From Toys R Us closing down to Donald Trump becoming president, it’s no secret The Simpsons has been at the forefront of a lot of important decision making.
Okay so maybe the sitcom didn’t actually have a hand in these scenarios being brought to life outside of our TV screens, but it has manage to predict them in sometimes spookily accurate ways.
Now, the show’s writers have revealed exactly how they manage to ‘predict the future’, and it’s much less conspiratorial than you might think.
In an interview with Radio 1 Newsbeat, writer Stephanie Gillis explained how they are constantly looking to the future in that they have to try and ‘guess’ what will happen in the world months in advance.
Stephanie said:
We are sort of futurologists in that we write 10 months ahead, so we’re trying to guess what is going to happen.
Because of this, it’s more than likely they are going to hit the jackpot and make correct predictions at least some of the time – especially when they consult things that have already happened to inform their decisions.
Take, for example, the Donald Trump prediction: another of the show’s writers, Al Jean, explained how they were ‘looking for a funny celebrity who would be president’ way back when in 2000 – and Trump had already said he’d consider running for office in the future.
The writer, who has been with Homer and the crew since the show began in 1989, went on to say:
If you make enough predictions then 10 per cent will turn out to be right.
Jean also explained how an episode which aired long before the September 11, 2001 terror attacks – which provided a field day for conspiracy theorists when it appeared to predict 9/11 – was simply a massive coincidence.
In the episode, the family head to New York City and buy a guide book which has the words ‘9 dollars’ on it next to a picture of the Twin Towers and ultimately looked like 9/11. However, Jean said that was ‘totally coincidental’.
The predictions don’t stop there though; the show has also been known to predict Lady Gaga’s Super Bowl performance, the Game Of Thrones Battle Of King’s Landing, Disney’s takeover of Fox, and Canada’s legalisation of marijuana – to name just a few.
I tell you what, as impressive as getting a gig on The Simpsons is, those writers should be adding ‘fortune teller’ and/or ‘predictor of the future’ to the top of their CVs.
I definitely would.
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A Broadcast Journalism Masters graduate who went on to achieve an NCTJ level 3 Diploma in Journalism, Lucy has done stints at ITV, BBC Inside Out and Key 103. While working as a journalist for UNILAD, Lucy has reported on breaking news stories while also writing features about mental health, cervical screening awareness, and Little Mix (who she is unapologetically obsessed with).