HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — It's become chic as of late to say "Simpsons did it first" when scenarios scripted into the long-running animated sitcom wind up taking place to one degree or another in real life. One of the most cited examples is the off-handed comment about President Trump by cartoon President Lisa Simpson in the episode "Bart to the Future," which first aired in 2000.
However, with the advent of photo editing software and artificial intelligence programs, it has become easier for people to create images that could theoretically have come from the "Simpsons" animated universe and claim it as another example of the series' penchant for prediction. Such is the case of an image that has been circulating in the days since the collapse of Baltimore's Francis Scott Key bridge. One social media user even cites an episode from which the "prediction" is supposed to have originated - "Season 35, Episode 8."
The image depicts Simpson patriarch Homer watching on from the deck of another ship, coffee in hand, as a large ship rams a bridge. Smaller ships, containers, and debris litter the water, as an unidentified male character and a girl who appears to be Lisa Simpson look out from a few paces ahead of Homer.
THE QUESTION:
Did The Simpsons "predict" the bridge collapse?
SOURCES:
- Google Images
- Matt Selman, 'Simpsons' executive producer (via X, formerly Twitter)
- Other X users adding context
- Hulu episode guide
THE ANSWER:
No, the image circulating is of artwork generated by artificial intelligence.
WHAT WE FOUND
Posters of the image to X, formerly known as Twitter, have added context to the photo stating that artificial intelligence was used to create it.
"Hardcore" Simpsons fans might know that Lisa, for example, is always depicted with eight points for her hairstyle - the image circulating online features ten. AI programs might not be as well-versed in Simpsons character design.
"Sadly #TheSimpsons 'predictions' are now meaningless," wrote the show's executive producer, Matt Selman, on X Thursday night. "People so desperately want to believe in the show's 'magic powers' (or are just very lazy) that they ignore that obviously fake images of the so-called predictions cannot be traced to any actual episode - like this nonsense.'
Indeed, a Google Image search only shows exact matches for reposts of the AI-generated image and one YouTube copy of a TikTok post.
As for the supposed episode that the image was to have come from - Season 35, Episode 8 - Hulu and other online episode guides describe the episode "Ae Bonny Romance," which aired December 3, 2023, as a Groundskeeper Willie-centric episode. The episode does not contain any such scene mimicking the bridge collapse.