The Simpsons been right about a lot over the years.
Fans of the show have long witnessed the ability of FOX writers to predict several major current events. From Disney’s purchase of 20th Century Fox to Donald Trump’s presidency and, more recently, Vice President Kamala Harris’ purple pantsuit, The Simpsons is on a winning streak.
But the method of their magic isn’t as glamorous or gruesome as fans might imagine.
‘The Simpsons’ will explain how they predicted several future events in the upcoming episode of season 34
“Well, the main answer I always give, and nobody likes it, is that if you study history and math, it would be literally impossible for us not to predict things,” showrunner and executive producer Matt Selman tells PEOPLE exclusively. “If you say enough things, some of them will overlap with reality, and then there’s the mathematical element. And then, the historical element is if you make a show based on studying the past stupidity of mankind, you’re surely predicting the future stupidity of mankind while it all it sinks more into silliness, so we don’t really think about it.”
Noting that the list of things the show has predicted (which currently stands at 34) is “completely unregulated,” Selman — who has worked on the show since 1997, starting as a writer — says the one thing the writers “hate” is when fans “put the obvious fake pictures on the internet and say, we predicted things we didn’t.”
“It was nicer when the predictions just predicted actual horrible events, not when people pretended we predicted horrible events,” he says, adding that “it’s very depressing and disheartening that people want magic to be true so much that they just start.” create up to scenarios that have never appeared on the show.
The Simpsons face death while vacationing at a luxury resort in an all-new Simpsons episode “The Yellow Lotus” airing on October 6, 2024.
FOX
The Simpsonscreated by Matt Groening, debuted on FOX on December 17, 1989. Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Hank Azaria, and Harry Shearer rounded out the series’ primary voice cast.
The long-running animated program is now in its 36th season, which premiered on Sept. 29 with an episode it called the “series finale,” causing confusion among viewers who watched. Selman raved about the episode’s “bold premise,” saying it “worked really well.”
“What we may have lost sight of for the linear TV premiere, I think we’ll probably get some good streaming numbers and people will be like, ‘Wow, I heard this is crazy. I’ve got to check it out,'” he says, reiterating how “it’s not a finale, just a playful experiment with nonsense”.
The Simpsons Meta ‘Series Finale’ Episode Aired for Season 36 Premiere: How They Did It (Exclusive)
The new season has plenty of surprises in store, but Selman believes that “teasing” what’s to come could backfire.
“I’m worried that if we let anyone know about this idea before it airs, the internet would freak out and say The Simpsons it actually ends,” he says. “And then it would manifest itself somehow. We would predict our familiar predictions – we would predict our own death.”
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Homer Simpson in The Simpsons.
FOX
What Selman can say, however, is that there are several special upcoming episodes, including one that will air on Sunday, October 6, that will “parody” several popular shows. The series will also return with the 35th edition of its iconic Halloween-themed anthology episode “Treehouse of Horror,” as well as some specials premiering exclusively on Disney+.
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The Simpsons airs Sundays at 8:00 PM ET on Fox.
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education