The Simpsons Will *Finally* Address How They “Predict The Future”

They say art imitates life. However, when it comes to The Simpsons, it could be argued the reverse is true. During its 33 years on the air, the classic cartoon appears to have predicted a string of major events, including the election of President Donald Trump, the merging of Disney and Fox, Lady Gaga’s Super Bowl Halftime show, and more. Now, as The Simpsons approaches Season 34, it has been revealed the show will finally address its knack for predicting the future.

Speaking to Deadline, showrunner Matt Selman teased that one episode in the new series will explain how The Simpsons “knows the future.” He continued: “It’s a conceptual episode with lots of crazy stuff in it, but it does [offer] an explanation of how The Simpsons can predict the future.”

Another eerie fan theory to have emerged in recent years is that the cartoon’s 1997 episode, titled The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson, also predicted the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001. Addressing the theory with ComicBook.com, The Simpsons showrunner Al Jean explained, “There was one crazy cell where Bart held up a brochure that is ‘New York on $9 a day,’ the World Trade Center, this was 1996, was in the background, so it looked like a ‘9/11,’ that was insane, and of course unplanned, and a terrible coincidence.”

As per Metro, viewers have also recently claimed that The Simpsons foreshadowed the UK’s rising energy bills crisis in the 2013 episode “A Test Before Trying,” as well as the Mark Zuckerberg-championed Metaverse in the 2011 episode “Holidays of Future Passed” — during which the character of Lisa Simpson heads into an immersive online universe known as the “ultra net.”

The Simpsons Season 34 debuts on Sep. 25 and will be available to stream on Disney+ UK.