The Simpsons have been famous for predicting many important events in history, such as the pandemic and Trump’s presidency. Recently, a photo is circulating on social media suggesting that The Simpsons were the ones to predict the death of Queen Elizabeth II. The date on the gravestone reads “1926 to 2022”.
No, the Simpsons did not predict Queen Elizabeth II’s death
A lot of people re-shared the image without checking for its authenticity. People were quick to believe the edited screenshot because the Simpsons are popular for their stellar track history of predicting monumental events.
of course the simpsons predicted queen elizabeth’s death. pic.twitter.com/UhHDkQe6fB
— CAV (@cavvvvyy) September 18, 2022
“More than a decade ago, the editorial consultants behind the animated film The Simpsons must be experts in metaphysics. They accurately predicted Trump’s election, predicted Kobe Bryant’s crash, predicted the constant rise of PI coins and predicted the year of the Queen’s death,” one person tweeted.
However, a website called Misbar did some fact-checking and found that the image is fake. A lot of other people have also started to realize that the screenshot is fake.
Claim:
The #Simpsons precited the death of #QueenElizabethII.❌Fact:
The claim is fake. #Misbar found that the photo is digitally altered.✅ pic.twitter.com/9nr5U6xIHO— Misbar (@misbar_en) September 18, 2022
Surprisingly, the doctored image is an edited version of a scene from the sitcom that predicted the death of former U.S. President Donald Trump.
In March 2000, the animated show also predicted that Trump would become the President of the United States. In the same episode, Lisa takes over the “first straight female president” title”. She takes over from Trump, who had ruined the country’s economy in the show’s timeline.
There were multiple TikToks of the fake news. “Simpsons predicted queen’s death with a date. If you watch that TikTok in slow motion, you see the date thing pop in after the camera angle already changed. The date wasn’t there in the first couple of frames after the transition,” another person tweeted.
“The Simpsons have done it again,” said the caption on one of the snippets on TikTok with more than 16.8 million views.
The clip shows a scene from Season 15 Episode 4 titled “The Regina Monologues”. In the snippet, Homer collides with the queen’s carriage and knocks it over. Meanwhile, the Simpson family is spending their vacations in London. The clip ends on a zoomed shot of a piece of paper with 8.9.2022 written on it — the real date of Queen Elizabeth’s death.
While die-hard fans of the animated series believed it, others were skeptical of the edited date in the TikTok clip. The episode shown in the video edit never mentions the queen’s death.
Another humorless example of The Simpson’s clairvoyant powers on social media was the recent forecasting of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in the show
According to The Simpsons Fandom Wiki, a source that outlines all of the show’s episodes, the Simpsons featured the queen in 6 episodes. She was also mentioned or referenced in 3 more episodes.
Misbar also dug up that in the six episodes she was portrayed in, and the 3 episodes she was mentioned in, the subject of her death never came up.
The Simpsons writer AI Jean paid tribute to Queen Elizabeth II. Jean shared an image of the queen’s cartoon feature in the show with the caption: “God rest the Queen.”
God rest the Queen. pic.twitter.com/AattESk1Qp
— Al Jean (@AlJean) September 8, 2022
According to Misbar’s team, the queen’s death was not hinted at or mentioned in any of the episodes.
Queen Elizabeth II passed on September 8 and was the longest-serving monarch in British history. She died at her Scottish Highland retreat at the age of 96. The eldest of her four children, Charles, Prince of Wales was crowned king immediately.
