‘The Simpsons’ Writer Responds To Claims That Episode Foreshadowed Coronavirus
Image via IMDb and IMDb
Longstanding cartoon series The Simpsons has been spoofing a plethora of topics in relation to current affairs and pop culture. Viewers have also pointed out the show’s supposed knack of predicting the future, including an alleged foreshadowing of the coronavirus in a 1993 episode, Marge in Chains.
It turns out that the episode was not in the slightest about the respiratory virus, but a made-up epidemic called the “Osaka Flu.” The illness was depicted to have spread from a Japanese factory, whose worker coughed into a box that ended up in the town of Springfield.
The Simpsons writer Bill Oakley recently hit back at associations between the episode and COVID-19.
“I don’t like it being used for nefarious purposes,” Oakley declared in an interview with the The Hollywood Reporter. He said it was “gross” how people would misappropriate the episode to blame the virus on Asia.
Oakley clarified that the “Osaka Flu” in the cartoon was just a “quick joke” referencing the Hong Kong flu in 1968. He further emphasized that it was supposed to be “silly and not scary,” which was the reason why the epidemic itself was portrayed as an unrealistic cartoon character.
#coronavirus
— خلود الحربي (@alharbiiii4) March 9, 2020
The Simpsons Scares me
This episode aired 27years ago in 1993 pic.twitter.com/wbvboaMxih
Simpsons, season 4, episode 21 released in 1993...corona virus outbreak. Coincidence???? I don’t think so !! pic.twitter.com/WLbfIxdhLV
— Robert Basovski (@RBasovski) March 10, 2020
[via Complex, cover image via IMDb and IMDb]
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