According to ScreenRant, The Simpsons, one of the most popular and long-running cartoon series, has had an infamous and eerie reputation for predicting future events. Well it’s happened again, with a new trailer for the Barbie film releasing and former president Donald Trump’s arrest conquering the current news cycle. A news anchor, Kent Brockman, a recurring character on The Simpsons, practically reported this same event in 1994,  29 years prior to the real-life scenario.

The coincidence was noticed by a Twitter user with the handle @heathen_king, on the morning of April 4. Exposing the current 24-hour news cycle of former president Donald Trump’s recent arrest and the first trailer and cinematic poster release of the new Barbie film.” This is almost exactly parallel to a news report delivered in an episode of the fifth season of The Simpsons entitled “Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy” initially released in the 20th century.

The fictional anchorman says, “Though it was unusual to spend 28 minutes reporting on a doll this reporter found it impossible to stop talking. It’s just really fascinating news, folks.” followed by, “Oh, and the president was arrested.”

this is literally the news today pic.twitter.com/Bj9Mi1gIo0

— heathen king (@heathen_king) April 4, 2023

The Simpsons have had a long list of predictions that have left shock and awe in audiences, whether it’s a benign similarity or an eerily accurate event repeating itself from the cartoon into reality. Some of the larger ones include a reference to the attacks on September 11, 2001 at the World Trade Center, during an episode where The Simpsons visit the still intact Twin Towers written in 1997, as well as a gag that Donald Trump would run for future president in an episode originally airing in 2002.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg involving cartoon oracles. The show also predicted major events years before their actual occurrence in reality like the Coronavirus Pandemic shutting down the world, the censoring of the statue of David across schools in America, the merger of 21st Century Fox into the Disney corporation, billionaire Richard Branson paying top dollar to fly up to space, and the breakout killer bees/murder hornets.

Although some of these predictions were easy to guess based on public opinion, the advancement of human innovations and technology, a general corruptibility or idiocracy such as the victory of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in the 2020 elections, The United States winning a gold medal at the Winter Olympics, The invention of smartwatches and FaceTime, the release of The Matrix 4 during the winter holidays, and the scandal involving horse meat and the FDA.

After airing for over thirty years with a total of 745 episodes, The Simpsons, somehow manage to generate new ideas and predictions of decades of writing and hundreds of A-List guest stars. Since the series shows no sign of stopping soon, guess fans will just have to watch some of the previous episodes to see what life/humanity might be like in the future.