Deconstructing “The Simpsons'” Predictions For The Super Bowl & The “Coronavirus”

 

 

 

 

The Simpsons aren’t even 24 hours removed from winning a 2020 WGA Award for Best Animation, besting BoJack Horseman and Bob’s Burgers in the category that saw Dan Vebber win for “Thanksgiving of Horror” and that’s not even the biggest news going on right now for the longest-running animated series in primetime history.

Instead, The Simpsons are in the news for two different predictions that fans are almost getting right and we’re going to break them down below.

First up, the “Coronavirus”. It seems every year around this time we have some sort of a virus that’s trying it’s best to eliminate mankind, whether it’s the Bird Flu, West Nile Virus, and everything in between. The virus that’s “in” this year is coronovirus. The United States has already named the coronavirus a public health crisis that seems to have started in China and is now in eight different cases across the country with warnings being announced to inhibit anyone from the United States traveling to China for any reason, more specifically the Hubei province.

It didn’t take long before fans of The Simpsons starting pointing to an episode entitled “Marge in Chains” where a pandemic from Japan known as the “Osaka Flu” made it’s way over to Springfield. The virus would see the rest of The Simpson family get sick except Marge who grows tired from taking care of them and ends up behind bars after being accused by Apu in being a criminal (one of the great Apu gags, btw).

Evidently, the thinly veiled reference proved to be TOO coincidental for the click bait press who could not wait to take advantage of the swarming bots that were pushing this narrative so much so that doctored up photos from the episode would show up despite the fact that most fans of the show were able to quickly ignore them and note the inaccuracies in both the name and origin of the virus.

In other fake news from The Simpsons, the pile of shit known as Comicbook.com is spinning a narrative that the episode “Sunday, Cruddy Sunday” predicted the Chiefs vs Niners Super Bowl because that episode had two teams wearing red during the big game. That said, the teams were the Atlanta Falcons and the Denver Broncos (not a red team), and in actuality, the Niners’ “red” is actually “scarlet” which is red but with a dash of orange mixed in. In fact, there’s more orange in the Niners uniform than what was presented in the “Sunday, Cruddy Sunday” episode for the Broncos who are, in fact, an orange-clad football team.

Now, two notable stories from that episode are as follows. First, “Sunday, Cruddy Sunday” was an episode that aired after the series premiere of Family Guy, an episode produced almost entirely by 27-year old show creator Seth MacFarlane. The other big note is that the episode has been heavily edited since it’s initial broadcast air after complaints from “The Catholic League” wrote to FOX and sent the PC police after the show. The producers obliged, and a clean-cut version of the episode hasn’t been seen on TV since.

How bout two more fun facts about these two episodes before we call it a day! “Marge in Chains” was written by the dynamic duo of Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein, two guys who to this day work on projects together including Disenchantment for Netflix. On the other hand, “Sunday, Cruddy Sunday” was written by Mike Scully, the co-creator of the upcoming series Duncanville set to premiere on FOX on February 16th right after an all-new episode of The Simpsons

 

Synopsis:.

The longest-running primetime scripted show in television history, THE SIMPSONS exploded into popular culture in 1990 and has remained one of the most groundbreaking and innovative entertainment franchises, recognizable throughout the world. HOMER (Dan Castellaneta), MARGE (Julie Kavner), BART (Nancy Cartwright), LISA (Yeardley Smith) and MAGGIE are instantly identifiable television icons. Rounding out this cast of characters are many beloved Springfield residents, including tavern proprietor MOE SZYSLAK (Hank Azaria) and nuclear power plant owner MR. BURNS (Harry Shearer). The Emmy Award-, Annie Award- and Peabody Award-winning animated comedy will begin its 31st season this year.

THE SIMPSONS is a Gracie Films Production in association with 20th Century Fox Television. James L. Brooks, Matt Groening and Al Jean are the executive producers. The Gracie Films Worldwide Brand Division develops and produces the licensed content for the series.