How does The Simpsons predict future events? It is about 'foolishness of humanity', says exec producer
The Simpsons predictions
The Simpsons has been on since 1989 and is famously known to predict several world events. This includes Donald Trump becoming president, the 2020 murder hornet invasion, and the purple pantsuitand white pearls Lisa wore in a Season 11 episode, similar to what Vice President Kamala Harris wore at the 2021 inauguration.
How has the show managed to make such ominous predictions? Executive producer and showrunner, Matt Selman says there is nothing magical about it.
Talking to People in an interview, Selman said that it comes down to studying history and math.
"Well, the sourpuss answer I always give that no one likes is that if you study history and math, it would be literally impossible for us not to predict things," he said.
He added that saying "enough things" means that "some of them are going to overlap with reality, and then that’s the math element."
He equates the predictions to following the "foolishness" of humans in the past, which is bound to be repeated in the future.
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"If you make a show that is based on studying the past foolishness of humanity, you are surely going to anticipate the future foolishness of humanity as it sinks further into foolishness fair," he said.
Fake predictions on The Simpsons
He also expressed frustration with people putting out fake things, saying the show predicted them when it actually didn't.
Also Read:Did The Simpsons predict Donald Trump 'they’re eating the dogs' comment?
He said we hate when fans "put obviously fake images online and say we predicted things that we didn’t".
“It was nicer when the predictions were just predicting real horrible events, not people pretending we predicted horrible events,” Selman said.
When "people want the magic to be true so bad that they just start" putting out fake scenarios that never happened on the show, it becomes "very depressing and dispiriting".
The show predicted the disappearance of the OceanGate submersible when it showed Homer and another man go underwater in submersibles to find the treasure in a sunken ship named "Piso Mojado."
However, Homer's oxygen levels start dipping and he wakes up at a hospital three days later.
The show also predicted smartwatches, besides other technologies, including video chats.
