Though it’s long-accepted that The Simpsons is a powerful future-seeing soothsayer, hiding all the world’s imminent developments within its animated walls, there are simply some things that even the show of shows cannot predict. No matter how badly people want that to be true.
While the story of how The Simpsons somewhat accurately predicted that everything would go to hell after the 2020 US Presidential Election (though you didn’t exactly need to be a wizard to see that coming), another Simpsons-related post doing the rounds today sadly isn’t quite as it seems.
The social media meme shows Groundskeeper Willie dressed in a horned fur headdress, sporting wall-like arm tattoos, and brandishing an American flag. Eerily similar to (frankly insane) getup sported by one of the more prominent figures in yesterday’s insurrection and invasion of the US Capitol building. That man, real name Jake Angeli (alias “the QAnon Shaman”), is now among the throng of people being actively investigated by the FBI for the casual handful of Federal Crimes they committed on live TV yesterday.
Scores of folks across social media have shared the image as yet another apparent prediction that The Simpsons team somehow got practically bang on the money. That group of people who bit on the image and shared it around includes Lisa Wilkinson of all people, who posted it to her Twitter account earlier this morning.
The Simpons’ ability to predict the future is now officially out of control.
Can I request a nice episode that has Michelle Obama as President sometime soon please?#trump #riots #capitol #25thAmendment #Impeach pic.twitter.com/mxnvZteZYK
— Lisa Wilkinson (@Lisa_Wilkinson) January 7, 2021
Try as they may, not even The Simpsons is that ridiculously accurate. And thus it must be said quite clearly that the image is not, in fact, accurate.
That image of Groundskeeper Willie has never appeared in any Simpsons episode, and has not been produced by anyone at The Simpsons.
Rather, it is a composite image that appears to have been put together after the fact.
The base image for Willie comes from a screenshot for the Simpsons Tapped Out mobile game, as many others on social media have pointed out.
It’s a photoshopped image of Groundskeeper Willie from The Simpsons “Tapped Out” mobile game. pic.twitter.com/d9awSwcjvx
— Bleb™ (@Sensi_bleb) January 7, 2021
So there’s that little saga all wrapped up in a neat little package.
The Simpsons: Very good at predicting the future, but not… y’know… THAT good.
