Fans of The Simpsons believe that the cartoon predicted the ongoing coronavirus outbreak back in 1993.
The seminal animation has previously “predicted” many other events with bizarre specificity, including the election of President Donald Trump, the invention of smart watches, and the football World Cup results.
And people thought they had found another: in the fourth season Simpsons episode “Marge in Chains”, when a news report announces fears of the “Osaka Flu”.
In another scene, a visibly infected Japanese factory worker coughs into a package, which is then sent to the United States. Most of the residents of Springfield get sick as a result.
However, one huge difference is that coronavirus originated in Wuhan, China – more than 2000km away.
With this in mind, it would be fair to chalk this up as one of The Simpsons’ less accurate predictions.
Nonetheless, people were soon making the same observation online, with one meme account editing over the words “Osaka flu” with “coronavirus”.
Here are some of the responses:
