The Simpsons predicted coronavirus and murder hornets

A 1993 episode of the Fox animated sitcom seemingly foreshadowed this year’s crises

The Simpsons predicted coronavirus and murder hornets 1

The Simpsons appears to have foreseen the future again.

Fans of the Fox animated sitcom have recently taken to social media to point out that the show’s 1993 episode titled Marge in Chains seems to have predicted the COVID-19 pandemic and the arrival of murder hornets in the U.S.

In the episode, a mysterious illness travels from Osaka to Springfield after an infected assembly-line worker in Japan sneezes into the boxes of “Juice Looseners” that are later shipped to several Springfield residents, including Homer Simpson, Principal Skinner, and more.

Upon opening their packages and letting the virus out, the people of Springfield fall sick and the disease, dubbed as The Osaka Flu, spreads like wildfire ― a public health emergency that is very much similar to the coronavirus pandemic that the world is currently facing right now.

The Simpsons Full Episodes 2019 -Marge in Chains Part 01

Later in the episode, a mob of Springfield citizens storm the hospital to demand a cure. Thinking that the truck parked outside the medical facility contains the cure, the crowd knocks the vehicle over only to find out that it’s carrying crates of killer bees that are unleashed into the town. Though these killer bees aren’t the same as the Asian giant hornets that were recently spotted for the first time in the state of Washington, the resemblance between the two is quite uncanny.

2020 Pandemic And Murder Hornets

Last March, Bill Oakley, who co-wrote Marge in Chains with Josh Weinstein, denounced the parallels between the episode and the COVID-19 pandemic, telling The Hollywood Reporter that the story was actually inspired by a flu that hit Hong Kong in 1968. “It’s mainly just coincidence because the episodes are so old that history repeats itself,” he said. “Most of these episodes are based on things that happened in the ‘60s, ‘70s or ‘80s that we knew about.”

While Oakley was initially not convinced that The Simpsons is predicting the future, the writer appeared to have finally accepted it as a fact, when he recently responded to a fan on Twitter.

In addition to the coronavirus pandemic and the arrival of murder hornets in the U.S., The Simpsons also seemed to predict the Disney-Fox merger and Donald Trump’s presidency.

Sources: The Los Angeles Times, ABC News, The Hollywood Reporter
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