Amid the coronavirus pandemic, panic spreading has sent conspiracy theorists into a flurry. One faction of internet trolls has gone as far as to suggest an episode of The Simpsons predicted this outbreak back in the 90s, all because the "Marge In Chains" episode mentioned a Chinese-born flu.
Contrary to what speculative fans like to believe, every instance of The Simpsons predicting the future has summed up to mere coincidence. Many point to the Siegfried and Roy incident as evidence, although it's been debunked.
Siegfried And Roy's Incident Was Mistaken As Evidence Of The Simpsons Predicting The Future
Back in October 2003, the Las Vegas performers' Roy Horn was attacked by their tiger while on-stage. Theorists like to allege that The Simpsons predicted the attack because of an episode titled "$pringfield" where a parodied version of Siegfried and Roy showed up. They're attacked by a tiger, giving viewers a reason to believe the show exposed Roy's accident beforehand. However, upon further investigation of the incident, Manticore's attack was found to be unavoidable.
If you didn't already know, tigers are wild animals. They're not domestic creatures that are easily trained. So when you get an act like Siegfried and Roy (and Manticore) on the stage five nights a week, the performances are bound to weigh on the tiger. At that point, it's just a matter of biding one's time until the tiger lashes out at someone on stage.
What that proves is anyone could've predicted that Siegfried and Roy's tiger would attack someone. They trained a wild animal to perform tricks against its' own will. Of course, the animal would eventually lash out.
The Disastrous Effect Photoshop Can Have When Used Carelessly
Still, the absurd claim of The Simpsons predicting the coronavirus happened because a photoshopped image from "Marge In Chains" was edited to replace Osaka Flu with Corona Virus. Fortunately, Simpsons' writer Bill Oakley has spoken out against these unfounded allegations to dispute them.
Oakley recently told The Hollywood Reporter that he finds trolls using the episode in this context "gross" and "terrible." He had more to say, but as one of the writers who worked on The Simpsons in '93, his initial assessment should be enough for fans to avoid adding more fuel to the fire.
In any case, an explanation for why the Simpsons' conspiracy theory picked up momentum has to do with the level of misinformation circulating online. It's stemmed from a lack of on-the-ground reporting, and without news outlets debunking nonsensical allegations, crazed theories like The Simpsons predicting Corona are mistaken as fact.
The upside is that not everyone is gullible enough to believe a cartoon from the 90s predicted a virus outbreak 30 years later. If that were the case, claims of The Simpsons having a role in the coronavirus would've resulted in mass hysteria. Luckily, cooler heads have prevailed over conspiracy theorists.