The Simpsons is once again the talk of the town ahead of the 2024 U.S. Presidential election. Social media is rife with debate on whether a decades-old episode of the show predicted the results of this year's election. In an episode in the year 2000, there was a reference to a "President Trump" and Lisa Simpson as his successor.
Fans speculate that The Simpsons may have predicted not only Trump's presidency in 2016 but even possibly his influence in the 2024 election. However, the Simpsons did not explicity predict the 2024 US Presidential Election results.
Below, we deconstruct the history of predictions by The Simpsons and why fans believe the show has a nearly prophetic quality.
Which The Simpsons episode started the “prediction” craze with Trump’s first run?
The episode Bart to the Future, which aired on March 19, 2000, is often credited for predicting political events. In the episode, Bart gets a glimpse into a future where his sister, Lisa, has become the President of the United States.
But first, Lisa has to fix the budget crisis her predecessor "President Trump" caused. When Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th U.S. President in 2017, fans were quick to say this was a proof that the show predicted real life events.
Even the show's chalkboard gag recognized that prediction a year ago in its own little way:
“Being right sucks.”
The episode was a peek at what Trump's influence on the political arena could be.
The Simpsons fans speculate Kamala Harris may be the “Lisa Simpson” successor
In recent years, fans begun to compare the Vice President Kamala Harris with Lisa's character in Bart to the Future. Like Lisa, Harris wore a signature purple suit with a pearl necklace at her 2021 inauguration.
Now that she is running for the president with Tim Walz in 2024, it is believed that fictional electoral maps on the show somehow mirror real 2024 projections. Fans have pointed out some "eerily similar" states projected in favour of Harris on the 2024 map, hence the renewed interest in that concept that they maybe foresaying future events.
It was on social media platforms with such hashtags as #ElectionDay and #HarrisWalz2024 as viewers speculated that it may yet again align with reality.
Can The Simpsons really predict the future?
While many fans enjoy believing that The Simpsons can predict the future, critics often point out that such occurrences are mostly coincidental or that the creators of the show simply tap into perpetual cultural anxieties.
The head writer of the 2000 episode was Dan Greaney. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, he admitted that the Trump storyline was to indicate the direction in which American politics was going: "It was a warning to America," he said; after all, it wasn't an attempt to predict something; it was a "logical conclusion" as some noticed even then.
Despite all the many "predictions" that surfaced in the show, there's really no concrete evidence that claims The Simpsons has real prescience.
However, it continues to reveal political and cultural shifts and fuel theories about its ability to predict the future.
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Stream The Simpsons over at Disney+ to judge the show's predictions firsthand.
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