Harvard. Still, we know exactly how The Simpsons’ writers pull off their predictions, and it’s pretty simple, really. They don’t.
Yes, I hate to go all Marge Simpson on people who enjoy the Simpsons predict memes, but The Simpsons writers can’t see the future. If they could, they wouldn’t squander their gifts by writing a cartoon for a living. They’d squander them at the bookies or on lottery tickets!
But “what about the Donald Trump line?” you may be shouting. Well, hypothetical reader, firstly, there’s no need to shout. You’re a fictional construct designed to illustrate a point, not a real person, and secondly, that was just an educated guess.
Wow, you can see into the… present
You see, while it may have been a shock for the 20-somethings when Donald Trump became president, this was hardly his first go at taking the top job. Trump has actually been threatening to run for president since the late ‘80s, and he first made good on that threat in 2000, the year Bart to the Future came out. So the Simpsons weren’t exactly communing with the spirits to predict a Trump presidency — they’d probably seen it in Newsweek.
Don’t take my word for it, though (even though I’m right). Al Jean, the current co-showrunner who’s worked on The Simpsons since the second season, says it all comes down to good luck and coincidence.
“One of our writers, the guy whose episode predicted Donald Trump as president, said it best: ‘If you write 700 episodes, and you don’t predict anything, then you’re pretty bad,’” Jean told the NME, “If you throw enough darts, you’re going to get some bullseyes…mostly it’s just educated guesses.”
It’s hardly surprising that a group of the finest comedy minds in the world, educated in some of the greatest schools in the world (not Brown!), could take a decent guess at what the future might look like. Almost all of the show’s predictions have pretty mundane explanations, and while some of them (the 9/11 one specifically) seem a bit spooky, none of them involve the writers being psychic or having access to time travel.
20th Century Television Not that funny…
But why am I getting so bent out of shape about this? Isn’t it just a bit of fun? Well, it certainly began that way, but over time, as people desperately chase clout online, The Simpsons predict memes have turned into something that, like Duff beer, leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. People have misrepresented the show, manipulated stills, and used AI to fabricate scenes from non-existent episodes.
I think that dislike turned to boiling hatred when I saw an article titled ‘Did The Simpsons predict the death of George Floyd?’ online. It felt gross to me that someone had taken a tragedy and falsely linked it with a show I love for the sake of a few upvotes and retweets. It takes a certain lack of empathy to see misfortune and immediately think I can score some internet points here.
George Floyd’s death is hardly the only tragedy these ghouls are willing to exploit, though; a quick Google will show the recent Baltimore Bridge collapse has served as fodder for these fiends who’ll do anything for clicks except touch grass. So please do me a favor the next time you see an article about the Simpsons predicting the future and don’t click it. Do something better with your life, like, I don’t know, watching The Simpsons Seasons 3-9 on repeat.
If you love The Simpsons, check out our guide to the best animated movies of all time and the best South Park episodes. We’ve also explained why Homer doesn’t strangle Bart anymore and put together a list of the best Treehouse of Horror episodes.
That’s not all, though. We’ve put together a list of the best TV shows to watch on streaming this month too.