The Simpsons writer finally reveals how show predicts the future so scarily accurately

Every time something big happens in the world, it seems like The Simpsons predicted it, and the show’s ex-writer and creator have finally let everyone in on the not-so-groundbreaking secret. 

The Covid pandemic, Donald Trump becoming president, and Lady Gaga’s Super Bowl show are just a few of the many, many things that have creepily become true years after they were shown in an episode of the cartoon comedy. But there’s actually a very straightforward explanation as to how the show so accurately predicts things, and there’s nothing strange going on after all. It just comes down to the sheer number of ideas they throw out there. 

Ex-The Simpsons writer Conan O’Brien’s invited the show’s creator Matt Groening on his podcast this week, and they explained that when planning new episodes of The Simpsons, the whole team throw out thousands of ideas. Some of them are more logical things that will happen at some point, while others are totally wacky. They put so many ideas in the hat that most of them don’t end up coming true, but the odd one does. 

Credit: 20th Century Fox

Basically, when you’re throwing that many ideas into the ring, one’s bound to come true eventually. It’s a matter of probability. When it happens to be one of the wilder things, people immediately freak out and say The Simpsons predicted it. But realistically, way more things haven’t come true than have. 

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“I’ve had people ask me, ‘Hey Conan, how is it that you guys—meaning any Simpsons person—how is it you guys were able to predict the future?’ And I’ll say, ‘Are you… you’re not being serious?’ They’re being totally serious. They think that wizards work at The Simpsons as opposed to ‘It’s a volume business’,” O’Brien explained.

“You throw out a lot of things. Maybe you make a joke about, ‘Yes, the president in the future will be real estate a**hole Donald Trump’, and it’s just a quick laugh in the room, and then later on it’s a chilling omen, but there are so many of them now.”

Groening then added: “Dan Greaney, the writer of that line about Trump being president, was done in like 2002 or something, and then at [the end of the episode] Lisa was president, so we don’t get everything right.” 

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Featured image credit: 20th Century Fox