According to internet listicles, the animated sitcom The Simpsons has predicted the future anywhere from 17 to 55 times.
“As you know, we’ve inherited quite a budget crunch from President Trump,” the newly sworn-in President Lisa Simpson declared way back in 2000, 17 years before the real estate mogul was inaugurated as the 45th leader of the United States. Earlier, in 1993, an episode of the show featured the “Osaka flu,” which some felt was eerily prescient of the coronavirus pandemic. And—somehow!—Simpsons writers just knew that the US Olympic curling team would beat Sweden eight whole years before they did it.
& © 20TH TELEVISIONThe 16th-century seer Nostradamus made 942 predictions. To date, there have been some 800 episodes of The Simpsons. How does it feel to be a showrunner turned soothsayer? What’s it like when the world combs your jokes for prophecies and thinks you knew about 9/11 four years before it happened?
This story is part of MIT Technology Review’s series “The New Conspiracy Age,” on how the present boom in conspiracy theories is reshaping science and technology.
Al Jean has worked on The Simpsons on and off since 1989; he is the cartoon’s longest-serving showrunner. Here, he reflects on the conspiracy theories that have sprung from these apparent prophecies.
When did you first start hearing rumblings about The Simpsons having predicted the future?
It definitely got huge when Donald Trump was elected president in 2016 after we “predicted” it in an episode from 2000. The original pitch for the line was Johnny Depp and that was in for a while, but it was decided that it wasn’t as funny as Trump.
What people don’t remember is that in the year 2000, it wasn’t such a crazy name to pick, because Trump was talking about running as a Reform Party candidate. So, like a lot of our “predictions,” it’s an educated guess. I won’t comment on whether it’s a good thing that it happened, but I will say that it’s not the most illogical person you could have picked for that joke. And we did say that following him was Lisa, and now that he’s been elected again, we could still have Lisa next time—that’s my hope!
How did it make you feel that people thought you were a prophet?
Again, apart from the election’s impact on the free world, I would say that we were amused that we had said something that came true. Then we made a short video called “Trumptastic Voyage” in 2015 that predicted he would run in 2016, 2020, 2024, and 2028, so we’re three-quarters of the way through that arduous prediction.
But I like people thinking that I know something about the future. It’s a good reputation to have. You only need half a dozen things that were either on target or even uncanny to be considered an oracle. Or maybe we’re from the future—I’ll let you decide!
Why do you think people are so drawn to the idea that The Simpsons is prophetic?
Maybe it slightly satisfies a yearning people have for meaning, certainly when life is now so random.
Would you say that most of your predictions have logical explanations?
It’s cherry-picking—there are 35 years of material. How many of the things that we said came true versus how many of the many things we said did not come true?
In 2014, we predicted Germany would win the World Cup in Brazil. It’s because we wanted a joke where the Brazilians were sad and they were singing a sad version of the “Olé, olé” song. So we had to think about who would be likely to win if Brazil lost, and Germany was the number two, so they did win, but it wasn’t the craziest prediction. In the same episode, we predicted that FIFA would be corrupt, which is a very easy prediction! So a lot of them fall under that category.
In one scene I wrote, Marge holds a book called Curious George and the Ebola Virus—people go, “Oh my God! He predicted that!” Well, Ebola existed when I wrote the joke. I’d seen a movie about it called Outbreak. It’s like predicting the Black Death.
But have any of your so-called “predictions” made even you pause?
There are a couple of really bizarre coincidences. There was a brochure in a New York episode [which aired in 1997] that said “New York, $9” next to a picture of the trade towers looking like an 11. That was nuts. It still sends chills down me. The writer of that episode, Ian Maxtone-Graham, was nonplussed. He really couldn’t believe it.
& © 20TH TELEVISIONIt’s not like we would’ve made that knowing what was going to come, which we didn’t. And people have advanced conspiracy theories that we’re all Ivy League writers who knew … it’s preposterous stuff that people say. There’s also a thing people do that we don’t really love, which is they fake predictions. So after something happens, they’ll concoct a Simpsons frame, and it’s not something that ever aired. [Editor’s note: People faked Simpsons screenshots seeming to predict the 2024 Baltimore bridge collapse and the 2019 Notre-Dame fire. Images from the real “Osaka flu” episode were also edited to include the word “coronavirus.”]
How does that make you feel? Is it frustrating?
It shows you how you can really convince people of something that’s not the case. Our small denial doesn’t get as much attention.
As far as internet conspiracies go, where would you rate the idea that The Simpsons can predict the future?
I hope it’s harmless. I think it’s really lodged in the internet very well. I don’t think it’s disappearing anytime soon. I’m sure for the rest of my life I’ll be hearing about what a group of psychics and seers I was part of. If we really could predict that well, we’d all be retired from betting on football. Although, advice to readers: Don’t bet on football.
& © 20TH TELEVISIONStill, it is a tiny part of a trend that is alarming, which is people being unable to distinguish fact from fiction. And I have that trouble too. You read something, and your natural inclination has always been, “Well, I read it—it’s true.” And you have to really be skeptical about that.
Can I ask you to predict a solution to all of this?
I think my only solution is: Look at your phone less and read more books.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Amelia Tait is a London-based freelance features journalist who writes about culture, trends, and unusual phenomena.