‘Simpsons’ writer on the parallels between President Lisa and Kamala Harris’s run


My fellow Americans, the last three weeks have been quite a year, #amirite? But now that we’re falling out of that coconut tree and into the KHive, LFG! While this moment in history may be unprecedented, it was not unpredicted! In fact, after the news broke on Sunday afternoon, it didn’t take long for people to point out an eerie similarity between Vice President Harris’ attire from the January 2021 inauguration and an episode of The Simpsons from 2000. The episode is called “Bart to the Future” and in it, Lisa Simpson becomes America’s first female president. She’s dressed in a purple pants suit, pearl necklace, and earrings, which is a look that we’ve all come to associate with Madam Vice President. It’s so uncanny that Simpsons writer Al Jean chimed in, Tweeting that he was “proud” to be a part of this potential prophecy.

In the 2000 episode of the comedy series, “Bart to the Future,” Lisa Simpson becomes the first female president of the United States. She sports the exact same purple ensemble that Harris rocked during the 2021 inauguration, including the pearl necklace and earrings.

The back-to-back images of Lisa and Harris, 59, went viral on X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday after the huge shake-up to the Democratic presidential ticket.

“The Simpsons as Prophetic has become one of the most enduring mysteries of our times!” one fan tweeted.

“It’s unnerving how often these predictions have been spot on,” someone else said.

Al Jean, a screenwriter for the show, tweeted out the prescient photo as well.

“@TheSimpsons ‘prediction’ I’m proud to be a part of,” he wrote.

The Matt Groening-created show is notorious for predicting future events, including Donald Trump’s presidency. In the same episode, President Lisa remarks, “We’ve inherited quite a budget crunch from President Trump.”

Groening, 70, addressed the show foretelling Trump, 78, reaching the White House in a 2016 interview with the Guardian.

“We predicted that he would be president back in 2000 — but [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,” he said.

[From NY Post]

This isn’t the first time that The Simpsons has predicted the future, either. In the same episode, Lisa mentions inheriting a “budget crunch” from a “President Trump.” A 1996 episode predicted Trump’s January 6 insurrection, a 1997 episode alludes to 9/11, a 1999 episode predicted the pandemic, and a 2018 episode predicted the Game of Thrones finale (although, let’s be honest, that one was somewhat easy to predict). The Post has a compilation of other crazy Simpsons prophecies here.

Anyway, this is eerie, but you know what? The Universe works in mysterious ways. I don’t care if it comes from a crystal ball, tea leaves, a fortune cookie, or a cartoon show. The Simpsons thing isn’t the only potential cultural prediction, either. Biden’s announcement came on the one-year anniversary of Barbie’s release, which I have to think is also a good sign. We need Issa Rae to campaign with VP Harris as President Barbie! Ahh, pump some more of this President Harris sh-t into my veins and revitalize my frayed nerves. Now we just need to GOTV and make these prophecies a reality.

Photos credit: Avalon.red, Ting Shen/POOL via CNP/INSTARimages.com, Alex G. Perez/Pool/CNP/startraks/Cover Images, and via YouTube/The Simpsons

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5 Responses to “‘Simpsons’ writer on the parallels between President Lisa and Kamala Harris’s run”

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  1. JanetDR says:

    That’s so cool!

  2. seaflower says:

    Love these little snippets from Simpsons .

    The Barbie alignment is strong: between the date of release/announcement, Issa’s President Barbie and the palm/coconut trees at the front of the White/Pink House.

  3. sevenblue says:

    “Simpsons already did it” is a popular saying for a reason😭😭

  4. leslie says:

    Heres another cool thing. Jan 20 2025 (inauguration day) will be MLK Jr Day! Let’s make this happen you guys!💙

  5. Anonymous says:

    But Donnie Dump was a Democrat back then. He was pro-choice, he hung with the Clintons, and donated to Democratic candidates.