Everyone knows the gift that The Simpsons has to predict facts and events that are happening. Like the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States, the acquisition of FOX by Disney or the current coronavirus pandemic that affects the entire world. In fact, the scenes from the episode Marge chained, where an Asian flu travels to Springfield infecting everyone, they are used in a discriminatory way towards Asian citizens. Hollywood Reporter has spoken with one of the writers of that episode that gives an explanation of the supposed predictions of The Simpsons.
Bill Oakley worked with Josh Weinstein on the script for this episode aired in 1993, nearly 30 years before this health crisis. So, it was the "Osaka flu" and were inspired by the Hong Kong Flu of 1968 that caused a million deaths. However, Oakley is disgusted by the use that is being given to the scenes of that episode: "I don't like it being used for evil purposes. The thought of someone appropriating it to make the coronavirus look like an Asian plot is terrible. In terms of trying to blame Asia, I think it's disgusting »
And far from continuing with the predictions joke, Oakley assured that "There are very few cases in which The Simpsons predicted something". As he explains, "It is mainly a coincidence because the episodes are so old that history repeats. Most of these episodes are based on things that happened in the 60s, 70s or 80s that we knew about ». This would also deny the intention of the recent prediction about the Tom Hanks contagion that was being speculated this week. So what did they mean by that? It is clear that we still miss many details of the writers of the series.
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