What’s with The Simpsons and ‘predictions’ of future events? Earlier this year, the internet essentially broke when eagle-eyed fans noticed the beloved TV show had ‘predicted’ the death of basketball legend Kobe Bryant and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fast-forward to last week, and it looks like The Simpsons has seen into the future once again.
Hear about the tragic death and lasting legacy of Kobe Bryant below:
In the same 1993 episode that fans think predicted the pandemic, Springfield residents become so panicked about the virus, they knock over a truck, releasing a hive of “killer bees.”
The scene is all too familiar considering the US is currently dealing with an outbreak of deadly hornets that are reportedly “capable of piercing through a beekeeper’s suit.” Yikes.
There have been so many eerie Simpsons predictions that former show writer Bill Oakley has finally responded to the media frenzy.
Responding to a fan tweet pointing out all the ways The Simpsons “really did predict 2020,” Oakley tweeted, “OK, fine I guess we did (predict 2020)”.
It’s a far cry from Oakley’s previous comments about the predictions, calling them a “stretch”.
Speaking about the 1993 episode of The Simpsons that supposedly predicted COVID-19, Oakley said, “I don’t specifically remember which viruses had been in the news in the decade before we wrote it but they were probably a few.”
“The story was assigned to us by the showrunners Mike Reiss and Al Jean and they told us to read ‘The Plague’ by Albert Camus, which is what the entire first act is based on,” he explained.
“I would say in general when people say The Simpsons has predicted something it is just that we were satirising real life events from years before and because history keeps repeating it just SEEMS like we were predicting things.”
It sounds like Oakley is finally acknowledging that The Simpsons had a weird knack for predicting the future, but he’s also right about history repeating itself.
Here’s hoping The Simpsons doesn’t predict anymore life-changing and devastating world events. We could all use a break
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