The Simpsons is looking less and less like America’s longest-running animated sitcom, and more and more like a prophetic saga about where our nation (and the world) was headed. In recent years, Simpsons fans have been amazed about how various episodes of the show predicted everything from the election of President Donald Trump to the Disney-Fox merger. The Simpsons has also been scary accurate in predicting the crazy times we’re living in during the year 2020: an episode about the flu-like pandemic from Asia went viral, and now a scene from that same episode is going viral for also predicting the attack of deadly insects during the pandemic!
Shit the simpsons really did predict 2020 pic.twitter.com/dadM5jvLrB
— Eddie D’ohgrou (@didgeridougrou) May 6, 2020
This scene is from The Simpsons season 4, episode 21, “Marge in Chains”. The episode sees a flu from a Japanese factory (named “The Osaka Flu”) come to Springfield and hit the population hard and fast, causing a pandemic-style mass infection. The rowdy townspeople quickly turn into a mob, and storm the hospital demanding a cure to the Osaka Flu. Whe Dr. Hibbert tries to tell them there is no real cure, only placebos, the dimwit townsfolk think the doctor is referring to some miracle drug that might be stored in a nearby truck. That truck instead contains a swarm of killer bees, which then attack the townspeople, causing even more panic and chaos.
Obviously fans see this episode of The Simpsons and its Osaka Flu as being predictive commentary on a lot of the factors that have now resulted in the coronavirus pandemic. However, you may not know the other side of the Simpons prediction yet: America now has “Murder Hornets!”
Asian giant hornets have started to be spotted in the US, sparking national concern amongst wildlife experts. These very large and aggressive hornets are capable of puncturing bee-keeping suits with their massive stingers, and can kill upwards of 50 people a year in Japan. They also happen to be voracious predators of bee colonies, capable of murdering entire hives in mere hours, to feed on their bodies. Obviously, the worry is that the giant hornets will establish themselves in the US ecosystems so deeply they cannot be removed. The disruptive threat to both bee and human populations would be considerable.
If you’re wondering what else this episode of the Simpsons entails: trouble with increased home responsibilities and a full-on riot over a political monument are also highlights. So yeah, that sounds right on track for the rest of 2020…
You can watch “Marge In Chains” and every other Simpsons episode on Disney+.
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