How The Simpsons’ terrible prediction came true
IT was the most insane and laughable scenario the creators of satirical comedy The Simpsons could dream up.
Who was the one public figure all Americans would agree could become their Commander-in-Chief?
The answer was inspired: brash billionaire and reality TV star Donald J Trump. Hilarious!
That was 16 years ago, when they wrote an episode called Bart to the Future, with grownup Lisa Simpson elected to the Oval Office after President Trump has tanked the economy.
But when they – and the world – woke up yesterday they found the joke had backfired monumentally. Their impossible prophecy had been fulfilled and the cartoon villain really had become the leader of the free world.
James L Brooks, executive producer on The Simpsons, summed up the sense of disbelief, tweeting simply: “F*** disillusionment!”
Earlier this year Simpsons writer Dan Greaney explained why they’ had “predicted” a Trump presidency back in 2000.
“It was a warning to America,” he said. “That just seemed like the logical last stop before hitting bottom. It was consistent with the vision of America going insane.
“What we needed was for Lisa to have problems beyond her fixing, that everything went as bad as it possibly could, and that’s why we had Trump be president before her.”
Greaney, who has also produced episodes of the US version of The Office, said: “The Donald Trump that we were writing about was kind of a lovable, over-the-top character and didn’t have this darkness. There’s nothing in the episode about never walls or rounding up Mexicans or Islamophobia. You would expect that he’d build giant monuments to himself but you wouldn’t expect that the first thing would be a wall.”
Show creator Matt Groening said last month: “Back in 2000 Trump was, of course, the most absurd placeholder joke name that we could think of at the time and that’s still true. It’s beyond satire.”
Trump was mocked in another episode of The Simpsons in 2015, aired after he announced he was running for president. Trumptastic Voyage had him on an escalator with Homer Simpson – mimicking the real entrance he made to announce his candidacy with wife Melania.
Trump was later accused of hiring actors to cheer for him. So The Simpsons showed onlookers holding PAID signs among VOTE placards. Homer is seen pondering Trump’s “gravity-defying combover” and wondering: “If I touch it, will it heal my baldness?”
Yesterday The Simpsons’ prophecy was discussed around the globe on social media, along with a flood of tweets and mickey-taking memes as the world tried to see the funny side of the real Trump presidency. Many made Brexit comparisons or joked that Michelle Obama would be writing Melania’s victory speech. Memes showed George W Bush toasting America, saying “And you thought I was an idiot” and a photo of Trump among a series of things in odd places, asking: “Do you ever look at stuff and wonder how it got there?”
One showed Forrest Trump with the caption “One day, for no particular reason, I just felt like runnin’”, and another had Hillary Clinton as Game of Thrones’ Ser Alliser Thorne who, in defeat and about to be hanged, says: “I fought. I lost. Now I rest.”
But Donald Trump has certainly had the last laugh and, like Bart Simpson, is telling the world: “Eat My Shorts!”