Fans of The Simpsons probably know by now that long-running show has been credited for making a number of predictions. The show has previously been credited with predicting Star Wars’ future, but its reach expands past pop culture prophecies. Fans believe it has also forecasted many political and social events, including future president elects. Cut to 2020, and they now believe The Simpsons simultaneously predicted murder hornets and the coronavirus.
Believe it or not, this isn't the first time fans have come to believe that the animated series predicted the COVID-19 pandemic. A clip from Season 4, Episode 4 entitled “Marge in Chains” has been cited by some as The Simpsons predicting the coronavirus outbreak. Now others believe another scene further foresaw the pandemic as well as the rise of murder hornets, and The Simpsons’ writer Bill Oakley agrees. Check out Oakley’s tweet below:
In The Simpsons clip, Springfield citizens demand a cure for an illness, but Dr. Hibbert informs them that the only treatment is bed rest and placebos. Desperate for the placebos, they head into a truck where they end up opening a box containing killer bees. Insert the coronavirus in for the illness and murder hornets for killer bees, and you have something.
The Simpsons writer Bill Oakley seems to think that fans are onto something with this latest credited prediction. The show’s supposed foretelling of the coronavirus and murder hornets marks yet another strange connection between the animated series and real-life. And over the years, they've definitely been weird. In the past, the show has even been credited for predicting that the U.S. Men’s Curling Team would win the gold medal at the Olympics.
Despite this, the show doesn't always hit the mark. In 1999, the series predicted that the 49ers would win the Super Bowl in 2020, but that didn't come to fruition. Still, a year before that, in 1998, The Simpsons made a pretty serious forecast that would come true years later. It predicted that Disney would purchase 20th Century Fox. That's pretty impressive for a show to estimate not only the fate of so many other properties but its own as well.
More recently, it also foresaw a significant twist that occurred during Game of Thrones’ final season. Daenerys’ shocking move was predicted two years before the penultimate episode of the HBO’s hit aired. If you're starting to get chills over all of this, it's understandable, as it's all pretty interesting. The Simpsons has been around for a long time, and consistently predicting various events over a 31-year run is a serious feat.
While The Simpsons’ composer Danny Elfman has said that he thinks the show is ending soon, its predictions will live on. Still, it should be pointed out that, like in this situation, the show isn't always specific when it comes to predictions. As mentioned, the show didn't specify "coronavirus" or "murder hornets", though that would have put its predictive abilities on a whole other level.
That said, the parallels that the animated series has featured between its world and ours is something to take note of. New episodes of The Simpsons air Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on FOX. The fan-favorite cartoon is also currently streaming on Disney+. For more excitement, you can check out this summer’s premieres.
