Did The Simpsons forecast an attempt at Trump's assassination?
Many social media posts claiming The Simpsons predicted the shooting at former President Donald Trump's rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on Saturday, July 13 went viral following the news of it. But did the animated sitcom actually forecast Trump's attempt at assassination?
Over its 35 seasons and 768 episodes, The Simpsons has covered and parodied innumerable themes and public personalities. It is therefore not shocking that many people try to make connections between the show and current affairs.
A few times, The Simpsons has even foresaw the future! From public health emergencies to new technologies and all points between. They have even foreseen movies made someday, sports outcomes, and even the Disney and FOX union. That people search for links between the show and significant breaking news is not surprising, then.
The Simpsons Never Features an Episode Regarding Attempt at Trump's Assassination
Although Donald Trump has appeared and been referenced in The Simpsons several times, both during and after his presidency, the show never foresaw an attempted murder on the former president.
A lot of viral posts on X (formerly Twitter) featuring two images connected to The Simpsons led one to believe the show predicted the shooting during Trump's Rally. One depicts Trump in Simpsons style delivering a campaign speech, and the other shows Trump in a comparable manner inside a coffin.
These two pictures, though, are not connected, and the one with the coffin isn't from The Simpsons exactly. The first image comes from the episode "Trumptastic Voyage," when The Simpsons had Trump delivering a campaign speech. Though its source is unknown, the coffin image has been floating around the internet for years and most definitely isn't from The Simpsons. Other erroneous The Simpsons prediction theories, including one asserting the show had predicted "Trump would die in 2020" due of COVID-19, have been supported by this image.
Donald Trump appears just in three Simpsons episodes.
Though The Simpsons has mentioned Trump several times, the show's portrayal of the former president has only appeared in three episodes: "Hardly Kirk-ing," "The Cad and the Hat," and "Looking for Mr. Goodbart," the last of which included a segment of Donald Trump's First 100 Days in Office special as opening. Still, Trump has shown up in several The Simpsons specials, ranging from Trumptastic Voyage to West Wing Story. The Simpsons also foresaw Trump's presidency in season 11, episode 17, "Bart to the Future."
Created by Matt Groening, the long-running animated TV show The Simpsons parodies a working-class family in the misfit city of Springfield. Homer, a bit of a schmoe employed at a nuclear power plant, provides for his family; his wife, Marge, strives to keep the house sane and reasonable as best of her ability. Born troublemaker Bart is surrounded by people who cannot understand his sister Lisa, who is super-intelligent. At last, Maggie is the enigmatic infant that serves as a deus ex machina as the show demands it. Constantly addressing sociopolitical and pop-cultural issues set within their environment, the show puts the family in several wild circumstances and offers a sometimes sharp critique of the subjects covered in every episode. First showing in 1989, this series has been a mainstay of Fox's programming schedule ever since.
