Did The Simpsons predict apocalypse on January 20th 2021? Fact Check

More posts about The Simpsons making an unsettling prediction are spreading on social media, this time claiming that the show predicted an apocalypse on January 20th, 2021, which is the day Joe Biden is inaugurated as the US president.

MISLEADING

The posts actually span from a recent Halloween episode of the animated series about the 2020 election itself, but some of the claims about The Simpsons predicting an apocalypse have become separated from this context, leading many social media users to believe that the show simply used some random future date as the timing for the apocalypse that just so happened to be the same day Biden is inaugurated.

In the episode, which aired during Halloween 2020, only a month before the election itself, Homer is told by his family to make sure he votes in the election. During the tongue-in-cheek episode, his daughter Lisa lists off Trump’s alleged faults and shortcomings in an apparent bid to persuade Homer into voting for Joe Biden. However Homer sleeps through the election and doesn’t vote, and the show cuts to the 2021 inauguration date where it is [presumably] Trump that won the election and Springfield is on fire, and that Homer could have been the deciding vote had he turned up and voted for Biden as Lisa has wanted.

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As such, The Simpsons didn’t really use some random future date to predict the apocalypse. The episode was new, airing in the second half of 2020, and the creators of the show knew that date was the inauguration day where the winning candidate would be sworn in, and while not explicitly stated, the implication is that it was actually Trump being sworn in for a second term.

If you’re fearing an impending apocalypse, we wouldn’t worry too much. The Simpsons reputation for prognostication over the years has been somewhat embellished, including the false claim that the show predicted Trump’s ride down the escalators after announcing his candidacy, a false claim about the fire at Notre Dame and the false claim the show predicted riots following George Floyd’s death.