Once again, The Simpsons did it.
In keeping with their penchant for predicting oddly specific bits of future reality, it would appear that a 1993 episode totally nailed 2020's vibe so far: Rampant disease and flying murderbugs.
The episode didn't go so far as nailing the name or that it was a novel virus—or that the murderbugs would be hornets, not killer bees. But it came unnervingly close.
The episode in question,"Marge In Chains", features a disease plaguing the citizens of Springfield. The public panic, make unreasonable demands and just make things worse for themselves.
Dumb cures are tried—like shooting the disease, for instance.
Inept and corrupt leaders do what inept and corrupt leaders do ... like take vacations, deny that anything is happening, and spin things for their own purposes.
Kids (and lame a** sitcom-style spouses) are home testing the sanity of mothers everywhere. Shopping becomes a stressful nightmare.
Also there are murderous stinging insects flying around.
Sound familiar?
Twitter certainly thought so.
One person posted a snippet from the episode that really caught people's attention.
Shit the simpsons really did predict 2020 https://t.co/dadM5jvLrB— Eddie D’ohgrou (@Eddie D’ohgrou) 1588733202.0
So the reviews are in.
2020 sucks and the fact that The Simpsons keeps hitting so close to reality is seriously cause for concern.
Who do we write to about this? Is there a petition? Does 2020 have a manager the Karens can speak to?
'Cause this is lame.
@didgeridougrou @robingnelson Holy shit. AND they predicted President* Trump. This either means that the writer… https://t.co/BkKOcLggi8— Kevin 🌊#Resist #AbolishICE #VoteBlueNoMatterWho🌊 (@Kevin 🌊#Resist #AbolishICE #VoteBlueNoMatterWho🌊) 1588736757.0
“The Simpsons doesn’t predict the future...there’s just so many episodes...” May 6, 1993: A Simpsons episode plot… https://t.co/xvN6muVyas— Darren Rovell (@Darren Rovell) 1588774927.0
@maknorman4 @darrenrovell @eastsfinest2015 https://t.co/zvXAMbya3X— Jess💫 (@Jess💫) 1588778917.0
@barstoolsports Everyone in this thread realizes that the Killer Bee thing actually happened in the mid 90's though… https://t.co/mIBaZvjwyW— Terran Sherwood (@Terran Sherwood) 1588784465.0
@mashable Predictive programming— germs ⚖️ (@germs ⚖️) 1588782971.0
@DragonDoomLord @didgeridougrou Shhhhh, folk'll get ideas.— Vaxxentine (Pfizer x1) (@Vaxxentine (Pfizer x1)) 1588784853.0
Look we don't know what deal The Simpsons writers have going on with what deity that allows them to time travel or be psychic or whatever. What we do know if we are really hoping some of the happier episodes start coming true.
We could all use it right now what with the pandemic and the murder hornets. But if the show's plot (and 2020's "mood" so far) are any indication then we should probably base for alien invasion.
Wait, didn't the government just confirm some UFO footage or something?
2020 is wild so far, friends.
Wild.
The book The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets is available here.