Coronavirus and ‘The Simpsons’: People Think the Show Predicted Tom Hanks Infection
Going off the cuff, there are probably five TV shows you can name as fixtures in pop culture, and The Simpsons is one of them.
Even if you’ve never watched an entire episode, you know the memes, the characters’ personalities, and The Simpsons’ eerie ability to predict real-world events. As strange as it sounds, The Simpsons has an odd reputation for being psychic.
This past week, the show had another Nostradamus moment when some social media users tried to connect The Simpsons to Tom Hanks and coronavirus. If you’re asking yourself how, allow us to walk you through it.
Someone dug through ‘The Simpsons’ annals
Coronavirus understandably has the world on edge, and social media is being used to share everything from prophylactic measures, to stats, to shopping tips. But it’s also become a place to share conspiracy theories.
The Simpsons are part of one involving Tom Hanks, and a small percentage of people think one scene from 2007 with Hanks in it was forecasting his future quarantine.
In The Simpsons Movie, an animated Hanks is at the Grand Canyon and says, “The U.S. government has its credibility so it’s borrowing some of mine.”
Later in the clip, he adds, “This is Tom Hanks saying if you see me in person, please let me be.” Both times amounted to a few seconds.
Some fans on Twitter and YouTube are convinced The Simpsons did it again, while others believe it’s a reach and in no way shows or mentions the spread of a viral pandemic. Not everyone is buying into this one.
Other odd predictions tied to ‘The Simpsons’
No matter which camp you belong to on the Tom Hanks theory, there are other documented cases of The Simpsons using some weird powers of prophecy. Many point to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and a shot of him on an escalator in one episode of the series.
There was also that time Homer calculated the “God Particle” and years later, it turned out to be a legit discovery in physics. Just check out this rundown of the show’s record in clairvoyance, including Disney’s acquisition of Fox.
Sylvia Browne was also thrown into the prediction mix
For a day or so, Sylvia Browne was trending online because of a prediction she made back in 2008. Kim Kardashian West tweeted out a passage from Browne’s book, End of Days: Predictions and Prophecies about the End of the World, and her fans made it go viral.
“In around 2020 a severe pneumonia-like illness will spread throughout the globe, attacking the lungs and bronchial tubes and resisting all known treatments. Almost more baffling than the illness itself will be the fact that it will suddenly vanish as quickly as it arrived, attack again ten years later, and then disappear completely.”
As scientific experts continue to work to understand more about coronavirus, its origins, and effective treatments, the general public is trying to do the same thing. In the coming weeks, we should all expect more internet theories to pop up, with or without The Simpsons.
