Several social media posts, photos and memes, which have been viewed millions of times online, claim The Simpsons continues to prove they have that crystal ball magic by predicting the exact year and date Queen Elizabeth II died.
Viral social media posts suggest creator Matt Groening and The Simpsons writers knew what was going to happen. The first major TikTok video to go viral with 16.8 million views featured a scene from Season 15 Episode 4 called “The Regina Monologues” where the Simpson family goes to the UK. As he drives around, Homer Simpson’s car crashes into the back of the Queen’s carriage and overturns it. The video zooms in on a piece of paper inside the carriage that reads “8.9.2022,” which happens to be the date of the monarch’s death in real life. Some people were amazed at the accuracy of the so-called “prediction”, but many others were quick to point out that the… video was edited, and the date did not appear in the original. Twitter users also re-shared the video, with some believing the prediction but others debunking it.
Another post that went viral the Simpsons version of Queen Elizabeth II in a coffin. That post has been viewed, shared and commented on millions of times on Twitter, TikTok and Reddit, suggesting that The Simpsons predicted in 2014 that the year of her death would be 2022. Closer digging revealed that it was a faked version of a previously manipulated image. A photo of Donald Trump lying in a coffin in an episode of The Simpsons has been another source of prediction rumors for years. According to PolitiFact, this image predicting Donald Trump’s death appears to have come from 4Can. In the image, the former president has been swapped for Elizabeth II and a sort of tombstone has been added on top.
Some swear The Simpsons have done it before
Although Queen Elizabeth II in six episodes of The Simpsonsnothing but “The Regina Monologues” saw her in danger. This London episode featured quite a few high-profile cameos of Britons playing themselves, including then Prime Minister Tony Blair, actor Sir Ian McKellen and author JK Rowling.
Some Simpsons fans also believe the show predicted the monkey pox outbreak. A 1995 clip appears to show Bart and Milhouse both getting sick after playing with a monkey. Season 7, Episode 3, “Home Sweet Homediddly-Dum-Dodily” sees a monkey crawling over Bart’s head, causing him to get lice, while Milhouse has a fever that makes him sicker. Others were quick to point out that monkeypox was nothing new since the first case was diagnosed in humans in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1970.
Over the course of the 728 episodes of the long-running cartoon series, there have been many notable examples of when The Simpsons‘ gag or storyline has come true. These include a mention of President Trump in the episode “Bart to the Future,” predicted the Disney/Fox merger in 1998’s “When You Wish Upon a Star” and the COVID-19 pandemic in 1993’s “Marge in Chains.”