Simpsons Cast And Crew Talk About ‘Predicting The Future’
By now we’re all fairly familiar with the theory that The Simpsons has been ‘predicting the future’, with dozens of storylines coming true years later.
In a recent interview with Entertainment Tonight, the show’s cast and crew spoke about the long-standing theory.
Nancy Cartwright, who voices Bart, admitted to the news outlet: “We’ve got quite a track record, which is impressive.”
While Yeardley Smith, the voice behind Lisa, added: “If you’ve been on for three decades, probably you’re going to hit it once in a while.”
However, showrunner Al Jean joked: “What people are telling us now is, ‘Start predicting some good things!’ Because these have been too negative.”
The show’s writers have previously shared similar sentiments to Smith, saying The Simpsons is bound to guess a few things correctly during its 30-plus year run.
Bill Oakley told the Hollywood Reporter recently: “There are very few cases where The Simpsons predicted something.
“It’s mainly just coincidence because the episodes are so old that history repeats itself. Most of these episodes are based on things that happened in the ’60s, ’70s or ’80s that we knew about.”
Earlier this month, Oakley jokingly admitted that the show had predicted the future after a clip from a 1993 episode resurfaced online.
ok fine i guess we did https://t.co/Nf4suyC8A3
— BILL OAKLEY (@thatbilloakley) May 6, 2020
In the episode, Springfield was hit with a highly contagious flu and while the residents demand a vaccine they end up with a bunch of angry, killer bees – much like the ‘murder hornet’ situation over in the US during the coronavirus pandemic.
The idea that the show is somehow guessing the future is so well-known that Disney+ even created a special The Simpsons Predict collection of episodes.
Over the years, The Simpsons has appeared to predict a bunch of scenarios, including Disney buying out Fox, the ending of Game of Thrones, the outcome of the Winter Olympic men’s curling final and, perhaps most famously, Donald Trump becoming President of the US.
Creator Matt Groening previously said that they included Trump as he was the most ‘absurd’ person they could think of to become president.
He 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.”
