Reading over Nostradamus and his predictions reminded me how recently people have been claiming the Simpsons have been predicting future events for years, such as Donald Trump becoming president and the terrorist attack on the world trade centers. Nostradamus often made his predictions vague so they could apply to multiple events, such as one perdition fitting both 9/11 and the London blitz. The Simpsons seem to have unintentionally tapped into this vagueness to predict future events. The Simpsons have supposedly predicted how the NSA are spying on us, smart watches, and even the corruption scandal in the FIFA organization.
This whole belief that the Simpsons predict the future gained traction after Trump became president, which at some point happened in the show as a joke. However, I don't believe the writers of the Simpsons have any foresight into the future, but instead are just stating obvious jokes. Trump has always flirted with running for president, Smart watches and face time are common scifi ideas in the old days, and sports organizations have always been at least a little corrupt. The Simpsons have been on the air for over two and a half decades and has had around 600 episodes. They have likely done almost every joke imaginable at this point and have at least one scene in the shows run that can apply to a certain event. Over all, people seem to be taking one off jokes too seriously and seem to be raising the Simpsons as the modern day version of Nostradamus. We live in a strange time...
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I found this particularly interesting because so many people believe that this show predicts the future somehow. I agree with your statement, "stating obvious jokes". Smart watches and other electronic devices have long been suspected of being used for the government to spy on the country. The Simpsons use themes that are common conspiracies.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you both that the Simpsons writers used obvious material that anyone would use as a joke. It seems that none of their episodes seem to point in one particular side of any conspiracy but rather makes fun of them all together. Much like how the writers of South Park kind of make fun of everything all together but never really make any kind of statement to how they feel about the actual conspiracy.
ReplyDeleteI was just talking about this the other day with my father. It is just amazing that some people really do believe that the show can be used to predict the future. I agree also with what you and Danyelle said, the writers are "stating obvious jokes". For instance Trump being president. When it was produced it clearly was used as a joke, it just happened that it is reality now.
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